by J. L. Wilder
He wasn’t sure he would be capable of hurting him.
More and more, running away was beginning to look like the only realistic solution.
But he couldn’t do it. He had promised Victor. He couldn’t go back on his word just to save his own hide.
“Do you think there’s a chance we could talk Donovan out of this?” he asked Gabby. “Maybe if I agree to say that he’s the stronger alpha in front of the rest of the Moose Jaw Pack, that will be enough.”
Gabby shook her head. “It won’t work,” she said. “He wants to prove he’s the strongest.”
“But what difference does it make?” Pax asked. “It’s not as if I’m ever around to challenge him. He doesn’t have to be stronger than me in order to be a powerful leader to the Moose Jaw Pack. That’s part of why I left in the first place.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Gabby said. “But you don’t know what it’s been like since you left.”
“What has it been like?”
“You gave him a knock on his confidence,” Gabby said. “He’s been really defensive about his strength. He’s always going out of his way to prove himself.”
Pax frowned. “He hasn’t been abusing his power, has he?”
“No, of course not,” Gabby said. “He’d never order any of us to do anything that wasn’t good for us. Like I told you, he’s a good alpha. It’s more that he keeps putting himself in dangerous situations.”
“What kind of situations?”
“He stays out hunting longer than he should,” Gabby said. “He takes on fights with animals that are too big for him—he fought an actual moose last year, which was probably a mistake.”
Pax’s heart beat faster at that thought. “He fought a moose? What happened?”
“He was hurt pretty bad,” Gabby said. “A few broken bones that took a while to heal. The ribs were the worst. But he was all right in the end. And he did win the fight.”
“With broken ribs?” That was impressive.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Gabby said. “He keeps going, even when he should stop. He doesn’t feel like we see his strength. He feels like he has to prove it. And that all started when you left the pack—when he realized he wasn’t strong enough to dominate you.”
Guilt rose up in Pax. “I was never trying to do that,” he said. “I didn’t want him to feel disrespected or inadequate.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Gabby said. “I know that. I think even he knows that. But you’ve got to admit, it’s a lot to put on a new alpha. The first thing he had to deal with after he took over the pack was one of our siblings not submitting to his authority and going his own way.”
“It was always a pretty even chance whether I would be able to submit,” Pax pointed out. “I thought we all knew that. I thought that was accepted.”
“I don’t know,” Gabby said. “All I know is that when he realized you were here for the funeral, he saw an opportunity to confront something that’s been bothering him for a long time. If he can beat you in a fight, he won’t have to worry about how much strength he has anymore. He’ll know.”
“Maybe I should just let him win,” Pax said. “I don’t think I can submit to his authority in any real way, but I can submit to him physically.”
“He’ll know if you’re not fighting with your full strength,” Gabby said. “Remember, we all grew up together. And because he knew he was going to be alpha one day, Donovan considered it his responsibility to keep track of all of our strengths and weaknesses. He knows you better than you realize. If you’re pulling your punches, he’s going to know it.”
“And that’ll just make matters worse, I guess,” Pax said.
Gabby nodded. “He’ll think you’re refusing to fight him out of overconfidence that you would win. I don’t know whether that will make him fight you even harder or whether he’ll just lose even more confidence in himself. But the result will be bad either way.”
“I’m really screwed, aren’t I?” Pax asked.
“You have to run away,” Gabby said. “It’s the only way to prevent this from happening.” She wiped away a tear. “I can’t stand to see either of you get hurt.”
Pax wished he could give her what she was asking for. But he couldn’t.
“I’ll do my best not to hurt him,” he said. “That’s all I can offer.”
THE REST OF THE DAY seemed to fly by. Before he knew it, Pax was walking out onto the lawn. His heart pounded with anxiety. He wanted nothing to do with this fight, but it seemed impossible that he could find a way out.
Donovan stood waiting for him. He was surrounded by members of the Moose Jaw Pack, and they parted to let Pax approach.
“You made it,” Donovan said, his voice flat and emotionless.
“Did you think I wouldn’t come?” Pax asked.
“I thought you would,” Donovan said. “I thought you would have the integrity to do that much. But I did wonder.”
Pax stepped a little bit closer, hoping to speak to Donovan without being overheard.
“Donovan,” he said. “We don’t have to do this. We don’t have to fight. We can just walk away right now.”
Donovan’s face might as well have been carved out of stone for all the reaction he showed. “I can’t do that,” he said. “You should know I can’t.”
“I never meant to challenge you,” Pax said. “I never had anything but respect for you. You must know that. I just wasn’t meant to belong to your pack. The fact that I didn’t submit to you...it doesn’t mean anything more than the fact that Victor never submitted to you. I’m just not a member of the Moose Jaw Pack.”
“But you are,” Donovan said, and for the first time, his face showed a shred of pain. “Don’t you understand that, Pax? You are one of us. You were one of us for years. You were my brother. And then you chose to leave instead of showing me the respect my position in the pack deserved. You’re the one who made that choice.”
“It wasn’t a choice,” Pax said. “I didn’t choose it, Donovan. I wanted to belong. You and the Moose Jaw Pack are the only family I’ve ever known. If I’d been able to stay, back then, I would have done it.”
“Then submit to me now,” Donovan said, and Pax heard the weight of an order in his voice. “If you don’t want this fight, acknowledge my authority and come back to the pack. We’ll take you. You can be my second-in-command.”
And for a hair of a moment, Pax wished he could.
But it wouldn’t have been right to pretend. Donovan had tried to give him an order, but the order had rolled right off his back.
“I can’t,” he said regretfully. “I’m sorry.”
Donovan nodded. “Then we fight.”
He took several steps back and sank into a crouch, and Pax knew he was about to shift. He steeled himself, waiting. He would not make the first move. He would only act in defense.
But before Donovan could do anything, one of the witnesses let out a cry. “Victor’s back!”
Pax wheeled around.
Sure enough, there was Victor, striding out of the woods, his jaw set in anger. And walking by his side, looking pale and upset, was a gorgeous woman Pax had never seen before in his life.
Chapter Seven
LILY
The yard was full of men and women, all of them staring at her as if she had an extra head. Finally, one of them spoke. “Who the hell is that?”
“A prisoner,” Victor said. “She’s the omega of the Arctic Wolves.”
A collective gasp went up.
“Hang on,” someone said. “I thought the omega of the Arctic Wolves was older. Like, Josh’s age.”
“She’s the new omega,” Victor said. “The old omega’s daughter.”
Someone whistled. “Is she mated?”
“No,” Victor said.
So he wasn’t planning on telling his pack that he had imprinted on her. Lily filed that information away. He must be afraid of what would happen if they found out.
Which meant t
hat she had a card to play. She could tell the Vancouver wolves that their alpha had imprinted on her and that that was the reason he’d brought her back.
But she decided to keep the information to herself for now. It was valuable, and she wanted to make sure she used it in the most effective way possible.
“What are we going to do with her?” someone asked. “Why’d you bring her back?”
“We couldn’t let the Arctic Wolves keep their omega,” Victor said. “Allowing them to breed a new generation will only make them stronger. By taking her away, we eliminate the need to go to war with them. It may not seem like a merciful choice, but it is. This way, we can let the current generation survive. They’ll just die out.”
Lily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had Victor really convinced himself that he was showing mercy to her and her pack by kidnapping her? It seemed insane.
“What are you going to do with her?” one of the men asked.
“Take her and put her in the house,” Victor said. “Put her in the room that used to belong to my mother. Make sure you lock it from the outside.”
The man nodded and stepped forward. Was Lily reading into something that wasn’t really there, or did he look relieved to be given this assignment. “You got it,” he said.
“This isn’t over,” said another man, standing a few yards behind the first.
Victor frowned. “What isn’t over? What’s going on around here?”
The man who had been assigned to take Lily inside hurried over and took her by the arm. “Come on,” he murmured. “Let’s get out of here while the getting’s good.”
She allowed herself to be led into the one-story log cabin at the far end of the property, knowing that it was useless to struggle or try to escape. The man who was holding her was stronger than she was, and she stood no chance of breaking free of his grasp. And even if she could get away, she would have still been surrounded by hostile shifters. Better to go along with what they wanted from her for now.
The man led her into the cabin, down a hall, around a corner, and to a wooden door with a latch on the outside. He opened it and brought her inside.
Lily felt a rush of despair as she looked around the room that had been allotted to her. It had clearly been designed as a prison. True, it was a luxurious prison, with a large bed and a comfortable-looking chair in the corner. But there were no windows. The place felt like a box with no lid. Between that and the lock on the door, Lily couldn’t help being aware of her own captivity.
The man looked at her. “I’m sorry to be doing this,” he said.
“Your alpha’s a monster,” she said.
He shook his head. “He isn’t my alpha,” he said. “I’m...just visiting. My name’s Pax. I’m not part of this pack.”
“If he’s not your alpha, why the hell are you helping him?” she asked. “You don’t have to do what he says. You could get me out of here.”
Pax sighed. “Look, this isn’t my fight,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on between the Vancouver Wolves and the Arctic Wolves, but I don’t have a side.”
“You’re not on the side of the woman who got kidnapped by a rival pack?” she demanded. “What kind of man are you? You know what southern alphas do to omegas.”
He blinked. “What do we do?”
She felt as if she’d run into a wall. “You’re an alpha too?”
He nodded. “I don’t have a pack,” he said. “But yeah, I’m an alpha. And I don’t know what you think is going on here, but I’d never hurt an omega. Neither would Victor.”
“He kidnapped me,” she said. “What do you call that? An overture of friendship?”
“Your pack and his are old rivals,” Pax said. “You must know that.”
“That rivalry goes back to before I was born,” Lily said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“You may not think so,” Pax said. “But Victor has never forgotten the fact that your pack defeated his. His father kept the story alive for years. Now that Victor has become the alpha of the Vancouver Pack, he’s determined to get revenge.”
“Revenge on me?” Lily asked. “I never did anything to him.”’
“He also thinks it’s important to put an end to your pack,” Pax said. “The way you live...it upsets him. It threatens him.”
“Why should it?” she asked.
“Well,” Pax said as if he were pointing out something obvious, “it’s not exactly natural, is it?”
“Not natural?” She was confused. “What are you talking about? We live in nature. What could be more natural than that?”
“You deny the human aspect of yourselves. You live as wolves.”
“Of course we don’t!” Lily said. “We live in the wild, but we balance our time as humans with our time as wolves. We’re better able to communicate when we’re in human form. We can make tools in human form. We can create complex plans in human form. Those are all important things. We’d never abandon our humanity.”
“You don’t submit to your alphas, either,” Pax said.
That accusation burned Lily up. “Submitting to an alpha is the only reason I’m here,” she spat. “Do you think I followed Victor south because I wanted to?”
Pax frowned. “What do you mean?”
She hadn’t meant to show her cards this early, but she couldn’t help herself. “The bastard imprinted on me,” she said. “I was out looking for a mate, and for a beautiful moment, I thought I had found one. Then he told me who he was! He’d never be my mate, he said, because he was my sworn enemy. And then he ordered me to leave my family and follow him home, and I had to obey.”
“You’re kidding,” Pax said, sounding stunned. “He really imprinted? On you?”
“That’s right,” she said. “So don’t you dare tell me that I don’t submit to the authority of alphas. I wish to God that were true. If I were able to resist an alpha’s command, I would be at home with my family right now.”
Pax looked as if he were struggling to keep up.
“Let me go and get you something to eat,” he said at length.
“I’m not hungry,” she said.
“Humor me,” he said. “I think you and I might help each other out by sharing information.”
He disappeared through the door before Lily had the chance to argue further. In all honesty, she was glad he hadn’t listened to her. She had been lying when she’d said she wasn’t hungry. After a day of following Victor through the forest, it had become clear to her that he didn’t know the first thing about hunting. Lily wasn’t exactly the most adept hunter in her own pack, but she was leagues more capable than he was.
If only I’d been able to take the lead and show him what to do.
But it was obvious that Victor was like Caleb—too proud to admit it when something was beyond him. He had simply denied that he was hungry once they had run out of the food he’d packed for his journey.
She went to the bed and sat down on it, looking around her prison room. Ordinarily, she would have reassured herself that her family would be on their way to come and rescue her. But that didn’t seem likely now. They probably thought she was still in the woods near their cave somewhere.
After all, I did run away.
The door opened and Pax returned with a tray in his hands. “Leftovers from dinner last night,” he said, crossing to the bed. “I’m afraid I couldn’t heat them up without attracting attention.”
“That’s okay,” Lily said automatically. She looked down at the plate on the tray. It held a pile of cold spaghetti with a few meatballs on top.
Pax handed her a fork. “Victor wouldn’t have wanted me to give you this,” he said. “He’d have told me you could use it as a weapon, I’m willing to bet.”
She held the fork in her fist, feeling awkward. She didn’t want to admit to Pax that they didn’t own silverware up north and that she would be much more comfortable eating with her fingers. She had a vague idea of how to use the fork, but she had neve
r actually done it.
She set it down. “Maybe I’ll eat a little later,” she said.
Pax sighed and sat down on the bed beside her. “What can I do for you?” he asked.
“Why do you want to do anything for me?” she asked. “You’re not on my side. You’ve made that clear.”
“It’s about more than just sides, though,” he said. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I don’t want you to be afraid.”
Somehow, she believed him. She looked up at him. There was a sincerity in his eyes.
“How could I not be afraid?” she asked. “I’m being held against my will.”
“I promise no one is going to hurt you,” he said.
“My family has told me what the southern packs are like,” she said.
“What did they tell you?” he asked quietly.
“That you have no respect for your women. You treat them like objects.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think we do,” he said.
“How do you treat your mate, then?”
“I haven’t got a mate.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve never met someone I wanted like that,” he said.
“Never?”
He bit his lip and looked at her.
Something stirred within her—something familiar and yet strange. “What?” she asked.
He hesitated, then reached out and touched her cheek.
“You’re beautiful,” he said quietly. “Did you know that?”
She swallowed hard.
It was the same feeling that had come over her when she and Victor had first met in the woods. The feeling of being imprinted upon.
But it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be happening again so soon, and with another southern wolf. These weren’t the people she was meant to be with. She belonged in the north, with shifters who were like her, who might someday become a part of her pack.
These men would never join the Arctic Wolves.
But she couldn’t resist him. His pull on her was powerful, magnetic, stronger than anything she had ever experienced. And unlike in the moment she and Victor had shared in the woods, Pax wasn’t pulling away from her.
