Undying
Crystal Lake Pack: Book Two
Candace Wondrak
Copyright 2019 by Candace Wondrak
All Rights Reserved.
Cover by Lizzie over at Pixie Covers.
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Chapter One
Addie carried a plate with a slab of meat on it, and in her other hand she held a bowl of water. It was some kind of steak, red and pink and bloody—because she didn’t cook it. She figured he’d like it better raw. If she was a wolf, she knew she’d enjoy it better like that, too. Then again, when she was back into her human form, it might be another story, because the mere thought of eating any meat that wasn’t cooked disgusted her.
Either way, she didn’t have to worry about it much. She wasn’t going to shift, not going to truly unlock her inner wolf until the whole situation with Clay was taken care of. Nobody knew when he was going to show his face again, but he would. He had to, if Addie really was the key to unlocking the nature of the beast. Whatever the heck that meant remained to be seen. The death priest wasn’t a huge fan of giving straight up answers, and she was too new to this to know better.
Beneath her jean jacket, her shoulders itched. Her skin still crawled when she thought of Clay and what he’d done. What he would have done to Landon if she hadn’t gotten them out. Such thoughts were best left forgotten, but it was still so fresh in her memory. It’d only been hours ago, after all.
Hours. That’s it.
A death priest. Who knew those things existed? Addie certainly didn’t. She didn’t even know shifters existed, let alone the fact she was one—or, really, half shifter—until Henry and Maze stumbled into her life not too long ago.
God, her life truly had changed drastically in such a short amount of time, hadn’t it? Not only did Addie learn she wasn’t human, but she’d also learned neither was her father. She was part shifter, part witch-slash-warlock, which somehow made her super appealing to the crazies like Clay. Yeah, that part she wasn’t so excited about.
But being a shifter? At first, she’d disliked the thought of not being human. She’d hated Henry—still did—for thinking she would go along with them and choose the pack. But after meeting the pack, and after a heck of a lot of inner angst, Addie had realized the pack wasn’t so bad. Being with Maze and Dylan wasn’t as awful as she first thought. Landon? Sure, they might’ve bonded a bit during their stint in the murder cabin, but it was difficult for her to forget his first words to her.
Not even that pretty.
Yeah, it would be a little while before Addie forgot that, even if he didn’t mean it. Even if he was just lashing out, he had no right to say something so rude. If Landon wanted to be with her like the pack had planned, along with Maze and Dylan, then he had to make it up to her. How? She had no clue. Addie had never quite encountered a situation like this before.
Oh, how normal her life had been, until the day she got her first C-minus and attacked her professor with a floating textbook. Granted, she was now aware she should’ve controlled her anger, but at the time she had no idea she was magical in the least. She’d thought she’d hallucinated, and the school board and Dean had reacted swiftly and harshly by expelling her, regardless of her statement that she didn’t know what happened.
Saying she didn’t attack someone and beat them into unconsciousness when she and said person were the only ones left in the lecture hall? Apparently it was a hard-to-believe story. Unverifiable.
It was ridiculous to her when she remembered how much her life had changed from a stupid C-minus. Until then, Addie had always been an overachiever when it came to school. Her GPA was always sparkling and insanely high. She’d studied for tests weeks in advance, until she had her notebooks memorized. She’d had a roomie she didn’t really talk to and friends who left for out of state colleges, who never returned any of her texts anymore.
Here, in the pack, she felt at home. Addie had friends, or whatever Maze and Dylan were. She had people who would do anything to protect her—not like she needed loads of protection, because she was firmly in the twenty-first century belief that sisters could do it for themselves. But, still. It was nice, knowing people were there for her, regardless of whether or not she accidentally hit her professor with a magically-backed book.
Addie did wonder though, if Henry and Maze would’ve forced her mother to drive to the college and bring her home even if she hadn’t gotten expelled. Henry seemed to be the take charge and give orders kind of man, and he was her mother’s father. She had totally understood why her mother had run from the pack just by meeting Henry. He was kind of a dick. Being seventy-something years old did not give him the right to act however he pleased and say whatever he wanted.
Either way, it didn’t matter now. Addie was here, and she’d decided to stay. She probably would’ve decided the same, even if she did have a college to get back to, even if she did have friends around, because being here, with them, just felt right. It was a feeling she could hardly put to words. Maybe it was her inner wolf guiding her actions, now that she and Addie knew each other as well as they could without actually shifting.
Being here, learning how the pack operated, it was going to take time. She’d have to learn while somehow practicing her magical mumbo jumbo in preparation for when she met Clay again. It would help to have someone here who knew more about magic. The wolves knew of it, but they couldn’t help her control it, couldn’t help her practice and get stronger. It…would’ve been the perfect job for her father, if he would’ve still been alive.
Alas, alive he was not, so Addie would fumble around and pray she stumbled upon a way to beat Clay at his own game. Preferably beat him without using any death magic or spells, because she did not want to start turning into a living skeleton, like she’d witnessed on him.
The mere thought made her shiver.
Addie walked to the door leading to the basement, but she was stopped by a bruised, wounded wolf who stood easily a foot taller than her. Definitely taller than Dylan and Maze, Landon was a bit older than the twins and Addie.
His hair was a light, chestnut brown, long enough to be shaggy but not so much as to cover his eyes, which were a vibrant, lively blue, a darker azure than the sky on a cloudless day. He had a bit of stubble, due to being locked up in Clay’s crazy cabin for a while, but other than the patched-up injuries littering his body, he looked good.
She would never admit it aloud, though. Handsome or not, he was kind of a jerk.
And, really, every single shifter in this place was a model in his or her own right. Even Henry and the other elders she’d met didn’t look as old as they were. Shifters put models and every single Hollywood actor to shame.
His dark eyebrows were furrowed, and Landon stepped between her and the basement door, tilting his head down at her as if she suddenly grew a third eye. Like she was the crazy one. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice as tough as it could be, considering the state of his body.
Addie glanced at the plate of meat and the bowl of water in her hands. Wasn’t it obvious wh
at she was doing? Did spelling it out make him feel better or something? When she looked up at him, meeting his eyes, she noticed his nose was slightly crooked, as if it’d been broken in the past.
She would be a liar if she said she didn’t like the semi-crookedness of his nose. She kind of had a thing for noses. It was her one body part, the thing she focused on while judging a man’s attractiveness, at least on his face. Other than symmetry.
A man with a tiny nose like hers? Not attractive, at least in her eyes.
Overcoming the urge to ask about his nose and how it’d been broken, Addie said, “What’s it look like?”
“I’m kind of hoping it’s not what it looks like,” Landon replied, crossing his arms over his chest—both impressive and muscled, in spite of their numerous wounds. Some of those wounds were claw marks, along with a couple that looked like teeth marks. It made sense he would not want her being nice to the stranger, but Addie would be damned if she’d let him control her.
Just because she decided to join the pack did not give these guys the right to dictate what she did and did not do.
“Who knows if Clay was feeding him,” Addie said. “I’m not going to let Jack starve—”
“You say his name like you know him. You don’t. He’s a stranger, and he looked more than happy when he attacked me in the forest and brought me to that freak.” That freak being Clay.
Addie knew Jack helped Clay, but she didn’t know he’d actually been the one to do the kidnapping. She’d assumed Clay used a spell to mask his scent, and then he partially opened the barrier to let them inside. Then again, she couldn’t be sure, because magic was still so new to her. It had to have rules like everything else, but only God knew whether she’d discover what those rules were.
It would be so much easier with a teacher who knew all about magic…but now wasn’t the time for whining. The whining could come later, when no one’s life was at stake, when Addie was not wanted by a cruel, sadistic man.
“He was being controlled,” Addie said. She didn’t want to constantly have to jump to Jack’s defense, but she knew it would take time for the others to trust him. Heck, maybe the trust would never come. There were a lot of crosses in that clearing. A lot of shifters who had lost their lives to Clay and his death magic. “You can’t hold him accountable for—”
“I can,” he cut in, blue gaze narrowing. A sneer seemed to be Landon’s favorite expression, the one he wore ninety-nine percent of the time. “And I will. You weren’t there, Addie. You didn’t see the excitement in his eyes. That wolf is as crazy as Clay.”
Addie knew she wasn’t there the entire time, so she couldn’t actually defend Jack against those accusations. Still, starving him did not feel right to her.
“I won’t let him starve, Landon. If you don’t like it, tattle on me to Forest. Until then, please step aside so I can go downstairs.” Currently Forest was out of the house, so if Landon was going to run off and tell on her, it would at least buy her some time.
For a while they silently glared at each other. Addie was not about to back down, and she would never kowtow to Landon and let him control what she did. Her will was iron, harder than steel. Her will was like a diamond. Unbendable and un-scratch-able. Just because her wolfish side wanted to roll over on her belly and let him have her in ways she’d never been had before didn’t mean…
That was completely off-subject here, Addie scolded her mind, and she should not be thinking about such things.
Inappropriate to the extreme. She’d just met Landon. She’d just met them all. Just because her wolf was in heat did not mean she was. Addie would be able to hold herself back. For her own dignity. For…whatever else there was holding her back.
Even though she knew she should not be thinking about it, Addie also knew Landon felt the same. It was a shifter thing, a wolf thing. She was an unclaimed female, and he was one of her supposed mates. While it might have caused her stress before, not to mention she’d hated it with a fiery passion, now…now it was hard for her to hate it, harder for her deny her wolfish instincts.
God save her, she wanted to be claimed.
Perish the thought. If her mother knew, she’d kill her, or at least be really, really disappointed in her. Sarah had run away from the pack to be with her father, all for love. Clearly, fighting the mating instinct was not impossible if her mother could do it.
Addie pretended not to notice how Landon’s eyes fell, slowly traveling up her body before he muttered, “Fine. Go on, then.” He stepped aside, allowing her entry to the basement.
She shot him a look. The hardest glare she could muster while she ignored the heat that had crept up her body when he’d checked her out. As if she was waiting for his permission to go downstairs.
As if she cared about Landon, AKA the douchey brother-who-wasn’t-really-a-brother.
Addie pushed around him, balancing the plate of stake on her arm as she opened the basement door. The steps were wooden and creaky, just like she imagined every single set of basement stairs were. Even in a nice house like this, basements were just creepy. It’s where the monsters were in every horror movie ever made. She would’ve made a joke about not believing in monsters, but…well.
She kind of was one herself, wasn’t she?
A shifter. Sort of like a werewolf, only different. Shifters could turn whenever they wanted, regardless of the moon’s cycle. Shifters could not infect humans with a bite or a scratch, but they had to help awaken the younger shifters of the pack. Maze had said something about the beast of the alpha or an elder bringing forth the younger one. A ritual rooted in tradition, one Addie would join after Clay was dealt with and the threat of the death priest gone.
Though, she would argue until she was out of breath, she did not want Henry to be the one to scratch her and help her unleash her inner wolf. She would much rather have Forest do it. Would he? He seemed to be loyal to tradition. Maybe he would refuse her and tell her Henry was her grandfather, it was his right—or something equally as ridiculous—to awaken her. The thought was a horrible one, one that made Addie frown.
The Crystal Lake Pack was steeped in tradition from the sound of it, and though Addie was a fan of certain traditions, others needed to be broken. Sometimes tradition was just a keyword for bigoted or sexist.
Whatever. Addie would cross that bridge when she got to it.
Chapter Two
Her feet drew her down the creaky steps, one by one, slowly bringing into her sight a view of the basement. It was unfinished, just a concrete slab below with pipes and ductwork above. A washer and dryer sat in the corner, along with a few metal shelving racks. But all in all, it was pretty bare.
Oh, hold on.
Bare, except for the metal support beam in the center of the room, and the wolf currently chained to it like a prisoner.
To say Jack looked unhealthy would be a bit of an understatement. His fur was longer and scraggly, its ashy blonde hue a pale color, lacking the life and sheen it should’ve held. His ribs were visible, his furry tail lanky. His eyes were a bright green, very similar to Addie’s, but they held a haze, a sadness that made her feel for him even though she knew she shouldn’t.
She had a heart. Sue her.
“Hi, Jack,” Addie spoke once she reached the basement’s floor.
Jack’s ears perked up at the sound of her voice, even though she knew he heard her walking down the stairs. Heck, he probably heard her upstairs while she was talking to Landon. He was laying down on his side, his thin chest puffing out with each labored breath. A metal chain was locked around his neck, tying him to the support beam and covering the huge scar marring the underside of his throat.
She wondered how in the world he got the scar, because it was probably the worst scar she’d ever seen in real life. The worst that wasn’t on a TV show. It was so deep, so thick, hardly any fur grew over it.
“I brought you some food and water,” she said, watching his tail thump twice.
Addie was going to set th
em right beside his head, but a voice called out to her from the stairs, “Don’t get too close to him.” Landon. He’d followed her down, and she must’ve been too intent and focused on Jack to hear his footsteps behind her.
Not wanting to argue in front of him, Addie carefully set the plate and bowl on the floor, pushing them with her foot to get them closer—only for the sake of the argument sure to commence once she went back upstairs. Landon was not the type to give up, clearly.
How annoying.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” she whispered, hoping he knew what she meant. Sorry for how he was locked up, sorry for how the pack treated him. Sorry for everything Clay had done to him. Sorry for it all. But when he looked at her then, she didn’t see the intelligence of a person caught in his wolf form. She saw an animal, with an animal’s instincts.
Jack was only nice to her because he wanted her to shift, and then he wanted to claim her.
Addie couldn’t say why, but she was disappointed in this revelation. She wasn’t sure how she could get Jack’s human side back, how he could once again be more than his wolf. Unfortunately for him, helping him shift back into his human form was not her priority right now. Feeding him, giving him water, yes, but Clay was front and center on her list of problems.
She felt awful about it.
Addie spun on her feet, pushing past Landon to hurry up the steps. Once they were both out of the stairwell, and Landon had the door firmly closed behind them, she whirled on him, pointing a finger at his chest. “You know, he didn’t attack anyone when they brought him here.”
Landon smirked. “He didn’t have a chance to. He was outnumbered, cornered. He had no choice but to come.”
God, how badly Addie wanted to wipe that smirk off his freaking face. She didn’t need any smirkers around here. Who did? This wasn’t a movie. Smirking was totally unnecessary, regardless of the situation.
Undying: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 2) Page 1
