by Kari Gregg
TWO FATES
KARI GREGG
Copyright © 2019 Kari Gregg
Cover by: Emmy Ellis, Studioenp
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: This book contains strong language, sexually explicit situations, and may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for adults only.
For my children: Katie, Trey, and Ethan,
and for my husband, Tom—
My life is rich because you are in it.
For betas who have always had my back and made me better, Laura and Jennifer,
and for readers and colleagues who have made this journey such a wonderful adventure.
I cherish you all.
Blurb for Two Fates
Jamie and Ian recognized they were destined mates as teenagers. Heedless of their pack’s objections, they loved fully and recklessly. When Ian perished in a senseless accident a decade later, Jamie’s grief was so consuming he almost died too, but in the years since, Jamie learned to cope. Though his heart is empty, he finds purpose in teaching shifter craft to pack whelps and carving bone to offer for trade. His is a quiet life, his peace hard-won. The pack seer’s alarming prophecy at Jamie’s birth assured Jamie he would love again, but what he shared with Ian...That magic only happens once.
Kenneth—pack newcomer and presumptive alpha—disagrees. Instinct led him to Kentucky after Ian’s death tore Jamie’s world apart. While Kenneth would’ve done anything to spare Jamie the agony of Ian’s loss, Kenneth will also never deny what drove him to Burnt Fork in the first place: Jamie is his destined mate.
Can one man have two fates? The pack lore Jamie teaches suggests that is possible, but Jamie alone must decide if finding the courage to love again is a blessing...or his curse.
57,696 Digital Words
Chapter One
JAMIE KNIFED SOUNDLESSLY through the woods on two legs rather than four. Heart thudding in excitement and fear that his escape might be cut short, he didn’t take chances. He’d left most of the pack at his parents’ den in the forest behind him. They’d stop him if they knew he’d slipped away. They’d already moved heaven and earth to keep him from Ian. They’d track Jamie less readily in his human skin, though. He watched his step to avoid rustling leaves or snapping stray twigs. Now that he’d entered the towering rock and stony juts of granite along the border with Bitter Creek, at least the ground was too stark and sterile to crackle underfoot.
Pulse pounding in his ears, Jamie peered through the shadows of craggy mountainside. He paused to sniff the air though Ian almost certainly had retreated into his human skin to evade the pack as well.
Ian had to be close. Jamie’s nerves wouldn’t jitter as wildly if he wasn’t.
Minding shards of stone that carpeted the pass between Burnt Fork and Bitter Creek, Jamie pushed forward. His muscles burned as the ground sloped stubbornly up.
His best friend, confidant...his everything had to be nearby. Ian had fled to this patch of unforgiving rock since they were boys, any time he needed freedom from the pressures of the pack. Jamie had run there, too. That their parents would have tanned both their backsides for breaching the border with Bitter Creek had hardly mattered. The other pack hadn’t attacked or punished them for playing in the rocks, had they? The rugged pass was populated by vipers and a big cat or two that frightened away game. No one else came here. Which was why, when Jamie had overhead his mother speaking of Ian’s disappearance after they’d been separated, Jamie knew exactly where to meet him.
Days apart had stretched one into another with the weight and crushing emptiness of lifetimes. Jamie had rarely been without Ian, his best friend never far from his side since they’d been pups. How could their parents be so cruel?
Jamie’s hands trembled as he hauled himself up a cluster of boulders. If Ian wasn’t hiding among the rocks, Jamie didn’t know what he’d do. Continue searching. Keep hoping. He’d die before he returned to his parents’ den alone and defeated. A future without Ian’s laughter was that unthinkable.
He nearly jolted out of his bones when a tall shadow sprang from a ledge high above him, the figure landing in a loose crouch inches ahead of Jamie on the trail. Joy lit him up as his frantic gaze took in a familiar dark head, the broad shoulders he knew well bared of a shirt, those long-muscled legs—"Ian!”
“What are you doing here?” He caught Jamie against him when Jamie shot toward him. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to find you.” Jamie grinned at Ian’s stunned eyes. “As soon as I realized what was happening.”
“The ripening.” Ian’s lush lips tightened. He glared at Jamie. “You weren’t supposed to answer by ripening too.”
The bottom fell out of Jamie’s stomach. “You—” When his breath caught, freezing the words in his mouth, he shook his head and tried again. “You don’t want me?”
“Want you? Of course, I want you.” Lifting a shaky hand to cradle Jamie’s head in his palm, Ian shuddered. “Why do you think I ran? Your scent on them alone was driving me crazy.”
Jamie soaked up the affection in Ian’s caress, comforted by that if not Ian’s reply. “But why? Why did they separate us? Why did you let them?”
Ian’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re too young.”
“Bullshit.” Foul temper stirring, Jamie jerked away, though not far. His wounded pride won only scant inches. Neither he nor Ian would be able to tolerate even a small distance between them after having been denied touch for days. Not once they each smelled the other’s sweat...and arousal. “If my body ripened in response to yours, I’m mature enough to mate.” Jamie scowled at Ian. “Besides, I’m all of what? Five hours younger than you?”
“Months.” Ian’s mouth quirked. “Five months.” As if he couldn’t stand not holding him close, Ian yanked Jamie against him. “We are both too young then. The earliest mating this pack has seen in a generation.”
“That didn’t stop my mother. Or Da.” Who had mated at fifteen. At least, at sixteen, he and Ian were older than his parents when they’d mated. “Why are you being difficult?”
“It was different for them.” Ian rested his cheek on Jamie’s shoulder. “There are extenuating circumstances for us.”
Jamie stiffened, dread balling his gut. “My mother was wrong.”
“She’s never wrong.”
Jamie looked into Ian’s eyes—sad and sparking with the same fear Jamie had lived with since he sensed his body ripening for his mate. “My heart beat like a war drum before I saw you because your scent is overwhelming,” Jamie said. “Not because you weren’t careful. You were, but I’m attuned to you now. I could track you for miles.” Jamie grabbed Ian’s wrist and spread Ian’s hand, palm down and fingers splayed, over the center of Jamie’s chest. “I’m shaking. You are too. You feel it as fiercely as I do.”
“I’m no alpha wolf.” Ian stared at his hand, fingers curling next to the nub of Jamie’s pert nipple, but he didn’t rip that hand away. “I’m not the mate our seer saw for you.”
The pain of that, the truth in it, shook Jamie to his core, but he stroked Ian’s forearm. “The quickening doesn’t lie. We’ve known we would be together since we were small because the Goddess showed us that we belong to each other. Our physical ripening only confirmed what we’ve felt since we were young.” Fierce wonder and joy flooded him. “We are destined to mate.”
Ian leaned in, pressing against Jamie, both of their hands trapped b
etween them. “Do you think this isn’t killing me? That I don’t want—” His shoulders jerked, a startled but desperate laugh tearing from him. “Everything! I want everything and I want it with you.” He skated a kiss over Jamie’s temple. “I’ve loved you since the moment you were born.”
“Every minute of every hour of every day,” Jamie vowed, wallowing in this as he never could have before. Not while the pack seer—his mother—had sworn Jamie would mate with the next alpha. He wasn’t allowed to have these feelings for Ian because, according to prophecy, Jamie was fated for another. “Don’t you see? We can be together now. You ripened and my wolf answered by rising within me. You sensed it first, but without you these past days, my ripening intensified. None can deny it, not even my mother: we are fated.”
“I knew it since we were boys. No ripening need ever tell me what I felt plainly in my bones.” Ian rubbed his cheek over Jamie’s. “My destiny is you,” he said, voice breaking. “It’s always been you.”
Grief shredded Jamie, the pain still fresh and bleeding. “Then why?” he asked around the knot of hurt lodged in his throat. “Why did you run? Why let them separate us?”
“Doesn’t matter anymore.” Ian freed his trapped hands only to wrap his arms around Jamie who sighed blissfully at the press of Ian’s skin against his own. “I’m not strong enough to let you go again.” Ian’s beloved dark eyes deepened like the shadowy corners of this forbidding and forbidden mountain pass. “Come with me?”
“Anywhere,” Jamie answered and meant it.
Ian didn’t lead him far. Jamie knew he wouldn’t. He’d explored the narrow paths made from jutting stone alongside Ian since they were boys. They both knew the way. Their sanctuary wasn’t a cave. These hills had none, the rock dense and impenetrable. Instead, boulders and shards of granite assembled in tumbling formations that left tunnel-like gaps and hidden enclosures. Ian and Jamie had claimed one of these crevices as their own years ago, furtively dragging a tattered blanket and other supplies as they could. Not food. They couldn’t risk attracting the mountain cats that hunted the high peaks, but they enjoyed all the other comforts boys who had grown to young men could desire, including wood for the tiny campfire Ian immediately set to light. A sheet of rock had fallen in one corner of the cramped space to provide crude shelter and a storage area protected by the elements for the few items they’d secreted there, but otherwise, the reds and yellows of the setting sun painted the sky above them. As boys, the rock walls had felt spacious, a luxury, but neither Jamie nor Ian had grown small or runty. Even without trying, they rubbed shoulders these days.
“The smoke will dissipate in the rocks,” Ian said, jabbing at the kindling with a stick. “No one on either side of the border will notice us.”
That Ian mentioned the risk of discovery that the fire represented, which they’d known was safe since they were both ten, told Jamie that Ian was as nervous as he was. Maybe more. The man he’d loved these many years still smiled into the campfire, his rangy body coiled in a bunch of lean muscle and golden skin, but his shoulders squared, tension defining his strong legs and torso. Jamie licked his lips, anticipation humming through him, but he still turned to fumble with the threadbare quilt that would cushion their mating den, nonplussed for a moment to realize his mother had provided their bed by discarding the precious though worn fabric many, many summers ago.
He jumped at Ian’s grip on his arm, which ended Jamie’s skittish fussing. “We don’t have to do anything.” Ian had circled the fire while Jamie had been distracted and stood behind Jamie now, Ian’s breath hot on Jamie’s neck. “If we ripened for each other once under the sway of the moon, we’ll ripen again for the next full moon.”
“We may never get another chance.” Jamie quivered. “They’ll part us if we don’t mate.” He stared at their makeshift bed. “Anything to fulfill their cursed prophecy.”
“The prophecy is yours, not theirs.” Ian’s grasp transitioned from holding Jamie fast to a caress that heated Jamie’s blood. Ian’s fingers traced the pulse throbbing at Jamie’s wrist. “And it’s no curse.”
“Isn’t it?” Jamie swallowed around the lump in his throat, his wild fear and uncertainty gnawing at him with razor-sharp teeth despite the sweet allure of Ian’s touch. “How could you still want me, knowing...” He trailed off, unable to voice the betrayal his mother’s prediction had implied.
Ian released Jamie, only to envelop him in strong arms and nudge him around to face him. “No, Jamie. It’s not a curse.” When Jamie buried his nose in the crook of Ian’s neck, Ian lifted a hand to nudge Jamie’s chin and Jamie’s anxious gaze rose to meet Ian’s. The steadfast resolve that glittered in Ian’s stare melted Jamie’s trepidation. “What the seer saw for you is a blessing. I know you’ll be all right, no matter what.”
Jamie had no such assurances. “But Ian—”
“Do you love me?”
Everything Jamie knew of love, Ian had taught him and before the night was over, Ian and Jamie both would learn still more. “I’ve loved you so long, I know nothing else. I never want to.”
One corner of Ian’s sly mouth tipped up. Enough for Jamie’s stomach to flip because, together since pups, he could read his friend like a book. Ian’s helpless moue reflected Ian’s grim acceptance that Jamie wouldn’t be allowed the luxury of knowing only the love of a single mate, but before Jamie could form his instant protest, Ian angled his jaw and brought their mouths together.
Jamie trembled anew.
Glorious. Ian’s kiss amazed Jamie, the softness of lips Jamie had only dreamed of sampling a dizzy wonder to him. Ian didn’t open his mouth. Though Jamie welcomed him, Ian didn’t slide his tongue inside as Jamie needed. Still, Jamie tasted salt and copper, the game upon which Ian had feasted in his absence from the pack’s guard. His scent had intoxicated Jamie since Ian’s ripening had begun, earthy sweat mixed with the tang of fresh pine that surrounded his family’s den and cornflower that thrived in abundance throughout Burnt Fork. More than that, though. He smelled of spices Jamie had never sniffed before that made him yearn. The wafting savor of Ian had maddened him before, when only traces of Ian’s scent had clung to other pack members. This close? Jamie was enthralled by him. He steeped his senses recklessly and fully in the fragrance of his mate while Ian frustratingly gentled him with this, their first kiss.
Jamie growled.
Ian chuckled. “Patience.”
“I want you.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry to prove our parents wrong.” Ian nipped at Jamie’s tingling lower lip. “We’ll only seal the bond once. I need to...” He bit down harder, the small jab of pain wringing a moan from Jamie. “...wallow in you. In us.”
“I wasn’t thinking of our parents or the pack.” Jamie’s senses zinged riotously at the brush of their lips. “I wasn’t thinking at all.”
“Good.” Ian lapped at Jamie’s mouth, setting Jamie on fire with arousal and consuming need. Ian dragged his fingertips up the bumps of Jamie’s spine. When Jamie trembled, Ian returned to tormenting Jamie’s mouth, his tongue tasting Jamie’s lips and his sharp teeth making him sensitive. Jamie ached. “Perfect.”
Maybe. What Ian did to him certainly enraptured him, as though his best friend had found in their days apart some raw and feral magic in the rocky crags to bewitch and bewilder him. Jamie needed more. “Kiss me?”
“I am.” Smiling, Ian slid his tongue inside the eager welcome of Jamie’s mouth, anyway. Jamie felt the slow dance of Ian’s possession from the soles of his feet to the tips of his hair, into the marrow of his bones. “Say it,” Ian ordered him, then kissed Jamie into silence as though Ian couldn’t resist the slide of their twining tongues, either. “Say it,” he tried again, his breath coming faster.
Jamie shot his fingers into Ian’s hair, urging his mouth closer. “I want you,” he complained when Ian refused him.
“I want you too, more than anything.” Ian groaned at Jamie’s answering snarl of desire. “Tell me. I need to hear it.
”
Realization finally dawned inside Jamie and his tugging fingers gentled. Rather than demanding, Jamie soothed. Because Ian, deep down, was as scared as Jamie was. Jamie couldn’t stop the flood of tenderness that filled him for his mate, didn’t even try. “I love you, Ian.” As soon as he gave Ian what he’d asked, tension poured from Ian’s body, flush against Jamie’s, in a rush of loosening muscle and helpless shivers. “My heart is yours. My body is yours. Into your care, I give everything I am and ever will be.”
“As I receive, I gift unto you,” Ian responded. Jamie felt Ian’s heart, crashing violently against his ribcage, pounding against Jamie’s skin. “Forever, my love.”
Jamie fingered Ian’s hair, dark as sin, rich and silky. The words of the vow fell from his lips with unsurprising ease. “Forever, my life and the work of my hands.”
Ian shook, his grasp on Jamie like iron bands. “Forever, my spirit.”
“By the fruit of our bodies, we two become one,” they recited in unison, Jamie staring into Ian’s wide unblinking eyes. “This, I pledge as my eternal troth.”
They were just words. Ancient promises, but only words nonetheless. Jamie’s mother and Mack, their pack trainer, had repeatedly drilled into each pup and maturing whelp that the words meant nothing without the quickening that identified mates and the physical ripening that proved the blessing of the Goddess. The vow was meaningless without the pure intent of their hearts. Pack elders like his mother swore there was no magic in the words themselves.
They were wrong.
Every wonder and dazzling perplexity of the power held in check by the wolf inside Jamie screamed to urgent attention. His hearing sharpened, the riot of sounds from the scritching crawl of insects across gritty rock to birdsong in the woods beyond the pass a ringing clamor in his ears. The dimming light of the setting sun brightened with an explosion of color and only now could Jamie see and appreciate flecks of secret obsidian in the midnight of Ian’s eyes. Scent, too, swamped him, Ian’s smell but also his own, the two scents mixing until neither was distinguishable independent of the other.
