Greyriver Shifters

by Kristina Weaver

  I hear what she says but try to defend myself for one last time, hoping that someone believes me enough that I can convince myself.

  “I didn’t say it like that.”

  “No, she said that she threw her family away and has nowhere else to go,” Hannah pipes in helpfully, getting herself a hard glare for her two cents.

  “Yeeeeeeah. Not so great,” Mika says, shrugging when I look over at her. “What? This is an honesty circle, right?”

  “No hippie! This is us just being real. Honesty circle.” Hannah snorts, rolling her eyes. “We’re being real with her, so we can help her trap Blain with her sweet virginal snatch and—”

  “Baby in the room!” Mika hisses, peeking over at Brandon.

  “He’s too young to even understand. Besides, I didn’t invite you here, you just showed up.”

  “Because we’re all friends, Hannah, even if you want to keep pretending you don’t adore me. Now! To be clear, what you said to that man sucked. I’ma be honest with you here, Jules, even when I was pissed at Bear I didn’t make him feel like I was doing him any favors by being with him. Blain is…well, I don’t know the man all that well, but he’s just a person and men need to know they’re wanted. For them. Not their house or money or hell, even because they’re the only choice you have.”

  I’m starting to get that, and the longer I listen, the shittier I feel. Not that it's all that much because Blain was an ass! In his own right. The least he could have done was try to take things easy on me. I mean I am mourning here, people. And I needed comfort. Not an orgasm that made me feel used before he left me alone to “make a decision.”

  Bastard.

  “Fiiiiine. Assuming I agree with you guys, what should I do? I’m not even sure we’ll work out. I mean he’s a dick and—”

  “And you’re a judgmental bitch. Face it, Ju. You can be a total bitch. Sounds like a match made in hell to me. And for your info, that statement you just made about not being sure? You have to be sure before mating, especially if you’re going to mate a Fated! No wonder he won’t do it, Julia; he could be setting himself up for complete pain down the road when you use your daddy’s newest divorce law and leave him. Females, we’re lucky, we can somehow work through it. If a male bonds and the female leaves, he runs the risk of going feral,” Hannah points out.

  I pout, scowling back at her, and fiddle with my nails, a nervous habit I have when I’m feeling cornered.

  “I thought you were in my corner.”

  “And I am, but Ju, be reasonable. Blain is just a male at the end of the day. He’d be nuts to just jump into this with you—both feet first—if you’re not committed.”

  I huff and fall back with a frown, knowing that she’s right, but hating it all the same. I totally blew things this morning, and I have no one to blame but myself.

  Chapter Nine

  Blain

  I snarl, throwing the paperweight across the room and retake my seat with my blood boiling in my veins. I fucking hate those assholes on the council even more than I hated my father, and that’s saying a lot since I set that fucker up and got him killed.

  Hearing my own people, people I have worked with for years, dismiss me out of turn makes me want to demolish everything in my path. That council seat is mine.

  I worked my ass off for it, slaved and lied and did things no other person would consider doing because I knew, always, that the resistance was just a step on the path to bringing down Silverton. The real power lies within the pack itself, and that being the case, I need to have some sort of power in this place.

  Only I don’t now. I have no power because—as it turns out—being under investigation has landed me on suspension. I shit you not. I got suspended, pending the outcome of the Alpha’s investigation, and to top it all off, the lead on my case is Logan fucking Kilter.

  Never, not once, have I ever underestimated that male, and I won’t start now, which means that I am royally screwed if he starts digging and I haven’t covered my tracks well enough.

  I think. No, I know I have, but still doubt niggles inside me when I think of everything that I’ve done in the last seven years since I set out to destroy Nick Silverton.

  It’s been road upon road upon path until the map is so full I can’t remember ever one of them as well as I should. I could slip up on something as simple as one of those elite bitches remembering where I was or wasn’t and failing to alibi me.

  “Fuck!”

  A knock on the door has me snarling, and it takes me a few long, hard-won seconds to calm myself and call for entry. When it opens, I get hard immediately, the scent of my… Of Julia streaming into the room even through the tiny crack she made in the door. I can see only her face, as she peeps in, but that is enough to make my dick so hard I feel a drop of fluid stream down the shaft.

  “Uh, hi? Sorry to disturb, but I was wondering if I should just put your food in the warmer?” she asks hesitantly, her big blue eyes filled with a shyness that makes me even harder.

  God, I love that she’s this shy little thing around me when in other situations she’s usually hard as nails and outspoken to the point of rudeness.

  “Food?”

  “Yeah, uh, supper. I was sort of hoping…maybe you’d want to…I don’t really want to get stuck with Morticia all by myself if she’s gonna keep insulting the roast and other food,” she mutters.

  My mouth quirks before I can stop it, and I find myself rising and stalking towards her without conscious thought. Not that I’m about to stop myself because the female is in heat and all I can smell is her sex.

  I don’t want to eat food right now, not when I could make a complete meal of the delicious female in front of me, but for now, before I get what I want, I will take what I can get.

  When I reach her, I grab her behind the neck, just as I did this morning and seal my mouth over hers, groaning when her taste flows over my tongue.

  I don’t keep the contact long, just enough to suck her tongue down before pulling away to leave her dazed and panting. By the time I’m done with her, she’ll choose me, want me as I am and not for what she thinks we should be.

  Only choice! Fuck me, hearing those words was like shoving a red flag in front of a bull. I hated hearing them even as I accepted that it’s the reality. I can’t expect the female to fall at my feet and offer herself on a platter.

  “Blain?”

  I shake off my thoughts and stroke her cheek, letting my finger trail down her neck to stop on her hammering pulse point. Her eyes are soft, dazed, and begging silently for me.

  Good. This won’t take us long.

  “You cooked, Jules?” I ask, offering her my arm after pulling my door closed and walking towards the dining room.

  She doesn’t stop though, no she keeps going and forces me to follow into the kitchen and out onto the enclosed patio where the table is set for three.

  It’s chilly out here, but with our shifter metabolisms and temperature spikes it’s actually more pleasant and less stuffy than I find it in the house at the moment.

  Mother is already there, seated and sniffing down at the food with her lips curled. I take particular delight in the chicken and the dreaded carrots, which I know my mother despises.

  Seating Jules to my right, I take my own seat and look down at my plate, amazed at what I’m seeing. A homecooked meal that I didn’t have to pay anyone to provide is plated perfectly along with a glass of white wine that I can already smell is a good year. The perfect compliment.

  “This looks great, Jules. Thank you.”

  Mother sniffs, and I catch Jules’ lips twitch before she picks up her fork and cuts into her food. Conversation is stilted for the first few minutes while I eat and fight the need to drag Jules upstairs and take her like a mad animal intent on devouring her.

  That is exactly what I feel with every bite I take, the animal inside me reveling in the thought that his female provided the sustenance we’re taking. I manage to wrestle myself down though and turn to g
aze at her, as she picks delicately at the food and tries not to laugh while Mother forces down the sweet carrots.

  “You had a good day?” I ask, moaning when I taste the chicken and a subtle hint of lemon and pepper bursts over my taste buds.

  Jules nods, looking back at me and smiles shyly.

  “I went over to see Hannah and the girls. She’s so big now she physically can’t walk without Logan carrying her. The doctors are saying that they’ll probably induce her in another week or two, depending on her comfort level.”

  Hearing about my sister, knowing that those young would not be possible if Brig had carried out orders, makes me squirm, but I tamp down my own feelings of guilt and instead enjoy hearing that the next generation is here. I particularly enjoy thinking of Hannah beached like a whale.

  That is horrible! Goddamn you, Blain, you motherfu-

  Eheheh, be nice little sister or I won’t admit to you that I knew full and well that Brig wouldn’t harm you. Neither will I tell you that I made sure the youngest Banes was sent after you.

  You motherfu-

  Be fair, Hannah! That was the most I could wangle without them messing with me. As it is, you’re lucky it was Goose and not Snyder. Don’t you recall Goose has a limp after his father broke his leg the year he turned five?

  That shuts her up for a few seconds, and I almost smile when she groans.

  What? You want me to thank you now.

  Not particularly, no. I’d just appreciate a smidge of appreciation, seeing as I never wanted you to die.

  Oh please, tell me you never once considered it.

  Weeeeell, I can’t, not honestly, but I haven’t done it yet, and I don’t think I will now that you’re being so nice to Jules.

  You’re a regular romantic. What’s this shit I hear about not mating? Blain, be reasonable about this, dude. If you fail to mate, her father will find a way to take her from you. The only thing keeping her there with you is the Fating laws and—

  And it doesn’t matter because even if he manages to—

  I heard him telling Bear that even if he gets your head on the block, he has to banish her to another pack, or worse, the human world.

  Gripping my fork tightly, I pretend to listen while Mother tries to play the disinterest card about Hannah while inside my blood is boiling. Banish my female? Mine! What does that stinking, hypocritical bag of fleas thinks he will ever accomplish treating my female as if she’s not worthy of this pack?

  I have the overwhelming urge to rip him apart with my bare hands and bathe in his blood and—

  Okaaaaay. So obviously you’re still insane. Gotcha. But that’s my point, Blain. Look, I get that Fating and mating and the bond is a huge step okay, but Julia went to bat for you in a big way, bro. She’s got nothing without you.

  And so I should just cave and sacrifice myself because I am the only option she has? Call me crazy—

  I do. Often.

  But hearing a female coo about what a catch you aren’t, doesn’t exactly make my cock hard.

  Hell. That is just…gross. And don’t lie to me, Blain. We may not be best friends or anything, but I understand some of what makes you tick. I agree the pack needs new blood, new laws, hell, maybe better leadership from the Alpha, but as far as Jules goes, she’s screwed her pooch. Because she chose you. Don’t forget that, big brother. She chose you. Not her family, not her Alpha. Hell, she risked her own freedom. For you.

  Hannah—

  Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if shit goes down. My mate is on your case, Blain, and we both know the only way that female lives a decent life is if you’re free. Logan is a pitbull when it comes to finding answers. He may not want this, but he’ll do his job.

  And then?

  And then, if he finds anything, Blain, it all implodes.

  I feel her leave then, the heavy feeling I always get when she drops in for an impromptu chat not leaving me even when her presence is gone. Looking over at Jules, I keep eating and think about what Hannah just said.

  Jules would never survive in another pack. Not that all packs are bad, I’ve been to a few that I would have loved to join myself, and while that isn’t exactly a shining recommendation for most, it was a good place, or places.

  Some of those packs may not be progressive like Greyriver, but they care for their people. There are no divorce laws in some of them, something I appreciate because the truth is, adding on a new law for us, meant to help females, has only opened up a whole can of worms that no one expected. Or sees.

  “Well, it sounds marvelous really, but I just cannot wrap my mind around a female having to work. The Seers females do not work.”

  I grunt, trying not to laugh and receive a glare for my effort before Jules turns to me.

  “I was just telling your mom about the year I worked for the humans on the ski runs.”

  “Your father allowed that? I thought he was as stuck in the Dark Ages, as some of our leading families,” I mumble, trying to ignore the way her eyes soften on me.

  Goddammit female, don’t open yourself to me. It will be a mistake you regret.

  “Oh, I didn’t tell him! He’d have had a heart attack. But I wanted to do it so badly, so I told him I was going to visit my aunt May, and when I got there, I told her I needed to go home because Mom was missing me. They both called my cell to check on me, and I spent three months of winter learning to be human,” she says, smiling when I chuckle.

  “Doesn’t sound like much fun.”

  “Oh, it was! I taught the little kids to ski on the bunny slopes and drank cocoa and watched them interact with their kids. It was great. Do you know human children are susceptible to all manner of disease, and those parents wrapped them up so tight it was suffocating me? But I liked it because I learned one thing that is universal.” She sighs, her gaze going distant as if recalling the memory.

  “Yes? And what was that?”

  “Well, all males, no matter what race, have the need to procreate into infinity! I swear I had to buy noise-cancelling headphones and some of the things I heard coming from those rooms…well, let’s just say I understood why the family I was with consisted of seven kids with Daddy looking to add an eighth.”

  I bark out a laugh while even Mother tries to hide a titter and find myself leaning back to enjoy my wine while the two of them argue the benefits of the new laws.

  Mother argues that they are human laws that have no place in the pack, while Jules hardlines choice. In this regard, she agrees that females should have the choice to divorce a male who isn’t their Fated, but then she goes further and expresses her unhappiness that they never considered the protection laws that became a moot point when divorce was brought into pack law.

  I listen, my respect for her growing, because it strikes me that Jules may be loyal to her father, as a dad, but she doesn’t blindly agree with him.

  “Well, I disagree. I don’t think it should be acceptable for females and males to just dissolve a mating,” Mother says.

  I curl my lip, looking her up and down with a sneer, and shove my empty plate away to glare at her.

  “No, you wouldn’t, Mother, because you’re of the opinion that males should hold dominion over their mates. I tend to agree that females have a right to choose the life they want to lead, especially in consideration to our longer life spans. Two hundred years with an insufferable monster? Come now, don’t tell me that you would have spent another hundred years of your life chained to Father. The male was an animal.”

  She stiffens, her spine going straight, and turns to look up at me with a look I cannot rightly decipher.

  “This may shock you Blainton, but I was—and always have been—in love with your father. I loved the male I met upon first mating him, and while I did not love who he soon became, my loyalty to my vows forbade me from just walking away.”

  “And look where that got you. Us. Years stuck with a male who thought nothing of raising his fists to you and your beloved young,” I sneer, hating her so
much it’s a miracle I am still in skin instead of shifting and attacking her.

  For months now all I have wanted, waited for, is for her sorrow and blind devotion to that male to kill her. At one point, I took particular pleasure out of seeing her crumble at her loss of stature. I liked seeing that superiority leave her eyes, liked seeing her realize that the high and mighty attitude she always has was dependent solely on her place as Damon Seers’ mate.

  With him gone, she has to rely on me, a male, a son who has never made any bones about his feelings for her. I despise my own mother. Most days it’s a struggle not to boot her from the house. The only thing that stops me is one distant good memory that sustained me through many a long night in the basement.

  “I know you do not understand my relationship with your father, Blainton, but you have to understand that it was a lost hope that never held any water. I had no funds besides what your father would allot me, no one to turn to. I had no options,” she says quietly, her eyes shimmering.

  False tears, I tell myself, hardening my heart once again because I refuse to care about her feelings. She never cared about mine. This line of conversation though is not productive or one I really want to pursue.

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mother. Now! Jules, I thank you for the wonderful meal you provided, but I still have a lot of work to catch up on. If you ladies will excuse me.”

  I leave the patio and the females behind before I let myself look down at Julia to see her reaction. I don’t give a shit anyway, I tell myself, slamming my office door and stalking to the liquor cabinet. Once I have a bottle of hundred-and-fifty-year-old whiskey in my hand, the alcohol having come from a shifter in Scotland who knows how to make a good liquor, I fall into the seat behind my desk and swallow down big mouthfuls.

  I don’t bother with a glass, and quite frankly, I need something to still the ache inside me for Jules while shoving away feelings that I have no place letting in.