by Dena Christy
He’d wanted her from the first second he’d seen her, although he knew that she wasn’t meant to be tangled with. Back in those days her stepfather had run East Brook with an iron fist, and Mike Sawyer had done the same with Cold Bay. The rivalry between the two packs made it so that the teenagers of both packs had snuck off to the lake that was half in East Brook and half in Cold Bay. There had been a lot of making out and fooling around at that lake. From the second he’d seen the leggy blond from the East Brook pack he’d been a goner.
“Mason. You coming?” She’d stopped several feet away from him and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. He mentally shook himself like a dog as he tore his eyes away from her shapely legs. The past was the past, and if he wanted to move on he needed to live in the present.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” He rushed forward to meet her and when he got to the door he pulled it open and held it so she could go in ahead of him. Thankfully Sawyer’s wasn’t jumping like it had been last night, and only Rafe was sitting at the bar with Alex polishing glasses behind it. “You go on ahead into Logan’s office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Grace wasn't the only one he owed an apology too. He walked over to where Rafe sat and stood beside him, bracing his hand on the bar.
“Looks like things are a bit better between you and her this morning.” Rafe watched as Grace walked to Logan’s office, and Mason clenched his jaw when he saw the other wolf’s eyes drifting down the length of her legs. He had to get past this irrational jealousy. As Grace had pointed out to him last night, he had no rights where she was concerned and she was a beautiful woman. Men were going to look.
“I’m sure it’s a temporary cease fire. Listen, I didn’t come here to talk about her. I acted like an asshole last night, and I’m sorry about that.”
Rafe’s eyebrows climbed to his forward as he stood up. He clapped his hand on Mason’s shoulder, and it looked like there were going to be no hard feelings between them.
“Don’t worry about it. I know what it’s like when you get a hair up your ass. Besides, it was pointed out to me that it does take two to tango.” It was then that Mason saw the shadow of a bruise along Rafe’s jaw and he was certain that if he looked in the mirror he’d see the same one coloring his face.
“The alpha kicked your ass too?” Logan had said he was going to, so it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that he’d followed through with Rafe. Rafe laughed as he gave Mason an easy grin, not at all looking like he’d been bothered by being corrected by Logan.
“Oh yeah. You want to see the boot print?” Rafe sat back down and reached for his beer. He wiggled his bottle with a question in his eye. “You want to have a beer?”
“No, I have to meet with Logan. I just wanted to make sure that we’re still good.”
“Yeah, don’t sweat it. We’re good.”
Mason turned away and walked quickly toward Logan’s office. He walked in and closed the door, taking the seat in front of Logan’s desk beside the chair where Grace sat. Logan frowned at him.
“Sorry I’m late, but I had to have a few words with Rafe.”
“That’s fine. But I didn’t call you both here to talk about what happened last night. The guilty parties have been dealt with and as far as I’m concerned it’s over.” Logan clasped his hands in front of him on his desk and looked first at Mason and then at Grace. “I wish I didn’t have to have this meeting with you at all.”
“What is it Logan?” Grace’s voice was soft, but at least she didn’t look as anxious now as she had when Mason had first told her that Logan wanted to meet with them. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him why she would be nervous about meeting with Logan, but he supposed it didn’t matter now.
“I called Lucien, to tell him about what happened last night.” Lucien was head of the werewolf council, and he was the one who’d told Logan that if he got both packs to follow him as alpha and agree to merge together than they had a chance to prevent being swallowed by the Batesburg pack.
“And, what did he say? Is he going to go to bat for us?” Grace leaned forward in her seat, and Mason caught the scent of her shampoo and it tightened the muscles in his body. Christ, now was not the time for this. He could tell by the look on Logan’s face that the answer to her question wasn’t good.
“He says he can’t, that we don’t have one hundred percent agreement.”
“What the fuck is he talking about? Both packs were here last night and there wasn’t a single member that dissented.” Mason didn’t envy Logan having to deal with the bullshit that came along with the werewolf council. What more did they want? Every member of both packs to sign a pledge in blood?
“Not every member, as it turns out. There is one hold out, and the reason he wasn’t represented is because he’s not in the area. Apparently he’s in jail, so we don’t have one hundred percent.” Logan looked over at Grace. A funny look crossed his face, and the muscle tightened in his jaw. “It’s Titus Parr.”
The blood drained from Grace’s face, and for a second Mason thought she was going to faint. Whoever this Titus was, he put a look of fear in Grace’s eyes. He didn’t want to look too closely at the surge of protective feelings that went through him when he saw it.
“Who the hell is Titus Parr?” There was something that the two of them knew that he didn’t. A look passed between Grace and Logan, and he had an uneasy feeling that they were hiding something from him. Grace squeezed her hands together in her lap, and turned her head to look at him. She was still pale, but at least that haunted look that had come in her eyes a few moments ago had cleared.
“He used to be my stepfather’s enforcer. He’s bad news, and jail is the best place for him.” She turned away from him and turned back to face Logan. “If Lucien had suggested talking to him and getting him to accept you as alpha, it’s not going to happen. He hates Cold Bay as much as my stepfather did and he’d rip out his own throat before bowing down to an alpha from Cold Bay.”
“That’s what I thought.” Logan frowned and swore softly under his breath.
“So that’s it? We’re just going to let ourselves be swallowed by Batesburg?” Mason couldn’t believe that Logan was going to back down from this just because the council had thrown a monkey wrench in their path. It wasn’t in his cousin’s nature to roll over for anyone, and he refused to believe that he was going to do it now.
“No, we aren’t just going to let it happen, but it’s not up to me. The old solution is still on the table. If we merge the alpha bloodlines of the two packs, we can avoid the merger. If not, then Cold Bay and East Brook are finished.”
It took a second for Mason to realize why he and Grace were meeting to talk to Logan about this, instead of just Grace. He looked over at Grace, and he knew that she was thinking the same thing.
“So let me get this straight. If the blood lines are merged, the packs will be saved?”
“Yes. I was certain to clarify with Lucien that we only needed someone with alpha blood to bind himself to Grace, instead of a sitting alpha. He said yes.” Logan’s jaw tightened. “If circumstances were different, I wouldn’t ask this of you. But it’s the only way we can save the pack.”
Mason knew that if things were different, they would not be having this discussion. If Logan wasn’t so deeply in love with Faith, he would have bound himself to Grace already. But Faith was in the picture, and no matter how much he loved his pack, he loved her more.
Which left him. He and Logan shared a grandfather, who’d been an alpha in a continuous line of alpha’s in the Cold Bay pack. So if he wanted to save his pack, he had to be prepared to make the sacrifice that Logan couldn’t. He had to bind himself to Grace, and if the council meant that there needed to be a literal merging of the bloodlines, it meant he had to have a child with her too.
He stared straight ahead as he scrubbed his hand over his face. So much for moving on with a life without her.
“I think Grace and I need to talk alone.”
How the hell were they going to make this work when they couldn’t even spend five minutes together without tearing each other apart, or sitting in utter silence?
4
Titus Parr? That was a blast from the past that she didn't want to hear. She'd tried to bury everything having to do with her stepfather when she'd left East Brook fifteen years ago. Titus had been a feature of her nightmares for years, and here he was again, rearing his ugly head. Hearing his name sent all the terror he'd been able to produce in her years ago spiraling through her, and if Logan hadn't said that he was in jail, she thought she would have fled and never looked back.
She shoved Titus from her mind, since he was not the real crux of her problem right now. She glanced over at Mason as he stared straight ahead and the muscle worked in his jaw. She was going to have to bind herself to him for the sake of her pack, and there was going to be no escaping the past if she did that. But what choice did she have? If she walked away, if she did what she'd been planning this morning, washing her hands of the pack and moving on, East Brook would cease to exist and so would Cold Bay.
"I'll let you two discuss it. I want you to make the choice that is best for you, so understand that I will abide by whatever you decide." Logan pushed his chair back and stood. He came around the desk and put his hand on Grace's shoulder for a second before he walked out the door, closing it behind him.
"Well I don't know about you, but this wasn't what I was expecting to talk to him about." Mason turned in his chair and she tried to read what he was thinking on his face. She couldn't tell what was on his mind, since his expression was neutral. Or it could be that the only emotion she could identify from him was anger or resentment, since those were the ones she saw most on his face.
"I should have expected this. It seemed much too easy to get both packs to follow Logan." When Logan had broached the topic with her a few days ago, when he'd realized that he couldn't give Faith up, she'd gone along with him. But there had been a nagging doubt in her head, one that told her that life wasn't that neat, that just because you wanted something so bad didn't mean that you would get it. She hadn't said as much to Logan, because she wanted him to be happy and she knew that Faith was the woman who would do that.
"So what is this binding going to involve?" Mason's voice shook her from her thoughts and made her focus on the matter at hand. They needed to make a choice, although it seemed to be a lessor of two evils type thing. She knew, just based on the few interactions she'd had with him since she'd been back, that there was nothing left between them. They couldn't be in the same room together without fighting. What kind of binding would that be if they tore each other apart every second they were together? The alternative was destroying both their packs.
"We will have to bind ourselves together, and live together as a couple. Fortunately it won't have to be forever." She hoped that would make him feel better about doing this if he knew that he wouldn't have to be bound to her for the rest of his life. They didn't need to be legally married, since for centuries wolves had bound themselves together in a binding ceremony that held more meaning for them than a conventional wedding. Fortunately a binding was easier to dissolve than a marriage, and there was no stigma attached to doing it.
"How long are we stuck with each other?"
Stuck with each other? She almost told him in a sarcastic tone that there was no need for him to dress it up in so much romance. But she refrained. If they were going to do this, she needed to exercise some self-control and not give in to the urge to get her back up over everything he said.
"The binding needs to be a minimum of a year. If we choose to be together longer, that is certainly not an obstacle." She looked down at her hands in her lap and wondered how she was going to tell him the rest. Mason wasn't stupid, so she supposed that he would have most likely already figured it out for himself. A simple binding wasn't enough. Who was to say that they didn't just live together platonically and declare at the end of the year that they weren't compatible? If only it was that easy. "We have to join the bloodlines, which means we have to have a child together."
Damn the council for doing this. There was a time when she wanted nothing more than to be able to bring Mason's child into the world, but that time had long since passed.
"So that's how they prevent us from pretending? This is going to be a true binding then?” He swore softly under his breath and she could see that he wasn't any happier about this than she was. Was she that abhorrent to him now that he didn't want to contemplate sharing a bed with her? The jealousy he'd displayed last night had shown otherwise, but it was one thing to have lingering feelings based on a shared past, and another to not want to be with someone who'd hurt you in the worst way possible.
"It's going to be a true binding. If we conceive within the allotted year we can go our separate ways." At least there was a light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that they wouldn't have to make each other miserable forever, that it would only be for a year. Of course if they did conceive a child they would be bound together in an entirely different way, but she didn't want to think about that. The baby hadn't been conceived yet, and she still had to go through sleeping with him again in order to do it.
"And if there is no baby after the year is up?"
"Then the merging of the two packs is void, since the bloodlines will not be merged." And they would have gone through all this for nothing.
"Fucking council." A growl rumbled inside him, and she resisted the urge to put a soothing hand on him. There would be plenty of time to touch him if they decided to go through with this. And she needed time to shore up her defenses if she did. "So this all might be for nothing. We will have wasted a year of our lives and we'll still lose."
She fought to keep the flinch off her face at his words. So he considered spending a year living with her and trying to make a baby with her a waste?
"Yes, that is the risk of doing this. I know this is a lot to take all at once, so I'm sure that Logan isn't expecting an answer this second. You have only had about ten minutes to think about this. We have some time before Logan needs to give the council his answer." Grace clutched her purse to her and stood up. There wasn't really much more to say to him. This was a shitty situation and while there really was no choice for her, she knew that he should have a little time before he was forced to come up with his answer.
"And what about you? Don't you need time to think about this?" He stood up and she had to tip her neck back to look up at him. She squeezed her hands around her purse at the feelings his close proximity stirred within her. When she'd been prepared to mate with Logan, she known that sleeping with him would be like sleeping with her brother. The same could not be said for sleeping with Mason. The sex between them had been good fifteen years ago, and she had no reason to doubt that it would not be the same now. Which would only make keeping her defenses up that much more difficult. "Grace? Did you hear what I asked?"
She was jolted from her thoughts. She really needed to pull herself together if all he needed to do was stand beside her and she was sent off into a fantasy land, imagining making love with him.
"I was prepared to make this sacrifice once before. I was prepared to bind myself with Logan to ensure my pack survived in some form. I don't need time to think about this." There was no other answer than yes for her. She'd come home to help keep her pack together. It seemed stupid to back out now when what she needed to do was going to be so much harder now than it would have been if she'd mated with Logan. There was a silver lining, one that made this whole thing more palatable. When she passed age thirty, needs had arisen inside her, a yearning that she'd pushed down for years. She wanted to have a family, a child to call her own. This binding with him would give her the opportunity to fulfill that wish. "Can you take me home now? If you'd rather not, I can ask Logan."
"No, I'll take you." He turned to the door and walked out ahead of her. As she followed behind him, she looked at his broad back and imagined what it would look like
without the shirt covering it. It could be worse, she supposed. At least sleeping with him would not be like sleeping with a total stranger. At least with Mason she knew what to expect.
The physical side of the relationship they would embark on with their binding would not be the problem. It was the emotional one where the danger lie. She was taking a great risk, because a part of her had never gotten over Mason. She'd not left him because it was a choice she'd made for herself. Circumstances beyond her control had forced her hand. How was she going to keep her heart safely tucked away from him when they had to try to make a child together?
She didn't know the answer to that as she followed him out to the parking lot to his truck. All she knew was that no matter what happened, he would walk away from her once the year was up. And she needed to keep her heart safe, so it wouldn't devastate her when that happened. She'd had more than enough devastation in her life already to be able to handle any more.
If he'd thought the silence in the truck on the way to Logan's bar had been bad, the silence as they drove away from it was ten times worse. What did she want from him? Did she want him to jump for joy at the prospect of binding himself to her for the next year, at the notion of making a baby with her? The prospect of it had anger shooting through him. How the fuck was he ever going to put the past behind him when he had to wake up beside her every day?
There really wasn't any answer he could give Logan other than yes, that he would bind himself to her for the next year. The pack was more important than his personal feelings, and he was the only one who could do it. He'd have to suck it up, and be a man about it. He'd just have to spend the next year making sure that she didn't worm herself under his defenses.
At least sleeping with her wouldn't be a hardship, since the desire he'd felt for her years ago hadn't been dampened by her betrayal. Apparently his body didn't give a shit what she'd done, it wanted to have her any way it could get her.
