I shook my head instead of answering then met Sarah’s eyes as they flicked toward the rear-view mirror at long last. I wished Sebastien had brought up the mating issue with me directly instead of with my mother. But now that it had been broached, I couldn’t bear to have the professor distracted until I heard what he had to say.
“It’s a tough decision, choosing a mate,” my mother responded noncommittally once she’d assured herself that nothing problematic was happening in the back seat. And even though she was speaking to the car’s driver, her gaze continued to meet my own.
“Not so hard if I understood all of the implications,” my mate answered. He grimaced, released one hand from the steering wheel to run fingers through increasingly untidy hair. “There are things Ember isn’t telling me, though. Things she says she can’t disclose without risking my life.”
I can tell you now! I cast down the mate bond. I’ll tell you everything as soon as Eddie is out of the car and we have a moment alone.
But my mate didn’t appear to notice. Our on-again, off-again connection was having one of its low-signal afternoons.
Instead, the silence in the car hung so heavy I was sure the one person being left out of the conversation would feel it. But, instead of commenting on the drama taking place before us, the older male merely patted my cheek, cracked the seal of the water bottle, then held the plastic up to my lips. “Drink something,” Eddie rumbled. “I’ll bet you’re dehydrated. When we get home, we’ll move on to juice.”
The idea of this bear of a stepfather forcing fluids down my gullet the way Wolfie and Terra had done during my childhood bout of chicken pox made my vision a little hazy. Those weren’t incipient tears, I decided, just the material manifestations of burgeoning love.
Or, perhaps, sheer terror that Sebastien was preparing to make a choice that would irreparably crack my heart.
“Well, I can’t tell you what’s running through Ember’s head,” Sarah answered from the other side of the head rest, cutting through the tension and saving me from speaking up myself. “But I can tell you why I haven’t bonded with Eddie before this. It’s not safe for him to know too much. At some point, my past will catch up to me. And when it does, I don’t want those enemies dragging down a human mate.”
The growl of tires against pavement changed in timbre as our earth-bound roadway gave way to the iron-supported length of the Golden Gate bridge. On either side, ocean stretched out around us, a sailboat cruising the choppy waters of this inholding of the Pacific. A lone human on the vessel’s deck tugged on ropes that appeared no more than threads from this distance, the slender connections nonetheless turning the sailboat in and out of the wind with ease.
Was that what it would feel like to participate in a true pairing? Would our currently ungainly tether someday allow me and Sebastien to work in concert as easily as that man and his boat? Or would Sebastien’s non-shifter humanity instead ensure that we walked at all times a bare half meter out of step?
“If his safety wasn’t an issue, would you still hold Eddie at arm’s length?” my mate nudged. It was almost as if he was reading my mind as he continued. “Are you really just trying to protect your husband, or are you waiting to bond more fully with another wolf?”
I held my breath, hoping my mother would provide the proper answer. Unfortunately, Sarah chose honesty over telling Sebastien what he needed to hear in order to accept me as his mate.
“I don’t know,” the mother who’d dumped me as an infant responded. “Mating is a perilous endeavor. If you choose incorrectly, the selection can tear out not just your heart but also your soul and liver. So I’m not sure what I’d decide if Eddie was safe regardless of my decision. But I’m pretty sure I’ll never have the opportunity to find that out.”
Chapter 37
I didn’t have long to stew over my disappointment. Because the werewolves who’d surrounded the jail earlier in the day turned out not to be the only ones on the prowl. Instead, as we neared Eddie and Sarah’s residence, the scent of fur became so strong I could smell it streaming through the car’s open vents.
Except our current pursuers weren’t strangers. Motorcycle after motorcycle slipped in behind us as we turned off the highway, and I narrowed my eyes at the glint of sunlight reflecting off Dakota’s blond head.
Betrayer. My wolf wanted to ride back to Eddie’s house and pull out the full defenses of our stepfather’s tower. To use cannons and guns to slaughter the female who had left me to be captured by SHRITA agents because it was too much trouble to roll me into a waiting car. We’d slay the traitor then track Dakota’s movements backward until we found our brother. Everything accomplished in one fell—if bloody—swoop.
My wolf lost the thread of her reasoning at that point, unable to decide whether Derek even deserved rescue after the manipulations in which he’d engaged. Still, she stood by at least the first part of her strategy, adamantly refusing to listen to human rationalizations about the current necessity for secrecy and restraint.
Instead of engaging my inner beast further, I fingered the pill in my pocket, its mere presence reminding me that there were issues at stake more serious than my wolf’s wounded ego. Becca was still missing while my biological mother feared claiming her husband as a life partner. And who knew if Sebastien’s safety was assured given my own strange reception upon leaving the jail?
Wolf instincts aside, the right thing to do was to meet Dakota with words rather than weapons, to maintain Eddie’s preciously shielded ignorance for the sake of my mom. To that end, I leaned forward between the seats to capture Sebastien’s attention. Then I threw myself quite literally to the wolves.
“Stop here,” I told my mate and mother. And when Sarah’s eyebrows rose in question, I glanced backward to answer her silent query without another word.
Then I was slipping out of the slow-moving vehicle, facing down the mass of shifters riding toward me on tricked-out, growling motorcycles. Dakota was less than a block behind us...but my stepfather turned out to be more immediately problematic.
“Whatever you need, we can get it at home,” the over-protective male told me as he opened his own door to follow in my footsteps. And I wasted a second questioning Sarah’s certainty that her spouse needed buffering from the realities of the shifter world. Between his political power, his arsenal, and his sheer strength of will, this male appeared more able than I was to deal with the cavalcade currently breathing our exhaust fumes.
Still, I’d promised to safeguard him. So, following Eddie’s gaze to a convenience market on the corner, I made up a lie intended to shake the tenacious human off my tail.
“I just need to pick up some girl stuff,” I offered, providing an excuse no male could stomach questioning further. “I can easily walk up the hill after I’m done.”
The last part, at least, was true—we were almost at the turnoff for Eddie’s driveway. An easy stroll even if I hadn’t possessed an inner wolf.
And my mother jumped into the silence to support me even as Dakota’s bike idled no more than fifty feet behind our backs. “It’s probably good for her to stretch her legs,” Sarah agreed from the front seat of the car.
Eddie hesitated, his instincts likely still telling him that I was in imminent danger. And this time his gaze flew to that of my not-quite mate.
In answer to the silent query, Sebastien sighed and cleared his throat uncomfortably. I could sense the urgency strumming through his body, his wish to join me as I faced off against yet another round of dangerous not-quite allies.
But he understood the stakes as well as I did...at least most of them. So, rather than succumbing to impulse, my mate merely nodded. And at the gesture, our bond did something in my stomach that I couldn’t quite discern.
“Ember can take care of herself,” the professor offered. And Eddie believed him. Slipping back into the sedan, the innocent human was carried out of danger just as Dakota and her posse arrived on the scene.
I’D EXPECTED SLEEK smugnes
s to be my only greeting. After all, Dakota had won our recent challenge, had ditched me when it mattered while receiving everything she really wanted in exchange. And I couldn’t even complain about the embedded deception because the other female had held to the letter of her oath-bound word in the process. If anyone was responsible for my recent capture, the fault was obviously and entirely my own.
But when Dakota’s motorcycle screeched to a stop in front of me, I could have sworn her wolf was clawing at her stomach with barely suppressed fury. And she didn’t draw me aside to play her usual game of cat and mouse either. Instead, every single one of her lackeys dismounted behind her, a dozen burly males surrounding me in a circle of barely suppressed claws and fangs.
We weren’t alone in the forest, though, not this time. “Are you okay, miss?” asked a pot-bellied human who I gathered ran the convenience shop we were standing in front of. There was no chance this male could rescue me from a huddle of hormone-riddled wolves. But his hand hovered over his cell phone anyway, his kind eyes promising assistance if I merely said the word.
Instead, I shook my head and mustered a halfway fake smile. “I’m fine. This is just a family disagreement. You know how cousins can be....”
I must have sounded more believable than I felt. Because the lines on either side of the shopkeeper’s mouth deepened and his voice hardened when he replied. “In that case, would you mind moving down the street? You and your cousins are blocking my door.”
Obediently, I ambled forward, fully expecting Dakota to grab my arm and halt my steps. But instead, she and her entire posse trailed down the sidewalk behind me, walking in silence as if we really were a party of not-so-friendly kin.
I led them for half a block without question, aiming for a spot where the sidewalk opened out into a half circle in which pedestrians might rest. Trees and flowers surrounded a seating area, and I sank down onto the wrought-iron bench before gazing up into Dakota’s scowling face. “Well?” I prodded, too exhausted to make her wait any longer. “To what do I owe the honor of your presence?”
Yes, fury was the appropriate word to describe Dakota’s emotions. I just couldn’t figure out what she had to be angry about. Rather than joining me on the bench, the other female circled, teeth bared while a harsh bark of laughter erupted from her curled-back lips. “You’re not going to sob and cry about being left drugged and defenseless in that clearing?” she asked at last. “Not going to beg for information about your dear brother to make sure he’s still alright?”
Dakota’s attempts to break through my defenses worked, but I didn’t show any external sign of my internal disquiet. “Nothing to sob about,” I answered honestly. “I should have struck my bargain more skillfully. I never made you promise to bring me out of that operation alive, and I know you’ll do what we agreed upon with Derek in the end as well. He’ll go to the Tribunal for an official judgment and the alphas in question will decide his ultimate fate.”
For the first time in our acquaintance, Dakota eyed me respectfully, her chin rising while a vague smile flitted across her lips. “The other parts of our agreement are similarly underway,” she informed me without further nudging. “Word moves slowly through the packs. But by tomorrow morning you and those you bargained for will no longer be on the Tribunal’s radar. Hole up until then and you’ll all be safe.”
Dakota was standing erect while I sat beneath her like a supplicant, but I still felt the balance of power shifting above my head. Was that all I needed to do in order to get this female to treat me as an equal? To pretend disinterest in the fate of those I loved?
“Now,” Dakota continued, her voice hardening back into its usual clipped cadence. “Let’s deal with the issue at hand. I owe you a favor. So here I am, like a fairy godmother, ready and willing to make your deepest dreams come true.” Then she stood impatiently, gaze piercing as she waited for me to spit out my request.
Chapter 38
“Now?” My deepest dream at the present moment involved filling my stomach with something that bore no resemblance to maggot cookie dough then falling into bed to sleep the day away. None of which Dakota could help me with, unfortunately, except by taking her unpleasant self out of my sight.
But that wasn’t quite true. Becca’s image flickered into my mind’s eye, the youngster’s lupine snout twitching beneath two tear-filled human eyes. I’d assumed that Wolfie was busy hunting my young cousin the entire time I’d chased my brother. But if Dad hadn’t managed to set our pack mate free, then my relative’s rescue was of paramount importance and needed to be dealt with posthaste.
As if reading my mind, Dakota sank down onto the bench beside me, her body bending toward mine in a gesture so sympathetic I was instantly suspicious of her intent. “You have no pressing business to deal with? No cousin you desperately wish to see safe?”
Behind my back, one of the males snickered while the scent of smugness I’d been expecting since the beginning now overwhelmed the perfume of jasmine that had previously filled the garden’s air. Dakota had boxed me in as adroitly as ever, was manipulating my emotions in a move that would have done Derek proud. I just couldn’t quite figure out why forcing this obvious decision was a benefit to Dakota and her pack.
“I’m pretty sure nothing in our promise said I had to select my favor this morning,” I countered even as my wolf scratched at my belly and requested her freedom. She was willing to beg for Becca’s safety if I was too proud to do so. Our cousin, she reminded me. Young, defenseless. How can we waste even five minutes making a puppy wait?
My wolf was right...and wrong. Because a flash of anger had settled behind Dakota’s eyes as soon as I threw a monkey wrench into her plan’s smooth operation. For some reason, the other female was unwilling to stomach further delay, which made me perversely hesitant to choose the previously obvious request.
“Little Becky might not last much longer,” Dakota murmured, and I somehow knew she was purposefully mangling my cousin’s name to make my blood pressure spike. “Last time I checked, she was barely moving. Some of us just aren’t cut out to be warriors in pursuit of a greater good.”
Lie. My wolf stopped whining, her ears perking up inside my belly as I leaned forward into the other female’s personal space. “My cousin is stronger than she looks,” I countered, even though I wasn’t entirely confident of that fact. But why else would Dakota be pushing so hard for me to cash in my favor? “She would want....”
And then a trio of airport shuttles came barreling toward us down the road we’d all so recently followed. I thought at first that the rush was merely due to ordinary humans overly exuberant at being behind the wheel. But then the lead vehicle honked loudly, drawing all eyes toward the faces peering out from the broad front windshield.
In addition to the seated human driver, there were two figures standing there, one tall and broad-shouldered, the other a slender slip of a girl. The first was Wolfie—I’d recognize my father anywhere. And the second? Who could it be other than my kidnapped pack mate?
Little Becca, saved from her hole in the ground, waved at me with the effusion of her average welcome. She’d returned fully to humanity and looked nothing like the half-transformed terror that had graced my cell-phone screen the day before. Meanwhile her timing, as always, was impeccable. Becca had saved me from wasting a favor to protect someone who was already quite clearly safe and sound.
And as the entourage of uncles and aunts, cousins and friends sped past unhindered, I turned to face the other female with teeth grown sharper courtesy of my own inner wolf. “Okay, I’ll take my favor now if you really want me to. But I won’t waste it on Becky. After all, she’s quite obviously out of your reach.”
DAKOTA GRUMBLED ONLY slightly over the promise I dragged out of her. She hadn’t tricked me a second time, but the favor I’d asked for hadn’t been terribly onerous for the other female to bear either. So we parted more amicably than I had any right to expect.
Now, running up Eddie’s driveway with short
human strides, I only hoped the few minutes I’d spent nailing down the specifics of Dakota’s final concession hadn’t been too many for the sake of my newly arrived pack mates. Because I’d seen Dad’s entourage turn onto this paved lane several minutes earlier...but no vehicle had as yet come back down the winding drive.
Images of battle and mayhem filled my mind’s eye as I panted through another increase in velocity. Given my various parents’ inability to say the other’s name without a sneer, I didn’t exactly expect Sarah to greet my adopted parents with open arms. And Terra, last I’d seen her, was a loose cannon loaded and ready to go off....
Cresting the final rise, wind whipped hair across my eyes as the shielding tree line opened out into garden. Before me, two lines of werewolves assembled in front of Eddie’s tremendous house, distance and air currents turning the tableau into a silent movie being enacted for my sake. As expected, body language and the arrangement of forces combined to suggest this standoff wouldn’t end well.
On the mansion side, Sarah and her spouse stood on the doorstep with their complete staff turned out around them like old-fashioned servants welcoming the master of the house. But my biological mother’s pack mates weren’t displaying respect for their visitors. Instead, each shifter’s face twisted with menace while several clenched half-concealed weapons in white-knuckled fists.
Meanwhile, my own pack mates had disembarked from their buses in calculated waves of protective insulation. Fighters stood sentinel over one-bodies and children, while my mother and father formed the point of a spear poised to break through the assembled defenses of Sarah’s better armed pack. I had a feeling only the presence of Eddie and the shuttle drivers was keeping the two forces from shifting and tearing into each other then and there, and I renewed my efforts to speed lagging footsteps so I could defuse the drama currently poised to erupt.
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