A Mate For Seth

by Selena Scott

  Jackson whirled at the movement, at the intruders. And before they could yell, before Elizabeth could uncap the mace, before the girls could even register the fact that they were seeing a wolf, that wolf was sprinting toward them.

  Teeth bared, a horrible noise emanating from his chest as he ate up the ground. He was going to attack them.

  Instantly, Seth was running forward with one thought in his mind.

  Sarah.

  Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Her name blurred into something that wasn’t even English. It sounded nothing like her name. As he sprinted, the world blurring around him, her name blurred too—it was no longer a word, it was a feeling. He was sprinting toward love. Toward mate. He was sprinting toward protection. Toward instinctive, desperate care for her. He would do anything to take care of her.

  The world blurred, Seth was thirty feet away from them, twenty-five, closing in on Jackson. Seth was dimly aware of his clothing constricting him, he was dimly aware of pain, of venom in his veins. But nothing overrode his need to get to Sarah. To protect his mate at all costs. Nothing.

  Seth was ten feet from Jackson and Jackson was ten feet from Sarah and Kaya. The women were frozen in fear, everything happening way too fast for them to process. Seth wasn’t going to make it in time. He pushed himself faster, his eyes zeroing in on Sarah.

  He realized her eyes were zeroed in on him as well. She was staring at him in something like complete and utter shock, but he didn’t have time to register it, because Jackson was almost to them.

  Mate. Mate. Mate.

  The need to protect his mate pounded through Jackson’s body, propelled by mad desire and instinct and love. Jackson was less than four feet from the women when Seth launched his body at his brother and crashed bodily into him, rolling him hard to the side.

  It was then that Seth registered his paws. He snapped his teeth, licking his canines. His tail counterbalanced him as he rolled and skidded out, his claws digging into the soil for purchase as the two brothers came to face one another, Jackson’s wolf rounding on Seth’s.

  Seth’s wolf dissolved all thoughts and concentrated only on Jackson. He saw, in the corner of his eye, Sarah and Kaya sprint away to the front porch, out of the immediate danger zone, but then his focus was back on Jackson. Back on the wolf in front of him.

  Jackson lunged and the brothers rolled again, scratching and biting at one another, their growls monstrously loud. Seth yelped when Jackson’s mouth closed on his side, drawing blood and pain right out of him.

  Jackson jumped back, his teeth red with his brother’s blood and that’s when Seth saw it. The rage disappeared into something like horror in Jackson’s eyes. Something human flickered across Jackson’s gaze.

  And then the white wolf turned and sprinted into the forest. Seth didn’t hesitate. He wanted to stay with Sarah, to ensure the safety of his mate. But he couldn’t leave his brother alone in the forest like this. Alone and filled with self-hatred and shifted and dangerous. Seth sprinted after Jackson, the two wolves swallowed up in the gloaming burn of the evening.

  ***

  Seth woke up, naked, freezing and in a pile of leaves as the sun rose in the far sky. His body was convulsing with shivers, but at first glance around, he was lucky to recognize where he was. Not more than a mile from his mother’s house.

  Snapshots of the night before roiled in Seth’s head and he groaned. Jackson’s rage. His unexpected shift. And then Seth’s even more unexpected shift. The fight. Sarah’s face. The sprint through the woods.

  The two wolves had run for at least an hour before they’d tired. They were no longer fighting with one another. When they turned back, walking slowly in the direction of their mother’s house, both wolves had done so with dread and fear in their hearts.

  Seth knew what had weighed heavily on Jackson without even asking. He’d been out of control. A mad animal. And he’d raced forward to attack two innocent humans. One of whom was Kaya, for fuck’s sake. Seth could only imagine how much that would have horrified his brother.

  The dread in Seth’s heart was a bit more complicated than that. Not only did Sarah now know everything, she’d seen it with her own eyes. She’d seen Seth shift, she’d seen him fight. She’d seen him leave. He had no idea at all how she was taking this news. He’d left before he could register anything other than blind shock on her face.

  Would she let him in when he came knocking at her door later that morning? Would she turn from him? Would she be able to touch him again?

  Seth fought to his feet, wincing against the cold that enveloped him.

  “Easy.”

  Jackson’s voice had Seth turning. His brother shivered where he leaned against a tree, his head down.

  “You’re injured.”

  Seth looked down and saw the line of bite marks over his ribs. They were puncture wounds with a fair amount of bruising. But they didn’t hurt that much. They didn’t even look like they’d bled all that much. Seth tested the area with his fingers and shrugged. “Let’s get back to the house and then you can stitch me up.”

  Jackson blinked at him, still sitting in the dirt. “You’d want me to stitch you up?”

  Seth was confused. He reached down to help his brother stand but Jackson didn’t take his hand. “Of course.”

  Jackson stared at his brother’s extended hand. “But I’m the one who hurt you. I’m the one who attacked you. And tried to attack—” he cut off when his voice broke. He dropped his head in his hands. “How could you possibly want me near you?”

  Seth was fresh out of patience. “Jackson. You’re my fucking brother. You broke my wrist pile-driving me into the ground in third grade. You’ve given me seven hundred purple nurples in my life. I don’t see how this is any different.”

  “You don’t see how this is different? Seth, I was out of control. I attacked you in anger.”

  “So, go to fucking therapy, Jackson. I don’t know. I love you. I’m freezing my cajones off out here and I want to go home. With you.”

  Jackson still looked uncertain.

  “Jacks, yes, you attacked me last night. But you know what else you did? When I was exhausted and wounded and couldn’t go any farther last night, you laid down next to me. Right there. In the dirt. You are not a wild animal, okay? You kept me warm while I was injured. You stayed with me. Right there. Now get the hell up and walk home with me. Apologize to Kaya and Sarah and stitch me up. You’re not helping anyone if you just lie down and die out here, okay?”

  Jackson still didn’t look convinced but he took Seth’s hand and the two of them stood, starting to make their way down the mountain.

  It wasn’t more than fifty degrees in the shade, but each patch of sun they stepped through was warm. They were still butt naked and freezing cold and hoping they didn’t run into anyone.

  Halfway down the mountain, Jackson froze. He tugged Seth into a stand of pines and they crouched down in some brush.

  Seth’s blood froze when a few moments later, two hunters came into their view. They were studying the ground. Studying tracks.

  Seth recognized them. They were the men who’d shot at them the last full moon. And they were the men who’d been at the CTAARUS meeting.

  “Wolf tracks for sure,” one of them murmured.

  “I saw them last night. They were much further up the mountain. Running together. Went right past my deer stand up there by the creek.” The man speaking was the one called Race. Small and cruel-faced, he stared down at the tracks.

  “Running together?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Gray wolves?”

  “One was a red. And the other was dead white.”

  “A white wolf? Jesus. I haven’t seen one of them in…”

  “I know. I’m gonna get it. Once I rid these hills of shifters. I’m going after the white wolf.”

  “You don’t think they were shifters, do you?”

  The man was quiet for a moment. “I’ve heard rumors that some shi
fters can control their shifts. That they can shift anytime. So, you never know. I’ve never seen two wolves act like that before. Maybe so.”

  “You think they live around here?”

  The man’s eyes swept over the brush where Seth and Jackson hid.

  “Maybe so.”

  And then they were up, tracking through the hills, further up the mountain.

  ***

  Sarah was pretty surprised that she’d been able to sleep. But she woke up the following morning to commotion downstairs. She’d slept soundly, without any dreams, and she had no confusion when her eyes came open. She knew exactly where she was and what had just happened to her.

  She was in the guest room at Seth’s mother’s house. Actually, from the look of things, she was in Seth and Raphael’s childhood room. Natalie and Kaya slept in one bed and Sarah slept in the other.

  She guessed she was in Seth’s bed because there were a few neat art prints on the wall beside her and on the wall beside the bed where the sisters slept, there were a hundred wrinkled magazine tear-outs of half-naked women. Yeah. That was definitely where Raph slept.

  Sarah sat up, listening to the sounds of voices downstairs.

  She heard Elizabeth, Seth’s mother. And Raphael. She heard the voice of the older man who no one had introduced her to.

  And then… yup, that was Seth’s voice.

  All the hairs on her arms stood up as she vaulted out of bed.

  She paused in the bathroom just long enough to pee, wash her face and scrub some toothpaste on her teeth with a fingertip.

  And then she was taking the stairs two by two and straight into the kitchen.

  She skidded to a halt at what she saw in front of her. Seth sitting on the kitchen table, shirtless, dirty and wincing as Jackson bent over him with a surgical needle, stitching up his side.

  She just had time to register the pained, trepidatious look on Seth’s face before she was jogging forward.

  “You’re back,” she said breathlessly as she hopped up onto the table beside Seth, on her knees. Mindful of the fact that he was getting stitches, she carefully laced her arms around his neck and jammed her cheek against his. She felt hot tears sliding down her face but didn’t care. Sarah pressed kiss after kiss to his brow, his ear, his hair. “You’re back. I’m so glad you’re back. I was so worried. Your mother told me not to worry, that you could survive in the woods even if you were gone for days, but I’m so glad you’re back.”

  Only silence greeted her. After a second, Sarah brought her head back to see a room full of people staring at her.

  Jackson and Bauer were staring at her skeptically, as if they figured she’d suffered some kind of closed head injury and that was the reason for her behavior. Elizabeth was staring at her happily, hopefully. Raphael’s face just looked confused. And Seth was staring at her as if he didn’t dare let himself believe her reaction.

  “What?” she asked the room.

  “You’re… hugging him,” Jackson said after a minute.

  “Yes,” Sarah replied slowly, as if it were obvious. “He’s my boyfriend.”

  “I’m your boyfriend?”

  Sarah turned to Seth with a little frown on her face. “I mean, sure, I guess we haven’t defined things, but isn’t that what all of this means? All the feelings? The time spent together? The everything?”

  She’d posed it like a question, but really, she was telling him. And honestly, she was starting to get a little irritated at him. She pulled back from him a bit, scowling.

  “Don’t you dare act like I’m a clinger when you know as well as I do that this hasn’t been casual, Seth.”

  He suddenly burst into laughter. “Sarah, I haven’t been able to pretend this was casual, even to myself, since that first night. I’m not trying to say that you’re moving things too fast or something. I’m surprised that you want me to be your boyfriend. I’m confused because you found out I’m a wolf shifter, in the most dramatic way possible, yet you’re sitting here, kissing my eyebrows and telling me how worried about me you were.”

  Her irritation hadn’t subsided. “It was obviously a shock, because I hadn’t expected it. But I already knew you had some sort of monumental secret. And, if you’ll remember, you’re not the first shifter I’ve ever known or loved. So, duh, I was worried about you. I love you.”

  Raphael looked thrilled while Seth looked slightly shocked.

  “You… love me.”

  Sarah wasn’t easily embarrassed, but she was very conscious of all the people staring at them.

  “We’re both speaking English, right?” she asked him, finally taking her hands from around his neck and putting them on her hips. “I feel like you’re having trouble understanding me.”

  He still had that sort of terrified look on his face. “Sarah… I’ve placed a ridiculous burden on your shoulders. You have to decide if you want to keep my secret. If—”

  She resisted the urge to slap some sense into him. “Seth! Are you joking? I would never, ever give up your secret. I saw what happened to Simon. I kept his secret happily until he was outed and sent away. I’d never condemn you to a place like that.”

  “But what if you have to lie, Sarah? In a court of law? That’s perjury.”

  She thought for a second, considering Seth, considering their time together, considering his heart that she could feel banging against her palm.

  “Let’s just get married, then,” she said with a shrug.

  A feather dropped in that room would have sounded like cannon fire.

  “Um. What?” Raphael was the first person to speak, and he did so while scrubbing a finger in his ear like he was fishing for seawater.

  “Married people aren’t legally obligated to divulge information that could incriminate their spouse. If I were ever interrogated, I would have to be careful about what I said, but I wouldn’t necessarily be convicted of perjury.”

  “She’s right about that,” Jackson said after a moment.

  “Okay. Wait a second.” Seth held up a hand and then winced when it tugged at the wounds Jackson was still connected to with string and needle. “Jacks, could you please shake a leg and get me stitched up? It doesn’t have to be a work of art, just close the damn wounds.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Sarah, you love me and want to marry me and don’t care that I’m a shifter?”

  “Yes, yes, and correct.”

  “I…” he looked around at the room. “Could we have a private minute?”

  Sarah looked around at the whole family and realized that even Kaya and Natalie were standing in the kitchen doorway.

  For a moment, she thought they were going to say no, but then everyone started filing out. Elizabeth stopped and kissed Seth on the side of the head and then shocked Sarah by kissing her, too.

  Last to leave was Jackson. He finished stitching up Seth, looked like he was going to say something to Sarah, but then turned and left instead.

  Seth frowned after him. “He owes you an apology for almost attacking you last night.”

  “Obviously. Hey, I really like your mom.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. She was so composed last night. And she basically put all three girls to bed. She made us some dinner, tea, assured us that everything was all right and shut the lights off. It was incredible.”

  There was another quiet moment while Seth rearranged himself so that his legs hung off the side of the kitchen table. “Sarah, I don’t want you to marry me just because you feel compelled to protect me.”

  Irritation flared within her again.

  He held up a hand when he saw it on her face. “I just needed to say that out loud,” he told her.

  “Seth, you love me, right? Because it really seems like you love me.”

  His eyes dilated a little as he slipped a hand around her waist. “I loved you almost immediately. Even before I knew I did. You’re the easiest person to love I’ve ever met.”

  “Great! So, let’s get married.”

 
Seth laughed and shook his head at her. “Somehow I thought this was going to go differently.”

  “You thought I’d run screaming from the house and turn you into the authorities?”

  “No. I didn’t think you’d do that. I’ve known for a while that you would never turn me in. I guess… Sarah, I’m not altogether tame. I can’t really control my shift. It could be dangerous or scary for you.”

  “We’ll get used to it, Seth. And I’ll buy some tranquilizer darts for my bow. I’m a great shot. You’ll never know what hit you.”

  Seth laughed, like the thought had never occurred to him. “I’m not a soft, furry ferret shifter, Sarah. I’m a wolf.”

  “A very pretty wolf. You looked so handsome.”

  “We haven’t known each other very long. What if we fight all the time and get sick of each other and want a divorce?”

  “Well, we don’t have to get married today. Let’s wait a while and get used to each other first. At least we know it’s an option, right?”

  “I’ve never thought marriage was in the cards for me.”

  “Dying alone is overrated.”

  He laughed. “Should I propose? Like on one knee?”

  She shrugged. “I think I already kind of stole your thunder on that one.”

  They both laughed this time and he shook his head. “I’m thinking I should probably get used to you stealing my thunder.”

  “I can’t help it if I’m so kickass.”

  “I’m in love with you.”

  “I’m in love with you, too.”

  Seth leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “How is this real? How could this possibly have worked out that way?”

  “All that worry for nothing,” she agreed.

  “All that worry.” He paused, frowning. “I hate to admit this, but I think me and my brothers’ lives are kind of defined by worry and deprivation of everything we want.”

  “That’s no way to live. And as of today, that changes for you. We’ll work on your brothers.”