In return, I gave the young woman the only thing I knew how to give—my approbation. "Fen has already proven herself to be an admirable pack leader," I agreed. "I envy the members of her new pack and urge anyone who wants an adventure to follow her out into the world."
"I'll bite," Glen said immediately, stepping through the doorway and into our bedroom. At his back, three of my similarly-aged cousins followed suit, coming to stand by the side of the woman who had already acted as their primary alpha for the last several weeks. And even though I knew this quartet of young adults was walking into danger unarmed, the shifters' loyalty to a cherished companion made me proud to have once been their alpha.
"And m..." Ethan began, only to have his words cut off by a female alpha who was quickly growing into her new duties.
"And you will stay in Haven until you're at least eighteen," Fen countered. But she graced the teenager with a grateful smile, and the supposedly tough kid's cheeks colored into a deep blush by way of reply.
Of Fen's new crew, all were young, two were female, and only Glen had much meat on his bones. The sight gave me the sudden urge to pick out a dozen burly werewolves to aid the new alpha in her upcoming adventure, to guard her back against all comers, and to generally make other pack leaders think twice about snarling at my savior and friend.
But I hesitated, knowing from personal experience that an unwilling pack member was worse than none at all. In the end, I figured it was better that Fen not have to deal with the back-stabbing relatives that had haunted my own early days of leadership. So I held my peace.
Still, I couldn't prevent my head from turning to take in the crowd pushing up against the open doorway that led into the living room. Because there was one strong shifter who I would have liked to see at Fen's back, and who should by rights have stood there.
Sure enough, David hovered in the entranceway, one hand raised as if to swear his own oath of fealty. Even though I was pretty sure he and Fen hadn't spoken since her halfie heritage was revealed, it appeared my cousin was still smitten enough to consider throwing in his lot with the outcast shifters.
But, in the end, he stayed silent. And after a moment David turned away and slipped back into the crowd.
Coward, my wolf growled. I couldn't help but agree, but the same theory still applied. If David didn't have the guts to join Fen willingly, then I didn't want him in her pack dragging the new alpha down.
Fen had clearly noticed her potential mate's desertion because her lips thinned in response. But she didn't call the defector back, and I figured the young woman was wise to let him go.
Now, if my upcoming plan will just bear fruit, then maybe David will have other opportunities to change his tune in the near future.
Unaware of the dual life preservers I intended to throw her way, Fen had already turned on her heel, ready and willing to lead her small pack out into the unknown. But I felt confident enough after taking in the purely spicy odor of the uber-alpha to make two more requests. The first was selfish, the second selfless. I hoped both would fly under Mr. Sassafras's radar.
"Just a minute, Fen," I called. Then, when every eye was trained upon me rather than on Fen and my mate, I took a deep breath and made my proposal. "I hope that you'll consider staying on in Haven for a few weeks and taking care of our pack while Wolfie and I go on vacation."
My mate, for once, appeared to be dumbstruck. So it was up to the new alpha to draw me out. "Any particular type of vacation, Terra?" she asked, a smile hovering on her lips for the first time since we'd come down off the mountain, proof that Fen's brain was currently working faster than Wolfie's own.
"Why, yes, Fen," I answered with a smile. "I was hoping Wolfie would join me at last on a claiming moon.
"And, afterwards, as a show of appreciation for minding our pack in the interim, we'd like to gift you with a thousand acres on the far side of the mountain where you can build your own clan's home place in peace."
***
I knew I'd taken matters too far when the early morning air chilled on my skin, the uber-alpha appearing to draw energy out of the room due to the depth of his displeasure. "No," he said simply. But the single word shook my bones and sent the weaker shifters to their knees.
"No," the Tribunal member repeated, this time with slightly less emphasis since he no longer needed to capture our attention. Every eye here and in the living room beyond were now trained on his grim face.
"This isn't a human kindergarten where everyone gets to walk away with a first-place ribbon and the knowledge of a job well done," the uber-alpha growled, the words nearly lupine in their timber. As he spoke, the dominant werewolf began to pace from wall to wall in a repetition of his behavior the first time he'd graced us with his presence, and I found myself unable to raise my eyes above the level of the uber-alpha's swiftly moving feet.
"In case you're unaware," he continued, "murdering a visiting pack leader in his bed is grounds for eradication of an entire pack. If this case were brought before the Tribunal, justice would be swift and final. And I promise you, our decision would not lean in your favor."
Not fair, my wolf protested. That's our bed, not Justin's.
Personally, I didn't think the bed's ownership was particularly relevant. No, after the drama and bodily fluids spilled across its surfaces, I was pretty sure the piece of furniture in question would end up on a bonfire rather than providing a future spot for restful slumber.
But I stayed silent...and not just because my lips were physically incapable of opening due to the nearly palpable cold-water aroma that seemed to be gushing out of the Tribunal member's form. Instead, my quietness resulted from acceptance of the uber-alpha's deeper point.
Because I had to admit that Mr. Sassafras had been kind in his way by allowing us to send Fen out into the world as a pack leader rather than putting her—or me—to death. And I'd been pushing my luck by hoping I could instead situate my friend next door where I could send as many of the Barn rats to join her new pack as wanted to try out a small adventure with very little risk. Yes, I'd gambled on getting the best of both worlds when my hand only held a pair of deuces, so how could I be surprised when the uber-alpha called my bluff?
Meanwhile, Wolfie's sacrifice of his own powers in an effort to bolster my peace of mind had taught me that every instance of growth came with a loss as well as a gain. Unfortunately, I didn't want Haven's gain to be Fen's loss. Not after everything the young woman had gone through for the sake of the pack and for me personally.
But before I could protest, Fen spoke up. "You're right," she agreed. Her words were high but clear, and I couldn't tell whether Mr. Sassafras had released her vocal cords while still holding tightly to my own, or whether the new alpha had already found a way to exceed my strength and had fought free of the Tribunal member's grasp. While I'd like to hope for the latter, recent events suggested that the uber-alpha was merely giving Fen a chance to dig her hole deeper.
Here's hoping she's smarter than I was about the matter.
"It won't be easy," Fen continued, and as she spoke I found myself able to look up and meet her eyes at last. Eyes that I now realized were so similar to those of my mate that I was left hoping Fen might really prove capable of standing up under the weight of what was nearly a death sentence.
"But I'm ready to make my own way in the world. I've done it before," she reminded us, continuing to buoy me and Wolfie up even though she was the one being asked to walk directly into harm's way with no defenses at her disposal. "And I survived then without any werewolves at my back," she continued. "So now won't be any different."
Of course, Fen and I both knew that this time would be very different. As a single outpack drifter, the young woman had almost certainly striven to slide beneath all other werewolves' radar during her earlier explorations. She'd likely hidden out at the margins of shifter society the way I'd done, never making waves and turning tail at the first scent of a non-human's presence.
But with a pack to manage, ev
en one that consisted of only four other shifters, Fen would instead be required to carve out her own place in the world. She'd eventually need to settle down and fight for a piece of land the way Wolfie had, to hold her own against other alphas at All-Pack so she could petition for ownership of the territory in question.
No, Fen was right to say leading her pack wouldn't be easy. But she was clearly determined to follow through. And the uber-alpha appeared sufficiently content with this more serious sentence because he abruptly released the rest of us from his hold.
"Good," Mr. Sassafras agreed, all spicy and semi-jovial again now that we'd submitted to his will. "Then I'll escort Miss Fen and her new pack to the nearest outpack boundaries. And we'll leave the rest of you to clean up this mess."
Chapter 23
The first pre-dawn light was filtering through our bedroom windows by the time the pack swept the final evidence of Justin's visit and death beneath the metaphorical rug. Since my brother-in-law's body couldn't be disposed of quite so easily, we'd instead treated the corpse to a funeral bonfire that roused half-hearted grumbling from shifters who considered the invader not worth the effort. But a single glare from Wolfie had nipped any further complaints in the bud, and our pack had rallied together to send my mate's brother out of our world with traditional shifter fanfare.
Now family and friends were trickling away to their homes while I collapsed on our own doorstep, realizing too late that Wolfie's and my bed had provided the kindling to light his brother's pyre. In other words, the two of us had nowhere to sleep.
No matter. I was so exhausted I could probably curl up on the cold hard boards of our porch steps and be out like a light in seconds.
"Did you mean it?"
I hadn't even heard my mate coming up behind me, his human walk as quiet as any wolf's. And no wonder. Looking down, I saw that Wolfie's feet were still bare, although he'd managed to pull on some jeans in the bare-minimum display of pseudo-human modesty. This bloodling quirk—and the sight of his bare chest—lifted my heart and gave me the energy to finish what I'd started.
Just the day before, I would have asked my mate to elaborate on his question to buy a bit more time before fully committing to an event that I was both dreading and anticipating. But now I merely patted the board beside me and reassured Wolfie with the full force of both human and wolf behind my words as he joined me on the step. "Of course I meant it. You promised me joy, a joining of minds and powers, and a vacation if I agreed to a claiming moon. How could I not mean it?"
Then the animation faded from my voice as I recalled our duties, no lighter now than they'd been the day or the week before. "If you think Haven can get along without us, that is," I backpedaled. "I don't know if your family's pack will try to take revenge...?"
Wolfie's warm hand came down upon skin that had chilled in the early morning air, the gesture warming both my knee and my inner wolf. "With our father dead, Justin was the only sadistic werewolf left in that pack," he reassured me. "It'll take months for them to choose a new alpha. And once the dust settles, no one will dare face us.
"In the meantime," my mate continued, solving any potential crisis before it could even rear its ugly head, "you know as well as I do that Cricket could run this pack on her own if she wanted to."
I had to laugh at Wolfie's assessment. My stepmother was so timid and mousy, fading into the woodwork whenever she felt like it. But she'd proven remarkably capable of keeping her finger on the pulse of the pack, and I had no doubt she'd jump at the chance to parent Ember for the next month as well. She'd probably do a better job with both responsibilities than I ever had.
"So the only question," my mate continued, not sounding quite so confident now as he had seconds earlier, "is whether you and your wolf really want this. Or whether you simply feel obliged in the face of recent events."
He hesitated, then muttered almost under his breath, "I've never asked anyone to join me on a claiming moon before."
"And you still haven't," I replied, standing and offering my hand to pull my mate to his feet. "If you'll remember, I'm the one who asked you. Surely you wouldn't be so rude as to turn a lady down?"
"I wouldn't dream of it," my mate's wolf said immediately. Then he swept me into a kiss rather than giving me one last opportunity to change my mind.
Not that I planned to. Not ever again. Because the idea of merging mind, body, and soul with my mate made the sun rising over the mountaintop seem like the very brightest dawn I'd ever lived through. And I had a feeling our days would only grow brighter and brighter as Wolfie and I embarked upon a lifetime of adventure together.
Epilogue
Our claiming moon began as the barest waxing crescent, and by the time the orb was fully circular I'd nearly forgotten about Justin, Haven, and all the shifters we'd left behind. Instead, my mate and I spent full days in lupine form, working in tandem to bring down deer, romping through deep grasses, or just lazing together along the sunny banks of a mountain stream.
Then we shifted two-legged, twigs tangled in our hair as our bodies twined together atop the blanket I'd drug along to keep some semblance of civility even here deep in the woods. Later, we lost the blanket and came together again in the sheltered crevice behind a waterfall, the roar of pounding water overwhelming our cries of pleasure as the water's spray coated us in a fine mist.
By the time the moon began to wane, I'd forgotten all about the blanket and remembered nothing but the luxury of spending twenty-four hours a day joined body and soul with my mate.
In the end, our claiming moon turned out to be even more joyous than Wolfie had promised. And the month was productive for our pack's sake as well. Because I could feel an almost visible tether growing stronger between myself and my mate with every passing hour, a bond that caused contentment to coat my skin like a silken shirt with each breath I took.
Other facets of our relationship changed during our honeymoon period as well. For months, I'd been able to assess Wolfie's thoughts by simply gazing into the eyes of his inner wolf, but now I didn't need visual contact in order to tell whether he was happy or sad. It was almost as if my mate's spirit had taken up residence within my mind along with my own inner wolf, as if he was a part of me but was also able to walk on his own two (or four) feet at will.
And I realized in the process that I'd been naive to think that my wolf and I would be dominated by a mate tied to us by a claiming moon. Perhaps this was why the old tradition had fallen out of favor—most strong shifters weren't willing to share their powers even with their own spouse. Instead of losing myself to the mating bond, in fact, it quickly became evident that Wolfie would never have been able to use this tether against me even without the promise imparted by his courtship gift.
No, a true mating connection built us both up rather than tearing either of us down. As Wolfie had promised, he and I were individually and jointly more powerful with it than without it.
But all good things must come to an end. One morning, I lifted my lupine nose from where it was nestled in my mate's ruff, and I knew it was time to go home. As if called by a subtle change in my own scent, Wolfie rose four-legged beside me and didn't bother shifting to human form so we could speak. Instead, we simply began loping and then galloping in tandem, our noses raised to the wind as we raced toward the rising sun.
By evening, we came into the more familiar woods of my childhood. There, we shifted and donned the clothes I'd cached in the spot where I'd previously hidden a cell phone from my father in an effort to stay in contact with my mate. The memory made me smile as I remembered how young and weak I'd felt just a few short months earlier.
Gazing at the man beside me who had helped me grow into my own four feet, I could barely resist dragging him back into the wilderness to enjoy a second claiming moon. The mischievous smile on Wolfie's lips proved that he wouldn't be terribly hard to convince if I was so inclined.
But I could almost smell my stepmother's cooking from half a mile distant, and my heart flippe
d over as I realized Ember would now look like a young teenager rather than like the little girl we'd left behind. No, Wolfie and I had stolen all the time we dared away from our duties. There would be opportunities for many more joyous runs through these woods, both amid our pack and just between the two of us. But for now, the hour had come to return to our friends and family.
"It's good to be home," Wolfie said simply, stilling the worry that was already niggling its way into my belly at the thoughts of Haven business long postponed. And at my mate's touch, I could almost feel the leaf mold beneath my bare feet permeating my skin and filling me with the bloodling's calm assurance. Another benefit of our new and improved mating bond.
We met up with Haven's first sentinel mere moments later, a distant cousin who ran home before us in lupine form to alert the pack. So when Wolfie and I walked into the central green of Haven's village, everyone was waiting to greet us.
The grass was freshly mown and the sweet scent of honeysuckle permeated the air, partially covering up the excited aromas of dozens of shifters. Even though I couldn't smell each and every one of them, I could see smiling faces and could hear their roar of joy as we came into view. In fact, try as I might, I couldn't catch a single unhappy aroma amid the entire crew.
"Everything's exactly the way you left it," Cricket murmured in my ear as she came up beside me, my father's wolf alert by her side. The birdlike hands of the former fluttered through the air, and I surprised us both by pulling the older woman into a deep hug.
"Ethan's been teaching me to make smoke bombs," Keith interjected, sidling up to join us a bit uneasily, as if I might have forgotten my favorite (and only) nephew during my four-week absence. I wasn't quite sure how to reassure him, but Wolfie solved the problem by the simple expedient of grabbing the boy's neck and giving him a quick noogie.
And even though I'd rather my brother had taught his relative something a little more constructive while we'd been gone, I smiled benevolently on both young miscreants. After all, I didn't currently smell any smoke or see raging flames anywhere...which wasn't a given with the Barn rat contingent around. Yes, Cricket had done an admirable job taming the wild beasts.
Alpha Ascendant: A Fantastical Werewolf Adventure (Wolf Rampant Book 3) Page 16
