“Tell me about it.” Lena pushed herself up on her hands and knees. “Who the hell is banging on the door at dawn?”
Rolling to his feet, Jerrod took a breath, his gaze sharpening to a killing edge. “Alain.”
The head watchdog of the werewolf pack leaders. He had the air of a sleazy lawyer that sent chills down my spine every time he came into Eclipse for a drink. If he’d been sent by the pack leaders, then it was serious. Oh God. With a snap of their fingers, we could be Ostracized, persona non grata. In a word—screwed. No wolf in their right mind would come to Eclipse if we were thrown out of the pack, and no other magical creature was stupid enough to stick around someone the pack leaders might declare open war on at any moment. No matter how any of them felt about us personally, they had no interest in a family feud.
We could lose everything. Have to flee and hope to hell another pack would take us. -A million scenarios bounced through my head, each uglier and more devastating than the last.
“They’re here faster than I thought.” All the blood drained out of my face, and I swayed on my feet. A small part of me had hoped they’d never come.
Through it all, the steady pounding on the door continued. I hadn’t had much hope that Alain would give up and go away, but that ceaseless knock killed it. My heart hammered in slow, sick dread while my stomach turned somersaults. Nausea built in the back of my throat, and I stared at my two mates for a long moment while they both threw on some clothes. What would the pack leaders do to us?
Jerrod stalked out into the living room and jerked the door open. His voice held only the barest hint of courtesy when he spoke. “Alain.”
The tall, slim man stepped into our home like he owned it, and I barely held back a snarl. No matter how I felt about him, he was a man with power whom I couldn’t afford to piss off. Damn it.
“So, you’re the interloper.” His gaze raked over Lena and then transferred to me. Revulsion flooded me.
I watched the muscles of Jerrod’s body go rigid. He stepped between Alain and us. “What do you want, Alain?”
“I would hope you’re smart enough to figure that out, Jerrod. Alas, I see I overestimated your intelligence. Pity.” He straightened the cuffs on his French blue shirt. “Word of your unconventional new mating has reached the pack leaders. Malcon requests the two of you come before him for a ruling on this matter.”
Malcon, the pack Alpha. He was a new leader, and no one knew much about him—not even me. And that was saying something, because I was a bartender, and the only person to receive more confessions than a priest was someone in my line of business. Every piece of gossip always made it back to Eclipse, to me. All I knew was that our pack’s old Alpha, Malcon’s father, had died a few months ago. The pack still waited to see how Malcon’s leadership would differ from his father’s. He’d been a quiet heir, never a hint of scandal, never stepping so much as a toe out of line. And never giving any hint of his own leanings on how he’d rule the pack. That could be good for us. Or very bad. If he was as conservative as dear old dad—or more so—then we were pooch screwed.
“What about me? The interloper’s presence isn’t required?” Lena propped her hands on her hips, glaring at the slimy bastard.
“You’re no one to us. Yet. If the pack leaders should rule in your favor, you would still need to approach the Alpha to be accepted into the pack.” His condescending look said how unlikely that was.
A harsh growl tore from Jerrod’s throat. “Careful how you talk to my mate.”
“W-we’ll see if she’s actually your mate.” But all the color leeched out of the other man’s face, and he turned to flee without looking back.
“Coward,” Lena hissed, stomping over to slam the door behind him with enough force to rip it off its hinges. “Jackass fucktard.”
“Careful.” I didn’t know if I was talking about the door or about how loudly she spoke. Alain might have heard her, and no matter how big of a prick he was, he still had the ear of the Alpha. Jerrod could get away with more because he was already a member of the pack. Lena couldn’t afford to push her luck. Our luck.
She rounded on me, fire flickering in her gaze. “What do you care? We could just leave. We don’t have to stay where some cowardly jackass fucktard tries to tell us who we’re able to mate to. That’s instinct. Everyone knows wolves can’t control that. It’s destiny.”
“I care because this is our life you’re talking about. We can’t just leave—we have roots here.” Roots I’d waited my whole life to put down. Too much change, too fast. It whirled around me, and I wanted to vomit. It was just like when I was growing up. Everything went just fine until one day bam, the other shoe dropped and all my stability went sucking out from under my feet like sand in a riptide.
Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she arched a brow. Her voice took on a haughty edge. “Well, we can’t stay if they won’t let me in the pack. That Alain guy made it sound like that will be a major problem with your Alpha. In Phoenix, we had a more open-minded Alpha.”
Anger sparked through me at her words, at the whole situation. Terror followed in its wake to streak through me at the upheaval that had become my life in the blink of an eye. We stood to lose everything we’d ever worked for. Eclipse. Our home. My hands shook at the thought, and bitterness coated my tongue. She just walked into the middle of all of it and took over. I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at her. “That’s easy for you to say. You can’t just sweep in and change everything. And we wouldn’t even have a problem with Alain or any of the pack leaders if—”
I slapped a hand over my lips to cut myself off before I finished that ugly, awful thought, but it was too late. Mates were a gift, something not every wolf got. And I had two and had just spoken as though I didn’t want one of them—it was obvious Lena was here because of me, because I was bisexual—Jerrod’s sexuality didn’t call for anything except women. Oh, shit. What had I done? Jerrod’s mouth had dropped open, and he stared at me as if I’d sprouted horns.
But Lena’s reaction was worse. Her face went ashen and tears rose in her dark eyes. She swallowed and finished the sentence for me. “If I hadn’t shown up to ruin your perfect life? Thanks, Rachel. Thanks so much. You think this is easy for me, coming in last? The third wheel? The pack leaders think I don’t belong—and you agree with them? How the hell do you think I feel?”
I held out my hands, horrified that I’d done something to damage the fragile emotional bonds that formed between new mates. “That wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t—”
She spun on her heel and walked out the door without stopping to put on her shoes. She was just…gone. I staggered sideways, feeling gutted. I was such an idiot. Oh God.
“Well, this is going to be fun.” Jerrod caught me and lead me to the loveseat in the corner.
I turned to fist my fingers in his T-shirt, desperate for him to believe me. Tears blurred my vision. “Jerrod, I’m so sorry. I would never think that about either of you. It just came out all wrong.”
“I know, Rach. All the changes and upheaval freaked you out. I get that. But she doesn’t.” His warm gaze met mine, understanding and irritation flashing in their depths. It was a look I was used to. “She doesn’t know either of us, how we think, how we operate.”
“And it’s harder for her because we do know that stuff about each other. I know. I know. I’m such an ass.” I flopped down on the sofa, burying my face in my hands. Now I had even more problems to figure out, and these ones were my own damn fault. What a huge, cluster-fucked mess.
Chapter Five
As much as I wanted to go after Lena, Jerrod insisted we had to answer the summons of the werewolf pack leaders first. So we drove downtown to reach the skyscraper that housed the pack leader headquarters. It was also an international business, but for those of us in the pack, it was where the movers and shakers could be found. And faced the way we had to now.
Worry gnawed at me. Not just for this meeting, but because of what my wo
rds had done to my mate. Lena. I’d messed up badly, and I had no idea how I was going to fix it. I hadn’t dealt with another woman in a relationship for the better part of a decade. If Jerrod or I said the wrong thing, we called each other on it and handled the issue. End of story. There was no walking away.
A bony human lead us to the long boardroom where the pack leaders convened. The room stretched endlessly before us, and the most powerful people in my world sat at a shiny oak table. I felt like we’d interrupted a conference in session rather than appeared for a requested meeting. I choked back a nervous laugh—like this could be called something as civil as a meeting. A flurry of moments centered around one man, and he read through a sheaf of papers without looking at us.
Alain smirked from where he stood behind our leader, our Alpha. The large man’s dark hair was lightly peppered with grey. Jerrod and I bowed our heads before him in respect.
“You know why you’ve been called before us.” Malcon’s deep voice carried down the table.
Jerrod took a half step forward. “Yes, and I would dispute the validity of the claim against us.”
The whole room drew a breath, and I concentrated on keeping my face expressionless. Well, my mate wasn’t pulling his punches this morning. I hoped like hell that he was playing this situation right, but I trusted him to get us through this. The way I didn’t yet trust Lena. And that was what our problem boiled down to. I had faith that Jerrod could confront our leaders and win, but I didn’t know Lena well enough to have that same faith.
Everything had happened so fast, and that instantaneous connection of the soul hadn’t meant my mind was keeping pace. We needed that chance…to develop the potential into something strong. A trust as unbreakable as the mate bond between us. I took a breath and let those realizations settle. Yes. That was right. Whether we stayed here in L.A. or needed to move somewhere else, the most important thing was our mating. Jerrod understood that, and so did Lena. It had just taken me a bit longer to catch up.
I knew I craved stability, something my mother had never provided after my father died. She’d flitted from one wolf to the next, always looking for that mated connection, but she never found it again. And I never knew who I was coming home to—a quiet, competent mother who made sure I had what I needed or her neglect while she focused on keeping the man in her bed happy. Jerrod had given me that stability, and Lena, through no fault of her own, might strip it away from me. But what she brought was something more precious. Something my mother craved more than anything. A mate. A connection. Belonging. I had been so stupid, so blind. So damn scared.
I would fix this somehow, but for the moment, I needed to help my other mate get us out of this mess. I forced myself to focus on the people in the silent boardroom.
Malcon finally glanced up, pinned us with his gaze. “You dispute the concerns of your pack leaders?”
My mate didn’t back down, his chin angled stubbornly. “I have the highest respect for my leaders, sir. However, this claim calls into question the instincts of my mates and me. How can that possibly be valid? No one can dictate what instincts we receive.”
“Your instincts seem fallible with your stance on werewolf-vampire relations at your place of business.” Alain’s slick voice cut across anything the other men might have said.
Jerrod glared coolly, a direct challenge in his gaze. “You’re confusing politics with instincts, Alain. The two have nothing to do with each other. Try to remember that. And it’s not my politics that are being called into question.” His gaze locked on Malcon. “Is it?”
The older man steepled his fingers together and pressed them to his lips. When he spoke, it was slowly, the words considered. “No. No, it’s not.”
“Sir, you can’t possibly—”
“Be silent, Alain. This is not your concern.” Malcon didn’t deign to turn and look at him. “And do not ever tell me what I can or can’t possibly do. Is that clear?”
The man’s eyes bugged out of their sockets, and he turned a very nasty shade of purple. He choked out, “Yes. Sir.”
I barely hid a grin, focusing on the middle button of Malcon’s dress shirt so Alain couldn’t see the mockery I knew would flash in my gaze. He was a greasy little prick, and this might be the first time he’d ever been put in his place. He’d danced to the leader’s tune his whole life, and it had gotten him where he was. The Alpha’s right hand. I wondered how long that would last now. More changes for everyone. Malcon didn’t seem much like his father. Interesting times lay ahead for our kind…at least in L.A.
“I swear, as does my mate Rachel, that Lena is our mate as well.” Jerrod ignored Alain to focus on the Alpha. “We have mated in the tradition of all werewolves. How can that be refuted?”
Malcon nodded before he focused on me. My spine straightened, and I forced my eyes to meet his. It felt unnatural, disrespectful, but I didn’t let myself look away. I swallowed and lifted my chin.
A small grin quirked the side of his mouth. “What of you, Rachel? Do you stand behind your mate?”
“Beside them, sir. Both of them.” I pushed my hair over my shoulder and tried not to fidget nervously.
He hummed in the back of his throat. “Alain tells me your other mate, Lena, left rather abruptly this morning.”
“Not everything with a new mating goes smoothly, sir.” I’d never made a truer statement in my entire life. A wry smile pulled at my lips.
An answering grin formed at the side of his mouth, and I noticed for the first time that he was a handsome man. “So I’ve seen, but I’ve never experienced it myself.”
“I’m certain you will, sir.”
At that, he let loose a short bark of laughter. “Any pointers for my future bride?”
I considered the question more closely than maybe I would have normally. My own recent mating wasn’t going all that well. And my actions affected not only Lena and my relationship, but Jerrod and Lena’s, and Jerrod’s and mine. A delicate balance, and I better learn to walk that tightrope fast. For all our sakes. “The only advice I have, sir, is: Hold on tight no matter how scary it is. Mating is as much a test as it is a joy.”
“I’ll keep that in mind should I ever find her.” His grin slid away as he sobered abruptly. He faced my mate. “As for your politics, Jerrod.” He tilted his head. “I would say you’re very fortunate that this didn’t happen two months ago. I’m a bit more…open…to peaceful relations between our people and the vampires than my father was.”
Jerrod nodded. “Yes, sir.”
A murmur broke out down the table, and Malcon silenced it with a single glance. So, he was using us as a way to make a political statement on his rule. Okay, then. As long as it worked out well for us, I was totally on board. The Alpha took a breath. “Times are changing. Vampires and werewolves are no longer a secret to humans. We must make strides to find a lasting peace between our people, or we’ll die. How long do you think humans would let us conduct open war before they interfered? We might be stronger, older, but they still outnumber us. I’ll have no interference. I’ll have no more war.
“Anyone in the pack who disagrees may leave with my blessing. Anyone who remains and tries to gainsay me…will regret it before they die.” He focused on my mate again. “Times are changing. One of those changes may be that a man might have two mates at once. I am not one to question the instincts of a wolf. They are not ruled over by law—mine or any other Alpha’s. Especially when that wolf’s instincts have always been commendable in all areas.”
“Thank you.” Jerrod’s chin dipped in a respectful nod.
The Alpha returned the gesture. “Bring your mate before me tomorrow. I’ll speak with her and see if she would make a good member to our pack.”
“Yes, sir. And she will, sir.”
“That’s all for today.”
Jerrod opened his mouth to speak, and I latched my hand over his forearm and leaned toward him. “Let’s get while the getting is good.”
“Hell, yeah.” He gla
nced down at me, nodded, wrapped his fingers around mine and drew me out of the room.
When we exited the building, the cool of the late fall afternoon wrapped around me, and I realized sweat had stuck my shirt to my back. My breath rushed out with relief, and I stopped to brace my hands on my knees. “Holy shit.”
Jerrod’s hand rested warm and comforting between my shoulder blades. “Well. Malcon seems nice enough.”
I laughed, angling a glance up at him. “You’re insane, you know that, right?”
“It’s part of my charm.” His fingers cupped my elbow and drew me upright. “Come on. We dodged one bullet, but we have another problem to deal with.”
A sigh eased past my lips. “I have another problem to deal with. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, well. We’re in this together, Rach.” He shrugged. “Not everyone is going to agree with our new Alpha, and we can’t force them to…so let’s deal with what we can fix.”
Chapter Six
It took Jerrod the rest of the day to track Lena’s scent to an apartment building in North Hollywood. Which was a good thing because I sucked at tracking. But once I got inside the building, her scent drew me like a Lorelei to her apartment. I took a deep breath, and I could smell her in there. This was definitely the place. Lifting my shaking hand, I made myself knock firmly. I’d messed this up. I would have to mend it.
“Go away.” She probably hadn’t spoken above a normal volume, but my werewolf hearing picked up her words.
Leaning my forehead against the smooth wood, I gripped each side of the doorjamb in my hands. “I’m not going away, Lena. Please open up.”
Silence greeted me. Tears welled in my eyes. I’d hurt her. I knew it. So tough and stubborn on the outside, but vulnerable to me…and Jerrod. And I’d betrayed that with my fear and anger. “Please, my mate. Don’t deny me.”
The door snapped open, and I swayed as its support fell away from me. My hands tightened on the jamb. Rage sparked in Lena’s dark eyes. “Deny you? The way you denied me?”
Total Eclipse of the Heart: In the Heat of the Night, Book One Page 3
