Pack Violet Shadow

by C. M. Stunich

  “That eager to jump into bed with a bunch of dudes?” Che said, and I gave him a look that he returned with a dark smile. “I guess even if the traitor's up there, it's better than sleeping on the couch.”

  “He's not a traitor,” I said, my voice darkening a shade. Che barely looked like he noticed and not for the first time, I wondered if I was going to have to actually challenge him and put him on his back. I knew I could do it. I didn't want to, but I could.

  As I glared at him, I noticed the skeleton hoodie he was wearing and raised a brow.

  “Did your things come in today?” I asked, and Jax breathed out a long sigh, almost in relief. I looked over at him and realized he was wearing a robe I hadn't seen before, his blonde hair wet from the shower. As tradition dictated, all the packs had arrived to the Pairing on foot, traveling weeks or even months to get here.

  But all their clothes and personal effects? Those had to be shipped. Oddly enough, Montgomery's had arrived just a few days before he had. It'd been a morbid thing, seeing those big crates of clothing, weapons, books, and pictures and wondering if the boy they'd belonged to was dead. Thinking about it now and knowing Monty personally … it broke my fucking heart.

  I was pretty sure his crates were still in the storage room at the Hall. Obviously, he'd grabbed his weapons and some clothes from them, but the rest of his stuff needed to be moved over here. Hell, so did mine and Nic's. I think it hadn't quite hit me yet that this place was supposed to be a home. A year was both long and short at the same time, but I knew that with the amount of pressure on us, we wouldn't survive if we didn't get comfortable here.

  We both needed and deserved a place to decompress.

  “I think everyone's stuff is here finally,” Jax said, glancing over his shoulder at the waning gibbous moon in the sky. Long ago, our people were connected to the moon as closely as the tides; we ebbed and flowed with it. Now, moonlight enhanced or strength, increased our healing powers, but it wasn't the force it once was.

  I wondered if at some point, we'd just lost our fucking way as a species. Maybe that's what the magic was all about? One last chance to reconnect with who we were, with the earth, the moon, the stars above …

  “I'll send word to Lana tomorrow to have everything brought over,” I said, putting my hands on my hips and looking at the three boys around me. I knew little to nothing about them, really, but I wanted to know more. That was a good start for all of us, right?

  They're all mine, a little thought in the back of my head whispered. I tried to ignore it, but it was persistent. As soon as the Bonding Ritual had ended, I'd felt it. Like we were fated by Mother Earth herself to be together.

  I was supposed to choose a mate at the end of the year. But why choose? The packs might adjust more easily to a uniform leadership if I kept all seven men as my mates. Then again, maybe I was the only person in that group who wanted it this way?

  “Sit down and have a beer with us?” Che asked, handing an unopened one in my direction. “Just one,” he added when I hesitated for a second. Tidus sat back down in the rocking chair and invited me with a single hand to sit in his lap.

  I took it—and the beer—happily, settling in against his warmth, his sandalwood, amber, and sunshine scent surrounding me in a pleasant sort of way.

  Sitting there in the peaceful quiet of night, I had to wonder if this wasn't exactly what we were all fighting so hard for.

  When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I noticed was that the boys had forgotten their vows to stick to their own portions of the bed and were literally sprawled in an adorable mess of arms and legs.

  As wolves, the urge to create little puppy piles was strong, and in sleep, human inhibitions were stripped away. It did take me about fifteen minutes of careful maneuvering to find my phone though.

  The wolf and moon charms jangled as I extracted it from underneath one of Silas' ridiculously firm butt cheeks and carefully let myself out of the room, grabbing one of Majka's favorite dresses from my closet first.

  I was going to shower, slip into the outfit, and then see if I couldn't get her to agree to train me in whatever she knew about magic. She might not have a lot herself, but my grandmother had been born in a time when alphas could wield plants as weapons, bring lightning crashing from the sky, and stir up storms. Big magic. Old magic. Magic that had gone missing without anyone knowing why.

  “Good morning,” I said when I came downstairs and found Aeron at the table, shoveling food into her mouth like a starving animal.

  “I would possibly consider having males in my harem, if they were to cook me things like this,” she said, pausing and tossing a dark ebony wave of hair over one shoulder. She pointed at her plate of corned beef hash, eggs, and toast like it was a five-star meal in a fine restaurant, something to be revered.

  “Good to know,” I said as I moved past her and found Montgomery in an apron again, cooking at the stove. He met my eyes from across the breakfast bar and something passed between us, this hot spark of carnal knowledge, the sweet memory of my lips on his neck, my hand on his cock.

  “Good morning,” he said, Anubis and Tidus leaning against the kitchen counters behind him. They watched our interaction carefully. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving,” I said, and I realized my voice was coming out in a purring growl that I so was not going for. If I'd been the type to blush, I'd have probably gone full pink in the face. “I need to shower and see if I can find Alpha-Majka at either the Hall or the big house.”

  “You're going to talk to her about the magic?” Anubis said, probably more for Tidus' and Montgomery's benefit than my own. I nodded and took a seat on one of the bar stools, trying to keep myself from getting too much inside my own head. Left to my own devices, I'd probably go hang out with Faith all day and let myself mull over each sexual interaction I'd had with the guys.

  As things stood, Faith had left me a text saying she was going to sit at home and study all day for her test on Monday, and I had to deal with my seven boyfriends' moving boxes, my grandma aka the last werewolf to ever wield magic, and a bunch of overdue anthropology homework for the online course Nic and I were both enrolled in that'd gotten pushed to the back burner.

  Even if it was like putting lipstick on a pig, I wanted to try to make the life I was leading as normal and enjoyable as possible. Even if the alpha generally didn't work, I wanted an education and a degree I could be proud of. I wanted to be able to sit outside and drink beers with the boys and look at the moonlight. Those really were the moments life was made to live, so I'd take them where I could get them.

  “She can control her magic enough to direct it to close doors, throw unruly wolves across a room, delicately stir her tea with a small spoon. She has something to teach me, at the very least. I just hope she's not difficult about it.”

  Tidus came around the corner and took up the seat next to me, the sound of Aeron's fork scraping across her plate muted by the soft sounds of jazz coming from the iPhone dock in the corner.

  “Whose music is this?” I asked and I knew right away when Montgomery grinned that it was his. “You listen to jazz?”

  “Either jazz or metal,” he said, shaking his head and lifting a pair of perfectly fried eggs out of a pan and onto a plate. As Alpha, I was automatically handed the food first. It was expected that I'd eat before all the boys. I thought about refusing, but then I realized that the three alpha-sons with me in that kitchen probably wouldn't feel comfortable eating until I did.

  I took the plate from Monty, a fork from Anubis' outstretched hand, and cut into the soft round surface of the egg, spilling yellow goo across the white porcelain. Monty plopped a nice fried bit of corned beef hash on the side and then shook his head slightly.

  “I don't know why,” he said, continuing our conversation about music. “I know jazz and metal are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but I feel like I need them both. When I need to stay calm, it's soft jazz. When I need to amp up, heavy metal.”

&nbs
p; “I can listen to anything,” Tidus said, ruffling up his sandy hair and leaning back on the stool. “Doesn't matter. Rock, pop, rap. I'm down for all of it.” He glanced over at me and winked, a big theatrical wink that made me grin.

  “I like angry classical music,” I admitted, “lots of screaming violins, heavy hands on piano keys, wordless noise that stirs the blood.”

  “That's the true alpha in you,” Anubis said, grabbing the pieces of toast from the toaster and passing them over to me. “That need to get stirred up. My mother likes her music angry, too.” He referenced the Alpha Female of Pack Crimson Dusk with a small smile.

  “What do you like?” I asked him and found those crimson eyes lifting to mine. He met my gaze, but only for a brief second before glancing away. It wasn't that I got the air of submission off him either. No, I didn't think Anubis Rothburg had a submissive bone in his body. But he was respectful, and he knew how to play politics better than anyone. If I had to choose one of the seven to take with me to a meeting, it'd be him. Whereas I felt like Silas and Che had the ability to ruffle feathers, it seemed Anubis might have the skills to smooth them.

  “Me?” he asked and leaned back with his butt against the edge of the copper apron sink. “Shit, I don't know. I like visual-kei, basically Japanese rock 'n' roll with all the theatrics. Oh, and anything old-school boy band. Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC, like I can get down with that.”

  I laughed and tried not to choke on my eggs.

  “You're into Japanese rock and boy bands?” I repeated, because if Monty thought his mix of jazz and metal was eclectic, we now had a new winner.

  “Basically, yeah,” Anubis said with a slight smile, picking up a sketchbook from the counter next to him and pulling a pencil from behind his ear. He started sketching like he didn't even realize he was doing it. “My hair won't stay flat, no matter what I do. I figure my options are either shave it off, or let it grow out and join a visual-kei band myself.” He paused in his sketching and gestured at the navy blue of his hair. “And then I guess boy bands just remind me that there's fucking frivolity left in the world, you know? That luxury of liking something silly just because you can.”

  “That was way better than my answer,” Tidus said with a laugh and I grinned.

  “Very poetic,” I said, and I wasn't teasing—I meant it. Anubis just smiled and kept his eyes on his sketchbook. “What are you drawing?” I asked and was surprised when he handed it right over to me.

  A half-finished sketch of a woman looked back at me, her curves generous, her face fierce. Her hair blew in the wind in a wild wave, a fan of tendrils framing her in her glorious nudity, nothing but a thin silver belt wrapped around her hips. The chain was made of interlocking moon shapes, similar to the Coven Triad symbol, but with each phase of the moon represented. It crossed over her right hip with two loose pieces hanging down and blowing in the drawing's silent wind.

  “This is beautiful,” I said as Tidus leaned over to take a quick look and whistled under his breath. I looked up to find Anubis staring at me, hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans, his mouth twisted to the side in that interesting mix of sweet and sexy.

  “It's you,” he told me, and when I looked back down at the woman … I realized he was right. Holy shit, is that what I look like?! It'd been a while since I'd really seen myself. Either Anubis was greatly exaggerating my looks, or I needed to pause and take a good, long look in a mirror.

  “If this is how you see me, then thank you,” I said, glancing back down at the image.

  “That's not just how he sees you,” Tidus said, stealing a bit of corned beef hash from the edge of my plate. Normally, a move like that would set an alpha off. I'd seen my mother pin people on their backs for less. But with Tidus? It felt natural to share food with him. Even my wolf side agreed with that. “That's just how you look.”

  My lips twitched as I heard Aeron's chair scrape across the floor.

  I glanced over my shoulder and found her watching me carefully.

  “I'd like an escort to take me off pack property for the day. There are some fae living Low-Side that I'd like to speak with. But I'll need to be picked up again as well.” Low-Side was fae speak for this side of the Veil. Sometimes they even called Faerie High-Side. I didn't know where the terms had come from, but I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Low-Side was intended to be disparaging.

  “I'll take her,” Silas said from the living room, rubbing at his forehead with the heel of his hand. His dark brown hair was combed smooth and those gold eyes, they were all for me.

  “Take Nic,” I said, nodding with my chin toward the key hooks near the front door. “And when you're down there, stop by Lana's and ask her to get the pack to move your shipping boxes over here. We also need someone to clean out mine and Nic's rooms back at the main house.”

  “I'll do that,” Nic said, coming down the stairs and giving Silas a look. I knew the last thing they wanted was to spend a single moment together—especially after yesterday. But they were going to have to learn to work it out. “We have enough time before the meeting to get it all done, I think.”

  “Nobody goes through my panty drawer this time,” I said with a small grin. “Just close your eyes and dump the whole damn thing into a box.”

  “You might be alpha, but don't expect miracles,” Nic said, a rare glint of humor in his voice. Usually that was reserved specifically for our private time together. Since time away from the other alpha-sons was going to be in short supply for the next year, I was glad he was letting loose, even if just a little.

  “Don't think I won't notice a missing pair,” I said, ignoring the way Aeron's face twisted up in slight disgust.

  “Never mind,” she whispered, sweeping her dark hair back from her face. “I do not want any males in my harem.”

  “I sure as fuck wouldn't either,” Che said, appearing from upstairs with no shirt on and padding past his two archnemeses with barely a sideways glance. “I woke up with Jaxson's erect dick stabbing me in the leg. How gross is that?”

  “It wasn't stabbing you,” Jax purred, coming down the stairs next—completely nude, mind you—and turning up a cold, mean smile in Che's direction. “It was caressing.”

  “Save that shit for Zara,” he said as he walked by and gave me a dark look, one that was dripping innuendo. “If she even wants it, that is.”

  “Somebody give Aeron their phone,” I said, ignoring their banter. It was playful enough that I actually found it comforting; Jax and Che were getting along. “You do know how to use a cell phone, right?” I asked as Anubis dutifully handed over his.

  “No lock screen,” he said with a smile, watching as I passed the phone—with its Japanese anime cover—over to Aeron.

  “I might be sidhe, but I'm still from the twenty-first century. I'm no older than you are,” she said, looking at me from eyes that definitely did not feel like they belonged to a girl my age. I remembered how quickly she'd moved, how she'd shoved Tidus up against a tree before I could finish blinking. She might not be the Unseelie Queen, but Aeron was still a force to be reckoned with.

  She took the phone and slipped it into the pocket of the jeans she was wearing, jeans that looked suspiciously like mine. Whatever. Like I said, werewolves know better than to get too attached to clothing.

  “My number's plugged into that. Just call us when you're ready to be picked up.” Words I'd never expected to hear leave my lips. Ready to be picked up? I couldn't even believe we were carting around a faerie princess.

  “Thank you,” she said, nodding briefly and moving away before pausing suddenly, like she'd just thought of something. “Make sure you have plenty of time set aside tomorrow. I might not be able to read the bones this side of the Veil, but I can perform haruspicy. I'll need a doe.”

  Aeron moved away, passing between Nic and Silas and heading out the front door.

  Haruspicy, huh?

  The reading of an animal's entrails for prophetic purposes.

  I was both
disturbed and intrigued.

  “Take your time,” I told Silas and Nic, still holding Anubis' sketchbook against my chest. “I'm going to go visit Majka and see if she can help me with our newfound magic.” I smiled because it was the first time I'd really thought of it properly—our magic. Not mine. Fucking ours. “Just be back in time for the meeting.”

  “Gotcha,” Nic said, glancing over at Silas warily. “I think I'll stop by the Hall and trade out the SUV, too.” Poor Nic. He really did love the Yukon. On the plus side, he'd be trading it out for an identical, maybe even slightly newer version. 'I love you, babe.'

  'I love you, too,' I told him in our private little wolfspeak channel. With a small wave, he went for the front door. Silas waited a moment, his eyes still firmly focused on my face, and then he, too, turned to go.

  'Let's find some time to talk, okay?' I blurted, stopping Silas with his palm pressed flat to the screen door.

  He glanced over at me, the scar on his face catching the light.

  'As long as it's not about Allister. Zara, I'm not as shocked by this news as everyone else is. The Alpha Male of Pack Obsidian Gold, he hasn't really been my dad since he nearly took my eye out.' Silas smiled sharply and pushed his way out of the Pairing House. 'Fucking you from behind yesterday,' he added after he was out of view, 'now that shocked the shit out of me in the best way possible.'

  'You dickhead,' I said, but I was relieved as hell to hear that he was in an okay mood.

  “Anubis,” I said as I glanced back at him and something just clicked inside of me. “Will you draw up designs for our alpha silver?”

  “Me?” he asked with a loose, easy chuckle, standing up from his spot against the sink and shaking out the front of his sleeveless shirt. It had the letters XOXO in white across the front with a big red lipstick kiss behind them. I wasn't sure what to make of it. “Really?” He sounded surprised, but also … flattered?

  “We're supposed to have a consultation with the Jeweler at some point, but if we had your drawings, it would make it that much simpler.”