Which begged the question—without those invisible threads, without my family...did I even truly exist?
I tried to rein in my terror, to remind myself that I’d known this would happen from the get-go. Rationally, I’d understood that whoever I mated with would determine which pack I eventually called my own.
If I mated with Aaron, I’d become a Greenbriar. The obvious corollary, though, was far less palatable now that it had become a reality. If mating with a pack wolf would draw me into his clan, then mating with packless Sebastien left me attached to...well...nothing, I guessed.
I shivered, trying to find another answer beyond the one that currently stared me in the face. No matter what I’d thought would happen, I hadn’t expected the transition to be so quick. So sharp. So final.
Squaring my jaw, I tried to force my scattered thoughts back onto the task at hand. The connection couldn’t have disappeared completely, I decided. So, with wolf-like attention to detail, I hunted for any bond at all. The Greenbriar mantle—borrowed and soon to be cast off—would be sufficient to buoy me up until I worked this minor problem out. I’d draw against that alpha’s power and soothe my shattered soul...then I’d find a way to rebuild what had been so recently left behind.
Because I couldn’t afford to lose my family. I refused to break ties with mother and father and cousins and uncles and aunts who meant more to me than life itself.
There was no way I could extricate myself when I knew each family member’s favorite flavors and colors, their foibles and strengths. My calendar included every birth date along with which nights each pack mate might need a friendly shoulder to lean on. And, in return, my closest companions knew the exact same facts about me.
I just have to search a little harder. A one-way mating bond probably acts like the borrowed Greenbriar mantle—hiding what’s still there underneath. Mating to Sebastien won’t have cut off the connection entirely. It will have just driven my basic connections deeper so they’re harder to find.
But I knew even as I formed the words inside my mind that they were, each and every one, desperate lies. Because there was nothing inside me to be found. No borrowed weight like the one that had sat lightly upon my shoulders for the last two days, no iron-clad connection attaching me to the Haven pack within which I’d grown from pup to adult. Instead, searching fingertips found only one lax thread leading out from my soul...a thread that gave way beneath my tugging as if the knot on the other end had never been fully tied.
And as I pulled against the slack, I opened my eyes and saw not the zoo but the inside of Sebastien’s vehicle. Around me—around him—the fancy sports car was illuminated only by the glow of buttons and dials. Meanwhile, the professor’s emotions hung heavy in the air, a fog of exhaustion and disappointment combined with the barest sliver of niggling guilt.
For a moment, I relaxed into my mate’s imagined proximity. Then, far too quickly, he sensed me there, hovering behind his eyeballs.
In response, our shared head cocked to one side as Sebastien’s voice filled the small space. “Ember?” he asked into the night.
My mate felt me...but he was also entirely human and had no idea how to complete a mating ritual even when the unattached tether was slapping him in the face. Plus, who said the professor would bond with me even if he was able? We’d barely spent two hours in each others’ company during a similar number of days and had never heard of the other before that. It would have been crazy to consider forming a partnership on such short acquaintance when a true mating bond lingered for the rest of a being’s life.
It would have been crazy...unless the decision was the last gasp of a desperate werewolf who didn’t want to harm anyone except herself.
Then our shared eyes blinked and my connection to Sebastien was broken. In my belly, my wolf circled uncomfortably, whining at the absence of our mate. Meanwhile, down by my hip, the adamant chime of a cell phone demanded my immediate attention.
RELUCTANTLY, I OPENED my eyes and reached for the phone. Because even though I could no longer feel the current caller attached to my very soul, I could guess who this would be—Dad. The shattered pack bond would have forced my father to jump to an entirely warranted—if thankfully incorrect—conclusion. No way would I punish Wolfie by making him think that his only daughter had left the Haven clan the most likely way...by growing stone, cold dead.
Unfortunately, wrangling the cell phone out of my pocket was easier said than done. My breath came in gasps, I wasn’t so sure I could speak, and I was absolutely certain I needed to be somewhere else. My skin prickled with the urge to run toward my absent mate even as my rational brain reminded me that a very angry alpha hovered inches away from my unprotected neck.
Oh yeah—and then there was that unnamed shifter who held similar control over my sister and niece. Plus wild wolves inching closer by the moment. Details, details.
Despite the danger swirling through the air around us, I refused to be responsible for Wolfie’s rampage if I failed to accept his call. So I forced fingers to behave long enough to answer, then I pressed the cool plastic against my ear as I attempted to turn pained grunts into actual words.
“I can’t talk now, Dad. But I’m alive,” I told him quickly. Then, duty done, I ended the call and gazed at last upon the alpha whose growl had formed a counterpoint to the flurry of terrified questions running through my own mind.
“You made the wrong choice,” the alpha in question rumbled. But he didn’t pounce. Instead, he punished me in a way far worse than ripping the still-beating heart out of my heaving chest. “Bring the backup female closer,” he called over one shoulder, not bothering to imbue the words with any alpha power.
Within seconds, Harmony was standing at the foot of the hill peering up at us, she and her daughter both leaning away from the naked shifter who’d threatened them in the recent past. For his part, the male relegated his hands to the non-erogenous zone of Harmony’s hunched shoulders although his eyes remained avariciously trained upon my sister’s fabric-covered breasts.
Rather than remarking upon the scent of inappropriate lust filling the air, Chief Greenbriar turned once more toward his son. And this time he failed to give Aaron any leeway, instead spitting out a stark alpha command. “Aaron, it’s time for you to stop stalling and to choose your mate.”
Energy filled the air as the compulsion took hold. But my wolf hummed her approval as she realized what had gone unnoticed by our puppet master—that, this time around, the Greenbriar alpha had seriously missed his mark.
Maybe the pack leader expected his previous compulsion to keep “female” and “appropriate” and “pups” at the forefront of his offspring’s mind. Or maybe, somewhere deep down inside his subconscious, the alpha just wanted his son to be happy. Whatever the reason, I saw the moment Aaron noticed the lapse, saw the spark of joy filling the younger male’s eyes as he opened his mouth and hurried through a choice that, in a perfect world, shouldn’t have been rushed.
“My mate,” Aaron said, his words both loud and joyful as they rang through the dark night air, “is Roger Jones.”
Then, out of the shadows, another male mimicked his partner’s words, nearly stumbling over his consonants in his haste to beat Chief Greenbriar to the punch. “And my mate is Aaron Greenbriar. I claim you now and forever, Aaron, as the only partner of my heart.”
Just like that, the air filled with the scent of roses as the duo’s mate bond clicked firmly into place. It was done. Aaron and I were both mated...only not to each other.
Chapter 29
The aftermath was beautiful. The newly-formed tether materialized so strongly as to be nearly visible, its breathless perfection filling the void in my own gut for one split second...before leaving me even emptier than before.
And in response to that cavern of need, my inner wolf stole my volition and pushed us away from the wedding mound in search of our own mate. Or at least she tried to. But despite strained muscles, our feet remained just as firmly planted
as they had been five minutes earlier...
...until, that is, the compulsion freezing us in place shattered so quickly I nearly fell forward onto my face. Meanwhile, a female voice rang out from the still-open gateway at the edge of the enclosure. “You didn’t invite me to my own son’s wedding?” Andrea demanded, stepping out of the shadows in a sequin-studded evening gown that looked like it had been made to reflect the moonlight.
And maybe the outfit had. Because the region’s second-in-command possessed a flare for the dramatic, one she was currently putting to very good use. The sweetness of honeysuckle whirled around me so strongly that I was certain Andrea had supplemented her signature aroma by chemical means, and the click of heels against concrete drew every eye in her direction as she stalked toward us as slowly as any hunter.
Meanwhile, the wolves encircling the mound began to pull back one by one, padding over to sniff at the newcomer’s legs and hands. In Andrea’s shoes, I would have been daunted by the proximity of wild teeth and claws—after all, most werewolves had no particular ability to communicate with beasts. But Andrea allowed and even encouraged their familiarity, trailing her fingertips along one animal’s spine before turning to glare in her mate’s direction.
“You harmed our son. You harmed our pack. You are the rot at the Greenbriar core,” she intoned coldly.
And as much as I would have liked to stay and watch Chief Greenbriar receive his comeuppance, I had more important matters on my mind. So, backing away from the nearly visible anger that flowed between the mated pair, I slipped down the opposite side of the mound and padded over to my sister.
“This one is mine,” I murmured, meeting the guard’s eyes with the full force of my inner wolf. And while the male in question would have fought against my forwardness at any other moment, the electricity sparking between the pack’s first- and second-in-command froze the other shifter relentlessly in place. Due to his pack connections, he was unable to so much as growl a retort.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t currently hindered by the Greenbriar mantle...or any other sort of one. So ignoring the sharp pain shooting through my gut, I took advantage of my own broken pack bonds to drag Harmony away from her befuddled guard.
“Kak, kak, kak!” Rosie chanted, grabbing hold of my hair and pulling painfully as soon as I came within reach. The tears in my eyes, however, were more closely allied to joy than to discomfort. Because merely standing alongside relatives eased the pain in my stomach ever so slightly and reminded me that—pack bond or no pack bond—I wasn’t entirely alone.
Andrea and her mate, on the other hand, were becoming more alone by the moment. Shifters couldn’t divorce in the human sense. Instead, if they ever chose to sever their mating bond, the resulting discomfort was akin to that catalyzed by an alpha compulsion...only with the effects multiplied by a thousand and lasting for a lifetime.
Despite the agonizing consequences, Andrea had so chosen. Even from my current distance, I could feel the Greenbriar bond ripping apart, the sensation so powerful that secondhand spillover was nearly enough to send me to my knees. Wincing, I struggled to keep my stomach contents inside me where they belonged even as I drew Harmony toward the open gate as quickly as possible.
And I wasn’t the only one affected. “Mom, don’t!” Aaron began, his voice strangled as if his tongue was fighting against a mouthful of toffee.
For a split second, the sensation of being torn asunder eased ever so slightly, allowing us all to breathe. Then: “Aaron, Roger, Edgar, go,” the female intoned, putting enough force behind her words to send the remaining members of her pack scurrying toward the looming gate. Following their lead, I met my sister’s questioning gaze with a shrug then picked up my heels to accelerate our own retreat.
Because, behind our backs, the growl and shuffle of angry wolves was growing louder by the second. And the air once again filled with an emotion so intense it made my ears pop.
“You’ve turned into a wolf, so it’s only appropriate that I throw you to the wolves,” Andrea murmured to her mate. Or perhaps I should say to her ex-mate. Because the female’s most intrinsic bond was gone, and I could only imagine the pain that must be tearing through her body at the loss of her other half.
There was only one way to ease that shooting pain, and Andrea was blood-thirsty enough to take it. I half expected Chief Greenbriar to fight back. But instead, there was only a single pained grunt as the first wild animal struck. Then the scent of blood followed us all the way to the gate.
Chapter 30
We’d escaped the worst of the preceding danger virtually unscathed. And yet...the instant Harmony, Rosie, and I burst through the zoo’s gates to find my parents’ car waiting at the curb, tears started leaking from my stinging eyes.
Terra and Wolfie had come for me. Despite my insistence that I needed no help. Despite the danger involved in invading another alpha’s territory. Despite the broken pack bond that meant I was no longer a Haven wolf. All of those reasons aside, my parents had tracked me down and now waited patiently to pick up the pieces.
Well, not so patiently. Mom was the one behind the steering wheel—a seriously good thing for everyone’s sake since letting Wolfie drive was tantamount to assisting in vehicular homicide. Which meant Dad was closer to me, his hand pushing the passenger-side door open the instant I emerged from the shadows at the entrance of the zoo.
“No!” I called, eyes drying as I realized we weren’t out of danger quite yet. Because whoever won the Greenbriar power struggle tonight, I had a sinking suspicion the new alpha would be sniffing this pavement first thing in the morning, seeking any sign that Wolfie had broken pack law by setting foot outside the neutral territory of his car.
Luckily, Wolfie’s feet halted just before they touched down on open pavement....although the male continued to menace all and sundry with a thready growl. For her part, Mom’s hand landed on her mate’s shoulder in an attempt to placate him, but she clearly wasn’t confident of her own abilities to restrain my father’s over-protective streak. Instead, Terra jerked her chin and widened her eyes at me from behind her mate’s back. “Get over here before your dad blows a blood vessel,” she commanded even as her eyes said “Welcome! I love you! Thank goodness my daughter is safe!”
Obeying her request as quickly as possible, I released Harmony’s hand and hastened to Wolfie’s side. “Dad, calm down,” I said placatingly as I sprinted forward.
Even as I spoke, though, I knew my words would do little good. What Wolfie really needed—and what I gave him as soon as I was close enough to touch—was the sensation of my palm sliding across his stubbled cheek, my warm skin proof that I wasn’t a ghost. “I’m alive, I’m okay, and I appreciate the help,” I murmured into Wolfie’s waiting ear.
I was alive, but even as I made a move to open the back door of the car, I doubled over in agony. “Kak?” Rosie called in concern, then Harmony’s warm hand slipped around my waist in an effort to pull me back erect.
The human’s willingness to come in contact with someone who’d recently admitted to being a werewolf was surprising. But even more surprising was the way my own gut-wrenching agony eased ever so slightly beneath my sister’s touch.
Unfortunately, lack of pain allowed my brain to kick back into gear once again. And as it did so, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to flee in my father’s car. Not without Sebastien, not tonight, and possibly not never.
Because the mate bond I’d offered to an unsuspecting human was still very much in play. From the feel of things, I might be able to stretch our tether far enough to hit the other side of downtown, but that was about it. Despite the fact that the professor considered me no more than an interesting test subject, I was apparently stuck traveling no further than a few short miles from my life partner’s home base for the foreseeable future.
And as my eyes rose to meet my father’s, I could tell that Wolfie already understood that I wouldn’t be able to rejoin the family in Haven today. He understood...and the p
ain of our separation was the reason Wolfie had descended into his instinctive animal brain even as he remained solidly situated within his human skin.
“Can you take Harmony and her family back to Haven to keep them safe?” I whispered through a swollen throat that threatened my ability to speak. Across the pavement, my gaze met that of my sister, and this time Harmony bowed to a necessity she’d rejected just the day before.
“Just let me text my mother,” the other female said quietly in response to a question I hadn’t even voiced aloud.
And, for a moment, I couldn’t help but smile. The Garcia matriarch wouldn’t be happy about being asked to den with werewolves. I could almost see the old woman stomping around the family’s small apartment, packing bare necessities and preparing to meet her daughter and granddaughter in time to make their grand escape.
A grand escape that required the support of my parents, of course. Parents I’d left seriously out of the loop. So perhaps my sister wasn’t out of the woods quite yet....
TURNING BACK AROUND to face Terra and Wolfie, I realized that these bedrock foundations of my existence didn’t even know who Harmony was, didn’t have a clue that my brother had fathered a pup whose mother was unaware of shifters’ existence until earlier this evening. The details of that particular soap opera would take hours to properly tease out. But as I opened my mouth to provide the cliff-notes version, my father’s humanity glowed back to life behind glittering eyes.
“Your pack is our pack,” Wolfie promised, reaching behind him to push open the back door and make a place for guests within the cluttered back seats.
“We’ll stop for a car seat along the way,” Terra added, stretching out to take my sister’s hand in both of her own. Female eyes met, questioned, matched. And, just like that, my sister and niece were folded into the Haven clan.
Shifter Origins (Series-Starter Shifter Variety Packs Book 1) Page 49
