Parker Tate knows Annora is his the moment he lays eyes on her. When he manages to mate and mark her within hours of when they meet, he considers himself lucky. Then the trouble nipping at Annora's heels finds her and Parker realizes the path to claiming his mate won't be as easy as he thought - especially not with the bears involved.
Prologue
Annora
I knew there were people who didn’t believe in obeying their parents. Hell, I wished I could say I was one of them. Unfortunately, I knew better from personal experience—and not the good kind. I learned at a young age that, if I stepped over the line even one little bit, there would be consequences.
Some of my earliest memories were of my father’s punishments. When I was four, he took his belt to me in front of a store full of our pack members because I’d misbehaved when we’d been out shopping and hadn’t liked an outfit my mom had wanted to buy for me. Then, when I was six, he wouldn’t let my mom feed me anything but bread and water for a week because I’d sneaked an extra cookie before I’d gone to bed.
As I got older, my father’s treatment became worse. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to meet his expectations. I started to feel like the harder I tried, the worse it got. When his punishment was particularly severe, he left me hurting for days even though I healed quickly because of my shifter blood. For my father, obedience wasn’t just an option—it was a requirement.
Because I was his only child, he wouldn’t accept anything less than my total capitulation. I’d never understood why there was so much distance between us when all the other fathers seemed to spoil their daughters, but I assumed it was because there was something wrong with me. That I was a failure in his eyes.
Being different from everyone else when I was growing up meant his attention was directed my way more often than I liked. While wolf children were full of energy and wanted to play, I was happier staying home and reading because I was more interested in what I could learn than tumbling around with friends. Everyone else was fiercely competitive, but I couldn’t seem to care about the sports that were so popular among our pack members.
By the time I hit high school, most of the other she-wolves were sleeping with any guy who wanted to hump their legs. I was curious about sex but much more selective about who caught my eye. Although my dark hair and eyes were similar to the other pack members, I was the smallest girl in my class and never seemed to get the growth spurt my mother always told me was just around the corner—unless my tits and ass counted as growing. My curves definitely set me apart from the other girls, who were lithe and athletic.
When my sixteenth birthday rolled around and I didn’t shift, I felt like an utter failure. The celebratory feast the night of what should have been my first change was the first time I felt like my dad might actually be proud of me—until his eyes filled with disdain when it became clear I wasn’t going to shift. For two more years, I lived with the knowledge that my father thought I was a waste of space. A girl who was too weak-blooded to even shift into the animal I knew lived inside me. The treatment I’d received for sixteen years seemed like child’s play in comparison to what I endured during those years.
It wasn’t until my eighteenth birthday that I realized why I had grown up feeling like an outsider in my own pack. The look of anger on my father’s face when I shifted for the first time confused me at first, and then I realized my mom was also looking at me in horror. Glancing down, I nearly fell over in shock when I didn’t see the wolf body I’d expected. Instead, I had inexplicably changed into a bear. I quickly transformed back to my human form right as my father turned his anger on my mom.
“What in the goddamn hell is the meaning of this?” he roared.
My mom’s face had lost all its color, and her eyes were frantic as they bounced back and forth between my father and me. “I d-d-d-don’t…” she stuttered, clearly searching for an acceptable answer to explain why I wasn’t a wolf shifter like my parents.
“You cheated on me, Lucie?” my father asked, utter disbelief in his tone since cheating was almost unheard of amongst wolf mates.
“No!” my mom protested. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You and I are both wolf, so there’s no fucking way any daughter of ours would be bear,” he snarled as he prowled over to my mom and lifted her by the neck until he was holding her against the wall.
My mom’s eyes darted to me, and an apology flashed in them before she looked at my father and offered an explanation.
“I was raped,” she claimed.
My heart plummeted when her words registered in my brain. This could be the explanation for why my father had always been distant with me—because he’d never felt the bond to me that men feel for their children. His wolf might have known all along that I didn’t carry his blood. And if I was a reminder of a brutal moment in her life, then I better understood how my mom could have stood by for years and never interfered with the manner in which he had treated me.
My father turned to glare at me as I silently watched their exchange. “Raped?” he spit out. “How could you hide something like this from me for so many years?”
“I couldn’t stand the idea of you looking at me differently. Maybe turning away from me because another man dared to touch what belonged to you. So I kept quiet and hoped she was your baby and not his,” she answered.
“You’re my mate,” he rumbled before setting her down on her feet. “I would have defended your honor if you had given me the chance.”
My mom gently stroked his face as she gazed up at him with pleading eyes. “You were gone on pack business when it happened. By the time you returned, my injuries had healed and there was nobody for you to hunt down because I had heard that the bear died in a car accident. So I buried the memory deep and tried my best to move on with our life together.”
“And when you found out you were pregnant?” he asked.
“I prayed with all my heart she was yours,” my mom whispered. Then her gaze swung to me, her dark eyes locking with mine as she spoke. “Convinced myself she was our baby girl and ignored any signs that she might not be what I desperately wanted her to be.”
As the man I’d thought of as my father for my whole life looked down at my mom, I knew he would forgive her. He was already softening towards her, and I figured he would need an outlet for his anger. Their words of forgiveness and love drifted towards me while I slowly inched my way to the door. When I had almost made it out of the room, his head snapped up and his eyes narrowed on me.
“Don’t you dare,” he snapped. “You might not be my daughter, but I’ve claimed you as mine for years.”
Smelling my mom’s fear mixed with his anger in the air, I knew this was going to be bad for me. If he had treated me roughly in the past when he’d thought I was his own blood, I could only imagine how he would react now that he knew I wasn’t. My mind blanked as I struggled to think of something—anything—I could say that would make him forgive me for what had happened to my mom, but I knew there was nothing I could say or do.
The man who’d raised me would never want a daily reminder of what he would consider his mate’s shame and his own failure to protect her. I prayed that his solution wouldn’t mean my death.
One
Parker
When Spencer asked me to come to the cabin he shared with his mate, I wasn’t sure what to think. He had kept his home on pack lands closer to Hunter and me but still on the outskirts of town, and Eliza was still adjusting to life in the center of the pack and needed her space sometimes. They didn’t stay there often, but she’d been edgy lately, and Spencer had let me know that they planned to lie low for the weekend. I hadn’t expected to hear back from him until Monday morning unless there was an emergency that required his attention.
As I pulled into the driveway, I ran through every possible scenario I could think of and had only come to one conclusion—this couldn’t be good. Finding my brother waiting for me on the porch reinforced my feeling of impending doom.
And the serious look on his face certainly didn’t alleviate any of my concerns. When he stood to greet me, I could see the tension in the way he held himself so stiffly even though he should have been relaxed from spending time alone with his mate.
Not a good sign at all.
“What’s up, bro?” I asked.
Spencer glanced towards the door and lowered his voice when he answered. “Eliza needs to tell you about a dream she had last night. I need you to stay calm until she’s done and keep in mind that she’s my mate and that she’s completely freaked out by what she saw. Tread lightly with her.”
“She’s my sister now. Of course I’ll be careful with her,” I assured him. “I would never do anything to hurt Eliza or Grace.”
“I know, man,” Spencer sighed. “But her dream? What she saw? It’s going to mean something to you. Just keep in mind that she sees what she sees. She doesn’t have any control of what the visions show her, and she wishes like hell she had more information for you.”
“What the fuck did she dream that’s got your panties in such a wad?”
“I think it’s best if I tell you from the beginning,” Eliza said behind me.
I turned to see her standing in the doorway, dressed warmly in jeans and a sweater, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were red and swollen—a clear indication she’d been crying. With her arms crossed and hugged tight to her body, she seemed like she was waiting for the sky to fall. If I hadn’t been worried already, seeing her like this would have been enough to make me concerned about what was going on.
“You okay, little sis?” I asked in a teasing tone, hoping to lighten her mood.
Eliza’s lips twisted in what could have passed for a smile if I didn’t know her better, but her eyes remained sad. “I’ve been better,” she admitted.
“And you will be again,” Spencer promised. “Parker and I will make sure we get to the bottom of what you saw.”
I followed them into the cabin as Spencer guided Eliza inside. After he sat down on the couch, he pulled her onto his lap. Once I’d brought one of the chairs closer, I sat across from them and waited for Eliza to begin her story.
“You know about my past,” she began. “About how I was kicked out of my pack after I told my alpha about a dream I’d had about his son’s death.”
“Yes. I’ve known all along, and what they did to you says nothing bad about you. It just makes me want to hunt your alpha down and teach him a lesson about how families really should treat each other,” I assured her.
Eliza smiled again, and this time, a small measure of happiness reached her eyes. “You have no idea how much it means to me to know my new family loves me unconditionally.”
“Course they do, dream girl,” Spencer murmured as he nuzzled her neck. “My brothers aren’t fools, and you can trust in the fact that we will figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” I asked.
“When I left my pack, I knew that my mom had died with the alpha’s son and my dad had been injured. Before I left the area, I had been told he was gone too. All this time, I thought he was dead, so I never looked back—never tried to find him. But he was in the dream I had last night. He’s alive and he’s coming here,” she explained.
“Isn’t that good news?” I asked, confused by why learning that Eliza’s dad hadn’t died would be a bad thing.
“Yes,” she sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to know he’s alive, but he isn’t by himself and there’s trouble on his heels.”
“You know I’ll help any way I can,” I offered, still unclear as to why they were worried about my reaction to her dream.
“Let her finish,” Spencer said.
“I saw him with a woman in my dream. She’s young and she’s been hurt. Badly enough that she could barely walk. My dad was helping her, and it seemed like they were trying to get away from someone or something,” Eliza explained.
“So, your dad’s with a young babe?” I joked.
“Parker,” my brother growled out in frustration. My habit of cracking jokes when I was nervous always drove him nuts.
“It’s not like that,” Eliza whispered. “She’s not just any woman.”
“Then who is she?” I asked.
“Your mate,” she replied. “I think my dad has been searching for me and finally found out where I am. I think he’s on his way here, and somehow, he has your mate with him.”
“My mate?” I echoed back, my head reeling from what she’d just said.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “My dream ended with a stream of images, and most of them were of you and this woman together in the future.”
My heart raced at the thought of finally finding her—the woman who was destined to be my mate. My brothers liked to tease me about being a bit of a white knight because I had a habit of helping women who were in distress, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing it. Ever since our grandmother had told me that my mate would have been discarded by her family, I’d struggled with the knowledge that she could be out there somewhere, desperately in need of help, without my being able to give it to her. So I’d compensated by aiding other women in the hope that someone else would be there for my mate when I couldn’t be. If Eliza’s dream was right, then I might not have to wait much longer.
“When?” I rasped out. “Were there any signs pointing to when she would be here?”
“I can’t be sure,” Eliza said with a look of apology on her face. “But I feel like it might be this winter.”
“Thank fuck,” I whispered, a huge wave of relief rolling through me.
“I wish that were all I saw,” she murmured. “It looked like they were in trouble, and it’s going to follow them here.”
“What kind of trouble?” I demanded, ignoring the frown my brother sent my way at my tone.
“I think my dad helped her escape from a bad situation, but they didn’t get away easily. She was injured pretty badly, so maybe they left a trail of some kind that will lead right to our door,” she explained.
“Then I’ll need to be ready,” I said as I stood to pace the room.
“I think you meant to say ‘we’ there, little brother,” Spencer corrected.
“She’s my mate,” I argued. “My responsibility.”
“Yes, she’s your mate,” he agreed. “But that makes her my sister, and I’m the pack enforcer. It also makes her the sister of our alpha. Plus, if she’s with Eliza’s dad, then whatever the hell is going on is my business too.”
I knew that what Spencer was saying was true, and my brothers and I had always faced problems as a team in the past. The idea that my mate was out there somewhere right now, injured and in need of help, was killing me though. My wolf was straining against my flesh, trying to get out so he could hunt her down, but I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. If it had taken this long for Eliza’s dad to find her—and they were running from trouble—then odds were they wouldn’t be easy to find. Now wasn’t the time to let my pride get in the way of being smart.
“I think we are going to need help,” I admitted. “Someone who has the contacts we don’t to see if they can find out where they are, why they’re running, and what kind of trouble is following them here.”
Spencer squeezed Eliza before setting her down next to him on the couch so he could stand too. As he walked towards me, I saw the faraway look he got in his eye when he was thinking about the solution to a particularly hard problem. When his eyes locked with mine, they held determination and a hint of resignation. I knew I probably wasn’t going to like the answer he’d come up with.
“The McMahon clan,” he said. “They know people in all the right—and wrong—places. If anyone would be able to sniff out a lead on Eliza’s dad and your mate with the limited information we have, it would be them.”
“Fuck,” I hissed. “Those crazy bears are our best bet? Then we’re screwed.”
“Yeah. They aren’t real big on helping outsiders,” Spencer agreed.
“And we defi
nitely qualify as outsiders since we’re wolves and not bears,” I grumbled. “How the hell are we going to get them to agree to help us out?”
“Does it help that, right before I woke up, I saw an image of you holding a bear cub in your arms, Parker?” Eliza asked.
“It could mean anything,” I murmured. “But if we can convince the McMahons that your dream impacts the bears somehow, then they might be willing to help us.”
“Did you see anything else about bears in your dream?” Spencer asked her.
Eliza closed her eyes and sat quietly for a moment, her head tilted to the side while she thought. Suddenly, her eyes popped open, and she looked at me in shock.
“I think she might be bear, too.”
I was certain I’d heard her wrong, since a wolf being paired with a bear wasn’t something I’d ever encountered before. “Who? My mate?”
“I’m not sure because the images I saw of her when she was young were of her surrounded by wolves. It doesn’t really make sense, but I have this impression she isn’t wolf but bear. She doesn’t look like any she-wolf I’ve ever met before, either,” Eliza answered.
And that’s when it hit me—Eliza knew what my fated mate looked like. “Describe her to me,” I requested, my throat tightening with emotion as I spoke. “Please.”
“Oh, Parker,” Eliza sighed. “She’s beautiful. At first glance, you might think she is wolf because of her coloring. Her hair is long and a caramel-brown color, and her eyes are so dark they look almost black.”
“But when you looked more closely, you saw something that made her seem different from other she-wolves?” I asked, impatient to hear more about my mate.
[Black River Pack 01.0 - 03.0] Crying Wolf, Shoot for the Moon, Thrown to the Wolves Page 17
