by Tamar Sloan
As he stands, his three comrades contract around him. I'm now faced with a monochrome wall of wolf, four Weres that have just decided to work as one. With the coppery stickiness drying on my cheek, my mind scrambles frantically for a solution. Collaboration isn’t going to work with these animals. They have the strength of the wild, but the intent of the conscious. Their need for violence is vibrating through their bodies.
With Noah so close, the wolves so much closer, I straighten. I face them. I make a decision.
With courage I don’t feel, I know what I need to do to prevent a blood bath.
39
Noah
The scene, broken by trees, grows closer, more terrifyingly real. What I see freezes my heart and shoots hot, furious adrenalin through my veins. Flashes of Eden in the middle of a clearing, four wolves, big and burly, fanning out to surround her. I can’t destroy the distance between Eden and me fast enough. Before I’ve left the trees, I roar, a sound that is deafening, even to my ears.
There are four of them, Channon scum, and they circle Eden, the trap progressively getting smaller. Snapping, snarling, growling, scaring the living crap out of me. One pounces forward, and when Eden doesn’t move, my heart does, straight up my throat, where its frantic pounding chokes me, each pulse triggering the need to scream, run, vomit. My mind plays out sickening scenes of when they reach mauling distance.
It’s the wolf behind her that is most heart-freezing. He’s stopped moving; all he does is stare. There’s no way to tell if he's listening...or scheming.
Noah, stop!
I ignore the counterintuitive command. I’m a freight train with a target. A meteor on a mission. Nothing can stop me from reaching those Werewolves and annihilating them.
Noah, please.
I falter, actually slow a little. What is she talking about?
I can do this.
She wants me to watch? She wants me to stand by as the driving force for every beat of my heart is surrounded by predatory killing machines? Why doesn't she just ask me to take a flamethrower to the lifeline to every hope, dream, and breath I take?
You need to let me do this.
As my paws slow, my heart rate skyrockets.
She's asking me to believe in her.
So, I stop. Every fiber of muscle straining with the need to scatter the Channon scum like vermin, with every micro-particle wanting to be beside her, I stop.
And watch the most petrifying scene I've ever witnessed.
Faith has never been so impossible.
That’s when I finally hear it. What the Weres surrounding Eden are hearing. Why they haven't attacked yet.
You will not hurt me. Weres are more than this.
The wolves pace, crisscrossing as they take several steps one way then the other. They've stopped closing in, now in a holding pattern. To prove it, they halt simultaneously, no less angry, but no longer moving. They’re listening.
This is not what Weres are about. You do not hurt the vulnerable.
Eden practically grows before my shocked, proud eyes.
“What are you doing? Attack her!”
Dana, with Eden and the wolves between us, screeches, hands fisted in her hair. She watches everything unravel in slow, painful glory.
One then two wolves glance over their shoulders at Dana. Eden steps forward, actually moving toward the animals that could still kill her. I can feel her fear, tightly contained within steely determination. Layered with focus.
That’s what courage looks like.
“Yes, you are more than human, but far more than predators, too.”
The wolves all turn to face Eden.
“You are more than the sum of your strength and power.”
Eden extends a hand. “You will not hurt me.”
The wolves stop.
And before my eyes, they drop.
Four sets of legs bend, chests and bellies hit the ground. Heads drop in shame.
She finally looks up and sees what I already sensed. The Alphas, the pack representatives and their families, have all arrived in time to witness the impossible. Weres premeditatedly planning to attack a human. A girl commanding them.
The power of words showing us what Prime Alpha will be.
Eden stands so still and tall it makes my chest hurt. No one knows the proud, tall girl before them is trembling inside, scared and overwhelmed.
I’m glad I won’t have to walk past their scummy, submissive hides to get to her. I can’t guarantee I still won’t unleash every petrifying moment I’ve just had to sit back and watch.
It’s time to be with my mate.
40
Eden
My knees would like to give out now. I turn on jelly legs, finally facing Noah. The one that I asked the impossible of—to not fight my fight. To not protect me.
There’s no higher level of trust.
The four traitors stay in their place, submissive and resigned, like they won’t be moving until I tell them to. Noah moves toward me, his wolf eyes glancing at their prone position behind me. I’m glad he won't have to pass them to get to me; I had very clear images of what he wanted to do to them.
I turn my back on them. Right now, I just want to be held, for someone else to be my legs. I need my wolf, my bonded mate.
Noah walks steadily toward me, the weight and reality of what just happened sinking and lifting in those summer sky eyes. I know the ‘wow’ is coming even before he thinks it.
A few feet away, his eyes widen, locking on a place over my shoulder. They fill with fear then fury. Suddenly, Noah runs, a blur of blazing white, coming straight toward me.
“Look out!”
It’s Seth's voice that has me spinning to see what’s propelled Noah like a detonating explosive. Dana, a red wolf, violence dark and hot in her eyes, is only paces behind me. Her trajectory, her eyes, set on me.
I step back, everything slowing down so I can see it in stark detail. Noah, fur pushed back by his own propulsion, claws spearing into the soil, eyes full of determination, is just a few feet to my right. I turn to see Dana vault up, surge forward, that mad fury I saw in Kurt—my death, her objective.
I look back to Noah, the fear he won’t get there in time pounds in both our hearts.
I crumple when she ploughs into me, the weight of her hatred slamming me into the ground. The red fur that pins me down muffles Noah’s roar; I can’t see anything past the teeth, white and dripping, that arc down to my chest.
Rather than the terror that wants to dominate my last moments, I think of Noah. I close my eyes, pulling around me the love that I’m glad I lived for.
When I register the impact, I don’t feel the tearing and the agony I was braced for. Relief surges through me then confusion. I blink up at the blue sky that just opened up.
My brain takes long seconds to process what happens next. A wolf drives Dana into the ground beside me, but not the one I anticipated. The white one I expected to see is there a split second later.
Noah doesn’t get a chance to change his trajectory, the mouth that was open, ready to defend me, twists at the last moment. His teeth never connect with the chocolate wolf that covers Dana, but the claws bared and ready to subdue do. The yelp that impales the sky is not that of a female wolf. The wound that opens, the blood that stains Noah’s fur, belongs to the one that just saved my life.
As Noah rights himself, so does Seth. But he stumbles then drops to his knees. Wide hazel eyes open in shock as he irrevocably, irreversibly turns human.
Kneeling, Seth glances at the gash on his bare torso. His hands, dirty and trembling, rise to his chest, bypassing the bleeding gash and hiking higher. His fingers leave three streaks of soil across his skin.
On the bare skin that no longer holds a wolf tattoo.
I rise, ignoring the aftershocks of adrenalin that quiver through my muscles, moving toward him.
Seth looks up and sees me approaching, Noah moving to join me. I can’t tell if the anguish I feel is mine or his…or m
aybe Seth’s. He puts his hand up, a plea to stop neither of us deny. In one graceful move he pushes and stands, holding his shoulders square and proud.
He looks to Noah, and with the same slow dignity, bows his head once. Then his hazel eyes turn to mine.
“It looks like we all just became part of the fabric you were weaving all along.”
I blink the tears from my eyes. It’s a high price to pay for a lesson to be learned.
His eyes fall to the ground behind me, and Noah and I turn to see Dana, dirty but unscathed, standing just a few feet away.
Noah turns and starts a stealthy, angry walk toward her. Thanks to her, the Prime Alpha has just proved what he is capable of.
Dana morphs to human, an instant submission.
41
Noah
I stand over her, anger filling my lungs like bellows. I have to consciously remind them to expel it. Dana’s terrified eyes jump between me, the white wolf, and Seth, the now human. She scans the clearing, no doubt looking for her four aiders and abettors. When wide, pale eyes dart back to me, I know the cowards are gone. Meaning she’s alone. I snarl, showing the weapons capable of wreaking havoc.
Dana cringes. “No, please.”
Eden is next to me, pity warring with anger.
I morph, this time choosing to lose my shirt in the shift. My chest is breathing heavily, moving the mark that says it all up and down in rapid movements.
I already have Seth’s humanity on my conscience. I won’t have two.
“I’m not giving your father another reason for hatred and revenge. Go back and tell him what you’ve seen. Tell him this ends now.”
Dana scuttles back, red hair a frazzled mess around her pale face. Once she's gained some distance, she stands. Eden slips her hand into mine. Dana hesitates, watching our bodies connect.
My free hand clenches. “You can leave Were, or you can leave human. You choose.”
Dana runs. Loss and humiliation are her companions as she streaks across the clearing, never stopping to look back when she enters the trees. The minute she’s within their shadowy protections she shifts. A light red wolf powers away.
I turn to Eden, hands I can’t stop from shaking coming up to cup her face. My fingers in the wild tangle of her hair, my heart allowing itself to beat again as I feel her breath brushing my face, I stare at her. Knowing what I need right now, she pushes up and her lips touch mine, capturing everything that just happened and letting me know we can face it.
I pull away so I can look at her, and the touch, the silent communication of love and confidence, lets me know what we need to do next. We turn, hands clasped, and face the Weres that have seen it all.
Despite the crowd facing us, there is silence. The whole clearing has become a no man’s land of sound. Like everyone’s thinking so hard they forgot to breathe.
Eden looks up at me. “Now?”
I nod. “Now.”
With a heavy-light heart, with the comfort of our love, Eden and I raise our chins and our hopes and say what is practically redundant.
“We are Prime Alpha.”
42
Eden
I’ve had a full month to prepare for my Bonding. A month that has taken so long a snail could have overtaken it. All because it’s a month I've been bonded to Noah...unofficially. What a passion-filled, heart-lightening month it’s been, nothing but the truth between us, a whole future before us. There were days I wanted to personally pick up the snail-dragging time and bring it to this day.
Sitting in my blue and green room, Diamond brushes against my leg, and I wonder how I’ll get through these last few hours. I lean down to scratch under his chin, and he begins to purr. He looks at me, ear tattered, that one eye seeming to say, ‘probably the same way you got through the past four weeks.’ Busy.
I’ve been there to watching Seth as he’s had to adapt to being nothing but human. He seems to sense we have more in common than ever before. Although he doesn’t know we're both pseudo-humans amongst the Weres, there’s an understanding that we belong, but are forever different.
We’d met again at this mother’s memorial.
“Are you going to talk to Emily?”
“I don't know. I may not be able to have kids after all.”
“There's a difference between not wanting and not being able to have children. Maybe it’s only the first that Emily couldn't live with.”
Seth had nodded, eyes on his mother’s plaque. When he’d looked up again, he’d been smiling. “I’m not the only one who could be having kids.”
My stunned open mouth never had a chance to recover and retort before Seth had winked, turned, and left.
That conversation prompted a trip to the obnoxious Dr. Welch. Blushing and stammering, I’d managed to get the contraceptive pill.
I’ve spent a lot of time strengthening the bond with my brother. I remember Orin greeting me when I’d returned from the Glade. He’d hugged me, and our Fae connection, amplified by touch, had conveyed all the shock, the sadness, the indescribable happiness about what was to come.
I’d stepped back. “I wish you could be there.”
“In some ways, I will be.”
Looking at my brother, at his enigmatic smile, I knew he wouldn’t explain what that meant. “Oh, and we can command them.”
His smile had grown wider. “I know. We’ve just never needed to.” He’d grasped me in another fierce hug. “But I’m glad you did.”
I’d been there for my bestie, comforting Tara now that Dana is gone, no doubt wherever Kurt is. I suspect our first task as Prime Alpha will be to locate them. Prime Alpha. A role and responsibility that, despite it all, comes at me too fast. The same month that has gone so fast it's made my head reel.
When Noah had left Orin’s this morning I'd held on a little too long. He’d grinned, summer sky eyes twinkling like the sun, making no effort to move. “Are you all packed for...after? I’ve found the most amazing spot.”
My breath had picked up, my body temp had skyrocketed. I’d only managed to breathe one word. “Yes.”
I’m not sure if a honeymoon happens after a Were wedding but with graduation looming, who knows what with Prime Alpha—I think no one knows to be honest—we only get one night. But our first night together as officially bonded mates will be fitting. In the forest, a pine canopy, the protection of the trees, Mother Earth’s green mattress.
Noah’s kiss was long and lingering. “It’s going to be perfect.”
I’d leaned in for another, a touch of lips that affirms so much has passed, but promises there’s so much to come. “It will blow perfection out of the forest.”
The three dogs barking pulls me from my musings. Caesar and his friends herald the arrival of a car. Telling me it’s time.
Thankfully I’d had cyclone Tara to organize the logistics of the Prime Alpha Bonding. Invites had been by phone call only. Beth and Tara had stubby pointer fingers by the time they’d finished punching out all the numbers. Thankfully the Glade, nature’s cathedral, is already decked in spring glory. That just left the dress.
Tara enters, her cheeks matching her hair, a white dress bag draped over her arm. She’d insisted it would stay a secret, probably knowing part of me didn’t want to know.
She blows a kiss to Orin as she sails past straight to my room. His smile, those matching forest eyes are full of mischief as he watches me follow her, walking gingerly, like I’m expecting tulle and frills to envelop me the moment I enter.
Inside, Tara’s already unzipped the bag. She removes the dress, takes it from its hanger, and passes it to me with the biggest smile I’ve seen yet. The ivory material slides into my hands.
“I like it.” It’s impossible to keep the surprise from my voice.
“Isn’t it stupendously fabulous? It had to be Were, Fae, and human seeing as all three basically meet at Eden.”
I grasp the cap sleeves, the light silk waterfalling over my fingers. The sheer presence of sleeves shows I’m human�
��at a bonding, any Were would proudly display their marks. I stroke the fine embroidery climbing up the skirt. Vines and fragile flowers adorn the hem, slender tendrils reaching up to the waist. That would be the Fae part. I look closely, searching for the Were part. Along the waist sits a narrow satin band and embroidered along it are silhouettes of a wolf, head thrown up in howl. The Werewolf tattoo.
I turn it around so I can fully appreciate its simple beauty. “Ah, where's the back?”
Tara giggles, skips with her hands under her chin. “Surprise!”
“Tara, there is no back.” A triangle of satin is missing, starting at the shoulders, ending just above the waist.
“Your hair will hide it. No one will know.” She wriggles her brows. “Noah will.”
I flush, mostly out of embarrassment, a little because I like the idea. A hidden, exposed piece of skin only Noah will discover.
“And here are the shoes.”
Relief has me smiling as Tara passes me two ivory ballet slippers. Eden in heels on grass is a recipe for eating lawn.
Nervousness and excitement compete for domination, and I can’t tell who is going to win. One moment one takes the lead, raising my pulse, wringing my hands. Until the other overtakes, squeezing out a few more thousand beats per minute, twisting my hands into sweaty knots.
Tara chatters as she does my hair, paints my face. All I catch are fragments—this Bonding will become the first Were wonder of the world...and I mean awesome, capitals, underlined, bold, in size gigantor font...Venus and Aphrodite are gonna want to claw your eyes out...I think we'll go for ‘secret garden’ eyes.
I resist rolling my eyes; we’ve already had this chat. This is going to be the most anti-climactic bonding ever. There’ll be no marks glowing and changing—I don't have one, and Noah’s has already done that. The only reason it’ll be unforgettable is because it’ll be anxious Eden in front of every influential Were you can imagine. That Eden doesn’t, can’t remember dance steps, lines, the valuable art of walking without tripping on a hem.
