by Lori King
Silas exchanged a look with Martin and then nodded. “So be it. I’ve made my position clear.” His eyes met Cadence’s and he bowed his head. “To you, Cadence Diego, I swear my life, my loyalty, and my honor unto death.”
Cadence slowly walked to Silas and held his hand out. When the other man accepted it, he pulled him into an embrace. “Thank you for your loyalty. I will do my best to honor it.”
“This is madness!” Rolando said, slamming his fist down on the table.
Reyes growled. “I always knew you were a poser, Martin, but I’m surprised at you, Silas. I guess the hint of Alpha in your blood is too small to count.”
Javier was the only one to laugh while everyone else ignored the brothers. It only seemed to irritate them more.
Martin repeated the words that Silas had spoken, and again Cadence hugged the man and accepted his fealty. Whitney was completely numb as she realized that now her mates only had four opponents instead of six.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Rolando gesture to his two sons, and the three men moved away to converse in private. She could almost feel the trio’s anger at this turn of events.
Across the table, Chance and August looked uncomfortable by the change, but they stayed silent. She wondered if they were having second thoughts, too. It was clear that the Asis men would never back down, but Chance was young yet. And she had already seen him make several gestures of submission to Cadence. Perhaps there was a crack in his armor that she could expose.
Cadence returned to her side and kissed her. “I need to speak with Alastair. Will you be all right here if I steal Mateo?”
“I’ll be fine, wolf-man,” she said with a small smile. Mateo leaned in for a kiss, too, and she saw him give the three angry wolves by the house a wary look. “They will be mad for a bit, and then they will get over it. Go take care of your business, Mat. I’ll be fine here. In fact, I’ll have Martin pass me a bottle of water, and I will work on getting to know him and Silas.”
Silas gave her a wide smile that made Mateo growl low in his throat. “Get to know her intellectually, wolf, or I’ll rip your arms off and feed them to you.”
Her groan was drowned out by Silas and Martin’s laughter. “No problem. I like your mate. She’s got spunk, but I’m not stupid.”
With that, Mateo gently withdrew his thumb from her grip and followed Cadence to the Alpha house where Alastair and Devin had gone. A moment later, Rolando followed them in the front door, and the Asis brothers disappeared into the woods, easing Whitney’s tension.
“They’ve always been like that,” Silas said, taking the seat on her left while Martin settled in on her right. Across from her, Chance and August were still quiet, as though they were taking it all in.
“Really? Do you know why?”
Silas shook his head. “Not specifically, but I have to assume that being raised by a nasty man like Rolando Asis had something to do with it.”
“I don’t understand. You’re older than Cadence and Mateo. Why didn’t you ever challenge Barton and Rolando?” Whitney asked, and she noted that Chance leaned forward to hear the wolf’s answer, too.
Martin spoke this time. “That wasn’t an option. I saw what Barton Diego did to his enemies. He wouldn’t have even considered fighting one of us. He would have just murdered our families one by one until we gave our submission, and then he would have slit our throats.”
Chance cleared his throat. “My uncle challenged them.”
All eyes at the table turned to him, and she could see the sadness in the young man’s gaze. “What happened?”
“I was really young, ten I think. It was right after he killed his wife, Maria.”
Whitney’s mouth fell open. “Cadence said her death was ruled an accident.”
Chance laughed and she heard the others snicker, too. “That’s what they said, but everyone knew differently. Maria wasn’t his true mate. Hell, true mates don’t exist in the Diego pack. I don’t think there are any true bonds in the whole pack.” He looked around to see if anyone corrected him. Whitney began to understand why her relationship with Cadence and Mateo was so special to the Diego wolves. “My uncle was at the river the day she died. He heard the two of them fighting, screaming, and carrying on, and then he heard a splash. The way he tells it, when he made it around the bend Barton was standing on the bank watching the water, but he made no move to jump in until he spotted my uncle.”
A soft coconut scent drifted on the breeze, and Whitney felt Tawny move up behind her. Martin looked up, too, and gave her a smile before he jumped to his feet and offered her his chair. Tawny accepted it with a whispered, “Thank you” and then turned back to Chance.
Once he had everyone’s attention again, he continued. “My uncle helped Barton pull Maria out, and he did CPR, but she was already gone. A few weeks later he stumbled on Cadence getting the shit beat out of him by Barton and Rolando. Turns out he was crying over his mama dying, and they wanted him to man up.”
“Fuck,” Silas breathed quietly. “He was just a kid.”
“Thirteen,” Whitney whispered. Tears filled her eyes as she imagined the horrible place that Cadence had to have been at that time.
“Anyway, my uncle challenged them to a battle for the next day, and because an audience had gathered, they accepted.” Chance’s voice broke, and Whitney reached across the table to take his hand in hers.
“What happened, Chance?”
“His wife found him the next day chained to a tree with silver chains. They nailed silver spikes into his body. All over. He bled to death sometime in the night.”
No one spoke. Whitney wondered if anyone even breathed as Chance finished his story. It was unbelievable. In all her life she had never imagined anyone so cruel, but now she was faced with possibly leading the pack that this horrible person terrorized. Her chest felt like an anvil was sitting on it and she quickly excused herself, walking away without a real direction.
* * * *
Tawny reached Whitney’s side just moments later, and she wrapped her arms around her best friend, holding her close as she battled with her emotions.
“It’s in the past, Whitney.”
“I know, but it’s in their past. My own mates were subjected to that kind of horror for their entire lives!”
Tawny looked at her steadily. “What you do right now in this moment will set the tone for how the Diego wolves receive you when you show up with their Alpha and his Beta. You are stronger than this, Winnie. Stop letting a dead man have control over your emotions.”
It was exactly what Whitney needed to hear. Her head came up and Tawny smiled at her friend. Whitney had always been the stronger of the two of them. When they played as children, they played whatever game Whitney chose. When they dated as teenagers, Whitney always had first pick of the boys. Tawny was okay with being Whitney’s second, but she felt ungrounded the moment Whitney fell apart. It was unnatural.
“Does that mean you still want to come with us? Even knowing what has happened there?” Whitney’s gaze darted over her shoulder at the four Diego wolves still watching them but pretending they weren’t.
“Yes. I think you’ll need me to keep you focused on building a new pack. A stronger pack. I have nothing here to stay for, Winnie. I already told you that. I am looking forward to the fresh start.” Tawny wasn’t about to share the details of her heated argument with her brothers. They weren’t exactly thrilled that she was leaving the Gray pack.
If she was honest with herself, she was leaving because she couldn’t exist without Whitney. Devin had been her Alpha for years, but she never felt loyalty or allegiance to him the way she did to Whitney. They were sisters, friends, and soul mates. Not in the romantic sense, just in the sense that Tawny knew she was supposed to have Whitney’s back at all times. It was her duty to protect her friend.
Whitney hugged her back and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Tawny. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I do. You wou
ld go bat shit crazy. I’ve seen you when you’re PMSing. It would be like that only for the rest of your life. The world wouldn’t know what hit ’em.”
Making Whitney laugh eased Tawny’s anxious wolf, and she took a step back. Jerking her head in the direction of the other wolves, she snickered. “Besides, if the rest of them look like these guys, I’m a lucky bitch to get to join the pack. Who knows, maybe my true mate is there, too?”
“In a very selfish way I hope not. I like having you all to myself,” Whitney said, her eyes sparkling with laughter again. “And yet, I can’t wait to give you grief when the mating lust hits you full force, too, sister.”
After their laughter ebbed, Whitney turned back to the Alpha cabin. “I wonder what’s keeping the guys?”
“Plans for tomorrow I assume.”
“Where are we going to put everyone when the Quiver Creek wolves get here?” Whitney asked suddenly, and Tawny shrugged.
“I know Justin said they had another cabin ready, but I don’t think it’s outfitted. I might offer my services to Caroline tomorrow after the challenge, unless…”
She stopped just short of saying “unless you need me” because she didn’t want to send her friend into an emotional tailspin again. But Whitney wrinkled her nose up in her trademark look and frowned.
“I know. Things may go terribly wrong tomorrow, and if they do.” She took a deep breath and Tawny saw dozens of emotions flit through her gray eyes. “If they do, I just want you to know that I love you like a sister, Tawny. You’ve been my best friend forever, and even if I’m gone I promise I’ll still haunt you to make sure you get mated.”
Tawny’s initial reaction of deep emotion broke up in a sobbing sort of snort, and before long they were both hysterically laughing yet again.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I’ll regret it if I don’t. Chance likes you.”
Tawny’s jaw dropped and she wiped tears from her cheeks as she stared at her best friend in shock. “What? Like, like likes me?”
Snorting, Whitney nodded.
“Whoa. I don’t even know what to think of that. We’re not true mates, but he’s sexy as hell, even if he is way too young for me.”
“He’s twenty-two. There’s only five years between you.”
“Might as well be five decades. We come from different places.” She turned and found Chance watching her. When their eyes met, he gave her a broad smile and a wave. Instead of returning the gestures, she spun back around to give him her back. “Nope. Can’t think about this right now. Not until after tomorrow.”
She looked at Whitney, who was smiling faintly. “If he survives, you don’t miss out on the chance because he’s not your true mate. What’s that saying, better to have loved and lost than never loved before? It’s time for you to break out of your shell.”
Tawny rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll take that advice under consideration. For now, I’m going to go home and sleep.” She yawned and checked her watch. “Sweet Jesus, it’s only nine thirty? I’m getting old.”
“You’re only twenty-seven, stop whining.”
“Enjoy tonight with your mates, Winnie. I’ll meet you at the clearing in the morning.” Tawny hugged her best friend, trying to push all of her strength into her for the coming challenge. It was hard not to be emotional about it. Whitney had just found them, and there was a one in three chance that tonight would be her last night with the pair of them.
“Love you, Tawny.”
“Love you, too, Winnie.”
Whitney walked back up to the revelry of the house, and Tawny headed down the road to her cabin. Living only around the bend from the Alpha cabin was both convenient and a pain in the ass. She would have to dig out her ear plugs in order to get any sleep with the party still going on. Distracted by her own thoughts as she reached her front porch, she never even noticed the man standing on it until it was too late.
* * * *
Cadence stared at Devin and Alastair as though they had both lost their minds. Here he was standing in front of the Gray pack Alpha, and one of the most respected Diego pack elders, but what they had just told him was impossible.
“You’re telling me that Chance has already backed out of the challenge?” he asked, feeling like a brick had just been chucked at his forehead and he hadn’t had a chance to stop it from impact.
Alastair nodded. “I didn’t want to bring it up in front of him because I didn’t want to embarrass him, but he came to me right after the workout and said he doesn’t feel he can lead the pack as well as you and Mateo can with your new mate.”
“So what happens now?” Mateo asked. His forehead was wrinkled in confusion, and his eyes were pensive. Cadence knew just how he felt.
For the last three months he had been preparing himself for a battle in which he only have a twenty-five percent chance of winning, but now everything had changed. Two of his competitors were willing to pledge their loyalty to him. It was unheard of.
Devin crossed his arms and frowned. “I called Demetrius Staff, from the pack school, and asked if this had ever happened before and he said the only time he could recall was when there were only two in the challenge and one forfeit to the other. Delaky, however, had a little more insight.”
“Delaky, the Gray grandmother?” Cadence asked.
“Why do you call her grandmother?” Devin asked, throwing Cadence’s brain off course so that he responded without thinking.
“She has the wisdom of many generations in her eyes, and magic inside of her. Why wouldn’t I give her a title of respect?”
The smile that spread over Devin’s face seemed out of place and Cadence could see it unsettled Mateo and Alastair just as much. “You’re completely correct. No one in the pack recalls how Delaky came to our pack, and she’s not wolf as I’m sure you’ve already sniffed out. She’s been her as long as anyone can remember, and she never ages. She’s quite the mystery.” He paused as his thoughts drifted off, and then he seemed to get himself back together. “The point is, that she has seen more than any of us, and she told me the story of an Alpha battle where most of the challengers kneeled to one. According to her, if the majority is willing to pledge loyalty to you and Mateo, then you are deemed the Alpha.”
Cadence inhaled sharply and his chest tightened. Excitement warred with disappointment and reservations over whether or not that ruling would be respected by other Alphas.
Alastair held up his hand as if to calm him. “You will still have to battle Reyes. He won’t concede to you, but instead of it being an Alpha battle, it will just be a challenge by one of your wolves. You will be within your rights to leave him alive and punish him, or kill him. Whichever your wolf prefers.”
“So you’re telling me that I’m now the official Alpha of the Diego pack?” Cadence asked, and when both men nodded, he let out the breath he had been holding.
“Congratulations, Cadence. You will make a great leader, and I look forward to being in an alliance with you for years to come,” Devin said, holding his hand out. Cadence gladly accepted it and tugged the man forward for a hug.
He could hear Mateo laughing and being congratulated by Alastair behind them as he said, “Thank you, Devin. You didn’t have to go to bat for me, and I wouldn’t have blamed you if you didn’t.”
Devin looked at him for a moment, a smile still on his face, but a crease in his brow. “You were right, Cadence. You aren’t your father, and you shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions. If you embrace that, then so must everyone else. You had better go find your mate and share the news. Maybe we will all get some sleep tonight before you have to kick Reyes’s ass tomorrow.”
With that, Devin and Alastair both left the living room, and Mateo grinned at him. “How does it feel, Alpha?”
Shaking his head, he laughed. “I’m not sure right now. I’m blown away.”
“Whitney will be relieved.”
He hesitated. “There’s still a possibility, slim as it may be, that Reyes will beat
me.”
Mateo snorted in disbelief. “You and I both know better. With me at your back, you’ll seal the deal quickly. Let’s go find Whitney. I want to celebrate.”
Chapter 11
Just as Cadence and Mateo came out the front door of the Alpha cabin, a wolf’s howl of anger and pain echoed off of the trees in the direction her best friend had gone, and Whitney spun toward it. Even with her animal eyesight she couldn’t see much in the dark shadows of the forest. The snarl and growl of a wolf reached her ears, and she took off at a dead run toward Tawny’s cabin.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she turned the corner. Her body skidded to a stop long before her mind slowed enough to process the scene in front of her. Chance, the happy-go-lucky man she had chatted with over dinner was gone, and in his place was a half-wolf, half-man creature. He had pinned a person under his body, and his hands were wrapped tightly around their throat. As she drew closer, she was able to see that the lifeless and limp body was Reyes.
“Chance, stop!” She gasped, pulling at his shoulder. He didn’t even seem to notice her there, and she screamed again. “Chance! Stop! You’re killing him!”
The heavy thud of footsteps rounded the corner and Mateo and Cadence appeared, looking read to do battle with any form of evil they came into contact with. Clearly they thought she was the one in danger, because the moment they saw her safe they both sighed with relief.
Beside her, Chance continued to throttle his already dead pack mate, but Mateo pulled her away from the two men. It was Cadence and August who separated predator from prey, and as Chance stepped back, Whitney was able to see what lay beyond the dead man.
A pile of wispy blonde hair and delicate alabaster limbs lay half in the yard and half in the trees. Tawny. She lay facedown and she was completely naked, bruises and blood marring her pale back.
