The stranger trotted out in front of her, hackles also raised, and growled at her mate. They would fight, she knew. She’d been at other mating ceremonies. She knew what happened when the power couldn’t decide between wolves. The strongest would win and the loser would limp off, alone and heart sore. As of right now, she was mated with two wolves, it seemed. The irony of it all nearly toppled her. She had wished for this in a round about way, hadn’t she?
All the days since Gareth had first kissed her, she’d spent mooning for him alone in her room. And when she finally understood that he did want her in some way, she was mated to a member of the Tall Grass pack. Oh, the bitter irony. She whined, and both giant heads turned to face her for only a moment. She was the reason they were fighting. And she was the only one who objected to it.
Her Alpha sat on his haunches, watching it all with a dispassionate eye, his own mate silent beside him. Others in the crowd had begun to murmur amongst themselves, placing bets and sharing jibes on who would win the contest. She even heard one of them say, “It doesn’t matter who wins the contest, what matters is who mounts her! And who will that be?”
She turned her back on all of them and loped off alone. Nobody tried to stop her. Nobody reminded her that she needed a Guardian. No, they were all too interested in the two magnificent wolves about to tear each other apart.
She eventually became aware of a presence behind her. A Guardian, no doubt, she told herself, and kept the pace up. She would lose him soon enough. She was well used to that by now.
It seems you are destined to become an Alpha female, no matter the outcome, a female mind-voice informed her. They are both Alpha material.
Beth swung her head around and stumbled over an exposed root. Melinda strode behind her, keeping a respectful distance but close enough for company. She didn’t know how to respond to her Alpha female, having never had a conversation with the female in her life, so she just dipped her head in agreement and sat on her haunches. She was out of view of the desperate fight by the fire, but could still hear the occasional growl and yip.
She could well imagine the teeth snapping, claws raking and basic male posturing going on there. She was not impressed by it. It just proved to her that neither mate cared about her personally. Just the status she would bring them.
It is a hard thing, letting them duel it out, she carried on as if Beth had made a reply. But it is necessary. And don’t think that they aren’t both consumed with thoughts of you, right now. They are. But to each of them, the other is a threat. They must eliminate the threat.
So, Beth replied slowly. It will be a fight to the death, then?
Yes, and no, came the reply. They will both live, but it will be a death of sorts for the loser. He will be without his mate this night.
What am I to do? Cut myself in two? The angry retort was flung from her mind to the female’s without thought. She whined in apology. Things were going from bad to worse.
Wait it out, she told her. What is meant to be, will be. I know you feel torn in two right now, but it will ease. Your true mate will take your pain as his and together you will be stronger.
So, the Alpha has no plans to send me to Tall Grass pack? Beth asked, incredulous.
I know not of what my mate has planned for you, Little Wolf, but know this, the Great Mother will not be thwarted by any plans we could make. With that last ominous statement, the Alpha female turned her back and strode away into the darkness. Be happy, Little Wolf. Things have a way of working out.
Thank you Alpha, she sent to the female’s shadowy form.
Twice in as many days the name of the Great Mother had been invoked in her presence. Perhaps it was coincidence. Perhaps not. But the sudden urge to return to the fire was extreme, and so she strode into the view of the clearing in time to see the Tall Grass pack wolf bury his muzzle in Gareth’s neck.
She howled. And howled. The shrill piercing cry of a wolf that’s just lost her mate. Even the moon took notice of her, bathing her in a beam of pure silver light. Power still rode this night, and she was in its grasp. Unnatural strength infused her limbs as she bound toward the fighting figures.
Gareth still had some fight left in him, it seemed as he raked the underbelly of the stranger, but the stranger took no notice, instead lifting his own head to howl at the moon before striking for the jugular. Beth barreled into them both, knocking the stranger dangerously close to the fire’s edge, and rolling Gareth to his feet. She growled. Neither of them escaped her fury.
Snapping her jaws at the stranger, and Gareth in turn, she stood in the middle of them both. It would not end this way. If they were both truly her mates in the eyes of the moon, they would indulge her in this. She shimmered in less time than it took to take a breath and speared them both with a glance that was not entirely human.
“No more,” she said, the command coming from deep within her chest. “There will be no blood spilled here tonight.”
They both growled in denial, but she waved her hands, silencing them. The crowd grew restless, feeling the over-spill of the power the moon had channeled into her body. “No. I will not be moved on this. If you are both truly mated to me, then you will not want to hurt me, and any death in my name will irrevocably damage my spirit.” She glanced among the crowd, her eyes coming to rest upon the Alpha female, who had a wry twist to her lips. “Know that the power of the moon rides my body tonight, and I will not be denied.”
Gareth loped toward her, whining and greeted her with a cheek rub in apology. She stiffened, still not entirely sure of his motives. She had seen with her own eyes the Alpha male pushing him to claim her, while the stranger had claimed her without even asking permission.
The wolf in question now came forward, shimmering into human-form and bowing deeply. “I apologize, my mate, for I am not given to violent outbursts. I saw only a threat to my claim and thought to quash it, without wondering if you had thought both claims valid.”
“Sweet words, stranger,” Beth replied. “But they are only words. Your actions shall speak far louder, as my other mate knows well.”
“Beth,” Gareth whispered, having shimmered himself. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
“I’m getting so sick of apologies from you, Gareth. Wouldn’t it suit you better to not have to?” Her muscles were shaking with power, and now that the threat to her mates had dissipated, she didn’t know how to release it. “Patina? Is Patina here?”
“Yes, child, I’m here,” came the croaky reply. “You are full of lunar energy, girl. You must cast it out or it will burn you up, and us with you.” The old woman came forward on shaky legs. “Take my hand and focus on letting the energy seep slowly from your pores.”
Beth grasped the wrinkled hand of her old teacher and concentrated on releasing the power from every pore she had, and could feel Patina doing the same, willing the power to return to the moon. A giant wave of light passed through her body, tingling from her toes to her fingers, leaving behind a warm and satisfied feeling, as if she’d fed on an entire cow to herself.
Streaming now, the power clawed its way out of her body, shooting through her fingers so fast it felt like her nails were sizzling on contact. Beth cried out as the last of the lunar power escaped her body in an eye watering burst of light.
Suddenly weak, she collapsed on top of the soft earth, calling for someone to help her stand. But nobody could offer any assistance. They were all wolves. Each and every one of them. Wolves. Some howled to the moon, others whined in confusion and fear, and some stared blankly toward the girl who’d made it all happen. They stared at Beth.
CHAPTER SIX
“You were supposed to observe the ceremony, not take part in it.” Anger was clearly stamped on the usually calm features of the Alpha as he glared at the Tall Grass pack wolf.
“I resisted for as long as I was physically able,” he responded softly, glancing at Beth out of the corner of his eye. “I had no intention of disrupting the ceremony, but the power could not be denied.�
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“And you, Gareth,” the Alpha went on. “You were expressly ordered to stay away from the proceedings.”
“I was, Alpha,” Gareth answered plainly, his face utterly closed, no emotion seeping through. “But it is as he said,” he pointed in the direction of the other wolf. “Impossible to resist.”
Beth felt her mind race a mile a minute. Why would her Alpha order anyone away from a mating ceremony? Surely he knew the magic was all-encompassing, leaving no stone unturned and no shadow without light. He had to have known there was nowhere either wolf could have hidden that the magic would not find them.
“What’s done, is done,” the Alpha finally replied, in a tired voice. “Gareth,” he whispered with regret. “You know the mating-price.”
Gareth, slowly nodding, glared at the foreign wolf.
“Very well,” Marcus sighed, sinking into a soft leather chair. “Never let it be said that I cannot be reasonable.”
Turning to the Tall Grass pack wolf, Marcus smiled. “You really should introduce yourself.”
Beth was seated on the plush brown velvet couch in the Alpha’s living room. So far, the men had done all the talking, leaving Beth and Melinda to listen in silence and take it all in. The Alpha female didn’t appear too pleased that her mate had forbidden one of their own attendance to a mating ceremony. It went against pack law, to be sure, and rubbed the female the wrong way.
Although, Beth realized, she hadn’t been surprised to learn the strange wolf had been granted permission to spy upon events. So the Alpha keeps secrets from even his mate, she thought. But not all of them.
“Of course!” the strange wolf cried in discomfort. “With all that has happened,” he glared at Gareth. “We never got the chance to introduce ourselves.” Taking her hand in his much larger one, he squeezed lightly, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. “I was sent here by my father, Bradley, the Alpha of the Tall Grass pack. And in truth you were meant for him, not me. My name is Donovan.”
Suddenly, she wanted to snuggle up with him on a bed of soft moss, both of them wolves, bathed in the moon’s glow. “You don’t mind, do you?” he repeated, and she realized she’d been staring into the starry depths of his eyes for too long. He’d sat down beside her, close enough that the length of his thigh was resting against hers, and was asking if she minded. She shook her head absently.
Gareth prowled across the soft rug, coming to a rest on the other side of her on the squashy couch, although not as close as amber-eyed Donovan. Now she had both her mates beside her. It felt right to her. She wanted to roll around in their scent, marking herself as theirs. It was a disturbing thought.
Gareth huffed a breath, and she ignored the impulse to comfort him. What possible reason would he have to need comfort right now? He’d not wanted to claim her and any forced intimacy on her part would only drive him away again. Or, she wondered, was the whole reason he had hesitated down to the Alpha forbidding him to participate in the ceremony? She would have to make time to question her mate about that.
“I think,” said Melinda, rising from her perch on her mate’s knee to grasp Beth by the wrist. “That this girl has had enough to deal with tonight, and needs her rest. It’s probably best if she spends tonight here, with us,” she said to her mate. “Her Den Parents, as well as most of the pack are still out in the woods, high on the power of the moon.” She glanced at Beth with a small smile. “I think we can leave the rest of the ceremony for another night.”
“I can offer her my room,” announced Donovan, grinning slightly when Gareth’s lips pulled back in a furious growl. “I will take the couch,” he said to him, patting it firmly. “It’s rather comfortable.”
“That’s fine,” Gareth replied, a wide smile splitting his sensual mouth. “You take the couch, stranger. I’ll sleep by her door.” Before anyone could object, Gareth shimmered, his wolf-form seeming to laugh up at the Tall Grass wolf.
“I don’t think this is entirely proper,” began the Alpha, but his mate shushed him gently, with a “boys will be boys” comment and reminded him that they were both technically mated to Beth, so the only one who could object, was her.
“I couldn’t care less where either of you spend the night, so long as you don’t spend any more of it trying to kill each other.” And with that, she let the Alpha female lead her up the solid wooden staircase toward the guest room.
The first thing Beth noticed as she closed the door softly behind her was the scent of wolf. The scent of her mate. One of my mates, she corrected herself. It was so much to take in, and all of a sudden she was exhausted. Two mates. One she-wolf. What was she to do?
Replaying the events of the night over in her mind, she wondered, not for the first time, how she could have been filled with so much raw lunar power as to make the entire pack shimmer. Some of them hadn’t been able to assume their wolf-form for many years, so old were they, but they too had shimmered, reveling in their long-lost wolf-forms.
She had pulled herself into a standing position and began hobbling away in confusion when a soft whine from behind alerted her, yet again to the Alpha female’s presence. The wolf shimmered and became human, asking her softly if she would accompany them back to the Den House. ‘Them’ turned out to be the two Alpha wolves, and her two mates. She shook her head in confusion. Never before had the moon chosen two mates for one she-wolf without the following fight for dominance. Yet the lunar power had allowed her to interrupt proceedings, thus leaving her with two mates.
The Alpha seemed to think it was a simple power struggle and if the two had been left alone to fight it out, as was their request, the natural balance would be restored. Melinda, surprisingly, had fought the Alpha on that point, arguing that she had felt a strong female presence in the power that had brought them all into wolf-form.
“Of course there was, my love,” he had sighed. “Our very own Elisabeth.”
“No, I don’t think so,” she had replied, face set in awe. “I think it was the Great Mother we all felt. I think she has chosen to intervene.”
The Alpha, far from disputing this claim, seemed to think on it long and hard, coming to the decision that for as long as Beth was unsure of her choice, the power struggle would remain. He had ordered her – actually ordered her – to spend some time with both men on a one-on-one basis, and given her three weeks to decide to whom she would be mated.
That he had left the choice in her hands at all, seemed strange, considering his obvious plans to sell her out to the Tall Grass pack, evidenced by the very presence of the son of the pack’s Alpha at her mating ceremony. He should not have been granted leave to remain in the territory at all, much less left unguarded to interfere with her ceremony.
With a giant sigh, she flopped down onto the bed, naked, cold and thoroughly confused. The scent of her foreign mate rose and settled all around her. Roll around in me, it seemed to entice her. Almost willing to give in to the base urge, she inhaled deeply, taking the aroma of her foreign wolf into her lungs. He smelled like freshly cut grass and all manner of green and living things.
Gareth smells of pure adrenaline and danger, she realized, shocking herself. When had she taken note of that? Maybe when your world was shattering in the warmth of his embrace, a needling voice in the back of her mind whispered. He had been right about one thing, she admitted silently. She would have mated with him that night, no doubt about it. She had been so close to losing all reason.
And he was outside her door at this very moment, curled up on the floor, a simple pissing contest between him and Donovan really, but it made her smile. If she was completely honest with herself, neither one of them was a complication she wanted.
Restless, she began to pace.
If she had been truly mated with just Donovan, there was the fact that he was from a different pack to interfere.
And on the other hand, if she had been truly mated to just Gareth, she would always wonder whether he truly wanted her. Going by his actions over the course of the past wee
ks, she thought not.
Things just kept getting more and more complicated. Thinking that the thickly carpeted floor would have a nice path worn in it by morning, she froze. A noise outside her door. Probably just Gareth trying to draw me out, she thought in annoyance.
A scuffling and a low growl. He’s not alone, she realized, backing away, bumping up against the heavy, pine dresser by the window. A crash and a curse indicated a door being flung open further down the hallway. “I told you they wouldn’t behave,” came the mirthful voice of the Alpha. “Looking for a midnight snack, boys?”
Oh, what have they done now? Her temper stirring, she launched her own door wide and speared them both with a glance. Donovan was on his stomach, with Gareth sitting heavily on his lower back, one hand smushing his head into the carpet, the other trying to fend off various swiping appendages.
“Just defending my lady’s honor,” came the savage reply. “Our guest thought it would be a good idea to creep up the stairs. As if I wouldn’t hear him.”
“I merely wished to say goodnight to my mate,” he replied, disdainfully, trying once again to swipe an arm across Gareth’s face.
“Keep swinging those arms,” Gareth threatened, “And you won’t have any left come morning.”
Donovan snorted, and shimmered, unbalancing Gareth, who took a nosedive into the shag-pile of the carpet. “Promises, promises,” Donovan sneered, as soon as he had shimmered back into human-form, gloating.
“Enough!” bellowed Marcus, gripping the door frame in his anger. “There will be no more games of oneupmanship here tonight, is that understood?”
Sheepishly nodding, both men stood apart, steadfastly not looking at each other or Beth. She slowly eased the door shut and returned to her bed, disallowing herself the urge to inhale the scent wafting from the blankets. Sleep was a long time coming.
~~~~
“Things,” the Alpha began. “Have been unnecessarily complicated.” His glance swept from Beth to the two wolves either side of her at the breakfast table. “I still believe you both should have fought it out, but I’m willing to give this trial period a chance. For now.”
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