Wild Fire (Wilding Pack Wolves 5) - New Adult Paranormal Romance

by Alisa Woods

  Responsible for? Zoe narrowed her eyes, examining him—the man was a mess, emotionally. This was taking a toll on him. “That’s all we know of.” She wasn’t sure she would tell him if there were more, anyway.

  The mayor’s eyes widened a little. “Except for him.”

  His words struck Zoe in the chest—what him? Was there another white wolf the mayor knew about? That they didn’t?

  He turned back to Mama River. “I can’t stay.” His voice was unsteady. “I thought I could, but I just… can’t. I want you to know, Eleanor, I tried to help. I really tried to make things right. But I can’t—” He struggled for words again. “I’m just going to endanger you all now.”

  “What the hell you talking about?” Zoe demanded. “And who is this other white wolf?”

  He looked at her with a tortured expression. “The Wolf Hunter, of course. He’s a white wolf like you. Like all of you.”

  Zoe exchanged a look with Troy and then Mama River. It wasn’t open knowledge that the Wolf Hunter was a white wolf, but the mayor’s Police Department had participated in the rescue of Terra, and her mate Kaden was one of their own—maybe he told him. Or Grace.

  “So that’s the white wolf you were talking about?” Zoe asked.

  “Yes.” Then he straightened his shoulders and regained some of the confident bearing he had before he freaked out. “You’re all white wolves… because of me.”

  And then he shifted… into a white wolf.

  Zoe’s mouth dropped open. Mama River gasped, and her hands flew to cover her mouth.

  “Holy shit,” Troy gasped next to her.

  The mayor was a magnificent white wolf—slightly larger than a normal wolf, with snow white fur that bristled out in a coat so thick that his paws were nearly mittens of fur. His tail stood tall behind him, his ears perked forward—the alpha pose. Zoe could feel it resonate inside her, the command of it was so strong.

  His magic was so strong. Because… he was really a witch.

  The mayor’s beast dipped his head, he scooped up his clothes in his mouth, then he used one of his paws to work the handle of the front door and pull it open. Before any of them could speak, he had slipped out into the night, ducking around the corner of the porch that ran the length of the River estate main house.

  “Robert!” Mama River rushed out after him.

  Zoe had to hold Troy back from following by placing a hand on his chest. “He’s the white wolf!” she hissed, quiet and low so the mayor and Mama River wouldn’t hear. They couldn’t be far outside the door.

  “Well, yeah, obviously…” He trailed off at the urgent look on Zoe’s face. “Wait… you mean he’s the white wolf? The one you’re looking for?”

  Zoe nodded.

  Mama River’s voice rang out on the porch. “Robert Truhall, get back in this house and explain yourself.” She was pissed.

  Zoe’s brain was trying to put it all together. Robert… Bobby… Bobby Wilding. Holy shit.

  The mayor straggled in, his pants on, but his white shirt clutched in his hand, still buttoned from when he shifted out of it. Mama River’s eyes were on fire—and Zoe couldn’t tell if it was anger alone or something more, given the man she had some sort of feelings for was half naked in front of them.

  “You’re my grandfather,” Zoe just threw out there. It was still half a guess in her mind, but all uncertainty fled with the look in the mayor’s eyes—guilt, shame, and a weird sort of pain that she couldn’t identify the source of.

  “Yes, Zoe, apparently I am. And Noah and Daniel’s as well.” It was crazy—the mayor looked no older than mid-forties—but the logical part of Zoe’s brain knew that meant nothing for a witch. Maybe they had life enhancing spells like the beauty spells the covens used… or maybe longevity was just a part of the natural process of having vast stores of magical energy in your body and in your blood. Constantly renewing. Constantly healing… just like the superhealing serum she had been after…

  And that she possessed in her own white wolf.

  Her mouth dropped open with the realization that whatever had kept her grandfather alive all these years and looking like he was barely getting a touch of gray at his temples was the same DNA—the same magical blood—that was running through her veins. How long would she live? And what kind of immortality gene did she have?

  Words escaped her as those thoughts tangled in her brain.

  The mayor—Bobby Wilding was his true name, even if he went by Robert Truhall now—seem to take her confusion as some sort of disbelief. “It’s true, Zoe. I’m sure you find it hard to believe. I tried to pretend it wasn’t true for a long time. But all the stories you’ve no doubt heard about that terrible day the Wilding pack broke up—that’s not how it happened. The legend of your family—our family—is a lie.”

  Zoe had an unsteady feeling like the world was moving under her feet.

  Troy’s hand braced her at the small of her back. “You don’t have to listen to any of this guy’s bullshit,” he said quietly. “Just give me the word, and I’ll kick him out.” He was giving a hard look to the mayor, but the last thing in the world Zoe wanted was for the mayor to leave—she had been searching for him, and now he had landed at her doorstep.

  “No,” she said, gently patting Troy on the chest and looking up into his eyes to reassure him. “I need to hear this.”

  The mayor cringed away from Mama River’s piercing stare and focused on Zoe’s face instead. “I’m sure you think I broke up the Wilding pack by seducing the alpha’s mate—something I could only do because I was a witch. And a traitor.” He dropped his gaze to the floor. “All of that is actually true.” Then he met Zoe’s gaze again. “But I didn’t seduce my brother’s mate. I loved her. And for the longest time—a very, very long time—I remained the devoted beta I was supposed to be. Sophie and I ignored our feelings for one another. She was mated to the alpha of our pack, and our love was supposed to be impossible. But it wasn’t—not least because my brother was a complete asshole.”

  “What are you saying, exactly, Robert?” Mama River asked. Zoe could hear the anger and judgment in her voice. The same anger that resonated through Zoe’s family—there was a reason why the breakup of the family was a shameful thing. Why it made every Wilding secretly wonder how much of a true wolf they could be, as if evil acts and bad character could be passed down through DNA. No matter how much Bobby Wilding loved his brother’s mate, he shouldn’t have taken her into his bed. Much less fathered children with her—which was obviously what happened with so many of the family’s second generation bearing the white wolf gene.

  The mayor grimaced. “I’m saying that my brother was a very dark alpha. He didn’t treat Sophie like a mate should. He brutalized her for years. And for years, I watched… dying a little inside each time she showed up with another bruise.” He faced Mama River. “Eleanor, if anyone treated you the way my brother treated Sophie, no one would blame me for killing them.”

  “So you broke the beta bond,” Troy said. “And killed your brother.” There was surprisingly little judgment in his voice.

  “No.” The mayor hung his head. “You don’t know how many times I’ve wished I had simply done that. But he was my brother and my alpha—it wasn’t just a matter of magic. It took me a long time to break his emotional hold over me, much less over Sophie. I may be a witch, but I’m also a wolf. And we were brothers, even if we couldn’t have been any more different. He was wild to the core, and he terrified everyone in the pack. Including me. He was unpredictable. Volatile.” The mayor physically cringed. “It was my own cowardice that kept me from confronting him. But even though I didn’t stand up to him, I couldn’t let her go on being hurt. I tended her wounds, helped her cover them up, and eventually… she found comfort in my arms. I told myself she was getting the love she deserved from me, even if she remained bound to him. Was a comforting lie. A stupid lie. One that I regret even to this day.” He paused like something bitter was in his mouth. “Along the way, we allowed ou
r love to produce pups—although I was never entirely sure which were mine and which were Gary’s. But I couldn’t say anything about that. I was faced with either killing my brother or leaving my lover and my children in the hands of that beast. I wasn’t strong enough to do either one.”

  Zoe was reeling, trying to take it all in. But she believed him—his story had the ring of truth. And he certainly wasn’t painting himself as the good guy. “Then what happened?” she asked. “The story is that you were discovered, and then you used your magic to kill them both.”

  “That’s a damn lie!” The mayor’s dark blue eyes flashed. In that instant, Zoe could see the family resemblance—the jet black hair under the touches of gray, the dark blue eyes that were a Wilding family trait. She could even see the passion in his stance, a bit of the Wilding wildness that was such a strong part of her family lineage. If there had been any question left in her mind whether he was a Wilding, it was now erased.

  The mayor seemed to struggle to rein in his anger. “Gary did find out—he caught us in the act, so there was no denying it. But it wasn’t me who killed Sophie—it was him. In a fit of rage so powerful that it overcame his alpha bond to protect her, he broke her neck. I think it was over before he even realized what he had done. I’ve always suspected he had some white wolf magic in him as well. That’s the only way he could have taken her life.” The mayor briefly closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, then let it out slow. When he opened his eyes, the fire had been replaced by the look of pain Zoe had seen earlier. “The submission bond I had pledged to my brother was simple magic, easily broken. In his rage, he killed her. In my rage, I killed him. It was as simple as that, but it destroyed everything. I fled because… what could I do? Become a father to my brother’s children? I was almost certain that Billy was mine; possibly Astor, too. But how could I rob them of their pack when they’d just lost their mother and father? Instead, I ran… and did things I’m not proud of.”

  Mama River’s harsh look had tempered somewhat. “The other children,” she said softly.

  “Yes, the other children.” The mayor still wouldn’t meet her gaze, but he looked deep into Zoe’s eyes. “I was heartbroken. Not that that’s any excuse. But I slept around, and I didn’t care about the pups I made… no, that’s not entirely true. I intentionally made pups when I shouldn’t have. I think I just… wanted to have something to call my own, something separate from my past. Kaden’s mother. Grace’s mother. And his…” He swallowed. “The Wolf Hunter’s mother. I remember them all. They were beautiful and wonderful, but whenever I found out they were bearing my children… I left. Like the coward I am.”

  That pain was back in his face. “Grace’s mother was the last. She was the one that I thought… I thought I could stay with. I wanted her—loved her like I had with Sophie—but she was married to a high-powered Senator, a horrible man, and… it was all too familiar to me. That was the one that finally broke me. I stopped being a wolf or a witch. I took a new identity as a human. No more shifting. No magic. Eventually, slowly, I clawed my way back to having something like a real life. And then a woman came along—a human woman, my wife—and she changed everything. With her, I was finally someone decent.” He frowned and stared at the ground again. “At least for a while. It was her idea for me to run for mayor. But we had no children—I would never to bring another child into this world.”

  “But your past wouldn’t stay buried.” Mama River’s voice was filled with a compassion Zoe wasn’t entirely sure she shared. So much of this man’s life and mistakes had driven her to be what she was today. He had said before that he was responsible for all of them—for all the white wolves—and he was. He broke up her family, he gave her his DNA through the lineage of her father, and he had hidden himself away, spreading his seed around irresponsibly.

  And yet… she had a hard time condemning him, as he stood before her, his face wrenched with pain and regret.

  “The past never would leave me alone,” the mayor said, shaking his head slowly. “Not completely. I always knew I would pay for my sins one day. When my wife passed away, I nearly left town. She was my anchor, and the anchor was gone. And then Grace came out as a white wolf and, of course, I knew she was mine. She was incredibly brave and smart and wise—all the things I’d never been—and I couldn’t leave. I had to stay for her sake, to do what I could to protect her.”

  In spite of herself, Zoe’s eyes pricked with tears. Putting aside his own troubles to help Grace? That was the kind of thing her own father would do. Her kind, sweet, loving father—who was this man’s son. If anything, that should be proof that DNA was not destiny. She wondered how she had never seen that before.

  “So you stayed to protect Grace,” Troy said, approval filling his voice as well. “Does she know?”

  The mayor shook his head. “I just wanted to…” He sighed. “Please tell her I’m sorry for not telling her sooner. I remember her mother well. And Kaden’s.”

  A sudden thought zinged through Zoe’s mind. “And the Wolf Hunter is yours too—do you remember his mother? Do you know who she is?” Maybe they could find him that way.

  “Of course, but she’s long dead now. I didn’t know, not at first, that she had carried the child to term. But when Grace told me the Wolf Hunter was a white wolf, I knew he had to be mine. So I tracked her down, and it’s just as he said—she died in childbirth. After that, the foster system records are sealed. And it wasn’t like I wanted to go finding him.”

  “Why not?” Troy had an edge to his voice again.

  “Because I’m a damn coward,” the mayor said, angrily. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

  Zoe grimaced, but the mayor’s anger was a self-loathing kind… and that was far too familiar.

  “I had stopped using magic so long ago,” the mayor said, bitterly. “I couldn’t go back to that. I couldn’t give up everything I’d built in this life as a human—and now as the mayor—I didn’t want to take the risk. Besides, the magical community here is too strong—they would’ve found me in an instant if I had tried to track him down using magic. It would have just freshened my signature in the magical realm. Even searching through the bureaucracy would’ve triggered something. The Wolf Hunter would’ve found me, and that was last thing I wanted. I knew he was after me. All of this—all of it—was because of me. I thought I could protect Grace, and I did what I could for Terra, but now, there so many of you. It’s just a matter of time before the Wolf Hunter tracks your magical signatures and finds me.”

  Troy’s face screwed up with disgust, and Zoe wasn’t far behind him. “So that’s why you’re running away?” Troy asked. “Because you don’t want the Wolf Hunter to find you?”

  “I need to leave before I endanger you all,” the mayor said, his voice bitter again. “This is my mess—if I leave, maybe he’ll stop looking for me.”

  “If you leave, he’ll keep looking until he kills us all.” Troy looked like he was gearing up to rip the mayor’s face off.

  But the last thing Zoe wanted was for Troy to drive him off. As conflicted as her feelings were about this man standing before her—her grandfather—he was still the white wolf she had been seeking. The one whose blood she needed for the serum. For both serums. And for that, he had to stick around, not flee the city.

  As Zoe struggled for some reason to keep him in Seattle, Mama River took a step closer to him. “You have to stay, Robert.”

  “Eleanor, please.” His voice was strained. “I only came back to say goodbye. And because you deserve to know why I’m just taking off. I wanted you to know it has nothing to do with you.”

  “You can’t keep running from this,” she said softly. Then she reached a hand out that landed on his arm—the touch seemed to cause him more pain. “This house has always been a refuge for all wolves. You should stay here and see this through to the end. Stay. Protect your family. Show me you’re the man I know you can be.”

  The pain on the mayor’s face looked like it would split
him in half. “Don’t you see?” His voice was a whisper. “I caused all of this. I can’t fix that; I can only make it worse.”

  “Then you own up to that. Face it. Take responsibility for it and do what you can, here and now, today.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, not answering her.

  Mama River pressed on. “I’ve seen all the ways you’ve been protecting your family—don’t tell me you don’t know how. I’ve seen it with Grace. With Zoe. With Terra—anyone in the Wilding family who was in danger. You’ve been doing what you can to protect them. I know your white wolf DNA makes you part witch. I don’t know how much. But it’s time for you to stand like a wolf and protect your pack.”

  “My pack?” he whispered. “I’ve never had… not since…”

  “A pack is not made by blood, but by action, Robert Wilding.” There was a familiar strength in Mama River’s voice, one that Zoe wished she possessed. That strength seemed to bleed through her touch and her words into the mayor.

  He straightened again. “You believe that?”

  “With all my heart,” Mama River said. “I see it every day with every wolf who comes through my door. If you stay, you’re one of us. If you leave, you’ll never be able to run far enough to outrun the pain.”

  His face scrunched up. “You would let me stay? Knowing everything I’ve done?”

  “Yes.” Mama River held his gaze with an intense look.

  Zoe could see it was getting through to him, but then he surprised even her by reaching a hand out to Mama River’s cheek. “I want to stay,” he whispered.

  Mama River smiled, and as the mayor moved closer, looking like he might kiss her, Zoe and Troy stepped back and averted their gazes. With Troy’s hand still at the small of her back, they light-stepped away from the front door. By the time they reached the dining room, Mama River and the mayor were exchanging a kiss that threatened to set the drapes on fire.