by A Lonergan
Carden’s eyes were closed and his head lolled forward but a low groan came from his lips. When his eyes blinked open they were completely black. I took a step back and considered running. Considered leaving this place and all the nightmares that came with it.
Tracey’s hand on my shoulder stopped me. “Granny is going through his memories. It could take a little while. He admitted last night that he was drugged. A witch is involved and we have to find out who.”
“Why though?” My fingers finally found the spot. The spot that he had tried to bite.
“If you’re claimed, you can’t be claimed again.” The dark words came from Carden’s mouth but they were anything but Carden’s voice.
I gasped as Granny fell to the ground and started to seize. Tracey was by her side in seconds, all while Carden’s black, soulless eyes watched me. I couldn’t move or think as the beast watched me. Whoever was on the other side of those eyes used Carden’s mouth to grin. “What do you want? Why would he try to claim me?”
The grin stretched wider and terror filled me. I grasped my hands together to keep them from shaking as I faced down a monster. “To keep you from being claimed by your true mate, silly. We want a lot of things but aren’t at liberty to share them right now.”
Granny went still on the floor and the blackness leaked from Carden’s eyes. I hadn’t allowed myself to look at him, really look at him, until that moment. The piercing that had been in his brow was gone, no scar to even suggest that there had been one there. The tattoos that had snaked all over his body were nowhere to be seen either. The man hanging before me was someone else entirely. When he blinked his eyes open all I saw was green, I knew that the man I had been intrigued with was a fake.
The chains around his hands and ankles jingled as he fought consciousness. “Where am I?” Even his voice sounded different. Lighter.
Granny pulled herself from the rugged floor and wiped her hand across her brow. She clenched and unclenched her jaw while she tried to find the words.
“Carden?” My voice was soft, hesitant.
His eyes snapped to mine and fear filled them. “What happened? Where am I? Who are you?”
He didn’t remember me. His questions were those of truth. I could taste it in the air. He truly didn’t know who I was. Granny straightened her back and stepped between us.
“Carden, I need you to tell me the last thing you remember.” Her voice was hard and unyielding. She didn’t act like a woman that had just been seizing moments before. Her voice was strong, even as Tracey lingered near her, prepared to catch her if things went wrong. Tracey’s shoulders were tight, while her feet were spread in a fighting stance.
Carden blinked before he tested the chains again. “A woman told me to hold still while,” he paled and a red flush filled his cheeks. “She, um, well.” He stopped again. “We were hooking up and she told me to be still then another woman came in. I thought it was my lucky day and then there was blinding pain through my body. The other woman that had come in was standing over me, whispering words in another language and I remember thinking that I had stumbled into the wrong kink house. Is that how I got here?”
Tracey looked over her shoulder at me and took a deep breath. “We need to get Gamble on the phone. Go get Rafe."
I could see the regret in her eyes. She didn’t want to send me out to my enemy for help but I knew I didn’t have a choice. We needed more answers than what this man could give us and Tracey wasn’t going to leave her grandmother’s side. I nodded once and ran as fast as I could to the Crimson Manor.
Chapter 35
Jade Rivers
Rafe watched all of us carefully as he replayed what had happened on the phone and everything Gamble had told him. “Carden was a forced change.” He wouldn’t look at me. “A forced claiming.” At that admission, there was a collective gasp around the room. “A dark witch was involved with the night he was it was forced on him and took over his mind. The man has been with the Bruiser Pack for almost a year.”
Nausea swirled within my gut. The man didn’t even know. He had no idea he was a wolf and all this time had gone and he had no idea what had happened. He couldn’t remember anything. He had been forced to change and claimed in a mating bond and had zero say in the matter. He would never know his true mate now, if he even wanted that. Granny had forced herself into the tiny dark corners of his mind, but it did nothing. She couldn’t find the face of the wolf that had done all of this to him. The magic that had bound him seemed to be gone from his system but Granny wanted to make sure. She put a binding spell on his mind, whatever that meant, and released him from the chains. Someone had brought him clothes but he still hadn’t left the witch’s cottage. I didn’t blame him, he was about to have his world rocked.
I shoved my fingers through my hair while Rafe continued on with the semantics. All while he paced at the head of the dining table. The room was packed full and barely contained all of the wolves that lived within the pack.
“Because of this,” Rafe shoved his hands into his pockets. “We will no longer be letting any strangers onto pack lands. For those of you that work on pack lands with the public, you will be relocated to another job temporarily. Or we will change the borders on the land. I don’t know what to do to make this easier for all of you but I know that I must protect you. Mate Meets will no longer happen until we can get this all investigated. All pack members that are out of town or visiting other territories will be called back and undergo a quarantine period. If they want to be trusted and allowed within the pack, Granny will be looking through their thoughts and looking for magical tethers.”
I bit my lip from asking what all this meant. If she had done all of this before, would they had known Carden was possessed? I leaned back in my chair and Tracey’s hand found mine under the table. I still hadn’t pledged to be a part of this pack but I was being treated as if I had. I squeezed her hand in mine and looked to where our hands were joined. All while Rafe talked he didn’t once mention what I had told them. That they were trying to prevent me from being claimed by my true mate. He hadn’t said anything as the words had spilled from my lips. His face had gone pale and he stormed away. Tracey had been there to hug me fiercely and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I needed her and her strength or I was never going to survive.
The walk to my car seemed to take forever. The forest was alive again and I couldn’t stop myself from listening to every detail I had missed before. The loud sound of my boots crunching against the gravel or the birds chittering to each other in the trees. And even though I had been able to pick up on those sounds before I was turned. It was different now. It was louder and had more feeling, more depth. Even though Rafe was light on his feet, I could hear him approach behind me. I paused at my car door.
“I know I have no right to ask this of you, but I would like it if you could stay on pack lands until we can figure all of this out. It’s directly related to you and something isn’t sitting right with me. I can’t protect you out there.” He sighed and closed his eyes and for a moment- a brief one- I wanted to reach out and touch him. Comfort him. But I didn’t. I kept my hands to myself and leaned against the side of my car.
“I have to go to school and I have internships I need to apply for.” My voice sounded like I was on the fence. Like I was considering his words.
“What if they come after you again?” He clenched his jaw and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was angry or irritated.
“Then I am the single line of defense between them and my family. My two defenseless, human parents. Or did you forget that I didn’t choose this life?” It was a low blow but one that needed to be said. I had to remind the both of us of the elephant in the room. I wouldn’t let him get away with it, even if I did feel bad about the pressure on his shoulders.
He ran his hands down his face and his shoulders slumped. “You’re right, I’m not your Alpha but I worry about you.”
The smile that spread across my face was anything bu
t friendly. “You don’t have that right, not after everything you have taken from me.”
I got in my car and was closing my door when I heard the whisper or maybe it was my imagination but I couldn’t shake it all the same. “What about all the things I have given you?”
Chapter 36
Jade Rivers
The question that Rafe had asked continued to burn through my thoughts as I sat down with my parents that night for dinner and as I tossed and turned in my bed afterwards. What had he given me? I had heightened senses yes, but what else? I didn’t know what that meant and I didn’t know how to answer it for myself.
There was a knock on my door before my dad stepped into my bedroom. He was so fragile, so human. It scared me for him and also made me envious. I wished I could go back to the fragile naivety. I longed for the ignorance he had. Witches, werewolves, and vampires were real and they were haunting me. Even more so now that I knew I was being hunted.
“Are you okay?” He kept asking me that. He knew, he could see it, that I wasn’t the same girl I had been months ago. I wasn’t the same girl they had left here but there was nothing I could do about it.
Imposter.
I sat up in bed and turned the bedside lamp on. It cast the room in a soft yellow glow. I plastered on my best fake smile. “Yeah, why do you ask?”
Dad blinked and then he sighed. “You hardly eat anymore and you look different.”
I had to hold my hands together to keep from touching the fresh mark on my neck. I leaned back into my pillows, casually. “How do I look different?”
He narrowed his eyes like he wasn’t sure if he was right about it but said it anyway. “Like you have bulked up almost but at the same time, lost weight.”
I would have to explain something to him. He was right. I had chosen to ignore the changes in my body but they were there especially as I lounged in my bed in my pajamas. My legs were more defined and so were my arms. There was a healthier glow to my skin, even though I had been sick when they came home. Now I felt better than I had ever felt before. I was stronger mentally and physically. I was excelling in my classes and retaining knowledge like I never had before. I had to spin this lie perfectly. If I didn’t, he would know. “I have been working out with Tracey after class.”
It would explain my extra absences and he wouldn’t worry about me partying like they had before. But he also checked his account like a hawk and I had no money of my own. Another thing looming over my head. If I had a gym membership, he would have called me out about the charges. I tried to charge as little to their account as I could and if I needed to hide anything, I always ordered from Amazon or got cash from the ATM in small increments. Not that I had hidden much. But I didn’t exactly want my dad to know about my lingerie or where I bought it from.
“I was wondering, you look good.” Then he considered what he said. “I mean you have always looked good, but you seem healthier.”
“We have been getting dinner after our workouts so I’m not really hungry after.” I would leave it understood that Tracey was the one buying dinner but then his next question had me embarrassed.
“Are you two…” He fought with the words. “Seeing each other?”
I snorted. I should have seen that question coming. “I did go out with a guy last night.”
Had it just been last night that everything had happened? It felt like an eternity had passed. He waved his hand. “I had a best friend in high school that was gay and he pretended to go out on dates with women so his parents wouldn’t know. I just want you to know that you never have to hide anything like that from us, that we will always accept you, no matter who you love.”
Would you still accept me if you knew what I was?
Tears stung my eyes at his accepting tone. “You don’t have to worry about that. Tracey has just been there for me through everything and I enjoy her company. She keeps the wild tamed.”
He smirked. “You mean the partying?”
“Potato, patato,” I countered.
“We are going to Morocco next, you should come with us.” His words held a magical lilt to them. He was more excited about this trip than any of the others. I didn’t blame him. Morocco was on my list and he knew it, that’s why he was inviting me now. But with my wolf and everything happening, I didn’t think it was a good idea.
“Maybe next time, Dad,” I tried to conceal my sadness but I knew he could feel it.
He padded into the room and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “We leave next week, I just wanted to make sure that you knew you were always welcome to come with us.”
I smiled as he retreated from my bedroom. “I have school and a future to think about. Maybe someday you can show me all the wonders of the world.”
Maybe someday when my wolf was under control and I didn’t feel like such an imposter. Maybe someday if they knew what and who I was, and they accepted me. Until then I would be here, trying to figure out one day at a time.
“Get some rest, kiddo.” He closed the door and I flicked the lamp off.
Even in the darkness, I couldn’t rest so I laid in the dark until the sun came up and shined through my window. I rose from the bed like I hadn’t been awake all night and got in the shower.
My phone rang on my nightstand and I smiled. I wasn’t even a tad tired as I wrapped my long hair into a towel and piled it on my head.
Crisscross applesauce is how I found myself later that afternoon, with a bunch of preschoolers. They were learning about their wolves today and Tracey figured it would be the best opportunity for me to learn. I sat in between two little girls that couldn’t stop giggling with each other. I was supposed to be the buffer, but I didn’t think it was working very well. They would both look at each other then look at me and burst into a fit of hysterics. They were cute little things with pigtails and bows in their hair but they were certainly mischievous too. I ignored them the best I could to paid attention to Tracey’s mother, Vivian. Her pale hair was pulled back into a loose knot on the back of her neck and her face was bare from any makeup.
“As a werewolf we are stronger, faster, and healthier than our human neighbors. We heal at a faster rate and their sicknesses do not affect us either. How many of you have been feeling more hungry as of late?”
A few children raised their hands around me. There were probably ten of them, which was odd to me because the pack hadn’t seemed that big when I had been here before but then I remembered what was said about there being jobs on the pack lands. I probably hadn’t seen even half of the pack because of that.
Vivian continued on with the lesson. “Your wolf is a part of you now and because of that, you will consume more food than an average human does. You will need more water too. Your wolf will require much from you but in return, your wolf will provide. Your senses will be heightened, your body will be stronger, and with your wolf you are immortal.”
Blood rushed into my ears at the sound of that. What? My eyes searched Vivian’s but she just kept a small smile on her lips as she watched the little children around me. This was how they dropped the ball on me? Around a bunch of children? I breathed heavily through my nose as I tried to ground myself. I was going to throttle Tracey, then I was gonna go after Rafe again. What had he given me? A whole lot of shit that I wasn’t prepared for is what he gave me.
Vivian’s question quieted my thoughts. “Who knows what immortal means?”
The little girl to my left raised her hand. Vivian nodded in our direction and the little voice wrapped around me in a sweet embrace. “It means that we will live forever to protect our human neighbors. We are their guardians.”
Then the rubber band in the center of my chest snapped again. Guardians?
Vivian’s grin confirmed it. “Yes. There are other races out there that would harm the humans. The humans that are so close to what we are. If we don’t protect them, no one will.”
Chapter 37
Jade Rivers
It had been a week since I had started th
e preschooler’s class. I had learned far more than I thought I would. I was still excelling at my college courses and thankfully, with a forged doctor’s note from Tracey, I was able to do all of my school work at home. But by home, I mean mainly at the Crimson pack lands. My parents worked from home and if I didn’t at least act like I was going to school, there would be some major questions. Questions I didn’t have answers to. Not yet at least.
My heightened senses were seeming to level out and the smell of my mother’s vegan cooking didn’t make me want to run away anymore. But I still ate dinner with Tracey and the pack. Even though Rafe had given the order for all of us to stay on pack lands or in my case, home, he had disappeared on official Alpha business. Which left me to enjoy my time in peace and my pup classes without his haughty smirk peeking through the window every day. I could do without him lurking in the shadows.
I brushed my hair away from my face and felt it. The pain stabbed right through my middle and brought me to my knees. I fought to keep my eyes open against the rolling of pain throughout my body. I had a few more days till the full moon. We had expected my wolf wouldn’t come till then and my parents would be out of town. They hadn’t left yet…
The first crack of my bones seemed to echo around the room. My breathing became labored as I dragged myself across the floor to my phone and my laptop. I turned the music up as loud as I could without causing panic and dialed the first number I could as another crack sounded. The phone rang once before it fell from my hands and I threw up into the little trashcan beside my bed. When Tracey finally picked up I couldn’t even speak. My body continued to contort and pop on the floor. I hoped and prayed that the music covered the sounds of my body transforming.
Why couldn’t my wolf wait? Just a few more days… We had a few more days. Agony ripped through me and I let out a pain-filled groan into the phone. Sweat dripped down my brow as I struggled to tell Tracey what was wrong. “My wolf is coming early.”
