Promised Passion

by Noah Harris

  “How is that any different from a goddess choosing for me?” he asked.

  “Because unlike the Elders, Gaia does know what’s right for you, and she chose this. This is your way out, and she’s handed it to you. But no matter what you choose, I’ll be with you. I always have been and always will be. No matter what you do, you always have me in your corner, ready to knock some heads together,” she told him, resolute and full of her familiar authority.

  Dante squeezed her fingers, face warming. “Thank you, Rosa. That helps more than any advice you could have given me.”

  She winked. “That was advice. Choose what you know is right, then just be yourself afterward.”

  “That’s just asking for trouble,” he said with a laugh.

  She playfully slapped his wrist as she stood up. “You’ve always been trouble, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You’re looking awfully serious,” Liam said by way of a greeting as he watched Dante approach.

  Dante didn’t say anything at first, pausing to take in the sight of Liam’s form in the light of the moon overhead. He was dressed as casually as ever, and Dante couldn’t help but wonder if the man had any more surprises hidden in his pockets again. The thought made him smile, and he felt some of the tension in his shoulders ease.

  “Sorry. Just left Rosa’s. She left me with a lot to think about,” Dante explained.

  Liam cocked his head. “Did you talk about what I think you talked about?”

  Dante nodded. “She’s always been who I went to when I had a serious problem before. It’s been awhile, and I was really nervous this time around.”

  Liam took a deep breath. “And what’d she say?”

  Dante smiled at the nervousness that surrounded Liam. “She told me this was something I had to deal with on my own. But that no matter what I chose, she always had my back.”

  The other man relaxed at his words, smiling softly. “As scary as I remember her being, I’m glad you have her. You’re very lucky.”

  Dante sat himself down beside Liam with a nod. “I know I am. I’ve known it for a long time. Doesn’t hurt to get reminded of it now and again though.”

  Liam was watching his twiddling hands instead of looking up at Dante. “Sometimes I forget there are people out there who do stand by one another. I’ve gotten so used to having relationships, whether work or informal ones, that are shallow and short-lived. Probably doesn’t help that I spend so much time wandering around, or maybe it’s just habit for me.”

  Dante tried to see Liam’s face as he spoke. “What kind of habit?”

  “The kind that involves not wanting to trust other people. It can be hard, you know? After spending so much time being on my own, you learn to take care of yourself. It’s not always fun or easy, but it’s better than trusting someone only to have them dump you on your ass at the worst possible moment,” Liam told him in a bitter voice Dante had never heard him use before.

  Dante reached out, squeezing Liam’s hand. “Is this because of what happened when you left?”

  “I didn’t leave, not willingly, or at least not the way the sept would have you believe,” Liam said.

  “What, they kicked you out?” Dante asked in growing horror.

  Liam shook his head, then shrugged, unsure of himself. “No, but they didn’t do much to try to keep me here either. I lost my family during that war, just like you did. Except I was there when it happened. The attack came in one of the camps my parents were scouts for. There wasn’t even supposed to be anyone but us out there, which is why I was even there in the first place. They never found me, but I watched as they…”

  Dante shifted, wishing he could bring Liam closer to him, but not wanting to interrupt. He had been spared witnessing the death of his loved ones. For him, the horror had been in their absence and the knowledge that the void would never be filled again. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like to know not only that, but to have witnessed their brutal end firsthand.

  Liam continued. “Thing is, my pack wasn’t a big name in the sept, so no one really cared what happened to me. Sure, they made sure me and other orphans got what we needed, but we didn’t have much other than that. We lost our families, and they just…threw us together and let us sort ourselves out. The people who watched over us weren’t parents. They might have done their best, but there were too many of us. A few were sent to other smaller camps in the territory, where they could be taken care of better. Others, like me, were close enough to being of age that they just kept us here. When I turned sixteen, I volunteered for the Scouts.”

  “I guess that’s where your sneakiness comes from,” Dante said with a faint smile.

  Liam nodded. “I was good at it, the skills anyway. I was still just so…lost and angry about everything that happened that I didn’t really get along with others too well. What friends I did have had been sent off to other places, and I didn’t trust anyone in my training classes. All I did was get into fights, make trouble for the instructors, and piss the Elders off. They came to me one day, said they’d had enough, and told me I had to shape up or I would be thrown out on my ass.”

  Dante frowned. “But, you’re still a part of the sept.”

  Liam’s lip twitched. “That was Marrow’s doing. I told them to go fuck themselves, but Marrow gave me an out. I could still be a part of the sept, all I had to do was accept Loner status. I didn’t know it then, but I think maybe he was doing what he could to keep some sort of connection between me and my home, even if I was willing to throw it all away at the time.”

  Dante couldn’t imagine what it was like to suddenly be facing a whole new world like Liam must have done. “What did you do after that?”

  Liam shrugged. “I did the only thing I could do: I left. I was technically a Loner, so I went out into the world alone. At first I didn’t know what to do with myself, I just kind of wandered the wilds for a bit. So long as I didn’t interfere with the sept’s activities, I was left alone for the most part, treated like an outcast or a problem, but no one gave me too much trouble. Eventually, I realized I needed to move further out, or someone would do something. So I made my way to the nearest human city.”

  Dante smiled at the sound of wonder in Liam’s voice. He admired the Loner’s willingness to venture into the strange world of the human population. It was one thing to deal with the occasional human who decided to camp far enough into the wilderness that they met the “strange commune in the woods” that was the sept. It was something else to set foot in the cities of humanity, filled with their towering skyscrapers of steel and stone. Dante had heard the stories, and sometimes he wondered what it would be like to see those places in person. He couldn’t imagine going by himself, and he thought it spoke volumes of Liam’s courage to do so.

  Liam shook his head, chuckling at some thought. “Boy, I was not ready for that. I spent a year in that city and going over even half of those stories would take up a couple of nights. I love cities now, but I learned a little something about moderation. Then though? I discovered what it was like to be surrounded by sensations. Once I got over the noise, odd smells, and constant presence of people everywhere, it became a non-stop party for me. Probably would have drowned in it all if it weren’t for me waking up in another part of the world.”

  “Wait. You just, woke up somewhere randomly?” Dante asked with a surprised laugh.

  Liam grinned at him. “We werewolves might make a mean drink, and we might know how to concoct some nice ‘sight’ potions, but they don’t compare to the things human made drugs can do. It wasn’t the wildest thing I did, but at some point while on a bender, I ended up somewhere in the middle of China. Don’t know how I managed it, but there I was, in a world even more foreign to me than the first city had been, with barely a penny to my name and no idea what I was going to do.”

  Dante shook his head in disbelief. “So, what did you do?”

  Liam shrugged. “Only thing I could d
o. I figured out which way was West and started walking. Took me almost two years to make it to the western edge of Europe, kept getting tripped up by something along the way. Met other werewolves, got caught up in a vampire plot while in Amsterdam, and even met a couple of other shifters. A werecat in some old temple in Egypt, and a werebear in the mountains of Nepal. Found a coven or two of witches, but I didn’t bother with them. Didn’t like the smell of them. I prefer the small coven of witches I met in Paris: a little crazy, but nice people. There was a lot that happened in those couple of years, but I was chock full of new experiences by the time I came back to the sept.”

  “And full of stories,” Dante added.

  Liam grimaced. “Not that anyone here even cared enough to ask about them. Marrow at least acknowledged me when I came back, though it wasn’t what I would call a warm reception. I’ll give him credit though, he managed to not sound disappointed when he noticed I was still alive the first time I came back. He seemed annoyed at the time, and I thought it was me, but that was until I heard him bitching about something involving pies. I didn’t bother to ask.”

  Dante burst out laughing, startling Liam. “That…was me and Erik.”

  Liam looked bewildered. “Pies?”

  Dante shook his head, still snickering. “We hijacked a truck of pies that had been traveling through the nearby pass. We think they were lost, and Erik and I chased the driver off in our wolf forms. We ate almost the entire truck by ourselves before we were found out. The Elders didn’t know what to do about it. They were worried that stories of wolf attacks would bring humans here.”

  Liam snorted. “Like humans are going to go out of their way to bother wolves out here because one pie driver was terrorized. Did you guys really attack some poor delivery driver to steal his pies?”

  “In my defense, I’d never had a pie before, and Erik insisted,” Dante told him.

  Liam smirked. “I can’t tell who was the one who had the worst ideas: you or him.”

  Dante shrugged. “We liked to take turns.”

  “I guess I can see that. He was a city wolf once upon a time, wasn’t he?” Liam asked.

  “Yeah. Moved here shortly after the war ended. His parents never told him what brought on their change of heart, but they decided that coming back to the sept was the best idea. And that’s how my best friend ended up in my life,” Dante said.

  “I think you’re leaving a few details out, like, how you even met him in the first place,” Liam told him.

  Dante wrapped his arm around Liam’s waist. “It’s not really that exciting a story. He saw me sitting by myself one day and plopped down next to me. Didn’t take an hour and he was daring me to slip away from Elder Marrow with him to show him the rest of the forest around here. And that was the first time he and I ever caused trouble.”

  Liam smiled. “So, it started with him.”

  Dante nodded, thinking it might have started with Erik, but it looked like it would finish with Dante. For all the pranks and jokes he and Erik had done over the years, none of them compared to the impact of what was going on between he and Liam.

  “Kinda feels like everything’s closing in, huh?” Liam asked suddenly.

  Startled, Dante tried to smile. “Am I that obvious?”

  “Maybe you are, or maybe it’s just because of what’s going on between us. I know I haven’t talked about it, just like I didn’t talk about myself much before now, but…I’ll just say a couple of things. Just like Rosa, I’ll support you in your decision, whatever it is. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, getting to know you, and to experience things with you. But, I won’t be a mistress. I don’t know if you would have a way of taking me with you or what not, but…I won’t hang at the edges of your life, being given scraps. Doing it here is one thing. It’s before any real decision is made, but that choice is coming soon and whatever you do after that is going to stick. If you choose me, you’ve got me. If you choose Noah, then you’ve got him and what he has to offer. After that, I’ll be gone,” Liam said bluntly.

  It was nothing less than Dante had expected. He’d never once considered keeping true to the agreement with Noah while also trying to keep Liam on the side. It had been obvious from the moment he’d decided to follow through on his feelings for Liam that day, he would have to choose between the two men. If it weren’t for his obligations to his sept, he would have chosen Liam from the first time they’d held hands.

  Dante shook his head, stroking Liam’s face. “Don’t worry. I would never even try to do that to you.”

  Liam nodded. “I know, but it had to be said.”

  Dante bit his lip. “I’m sorry you weren’t given the help you deserved as a child. It isn’t fair that I was given such special treatment and kids like you weren’t.”

  “Don’t go feeling bad for me just because I didn’t get as much as you back then,” Liam scolded.

  “But it wasn’t fair,” Dante protested.

  “And it’s not fair for you to make yourself feel bad. You didn’t have any more control over it than I did. It was what it was. I didn’t tell you all that so you could start guilt tripping yourself. You got me?” Liam demanded.

  He wanted to protest, but instead he kept his mouth shut and nodded slowly. It didn’t mean he didn’t wish things had been different. From the moment he’d met Liam, he’d been struck by how steady, intelligent, and skilled the former scout was. The sept had done Liam, and itself, an injustice by not providing for its own. To Dante, it was amazing that Liam could, even with the Joining as a factor, bring himself to trust someone who must seem like a pampered prince.

  Dante bowed his head forward, pressing it gently to Liam’s. “Thank you, but you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

  “I hope you mean that,” Liam breathed softly against him.

  “I do,” Dante told him.

  A sharp growl brought them upright, followed by an angry boom of a voice. “I fucking knew it!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dante spun in the direction of the familiar voice. He barely had enough time to recognize he was under attack before the werewolf slammed into him. Dante went down with a startled growl, lashing out with a closed fist toward his attacker. His blow missed, going wide before a knee was driven into his stomach, blasting the air from his lungs with a loud gasp.

  Liam shouted from somewhere near them and the man on top of Dante faltered in his follow-up. Liam had gone for the assailant, distracting him. As the large man above him managed to throw Liam away, Dante took advantage of the distraction. A sharp jab to the man’s side bent him double, and Dante grabbed hold of his shirt to yank him down. He hesitated with his next blow as he recognized the man.

  “Brett?” he asked.

  “You son of a bitch,” Brett snarled in his face.

  Dante felt the werewolf’s body tense and he reacted. Shoving his head forward, he slammed his forehead into the man’s face. There was a cracking noise alongside a growl of pain that came from Brett. It was enough for Dante to shove his fist into the man’s gut in retaliation of the cheap shot Brett had got in. Using as much strength as he could muster, he grabbed hold of Brett’s shoulders and threw him off.

  Dante rolled away, hopping up to his feet. “The hell is wrong with you?”

  Brett was already picking himself up from the ground. “You know damn well what you did. Whoring yourself out to this no-account piece of trash.”

  Dante glanced at Liam, who was already at his side. “You okay?”

  Liam nodded. “Threw me into the goddamn rock, but I’ll live.”

  “You’ll be lucky if that’s all I do to you,” Brett snarled.

  Dante held a hand out, half in placation, half in warning. “You’ve been following me?”

  Brett’s shoulders were bunching as if he was preparing to spring again. “Of course, I have. You’ve been making excuses every night to get away from us. Just because Noah is too polite to say anything doesn’t mean we haven’t noticed. I finally had
enough and decided to see what you were up to. And I find you, cozied up with him.”

  Dante could feel his internal hackles raising at the vehement tone of Brett’s voice. “Don’t talk about him like that Brett, so help me. You followed me, you butted into my business, so you don’t have a right to be pissed.”

  Brett jammed an accusing finger into the air. “Don’t have a right? You’re out here whoring yourself to this Loner trash, when my Alpha is supposed to be your mate, and I shouldn’t be pissed? Fuck you, Dante!”

  Liam’s snarl surprised Dante, but he held his hand to his chest to steady him. “Last I checked, I’m allowed to do what I want until I agree to be his mate. The same goes for him. Apparently, he’s got more common sense and respect than you’ve got.”

  “If you were just slumming, I wouldn’t give a fuck. But you aren’t, are you? I heard your little talk. It was so sweet,” Brett sneered.

  Dante had been hoping the attack had just been because Brett had been overzealous. If he really had heard everything, or even enough, that meant Dante was in bigger trouble than he thought.

  “I’m so sorry, Dante. I never heard him coming,” Liam said regretfully.

  “You were a little distracted,” Dante said.

  Liam shook his head. “That’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

  Brett grinned. “But you did, and I got to hear everything I needed to. I never thought you were much when I first saw you Dante, but damn, I hoped you had more sense than this.”

  Dante tried to think of a solution as quickly as possible. “Brett, I need you to listen to me. There are things going on here that you don’t understanding.”

  Brett wiped at his bleeding nose with a feral grin. “Oh, I understand completely. Noah was generous enough to accept your sept’s scraps. You, some orphaned pup without shit to offer but your name and your body, should have been thankful to be his mate. You should have thrown yourself at his feet, begging him to take you from the moment you first saw him. And instead, I get to watch your ungrateful ass throw everything back in his face. You were never going to be anything more than a pretty face on his arm, but you couldn’t even do that right, could you?”