by E. M. Shmitz
The ceremony had been a pretty traditional one and Sabine had been bored silly. She really didn’t get the whole marriage thing. A life-mate was a life-mate, why bother with a silly human tradition just for the sake of ‘fitting in’.
Marcus had grabbed one of her hands when she had begun to fidget and kept her spellbound until the end by tracing patterns and pictures onto the palm of her hand.
There were speeches and then the brined and groom had their first dance. Marcus raised an eyebrow at her and asked her to dance. After a little hesitation, she slipped her hand into his and they joined the couple on the soft patch of grass that had been designated as the dance floor.
As leader of the pack it was traditional for him to join them first on the dance floor and it was his one bow to the Shifter traditions within the wedding. Sabine was a little stiff in his arms as he led her out and so he figured that she probably hadn’t waltzed before.
Positioning himself in front of her he eased her through the first couple of steps gracefully and kept up a quiet commentary in her ear.
“You’re doing great, just relax into me and let me lead.”
Sabine listened to him and relaxed into his body. Marcus was an excellent dancer and was probably making her look like a pro. It was unsettling to have as many eyes on her as she did, but the soft rumble of Marcus’ voice in her ears went a long way to making her forget.
The pack stood back out of respect before slowly filtering onto the dance floor. Sabine didn’t miss the significance when Rob extended his arm to Bucky. It was more than friendship and Sabine couldn’t have been happier for her two friends.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
At eleven the last of the humans were just leaving the park and the last of the wolves were discretely disappearing into the forest. Sabine and Marcus disrobed and placed their belongings into a plastic case with Finn, Bucky and Rob.
The case was put in a pile marked to be delivered to Marcus’s house the next day and they all fanned out to change in privacy.
Sabine didn’t wander far from Marcus, feeling the tension in the air. She was the first changed and was scouting the surrounding areas and mapping out where each of the wolves were when Marcus and the others emerged from the shrub.
Marcus’ supporters all made it a point of sticking close to the group as the assembled. Theo and Ange arrived with a much bigger group that stuck close to them. In the middle of the groups were some confused wolves that didn’t quite realize what was happening.
Marcus led the pack at breakneck speed to a clearing they all knew well, deep into the forest. The pack was excited to be running together again and even though the tension the wolves howled at the moon and yipped their joy to be running together.
In the clearing the wolves stopped suddenly, forming a loose ring around Marcus and Theo. The tension in the air was palpable and the night around them was silent.
Theo knew this was his moment. He leapt at Marcus, issuing a challenge and demanding he submit to him. Marcus gave a deep wolfy chuff, as if he were laughing and stepped aside easily avoiding Theo’s leap.
The pack fell silent and tension rippled through the night.
No one was permitted to intervene as the two wolves fought it out. The winner was the wolf left standing and in most cases the winning wolf would kill the loser, to discourage any other attempts at taking his power.
Marcus and Theo circled each other stiffly, before suddenly exploding into a ball of rabidly growling fur. The battle was violent and made most of the wolves cringe to see it. Ange didn’t cringe at all; she took the entire thing in grinning a wide, toothy grin and looked pleased with herself.
Theo separated from the initial attack first, wheeling off to run a short distance. He drew Marcus with him and then whirled zig zagging back towards the lighter colored wolf, hoping to take him by surprise.
Marcus swung his body out of reach and easily batted down Theo’s snarling muzzle with his two front paws. Darting in from the side Marcus bulldozed Theo back a few maters, scattering a few unwary wolves on his way.
Though the wolves looked evenly matched, Theo’s fight was over swiftly. Marcus took him down with powerful blows and some well-placed bites, in some cases crushing bones with their force. Finally, Theo was lying in a bloody mess at Marcus’ feet. Marcus hadn’t killed him and wasn’t going to. He was done with it all.
The wolves had forgotten Marcus’ fighting prowess through years of taking him for granted as leader. The men and women who had supported Theo and Ange pinned their ears back against their scalps and their tails between their legs. When Marcus roared his victory the entire pack, bar one wolf and one tiger, dropped to the ground and showed their bellies in respect and in some cases stone cold fear.
Ange was utterly confused by the turn of events, Theo was defeated. She refused to bow to Marcus. His back was turned to her and she decided to take matters into her own hands.
If Theo couldn’t tale the pack fairly, then she would take it by force. Why wait for a man to do it when she could just as easily lead it herself?
Sabine saw Ange leap and let out a roar of anger. Without thinking she gathered herself and launched into the air, intercepting the woman and slamming her into the ground hard.
Marcus changed back into his human form and most of the pack followed him, changing where they knelt.
“Leave the bitch, Sabine. I couldn’t care less about her fate.”
Marcus gently shoved the tiger aside and looked down on the gasping Ange. The force of Sabine’s body hitting her had startled out of her wolf form and back into her human one.
Marcus turned as Sabine finished changing back. Her hair was wild around her face and strands were plastered to her neck and face. The makeup around her eyes was dark and wild looking. Her body was naked, long and muscled lightly. She was streaked with dirt and sweat. She looked beautiful to him, just like a barbarian queen.
He raked his eyes over her one more time and turned to look over his pack. With a sigh, he realized the he was over this.
“We were a strong pack. We were one of the strongest in Dermott and look at us!” he roared.
“Infighting and stupid rifts have ripped us apart. I have not been the best leader for you over the past year. You have needed a heavier hand than I care to give. But it is an insult to me and to yourselves that you chose that as your future leader!”
He turned to Theo and Ange both cowering together on the dirt.
“I’m done with this. I have no desire to stay and watch you destroy yourselves further. However, I recommend that you look harder within your ranks than that for your leader. I have no desire to stay, but I also do not wish to watch you all die into the night. You are a strong pack, in the best location and you all deserve better.”
With that Marcus turned to Sabine. She stepped closer waiting for his orders and wondered with a little thrill of excitement where they would end up next.
“Sabine. Thank you for everything. You’ve served me well, but I can’t keep you like this. You’re free.” He turned to leave.
Sabine’s heart crashed down to her feet. He was freeing her. Where the hell was she supposed to go now? Suddenly anger engulfed her. He loved her. He had told her that himself and now he was prepared to break both their hearts for the sake of his stupid conscience.
“Idiot,” she said.
Marcus turned back to her in surprise. “Me?”
“Yes you, idiot! You can’t just free me and expect me to disappear off into the night.” She stalked towards him, anger in every line of her body.
“I’m in love with you fool. I’m your life-mate and I’m not letting you get away. You shouldn’t be allowing me to get away either. Unless you were lying about your feelings for me last night?” her voice softened and she tilted her head on the side, waiting for his answer.
Marcus didn’t answer her. He closed the distance between them and gathered her to him, kissing her violently. When he was done, he drew back looking her deep in
the eyes, searching for the truth in what she had said. It was there. She loved him.
“Idiot,” she breathed. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”
“Or me,” came three voices in unison to their left.
Finn, Rob and Bucky all stood there looking at the two of them entwined. Finn looked a little hurt that they’d think to leave him behind.
Marcus grinned at them all and nodded once, before they made their way out of the circle of bewildered wolves and humans. Not one of them looked back. The pack was on its own now.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“We’re heading to Paradise City. I have a friend we can stay with there and I think we can be some use to him with his business enterprise,” Marcus explained while Sabine, Finn, Rob and Bucky helped pack up some of the valuables in the house.
They had all spent the night there in preparation for leaving the next afternoon. Marcus had listed his house for sale that morning and had gifted his furniture and stuff to the wolves. They would be walking out the door with a few boxes of personal items and some small trinkets from the house each.
Rob and Bucky looked at each other before Bucky spoke up. “Rob and I would actually prefer to find a place of our own nearby if that isn’t going to be a problem. I was offered a job at an accounting firm a few months back and they may still be interested in hiring.”
“Of course, that’s fine,” Marcus said. “Gabriel has a huge place though and he’s more than happy to have you around if you change your minds. He’s surprisingly eager to have up on board; he probably doesn’t realize how much trouble Sabine is going to get everyone into.” Marcus joked, dodging the half-hearted kick she sent his way.
After a solid few hours of driving Marcus, Sabine and Finn reached Gabriel’s place. It was about an hour from the city and forest stretched for miles around them. The driveway was a long one and right at the road it had an automatic gate rigged with all kinds of security to discourage curious visitors.
The place was the biggest house Sabine had ever seen. It was relatively new looking and probably would have cost millions to build. The driveway had its own parking lot and that was full of cars. This was not the average home.
A big muscled and tall male opened the door and smiled warmly at them. He had dark hair pulled back out of his face with a leather thong and he looked damn dangerous to Sabine’s eyes. She was glad that he seemed to be on their side.
They were ushered into a huge room, with three separate staircases heading to different parts of the house. The room was wide, airy and warm, with a couple of camera focused on the doors. Gabriel saw Sabine inspecting them and explained.
“This place is where I and most of my employee’s live, as well as being my office. There’s surveillance all the way down the driveway and all the areas to the right on the first floor.” He pointed towards an office set up through one of the hallways.
“Our offices are through there and we like to keep a close eye on our clients.”
Gabriel greeted the group warmly. Finn and Marcus shook hands with him, before Marcus introduced Sabine. Generally, she didn’t shake hands with people, but at Marcus’ look she extended her hand and tried for some semblance of a smile.
There were no indications that Gabriel wasn’t friendly, but as he clasped her hand she took a quick peek at him with her mind and what she saw there relieved her to no end. This guy, as threatening as he looked, was one of the good guys.
Gabriel gave her a long look with raised eyebrows. “Sabine Moon. That’s interesting. You arrived just in time. Everyone’s in the lounge waiting for dinner, so come through and meet them. There are a few people that aren’t going to be very pleased to see you for a bit, or at least until you’ve had a chance to tell your story,” he explained, leading them to the back of the house through a wide hallway.
Entering the lounge, they were greeted by a big group of people, some of them looking very defensive and one female was playing with a gun. Although she looked quite disinterested in them.
Sabine took a good look around the room and decided against unsheathing her claws. Few people were sitting, but there were some friendly looking faces in the bunch.
Gabriel took a step forward and growled in frustration.
“There will be no damn fighting, so you can all sit down and listen. If anyone doesn’t like the idea of staying after Marcus and his group have said their piece, then you are more than welcome to leave.”
Gabriel launched into introductions by starting with the stunning looking woman next to him. She had arresting green eyes, long wild inky black hair and a long flexible looking body. She also looked unhappy to see Sabine.
“This is my partner Max Seris. Her mother was bullied into Royce Moon’s pack and after her death in one of his little wars Max was kicked out. Max is our thief extraordinaire and our ‘retrieval agent’. She’s a Leopard.”
Sabine examined the woman with her head on the side. She could take her in a fight, but she really wasn’t interested in doing so. Making her decision she took a step forward and held out her hand.
“Sabine Moon. I remember your mother, she was absolutely lovely. I’m no longer a part of the Moon pack and have never held any real desire to be one of Royce’s minions.”
Max regarded her, the green eyes boring into Sabine’s grey ones. Nodding she shook her hand. “Nice to meet you Sabine. I won’t judge you on your past.” The girls’ mouth curved enticingly upwards into a cheeky grin.
“God knows I’d hate to be judged on mine.”
Next up was a fiery looking short woman. Her hair was streaked black and stunning red. She was cross-legged on the floor and dismantling a gun onto a clean towel.
“This is Jess Thomson. She’s our weapons guru and she can fix any machine ever invented. She’s a Fox.”
Jess nodded at them and carried on with what she was doing. Finn looked a little fascinated by the contrasts created by the small delicate looking woman, her gun and the bold ‘don’t fuck with me’ hair and attitude.
“Except computers. Don’t for the love of god give her a computer.” Piped up a blonde, friendly looking male curled up on the couch.
“That’s Grey Smith. He’s our tech geek and a little overprotective of his babies. He’s a Cheetah and his partner, Michael Fellows is a Tiger. Michael is some of our muscle. He’s more on the protection side of the business.”
Michael nodded from the couch next to Grey. He was a huge guy, typical for a tiger and had dark auburn hair and interesting gold flecked eyes.
“Next up we have Ryder Stroke and Alexis Devon. Ryder is my cousin, formally from Aruba. He’s here with Alexis to protect her from the council. They’re both Leopards.” Marcus looked them over a little confused.
They were both a little young looking. Ryder had long black hair, blue eyes and looked like a cross between a fighter and a dancer. Alexis had long brown hair that occasionally flashed red. She was tall and curvy and much more muscular than Max and Jess. She looked like a fighter to Sabine.
Both looked less than happy to see them.
“Did you say Devon? Like Devon Devon?” Finn asked confused.
“Yeah, she’s royal. Alex was banished to Dermott when she was thirteen because of the Theris uprising.”
Marcus began to get an inkling as to why she was so familiar looking and why they were less than impressed to see them.
Alexis spoke up for the first time. “My mother had an affair with a Theris and twenty years later here I am. My question, however, is what are you doing here?”
Marcus took a step forward. “Nice to meet you. I’m Marcus Lovure. Former leader of the Lovure Wolf Pack. This is my mate Sabine and my second in command Finn Balmier. I’m sure you’ve heard about the council’s plan to get rid of the Theris family. They did come to us and we did aid them, because when the council comes calling there’s not much you can do but obey. My wolves, our town, and our lifestyle would have been at risk had we turned them down. Your name was not on t
he list and I’m not sure the council was even aware of you. We were paid for a completed job and I can tell you for a fact that you are the only shifter with Theris blood in this country. The council was very thorough. The wolves have no further dealings with the council, but as I have no responsibility for them now if they do enter into an agreement with the council I will not hear about it. We will be staying with Gabriel for some time, I hope, and in that time, we will be working for him in Hunter Enterprises. If you are friends of Gabriel’s then that’s good enough for me. You have my assistance should you need it.”
Marcus extended his hand and Alexis shook it, followed by Ryder.
“Nice to meet you Marcus. I don’t want to sound like an ass here. Well, ok I do. You betray Alex and I’ll beat the living crap out of you, wolf.”
Marcus grinned and shook his head at the younger cat. “You have my word.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Later that night, after a surprisingly enjoyable dinner, Gabriel led them upstairs. They had been given a set of rooms on the second floor of the eastern wing. Gabriel explained that he tried to keep the shifters separate from each other to stop some of the infighting in the house.
He and Max had the top floor, including the rooftop garden, Michael and Grey had the first-floor eastern wing, which backed onto the Olympic sized outdoor swimming pool, Alex and Ryder had the second floor of the western wing and Jess had claimed some of the center of the house on the third floor. Finn was given the option of several rooms and he took a big airy one on the third floor.
They were given help carrying up their boxes of belongings by the others and then left alone for the night. Sabine instantly gave up all pretenses of helping Marcus unpack and instead explored their new rooms.
The bedroom was big and comfortable, with wooden floors, a fireplace and huge windows lining one wall with a view out over the swimming pool and gardens. There was a room leading into their bedroom from the hallway, designed to entertain visitors in, and that has a TV, computer and soft comfortable couches. The en-suit bathroom was huge and Sabine couldn’t wait to try out the big spa bath in the corner.
