The she-wolves turned their eyes to the road when their sensitive ears picked up the sound of a vehicle, its engine a distant sputter and hum. Thanks to wolf shifter sharp senses, they always picked up when visitors were on the horizon and effectively hid all wolf business out of sight. It wasn’t something they had to do very often. They rarely got visitors, and they got less of the human variety. There wasn’t much to do in their small town as far as vacationing went, and they didn’t have any tourist attractions.
The vehicle on the road was a teal-gray van. It picked up loose dirt as it drove steadily forward on its way into town. It would reach the motels before it hit any of the other buildings in Moonwatch.
“Want to check it out?” Gwen asked as the van was pulling up to the finished motel across the grassy field from where they sat.
“Why not?” Willow replied. “We can be the welcome committee.”
The she-wolves got up and walked across the field at a brisk pace, timing their arrival for when the van was officially parked. The thing looked full based on what Willow could see through the tinted windows. The motels in Moonwatch were, of course, open to anyone, but the finished motel was pretty much full already with Awakened Wolves. She wondered what the family in the van wanted. She figured it was a family. She couldn’t see who was driving, but she got a clear view of a woman in the front passenger seat. She had deep red hair and freckles all over her face. Everyone else Willow could see was younger than her, but she didn’t look old enough to be the mother to all of them. However, there was a family resemblance—even though the woman was the only one with hair such a deep fiery red.
Gwen and Willow already had smiles on their faces, ready to greet their guests. The red-haired woman got out of the van first. She smiled back and waved.
“Hi,” she said.
Gwen responded with a greeting of her own, but Willow tuned it out. That woman smelled oddly familiar. At least, one part of her scent did. Something else drew Willow’s attention. A glimpse of the driver. Something about him was familiar.
Her chest tightened and her smile faded away as the man walked around the van to meet them. Everyone in the van was getting out now, but Willow was only interested in the man. She knew his scent. It wasn’t just the scent of a wolf shifter. It was the scent of a wolf shifter she once knew well.
Casey Hunt.
When the van no longer hid him, when he was out in the open for her to see clearly, she knew it was true. Years had passed, and he had filled out more, but it was him. It was the wolf who was supposed to be her mate. It was the same wolf who had betrayed his pack and ran away.
Her breaths were coming in short and fast. She almost choked on the air. She was hyperventilating.
“Willow?” Gwen’s voice echoed in her ears like she was under water, muffled, strange, and distorted. She hardly felt it when Gwen’s hands were on her arms. Gwen was at Willow’s back, supporting her. If she wasn’t there, Willow knew she would have been on the ground. All of her strength was gone.
“Willow,” Gwen said in her calm voice. She always seemed to know what to do in tense situations. “Breathe, Will. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“C-Casey,” was all Willow could manage to say. She was repeating his name so shakily and quietly she wasn’t sure anyone could understand her. Her mind had gone blank. Shock had taken her over.
Why was he back? Why now? To torture her? And who was that red-haired woman? She had to be Casey’s mate. That was the only explanation for their scents being combined. Casey had claimed this human woman.
“Are you okay?” the woman asked as she grabbed a little boy from out of a car seat. This boy was a wolf shifter too. Casey and this little boy were the only wolf shifters out of the nine people who were in the van. That meant this little boy was Casey’s pup. Casey had a pup with a human! That could happen?
Willow didn’t know it was possible to hurt this much. She didn’t think it was possible to hurt more than she hurt the night Casey ran and scarred her. She was wrong. That little boy, Casey’s little boy, was the last straw. Everything she had wanted with Casey was right here with this other woman.
Where was Willow’s Fated Mate? Where was her happily ever after?
A pearly sheen on the woman’s left earlobe gave away just how deep hers and Casey’s bond went. She had the same kind of mark Gwen had on the back of her right hand. A Lunas Sigil. A Moon Mark. This woman was, in fact, Casey’s Fated Mate.
“Casey?” Gwen repeated in a whisper. She had never met the wolf, but she knew the story well enough by now. She moved in front of Willow as if to shield her.
Willow couldn’t stop herself from peeking around Gwen. Casey was looking right at her with his brown-green eyes she knew so well. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but nothing came out. Then he looked up, past Willow. Still shaking uncontrollably, Willow looked behind her as well to see Howard. His eyes were wide, but he got a hold of himself, and his face hardened into a steely mask. He rolled his shoulder forward. He flexed his hands and balled them into fists.
“Hey, Dad,” Casey said with his head slightly bowed in submission.
Willow wondered if Howard might say something back. He flexed his hands and balled them into fists a few more times. It looked like he was going to punch his son’s lights out, to make him hurt for what he did to the pack. Howard’s wolf was literally just under his skin, begging to be released. Suddenly, he turned away, stomping as he hastily left the area. Willow wasn’t sure she had ever seen him so angry.
Casey sighed, and his mate grabbed his hand. His whole human family, eight people, gathered around him as if to comfort him, and he scooped his little boy up in his arms. The boy was a healthy mix of his mother and father. He had primarily brown hair with a red undertone, brown eyes, fair skin. He had some freckles like his mother. If Willow had to guess, she would say he was around two years old. He could probably shift.
“What do you want?” Gwen asked. Her tone was even. It wasn’t like she had a personal grudge against Casey, but she was protective of her pack, her family. It was wolf instinct.
“To apologize,” Casey said. He looked right at Willow when he said it. “Willow, I’m sorry. I was a total ass to you, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. But I’ve been missing home. The whole pack. I know I didn’t handle things well back then, but I didn’t like how the pack was living. I somehow knew my Fated Mate was out there waiting for me. I had to find her.” He roughed up his little boy’s hair. “I came back because I heard a rumor about new wolf shifters being welcomed into Blue Pack. Awakened Wolves is what you’ve been calling them, right? I thought… maybe things have changed around here. And my family wanted to see where I grew up. They’ve been my pack and stood beside me for years. They know I’m a wolf. If… if this is too much, I understand. We’ll leave. I did betray Blue Pack after all.”
Casey was standing there in front of Willow, and he was apologizing, being totally submissive. She heard the words he spoke, but she didn’t believe them. She was too hurt. Her feelings were too raw even though years had passed since Casey’s betrayal. Willow clung to Gwen, fighting the shake in her hands. She wanted to cry. This was all so fucked up.
A growl drew everyone’s attention. It was Nick. The Blue Pack Alpha was here now. Willow’s big brother would take care of everything. He was a muscular wolf shifter with enough dominance for several alphas in Willow’s opinion. Casey was a beta wolf. There was no way he’d be able to cause any trouble with Nick around.
“Is everything you just said true?” Nick demanded. He quieted the growl in his throat when one of the girls in Casey’s family whimpered. However, his aggression didn’t subside. He was making sure Casey felt his dominance.
“Yes,” Casey replied steadily. His head was slightly bowed in submission again, but that single word he spoke held conviction.
Nick looked over Casey and his family.
“They keep our secret,” Casey said. “They understand how imp
ortant it is.”
“What do you want exactly?” Nick asked.
“To be able to come home. To see my parents. To apologize and maybe get some understanding. To maybe be forgiven.” Casey rested his eyes on Gwen. “I think you already understand.”
“She’s your Fated Made.” Nick tilted his head toward the red-haired woman.
“Yes. Karol.”
“I do understand.” Nick bared his teeth and growled. “Prove your resolve. Prove what Blue Pack means to you.”
Nick heated up his aggression tenfold. Suddenly, he and Casey were on the verge of shifting. Casey quickly set down his son and urged his family back before he and Nick shed their clothes in a blinding flurry. In mere seconds their bones were cracking, their bodies changing shape, growing fur and tails.
They emerged fully wolf at the same time. For a moment, they both stood with their hackles raised, heads low. Jaws snapped and growls pierced the air as Casey’s family drew back farther in surprise and fear—except for Casey’s little boy. His instincts told him what was going on. He watched with intent brown eyes, observing the exchange between his father and an Alpha.
Casey, a large brown wolf, though quite a bit smaller than Nick’s blue-gray wolf, stood his ground as Nick leaped forward. The Blue Pack Alpha had his jaws on Casey, forcing him to the ground. Then his teeth were on Casey’s throat. Casey’s human family whimpered, worried for the wolf shifter they all seemed to love very much.
The red-haired woman grabbed her son protectively and pleaded, “Don’t hurt him! It was my idea for him to come back and try to fix what happened before. Please! We don’t mean any trouble.”
Gwen replied firmly, “Nick isn’t hurting him. Watch closely.”
As was often the case with Gwen’s authoritative and calm presence, the family quieted some. True to her word, Nick hadn’t latched down on Casey’s throat to hurt him. He hadn’t drawn any blood. It was a test to see if Casey was willing to bow down to the Alpha. In a vulnerable position like this, Nick could read him the easiest and discern his intentions.
Willow felt like she was a non-existent observer in all of this, like she was having an out of body experience or a dream. Holding on to Gwen was the only thing keeping her grounded.
The exchange didn’t last more than a minute. Nick moved away, allowing Casey back to his feet. They bowed their heads, and then they were shifting back into their human forms. Casey had barely put his pants back on when his family surrounded him, hugging him. Relief was prominent in the air around them. The others must have been his mate’s siblings. It was the only explanation Willow could come up with.
“Are you okay?” his mate asked, teary eyed.
“Perfectly,” he replied, kissing her lightly on the lips.
Nick, once again dressed and presentable to humans, walked behind Willow and Gwen. He was silent for a moment, watching Casey and his family interact, scrutinizing their interactions.
“Nicky,” Willow said quietly, turning to her brother. Gwen was a comfort, but she wasn’t there when everything happened with Casey. Nick placed a warm and reassuring hand on Willow’s back. She gripped his shirt desperately in return. She didn’t know what she was begging him to do, but it wasn’t what he did next.
“You and your family can stay at the motel over there,” Nick said as he pointed out the one under construction. “There are a couple finished rooms that’ll work just fine. This one is full. As for what happens after that… we have a lot to catch up on.”
“Thank you, Nick,” Casey said. “Seriously.”
That was it. Willow couldn’t take anymore.
She pushed hard against her brother’s iron chest, escaping his touch. Then she ran. She ran faster than she ever had in her human body. She heard her brother calling after her, but she wasn’t stopping—not even for her Alpha.
Eventually, she made it to her home, the home that was supposed to belong to her and Casey. She headed straight for her bedroom and plopped down on her bed adorned with a fluffy pink comforter. She buried her face into her equally fluffy pink pillow and bawled. She was crying and heaving. She was sure her face looked like a mess. Waterproof mascara or not, rubbing her face in a pillow like this was not going to make her look good. It’d stain her pillow, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
She thought Nick was as angry at Casey for leaving as she was. She couldn’t believe he invited him to stay! He should have sent him packing! He had a perfectly good family to go home with.
“Fuck!” she screamed into her pillow.
His family. They looked so happy. She was so jealous. That was what she dreamed of having. Maybe she could have had that with Casey if he hadn’t left. Fated Mate or not. Then again, the whole reason he was able to leave like that in the first place meant he never loved her the way she loved him. He said that the night he left. Was Willow doomed to failure then? Did her love for Casey mean she didn’t have a Fated Mate? It would be fitting. She was a tragic girl and the hopeless romantic her brother often accused her of being—though he had lightened up on that since he and Gwen got together.
She didn’t know if she would ever be able to forgive Casey for what he did. She did know that she didn’t want to be in Moonwatch if he was. At least for a few days. She needed to be away. She needed to go somewhere she could calm down and think again.
She hopped off her bed, pulled out a suitcase from her closet, and began packing furiously. She had an assortment of clothes haphazardly thrown on her bed when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. She had left her front door unlocked—it wasn’t an uncommon thing to do in Moonwatch—and her bedroom door was open. Nick was only knocking to be courteous she supposed, but she ignored him and continued working at her feverish pace.
“Go away!” she shouted when he stepped inside her room.
“Willow, listen.”
“No! You’ve done enough. I’m leaving.”
“Listen.” There was a growl in Nick’s throat. His authority as her Alpha made it hard for her to refuse him this time. Willow stared at his shoes, unable to meet his eyes.
“I didn’t do this to hurt you,” her brother informed. “This is something the entire pack needs to face. Not just you. Casey is being sincere. We both know the pack had problems before. It still does. We’re not perfect. I’m not excusing him or anything like that, but we have a chance to make things better. For everyone. Even you.”
“How is this better for me?” Willow asked spitefully.
“You need to get over him. Maybe this will help you do it.”
“Why are you defending him?!” Willow screamed. “I loved him!” A part of her still did. “He knew that, and he made me believe he loved me too. Then he just up and left me that night!”
“He was wrong to do that to you, Willow. I agree with you, but I also believe his Fated Mate was calling to him that night. The Moon guided him or he wouldn’t have found his mate. He was never supposed to be with you in the first place. What happened to all your enthusiasm about finding your Fated Mate someday? Fuck Casey. Stop letting him control you like this.”
Her brother didn’t understand. He couldn’t. He had never loved anyone before his Fated Mate. Neither had Casey as far as Willow knew. Neither of them understood.
There was no Fated Mate for her.
Tears fell from her eyes, growing in volume as she curled her hands into fists. She dug her nails into her palms. Then she quickly wiped her eyes and threw a couple more things into her suitcase.
“I can’t stay here,” she said as calmly as she could manage. “Don’t make me stay.”
“I won’t make you stay, but I’m going to be calling to check up on you, so bring your phone.”
Willow nodded.
“I still think you’d be better off if you stayed and faced this.”
Willow managed a weak shake of her head. She wasn’t doing that. Not right now. Maybe not ever.
Gwen walked inside of the room, apparently just arriving after allowing Nick s
ome time alone with his sister. She came right up to Willow and hugged her tight. “Do you want me to go with you? We can party. Just us girls.”
Willow squeezed her back. “As fun as that sounds, I really do need some alone time. I’m going to head to Boise. Take a vacation in the biggest city around or whatever. Maybe go to some clubs if I get lonely.”
Gwen kissed Willow’s forehead. “I understand.”
Nick and Gwen hung around silently as Willow locked her suitcase, wiped the bits of mascara from her face, grabbed her white purse, phone, keys, and headed out the door. She put everything inside of her turquoise Ford Thunderbird. Then she took a deep breath. She gave Nick and Gwen a little wave before starting the engine and driving away.
To get to Boise, she had to drive past the motels. That meant seeing Casey and his family again. They were in the same place she had left them, but Julie was with them now. She was hugging her son with tears in her eyes. It felt like a betrayal.
Willow hurriedly wiped more tears from her eyes and told herself there would be no more crying. She concentrated on the road ahead, running alongside Blue Forest. Soon she’d make it to Boise. She’d forget all of this and have a good time.
Now she was the one running away.
Chapter 4
AFTER SUCCESSFULLY PAWNING OFF Erin Smith’s belongings, Derek made his way to Boise, Idaho. Yeah, he wanted to get away from things and relax for a while, but he didn’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere. He was more at home in a city. It was what he knew. What would a wolf shifter like him do in the boonies? No, he wanted a place with a club, with a selection of beautiful women.
Tonight he was at the biggest club in Boise. Of course, it was nothing he hadn’t seen before, and it paled in comparison to many, but it wasn’t bad. He didn’t care about those things so much tonight. What he really wanted was to get laid. He had a need that had to be filled. A release was long overdue.
Now he just needed to pick a woman.
Her Fierce Wolf (Marked By The Moon Book 2) Page 3
