I opened my eyes as the late afternoon coming through the window of our range rover sport hit them. I let out a groan, my nap wasn't long enough i was sti sleepy. I checked my phone it was 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon and we had been on the road since five. I sat up and stretched, my muscles were stiff from the long hour drive. "Where are we mom?"
"About twenty minutes out kmof st johns. You need to wake up and fix yourself up dear, you have got drool all over your face."She smiled as she looked back at me,Olivia lawson was a stunning without benefit if make up. Her sweedish heritage was clear, in her angular facial features, long blond hair that hung straight to the middle of her back. At age forty she haf a figure that a twenty something would spend hours in the gym for."We Wil be arriving at St judes pack house in the next twenty minutes, do you remember who we are meeting?" her father and the Alpha of the Tyrone's pack in South carolina was an imposing figure, even sitting behind the wheel."Yes dad we have been over it, four Alphas and their teenage sons who will leer at me and try to get into my pants," i shook my head, i really didn't want to deal with them. But it was protocol for unmated sons and daughters of Alphas and Betas to be brought to intercom meetings. There were so few of them and matings are so important for our survival." We have talked about your attitude Lauren, you need to be polite and respectful of the Alphas and their families, as we are trying to build alliances with them" dad looked at me in the mirror "and who knows maybe one of them will be your mate.""I don't want a mate daddy" I looked out of the window "the last thing i need is someone who just wants to put a baby in me, am boy ready to be that right now, i want to get my education, find my way in the world first"My mom laughed "i said the same thing when I was young, i had a year of college left when i met your father in a convention in denver, i thought my life plans were gone too but i talked to him about what i wanted and he supported me me""You guys are different, disgustingly cute but different, you believe in mates and true love some of this Alphas dont." i say with finality"we just have to be more careful dear, we want you to be happy, to find your true mate that Luna has decided for you. That's why we have taught you how to defend yourself but more importantly how to avoid bad situations. There will be those who want to put their mark on your neck just because of what it will gain them, if one succeeds you know what happens."she squeezed my hand tight" you have to watch yourself and avoid bad situations don't ever find yourself with unmated males, stay with us or your friends."We had covered this in some very uncomfortable pack classes on werewolf mating. Basically, their is one true mate, someone Luna herself has designated for you. Finding that person isn't easy, but you recognize them by smelland the pull is stronger and instant when you see them. When the male bites the female on the shoulder, it starts a mating bond between the two. The female can bite the male back, but that is for show, not for the bond. It just warns other females he is taken. The bond is completed whne the two make love in either wolf or human form. And the male bites the female again. Once the bond is formed, the bond only ends in death whne on roof the two dies. The connection is so strong that the surviving werewolf usually chooses to follow ther mate into death rather than go on without them. The problem is the bond can also form with the males bite even if the two aren't true mates, you will be irresistibly drawn to him to complete the bond once he bites you. The bond will overrude your desires even if it's againt your will. Tragically when this happens your true mate could be left alone for the rest of his life unless they take a mate out of convinience. "Don't worry mom, I will behave for the meet and greet and i will also take care of myself" I look out of the window we had taken the exit from 1-45 and now moving through the outskirts of the small city. "I hope my mate ends up being a third or fourth Alpha son" "we will close that bridge when we come to it Lauren, No matter what we will be happy you are with your mate" my mom says"A third or fourth son, well the first son was the Alpha heir and the second was usually his Beta. The sons stayed with their pack of birth, and it was expected their mate would drop everything leave her pack and everything she knows and go to be his Luna. In this case, these would leave my pack without an Alpha successor incase my parent's stepped down or died. I hated the idea of strangers fighting for the right to my packs. If it was a later son, they still had Alpha blood but didn't have a higher position waiting for them in their pack for them. So they would move to my pack and we would be next in line for Alphas. The other reason was the older sons grow up knowing they are next in power, and many of them are stuck up ass holes. I have no interest in hooking up with them. I dug into my purse for my comb and mirror, we were getting close. I wiped my face clean, got the hair back under control, and applied some touch up make up so i wouldn't look like i just spent the last eight hours sleeping. Dad pulled up in front of the pack house, and there was a reception line waiting for us. "Okay, everyone smile and stay sharp, we can't trust them yet." I nodded at my father as we got our and walked around. I took a deep sniff of the air, pivking out the scents of the gathered Alphas and their families.I wasn't the only one deeply sniffing the scents being carried along by the light breeze. Several of the young men lined up were also leaning their heads back and taking deep breaths, trying to pick up kn whether the new comer was their mate.My wolf yawned in my head nothing.I would live for another day it seems.I smiled and joined my parents behind them as they walked to the host Alpha family.Alpha Godwin was in his sixties and was old fashioned. "Thank you for having us," my dad introduced us, "This is Lauren our Alpha heiress and soon to be college student " i smiled and gripped his hand firmly as i had been taught."pleased to meet you Lauren, you are as striking as your mother. This is my son Felix and his mate June, and this is my other son Ezra."the older ones made a cute pair while the other one looked at me like a piece of fresh meat on the grill. I was polite but gave Ezra the not interested look i had perfected in High school." Have you
"Kill me and i will haunt your ass all the way to hell"He started to take of his shirt, exposing his broad chest, then he unbuckled his belt, dropping his jeans to the floor. His manhood was swelling already, reaching out to me as his lust for me built.I turned my head away from him, as he climbed into the foot of the bed. I pretended to be too weak to hold my legs together, as he forced one aside. He hadn't put the leg cuffs back on. I looked up at him as he crawled up the bed, his knees straddling my right leg,shaking my head begging him not to do this."Please don't do this, do you really want to start a life long relationship based on rape? What will our children think?""Our children will never know, once am your Alpha, i will command you never to speak of this. You will only tell the story of how we knew we were mates at the lake. Your wolf will never disobey or harm me once the bond is in place" he crawled up, kissing my stomach and then caressin
I woke up to a weird feeling, my right leg was wet and was being lifted. I pushed my thoughts through the fog as my eyes slowly opened. I was still in the cabin,still naked and he was still there.I reached for the wolf in my mind but she was barely conscious, and couldn't do much for me. I looked down, the blanket and sheet had been removed and Alex was giving me a sponge bath. He was sitting at the end of the bed with my legs over his. "Really? Do i smell that bad?"He chuckles "Your smell is wonderful, it's just a bit strong right now. I thought you might feel better if i got you cleaned up a little, get the lake smell off you" he stroked the sponge down my calf. "And i dont mind taking care of you, it gives me an excuse to lay my scent on you later"I huffed a little and laid back, still a little woozy from the drugs. "Can i get something to eat and drink am starving""That my dear depends on how much you cooperate" he set my right leg down and picked my left
He started to take off his shirt, exposing his broad chest. Then he unbuckled his belt, dropping his pants to the floor. His manhood was already swelling, reaching out to me as his lust for me built.Let him get close to you, let him think that you are too weak to fight him. We are going to fight him, we cant go down without a fight. I agreed with my wolf, it was time to play possum.I turned my head away from him whining softly and rattling the handcuffs as he climbed into the foot of the bed, his knees straddling my right leg, shaking my head and begging him not to do this "This isn’t right, this is rape and you know it. Do you want to start a lifelong relationship with your mate this way? What will our children think?" "Our children dear will never know, once I am your alpha, I will command you never to speak of this again, you will only tell a story of how we knew we were mates at the lake. And how happy you are with me. Your wolf will never disobey me nor hurt me once the bond
"Then you would be dead too Dennis.These packs aren't like us, women to them are poker chips to be traded for favors."He paused, "I still should have done something. Your wolf is dead, you are sure of that?""Yes, i feel it. She knew it was coming""Then you should smell fully human, you should go to them, go to the humans and get medical help. Surround yourself with humans, they won't risk exposing themselves." i had to agree with them. It was like i could see a pack doctor now."you also need to ditch the truck and the phone after you hang up, they can track them. Get somewhere public and get to the hospital. Jave someone call an ambulance id you can't mame it on your own. Do you have a wallet? Your identification or money?""Everything i owned was back in the pack house, either in my guest room or expedition which neither i would be able to get to. Am wearing his tshirt.""You will need a cover story, its not like a half naked girl missing a thumb shows up every day."" Well i ca
Chicago: NovemberLauren tried to disappear into the passenger seat. She hadn’t realized how much of her confidence had been tied to having Toby beside her. She’d only known him a day and a half, and he’d changed her world, at least while he was still next to her.Without him, all of her newly regained confidence had disappeared. Its mockingabsence only pointed out what a coward she really was. As if she needed reminding.She glanced over at the man who was driving Malcom ’s rented SUV with casual ease through the light after-morning-rush-hour traffic on the slush-covered expressway as if he were a Chicago native, instead of a visitor from the wilds of Montana.Toby’s father, Brian, looked for all the world like a college student, a computer geek or maybe an art major. Someone sensitive, gentle, and young, but she knew he was none of these things. He was the Marrok, the one all the Alphas answered to and no one dominated an Alpha werewolf by being sensitive and gentle.He wasn’t yo
She could look at Brian, and so she watched his eyes assess the wolves Shawn had brought like a general surveying his troops. His gaze settled on Michael.Lauren looked, too, seeing what the Marrok saw: old jeans with a hole in one knee, tennis shoes that had seen better days. It was very much like what she was wearing, except that her hole was in her left knee, not the right.“Will the time it takes to drive to Montana and back put your job at risk?” Brian asked. Thomas kept his eyes on his toes and answered, soft-voiced, “No, sir. I work in construction, and this is the slow season. I okayed it with the boss; he says I have two weeks.”Brian pulled a checkbook out of his pocket, and using one of the other wolves’ shoulders to give him a solid surface to write on, made out a check. “This is for your expenses on this trip. We will figure out a pay rate and have money waiting for you when you get to Montana.”Relief flashed in Michael’s eyes, but he didn’t say anything.Brian went thro
She could look at Brian, and so she watched his eyes assess the wolves Shawn had brought like a general surveying his troops. His gaze settled on Michael. Lauren looked, too, seeing what the Marrok saw: old jeans with a hole in one knee, tennis shoes that had seen better days. It was very much like what she was wearing, except that her hole was in her left knee, not the right.“Will the time it takes to drive to Montana and back put your job at risk?” Brian asked. Thomas kept his eyes on his toes and answered, soft-voiced, “No, sir. I work in construction, and this is the slow season. I okayed it with the boss; he says I have two weeks.”Brian pulled a checkbook out of his pocket, and using one of the other wolves’ shoulders to give him a solid surface to write on, made out a check. “This is for your expenses on this trip. We will figure out a pay rate and have money waiting for you when you get to Montana.”Relief flashed in Michael’s eyes, but he didn’t say anything.Brian went thr
When you failed, you and that other wolf—Brian would send only the best. You lie and lie as if it were the truth.” “You don’t want to believe me,” Asil said. “But you can taste truth—your link to Sarai is strong enough. You were a danger to yourself and us. We did it for your own good. It was that or kill you.” She flicked a trembling finger at him. “Shut up.” Asil’s face lost its cool composure, and he grimaced. As he continued, his voice was breathless with pain. “What you have done is an abomination. This thing you have turned Sarai into doesn’t love you, she serves as a slave serves, without the ability to choose, just as I do. Brian is more than you can handle. He will kill you—and it is your own fault.” “I won’t die,” she shouted at him. “I didn’t die when Linnea tried to kill me —she didn’t know how powerful I was or how much my mother had taught me. I killed her and her pet students and studied the books she left behind— for months I wrote to you and signed the letters from he
Brian would hold out for a while. First, the witch could make a mistake— especially if she didn’t know whom she held. Second, he was afraid that this time no one would be able to kill him. It had been Samuel who brought him out of it before . . . and Samuel wasn’t as certain of himself as he used to be. The control the witch asserted over him had to be won by blood and flesh, and the only flesh and blood bonding he’d done was to his own pack. She must have used Asil to insert herself into his pack—but how? While she looked him over, he searched his link to Asil for something that touched a witch. He paid very little attention to the witch as she talked at him. With the dexterity of a very long lifetime, Brian slid through Asil and found a dead woman—it could only be Asil’s mate. It was an impossibility. No one could link to a dead woman; he knew that because when Blue Jay Woman, Toby’s mother, died, he’d tried to hold on to her. But, impossibilities become possible when you added a wi
Since the cabin hadn’t kept him out and he didn’t feel the need to leave, he could only assume that the circle was the latter kind—which meant that there were more dead things under the floor. He took a deep breath, but the dead animal he’d already seen might account for the scent of death—and nothing was rotting. Either the animal she’d killed to draw her circle hadn’t been dead long—it had frozen in the cold— or she had a spell to disguise it to keep away scavengers. Changing what the senses of others perceived was one of the major powers of the witch. His father said that Toby might have been a witch if he’d chosen to study. Brian hadn’t urged him to do so, but he also didn’t discourage it, either; a witch in his pack would have given him even more power. But the subtler magics of his mother’s people suited Toby, and he’d never regretted the path he’d chosen less than he did right now, standing in the middle of this poor cabin stained with evil. The scent on the sleeping bag on the
THE darkness bothered Brian not at all as he followed Tag’s directions to the place he and Toby had thought would be the best starting point. He passed Asil’s Subaru and hesitated—if Asil had been going after Toby, he’d have known the fastest way there. But Toby would be headed back to his car if something had gone wrong. So Brian kept driving. Other things he might do ran through his head. There were witches in the pay of the wolves. Not his pack—he didn’t deal with black witches, and most white witches weren’t powerful enough to be useful. But there were witches available to him. If he had a two-hundred-year-old witch capable of holding and torturing a werewolf for two dadsys—he had no intention of advertising the fact and encouraging other witches to imitate this one. Especially since she, like Brian’s mother, might have gotten her ability through some kind of binding to a werewolf. No. Best keep the witches out of it. He could call Toby back. That was a harder thing. Telepathy was
LAUREN opened her eyes in the dadsrkness, certain that something had wakened her again. She raised her head from Toby’s warm, sweet[1]smelling skin and looked around. Dennis was nowhere to be seen, and sometime in the night, she and Toby had reversed positions, so he lay between her and dadsnger. The wind and snow had ceased, leaving the forest silent and waiting. “Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni,” she murmured. Too bad Scotty wasn’t around to beam them to safety. There was something about the heavy atmosphere that was frightening. She listened hard but heard nothing. The weighted silence pounded on her ears and made the beat of her heart even louder in the stillness of the winter night. Her heartbeat, her breath was the only thing she could hear. “Toby?” she whispered, touching his shoulder tentatively. When he didn’t respond, she shook him. His body fell away from her. He’d been lying on his side, but he rolled limply out from under their barely adequate shelter and onto the snow. Th
AS soon as Toby went out to talk to Asil, Lauren had begun her change. She needed to deal with that wolf with her tongue rather than fang and claw. He was too good at riling her mate—and Toby was still volatile from his encounter with the witch. She didn’t give any thought to Dennis until she was naked and panting in the cold night air. She might have had three years to get used to being nude in front of people she didn’t know well, but he hadn’t. She glanced at him, but he had his head turned away from her and was staring intently at a nearby tree trunk, the perfect gentleman. She quit worrying about him and scrambled into her chilly clothes and boots because she could sense Toby’s rising rage at Asil; Asil had put the Marrok and his pack at risk. But more than that, she was worried that neither Toby nor Asil realized how close Toby was to his breaking point. She found it curious that she did. Boots on, coat on, Lauren rolled out of their sleeping place and onto her feet. She didn’t
He called the magic to him and let it rip through his body, changing as he walked. It hurt, but he knew it didn’t show on his face or make his limp any worse. If he’d been healthier and the spirits willing, he might even have been able to conjure up a new pair of snowshoes instead of having to wade. At least the snow on the bench, regularly scoured by the wind, was only a foot or so deep most places—half of that had fallen tonight. Asil smiled a little, as if he recognized Toby’s power play for what it was, but he dropped his eyes. Though Toby knew better than to trust the submission in the other’s body language, it was enough for now. Toby kept his voice low. “How did you find us?” It was an important question. They were nowhere near the place they’d have been camping if he and Lauren had followed the trip as he’d outlined it with Tag. Had he done something stupid that would let the witch find them, too? The oddities of the past twenty-four hours had badly shaken his confidence—and t
Afterward, she lay panting and miserable on the ice-crystal-covered snow, too tired to move. Even cold, she discovered, had a smell. Gradually, as her misery faded, she realized that for the first time since last night, when Toby had curled around her and surrounded her with his warmth, she felt toasty-warm. As the initial agony faded to aches and pains, she stretched, making her claws expand and lengthen like a big cat’s. Her back popped and crackled all the way down her spine. She didn’t want to go back and curl up with a strange male only feet away. The wolf wasn’t afraid of the male. She knew he wasn’t likely to behave like the Others. But she didn’t much like the idea of touching anyone other than Toby, either. Near but out of sight, a wolf, Toby, made a quiet sound, not quite a bark or a whine. Wobbly as a newborn foal, she staggered to her feet. She paused to shake the snow off her pelt and give herself a moment to get used to four paws before starting back, her clothes in her
Did she still regret that? Toby was overcome with the wild desire to kill them all again, Leo and his mate, the whole Chicago pack—but at the same time he was pathetically grateful that his mate was a werewolf who wouldn’t fade and die the way Samuel’s wives all had. Brother Wolf stirred and settled down, just like Dennis had. “The wolf who attacked you didn’t come back to you, then, after you Changed?” Toby asked. Usually when a wolf Changed someone, it was drawn back to the new werewolf for a while. Mostly, Samuel had theorized to him once, some genetic imperative to make sure that an untaught, uncontrolled werewolf wasn’t going to draw too much unwanted attention. Dennis shook his head. “Like I said, I tracked her down myself, after the first full moon—she and that woman. What is she anyway? She sure as hell ain’t human—sorry, ma’am— not with the things I seen her do. She tried to call me to her the first time I Changed. I didn’t know what she was, only that she smelled bad—like th