Risky, risky, risky.
The word echoed in my head with every step as I darted through the neighborhood, slinking behind bushes and fences, hiding in the shadows, racing to cross streets only when I was certain there were no human eyes to catch sight of me.
Risky.
We never left the packhouse in our wolf forms. It was a rule I’d established from day one. This home would never be associated with big dogs, howling, or… any other strange occurrences. Yet, here I was, breaking my own instruction—and bringing my brother with me.
Mack had taken one look at me barreling through the house in my wolf, stripped down, and fol
~ RIG ~“It’s between Natalie and me,” Mack muttered, picking up a little twig from the dirt and snapping the end of it off, over and over again, his jaw tight and eyes narrowed. “But just, take my word for it… I get it. That drive. That burn in your guts. I get it. And trust me, it’s not a fun war to fight. So if you need backup, just let me know.”It was humbling to hear him offer himself that way, especially after—“So, you did this alone. None of us knew—”“I think Charlie suspected a long time ago, but I dodged it when he talked around it, and he never asked me outright. Plus, you know what he’s like.”I nodded. Charlie wouldn’t
~ CARA ~I woke up the next morning from a night of frantic dreams of losing Rig in a dozen different ways and the first thing I was aware of was anxiety twisting and fizzing in my chest.For a moment I was disoriented, uncertain what was dream and what was reality. But the second I opened my eyes and saw the light filtering through the windows in Rig’s room, I sucked in a breath.Quick as a flash I rolled over, reaching out… but the other side of the bed was empty and cold. And the blankets had never been pulled back.The view of the flat quilt and lack of Rig-shaped-hollow made my chest tighten and go hollow in the same moment.Purrkins, who’d been disturbed by my sudden movement,
~ CARA ~I stood there in Rig’s shower, water rushing over me, surrounded in steam that smelled like him, and shivered. Not from cold, but from fear.If I was in love with Rig Landon, why didn’t I trust him? No one had ever made me feel safe the way he did—whether he was himself or in Ralf’s body, it didn’t matter. When he was close, I felt like there was a shield between me and the world. Even last night when he’d been so tense and aggressive, I’d never felt afraid of him.I’d feared being apart from him. It had been so hard in the car with Natalie between us. I’d just wanted to be in his arms.Those weeks after I saw him kiss her,
~ CARA ~My heart beat so fast I was afraid he’d feel it. He kissed me like I was water in the desert and I clung to him like I was hanging off a cliff… which I kind of was.My head spun, buzzing, thrumming with my pulse that pounded until I couldn’t hear anything but that.But there was something in my chest, crawling up my throat, urgent and desperate.Then Rig stroked his fingers through my hair and the tingle that started in my scalp made my breath shudder, and I knew if I didn’t get the words out now, they were going to get drowned in desire, and I couldn’t let that happen.I yanked back, out of the kiss.Rig’s face dropped. He was
~ RIG ~My pulse thumped in my ears as Cara’s eyes flew wide and her mouth dropped open. She froze and suddenly every fear, every last nerve, screamed at me.Was she going to say no?“What? Rig… how? Your dad… the pack—”I gripped her, pleading with her to see that I was telling her the truth. “I don’t ever want you to question if I’m really here, Cara. Not once. I see it in you every day—I smell it on you. You’re afraid. Afraid I’m leaving or that I have eyes for anyone else. You’re afraid that I’m… I don’t know… still a man-whore? That kills me. You’re everything to me now. I swear it. I want to bite something every time you doubt me because I’m over her
~ RIG ~“Rig, focus.” Mack stared at me, frustrated, but patient.I blinked and tore my thoughts back from the obsessive thoughts about Cara and wondering what she was doing and if she was okay.Mack rolled his eyes. His dark hair had fallen over his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he’d lost weight, or it was just the dark circles under his eyes making them look more sunken.A tidal wave of guilt washed over me from knowing that my friend had been so tortured for so long and I was only just noticing because he’d finally told me.“Mack—”“Cara’s fine,” he said quickly. “You know she’s fine. Natalie isn&rsqu
~ RIG ~I took a deep breath and prayed, then lied to my father through my teeth.“I’m thinking… I’m thinking I tell him that you want me to establish the pack before the matebond. That he’s going to be my second, and not to tell the others, because they all want it too. Not to tell Charlie, because he’ll be mad. I’ll tell him I’m going to spring it on the others that we’ll do the vows when we get back from our trip. He won’t want to submit to me, Dad. But he won’t want me out of his sight either. So if he’s planning to challenge me, he’s going to solidify his support while we’re gone. Charlie will sniff it out. If he does, I’ll kill Mack and his little human… whatever she is while we’re gone. We come back and no one has to think about it again.”
~ RIG ~It was an exhausting day, and one in which I was reminded again how grateful I was to have money.It was amazing what a person—or a wolf—could accomplish in a day with a bottomless wallet. And amazing what you couldn’t buy.I couldn’t buy safety. I couldn’t buy certainty about what was going to happen. I couldn’t buy reassurance.But damned if I couldn’t buy most everything else I needed. Everyone had their price.It was also amazing how every task, every step in every task, seemed to just remind me of something else that would be needed.By the time night was falling, I wasn’t just exhausted physically, but mentally.
~ RIG ~ I let my upper lip curl up and bare my teeth. Let him see that he was dealing with a helluva lot more than a spoiled rich kid. His instincts were dulled by humanity and alcohol, but even his dimwitted senses caught the flash of my teeth. He stiffened. I smiled. “My wife wants to share her wedding with her Mom—we eloped, but we’ve just watched some friends getting married and it’s making her think about what we missed, so we’re going to do it properly. Make another memory. And Cara wants to share that with her mom. So, we’re going to renew our vows in front of everyone we care about. Which, sadly, includes you.” He smiled and I wanted to bite his face off. “You are invited,” I growled. “But you
SOUNDTRACK: “Your Daughter” by Chase McDaniel. ***** ~ RIG (Three weeks later) ~ Getting out of my jeep in the driveway of the house that was the site of Cara’s torture turned my stomach. My Alpha power—still difficult to contain at times, making me itchy and prone to aggression—surged as I took in the cracked cement with weeds and grass growing up, the overgrown flower beds now little jungles of three foot weeds, and the grass that was thin and patchy, and mostly dead. This was the place that her fucking father had made her believe no one could love her. This was the place she’d been hurt. This was the place I wanted to burn to the fucking ground. But for today, at least, that wasn’t the assig
SOUNDTRACK: “Unbearable” by Nathan Wagner. ***** ~ CHARLIE ~ Watching Mack salivate over Natalie as she walked up the aisle was a very specific kind of torment. Because even though I was supposed to be watching our friends publicly vow themselves, my eyes kept drifting back to Meg who, alongside Cara and Tessa, was standing with Natalie today. She looked… stunning. Natalie, always with the impeccable taste that I didn’t understand, but could fully appreciate, had draped all the girls in floor-length, light-green, figure-hugging-but-not-clinging dresses that revealed flesh without being suggestive. It was fucking torture.
~ MACK ~ When Natalie and Cara finally reached us on the stage, I knew that there was an exchange with the officiant. Cara and Rig said something, but I didn’t hear it. I just took Natalie’s hands and pulled her up to stand in front of me. I was aware of people speaking after that. The officiant—a wolf who’d been among the rebels, whose aunt was human, and had become ordained—spoke for a few minutes about marriage and what it meant, but all I could think about was the deep pools of her eyes, that hollow in her throat that she’d offered me the night before last, and how my entire blood hummed with love and desire and— There was a ripple of laughter. “Oh, what?” I asked. Someone had asked me something. Oh, right. “I do!”
SOUNDTRACK: “Don’t Give Up on Me” by Andy Grammar ***** ~ MACK ~ I had been shitting myself. Absolutely, one hundred percent, about-to-claw-my-own-hair-off, crapping my pants. When Cara told me about the human traditions around a wedding, and what she was planning to do with Rig for their vow renewal—which included not seeing or sleeping with each other the day before the ceremony, which sounded crazy—I’d joked with Natalie that we should do that too. I’d thought it would be cute and maybe increase anticipation for when we did come back together after the ceremony. I hadn’t banked on my mate getting cold feet about doing this in front of the packs, and how her nerves would kick my insecurities into gear—and that the whole damn thing would b
SOUNDTRACK: “Break Your Fall” by UNSECRET and Marc Scibilia. ***** ~ NATALIE ~ “This is stupid and… and indulgent and it doesn’t matter! I should never have agreed to this. It’s nothing but a dumb, human tradition and… it means nothing. I’m not doing it.” I stood in the bedroom that we’d made into a bridal suite—complete with three-way mirror—and folded my arms. I’d been staring at myself and all I could see were the imperfections. Tessa had done a beautiful job on my make up, but everything else just felt… sticky. My dress was a touch too tight around my breasts. There were too many people here and they were all going to be staring. I could feel Mack out there panting with nerves, but what if he didn’t like the dress? I should have shown it to him! Why had I let Cara talk me into all this traditional nonsense? “Natalie, you get your gorgeous ass out there and marry that man before he sweats through his Armani suit,” Cara growled. “Seriously, don’t make me turn it into an orde
~ RIG ~I started towards her, but was halted almost immediately as I watched in awe while my mate carved through lines of wolves as if they were butter.Claws, teeth, whirling body—despite her bulk, she moved like liquid, tail lashing and claws like wicked hooks designed to tear through fur and flesh.I shook and trembled because my father’s power was shifting to me and my veins were boiling with it—while the rest of me simmered in the rising rage and terror of the wolves around us.The transfer of Alpha should have been peaceful. There was an established hierarchy waiting, swelling with the newfound power. But my father was a liar and cheat, and he’d encouraged his wolves towards the same.The hierarchy, the elders, his advisors, every pack and family of power rolled towards us, howling in rage and fear.And my wolves, newly risen and brimming with the triumph of victory and the added confidence of success, tore right back to meet them.Mack, Charlie, Jack, and Natalie tore for me,
SOUNDTRACK: “Legendz” by AG and Devvon Terrell ***** ~ RIG ~ Everything slowed to a crawl, time seemed almost not to move at all as I watched my father go for my mate and I turned, twisting, pushing my body in ways I never had, panic screaming in my head, frantic to reach him before he got her. I couldn’t move fast enough. He was going to land at her feet before I did and his power would carry him right to her throat. She wasn’t equipped for this… It all washed through me in that second—the rage for what he’d done, the fury about his injustices, the anger that he would still cheat, even before the witnesses, and the shocking weight of grief because that was my mate. But then the second wave arrived that left me desperate, panicked, humiliated and hating myself. If she died right now it was my fault. My side screamed in pain as I launched myself after him, but my father seemed to hang in mid-air. I had time to see Cara bare her teeth and crouch. Everything moved so slowly I could
~ RIG ~My father saw the opening he’d been waiting for, gathered himself on his haunches and launched at me, the light of victory in his eyes.Instinctively, I didn’t even try to meet the attack, just leaped straight into the air in an attempt to deflect, dropping my chin, trying to hide my throat as my father snaked in—and to my horror, he would have taken me, except that was the moment Stephen howled in the link, then sent images to us both:Himself. Head bowed. Shoulders rolled forward. His human form submitted.To me.It was a boom of thunder right over my head. In any context, the submission of an Alpha brought al