I didn’t want to believe it, but Natalie was right.
It felt like pulling teeth, but I made myself agree to let her contact the Rogues and try to arrange a meeting.
“You make sure they’re going to invite me,” I said, warning her. She nodded quickly.
Cara was confused, but Natalie explained to her that as an Alpha of another pack, it was tradition that I had to be invited onto their territory to speak with their leader. More importantly, if they invited me, I walked into their territory from a position of strength.
I wasn’t going to get myself killed on the off chance that this circle of Rogues might b
~ CARA ~I wasn’t sure what Rig had in mind for the night, but I put all the effort in—showering and blow-drying my hair, wearing some makeup, though I couldn’t make myself look the way Natalie had. I did have a figure-hugging black dress she’d insisted on putting in my bags, though. Even though it looked a lot more like her style than mine, I decided to wear it. I was sure Rig would like it since the neckline plunged between my modest breasts, and dipped at the back all the way to the hollow of my spine.Besides, I doubted I’d have it on for long.It took me almost two hours to get ready, and I was surprised how shaky I felt at the end of it, after not seeing Rig for that long. We were supposed to be doing this to make the most of our time together, and I was suddenly a little panicked abou
~ CARA ~“Where are we going?” I asked breathlessly a few seconds later.The trees were thick on this side of the driveway, but rather than answer, Rig only turned his head to meet my eyes, smiled, and suddenly took a step off the gravel driveway and towards those looming shadows along the road.A few feet later my eyes adjusted and I could make out straight lines in the dark shadows under the tall pines, and soon a strange little building was revealed.At first it just looked like a weird out-building. An octagonal room with a low, cone-shaped roof, hidden from the view of the house by thick trees and bushes.I looked up at Rig.“You know, when I was youn
~ RIG ~I shook with need, my hands trembling worse than a middle-schooler getting his first kiss. Cara, so fucking stunning in that dress, was even more incredible to look at naked in the water, her skin glowing under lights in the blue water, her nipples high and hard, darker that the rest of her. I’d rested her neck back on the padded edge of the pool, and it arched her back, her throat bare, her lower back hollowed, knees wide because I was pressed between her thighs.We kissed. Oh, how we kissed.Had I known before her that a kiss could carry so much, be so sacred, I would never have given my lips to another soul before her.I kissed her, she kissed me. And it was as if our souls reached through the damp, breathless heat to twine again.
SOUNDTRACK: “Meaning” by Nathan Wagner*****~ RIG ~Being inside Cara was overwhelming. All those flames in my blood rushed out to my skin and I prickled all over, just like I had when we got into the water. I gripped her hips and broke the kiss because if I didn’t, I was going to come. I pulled almost all the way out, then plunged back into her again, my heart pounding when she made a cry of pleasure.When I let go of her chin, Cara dropped her head until her hair dangled in the water, her hands white-knuckled on the side of the pool. I straightened to try and give myself some kind of reprieve, but couldn’t stop stroking her back, her breasts, her waist… her skin.We moved together slowly, wringing every ounce of
~ CARA ~My body was still thrumming, I was still trying to catch my breath, still wallowing in Rig—still held in his arms and that hot water and…But the look on his face, the sudden stress—followed immediately by the tension in his jaw and hardening of his expression. I could feel him become resolute.“Rig, you don’t have to—”“Yes, I do. I really do, Cara. He knows now. If I don’t challenge him, it will be as if I’m scared of him and it’ll weaken my power against my father.”“How? If they don’t even know?”“It’s not that. A wolf’s power is… I don’t kn
~ RIG ~“Done?” she whispered.“An Alpha can end a fight for dominance by submitting. But few will. Because what kind of Alpha are you if you’re willing to just… give up?”“Rig,” her eyes went wide. “If he’s going to beat you, you have to submit. Don’t force him to kill you!”“There’s no forcing, Cara, it’s what he’ll be trying to do from the second we face off.”“But—”“Cara, you said don’t sugar coat this, so I’m not. If that rogue is as strong as Natalie believed—and the way he’s responded to this makes me think he might be even stronger—then there’s no other way through this.”“No, you can’t—”
SOUNDTRACK: “I Guess I’m in Love” by Clinton Kane.*****~ MACK ~It took us hours to get back to the cabin, circling and testing, making certain we weren’t followed. A part of me had been pissed that Rig would even think he needed to warn us, but then I realized I would have done the same thing.This whole situation was fucked.Natalie was next to me in the car, her hands tight in her lap, her face pale.She was blaming herself.We’d opened a door with this rogue pack, and now she felt like it was her fault that it wasn’t going down the way we wanted it to.“I really
~ NATALIE ~I hated myself, hated myself, for the fickleness of my heart. For all the ways I feared and doubted, and dragged other wolves down with me.I knew it about myself and if there was anything I could change, that would be it.It was a fierce irony to me that everyone liked to talk about how strong I was, when I knew the truth was that I wasn’t strong at all. I was stubborn as fuck, and prideful—some might say narcissistic, but I didn’t think that was it.The truth was, I was so scared most of the time, I was ready to fight even when I shouldn’t. I created conflict because I was terrified of being surprised by it. And other wolves saw that as strength.
~ 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