CHAPTER 3
“No!”
The word tasted bitter and ashy in her mouth. “Stop, stop,” she whispered the word again and again then taking a deep breath, screamed it. “STOP!” She slammed her fist on the desk. Her eyes were wide with shock and her hands curled and uncurled in fists as she stared at her father.
Jeff halted in mid-sentence and stared at his daughter as his eyes hardened. He stood slowly from his chair behind the desk. Anger, thick and palpable made the air feel heavy and she felt icy tendrils of dread race up her spine. “What did you say?” His words were low and even.
Carson shoved her fingers into her hair and raked the tight knot free from her neck. Shaking her head, the curtain of black cascaded over her shoulders. Furiously, she began to pace back and forth. “I can't believe you are serious. In this day and age, you are serious?”
Slowly, a frown marred the sculpted perfect features of the alpha. Taking a seat again behind the desk, he leaned forward and pointed at the chair across the way. “Sit,” he commanded then waited somewhat patiently for her to obey. Carson stopped her pacing and glared at her father. “SIT!” he commanded her and she growled. He was her father and her alpha but she fought against the compulsion that demanded her obedience. He pushed his will until it became a tangible living entity and slither around her mind and pressed against her until she gave in and practically fell back to the chair. He continued to glare at her and satisfied with her compliance, released his will and sat back.
“In answer to your question, yes I am serious. Carson, I know you aren't quite twenty and still so very young for all this.” He pinched the back of his neck a moment, his eyes closed as he worked his way through this. “The council... Honey, they say that Cayson can't assume beta or alpha. His...,” he hesitated a moment and a brief of pain crossed his features, “... abilities have been deemed unsuitable to assume leadership. He can't be beta and neither can you. I know without a doubt that either of you would make excellent leaders, but we operate under the laws of the council. We have no other family and they are demanding a beta... They have to ensure that our people survive even if it means elsewhere.” He took a deep breath and looked at her. His eyes filled with pain, caught hers and held them hostage. “They are threatening to either remove me as alpha in favor of some outsider family or more likely to split us between the two smallest packs, Moon Lake and Mystic Mountain.”
“Split? Our pack is the oldest on this continent. How can they just arbitrarily make a decision like that”? Carson stood again and began to pace back and forth, her agitation clearly evident on her face. “Poppa, they can't do that. Those two packs are on opposite sides of the country. They will be splitting family and friends. It will destroy our people. You can't allow that to happen!”
He hissed at her. “I know this Carson! Why do you think I called you back from your training?”
“But,” she licked her lips and leaned over the edge of the desk. “I'm your daughter. Doesn't my happiness mean anything at all?”
He lowered his head into his hand and scrubbed the stubble of his jaw. “Your happiness means everything to me, Baby Girl. But happiness has to take a backseat to survival. We are pack rulers, happiness doesn't always get a say-so in our lives. We have to do what we must to ensure the health and happiness of the entire pack. We can't be selfish...”
“Me wanting to be with the one that was created for me is being selfish? Honestly you can sit there and... and... sell me for the sake of the pack?” She threw her hands into the air.
“Carson, listen to me. You haven't found your life mate yet and are over the age of eighteen. Our laws say...”
“Damn the laws, Father! I won't be thrown to a pack of testosterone laden slobbering males with mating the only thing on their minds. I've read the archives about mate runs. They are cruel, barbaric rituals that force a wolf to submit to the strongest male. It's all instinct. What about love? What about tenderness? Don't you even care what you are doing to me?”
He snarled and stood up, throwing the chair behind him. She winced thinking perhaps she had pushed him too far but stood her ground. Stalking around the table, he grabbed her arms in his hands. “Of course I care. Do you think that I want this? Do you think I happily accept you being mauled by some random brute? You are my daughter, Carson. You are my flesh and blood. Nothing would make me happier than to see you settle down with a good wolf who would treat you as the precious princess you are.” He let her go and resumed pacing. “The council is getting very anxious for a beta for our pack. I've stalled as long as I can, but I can not do it any longer.”
“Why me? Why a mate run? Why can't they give me more time? I know my life mate is out there somewhere. I've seen him,” she stated.
Jeff whirled around. “You've seen your life mate? Who is it? Where? Why haven't you told me? Do you bear his mark?” He made a step toward her. “Thank Luna! Show me the mark.”
Carson took a step back in alarm. Crossing her arms over her chest in a protective stance she shook her head. “No,Poppa, I don't know him. I've not actually seen him, but I've dreamed about him. Well not all of him, just his eyes, but I haven't met him yet. I know he's out there. I know it with everything I am. Please don't make me do this. There hasn't been a mate run since I don’t know when. It's an old archaic tradition.”
Jeff let his hand fall and righted his chair, falling into it again in misery. His eyes lost the hope that he had for a moment and shook his head before lowering it again into his hands. Carson felt such despair coming from him she lost her own anger and took a step around his desk, sinking to her knees like she used to when she was a child. Reaching her hand out, she placed it on his knee and laid her head on top, closing her eyes. Without thinking she let down the shield that protected her from dreaming and was slammed with a vision of standing on a platform, addressing a multitude of wolves, many that she did not know. She saw herself walk into the light of the fire and stop. She watched through his eyes as she raised her face towards the sky and tears fell down her face. It was the mate run and she was totally helpless to stop it. Breaking the stream, she threw herself out of the dream. She gasped and fell back to the floor, one hand going behind her to keep herself from falling all the way the one that had touched her father's leg scrubbed against her thigh. Blinking she looked up at her father, the man who had been her rock for her entire life and saw for a moment just how badly this affected him. He didn't want to do this but he felt he had no choice. She could see it clearly in his face and she felt her heart break for the difficult position he was forced into; that the council was forcing him to do to his own child. Quickly, she slammed the wall down to protect herself from the unwanted vision. However, it was already burned into the back of her eyes. Rocking back onto her knees, she reached a hand over and pulled one of his from his hair and looked up at him. Chewing her bottom lip, she tried a different approach. “Poppa, I know this isn't easy for you. I know that you are trying to do what is best for the pack, but a mate run? Can't you go to the council and tell them I have a true mate and just need a little time to find him. Can't you make them see that forcing a mate on me by imprinting is not right? The mate run is an old custom, from a time when packs couldn't afford to wait for nature to take its course. Please Poppa, please don't do this to me. Don't do this to my mate. You know that forcing an imprint will not only rob us both of happiness, it will sever the tie between us. We will both be empty, half wolves for the remainder of our lives.”
Jeff took a shuddering breath and looked down into the bottomless green pools of his only daughter's eyes and squeezed her hand. “They won't give me any more time. This decision was made a long time ago. They made this ultimatum following your sixteenth birthday, when you and your brother's abilities were disclosed. I have already let you have all the time you can have. I kept hoping that you would find your life mate and this wouldn't be necessary...
I'm sorry, Baby, there's nothing I can do.”
“What about Cayson? He’s your son, maybe his child...,” she began
“They won't accept that. They are afraid of his gift being passed down to his children. Under no circumstances will they accept an empath as an alpha. They see his abilities as being too weak to defend the pack. Can you ever see Cay ripping the throat out of a traitor? Can you see him ever banishing someone? Can you sit here and tell me you believe for one moment that your brother is capable of doing that?” He jumped up and began to pace back and forth again. “Carson there’s things that are going on. It's just.” He stopped and threw his hands on the desk, splaying his long fingers over the smooth grain. “It's not just our immediate pack that is in danger. Our whole species is in trouble. We have to be diligent now more than ever before. There are less and less pups born every year, and the ones that are born are non-gifted. Our histories show us that as little as 200 years ago, our kind almost numbered as great as humans, with most of them being gifted. Our people are dying out and we have to put love aside and do what is right for our species.”
She spoke again, softly this time hoping he would see reason. “But Poppa, imprinting? It's not...”
“Enough! “ He slammed his fist on the desk sending Carson crab crawling backward in fright and the lamp crashing to the floor. Gathering herself together, she stood up and wiped her sweaty palms on the front of her jeans, not taking her eyes off the man leaning against the desk. Without turning his head, he exerted his will towards her. The wolf in her felt it and she found her head bowing in submission. “You will participate in a mate run in three days on the night of your nineteenth birthday under the light of the full moon. You can go wherever you want as long as you don't leave the compound. That includes runs in the woods and to the lake. I can't take a chance that one of the males tries to imprint you before the run. It is my command and you WILL OBEY!”
She kept her head bowed and scrambled out of the door as quickly as her legs would let her, her wolf whimpering softly. However, her acute hearing picked his last three words whispered softly.
“I'm sorry, Baby”
.-~*~-.
Chase stood in front of the long log porch leading up to the healer's building and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. One hand unconsciously raked through the unruly hair on of his head before dropping to his side to hang uneasily. “Well, here we go - new life, new pack.” He murmured then reached down to pick up the satchel leaning against his leg. Squaring his shoulders, he climbed the steps and pushed through the door.
The woman that looked up from the table wasn't just old, she was ancient. Adult werewolves aged approximately a third a year for every human one and she looked to be in her eighties easily. Fixing a smile on his face his long legs ate up the distance until he was standing at the table. “Healer Molly?” He nodded to her.
“Dr. Blackston? Good to see you and welcome to Sapphire Lake. “She held out her hand and he took it gently in his, not sure if he should kiss the ridge of knuckles barely covered in thin skin or shake it. Instead, he opted to just give it a tiny squeeze. What he got in return was a firm squeeze of her own followed by a chuckle. “I may be old but I'm still tough.” She slipped her hand free and motioned to the chair. “Have a seat.”
Chase sat in the chair and placed his satchel on the floor at his feet. He looked up to see the old Healer's eyes watching him and he had the silly thought that she was sizing him up for something. Finding the answer she was searching for, she leaned forward. “I'm sure you have done your research concerning our pack so I won't bore you with our history. However, you are the first healer to be placed here by council, ever. As you know, healing is one of the few gifts that is actively passed down within a specific family. Unfortunately, my family line has only ever produced a single child from mating and my own pup was stillborn. I will be the last of my family to hold the healer position here.” Her eyes momentarily clouded but she shook it off. “This left our pack in a bit of trouble. Fortunately, your pack had three healers – yourself and your older sister, along with your father so here you are. We are grateful you have agreed to come here and take my place. I've got your resume, but I rather hear it from you. Tell me a bit about yourself.”
He smiled and relaxed. “My sister, Emma, exhibited healing powers when she was still a child and my father began her training early. I adored her, she is only a few years older, so where she went I tagged along. Everything she did, I copied. By the time my own gift manifested in my teens, I had a good understanding of pack healing and she was practicing alongside our father. Since we already had two trained healers and I knew about as much as I could about our talents, I was permitted to attend college and later, medical school.” He spread his hands. “So here I am, one too many healers for Roanoke Pack complete with a human Doctorate.”
She leaned back and studied him, “I think you are indeed exactly what we need. I can't keep on forever.”
“I'm honored by your words and I'm sure I can never take your place, Healer.” He smiled at her in that charming manner that females found to be irresistible.
She cackled. “Save the charisma for the pups, you're going to need it.” She picked up a hardwood cane resting against the table, stood and motioned for him. “Come, let's get you settled,” then turned to walk towards the back. They made their way past the rows of neatly made beds complete with white pristine covers and plump pillows sandwiched between curtain dividers. Stopping at a door set in the back wall, she turned the knob, pushed the door open and flipped on a light stepping back. “This is your office.”
Chase stepped in and looked around. It was small – smaller than his dorm room on campus, but it was clean although a bit cluttered. An old desk dominated the center of the room, complete with the required roller chair, ink blotter calendar and telephone. A floor to ceiling bookcase was secured to the far wall and was loaded down with papers, small jars full of herbs and a smattering of old books. “I’ll get one of the pups to clean them shelves off,” she muttered. “I never really used this as an office myself. I like being in the open not shut up in a little room.” She shuddered. Wolves, like most wild creatures craved the wide open spaces with room to move. Molly used her cane and pointed to a tall stack of papers on the floor in the corner. “That's the records of our pack members; births, deaths, injuries all the way back to when I took over from my mother long ago. Up on the top shelf in them boxes are more records that go back hundreds of years. I kept saying I was going to get me one of them filing cabinets and put things nice and neat but I never seemed to find the time.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps it's time to get them digitized and into a computer.”
The cackle was back and he couldn't help but find the sound to be warm and comforting. “Oh they tried to make me use one of them computer things back about five years ago. I never could figure out how to turn the damned thing on. After the third time it 'accidentally' fell off my desk, they decided that maybe it was better to not put me and technology in the same room.” She grinned up at him with a wink.
Chase couldn't help himself. Her laugh was contagious and he joined in with her. He liked this little slip of a woman. “I look forward to working with you,” he grinned at her and took a step towards the desk. Molly nodded, “So am I, Dr. Blackston.”
“Please, call me Chase.”
“Chase it is then. Our alpha, who I know you met already, said to tell you to let him know if you needed anything at all. If I was you, I'd take advantage of that while you can. It's always easier to request things when you are new than to beg for them after they are used to you.” She grinned at him again.
He nodded. “Noted. Is there anything that you think I need?” He looked at her slyly, giving her an opportunity to add to his wish list.
Just then the door to the hall opened and he heard a girl's voice callin
g out. “Molly!! I need to talk to you.”
He started towards the door of his office but she put her hand on his arm. “I got this one, you get comfortable.” He wrinkled his brow when the scent of lilacs and vanilla wafted to his nose. Immediately, his wolf, who had been quietly slumbering, woke and sat up taking notice. He shook it off. Silly beast.
Molly hobbled out of the room and closed the door behind her. Chase sat down at the desk and placed his satchel on it. What to do first? Looking around he took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began to make that list. At the top he jotted down 'computer and software'.
Molly left the office and made her way back to the front of the healer's hall. Carson stood just inside the doorway, tears streaming down her face and her breathing ragged as if she'd been crying and running. When she saw Molly, she ran over and hugged her tightly, wrapping her arms around the old woman and sobbed into her shoulder. Molly patted the girl that was like a granddaughter to her. “Calm down, child. What has you in such a dither?”
Carson let her go and took a step back, wiping her tear-stained face with the back of her hand. Molly leaned on her cane and watched while the girl took several breaths trying to calm herself.
“Poppa said, he said“, she gulped a few times trying to get her thudding heart to slow down. Gulping the air, she finally finished. “Going to be...a mate run... for me.” Carson's bottom lip began to tremble again. “I ... it's not right. I have a life mate, I just haven't met him yet. Molly, you have to do something. You have to talk some sense into him.”
Molly's eyes filled with sorrow. “I'm sorry Carson. I can't do anything about it. Your father has already talked with me about it. He knows that I don't support it, and to be truthful, neither does he, but his hands are tied.” She reached a hand out and touched the girl's stricken face. “I wish I could...”
Before she could finish, Carson stepped back and screamed at her, “Traitor! You, Father, Mother – all of you,” and turned fleeing out the door and down the steps. Molly leaned heavily on her cane, feeling all of her years as a weight on her shoulders and watched the distraught girl run towards the woods. She stopped dead in her tracks at the edge and struggled a moment as if she were fighting a deep seated need to run into the forest. With a scream of frustration, she turned to the left and stomped out of sight. Molly sighed wearily and closed the hall's doors. She heard Sapphire Lake's new healer come up behind her.
“Is everything alright? I heard yelling.” He stopped and took a deep breath. The scent was stronger here - lilacs, honey and warm rich vanilla. His wolf licked his chops almost salivating at the smell. A memory tugged at his mind but was gone as fast as it surfaced.
“Yes, well, as alright as things can be under these circumstances. That was Carson Hennison, daughter of our alpha and the pack’s dreamer. She just found out she's being forced to do a mate run. You do know what that is?”
He wrinkled his brow a moment. “Unfortunately, yes. I've read about it in the archives. It’s a horrible mating custom.” He shuddered.
She shook her head. “It's nothing so gentile as a custom. There was a time in our less civilized past, that once female wolves reached a certain age and had not found a life mate, they were subjected to the most horrendous of practices. You have to understand, back then there were no Internets, no dating services. We had no telephones or no vehicles even. The survival of a pack depended on offspring and most pack members could not afford to travel extensively to search for a life mate. So once a year, all the unmated females over a certain age were forced to phase into their wolves and then sent on a run through the lands with every eligible unmated male wolf hot on their heels. I'm sure you know what happens when a wolf gives chase to prey – their natural instincts take over. Those poor girls are literally run to the point of exhaustion until a wolf catches them and forcibly imprints on them. They have no choice but to submit and accept the mating. It’s a horrible barbaric practice and one that I had hoped to never have to see again. I was lucky to find my life mate, but so many of my friends were not. The run changed them and not always for the better.”
Chase's face had turned a pasty white. “Jeff is going to subject his own daughter to that?” He whispered in anger. “How could he do that to her? It's savage! Not to mention she's a dreamer. They should be cherished and protected, not hunted like a criminal, frightened half out of her wits.”
She made her way to her table and sat in one of the chairs motioning for him to do the same. “She's a dreamer and yes, I agree with you about that. But, she's also the offspring of our ruling family – a family that has no heir to take over when Jeff passes. Carson's twin is named Cayson and a handsome lad he is; tall, strong and full of life. But in their infinite wisdom, our illustrious council, the babbling jackasses, have decided he's not good enough simply because they don't acknowledge empathy as a strong or appropriate gift for a leader.” She shook her head sadly. “The council insists that our pack have a beta, and not just any beta but a strong one that can take over in case of something happening to our alpha. We have not had one since Jeff's brother, Daniel, died five years ago. They have decided for us what is in our best interest as a pack and as a species. Our alpha has fought this battle for years – trying to make them see reason. But now time has run out; which is why you are here.”
“Me?” He wrinkled his brow. “I thought it was because you needed a new healer. What do I have to do with a run?”
She nodded and placed a hand on his arm. “I still have a few more years left in me and could easily handle the healing for a bit longer. However, with her run coming up, I convinced Jeff we need someone to keep an eye on things. That girl is like the granddaughter I never had and too important to just hope she's alright. There have been cases when a wolf's instincts take over to the point that he maimed or even killed his catch. I had seen runs in my youth and I've seen firsthand what can go wrong. When I told Jeff about the risks, he agreed with me. We were just lucky that you were available.”
He chuckled. “One pack's superfluous healer...”
“Is another's savior – especially when it comes to someone as precious as Carson.” She finished. “We can't let anything happen to her. As much as I hate the idea of this thing, I know that I can't stop it. The best I can do is what I can to see that she makes it through this as undamaged as possible. You can't interfere with the imprinting, of course, but you can, I hope, at least insure she comes through it physically unharmed.”
Chase nodded slowly and placed his hand on hers. “I promise Molly. I'll do everything in my power.”
Molly smiled and patted his hand. “Good.” She seemed to have had a weight lifted from her aged shoulders. “Now, about that wish list, you think you could sneak a couple new rocker chairs on there? For expectant mothers, of course,” she asked innocently.