Link swallowed hard and tugged at the loose neck of her sweater until the bandage he’d doctored her with was exposed. “Ours,” he said in a softer tone.
Breaking the thick silence that followed, Jenner said, “Beer. This calls for beer because our little weird-ass pack just grew by one.” He disappeared into an open kitchen with gleaming granite countertops and wooden cabinets that matched the log walls.
Tobias gripped Link’s shoulder and shook him slowly, a big grin plastered across his face. “Are you serious man?”
Link snapped at him, clacking his teeth together mere millimeters away from Tobias’s hand before Tobias yanked it back with lightning quick reflexes.
Tobias’s grin didn’t falter. “Damn.” He swung his wide, green eyes to Nicole. “You must be something special.”
“She is,” Link agreed, relaxing under her palms.
Slowly, they all trickled into a dining room with a sprawling table under a pair of moose antler chandeliers.
“Wow,” she gasped out, holding Link’s hand as he led her into the space. The roof pitched high here, making the room with its dark log walls feel bigger.
Tobias turned and explained, “When we all worked to build this house together, it was nothing but a two-room shack that had nearly collapsed. We used that foundation for the living room, but we realized none of the other houses on the property had a place to gather in that would be big enough for all of us for dinners, holidays—”
“When we start breeding,” Elyse added, smiling up at Ian. “We wanted a space big enough to host all of us, even when we have cubs someday.”
Vera sauntered in with two giant iron pots of cooked ducks cooked with fragrant carrots and potatoes. A trio of bread loaves already sat on the table with butter, and Jenner was in the process of setting out mason jars of dark beer.
Dinner was one of those times in her life that Nicole would never forget. She didn’t have to be nervous around these people. They were easygoing and bantered constantly as Vera served heaping portions of duck, carrots, and potatoes onto metal plates for each of them. Laughter filled the room in a never-ending ebb and flow as they ate. She didn’t talk much, but she didn’t have to. Each conversation was funny and lifted her heart, and the others looked at her often to include her. Beside her, Link relaxed more and more. Under the table, he slid his palm over her leg, and when he looked at her, there was a lingering smile on his lips. His dark hair was windblown after the snow machine ride and had that sexy just-got-out-of-bed look. Dark, day-old scruff graced his sharp jaw and made his blazing eyes look even brighter. And any time she returned his smile, he leaned over and kissed the tip of her shoulder, which settled her further. The food was incredible, the beer flowed freely, and she was lulled into a tipsy, warm fog as her chest filled with joy at seeing Link joke with the people he’d talked about with such adoration.
She hadn’t fully understood until now what had made him pull away completely from his own pack and tether himself to the Silvers. But sitting here in the warm glow of the chandeliers, breaking bread with them and immersed in such a feeling of acceptance, she got it. Link’s pack had been poisonous, but these people were incredible. They were vibrant, easy, and their moral compasses were steady on due north.
Link’s first decision to help himself had been to bond to a better set of people than the ones he’d been born into.
Outside the windows, the snow had begun to fall again, blanketing the evergreen woods that surrounded Tobias and Vera’s cabin in white, but inside was filled with such warmth it banished the Alaskan chill completely.
Jenner grinned wickedly and poured Nicole a third beer the second she drank down the last of her mason jar.
Vera jerked her chin to her glass and beamed. “I made the beer.”
“Oh, she makes a mean moonshine, too,” Lena bragged proudly. “She’s teaching me and Elyse. One of the perks to having a mad scientist as a sister-in-law. Or…future sister-in-law.”
Link warmed Nicole from her middle out when he pushed his empty plate aside and draped his arm over her shoulders, then kissed her temple, right here, for everyone to see. Cheeks flushing with pleasure as the others smiled and gave each other knowing looks, she snuggled against Link’s side and asked Vera, “When is the wedding?”
“Oh,” Vera drawled out, lifting her shoulder to her ear in a half-shrug. “The wedding doesn’t feel so important right now.” She ghosted a quick glance to Link, then began spooning another portion of food onto her plate.
Link growled softly beside Nicole. “Vera, I don’t like you putting off your big day because of me.”
“You’re more important.”
“I’m not. And besides, I want to stand for Tobias when he says his vows to you. If this doesn’t work—”
“It will,” both Nicole and Vera said at the same time with the same amount of determination infused into two simple words.
Vera’s eyes locked on Nicole’s, and a challenge sparked there for just an instant before the fox shifter nodded and allowed a tiny smile. Vera swallowed hard and arched her gaze back to Link. “Nicole and I say you’ll be fine, so you will. The wedding can hold while I work on you.”
Link shook his head. “Vera, I know you. You’ll put off building a family to obsess over my cure—”
Vera slammed her palm against the table, and her eyes blazed a fiery gold. “You are my family, and I will be goddamned if I lose you. Tobias and I will marry when this is through, and I’ll wear that pink jeweled dress I always dreamed of, and it’ll be extravagant and fit for an Alaskan princess, and you will still be here, standing beside Tobias as we say our vows. And your eyes won’t look like a fucking demon’s anymore.” She slammed the spoon down in the pot and said, “Nicole, can I talk to you alone?”
“Of course,” Nicole whispered, pulling her napkin from her lap and setting it gently on the table. She leaned over and sipped at Link’s lips, smiled her adoration for him, then followed Vera down a hallway off the main room.
Vera was right. Link’s eyes were still that bright white color, and the snarl in his throat had been constant since they’d come into the house, which was unsettling, because he seemed more relaxed. It shouldn’t be like this. He shouldn’t feel so riled up around the people he loved more than anything.
Vera stopped in front of a room, her chestnut brown curls twitching with agitation. “I’m sorry. This isn’t how I imagined it would be to meet you. I prayed for you, you know. I didn’t know what your face would look like, or your personality, but I prayed for a mate to come save him.” Vera’s shoulders sagged as she leaned against an open door frame to the bedroom. She slammed her head back. Her eyes were raw and rimmed with tears when she lowered them to Nicole. “Save him.”
With a heartbroken sound clawing its way up her throat, Nicole hugged Vera up tight. “We will. We have to. I need him.”
“Good, then you will stay with him as much as possible. Calm his wolf. Calm him. Be there for him. Become his anchor to this world. And whatever you do, keep him away from the other McCalls. They feed the insanity in each other. Link has lasted this long because he cut himself off from them.”
“Okay, I will. I promise.”
“The temperature is set to drop tonight, and I don’t want you traveling all the way back home in it. I need to run some tests on Link anyway. Check how his body is handling the McCall Reset.”
“Vera, there was a lot of blood earlier.”
Vera eased back and grasped her hands. “He can take more than you think. His inner wolf gives him the ability to heal from a great deal. Did you bring extra clothes?”
Nicole laughed thickly. “Link had me pack an overnight bag just in case we got drunk over here.”
“Ha! Good, because after the last few weeks, I think we should all let loose. Link especially. You two can have this room tonight. Tell me if you need anything. Tobias is one of those overly prepared men who hoards two of everything. You should see our extra toothbrush drawer. Two of
every color, and most of them with sparkles because he knows I like girly shit.”
Nicole squeezed her hands. “Vera?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you’re helping him, too. I love him more than anything.”
Vera inhaled deeply and nodded. “I know. I can see it in the way you look at him. Link is lucky to have found you. Now, let me see that claiming mark.” She turned Nicole in her hands and pulled at the neck of her sweater, then peeled the bandage off.
Nicole winced at the tug of the tape, but didn’t make a sound.
“It’s shallow,” Vera whispered thoughtfully. “If it scars, it’ll be silver and thin.”
“He did better after he marked me, like claiming me settled the darkness in him. I want his bite to scar. I want him to be reminded that I’m his mate every time he sees it. Can you fix it?”
“I have something, but it’ll burn like hellfire.”
Nicole barely resisted the urge to balk and bolt. She wasn’t awesome with pain, but the thought of his mark disappearing when it healed made her braver. Link was going through a lot more pain. She could do this for him, and if there was even a chance it would help as his anchor, it was worth a try.
“This way. You get to see my lab, you lucky ducky.”
Vera’s lab was a huge room at the back of the house. A long table took up the entire length of the space, and it was covered in vials, burners, microscopes, scattered notebooks, and against the back wall was a row of machines Nicole couldn’t even guess at.
It looked like thousands of dollars worth of equipment. “Where did you get all of this?”
“Clayton.”
That name sent a chill through her blood. Link had told her all about Clayton. He was the Silvers’ absent father who had been sending them on kill missions all these years under the guise that he was someone else. He enforced the two most important shifter laws: don’t expose shifter nature to humans and don’t hurt humans. Only Vera used to be human, and he’d hired some asshole fox shifter to Turn her against her will, and then he’d banished her to Perl Island. Apparently, Clayton thought he was above shifter laws.
“You probably think I’m crazy for working for the man who did this to me,” Vera murmured as she rifled through a cabinet full of different colored powders. She turned, clutching a jar of what looked like black sand to her stomach.
“I’m a little shocked, yeah,” Nicole admitted. “He hurt you. He hurt his sons.”
“Well, Clayton is complicated. He’s a villain and he’s good. He’s a lot like a McCall.” Vera cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, as if she was debating saying more. “We have common interests.”
“Such as?”
“Like saving the McCalls. Specifically one Lincoln McCall. Clayton bought all of this equipment. All I have to do is tell him what I need, and he has it delivered within a week. He understands time isn’t on our side. Sit down there and grip the table. No screaming or Link will be in here in a second with my throat dangling from his teeth.”
Nicole pulled her sweater off and took a seat on a stool near the table, her back to Vera. “I won’t scream,” she promised.
Vera patted the powder into her torn skin, and she had been right. It burned like she was lying down on a hot metal stove. She squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her teeth as the agony dragged on.
“A few more seconds, and it’ll be done,” Vera whispered, her hand gentle on Nicole’s other shoulder, holding her steady.
And as promised, a few more seconds and Vera was cleaning the awful powder out of her injury. She re-bandaged Nicole as she sagged heavily against the table, relieved it was done. It still hurt like a mother fluffer, but at least it wasn’t an active burn anymore.
“He must love you very much,” Vera murmured. “He didn’t want to hurt you when he made this mark. McCalls aren’t usually this gentle by nature. Elyse got one of these marks before Ian covered it up.”
“From a McCall?”
“Yeah, from Cole McCall.”
Nicole lurched from under Vera’s gentle touch. “What?”
“You knew Cole?”
Her breath was ragged as she leaned heavily on the tabletop. “Buck Lund was my dad. Cole McCall killed my dad.”
Vera’s eyebrows arched high. “Oh, my God. Is that how Link found you?”
Thoughts racing, Nicole nodded slightly. Elyse had been claimed by Cole? “Did she love him?”
Vera shook her head sadly. “Cole went after Elyse because he thought she could save him. He didn’t treat her well.”
“Elyse tried to save him from the curse?”
“Elyse didn’t know there was a curse, but even if she did, no. No one could’ve saved that man. He was too far gone and didn’t even try. Link is different from his brother. Really, he’s different from his entire damned bloodline. He’s trying really hard to stay good.”
A short yell sounded from the other room, and the clatter of glass crashing against the floor echoed through the house. The murmur of angry voices followed, and Vera arched her delicate eyebrows pointedly at Nicole. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“To see some fireworks.” Vera’s nostrils flared delicately. “I smell Clayton.”
Chapter Twelve
Nicole bolted from Vera’s lab into the living room, but what she saw there had her skidding across a rug, legs locked so she could stay out of the north end of a loaded rifle. A tall, brawny man with silver hair and three long scars down his cheek stood at the front door, eyes bored even as the three Silver brothers aimed rifles in his direction. Link grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him defensively.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Dad?” Ian gritted out the last word like a curse.
“That would be my doing,” Elyse said softly from beside her mate. “I invited him.”
Ian jerked a shocked gaze to her, but it was Jenner who spoke next. “Shouldn’t you be hibernating? How are you still awake?”
Vera lifted her hand like a second-grader with the answer to a math question. “That would be my doing.”
“Vera,” Tobias gritted out. “What the hell is going on?”
“Guns down and I’ll explain, boys.”
Link snarled constantly in front of Nicole as she waited for one of the Silver brothers to either pump their asshole father full of lead or to back down.
Tobias cocked his shotgun. “Tell us you’re not here to put a kill order on Link.”
“I’m not. I want Link to be cured as much as you do. Maybe more.”
Tobias frowned, but slowly lowered his weapon. Ian and Jenner followed suit one after the other.
“You took Vera’s medicine to suppress your bear. That’s why you aren’t hibernating, right?” Tobias asked.
Clayton nodded once.
“Why?” Tobias barked out. “You were the one who said the cure would ruin us and make us weak. You fought me to make sure Vera went back to Perl Island. Fought me to make sure I stayed away from the cure.”
“I was wrong,” Clayton said low, hands clasped formally behind his back. “I was wrong about a lot of things.”
Jenner ran his hand roughly down his face and muttered, “Fuck. I need whiskey now.”
“I made pie,” Vera said cheerfully.
Tobias stared at his mate like she’d lost her mind, but after a few loaded, silent moments, he sighed and gritted out, “Clayton, won’t you come in and enjoy desert with us?” His hand was clenched around the barrel of his shotgun in a stranglehold. He lifted an empty smile to his dad. “Try anything, and we’ll happily kill you.”
“Noted,” Clayton said. Striding past them, he handed Vera an expensive looking bottle of wine.
“Oh, the fancy shit!” Vera said, hugging it close as she led Clayton into the dining room.
What the fuck? Link mouthed to Ian, but when Nicole arched her gaze to the quietest Silver brother, he looked utterly rocked and only shrugged in response.
“Elyse, I thank you
kindly for the invitation,” Clayton said, sitting down at one of the empty chairs without a plate in front of it.
Elyse offered him a vacant smile. “Please don’t make me regret it.”
“Why would you invite him here?” Ian asked, his striking blue eyes round and trained on his mate.
“Because now that we’ve decided to try for a cub, I think we should at least try to give our kid a shot at a relationship with his grandparent, don’t you?”
Jenner scrunched up his nose. “Yeah, but that said grandparent is an asshole.”
“I’m sitting right here, son,” Clayton said blandly.
Jenner’s tone turned deadly in an instant. “Don’t you fucking call me that.”
“Pie!” Vera exclaimed, setting down the pastry right between the two death-glaring men.
“Elyse and Vera have offered me the opportunity to say my piece and apologize.”
“Apology not accepted,” Tobias said, sitting at the head of the table and leaning back in his chair, a fearsome expression on his face.
Link pulled out Nicole’s chair and waited until she was settled, then asked, “Why do you care if I’m cured or not? I’ve met you in person one time, when you came after Vera, and we bled each other.”
Clayton looked at Link for a long time, then leaned forward, elbows resting on the table, hands clasped in front of him. “When I was a boy, I had a friend. He was a McCall. We grew up together. I didn’t want to turn sixteen and begin my hibernations, and he didn’t want to lose his mind. He was…” Clayton swallowed hard and leaned back in his chair. “He was the only person who really understood me. And when I began sleeping through the winters, he didn’t go join the other McCalls. He didn’t hook up with that messed up pack and rush his insanity. He stuck with me. Protected my body every winter, lived in a cabin near me in the summers, and he never once made me feel bad when I had to pull an enforcer mission and put down one of his family members for hurting humans. And when my mate left me and had my sons without me, he picked up the pieces when all I wanted to do was drink myself to death. And I was there for him at the birth of all three of his sons.”