No second marriages, then?
He shook his head. “No, it’s a onetime shot, this life and the next one. To not follow your partner is akin to living a half-life; evidently it’s all but unbearable. Again, I don’t know how it works. It’s magic.” If there was disdain in his voice when he said the last word he couldn’t help it. “The idea my Dad had was that he would have the men kill their women and then be driven to end their own lives. The pack would be left with unmated men, always considered the most volatile and weakest members. Plus, he’d be able to hold our unmated future brides over our heads to make us behave.”
And this happened? Her voice held so much horror in its intonation he wished he could lie to her.
“Almost.” He took a deep breath. Images passed in front of his eyes. Another day like this one. He’d awoken to the screams. Women were dying all over the islands and not just dying, gods, it was so brutal. The men they loved, trusted with their very existence, the fathers of their children were murdering them. He’d tried to help. He reached up with his left hand to stroke the side of his face that still held the scar from his last attempt at stopping a man he’d looked up to his entire life from murdering his own wife. Hell, the man had once taught him Latin and Greek. In that moment, he’d been a
wild, murdering beast.
Az?
Leah’s voice broke him out of his memories of the past. Why was that happening so frequently? Usually, he was really good at keeping the past where it belonged: hidden.
“Sorry, she-wolf, I went away for a minute.” He shook his head not wanting her to ask him any questions. “Um, Mom got wind of what was happening. There wasn’t much time and she knew if Kendrick caught her she’d be dead so she did the best she could and got the unmated women off the island. Casting a spell to hide them from us until it was safe for them to return, we saw no other females—save our widowed aunts who endured the half-life to keep the magic alive on Westervelt—we waited helplessly for thirty years. Drifting might be a better description than waiting. We drifted for thirty years.”
Ah…how is that possible? You look all of thirty.
“I’m eighty years old, next week I will turn eighty-one. We stop aging, physically, at thirty until we are mated or commit ritual suicide, except for the Alpha. He and his mate stop at the age at which he became Alpha. So Ashlee will always look twenty-two even though she is twenty-seven now and Tristan will always look thirty even though he is over one hundred years old until he steps down or is challenged and killed.”
She was silent and he thought perhaps he’d finally scared her off with too much information. Are his eyes always like that?
“Like a wolf? Yes, that’s another Alpha trait.”
Okay this is a lot to digest. I’m still trying to figure out how I could fit in. I have a father who is a senator so I’m obviously not one of your missing women…
“No, but you could be the daughter of one of the missing women, like both Ash and Summer. Or you could be human. We do mate humans.” As soon as he said the words he wished he could take them back. He hadn’t told her they were mates; he was sure she’d heard it earlier but still you didn’t just launch that information on someone—especially if they were a human ‘someone’ and not used to the idea that their love was predestined for them. Az swallowed a lump of anxiety. What if she wasn’t attracted to him? Could that happen? The woman in the picture was a goddess and he was…well…out of all of his brothers he was the shortest.
And you spend so much time in that stupid lab you look paler than the snow that’s melting on the ground.
Leave it to his wolf to know just what to say to make him feel even worse.
They arrived on the east lawn behind the others. Tristan stood in the center of the circle. Ashlee and Summer stood on both sides of him, Jana was positioned behind and Faith was moving to a position near his front. Three other newly mated women—Claire, Moira, and Tatiana formed a triangle on the outside of the first four women.
Upon their approach, Tristan raised his hand and beckoned them to the center of the circle with his index finger. It was an annoying trait his brother had picked up since becoming a father but there was no way in hell he was going to tell the Alpha of their pack that he found that mannerism to be appalling.
“Place her here, Az.” Tristan stepped out of the way indicating that Az should put Leah down where he had been standing. Gently, Az leaned down and placed Leah’s wolf form on the ground. As her paws connected with the earth, she started to shake.
Oh wow, Az, I’m really afraid.
He wanted to tell her that they didn’t need to do it, that they’d be okay if they didn’t
but he couldn’t. She had to go through the ceremony. There was no moving forward if she didn’t and he wasn’t even thinking of their mating—well not entirely about it. Leah needed to be human so they could find out what happened to her, so they could learn what she knew about the process their father used to turn ordinary people into wolves who only lived a few months. She had to return to her original state so they could contact her father. There was no other choice.
“I’m going to be there.” He pointed to an open spot in the circle. “That’s the Kane position in the power circles. We’ll all be lined up there.”
Leah let out a nervous giggle. I learned something else to put in my pretend ‘all about me’ book.
“What’s that?”
I don’t do well in stressful situations.
His heart shattered into a million pieces. He scratched the top of her head because it was all he could do. “You’re doing fine. This will all seem like a memory soon.”
As he stood to his full height, he turned to face Ashlee. With a growl in his throat, he refrained from grabbing his sister-in-law by the shirt. “She’d better not get hurt.”
“Brother, did you just threaten my mate?”
Tristan sounded like he wanted to kill and even though Az’s wolf went nuts at the fact that he’d all but threatened the Alpha’s mate, Az really didn’t care.
“Oh hush, Tristan.” Ashlee’s voice rang out. “You remember what it was like before we mated. I thought you were going to kill Rex in the back of my father’s SUV. Let’s get started and save the posturing for later.”
Az moved into his spot next to Tristan. Normally Cullen stood on Tristan’s right side but he’d quietly given the spot to Az without comment. He liked that about Cullen. The man might have been the boogeyman of his youth but he knew when to shut up and not utter a sound.
Ashley turned around and said something to Leah that he couldn’t hear. For a second, he considered contacting her telepathically to ask her what it was. The thought quickly swept from his mind as Ash raised her arms to the sky, threw her head back and spoke to the heavens.
“Guardians of the western sky, your daughters who you sent here to serve you salute you. We beseech thee—hear us.”
A shiver ran down Az’s spine. This was the magic he hated. How did they know they weren’t all about to blow up? Next to him, Tristan made a noise in the back of his throat as he watched Ashlee. His older brother looked proud.
Summer spoke next. She raised her arm and threw her head back. Cullen’s mate had once been a singer and she knew how to project. The silent woods surrounding them rang out with her voice. “Guardians of the eastern sky, your daughters who you sent here to serve you salute you. We beseech thee—hear us.”
When it was Faith’s turn she raised only one arm to the sky. His other sister-in-law was extraordinarily powerful. She’d once held the essence of a fire demon inside her. Shifters sometimes whispered that the universe seemed to move when she talked. “Guardians of the northern sky, your daughters who you sent here to serve you salute you. We beseech thee—hear us.”
Jana was small in stature but strong of will as she immediately lent her voice to the ritual. “Guardians of the southern sky, your daughters who you sent here to serve you salute you. We beseech thee—hear us.”
Aro
und them the wind picked up. Az couldn’t pull his gaze from Leah although he didn’t dare speak to her. There were too many unknowns. What if his contact with her altered the ritual and something happened? He clenched his fists at his side wishing they’d hurry.
Ashlee moved forward. “As you have brought us the wind, we know you are with us.” She raised her hand to point to Tristan. “Our Alpha would call his pack. Call to them, our chosen one.”
Next to him, Tristan took a small step forward. “Come to me, my wolves. Answer my summons.”
Az’s ears rang. His Alpha had called to him and he would obey. A howl started in his throat. Around him, he heard the calls of all their pack mates answering their Alpha. What was happening to Leah? He couldn’t look as the warm white light demanded his total surrender. Closing his eyes, he let it take him—there was no other choice.
As his body reshaped into its wolf form he let out a howl to Tristan, the moon, and any gods that were listening to keep his mate safe.
5
Leah screamed as the first wave of white light hit her. Az had called it warm; it didn’t feel that way to her. No, the word she wanted to use was scalding. Her body burned as she thrashed and rolled on the ground. They were killing her. This whole thing had been an elaborate hoax to cause her pain. It was the only explanation.
Az’s face appeared before her eyes. She knew it wasn’t really him, she’d watched him howl and shift when this horror had begun. It was just a vision of him, a memory from earlier. What had he told her? Some people resisted the light and it hurt them more. Was that what she was doing?
Her vision swam back to the present and she tried to breathe deeply even though she wanted to throw up. First her left paw began to reshape, followed immediately by the right one. The toes elongated, moved, where there was once fur human skin appeared before her eyes and oh how it burned as it happened. Nothing could be more agony than this.
She fell down on her face. Lifting her head she realized she was in her human form. The wolves around her still howled to Tristan’s command. Even the four women who were leading the ceremony had shifted.
Brace yourself. Here we go again. A female voice she’d never heard before spoke in her head.
Before she questioned who it was, her body convulsed again. Oh hell. The wolf body was coming back.
It won’t hurt as much this time. That voice again.
Her change came faster brought on by the white light. Leah knew she wasn’t calling the white light to come so it must still be part of the ceremony Tristan had invoked when he’d called the pack to him.
He’s our Alpha. He calls and we come.
Still in the thralls of misery, she realized whom she heard. It was her wolf. Az had said he had one and now that she had one she supposed it was official—she was an actual wolf shifter. The whys and hows of this were going to have to be worked out later. For right now, all she could focus on was that her wolf—and what freaky concept that was— had been correct. It didn’t hurt quite as much. That wasn’t to say it wasn’t uncomfortable. By all things holy, it truly was. However, this time around, it was manageable, like going to the dentist, she knew it was going to hurt but she was going to live through the pain.
Grimacing as a wave of uncomfortable sensation floated up her arm, she tried to make a mental note that she had, at some point, gone to the dentist and knew what that experience was like.
As she stared in wonder, fur covered her body. It was the same colors as earlier, brown and white, except now it seemed so much more vibrant. The white looked less like dirty snow and more like the first flakes that fell on a cold winter’s night before they’d had a chance to be sullied by the ground. The brown was different too. She’d thought her fur had resembled the color of mud. This version looked more like chestnuts. All in all, for a wolf, it was a prettier presentation.
That’s because this is what I actually look like and not the idiotic facsimile those vile and disgusting people forced on us.
Leah was confused. You were with me then?
Her wolf laughed, a dainty little sound like those women from movies about Victorian England, it was more like a twittering than a full on laugh. Oh darling, I’ve always been with you and if we’d been raised as we should have been, then you would have known me much earlier.
Leah’s wolf form began to shift again. She groaned and her wolf assured her that it was the last switch. This time, although she was exhausted from the overall experience, she found she could endure and if she breathed through the light then it didn’t hurt at all.
Someday you might actually enjoy it.
That she was going to have to wait to see. As she regained her human figure, strong arms pulled her into a tight embrace. She opened one eye to see Az’s concerned expression above her.
“Tristan,” Az called behind her. “She’s burning up. Did that happen to you?”
“No.” There was movement behind her. “Gods only know what Dad did to her with all of his messing around. She shouldn’t have fever. Let’s bring her back to the house.”
“I’ve got you, Leah. We’re going to take care of you now.”
Although her arm now felt like it weighed a ton, she raised it and touched his cheek. “What? No more she-wolf?”
He smiled and smoothed the hair off her forehead. “Did you actually like that?”
Her hearing was different outside of her wolf body. It felt strange to hear his voice this way. Az sounded gentler; his intonation held a timbre that spoke of warmth and longing. It sent shivers up her spine. Or, she wondered, maybe that was just the fever she evidently had.
I think we need to sleep now. “Can you hear her, Az?”
He shook his head. “Hear who?” “My wolf. She talks to me.”
“No, I can’t hear her, Leah, only you will ever be able to do that. Good or bad she entirely belongs to you.”
The next time Leah opened her eyes darkness assaulted her senses. It had been midday when she’d passed out and now, clearly, it was nighttime. Her last coherent memory was of being in Az’s arms and now she was sprawled out in a soft bed. She wanted to roll around from the sheer joy of the sensation. When was the last time she hadn’t been in a cage?
A cool rag touched her forehead and a woman’s face loomed over hers stealing her gaze from the nothingness of the darkness in the room. “That feels better, doesn’t it? He can stop pacing now.”
The woman cleared her throat. “I’m Jana. We met briefly out on the field. Not that I’d expect you to remember, there was a lot going on.”
The woman’s dark hair was cut in a severe bob that ended exactly at the edge of her chin. Leah took a second to contemplate exactly how Jana achieved that level of perfection with her hair before she realized Jana expected a response. Truth was, Leah knew she had much to say to this woman in particular.
“Az told me I tried to hurt you. I’m so sorry about that. Every once in a while, I’m overcome with the desire to do things that are not my own idea.”
“My mate might disagree with me on this subject but I’ll just say that actually we owe you a debt of gratitude.” Jana pulled the cloth off her forehead. “If things hadn’t happened as they did, we might still be in New York, me trying not to mate him and Malcolm would be out of his mind confused with how to deal with me.”
“So, my being part of a pack of all but insane wolves was a good thing for you?”
Jana nodded. “In the long run.” The small woman chewed on her lip. “Az has made himself nuts worrying about you. He’s in the basement of the building, muttering to himself about infections, suppressed immune systems, and cursing magic to the heavens. He has some sort of makeshift lab down there and he’s been desperately trying to concoct some kind of formula to help you. Ashlee and I felt that you’d probably be fine given a little rest, which you obviously are but he couldn’t be dissuaded from trying.” Jana smiled and Leah thought she might have seen some sadness in the other woman’s eyes. “He was like that as a child too.
If there was a problem, he needed to fix it.”
Leah tried to absorb the plethora of information she’d just been given. Az was trying to make her better, he was most likely making himself sick about, and Jana who looked to be about thirty years old was clearly older than that.
“How old are you exactly?”
Jana raised an eyebrow and cracked up laughing. “A lady never tells her weight or age. I may have just dated myself there. I’m a lot older than Malcolm and that’s all I’ll say.”
Leah swung her legs over the table and tested her feet on the floor. It was then she noticed she was dressed and, she was relieved to realize, so was Jana. Someone had put a pair of comfortable grey cotton sweat pants and a navy blue tee shirt on her after she’d passed out. Her feet seemed to be holding steady and she gave Jana a small grin. The other woman looked glamorous wearing black pants and a tight silver long sleeve turtleneck that tugged at all the right places. Of course, Jana might just be one of those women who looked that good all the time.
Mental note: clearly, she knew something about fashion. “So tell me why all the women here are so gorgeous.”
Jana raised an eyebrow. “Have you looked in a mirror? How did you get all those colors in your hair? On someone else it might look odd but you are stunning.”
Leah followed Jana’s gaze to a mirror across the room. Forgetting her fears about falling over, she moved forward watching as her reflection got bigger the closer she got to her destination. In the picture, her hair had been streaked with dye—a reddish, purple color—but maybe it had been an out of date snapshot of her because the woman who stared back at her in the mirror had more than just that one shade illuminated in her hair.
The reddish, purple was there but also white, orange, and blue highlights danced back at her. Grabbing her locks in her hands, she wanted to shriek. Why had she done this? It was ridiculous. She closed her eyes in mortification.