Her world had just gone crazy, but she’d stayed behind to help me.
Loyal,my wolf panted happily.
I turned back to Earl. He writhed underneath my paw, which was pressed into his neck so hard he rasped for breath.
I pulled my paw back and leapt to my feet, sending a wave of power over him and forcing him to shift to human form, something I’ve been able to do since I hit puberty and started shifting. It’s something that only an alpha can do, and I remember my grandfather’s breath of relief the first time it happened.
I can force an agonizingly slow shift or a smooth, easy one. This time I went way easier on Royal than I’d have liked to because I was in a hurry. I needed to go talk to REPHRASE
Seconds after he turned human, I followed suit. Royal and Earl shifted also, and we all stood there naked, glaring at each other. Gage and Talon were standing hundreds of feet away, but I wouldn’t need them.
“What the hell?” Royal shouted at me. “You asshole! You don’t get to claim her! You’re mating Aurora, and don’t think you’re getting out of it!”
I hid my grimace at the thought of mating her—but just barely. Aurora was beautiful in a cold, icy way. And my grandfather had strong-armed me into agreeing to a mating of convenience when her father, Clive, was still alive as a method of uniting our two packs.
As my grandfather’s health declined, other packs were circling, eager to take our place on one of the strongest ley line crossings in the eastern hemisphere. We needed allies, and unfortunately, the Iron Claw pack was powerful and located close enough to come to our aid if we needed it.
My grandfather had recently signed the contract because he wanted to hurry up and get me hitched before I happened to accidentally run into my fated mate somewhere.
But fate has a very, very funny sense of humor.
I smiled at Royal. They were eager to get rid of Aurora because she had a strong personality like theirs, and they felt like she was a bad influence on the other females in the pack. As soon as she was able to shift and came into her magic, she started fighting back when her brothers beat up on her. She had elemental magic, and she’d set their fur on fire. She was the apple of her father’s eye, so he not only let her stand up for herself, he let her defend the other females. For that, at least, I had to admire her, although I didn’t particularly like her as a person.
But they weren’t going to get rid of her by hitching her to me.
“Read the contract very carefully,” I said to Royal. “Because I did. It says that I will take Clive’s daughter as my mate. That’s what I’m doing right now.”
“What do you mean?” Royal demanded, eyes shuttling to the side. He couldn’t quite look me in the eye. He knew exactly what I meant, but I spelled it out for him.
“Clive has more than one daughter. He is Daphne’s father. She’s your half sister.”
Duke and Earl limped over. “Bullshit,” Duke snarled. “You saying our dad cheated on our mama?”
Their mother had not been Clive’s fated mate. The two of them had entered a mating of convenience. She came from a powerful coven, but her witch magic hadn’t passed down to her sons—just her daughter. Clive held that against her as if it was her fault. She and Clive hated each other. He cheated on her constantly, thinking that she wouldn’t find out about it because he did it while on “business trips” to the human world. She’d finally ditched him a few years ago, leaving their town and moving to the distant end of the magic realm.
“I’m saying that I am the best scenter that I know, and I can scent Clive’s blood in her. She’s got the same exact color eyes. She’s half shifter. If you want me to call together a council to do DNA testing, we can, but you know what it will reveal.”
They’d scented it too and recognized her as Clive’s descendent. It was obvious. They would be able to sniff out one of their own.
Daphne had been born in Red Sands and lived here until she was five, when her mother abruptly left, from what I’d been able to find out about her. They’d moved around the country a lot, never settling down anywhere. They returned to Red Sands six months ago—twenty-odd years after they’d left.
Red Sands, New Mexico, is the first town that the magic folk from our area encounter when we cross through the veil. It was only a matter of time before the Iron Claw pack ran across her, given that she worked in the most popular restaurant bar pickup joint in the tiny town.
“Fine. Do your tests. In the meantime, she stays with us,” Duke blustered.
Ha ha. Sure. They’d probably already arranged a mating with a high-ranking shifter from some other pack. A mating she’d have no choice in—designed to force her to bear children who carried Clive’s powerful bloodline. Clive wasn’t just a werewolf—his mother was a witch, and he had magic powers just like his daughter. That meant that Daphne had the potential to be magic, as well.
So they wanted to auction her off like a prize sow. No way in hell would I let that happen.
“You’d have to come through me first.” I let my fangs descend briefly. “But you’d be violating the contract you signed, attacking an ally. The other packs wouldn’t look too kindly on that. Also, I can take you.”
“Not all three of us,” Duke growled.
Duke was bruised and battered from being hit by her car, and they didn’t have a pack healer with them, and even with his advanced shifter healing, he was hurting. “Two and a half of you at the moment.” I shrugged. “And I’ll win.” They all had alpha blood in them, Royal most of all, but I was stronger.
“Aurora’s not going to like this,” Royal muttered.
Bullshit. Aurora was going to love this. Our packs had been enemies for a century and she didn’t want this mating any more than I did.
