Page 29 of Puck of My Life

One look at their faces as they opened the door in their pajamas was enough. Garrick wouldn’t have announced it, even for someone as rigid and bloodthirsty as him would not have told the pack he was holding my mate captive. But in a small town where most of the inhabitants were pack, rumors circulated.

“Where is he? Where’s my mate?” I was past caring when they flinched at my screams.

“Garrick has him.”

If this was a repeat of eight years ago where they didn’t speak up for me, I’d tear the neighborhood apart until I found Walter. My hands and neck furred, and I allowed my wolf into my sight. My beast was bigger and stronger than either of theirs, and they backed against a wall.

“Garrick has him locked in the old hunting cabin on the ridge.” My alpha father shared a glance with his mate. “He’s alive because old Jonathan has been bringing him food.”

“Archie, please.” My omega dad grabbed my wrist. “You got your life together. Don’t mess it up.”

“You expected me to give him up once, and I did that.” I rubbed my brow, trying to erase the memories, and my dad got between me and the door. “But that didn’t save either of us. We just lost time. I’m not doing it again.”

My alpha father sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. “Then do it right. If you’re going to challenge him, you have to do it in front of the pack according to the old laws. There can be no argument afterward about whether what you did was legitimate.”

He looked at me as though he was proud and yanked his mate away from the door.

I hadn’t issued a challenge and hadn’t told him that was my plan. But he was well versed in pack law and practice, and there was only one way this ended. I could go up to the cabin and break Walter out, but nothing would change. Garrick would still be Alpha. We’d be on the run by morning, and unlike when I was eighteen, the entire pack would know what had happened, so it wouldn’t be just Garrick we’d have to worry about.

There was only one way to keep Walter safe and that was to take the pack from the man who’d threatened him and become the one who made the laws rather than the one who broke them.

From my parents' porch, I looked up at the ridge in the distance that towered over the town.

“I’m coming for you.” He was too far away from me but perhaps through the mate connection he might sense me nearby. Him pleading for his life and our happiness was never going to work on Garrick.

“Call the pack,” I told my father. “Gather them together tonight.” I couldn’t put this off until tomorrow or try to get in touch with Garrick. Tonight I would challenge him, and only one of us might be alive at dawn.

It was time.

18

ARCHIE

The pack gathered in the clearing below the ridge, the same ground where my brother and I had taken our first shifts as boys.

My father had gotten the word out, and as usual in a small town, those who didn’t hear firsthand got the message from other pack members. By the time the moon was waning, the pack had arrived. They were ringed around the edge of the clearing in the dark, but with their beasts showing in their eyes, their pupils caught the light.

I’d grown up with many of these people, and though I hadn’t been present, Garrick had stood here after I left and explained why he‘d given me the option to give up my mate or watch him die. None of them had objected, and I assumed they’d stay quiet tonight. But they’d come to witness whatever was about to go down.

Garrick walked into the clearing with his shoulders back and his head high. No matter what he was thinking, he looked like the Alpha he was. The years hadn’t changed him other than the gray in his hair and lines on his brow. His gaze swept over the circle at the assembled pack members, barely allowing his eyes to rest on me. To him, I was still the boy who ran.

You aren’t and neither am I. We can do this. My wolf had been longing to bring Garrick down as I had.

“So the pup came home.” His voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. “I wondered if you would.”

“I’m here to challenge you.” I didn’t bother with pretend pleasantries or games. I said the words written in the old law so no one could argue later about my intention.

Garrick's smile broadened, and a ripple went around the circle and heads bobbed. I wondered if some of the pack members relished Alpha being challenged or if they were looking forward to bloodshed.

“You understand what I’m saying.” I was determined but not overly confident. This man had been terrorizing pack members for over ten years. “A challenge doesn’t end with someone walking away sore or with broken bones. This is a fight to the death or with one of us face down and accepting defeat. That’s the law and was the law of your father and his father.”

Garrick shrugged off his jacket. “I accept. I’ve waited a long time to put you down and have you stay down.”

He extended his arms but kept his eyes on me. “Bring the human and let him watch. Allow him to witness what he’s walked into. If a pack member wants a plaything from outside the pack, everyone should see the price of mating an outsider.”

One of the Betas brought Walter and walked him into the clearing. His shoulders drooped, and he was stumbling as he stared at the ground. But when he saw me, he straightened and yelled my name. Our eyes locked, and I imagined I saw an apology in them. But there was also fury as he lifted his chin and his eyes blazed, followed by affection when he mouthed, “I love you.”

The leaves rustled in the breeze and brought me my mate’s scent. That clean smell that soothed me and my wolf had something else woven into it. It was faint, but there was no mistaking it. That scent under Walter’s that hadn’t been there when we last saw one another.