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Mason continued, his face losing the hard lines of anger and softening with the memory of all the responsibilities he possessed. “Besides, we couldn’t leave any chance of Sampson finding us. We don’t stay any longer than six months in one place. He keeps sending people after us, trying to track her down, even after ten years.”
Ten years ago? A year before I met Nathan. “Can’t he rule without her?”
His shoulders sagged. “No. And it’s worse than simply losing the right to rule if he doesn’t bring her back.”
Lacey stilled. “What do you mean?”
“If the rightful alpha doesn’t take her place as leader, then the last generation of males before her loses the ability to shift.”
Lacey’s mouth dropped at the admission. A shifter unable to shift? It was inconceivable. “What?”
He nodded. “It’s a curse our family has borne for centuries, designed to stop anyone from doing what Sampson is trying to achieve. He’s only got a few days left to find Karis before he becomes human. And if there’s one thing my uncle loves more than anything, it’s power. He can’t rule the pack as a human.”
Lacey just stood there, her mouth still halfway to her chest, trying to take everything in. She’d never heard of such a curse before – Nathan certainly hadn’t told her about that when he was alive – but the genuine ring of truth resounded in Mason’s words.
Sam was right. Mason had stolen something from him. He’d stolen his sister.
The one person in the world who could give him what he wanted, what he desperately craved.
Power over the pack.
Power. Control. Manipulation. It was a tale as old as time. Humans, shifters, it didn’t matter. Once someone had it, they wouldn’t let it go until someone had ripped it from their hands.
And Mason had pulled it out of Sam’s palms ten years ago.
Now Sam wanted it back before it slipped from his fingers permanently. And the only way he could do that was from one teenage girl.
And she had no doubt Sam would do everything Mason claimed. That he would make her marry his son, bear one child after another until she gave birth to a female heir.
But first he’d have to get rid of Mason. She had known him only a single day, yet Lacey knew he would never let her willingly do any of those things if he were alive. Sam might have risked Lacey knowing about the pack, but Mason was too big of a risk to take. No, the first thing Sam would do was kill him.
Something inside Lacey’s gut clenched, and her blood ran cold in her veins. A shiver ran up the base of her spine, sending goosebumps racing along the surface of her skin. All the little hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood to attention. Anger, red-hot rage, burned in her chest at the thought of Sam taking him, destroying him, simply because he wanted something he had no right to take.
The mark on her shoulder started to burn.
Mason rose to his feet and took a single step forward. Hesitancy flashed in his eyes. “I know you’ve taken all this pretty well, but there’s something else I need to tell you.”
Lacey inhaled, holding the breath in as she watched him take another step closer. Another battle played out over his face until one side finally won. “And what’s that?”
“That mark on your shoulder.” Lacey inhaled sharply. “It’s a mating mark. It binds us together.”
She already knew but hearing it from his lips triggered another wave of anxiety. “Like a contract?”
He regarded her steadily. “Like wedding bands. Only these you can never take off.”
Lacey kept her mouth shut, waiting for him to say something else before she said something stupid.
“You and I belong together. Where you go, I follow. Where I go, you’ll be at my side. That mark means you’re my wife, Lacey.”
Swallowing, Lacey lifted her chin. “And if I want a divorce?”
A dark look erupted in Mason’s eyes. “There’s no divorce in the shifter world, Lacey. You’re mine. Forever.”
