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I also think the only reason why Aleks pulls back the last of his own ferocity isn’t because he’s intimidated by Dash or because he’s affected by his dominance. Nope. He’s slightly mollified by the way the Alpha refers to him as my mate.
I take the opportunity to throw my arms around him. One part of me needs the contact, while the other knows it’s the only way to keep him from losing his temper again. And considering I have no choice but to leave him so soon after he found me, I have to.
“He’s right, baby. You have to stay. Muncie needs you.” I do, too, but this is shifter business. Just like how there are things that have to do with the Cadre that I’ll never fully understand, this is what he has to expect when he has a she-wolf as his beloved. “I have to go with them, but I’m coming back.”
“Make it before your Luna’s full, ksiezyca. I gave you the last one to decide if you want to be bonded to me or not. I can’t make it through another without you.”
Me, neither.
“I will. I swear it.”
If the Alpha collective doesn’t decide I’m too dangerous a threat to shifter stability to be allowed to leave, that is.
CHAPTER14
UNEXPECTED VISITORS
Idon’t know what’s worse: being a pet or being a curiosity.
In the Wolf District, I was definitely both, but that was only because the Wicked Wolf made me his pet after I convinced him that I could never be his mate. At the Northern Winds Pack? I’m definitely a curiosity.
We arrive late at night. It was a three-hour run from Muncie to Chione, the wooded settlement where the Northern Winds Pack make their home. At the Alpha’s urging, we shifted from skin to fur before we left.
Aleks patted my flank and looped my duffel bag over my head, then stood on the empty stretch of land. Through our bond, I could sense him watching me until I was out of sight. I felt a pang when he could no longer see me, but now that I’m aware of my bond with Aleks, I sent a pulse of pure love down it.
He returns it, and I know that, even if he’s notwithme, I carry his love with me wherever I go. And I will see him again.
After the plane ride, I actually don’t mind the run. With us in our skin, I don’t have to listen to whatever nastiness Peyton is spewing at me, though she does get a kick out of snapping her jaws at my tail and trying to trip me. Eventually Dash jumps in front of her and gives her an Alpha stare. Peyton falls in life after that, but she did cause the three-hour run to creep up to almost four.
It’s past ten o’clock when we arrived at Chione. The Alpha grunts at me and Peyton before padding off to his cabin and his waiting mate, leaving us in the care of his Beta. Because I’m the accused and she’s the accuser, we both have to stay until the Alphas have gathered to listen to our explanations.
Luckily, being on opposite sides of this shifter battle means that we have to be kept separated. The Beta, Freddy, brings me to an empty cabin that—not so surprisingly—is located near enough to the impressive one belonging to Dash and his mate. The meaning isn’t lost on me. Dash was forced to track me down, and now he’s got his eye on me. There’s no use in trying to escape.
I don’t bother. I actually try to hole up in my borrowed cabin until it’s time to meet the Alpha collective. It’s certainly nicer than the feral’s shack, but, yeah… that was a lost cause. I guess it’s been too long since I’ve been in a pack because I forgot how any change to a pack’s routine gets the rumor mill running like nothing else.
The whole morning, countless packmates stop by to “introduce” themselves to me. I know what that means. It’s an excuse for them to come and gawk at the Luna-touched female. I lost count of how many shiftersooh-ed andahh-ed over my silver eyes while notable keeping their distance as if afraid I’ll rush them and go on a bond-snapping spree or something.
Like in the Wolf District, this pack has a community dining area. My options—put plainly yet, somehow, still friendly-like by Freddy—is eat with the pack or go hungry. Since the food smells amazing, despite my uneasy belly, I eat.
Dash joins me, alongside his pretty mate, Emily. At first, I think it’s because I’m a visitor to the pack and, regardless of what happens at the trial, shifter etiquette usually reigns supreme, but I’m quickly corrected.
This isn’t lunch. It’s an interrogation.
I guess that makes sense. As the host Alpha, Dash is responsible for making the initial assessment. He’s already decided that it’ll be a full trial—with a total of twelve Alphas acting as both judge and jury. That’s because, he explains in a gruff tone, of the severity of the accusations against me. Since Peyton claims that I have this sick urge to break bonds, the Alphas are worried that I could really upset the balance of shifter society.
My goal is to prove them wrong. So when Dash starts asking me questions about my abilities, I answer them honestly. I can’t get a read on whether he believes I’m harmless or not, but I can say one thing: the mating between Dash and Emily is solid as a rock.
She smiles when I tell them that, and Dash—seeing his mate’s smile—starts to look at me with a lot less distrust than before.
I’m allowed back to my cabin after that, though either Dash or Freddy comes to get me every time a new Alpha arrives at Chione. Of the twelve, four make it by dinner, and I sat down and was interrogated by all of them one-on-one to give them my side of the story.
I know they’re listening to Peyton, too, and I’ll have to go through it all over again when the twelve actually run the trial, but I leave each session feeling a little more worried about my prospects.
And, okay, that’s putting it mildly. By the time night begins to creep in, and I sense the Beta at my dooragain,I’m a bundle of fucking nerves.
But I answer it because what else am I going to do?
“Sorry to disturb you so late, Elizabeth, but you have a visitor.”
