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When did my mom stop trying to protect me? Stop caring about my well-being and what’s best for me? If she’s so willing to hand me over to that monster, then why have I been killing myself picking up her slack over the last few years? Respect and love are a two-way street.
Dad would never have let any of this happen. Ever. Then again, I never thought Mom would either.
Let’s run away, my wolf suggests. How bad does my mate bond have to be that even my wolf is this desperate to get away? Wolves normally want to stick to their bond like glue. Still, I’m not so desperate that running away is an option. Not when Arielle is here. Not when there’s a woman here who still needs my help. Not when Cupid’s Pack is my legacy—one that I love with all my heart.
“Quinn, I asked around about Jakob MacKay.” She holds her phone up. I’ve never met a shifter so in touch with other shifters across social media, but Arielle’s wide-spanning social circle has helped us more than once in the past.
I swallow hard, stomach plummeting. Arielle’s always been a little happy-go-lucky. The pinched look on her face doesn’t bode well for me. “What do they say about him?”
“It’s bad.” She shoves the phone into her pocket as if worried I’ll grab it and look for myself. I’m half tempted to but beat the urge down in favor of trying to maintain an air of calm, weathering this storm like a calm, cool, collected adult.
“How bad, Arielle? Tell me.” I need to be prepared and honest with myself about what I’m facing. The way Jakob grabbed me already tells me he has no intention of letting me go easily. Though I’m not sure why someone so seemingly self-centered would even be worried about a mate.
Arielle stands and takes a step toward me but slips past me and sits on my desk chair, like she changed her mind halfway through. She collapses as if she can’t hold up the weight of what she has to say. I know that bad is an understatement the second I get a good look at the weariness in her eyes, understanding the movement was a short detour on the way to the bad news she’s preparing to drop on me.
“I heard a lot when I was eavesdropping on his meeting with Mom.” Arielle’s cheeks tinge pink, but I wave her embarrassment off. Her nosiness is old news at this point. “Jakob’s in line to be Alpha of the Red Ash Pack, but his parents will only hand over the reins if he takes a mate; they’re worried about him making heirs as soon as possible. He asked Mom to give him someone meek and unquestioning, but then they got sidetracked when he smelled… you.”
The fact that Mom would even entertain that request makes no sense. Asking for a meek and unquestioning mate screams abusive asshole. We’re better than that. Wehaveto be better than that, and Mom knows it.
My eyes narrow as I try to make the information make sense. Arielle hasn’t told me everything—I can tell by the way she fidgets on the chair, spinning halfway around before catching her momentum with her feet against the floor and swinging the other way. She picks at her nails as I ask, “And what are they saying online?”
“They’re saying he planned to mark his high school girlfriend on her eighteenth birthday even though they weren’t fated.” Her voice lowers to a pained murmur, and my heart hammers in my chest. “But he flew into a rage and she… She disappeared.”
“They think he killed her?” I force myself to say the words and acknowledge the possibility. I can only hope she disappeared to run away, but I know how hard it is for shifters to disappear completely without help. My heart pangs. I hope she found that help. The alternative is… unimaginable.
Arielle nods, confirming a horrible reality. It’s bad enough for Fate to give me a mate that’s an angry narcissist, but this is something else entirely. I can’t leave with this man, or it’s very likely thatI’mthe one who disappears next. We stare at each other for a long, silent moment; the only sound in the room is our breathing as my mind careens.
Arielle and I both jump at the sound of a loud thump on the door. “It’s only me, let me in,” Mom pleads through the door.
I creep toward the door and listen carefully to the sounds of her breathing until I’m sure there’s no one else out there with her. My shaking hands open the door just barely enough for her to squeeze inside before slamming and locking it behind her. I lean back against it to block her from opening it again and press my hands against the cool wood, fighting to control the tremors in them.
Mom looks Arielle and I over with frantic, dilated eyes. I chew my lip as a wave of nausea slams into me.Is she really considering handing us over to that abomination downstairs?my wolf asks, but I ignore the question, opting for the trouble that’s actually in front of me instead of the hypothetical trouble of a what-if.
“Are you okay?” I ask even through the sting of betrayal I’m feeling. Habits die so, so hard.
“I should be the one asking you that!” She looks queasy, pressing her hand to her stomach as her eyes widen. “Do you have any idea how rude it is to treat your mate like you did? A shifter is supposed to be thrilled to find their bond, Quinn. What would the pack think if anyone saw that?”
The edge of frantic panic in her voice makes her barely even sound like my mom anymore. I almost press my hand to my stomach, fighting the overwhelming urge to vomit my anger and disappointment at her feet.
“Are you insane?” Arielle pipes up as she leans forward in the desk chair, lips turning down into a frown as her eyes narrow.
I sharply shake my head at her, wanting her to stay as uninvolved as possible. Something is so very wrong, and fear spikes in my gut. This isn’t what Cupid’s Pack stands for, right? It can’t be—otherwise, all of the work I’ve done is for nothing.
“You have to go down there and make it right,” Mom continues. “The logistics can be worked out afterward. We’ll explain how important you are here and weigh it against what the Red Ash Pack needs from him as the future Alpha.”
“Do you hear yourself right now?”
“I needyouto hear me, Quinn. Mr. MacKay—Jakob—he talked so loudly out there that anyone from the pack might have heard him. Do you have any idea how it will look if he leaves here alone after that? Do you have any idea what people might say?” Every word out of her mouth only serves to further convince me that it’s not my best interests that she's looking out for. The pack is important, but when did she start prioritizing their perceptions over her own family?
“I don’t care what the pack thinks, Mom. I’m not letting that man mark me.”
Her eyes flash with anger unlike anything I’ve seen from her before, and if I wasn't already pressed against the door, I would take a step back from the heat of her gaze. “If you don’t let your mate mark you, you can’t stay here.”
Arielle gasps as I gape at a version of my mom that I don’t recognize.
“I mean it,” she growls, though the sound is almost pained. “Cupid’s Pack has never let a pack memberchooseto live here as an unmated wolf, and I won’t allow my own daughter to be that exception. You’ll either accept this bond or—or you won’t have a place here anymore.”
My heart sinks heavily in my chest. I feel almost numbed by her words, and the reality that my life with this woman has been a lie hits me like a ton of bricks. I cared for her, even when I was grieving my own dad, because the pack still had to function. I kept us together when she would have let everything fall apart after losing Dad. I was the strong one.
