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Apparently, I discover, you can. At least, your cousin can.
I don’t know if he guessed I would make a move on his friend or not, but Bobby waylays me just outside of Duke’s cabin. For a moment, I think about accusing him of cock-blocking me—or maybe bribing him with Duke’s—cupcakes, and that’s when I notice the grim expression on his usually easygoing face.
“Let me stop you right here, Trish. Go home. Wait out the full moon where it’s safe. And, Luna help me, keep your doors locked.”
Right. Because with my newly developed paranoias, the last thing I need is for my protector cousin to tell me it’s a good idea to lock my doors.
“Okay. I will,” I tell him, if only because he looks like he won’t take no for an answer, “but I just want to drop these cupcakes off to Duke first.”
“You can’t.”
“Bobby—”
“You don’t want to see him. Not tonight. Trust me.”
He’s a Danvers. Of course I do.
That doesn’t stop me. “I’ll leave them on his porch. I won’t even see him.”
But if Duke sees me…
Bobby shakes his head. “You’d be wasting your time. He’s not even there.”
“How do you know that?”
Or where is he?
Bobby runs his fingers through his hair, claws leaving track marks in its wake. I can tell he doesn’t want to answer me—but after a few moments, he does.
Probably because I threatened to never make him another cupcake again as long as he lived. Oh, well. It does the job.
“Ah, Luna, Trish. It’s ‘cause he went off to borrow the Alpha’s chains.”
CHAPTER6
CHAINS
Chains.
Every pack has a pair. Forged from silver, they’re absolutely unbreakable. All supes react to silver, and shifters are no exception. It weakens us—a fact I know all too well after my time in a cage lined with silver bars—and it burns our skin raw if we touch it.
No shifter will choose to put on a pair of chains unless there is no other option. They’re for ferals, mainly, or those who aren’t too sure of their control.
Everyone in Accalia knows the rumors about Ryker and the chains. I hate to admit that I know for sure that they’re not rumors, and our Alpha spent every night of the full moon chained in his cabin’s basement because he was a danger to the rest of us.
He was a shifter without his true mate, and for a whole year, he didn’t know where Gem was hiding out. Their bond was strained, magic covering up her scent, and he had no way to track her since it seemed as if she’d just disappeared. No one knew she was insane enough to risk death by fang in Muncie—or that she survived, the only shifter living in the Fang City. Ryker’s wolf still wanted his mate, though, and he would’ve burned the whole world down to get to her if he could.
The chain were essential. When the moon fever hit him, not even an alpha wolf could break through the mystically forged silver chains. His pack council set him free every morning, and we all agreed to pretend that it wasn’t happening. Alphas need complete faith and loyalty to lead their pack, and none of Mountainside wanted their pity for Ryker’s unfortunate situation to get in the way of that.
If he felt anything like I have tonight, I put him through torture. Tomorrow, when the fever breaks, I’ll experience guilt for my actions all over again. But tonight? All I can think about is how my wolf picked one male for me to entice—and he needs the Alpha’s chains.
There’s only one reason why he would: Duke is a shifter without his mate.
I’ve known him for seven months. More, really, but our friendship only began those awful days in California. He’s never once mentioned that he has a mate. No one in Accalia has. As far as I know, he’s unmated, just like me. No female would stand by and allow their mate to protect another she-wolf, no matter what his position in the pack is.
So maybe he doesn’t have a mate—but he has an intended. A female his body and wolf believe is his, and who he’d be with if he could. Since he can’t, he’s choosing chains and a night of agony in Ryker’s old basement.
Makes sense. Only a handful of cabins have the underground rooms to begin with. From the rumors that have whispered through the pack’s gossip mill, Ryker’s chains were big and heavy, but also screwed into the cinder block wall in his basement. They’re not something that Duke could bring to his single-room cabin. He has to be there.
