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CHAPTER2
DUKE CONLON
Duke Conlon.
As I dig into the still-warm breakfast, I sigh as I think of him.
Duke… that’s not his real name. His real name is Jack, but last year when Gem came back to Accalia to finalize her mate bond with Ryker, she started calling him Duke for some reason. Well, no. I know why she couldn’t call him Jack. That’s the Wicked Wolf’s first name, and I still get a shiver when I think it, too. But Duke? When I asked him after we returned home, he just shrugged and said it’s what she called him and he didn’t argue so it stuck.
I’m not surprised. The big delta is no match for the dominant she-wolf. It’s like if Ryker told me that, instead of going by the shortened version of my name, he wanted me to only be known as Patricia. I’d be Patricia Danvers, instead of Trish, and that would be that. So Duke’s Duke now, even though I used to know him as Jack.
Well, kinda.
Unlike me, Duke isn’t from Accalia. While my family being part of the Mountainside Pack goes back for generations, Duke comes from a pack of traveling wolves. Most shifter communities stay in one place, keeping their distance from humans and other supes, but there are a few packs that are nomadic. They get permission to visit other, more stable territories because they’re also traders. For shifters who don’t want to leave pack land, we can barter or buy from these travelers.
I never really paid attention since my parents made sure I had everything I wanted, but our old Alpha, Henry, was more than willing to up our numbers anytime he had the chance. When Duke petitioned to join the Mountainside Pack, Henry allowed it, and Duke became fast friends with Ryker and his circle.
Now he’s part of the pack council, with Ryker as Alpha and Jace Burke as Beta.
He also used to be part of the foursome that serves as Gem’s personal guard. After a year’s absence—that still makes me feel guilty when I remember that I caused it—she returned to Accalia last summer. Right before she completed the Luna Ceremony that made her and Ryker forever mates, four wolves pledged their loyalty to her. Duke and Jace were two of them, my cousin Bobby another, and Dorian Howard was the fourth. While Ryker is responsible for the safety of the entire pack, these four wanted to make sure that his mate was protected.
Lucky Gem. An alpha female who doesn’t evenneedprotection, and she had four of the most strongest deltas in Accalia lining up to have her back. At the time, I was working hard to get past my jealousy. She was good enough to give permission for me to return to Accalia after Ryker banished me, and I resolved to start over. I needed to be better.
And I was… until Barrow tricked me and I ended up the political prisoner of the most feared shifter in our world.
Something happened while I was trapped in the Wolf District, though. Something changed. When Gem showed up with Jace and Duke, the big shifter voluntarily gave up his freedom so that he could be locked in the cell next to mine. I went from only knowing him as Bobby’s pal, Jack, to falling asleep to his rumbled promises that he was going to make sure nothing happened to me.
He was going to keep me safe, and nothing was going to stop him from bringing me back to Accalia in one piece.
It’s been seven months since he held up his end of that harshly whispered vow, and that’s not all he’s done, either. As if he can sense that I’m home, but I’m nowhere near whole, he’s stepped back from being one of Gem’s guards. Instead, he spends most of his time watching out forme.
I’ll be the first to admit. I’m broken. Weeks in a cage, curled up as my wolf… I didn’t go completely feral, but it was close. I relied on my other half too much, and now there’s this… almost disconnect between us. My wolf is there, I can sense her, but it’s like I’ve been blocked from her. The idea of shifting has sweat forming at the base of my spine, a mournful howl building in the back of my throat. I just… I can’t.
Does that mean I need a personal guard? Of course not. Trusting Barrow taught me a lesson I’ll never forget, and these days I prefer to stay around my cabin. My mother makes sure my kitchen is stocked full of food so it’s not like I have to leave if I don’t want to. Watching me has got to be the most boring job in Accalia, but when I began to sense Duke close by my cabin more than could be explained, I finally went to the Alphas’ den and met with Ryker and Gem to ask them about it.
My Alpha and his mate exchanged a look, with Gem teasing that she’s grateful to have the number of her guard whittled down to three. Ryker just told me that, if I wanted him to order Duke to stay away, he would, but I didn’t want that. I only wanted to understandwhyhe was out there.
And, sure, I could’ve gone and asked him. Our time together in the cells of the Wolf District forged a bond that I don’t think will ever be broken. It’s not a mate bond, of course—I doubt I’ll ever have one of those—but Duke kept me sane while I was on the edge of turning feral. I might be broken, but he stopped me from shattering. That’s not really that surprising. Male shifters are protective of those weaker than them. He obviously thinks I need him and, well, I think I do, too.
We’re friends. I guess that’s what you can call us. I’ve never asked him why he watches me as if expecting I’ll break, and we don’t discuss what happened in California, but we’re friends now. He brings me food when he has extra, and when he doesn’t have pack duties busying him, he curls up in his wolf form outside of my cabin, keeping the nightmares at bay.
I’ve found him there before. I’m not sure he knows that I do—I’ve never mentioned it—but, sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I find peace watching the big grey wolf slumber on my back porch as if he doesn’t have a cabin of his own.
Maybe I “accidentally” left a blanket out there to make it more comfortable for him, but at least he always folds it up before he goes. The gentle giant is a man of few words, but we don’t talk about his sleeping habits, either. We… we kinda don’t really talk that much at all. We don’t need to. It’s enough just knowing he’s close.
And if I wonder what it would be like to invite him to spend the night inside of my cabin with me? I quickly shove that idea out of my head. He worries for me. He feels bad that I was betrayed by my packmate, and caged by a cruel Alpha. I’m not a possible mate to him. I’m nobody.
I look down at my plate, half-empty despite my nightmare leaving me queasy.
I’m nobody—except, maybe, to Duke Conlon.
* * *
In Accalia,I’m a fixture. A pretty fixture, sure, but a fixture nonetheless.
That’s… actually not new. For longer than I want to admit, that’s been my life. The pretty almost-mate to Ryker, the head bitch in the group of she-wolves around my age, and one of the long-established Danvers clan. If anything, I was known for my looks and my attitude. Kind of pathetic when I look back on it now, but until the moment I was banished, I liked my life.
I had it all mapped out. I’d be the Alpha female, living in the Alpha cabin with Ryker, and I’d be untouchable. Only… turns out, I becameverytouchable and for one reason only: my imagined tie to a male I never stood a chance with.
