AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER5
Gideon had been wrong. He wouldn’t die by a betrayal or by something out of his control. No, today he was going to die at the hands of an Alpha and a former Beta who wanted his blood for daring to touch their precious little princess.
He ran a hand over his head and wondered how the hell he’d been put in this position. Was it really less than a week ago that he’d been worrying about lone wolves trying to attack his den and hiding his people from the humans? He wasstillworrying about all of that, but now, he had a whole new set of demands and problems tacked on to those.
Not that he wanted to call Brie a problem, but what else was he supposed to call her?
The elders had forced his hand, and she had offered herself up like a sacrificial virgin, not knowing she was tempting the beast that lurked beneath his skin.
He froze.
She wasn’t a virgin, was she?
She had to be in her thirties if he was doing the math correctly. There was no way someone that beautiful, someone with so much spirit, would be untouched. If she was, well, the wolves in her den were fucking idiots.
The thought of any of those wolves laying a hand on her made his fists clench, and he had to force himself to relax. Getting jealous over men he’d never met, picturing his future mate tumbling between the sheets with them, wasn’t going to help his mood.
In fact, this was all so fucking crazy he felt as though he had no idea what he was doing. That was just par for the course these days.
He finished doing the buttons on his shirt then tugged on his sleeves. He didn’t like wearing button-down shirts with long sleeves, but he’d wanted to at least try to look nice.
After all, today was his mating ceremony. These things didn’t come around often.
He let out a sigh and tried to rememberwhyhe was doing this.
The elders had forced his hand, and rather than mate with Iona in a bond that would never be whole and could eventually hurt the Pack rather than better it, he’d been offered a choice. He knew he shouldn’t have said he’d found a potential mate when he’d met with the elders, but he hadn’t been able to help himself. In all reality, he’d thought he’d be able to find a way out, but that was only a small chance.
Infinitesimal really.
Then, of course, his family and Quinn had meddled, and Brie had come to him, rather than him finding a way to be a fucking Alpha and go to her. The bond they made would be a true one, real enough and blessed by the goddess, so his wolf would be appeased and so would the elders.
At least that’s what he hoped.
The fact that his wolf craved her and the man wanted her beneath him didn’t hurt.
“You look good,” Brynn said from his bedroom door, and he looked over his shoulder.
“Yeah? Good enough for a mating ceremony?”
Brynn frowned, and he sighed. “You’ll do, big brother. It’s not about the clothes though. Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”
“I’ve been asking that question myself over and over, and I don’t see a way out, Brynn.”
His sister walked toward him and straightened his collar. He let out a breath and let her mother him. Their mother was long dead, and Brynn had done her best to fill that role when needed—though she needn’t have bothered. They’d done well without a mother for their entire lives since the woman who’d given birth to them had never treated them with an ounce of the love or affection the siblings had given each other. That, though, was far in the past, and he was over it.
Really.
“Now you’re frowning, Gideon. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
He pulled away then sat on his bed to pull on his dress shoes. “I was thinking about Mom.”
Brynn cursed under her breath, and he didn’t blame her. “Don’t bring that woman into your mating. She’s not worth it.”
“She won’t be. It’s my mating day. I don’t need to think about our parents. They weren’t the ideal mating to compare to anyway.”
Brynn snorted then sat next to him. “Well, that was an understatement. Brie, however, was born into a loving family. Jasper and Willow are ideal parents from where I’m looking. And the rest of the Jamensons know how to take care of their kids. So, big brother, that girl is used to being loved and cared for. You sure you’re up to the challenge?”
That was just one more thing he was afraid of. “Not even close. All of us might get along, but we’re not the tight-knit family she grew up in. Yeah, she was born in the middle of a war, but she hasn’t had to deal with the shit we have. Mating with me is just going to taint her.”
