Crystal Lake Pack: The Complete Series: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance

by Candace Wondrak

  A man sat, hunched before me. Brown, messy hair. Muscles that meant he was a shifter. Not fifteen feet away, I could see the wounds on his back. Cuts littered his tan flesh, deep and nasty, a dark red color, the blood pouring from them nearly black. Fresh wounds, wounds too clean to have been accidental. Deliberate and slow. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in.

  I took a hesitant step closer to him, asking, “Landon?”

  He started to turn, getting to his feet in spite of his wounds. His body wore nothing, but it didn’t bother me. His legs were practically coated in blood, as was his backside.

  “Landon, are…” I was about to ask if he was all right, a stupid question, really, because with one glance in his general direction, anyone would know how not all right he was, but the question died in my throat.

  He wasn’t Landon. He…he had no face. Only bone, missing its cartilage and tendons, all the muscles and veins and skin that made a face a face. The hairline was the only part of his head that looked normal. The rest was downright gruesome and ghastly.

  I stumbled backwards, falling on my butt, wanting to look away but wholly unable to.

  Two red eyes were set inside the skull of a face. With no eyelids, they did not blink as they bore down on me, a skeletal hand reaching for me. The closer he came, the deader he grew, the less of him that was covered in flesh. I could not move, couldn’t even crawl away. I was frozen, gazing into those monstrous, unreal eyes.

  Its lower jaw became unhinged, its teeth separating. Though the being had no lips, it managed to speak, its voice deeper than was natural, echoing through my very soul and rattling my core, “You, girl, are mine.”

  As it spoke, its eyes flashed an even deeper red, the color of old, dried blood. The fog around me began to rise, growing thicker, and I breathed it in, choking instantly. My vision turned red, and I collapsed back, falling to the ground. Only…there was no ground.

  I fell.

  Was falling?

  I was in freefall for what felt like ages, the world around me entirely black. Not a single shred of light, yet I was able to see my arms and legs flailing about. Why was I falling? Why did I feel so desolate, abandoned, completely and utterly alone?

  I shivered, exhaling slowly. My heart felt as if it was slowing. Thump, thump. Thump.

  I breathed in again.

  Thump.

  “Death will have you,” the voice spoke into my mind.

  Thump.

  “I will have you.”

  My flailing limbs slowed, my eyes fluttering closed. This was it. This was the end.

  But, of course, it wasn’t—because it was only a stupid dream. A dream that nearly gave me a heart attack, but a dream nonetheless.

  I woke with a jerk, my breathing erratic and goosebumps on my arms. I trembled with the memory of the dream, the skeleton Landon, and that voice. It was the same voice that had spoken to me before, the only difference being the most recent dream was a nightmare, and the first…the first had really happened.

  Who was he? What did he want with me? Would I ever find out? Based on my dream and my vision with the creepy man, I didn’t know. Not that I believed in prophetic visions, but I didn’t think things looked too good for Landon, either. If that bizarre, weird man had him, it might already be too late to save him.

  Either way, it begged the question: what did he want with the wolves?

  And what made me so special to him? Why would he possibly want me so badly? I thought of another startling question. Could he intrude upon the minds of the shifters, or just me? I didn’t even want to think about what it could mean.

  I got out of bed, finding I was alone in my room. No, not my room. It wasn’t my bedroom, and this wasn’t my house. I had to be careful. In spite of it all, I was starting to feel more at home here, especially with Maze and Dylan, and it was something I couldn’t allow because…well, just because Sarah had told me it was all right if I wanted to stay didn’t mean it actually was okay.

  After changing clothes, for I was in a dire need of a new outfit after everything that happened the day before, I left the room, wandering into the hall. As I passed Dylan’s room, I found he was not there, nor was he in the bathroom. My feet took me downstairs, and I found Dylan sitting at the table, munching on…another corndog?

  Was that all he ever ate?

  He wore a tank top, no fabric touching his injured arm and shoulder. The skin was not as red as it was the day before, but it was obvious it still hurt. His precious, obscenely-thick book rested before him, opened to the page he was on. Dylan held the stick of the corn dog with his other hand, pausing as I walked around him, sitting beside him.

  I could’ve sat across from him, or even stood by him, but for some reason I wanted to be close to him. It had to have been because of my dream, the nightmare. Whatever I wanted to call it, I assumed the two bodies I was snuggled in between before finding Landon’s skeletal form belonged to Dylan and Maze. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

  “A corndog?” I asked with a smile. “At—” I glanced to the clock on the microwave. “—nine-thirty in the morning?” I was the kind of person who firmly believed there was never a good time to eat a corndog, but to have one at nine-thirty? Seemed a little extreme and a whole lot disgusting.

  Dylan looked a little embarrassed, his dark eyes flicking down to the table behind his glasses. “I never got to eat the one I made yesterday, and besides you, it’s all I could think about.” As he finished speaking, he hesitantly lifted the corndog to his mouth.

  I had to look away before he took a bite; it was one food I would never like.

  In fact, I might go so far as to say I had a hatred for the things. A burning hatred. I would rather eat cow liver for a week straight than have meals consisting of corndogs, and it was not because of my inner wolf that I thought that.

  It was only after my mind wandered I realized what he’d said before. Slipped it right into the middle of his sentence, so calmly and nonchalantly I nearly missed it. All Dylan could think about was corndogs and me? I wasn’t thrilled to be put on the same level as corndogs, but a pleasant feeling rose within me knowing he’d been thinking about me, even while in pain.

  I was in more trouble than I realized with these guys, wasn’t I?

  I was about to change the subject, because all the feelings I currently had I did not want to face, but another person walked into the room, coming from the living room. The last person I wanted to see.

  Henry.

  The old man looked rather chipper, considering everything that had been going on in his pack. He was not as wide and muscular as the younger wolves were, but he still could hold his own. He was bigger than all the other old men I’d seen in my life. Not like I’d spent every minute of every day looking at seventy-year-old men, but it was obvious he was still strong. Stronger than me at least, underneath his well-pressed clothes.

  “I was waiting for you to wake up,” Henry said. “We have some things we need to talk about.”

  Talking about anything with Henry was the last thing I wanted. I’d rather go back to sleep and have another nightmare. I’d even rather go back to the other side of the lake and walk into that pain-inducing—what did that guy call it? A barrier?

  Besides, what the heck did we have to talk about? He wasn’t going to force me into staying, and I didn’t trust him not to try something to make me stay. Just because he was my grandfather, just because he was part of the equation that equaled my mom and therefore me, did not mean I had to bend to his will. Sometimes blood did not run thicker than water. Sometimes the word related meant absolutely nothing at all.

  “Primarily, this pack,” Henry went on, oblivious to the dour expression on my face and the look Dylan gave me. “What your role will be in it, what will be expected of you. Of course, Dylan, you are free to sit in and weigh in when you think necessary, since she will be your mate, but—”

  Okay, that riled me up.

  “Who the hell do you think
you are?” I practically shouted, getting to my feet. I shot a glare in Henry’s direction, but the old man hardly blinked at my outburst. “Even if you’d been around my whole life, even if you were actually like a grandfather to me, you have no right to tell me what to do. Wolf or not, I don’t care. You don’t get to say what I can and can’t do, and you sure as hell don’t get to tell me who I’m going to spend my life with. That is my decision, not yours, not the pack’s. Not anyone’s but mine.”

  Beside me, Dylan remained silent, though his eyes grew wide, as if he could not believe anyone could speak to a pack elder like that. Well, I wasn’t a part of their pack. I didn’t follow their freaking rules. I would talk to Henry however I damned well wanted to.

  And I was an adult, my mom nowhere in sight. If I wanted to swear, I was going to swear. No one was around to tell me not to, and now seemed like a really good time to do it.

  “You,” Henry spoke with a frown. He did not raise his voice as I did, but I could tell inside he wrestled with his anger. Probably fighting his wolf, too. Both Henry and his wolf wanted to teach me a lesson.

  Well, the joke was on them because I wasn’t in college anymore. I was done with lessons.

  “You are an insolent pup,” Henry growled out. “You will learn sooner or later, pup, things do not work in the pack like you’re used to.”

  Still the old man assumed I was going to join the pack, and still I felt like yelling.

  “Maybe I don’t want to be part of your pack,” I hissed, letting my anger take over. I got out of my chair, shaking my head furiously. I really hoped Dylan wasn’t taking anything I said personally, because I didn’t mean anything toward him. Or Maze. “You don’t get to take away my choice. You don’t get to tell me who I’m going to be.” I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides. “Maybe my mom didn’t leave just because she fell in love with someone else. Maybe she left because she couldn’t deal with you.”

  Henry sneered. “You have no idea why your mother left. You think it was because she was in love?” A vicious laugh came from him, and it only fueled my anger. “She was in the middle of a mess, and the only way to get herself out of it was to leave. She did not trust the pack to have her back, and I see she instilled the same in you.”

  “Does everyone else know how big of a dick you are, or do you save it for me?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “Addie,” Dylan warned. “Maybe we should all take a step back and—”

  “Hush,” Henry told him. “This is not between us three. It is between Addie and me. If she thinks a few harsh words will change my mind…she’ll soon find out things could have been much easier if we’d done it my way.” He shook his head, mouth frowning between his grey goatee, and then he stormed out of the house, slamming the front door as hard as he could, rattling the metal fixtures on the walls.

  I felt, well, I felt about the same as I did after receiving that C-minus. I felt like I could scream, could punch something. Not someone, but close. The wall, maybe?

  Dylan was beside me, trying to swallow a mouthful of corndog before saying, “Henry only wants what he thinks is best for the pack. Don’t let him rile you up. Lately, there just hasn’t been…”

  “Hasn’t been what?” I did my best not to snap at him, but I wasn’t sure how well I did, because Dylan flinched at my harsh tone.

  “Most of our recent births have been males, and the females born have usually been human. I think there’s only been one or two shifter females born in the last year.” Dylan twirled the now-empty corndog stick between his fingers. “We’re…” He couldn’t say it.

  I could though, and I did quietly, “Dying out.” These shifters were going extinct, just like the animal species humans were driving towards extinction. I was one of them. I had an inner wolf, too. Could I really turn my back on them? I didn’t want to pop out a dozen babies, but…

  God, I hated this indecision with a burning passion.

  And of course, all of that was to say nothing about the missing wolves, to the magical barrier seeming to line the other side of Crystal Lake.

  It was a long moment of silence before I realized something. Not another sound came from anywhere in the house. No running water. No footsteps. Nothing. “Where is everyone else?” Somehow, someway, maybe because of my nightmare, I already knew.

  “Forest is gathering a scouting party to investigate the other side of the lake. Maze is with him,” Dylan said.

  “No,” I muttered, shaking my head. Forest hadn’t seen enough, apparently. He wanted more, and he would hurt other wolves by trying. I sent a glare to Dylan, angrier at myself for not telling Forest the night before than at him. “Take me to him.”

  Dylan nodded. He went to throw the stick in the trash, carefully closing his book after folding the corner of the page. A dog-ear kind of person, not a bookmark reader. Huh. I wasn’t sure why it mattered, why I noticed the particular detail, but I did. I liked knowing little things about him.

  Damn it.

  I liked it. I liked Dylan and Maze. What use was there in denying it? I would only be denying my feelings and hurting everyone involved.

  But letting Henry dictate what I did and how I acted? I would never let it happen, never let him control me like that, and I would be damned if I wouldn’t stick up for myself, for my own choice.

  It just so happened my heart had already made the choice, and now it was up to my mind to catch up, to realize I could not leave Crystal Lake.

  I had to join the pack.

  Chapter Seventeen – Addie

  As Dylan and I walked through the town, I could not believe it. All the back and forth, how indecisive I was, I’m staying then I’m going, I had made up my mind. A terrible time to have made up my mind about staying, but I could no longer deny my growing feelings for the twins. And my inner wolf, the sad, depressed beast, needed to be around her own kind.

  I needed to be around my own kind. I wanted to. Wanted to learn what it meant to be a shifter, wanted to run with the pack. And, of course, I wanted to spend more time with Dylan and Maze, not to mention help them find their missing brother.

  The jury was still out on that one.

  But my declaration, or whatever I had to do to join the pack, would wait—and when it came, when it happened, whenever I pledged myself to the Crystal Lake pack, I would have nothing to do with Henry. He did not deserve to have me in his life. Not even a little.

  Forest had gathered a group of about ten, including Maze. They stood at the edge of the lake, the rest of them watching their alpha with respect. Ten muscular, solid wolves stood, still in their human form, all beefy and reeking of testosterone. Maze was the first to notice, though I knew they’d all heard Dylan and I walk up. They probably were able to smell me before they heard me.

  “We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Forest was saying, turning to look at each of the pack members before him. “Whatever it is, it’s not visible to the naked eye, and it affected Dylan and Addie differently. I don’t know how it will affect us today, or if it will still be there, but it’s up to us to figure it out.”

  I met Dylan’s eyes. I knew the wolves hoped it would lead them to their missing pack member, maybe even to the ones who’d been taken before, but they had no idea what they were dealing with.

  Freaking magic.

  I broke away from Dylan, saying loudly enough, to make sure each and every wolf present heard me, “You can’t go back there.”

  Forest turned his blue eyes to me. Where there was normally a calmness, an intense heat radiated. He was riled up, ready for a fight. He wanted a fight; I could sense it, and I wasn’t even a wolf yet. “Your concern is noted but ignored, pup.” The wolves around me chuckled, though a few were too serious to even crack a smile.

  Pup. Oh, how I hated it with all my being. My entire soul hated being called pup. Really, Forest was not that much older than me.

  I would somehow make him realize I was no freaking pup.

  “You don’t know what you�
��re dealing with,” I said, stepping toward him. Forest was, muscles and height included, the most impressive man I’d ever seen. My stomach twisted and turned, and it was hard standing up to him, harder arguing with him, but it had to be done. He had to know what I’d dreamed.

  He rose a single black brow, the gesture making him look almost boyish. “And you do?”

  Exhaling, I glanced at Dylan, who just shrugged. He had no idea what I was talking about; I’d kept it to myself as we walked here, because I wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it without sounding utterly mad and crazy—and I was already crazy enough, wanting to stay with these wolves.

  “It’s magic,” I stated, wishing for all our sakes it would be enough of an explanation. I knew it wouldn’t be, though.

  Even the wolves that hadn’t cracked a smile before started to laugh. Forest remained the only serious one, his expression darkening, his stare narrowing and lips thinning. Luckily for me and my knotted tummy, he turned his glare to the laughing wolves. “Why are you laughing? You know as well as I do magic is nothing to laugh at.”

  The laughter died down.

  I added, “It’s a barrier. I don’t think we can cross it.”

  “If it was a barrier,” Forest said, “it should have reacted the same to you and Dylan.”

  “Before we got there, it was like I could sense it,” I said. “It’s why I told you all to stop. Maybe it didn’t react the same because I’m not a wolf yet.” It seemed as good of an explanation as any, although it did not explain my dream, why that mysterious man wanted me. Whoever the heck he was.

  “Whatever it turns out to be, we will figure it out.” In one, smooth motion, Forest had his shirt off, his defined muscles rippling in the sunlight. His body was any straight woman’s dream, and it was impossible not to ogle him.

  While the rest of them worked to rid themselves of their clothing, I spoke hurriedly, before Forest could unzip his pants, “I’m coming with you.”