by J. L. Wilder
He could tell she was struggling with the question of whether to trust him or not. But he also knew that she didn’t have a better alternative.
“All right,” she said at length. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Twelve
NATALIE
“Here,” Gage said. He was pointing to an outcropping of rock a few yards away from the stream they’d been following for several miles. “We can stop and rest here.”
“On a rock?” Natalie stared at it dubiously.
“Inside the rock,” Gage said. “There’s a crevice there, see?”
She didn’t, but she wasn’t surprised that he had noticed something she hadn’t. It was the kind of thing Ozzy had done all the time when she was with him. Just the thought of her mate made her feel almost sick with loss.
Gage must have noticed a shift in her demeanor. “You okay?” he asked. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No,” she said. “Just thinking.”
He nodded. “Try not to do too much of that,” he said. “We’ve got to stay alert.”
He jogged up to the rock. Natalie followed. Now that they were closer, she could see the crevice he’d pointed out. It opened onto a little cave, barely big enough for the two of them to squeeze into.
“Are you sure this is safe?” she asked.
"Why wouldn’t it be?”
“What if something else lives here?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “A real wolf.”
Gage showed his teeth. "I never met a wolf who could take me on.”
“Okay,” Natalie said. “But I bet a wolf could make mincemeat out of me, and I don’t want to wake up with a huge bite out of my arm.”
“I won’t let any wolves eat you,” Gage said. She could hear the mirth in his voice, but she also believed he was genuine.
I don’t know why he's so easy to trust. Maybe it’s the fact that he's from my pack. I know our interests align, so I know he won’t betray me or let me down.
Except that that wasn’t true, was it? Ozzy had told her enough about the Pacific Northwest Pack that she knew there were members who probably wouldn’t have her best interests in mind.
Like their alpha, for instance. Ozzy’s older brother Randy. Ozzy had made clear to Natalie that he was a weak leader, selfish and cruel. What would he do if he got his hands on her?
Was Gage on his side?
She shuddered. There was no way to know, really. And he was the only choice she had. She had to stick with Gage if she wanted to have any hope of being reunited with Ozzy.
Gage dropped to his hands and knees and crawled into the little cave he'd found. “It’s nice in here,” he called out. “It’s dry, and there aren’t any bats or anything.”
Bats? Natalie grimaced at the thought. She crawled in after him.
It was too dark to see much inside the cave. The light from the opening came in dimly, and she could just barely make out the expressions on Gage’s face. Right now, he looked satisfied with himself. “We’ll be fine here,” he said. “No one will find us. We can get a few hours of sleep and then decide what we want to do next.”
“I want to find Ozzy," she said.
Gage rolled his eyes. "I get that,” he said. “You’ve made that clear. What I meant was, we should decide whether the best move is to go east and try to intercept him or to go west and reunite with the rest of our pack.”
“I want to find Ozzy,” she repeated. “I want to go east.”
"We might not cross his path,” Gage said. “It might make more sense to go be with the pack. He’ll have to check in eventually, and when he does, we’ll let him know we've got you.”
“What’s your alpha going to say when you bring me back?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s the real question.”
“It’s not funny. This is my life we’re talking about.”
“Well, it’s kind of funny,” he said. "I mean, just the idea that after all this time, Ozzy was the one to find you and imprint on you. Of all people. I mean he’s gotta be half your age!”
“What’s wrong with that?” she demanded, not liking the implied insult to Ozzy or to her.
“Calm down, will you?” he said. “It’s just not what anyone expected.”
“Well, what did they expect?”
“I’d say at least half of us thought you’d never be back at all,” Gage said. “I never thought we’d see you again. I figured, you know, your parents had gotten you out and they’d be protecting you with everything they had.”
“My parents died," she said.
“Oh,” he said. “Sorry to hear that.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“So that’s why you’ve still got the tattoo,” he said. "I would have assumed that if your parents wanted to hide you, they would have either gotten it removed or gotten you new ink to disguise what it was somehow.”
She nodded. “I was a baby when they died,” she said. “They couldn’t have taken me to a tattoo parlor. I guess they probably would have done something like that when I got older.” For a moment, the possibility of her parents erasing her past completely overwhelmed her. Ozzy would never have found her. She would never have known what she was.
She could never feel anything but overpowering grief and loss at the fact that they had died. But thank God they hadn’t had a chance to take away her link to who she was.
“Well, anyway,” Gage went on, “I thought you were never coming back, for sure. Some of the others thought you might, and that if you did, you’d automatically belong to Randy, our alpha. I know that’s what he thinks.”
“Then you get why I don’t want to go there!”
“Well, he’s wrong, isn't he?” Gage asked. “You’re not his. You’re Ozzy’s, or so you say.”
“I'm not lying.”
"I'm not accusing you of lying. I’m just saying it’s weird. Randy’s been our alpha for a long time. And it’s not like the position is totally uncontested, but I don’t think anyone expected Ozzy to take over.”
“Do you think he will?” Natalie asked.
“Yes,” Gage said. The answer came so quickly and simply that Natalie was stunned. Ozzy had approached the question as if it were a real puzzle, but Gage seemed certain.
“The alpha mates with the omega,” Gage went on. “That’s how it always happens.”
“Always?”
“Well, in every case I’ve ever heard of. The union between alpha and omega is powerful. They sort of give each other power, if you know what I mean.”
“I really don’t,” she said. “I was living as a human until a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how any of this works yet. I’ve never even shifted before.”
“You’ve never shifted before?”
She felt herself blush. She was surprised she’d confided so much so quickly. She was opening up to Gage even more quickly than she had with Ozzy.
It’s because I understand that he’s a member of my pack. With Ozzy, I didn’t get that right away.
“Okay,” Gage said. “Well, basically, the idea is that alphas and omegas have complimentary kinds of power within the pack structure, but both are very powerful. The alpha is the mind and the muscle. A good alpha knows how to bring success and prosperity to his pack while keeping every member safe and happy. The omega is like the heart of the pack. She’s nurturing and emotionally in tune with everybody—and, of course, she’s the only one with the physical strength to carry a larger litter.”
Natalie nodded. Ozzy had explained it similarly, but hearing it for a second time made it feel that much more real. “So the mind and the heart have to work together," she said.
“Ideally, yeah,” Gage said. "In the strongest packs, the alpha and omega are mated. The alpha increases his own strength and standing in the pack by showing his dominance over the omega, and he also confers respect upon her by setting the tone for how she should be seen and treated. In weak packs, omegas are used as tools
, but when the bond between alpha and omega is strong, the omega is like a matriarch. She’s almost revered.”
The dichotomy was a lot to process. “My parents must have believed that the Pacific Northwest Pack was too weak to treat me well,” she said, remembering her speculations with Ozzy. “That's why they took me away.”
“Probably,” Gage agreed. "And for all I know, they were right. Randy’s not a great leader. If you’d belonged to him...I don't know how it would have gone.”
“But you think the bond between Ozzy and me will be strong enough to rearrange the pack leadership?” Natalie asked.
"It's wild to think about Randy’s little brother coming in and taking things over,” Gage said. “No offense or anything, but he’s a hell of a lot younger than you are. He’s only in his twenties.”
Natalie nodded. The truth was that Ozzy’s youth, combined with his clear fascination with her story, had made the transition into his world much easier to accept. Even now, with Gage, she felt at a bit of a disadvantage. He was so much wiser and stronger than she was. Ozzy had those attributes too, but his youth, and her age, gave her one small way in which she could feel superior. Gage seemd to be about the same age as her.
“Will it be a problem?” she asked.
Gage looked at her. “Will what be?”
“Me and Ozzy. If being mated with me makes him the alpha—”
“Oh,” Gage chuckled. “Yep. That’ll definitely be a problem.”
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s just going to be great to watch it all go down,” Gage said. “Randy's absolutely going to lose his shit when his kid brother tries to challenge his authority. I bet Chuck won’t be too happy about it either.”
“Who's Chuck?”
“My cousin. Ozzy’s cousin too. He’s the oldest male in our generation, so everyone always figured that if Randy were to be overthrown, Chuck would be the one to do it. I know there were lots of people who thought that when the omega came back—if you ever did—that Chuck would imprint on you, and that would be that.”
“A lot of people have been making assumptions about me, haven't they?” Natalie asked quietly.
“A lot of people have been thinking about you for a long time,” Gage said. “Even people like me, who didn’t think we’d ever see you again, are interested. Even I’ve speculated about what it might mean for our pack if our omega ever returned.”
“It doesn’t sound like you really care, though," she said. “It sounds like you’re more interested in the entertainment of it all than you are actually invested in who holds the title of alpha.”
Gage shrugged. “I don’t spend that much time with the pack anyway,” he said. “I like to wander. I like to be on my own for stretches of time.”
“Is that what you’re doing now? Wandering?”
“No,” he said. “I was looking for you. I didn’t think finding you would be quite as easy as it was, though.”
“A lot of people seem to be finding me without that much trouble," she said.
“No kidding,” Gage said. “The hunt's on. You might be the most wanted person in the entire shifter world at the moment.” He shook his head. “You should never have let them take your picture for the magazine.”
“I didn’t want to,” she murmured. “Even before I knew what I was, I didn’t want the publicity.” Her literary agent had had to talk her into it. She had spent the whole photoshoot feeling awkward and out of place.
Gage stared up at the cave ceiling. Natalie watched him for a moment, wondering what he was thinking.
It’s strange that I’m already so comfortable around him that I feel safe enough to go to sleep, she thought.
Strange, but true. She had no lingering fear that Gage might hurt her. She knew she was safe.
Her only worry now was that someone else might come along and find her.
Chapter Thirteen
GAGE
Gage woke in the middle of the night.
He was a light sleeper, and he came back to consciousness very quickly and abruptly. At first, he thought he had heard something—the sound of an animal moving outside the cave, maybe—and that that was what had woken him.
He lay very still, listening.
But there was no sound. Nothing was out there. Or if there was something, it had gone away. It wasn’t drawing closer. They were safe.
He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
Rolling over brought him face to face with Natalie, who was still asleep, her lips parted slightly, her eyelids fluttering as if she was dreaming.
What did someone like her dream about?
Probably about Ozzy. That was his first thought. He couldn't believe Ozzy had been the one to imprint on her after all this time.
Better him than me. I wouldn’t want to be the one to have to stand in front of Randy and tell him that I’m claiming the omega he thinks of as his own. It would be fun to watch Ozzy try to do it, but Gage wanted no part of that fight for himself. The idea of it sounded terrible.
He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but now all he could think of was the idea of Randy and Ozzy fighting. It would be bloody; he knew that much. He wouldn’t have been surprised if only one of the two of them survived.
What happens to Natalie if Ozzy is killed?
His eyes snapped open.
There she was across the cave, so vulnerable in sleep. Trusting him completely. He knew exactly what kind of situation he was leading her into, what kind of risk she would face by following him back to Washington. As soon as Randy learned that she belonged to Ozzy, he would act to break the bond between them.
He might even kill her, just so Ozzy won’t have the stronger claim to power. I think, if push came to shove, Randy would rather keep the alpha position than let someone else have it for the good of the pack.
She was right. They would have to find Ozzy before going back. He couldn’t take her there while she was mated to someone else. She would need Ozzy to fight for her.
He wondered why he cared so much.
He wasn’t a monster. He didn’t want anyone to be killed. But the idea of Randy harming her had filled him with a sudden, bottomless dread that he had never experienced before in his life. He did his best to keep himself detached from the goings-on in the pack. He didn’t invest himself emotionally. Why did he suddenly care so much about this?
About her.
Her chest rose and fell slowly as she breathed. Gage couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. She was beautiful. He admired the long, lean lines of her body, the way her dark hair spilled softly over her narrow shoulders, the rise of her hips as she lay on her side. He felt, suddenly and powerfully, a need to protect her from everything in the world that sought to harm her.
His hand twitched. He wanted to reach out and touch her, to pull her close to him—
Oh, no.
For a moment, the protective feeling that had been overwhelming him was replaced by horror. Am I imprinting on her?
He couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
As if she was responding to what he was feeling, she opened her eyes and gazed at him, looking for all the world like a lover about to reach for her mate.
“What’s up?” she asked quietly.
There was no fear in her voice. No concern. She was safe with him, and she knew she was safe with him. It made the whole thing worse somehow, because suddenly Gage wasn’t so sure she was safe at all.
She’s Ozzy’s. This fight is Ozzy’s. This has nothing to do with me.
He wanted to back away from her, to break the connection between them, but the cave they were in was so small. Already, there were only a few inches between Gage and the wall. There was nowhere to go. There was no way to hide from this.
And she was coming closer. She was reaching out to him.
“Gage?” she said, her expression one of concern now. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
He couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t stay in there with her, wi
th that soft gaze and that hand that was resting on his arm, with those lightly parted lips that were begging to be kissed. He scrambled up and out of the cave, jogging several yards away into the trees before he came to a stop.
She followed him, of course. He had known she would. “Gage!” she called.
He whirled on her. “Be quiet,” he hissed. Why was she so determined to believe that everything around her was safe? Why was she so trusting?
She came closer. “What’s wrong?” she asked again. “You just ran off, Gage. I don’t understand. Is there something in the cave?”
He closed his eyes, frustrated, angry, tired. Why couldn’t anyone else have found this omega? Why me?
And then he remembered, jarringly, that someone else had found her.
Ozzy had.
What was Ozzy going to say about this?
A sense of inevitability came over him then. Whatever would happen between him and Ozzy, between him and Randy, the course was already set. It had been set from the moment he had imprinted on Natalie. There was no escaping it now.
The thought was oddly liberating.
It didn’t matter what he did now.
He closed the distance between himself and Natalie in a single step, caught her in his arms, and crushed his mouth against hers.
She responded, as he had known she would, by kissing him back just as deeply, by leaning into him and molding her body against his. It was mindless, animalistic, desperate, and hungry.
Then she pushed away from him. “Wait,” she gasped. “Wait.”
He didn’t want to wait. He had struggled with himself about this long enough, and he wanted to spring forward and take her in his arms, tear away that scrap of a dress, plunge himself into her and feel the heat of her omega body for the first time.
But he waited.
“We can’t,” she said. She was gasping, out of breath. “What are we doing? We can’t do this.”
“You want to, though,” he said.
“I don’t,” she said. But her eyes were squeezed shut, and Gage could see the lie on her face.
“I imprinted on you,” he said. “You feel it. I can tell you do.”