Mason's Mate

by Abigail Raines

  Mason’s Mate

  The Quinton Shifters

  Abigail Raines

  Contents

  Chapter One: Mason

  Chapter Two: Alice

  Chapter Three: Mason

  Chapter Four: Alice

  Chapter Five: Mason

  Chapter Six: Alice

  Chapter Seven: Mason

  Chapter Eight: Alice

  Chapter Nine: Mason

  Chapter Ten: Alice

  Chapter Eleven: Mason

  Chapter Twelve: Alice

  Chapter Thirteen: Mason

  Chapter Fourteen: Alice

  Chapter Fifteen: Mason

  Chapter Sixteen: Alice

  Epilogue: Alice

  Afterword

  Secrets, lies, mystery, and passion

  About the Author

  © Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.

  It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One: Mason

  The fog is moving into Quinton. I rise from the couch as the would-be CEO I’m talking to in New York babbles on and on in my ear via Bluetooth. I take measured steps to the floor to ceiling windows that look out on the woods. The tops of the trees are half hidden by the fog and the sky is gray. It’s going to be a cold one tonight. The thought makes me frown.

  “Tremblay?” The guy on the phone says. I have to rack my brain for his name again. Scott, I think. I’m not even the primary broker on this deal. I’m just putting it through for my brother and his friend. “Mason? You there? What do you think?”

  “Uh yeah,” I mutter. “Patchett would like to put in twenty million. And my brother said ten to start. I’ll forward you the wire-”

  “Hahaha! Fantastic!” I think he’s even clapping his hands. I actually thought he expected to get more but he sounds pretty happy. He’s got a start-up going for a more accessible 3D printing tech. It sounds pretty good. Normally, I’d be more interested. I’m a little distracted today.

  It’s going to be so cold tonight.

  “I’ll email the details,” I say, as the guy keeps laughing. “I gotta go, Scott. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Sure thing! Thanks, man!”

  I hang up and sigh as I watch the fog roll in lower. I don’t mind the cold myself. Actually, my favorite weather is this low fog over the woods. I love running in it when I shift and I can’t see ten feet in front of me. It forces me to rely on my other senses so I don’t go running right into a tree. I love the feel of the brisk cold in my fur. I love the way fog and rain smells.

  I don’t mind the cold for myself at all. But there’s a girl out there who might be stuck in the cold.

  Or at least, I think there’s a girl.

  About a month ago, my brother Micah got mixed up with this dangerous pack from Oregon. It’s a long story but my brothers Xander and Aaron and I stormed the place with a lot of help from other packs in our Washington state clan. We rescued Micah and his mate, Luna. Micah took down the alpha himself. Honestly, good for him. That guy was a psychopath. But a few people scattered into the woods before we could either take them prisoner and let the elders and alphas figure out what to do with them or find them new packs. One of the people who got scattered was Alice.

  I don’t really know anything about Alice. All I know is she’s a young woman who called me to tell me where my brother was held prisoner. She did so at an incredible risk to her own safety. My brother Micah and I promised to help her. Except...we can’t find her. And I’ve looked. In fact, I’ve been searching those woods for the past few weeks.

  Xander, my oldest brother and the alpha of our pack, thinks she probably took off and doesn’t want to be found. But it doesn’t make sense to me. I remember how she sounded on the phone. She wanted our help. She also wanted to help my brother and Luna. She wanted better things for the innocent shifters held under the thumb of Dax, the asshole alpha of the Hardwidge pack. I guess it’s possible she changed her mind and took off to start her own life anew on her own. But I just don’t see it. I told her we wouldn’t forget what she’d done for us and she certainly knew what the name Tremblay means. I don’t see her turning down that kind of help.

  I’m convinced Alice is out there, lost somewhere in the seemingly endless woods of the Quinton mountains. She’s also not the only one missing. A couple of Dax’s lieutenants were never found either. They could be holding onto her. Or she could be alone and lost.

  Either way, I made a promise and I intend to keep it. And I don’t like how cold it looks outside for a young woman lost in the woods, especially if she is on her own. I know she’s a shifter and she’s probably pretty tough coming from Hardwidge but even a wolf can have trouble in unfamiliar woods in weather like this and what if she was running from somebody?

  My phone buzzes in my hand. It’s my brother, Micah. I tap to answer.

  “Hi, Micah.”

  “Hey!” Micah says cheerily. He’s nothing but cheery since Luna moved in with him. Two of my brothers have found their mates in life. I think my mother might be the happiest of any of us. “What’re you up to today?”

  “I’m working.”

  “What? It’s Saturday!”

  “I didn’t…” I lick my lips and glance around my big empty house. I love my house. It’s seemingly old fashioned in dark wood siding and Craftsmen architecture that makes it look as if it sprang right out of the forest just beyond it, only a few miles from my parent’s estate. But it’s also modernized with huge windows and my somewhat Zen sensibilities. I stroll over to the fountain made of a big slab of mica that sits on my dark hardwood floor by the sofa. I bought it because I find the sound of trickling water calming. “I didn’t have anything better to do except…”

  “Oh,” Micah says darkly. “You’re going out there to look again, aren’t you? Actually I’m surprised you’re not out there now.”

  “I had some calls to make but… Yeah, I was just about to go again.”

  She’s out there, my brain says.

  I don’t know why I’m so sure of it. But I keep coming back to that conviction.

  “It’s not a good day to track,” Micah says. “The fog will throw you off.”

  “I’m going to go anyway. I haven’t gone very far north yet.”

  “Be careful, bro.”

  “Yes, yes,” I say, sighing. “You guys want to come over for lunch tomorrow? I’ll make ziti.”

  “Sure!” Micah says. “That sounds great. Listen, if you don’t find anything, I’ll go out with you next time. We could get all the guys together? I promised her too, Mason. I haven’t forgotten. If it wasn’t for her, I might be dead.”

  “I know. Thanks, Micah.” I hang up and head straight to the kitchen. I haven’t eaten much today but I should at least scarf down a couple Power Bars and get in some protein before I go out shifting in the woods. I don’t mind hunting but it’s not the purpose of this run.

  By the time I leave, the fog is even thicker.

  I don’t find anything that day or that evening either. I go out tracking for hours. Micah was right. It’s so hard to smell anything in the thick of the fog that all I can smell is the fog. I should have just waited for my brothers to go with me once the fog had cleared, but I know if I hadn’t gone out, I would’ve been restless at home thinking about how I should have gone out. I guess that’s just how my brain works sometimes. Anyway,
it felt good to shift and get a run in, even if it came to nothing.

  The next morning, I get a text message from Xander that I should stop by his house. He doesn’t say why, which is odd for him. He’s usually very direct. I know he spent Saturday having another meeting that might have touched on the Hardwidge pack. There is a chance Alice has been found. There’s also a chance Alice has been found dead. I should brace myself.

  But when I find Xander on his stark white couch, browsing an iPad and drinking wine, he doesn’t look dour. He doesn’t look happy either. I can’t help but be disappointed, not just that she hasn’t been found alive but also that she hasn’t been found dead, as morbid as that sounds. At least there would be some closure. I would have no reason to keep searching. We would have had a memorial service. The woman was a hero. We would have kept her memory alive in our own way.

  “There was a teenage boy, a pup named Andy,” Xander says without introduction. I take a seat in the armchair across from him. “He’s from the Hardwidge pack. He was still in Oregon when all the trouble went down. He’s just been placed in a pack in Portland. He asked about Alice.”

  “Oh?” I perk up a little. “He knew her?”

  “Yes,” Xander says, nodding. “She looked after him when she could. I get the impression they kind of took care of each other, though they weren’t related. They planned many times to run away but then she got taken along on this damn fool plot to take us on and force Luna into being Dax’s mate.”

  “Does he think she went back to find him in Oregon?” I say, leaning forward. My mind is racing now. That would make sense, maybe…

  “I think if she had, she would’ve made it there already,” Xander says, sounding a bit apologetic. “And we’ve had a few people patrolling that compound in case anyone returns. He did say Alice has a brother who was one of the lieutenants to Dax. Sounded like a real asshole. And he hasn’t been found either. Maybe they’re together.”

  That sets off alarm bells to me. It makes me wonder if her brother has sort of taken her hostage. Or maybe she has some loyalty to him. Which would be none of my business unless she’s being hurt. But last I spoke to her, she wanted my help and we promised we’d give it. So I have to keep looking.

  “I can see those wheels turning,” Xander says, musing as he looks at me. “I know you’re not going to let this go until it’s resolved. I’ll help however I can. Micah says we might go looking for her soon? Together?”

  “Yeah, that would be helpful.”

  “Tuesday night then,” Xander says, nodding. “Sooner is better than later. But I do have something that might be useful. Andy did seem convinced that Alice is still on the mountain. Said if we find her, she should get her stuff back.” Xander reaches under his coffee table and pulls out a backpack I didn’t notice before. “He said he thinks she was taken along last minute because normally she would have brought it with her. She never would have left willingly without it.”

  Xander hands me the backpack. I don’t want to open it. I might eventually, if I think it will lead to clues. But it feels too intrusive to go tearing into somebody’s private things right away. I feel an urge to be respectful, especially since I don’t think many people have been respectful to Alice back at Hardwidge. The backpack is a bright pink neon. It looks like something that would have been bought back in the 1980’s and there are patches pinned to it; rainbows, a unicorn, a skull. There’s a blue rabbit’s foot keychain attached to a zipper and I frown, fidgeting with it for a moment.

  Alice has been a voice over the phone so far. I don’t even know what she looks like. On the phone she sounded young and scared, but she was so determined for us to find Micah and Luna. I know she wasn’t just doing it because she thought it would save her. She was doing it because it was the right thing. Beyond that, I only know that she’s twenty-four because I asked how old she was. But this backpack makes her more real somehow. Now she has a personality and it looks like a colorful one. The backpack is worn, scuffed up, and dirty. I wonder how long she’s had it for. It seems like one of those lifeline type of objects. I wonder what kind of dreams are inside it.

  “Thank you, Xander,” I say.

  “The scent will be useful,” he points.

  Oh.

  I really must have my head in the clouds because I’d noticed the scent on the backpack and I’ve been trying to track down this woman for weeks and this didn’t occur to me.

  “Yeah,” I say, chuckling to myself. “Of course, it will. We’ll all take a whiff on Tuesday before we go out. Maybe the fog will have cleared up.”

  “Yeah, sounds good. Around half past five?”

  “Yes,” I say, sighing in relief. I have a kind of good feeling about it know. Maybe because of the scent issue. I don’t know what it is, but I feel cautiously optimistic. “Sounds good to me.”

  We’ll find you, Alice

  Chapter Two: Alice

  I don’t know when the last time was that I ate, because I haven’t been able to shift in days which means I can’t hunt. If I can’t hunt, I can’t eat. Even if I could manage to catch something in my human form, Jason would be on my case. He’s never far. He’d sniff me out and take the food away and then he’d make me pay for breaking the rules.

  I can still remember how I almost made it out of Dax’s temporary headquarters that night the Tremblays stormed the place and saved their brother. I didn’t have my backpack because Andy had decided I had to come with him on the trip and didn’t give me time to grab it. He didn’t trust me not to run away from Hardwidge (he was right). I was so close, I could taste it. We were losing that brief little war. All I had to do was find one of the good guys and tell them I was the one who’d called Xander in the first place. I remember I found a window looking out on the grounds where the fighting was going on. I was just about to shift and jump out from the second story and take my chances. Then Jason appeared with a tranq gun and pressed it to my temple.

  “You’re coming with me, Ali,” he said.

  Dax was dead. He was the third alpha to die in a pretty brief amount of time. Hardwidge was dead because the Tremblays were definitely going to break it up. They certainly had the power. That was fine with me. But Jason’s motto is “never say die.” His plan is to form a new pack with the same sensibility as Hardwidge, recruiting any of Dax’s old people he can find that got away.

  So far, there’s only one. The others, as far as I can tell, ran off (which was smart) or were taken prisoner by the Tremblays. Jason found another true believer while we were making our getaway. Kyle was never strong enough to have much power. He’s just a scrappy little henchman. But he believes in Hardwidge. That’s probably because he has nothing else to believe in instead. He’ll do whatever Jason tells him. Most of the time these days, Jason is telling him to keep an eye on me.

  I’ve almost gotten away a few times. Freedom is so close I can taste it on the tip of my tongue. But they keep finding me. Now I’ve got a split lip and a black eye and I’m too stressed out and exhausted to shift. I’ve heard that can happen sometimes when a shifter is overstressed. It’s about the worst thing that could have happened to me right now that I can think of. I’m about as vulnerable as I can be stuck in my human form.

  Now, since I’ve tried to run away too many times and since I can’t shift, Jason is keeping me in this cave. We’re up pretty high in the Quinton mountains. I don’t know how many miles we’ve travelled in the last month but we’re far from Dax’s HQ. It’s colder up here, and the fog’s been rolling in. It’s been raining a lot. I’ve been trying to keep dry but the cave is on an incline and water keeps rushing in.

  Jason’s got rope. He’s got a bunch of supplies in a duffel. I used to taunt him about using human things since he went along with the whole philosophy about leaving human life behind. I think Dax and all his people were hypocrites about that. Now when I point it out, he just backhands me.

  Jason may be my brother, but I do not love him.

  It’s getting late. My head
is pounding. At least there’s a lot of water from the rain, even if I’m soaked now and shivering, my hands and ankles tied as I sit up against the cave wall. I’m muddy and gross. I hate feeling this helpless. I’ve been trying to focus on shifting for hours. If I could at least shift, then Jason would let me hunt and maybe I could find something to eat. But there’s not much this high up the mountain. I don’t know if the woods have been over-hunted or what, but finding food has been hard going.

  It’s been a month of this. I don’t know how much more I can take. All I can think about is how close I was to getting away. I’d helped the Tremblays. I’d ratted out my own pack to save their brother. The Tremblays may be rich and powerful and the Hardwidge pack may have talked shit about them since I can remember, but I knew better than to believe anything the guys in the pack said, especially once I actually met one of them. Micah had been so devoted to his mate. The romance of it had given me some hope. It had inspired me to feel strong enough to make the call and try to help. I’m sure they would have kept their word and helped me once the fight was over. I could have begun a new life somewhere. It’s hard to imagine myself on my own. I’ve always lived very closely with a huge pack, as miserable as its always been. But with some help, I might have managed.

  But I’m sure they’ve forgotten about me. They probably assume I’m dead.

  That’s what I think in my head. That’s what I’m sure logically must be true. But left to the quiet of this dark cave as the rain floods in and my stomach churns from hunger, I can fantasize at least. I can think about one of those wonderful Tremblay brothers finding me. Maybe it would be the one I talked to on the phone. I called Xander. That was the number Micah gave me. But it was Mason who answered. I keep repeating their names to myself. They’ve been mentioned here and there over the years. But now I know for sure that Micah was the one who killed Dax and Xander is the alpha and Mason is the one I talked to on the phone. There’s a fourth one too, but I can’t remember his name. Micah’s mate’s name is Luna. She is also from Hardwidge.