by Lauren Dane
“What? What did she just say?” Cade growled and Nina was there, trying to calm him down.
And in the midst of the chaos, a blur of movement came from the left. Tracy, wedged between Gabe and Nick, couldn’t move and it knocked her down, but she was up and on top of Blondie in milliseconds, teeth bared.
“Stand down!” Ben yelled.
“Why should she?” Gabe demanded.
“If she’d just kept calm none of this would have happened!” Ben yelled back.
“This is not her fault!” Nick growled.
“I should kill you for that,” Tracy growled at Blondie, who finally had the good sense to see just how outmatched she was and trembled beneath Tracy’s grip.
“I said, stand down.” It was then that the full impact of how ill-suited Ben was to lead the Pack hit Tracy. She had zero compunction to obey his command like she would have with Cade. If Cade had yelled an order like that she would have had no other choice but to obey. Pacific was a Pack rotting from the inside because it had an Alpha who wasn’t capable of leading. A sinking feeling took hold in Tracy’s gut.
Still, she had to deal with the situation at hand. So she continued to ignore Ben and kept focused on the woman beneath her. “What do you say, Blondie? Should I rip your empty little head off for jumping me blind like a coward?” Tracy’s face was up close to the other woman’s, just barely holding back her wolf. But she did let it show in her eyes so Blondie would know just how close she was to real trouble.
Dimly she heard Ben move in her direction and Nick’s answering move to stop him. Gabe stayed in her peripheral vision, at the ready if he was needed. “He’s not going to save you, you know. Have you decided what you’re going to do yet?” Tracy’s voice was the barest of sounds but it registered.
“I... I apologize. Please, mercy. I was wrong to have attacked you blind. I yield.” Tracy let go and stood, turning her back to let Blondie know just how little she feared her.
“You bet you do.” She turned her gaze on Ben. “I do not stand down when I’ve been challenged.” And it wasn’t Ben’s place to stop her in that situation either, she’d been attacked and it was well within her rights to answer the challenge, even to the death. But she didn’t say that, not wanting to hurt Nick or cause any more trouble.
“You’ll do what I say you will.” Ben raised his chin.
Tracy moved forward and there was a general shuffling of wolves as people moved to intervene. She stopped when she’d reached Ben and Sarah. “You’d have to have the authority to do that.” Her voice was low but deadly. She wouldn’t escalate but she wouldn’t cow to an unreasonable threat to her either.
“Clear out!” Sarah ordered and most of the wolves complied but for Nick, Cade, Lex and Nina and their assorted parents. Gabe stayed as well.
“You have been insubordinate, Tracy. You’ve brought trouble into this Pack.”
“Bullshit. You can’t control your Pack and you’re looking to blame me for it. I didn’t do anything wrong. Your wolf—an unranked wolf—jumped me blind. That’s an unacceptable breach of discipline. No Pack would frown on me defending myself, which is what I did. By rights I could have killed her for it, I didn’t even blood her.”
Ben pushed her and, shocked, she froze for a moment until she shoved him back. It occurred to her then that she could take him in a challenge. Her wolf was incensed and she did her best to rein it in.
“What is wrong with you?” Nick demanded of his brother in a growl. He pushed against Ben, his eyes had begun to get that otherworldly blue that she knew signaled his wolf trying to surface to defend her. His hands were around Ben’s throat, squeezing, Ben was desperately clawing at him to get him to let go. “You just shoved my mate!”
“Nick and Ben! Stop it this instant!” Chuck Lawrence, the former Alpha and their father, stepped in, pulling Nick back. “Ben, this is insane! This is your brother’s mate, a Second in your Pack. You just put your hands on her!”
“Don’t do it again,” Gabe said in a growl.
“And what the fuck is that all about anyway?” Sarah demanded. “Why is he speaking for your mate, Nick? Have you asked yourself that question? Just what is between them?”
“Oh, you’d love that, wouldn’t you? Jesus, what kind of Alpha throws blood in the water? What’s your agenda, Sarah?” Tracy was outraged. And upset. The whole evening was a clusterfuck.
“Tri-mate bond.”
Everyone got quiet and looked at Lia, Tracy’s grandmother. “What? What did you just say?” Nick looked at her, eyes wide.
“It’s the tri-mate bond. Surely I’m not the only one who can see it?”
“The tri-mate bond is a fairy tale.” Gabe’s voice was flat as he said it but his heart raced at the thought.
“So are werewolves.” Ben and Nick’s mother said this kindly but firmly. “And it does happen. Not often, but once every generation or so. I can’t believe I didn’t see it until now.”
“What makes you think it’s a tri-mate bond?” Tracy asked, stung by Gabe’s fairy-tale comment but not sure why.
“It isn’t real!” Nick’s voice was urgent and he grabbed Tracy’s hand.
“Mrs. Warden, I’m Tracy’s Anchor, nothing more. Nick is her mate.” Gabe struggled for calm.
“You know that’s a lie.” Lia’s voice was calm and sure.
“Enough! What the heck makes you think so?” Tracy’s frustration was clear as she chewed her bottom lip. Her grandmother was up on that kind of stuff. She was an elder and knew the old ways and all the metaphysical stuff that always made Tracy tune out. Cade always listened to it though, and one look at his face had Tracy more than a little freaked out.
“You three need to work this out in private.” Nick’s mother turned to Tracy. “Honey, I’m sorry about all that happened here tonight. There’s an awful lot of alpha in one small space. I’d like to ask that you give us another chance after you, Nick and Gabe work all this through.”
“What is going on?” Nina murmured to Lex.
“I’ll explain later.”
“You need to control your mate!” Sarah said around Ben.
“And you need to shut the fuck up! Get over it already, Sarah. You can’t have them both. Nick is my mate. I’m not giving him up.” Tracy wanted to smack the other woman. Nothing worse than a phony.
“You think he’d choose you over me?”
Fury roared through her. The very idea that anyone would challenge her for Nick filled her with murderous rage. “I think he has already, Sarah. But let me give him another chance.” Tracy turned to Nick. “I know this night has been chaotic and upsetting so I’m giving you a chance here to walk away. If this tri-mate bond stuff is true, we’re in for a bumpy ride. I love you enough to set you free. Supposedly there’s some kind of spell that can sever the bond. We can investigate if that’s what you want. But I can’t have this up in the air. You need to choose and be clear about it.” Tracy loved him so much she ached with it. But she loved him so much that she never wanted him to be with her with another woman in his heart either.
“I made my choice in that maze. You’re my mate. Period. I’m deeply ashamed of my brother, his mate and this Pack right now.” He turned to Sarah. “I don’t know what to say to you, Sarah. I’ve considered you my best friend all these years and now it feels like a lie. You’ve changed and I can’t believe I haven’t noticed. And Ben, this whole mess tonight was you. Your lack of leadership when it counted. And now it’s yours to clean up. If you ever touch my mate again in anger, I’ll kill you.”
Ben stepped forward and the males in the room all started growling. Tracy sent a look to Nina, who appeared ready to tear Sarah’s head off herself.
“I’m your Alpha, Nick. And your brother. Be careful how far you push my largesse.”
“No, Ben. You should be careful. Because w
e both know that I could take you if I chose.”
“Nick!” Sarah cried out and tried to get to him but Tracy stood forward and narrowed her eyes.
“What did I tell you about trying to get around me to him?” Sarah halted, her eyes unsure.
“Enough! Ben, stand down! You’ll not tear this Pack apart like this!” Nick’s father shook his head before looking at Nick. “And you! Nick, don’t say something you can’t take back. I know this night has been upsetting and you have reason to be angry. But go home. Take Tracy and Gabe and deal with the tri-mate bond issue. Then we’ll all deal with this mess.”
“Good idea.” Cade unclenched his hands and rolled his head on his neck to loosen up.
Tracy took Nick’s hand. “Come on, babe. Let’s go before this gets any worse. Please.” She didn’t want to beg but she would. She was seriously concerned about what would happen if they stayed any longer.
“This isn’t over, Ben. There’s an accounting to be had.” Nick turned, put an arm around Tracy, looked at Gabe and gestured toward the door with a jerk of his head.
The Cascadia wolves in attendance caught up with them in the driveway.
“Tracy, I don’t want to leave you here in the midst of this mess,” Lex said, looking very agitated. Nina was stroking her hands down his back, trying to calm him down.
“I appreciate that you care about your sister’s well-being, Lex, but she’s my mate. I’ll see to her safety. You should all probably go, though. Your status is going to be a point of contention and I don’t want any of you to be insulted or threatened.”
“Oh god, can we just go home? Seriously, I am going to fall over in about five minutes. Nina, will you keep Milton for a while? I’m sorry to do this and I miss him but I don’t have a place to put him and...” Tracy’s voice broke and Nina hugged her tight, assuring her she’d take care of the dog and ease back on the tofu corn dogs too.
Tracy’s adrenaline was going to crash, she felt emotionally exhausted. She knew her grandmother was right. Knew why she’d been so intensely affected by Gabe when they bonded earlier. He wasn’t her Anchor, he was her mate. And that comforted her and filled her with joy at the same time as it scared the hell out of her. The ramifications of dealing with two very alpha werewolves and different Pack ranks and whatever the hell was going on in Pacific were mind-boggling.
Gabe had been trying very hard not to step into Nick’s place but damn it all, could they not see how Tracy needed to get out of there? “Tracy, get in the car. Nick, I’ll meet you at your apartment. Cade, Lex, everyone, Nick is right and I’m in an odd position here but still, there is an alpha overload and it’s bound to complicate things further.”
He said all of it as he helped Tracy into the car and strode back toward his rental. The Wardens all agreed, with the reminder that if there was trouble to call them for help. Lia spoke quietly to Tracy before she turned and walked with the rest of the family to their cars.
The drive back to the apartment was quiet but Nick’s hand was on her thigh when he wasn’t shifting gears.
He helped her out of the car and she let him take care of her, both of them needing that. Gabe was waiting near the elevators.
* * *
Once inside the apartment Tracy kicked off her shoes and went to the couch, where she collapsed. Nick handed her a drink and she thanked him.
Looking up at Gabe, emotion rushed through her and she accepted it. She’d tried to pretend it was just the anchor bond but the truth was, she knew even then. Since the first moment he’d touched her she’d been falling into him and when he’d come inside her that morning she was lost. Her heart belonged to Gabe as much as it belonged to Nick.
“Let’s cut to the issue, shall we?” Her voice wasn’t as steady as she’d wanted it to be but she was in the room with two incredibly attractive males who, unless she was totally wrong, belonged to her. “My grandmother is never wrong about this stuff. And your mother, Nick, seemed to agree.”
Nodding with a sigh, Nick sat next to her and Gabe across from them on the low table.
“Gabe, you seem to be exhibiting behavior which would indicate you feel mated to Tracy.” Nick said all of this dryly.
“Well, yes. It’s been since this morning. Since the bonding. It was there before, the attraction, but this need is there now. And I have feelings of protection and kinship to you as well.” Gabe said this with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
That got her attention. Well.
“Let’s go over this from the beginning. I don’t believe I have all the facts about the tri-mate bond. Can you tell me everything you know?” Gabe had been schooled about werewolf culture and history, but something like the tri-mate bond was so rare that it wasn’t a common topic of discussion.
“Simply put, the tri-mate bond happens when the people in the tri-bond seal a mating instead of just an anchoring. As you’re aware, the tri-bond anchors the female mate to another wolf. In a sense it’s like the third leg on a stool. But aside from an emotional closeness there’s not an actual mate bond. But every great once in a while, during the tri-bond the female becomes mated to the third wolf—to the person she’s supposed to be anchored by. And the twinned mate bond becomes a mate bond of three. If I’m remembering correctly it happens in rare situations when the combination of males could be interchangeable. By that, I mean that either male could be a mate to the female. The odds are astronomical, really.” Tracy was pleased that she’d listened to her grandma more than she thought she had.
Gabe nodded and moved forward enough that his leg just barely touched Tracy’s. “I was drawn to you, which is a sign. You’re an exceptional woman. But not my usual type by a long shot.” He saw the wince and touched the back of Tracy’s hand. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way.”
“I don’t know anyone that this has ever happened to. The accounts do say it happens almost exclusively to Alpha wolves and their mates so I didn’t think about it.”
Tracy chewed on her bottom lip and decided to say it anyway. “Well, babe, I have news for you, you’re far more of an Alpha than your brother is. And Gabe is a very dominant wolf too. If either of you had your own Pack, you could easily be the Alpha.”
Nick scrubbed hands over his face. “I don’t want this, you know.”
Tracy turned to him and cradled his face in her hands. “I’m sorry. For this mess tonight with your Pack. And well, how do we deal with this for you? If it is the tri-mate bond, it’s not like we can will it away. When my grandmother spoke to me just before we left, she told me the stories of spells that could terminate the bond were all untrue. A wolf can choose not to seal the bond. Walk away and not look back. Eventually, they’d find another mate out there, most likely. But once the bond is sealed, it’s sealed. I wish I could make this better for you. You must be so sorry you met me.”
Nick’s breath froze. After all the upheaval in her life, having to leave her city, Pack, business and home behind, the way his family treated her that night—after all that she actually worried about him and his feelings? He leaned into her palm. “Oh, baby, never that. You’re a joy to me. Finding you is something I’d never regret. As for the tri-mate bond? Tracy, it is what it is. I can’t change it. Do I want to share you? No. No, I don’t. But Gabe is every bit as much your mate as I am. Without you, he’ll never find real happiness. He won’t be able to be with any other females now that you’ve sealed the bond. How could I wish him such emptiness? And how could I even begin to ask you to live without your mate? And he is your mate as much as I am. And because of that, he’s mine too. It’s the only way I can explain why I don’t want to kill him right now.”
“How do you feel about me?” Gabe asked Tracy.
“I...” She was afraid to say it out loud. She didn’t want to hurt Nick but she could see that Gabe needed the words. “This morning was so intense. Nick and I had a terrible fig
ht earlier and then made up and I felt complete, you know? But I could also feel the yawning depths of the lack of an Anchor. I was feeling edgy and way less in control than I usually am. And then you came in.” She held on to Nick’s hand and reached out with her free hand to Gabe. His fingers—warm and strong—received and wrapped around hers.
“The bonding was so profound, so amazing and deep. I kept telling myself that I was just surprised because I hadn’t been bonded to an Anchor before. I knew how Nina felt about Cade and I understood Sarah a lot more than I had earlier.” She rolled her eyes. “And that’s a topic for later, by the way. But after you left, I felt your absence so strongly. I was jealous when I saw those females around you. And then tonight when you defended me and Nick at his side it felt right. It feels like you’re mine like Nick is mine.”
Gabe’s eyes were warm and his lips hitched at one corner into a sexy smile. “Thank god I’m not alone.”
Nick held out his hand to Gabe, who took it, and a circuit was created then. Each of the tri-mate bond physically connected and electric heat careened through them, hot enough to bring a gasp from their lips. A warm wind disturbed Tracy’s hair. Her wolf rolled within her, pushing against her humanity and attempting to touch Gabe’s and Nick’s wolves as well.
“Yeah. Uh, wow.” Nick’s voice was awed as the emotion and magic of the moment rolled through the room. “I think that if there was any doubt before, it’s gone now.”
Tracy nodded mutely as waves of gooseflesh broke through her over and over. The pleasure of being there, touching both of them, was almost too much to bear.
“Not to be indelicate but I’d really like to fuck you right now, Tracy,” Gabe whispered hoarsely.
Again, all she could do was nod. But she looked to Nick. “How are we going to do this so that everyone is okay?”
“Right now let’s just get naked and we’ll work from there.” Nick stood and began to unbutton his shirt.
Tracy stood on shaky legs and undid the side zipper on her pants while Gabe’s hands went to her sweater and pulled it up and off while Nick shoved her pants down her legs.