Say You're Mine

by Aliyah Burke

  “You did it for your own benefit. Anything you want to add?” He directed that one to the man beside her. His gaze was riveted to the dead packmate.

  “You killed him.”

  “He threatened a packmate. Had intentions to harm someone who is family.” Ice coated with words.

  “To expose a traitor, sacrifices are required.”

  He angled to stare at the woman he’d been ready to marry. “A sacrifice? Is that what you’re calling Cameron? He’s a pup. A pup. Under our protection. We were entrusted to protect the young. They depend on us for guidance and protection.”

  Kraven shifted slightly, redirecting his hold on the man before him.

  “Let him go, if he thinks he has a chance if he can shift, let him try.”

  Kraven stepped back. Casimir put almost all attention back on Jetje. Her green eyes had gone feral and he shook his head.

  “You can’t kill me, Casimir. You love me. So punish me, I’ll take it. I’ll find a way to make it up to Cameron.” Her gaze turned seductive. “We were meant to be.”

  His fangs slid further from his gums. “You think I would agree to let you in my pack when you deliberately ignore my rules. My law!” Danger vibrated along the timbre.

  Her fists clenched. “She wouldn’t ever give you a divorce. She wanted you. We all saw it.”

  “Wrong. She wanted nothing to do with me. Wanted to leave the moment she arrived. She stayed to wait for the papers. You did show your true colors, however.”

  Jetje’s shock was true and immediate. “No, she wanted you. I had to protect you.” Her tone bordered on wild.

  He glared down his nose to her. “I do not need your protection. Not now. Not ever.”

  Jansen lunged at him, fangs extended. Casimir thrust out one arm, catching him by the throat mid leap. “Your diversionary tactics won’t work,” he snarled. “Did you really think that would be successful?”

  The man he restrained was leanly muscular. No match for him in either wolf or human form. He ignored the rakes tearing into his arm, shredding flesh and dripping blood.

  “Alpha.” Kraven’s single word slowly penetrated his haze of rage.

  Narrowed gaze on Jetje, he released his hand and allowed the man to crumple to the ground. His wolf was as unforgiving as he was and demanding blood. More blood.

  Jetje trembled but refused to back away as he approached her.

  “Casimir Lars.”

  He snarled, eyes fixated on his fiancée. Ex-fiancée. His grandmother walked up and stepped between them. Foolish move.

  “Don’t kill her.”

  He slashed his gaze down to her. “She forfeited her life by her actions.”

  “She’s one of your top lieutenants.”

  “My lieutenants obey my orders. This isn’t a democracy. It’s law. My law. You want to give orders, challenge me for the Pack. Otherwise… Never. Interfere. Again.”

  “A true leader would show mercy.”

  “She disobeyed me and harmed innocents.”

  His grandmother gave a snarl of her own. “Cam will survive. The human—”

  “Is mine!” Possessiveness drenched the two words. “You want her so bad, you take care of her. I see either of you on my lands again and I will kill you both.” He looked his grandmother in the eyes. “See that you understand me. I ever see you again, you die. It doesn’t matter who you are. Actions have consequences. Your actions have just given you yours. You’re no longer Pack.”

  “Kelvin would be more—”

  “If that jackass were still in charge the Pack would be scattered to the winds and no more.” He slashed out, tearing tendons and other muscles, ensuring Jetje would never again be a full functioning wolf. Her scream fell on deaf ears.

  “Get out,” he warned. A look to Kraven. “Escort to the edge of Pack land. These two are never to return, tell everyone.” His everyone included the wild pack that roamed these lands, they were also his eyes and ears and would help alert him if they returned.

  “I’m your grandmother.”

  “For that reason alone, you breathe.”

  “You are nothing like your brothers. They revered me.”

  Their mistake. He fisted one hand. “Get moving,” he snapped the order before turning his back and walking away. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he yanked it free.

  “What?”

  “We’ve got trouble.”

  Tora’s words stalled him. One of his most dangerous lieutenants, she was unflappable. This time, he swore he heard concern in her voice.

  “What is it?”

  “I found out what and who.” He waited aware she’d continue. The hawk overhead called out as it lazily rode the air currents.

  “It is a masking agent. Makes true identity hidden on either animate or inanimate objects.”

  He shoved a hand in his pocket and leaned against a tree trunk. “Explains why I couldn’t scent the explosive.” Christ, Dyana had been right. Her friends’ deaths were his fault. She almost died twice because of him. “Not why I picked up on the scent of a shifter though.”

  “It wears off faster with sweating. C-4 and syntax don’t sweat like dynamite used to or we do.”

  “And the other bit?”

  “Kelvin’s son is behind this.”

  “I have a nephew?” He whipped around, pinning his gaze to the retreating form of his grandmother. There had been something familiar about the man in the shop but he’d ignored that gut feeling. All of it could have been avoided.

  “Your brother raped a shifter at fifteen. She was banned from the Pack. The mother has passed and the ones who raised him blame you for everything, for Kelvin had been interacting with him. He—his name is Devlin—believes the Pack should be his by right. You are about the same age.”

  “So my nephew wants to kill me and assume control of the Pack.”

  “You need protection, we need to—”

  “No.” He strode off. “This will be handled but not right this second. I have something else to do first. Then I’ll call a meeting of the LT’s.”

  “Yes, Alpha.”

  “Thank you, Tora. One more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “How did you find this out?”

  “You sure you want to know?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Plausible deniability.” She was gone in the following heartbeat. He wasn’t sure where she came from when she’d joined Tatra Pack for she’d had no memory of her past and no one was searching for her. He’d never regretted bringing her in. Smaller than most wolf shifters, her bitch would kill without hesitation. He viewed her as his little sister. If he had to choose one of his lieutenants other than Kraven, it would be her.

  Paps said she’d imprinted on him like young do to their parents. But in Tora’s case it was all about protecting him as she’d proven the first time she’d witnessed him and Kraven fight. She’d challenged his top man. Her fighting skills were unique, much like the woman herself.

  He returned his phone and headed toward his grandfather’s to tell him his mate had been banned. Then back to his own mate and tell her they weren’t divorcing. After all that, he’d track down this nephew of his and deal with him accordingly.

  Casimir looked up at the still circling hawk. Had to meet with the leopards and track down the eagles. Most importantly, he had to move his mate into his—their—house and his room. He grinned. More nights like that is something to look forward to.

  αβ

  Dyana closed the door to her hotel room and wiped her eyes. This was going to be harder than she’d originally believed. More so than she’d definitely hoped. While she appreciated the sympathy from her friends and competitors, each one exposed her pain fresh, like a scab being ripped free.

  Stumbling to the wall, she slid down, ignoring the blinding pain in her leg, and allowed the tears to flow uninhibited. Time blended as she sat there. In her mind a stream of images rolled like a movie of her, Reggie, and Shyla.

  A knock
on the door had her lifting her head and whisking away the last of the tears. She had to get up or the person on the other side would let themselves in. “Ow shit, that bites,” she muttered, struggling to her feet. She put one hand on the handle and took a deep breath. “Hello, Ranger,” she said, drawing the door open.

  He stood there for a pregnant pause, his inky black hair falling forward over eyes that always seemed to remind her of Ireland with the amazing variations of greens they portrayed. His jeans hung slightly loose and his charcoal grey shirt stretched across his impressive torso, his black boots informed her he’d ridden his motorcycle, for he only wore them when he rode. His signature jacket was in place.

  “Beautiful,” he stated, his deep voice full of concern and sadness.

  Without hesitation, she walked into his embrace. He curved his arms around her then stiffened in the next second. She leaned back but kept her hands on his black leather jacket.

  “What?”

  His thick brows drew together. Then he leaned forward and damn if the man didn’t sniff her.

  “Seriously, you’re sniffing me? What the hell’s wrong with you?”

  “You smell different.”

  “Stop sniffing me,” she ordered, shoving at his chest, getting a modicum of pleasure when he inched back. Seconds later, it was replaced by alarm. “Wait. What is it? Am I dying?”

  He slashed his gaze to hers. “What are you rambling about?” He pushed her further into the room, closing the door behind them.

  “You can smell sickness. You know, like some dogs can detect cancer. You just said I smelled different so—”

  The hand he slapped over her mouth cut off her words. She could see the wildness of his leopard in that amazing gaze. “Did you just compare me to a canine? A dog?”

  She gulped. “Some cats know when people are dying also,” she squeaked out through his fingers.

  He narrowed his eyes and a warning rumble filled the room. She stilled, aware he was barely retaining his control. She didn’t fear he would hurt her, but there truly was no sense in provoking the animal within. Unfortunately, her mouth didn’t get the memo. “I’m just saying, since it’s possible for some animals and you’ve said before that it had happened.” Her final muffled words ended on a whisper as he glared some more even as he removed his hand completely.

  “You really need to never say that again.”

  “You’re the one who came off all about how I smell different. What was I supposed to think? So, is that it? Am I dying?” Lord, she had diarrhea of the mouth.

  “My God, Dyana, really?”

  She shrugged. “Again, what was I supposed to think?” She lurched back, hand on chest. “So I’m not dying?”

  “Of course you are.”

  Her heart, which had begun to slow, ramped back up. “I am? What the hell aren’t you telling me?” Her question ended on a screech this time and he winced. She almost felt bad for hurting his feline hearing. Almost.

  He sniffed again, circling her. “We’re all dying, so of course you are.”

  “Ass.” She turned in time with him. “Will you stop doing that?”

  “I can’t help it. You smell.”

  She snarled at him. “Stop saying that. Christ I’m getting a complex. Tell me,” she demanded. “What do I smell like. Flowers? Sweat? Panic? I’m opting for that last one because damn if I’m not careening down Panic Hill into the Losing My Shit Lake.”

  His eyes, which had gone back to human, once again shifted to leopard. “No. You smell wolf.”

  She snorted. “No way. I fucked him. Once. No way I still smell like him. I’ve showered since.”

  Ranger stepped back. “I didn’t say you smelled like him—although we’ll get to you fucking him in a minute—I said you smell wolf.”

  “What’s the motherfucking difference?” Her accent was so thick even she noticed it.

  He crouched before her, maintaining eye contact. “It’s huge. I’ve known you for years. Years, Dyana.”

  “You’re scaring me, Keane. Seriously. What’s going on?” She reached for him and furrowed her brow when he stepped back. Her heart shattered. “You stepped back from me. You’ve”—her voice broke. “You’ve never stepped back from me.”

  Moments passed before her words sank in and remorse washed over his features. “Beautiful, I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry.” He wrapped her tight in his strong embrace. “I’m just… How the fuck did I miss this?” His frustration leaked over.

  “Miss what? I was with shifters, of course I may still smell like them.”

  “No, it’s more. You smell like a shifter.”

  She scoffed. “I just told you I was with them.” He didn’t respond. “What? Now you think suddenly I’m a shifter. I go to Washington for a few days and come back a shifter and a wolf one at that?” He didn’t blink and she blew a sharp breath. “You’re serious. Oh really, Ranger? I’m not a shifter.” He continued staring. “I’m not.”

  “You weren’t.”

  Her brain didn’t want to accept the words coming from his mouth. Couldn’t accept. She was human. Always had been. “Surely if sleeping with a shifter turned a person into one, I’d already be one. A leopard shifter, not a wolf one.”

  He groaned. “I’d forgotten in all this for a moment, just how much of a dead man I truly am.”

  She pinched his arm. “Can we focus on me here, please, and the fact my DNA has apparently taken it upon itself to rewrite and make me a shifter.”

  Chapter Ten

  “So that’s it?”

  “She’s banned, Paps. She sided with Jetje.”

  Paps sighed heavily, all at once looking like an alpha who’d fought more than his share of battles, bearing more of his share of scars, and his age. The lines were present in his weathered face. Casimir realized he was not looking into the face of the man who had led and protected the Tatra Pack for so many years while he’d been away and growing up and surviving—instead of dying.

  He rubbed his eyes and sank onto the black leather couch. “Is this where you ask me to leave as well?”

  Casimir sat across from the one of his family who’d ever been nice to him the few short years he’d been there as a young pup. “Paps, you are free to stay as long as you want. You were our Alpha, you’re my grandfather.”

  “Marta was—”

  “Not your true mate. I know this. Have known since I was with the Úlfravaldr Pack. I’ve always wondered why their Alpha reached out to me and took me in. One day I asked about you and I was told.” He leaned forward and toyed with the magazine on the coffee table. “Now I want to know why you asked them to take me in.”

  His grandfather walked away and returned later with two beers. “Here.” He sat back down. “Had you been here your brothers would have killed you. Martha nursed their evil side. Encouraged it. For her it was never enough power. Your father didn’t listen to her so she knew her need for more would not be heard.”

  “Need for more?”

  “More land, more power. Just more. So she wanted to groom the next Alpha. Create one who would still be under her thumb.” He drank. “To be fair your father was an idiot. I wasn’t handing my Pack over to him.”

  He leaned back. “But why the Úlfravaldr Pack?”

  “If you could survive there, you would be able to handle anything life threw at you.”

  “But you just got through saying even you thought I was going to die.”

  “I did. You were so sick we weren’t even sure you would make it to the next season.”

  “So you sent me all the way to Russia to grow up away from all I know. I worked on oil rigs from the age nine.”

  “And look at you. You’re strong, ruthless when necessary and damn good at defending your Pack. I was right in my decision, I will stand by that without any excuses.”

  “I’m not asking for excuses, Paps. I’m looking for answers. There’s something out there after me. Using masking agents to hide explosives. Killing those I care about and pu
tting my Pack in danger.” Wolf leaked from his throat.

  “I know.”

  “How do you know? How can you? I just realized it myself.”

  “There’s always going to be someone out to take your Pack. It’s the nature of our lives.”

  “You sound a lot like Pyotr.”

  “We have a lot of the same beliefs.” He finished the beer and rested his hands on his knees. “My mate was murdered right before my eyes. We’d not even been together for a year. Martha was compatible. Like Jetje for you.”

  Casimir scowled. “She was going to be my mate. Why wait so long to tell me I was married? Why not say that when I took over the pack?”

  His smile was small. “Do you remember the state of the Pack when you arrived home? We were nearly at war with the Western Clan. The leopards wanted nothing to do with us. We teetered on the edge of our own self-destruction. Telling you then you had a wife and had been married to her since you were five didn’t seem all that important to me.”

  “You’ve always had a plan, Paps. Always. I’m not buying that this was all because of the state we were in here. You have had ample opportunities to tell me. The deliberate withholding of the information had a reason. Tell me.”

  “That from a grandson to his grandfather or from an Alpha to Pack?”

  “Give me the answer and you can think of it anyway you wish.” He held the astute gaze. “I want to know.”

  “She’s wolf.”

  His heart thudded. “How the hell did you know this? Have you always known?” He rose in a sudden jerk. “Why didn’t I know until just now?” Casimir raised his voice.

  “Because you were so focused on her weakness, you refused to see what she had within her.”

  “No one knew. How did you?” How was this possible? How had she fooled an entire pack?

  “There is a lot for you to learn still. For instance, you don’t even know where she is at this moment.”

  “Resting.”

  His grandfather laughed. “Resting? She’s not even on Pack land anymore. Your problem, Casimir, is you focus on one thing and think that everyone follows your orders. These past times should show you otherwise. She didn’t listen to you. She has her own way of doing things.”