She murmured an acknowledgment and her sister echoed her. They didn’t traditionally eat dessert, and she hoped that wasn’t a requirement. Sipping at her water, she breathed slowly and steadily, and to the best of her ability ignored the male sitting across from her—the elephant in the room. Or more likely, she was the elephant, as well as her very un-wolf-like behavior. Breathe. You’ll be on your way in the morning. They won’t like that you didn’t respond, but they’ll accept it.
“Tradition dictates that a female who doesn’t respond to a male’s push isn’t a suitable match.” Her Alpha’s announcement startled her and she jerked her gaze to him. He was glowering at her as though she’d spoiled his day.
“It doesn’t happen very often.” Her dad’s tone held a hint of satisfaction, as though she’d finally become someone he could relate to.
“Very rarely,” Jett weighed in, and she indeed felt the burden of his stare, so heavy she quailed beneath it and felt her lips quiver. “Perhaps she is late to mature.”
She was right in the freaking room, at the same table. River bit her lip to refrain from saying something to interest any of the males, like acting vastly immature by indulging in some name calling. Or targeting a head with the handy salt shaker.
“That could be it.” Her father didn’t sound convinced.
“You could return and try again,” suggested Jericho. “Closer to her birthday.”
Jett shook his head and she shook with relief, until he added, “With your leave, Jericho, I’ll take her with me and give our connection time to morph over the next while. If she isn’t suitable, I’ll return her personally. But I can’t be away from my pack for much longer. Not with the unrest in the region.”
“He came at my request because I truly thought your daughter a good match,” Jericho advised her father. “Even if it wasn’t a precipitous time.”
Cass thankfully asked the question burning River’s tongue, both of them knowing it would do no good to protest the move of a female when her parent and her Alpha approved. “When would my sister have to go?”
With a lift of one massive shoulder, Jett sealed her fate. “I’d planned to leave first thing in the morning, but tonight would suit me better.”
“No! Daddy, please. It’s too quick. River’s been everything to me. Can’t you ask for a little time?”
Tears pricked hard, but River refused to let them fall. Cass was doing what she couldn’t, and all she could do was sit passively and pray.
“If you’d wait until the morning? The two girls are close, especially seeing as their mother died when they were so young.” Her father actually entreated the younger Alpha and hope sparked for an instant. She only needed a few hours to put some distance between her and this place. And no alpha would follow when so obviously scorned. River could never come back after such a heinous act, but that suited her, especially when she could help Cassandra in the end.
“I’d like to speak with River. In private.” Jett’s tone was rife with something she couldn’t interpret.
“Certainly. Use my study.” Her father gestured down the hall.
Jett levered to his considerable height and she somehow stood and made her feet move. She led the way, glumly intuiting it might be the last time she would walk in front of him. Females followed, and it made her grit her teeth at what that inferred. The door to the street beckoned in her peripheral, but she’d never outrun the predator striding behind her.
The heavy panel shut behind them and she stepped behind a chair, casually positioning it so she could maintain a little distance.
“They aren’t working as well as you think, River. You’ve fooled your father, and mine, but you responded to my intent to claim. Your heat will soon be apparent because I don’t intend to allow you to take any more of those banned substances.” His calm pronouncement was quiet but rang in the enclosed space nonetheless.
She could play the innocent or cut to the chase. A certain coiled strength was evident in his posture, but she didn’t feel threatened. He looked implacable, as though he had all the time in the world. Despair washed over her and she clutched the back of the chair for support. His face softened and he motioned to it.
“Sit down before you fall down.”
Leaning on the arm she slipped around and half fell into the seat, bitterly acknowledging she was already doing his bidding. “Why didn’t you say something right away?” she asked.
He pulled another chair to face her, and when he sat, at least she didn’t feel as though he was looking down on her from a great distance. He stared into her eyes. “I was intrigued that a female wolf would go to such lengths to avoid being mated, especially when your age dictates your destiny. And I wanted to talk with your father and obtain his understanding of his daughter.”
She took a deep breath. While she was throwing a meal together, he was gathering information. She wondered what her father had to say, and decided it had to be fabricated, because why else would this male want to take her with him?
He sat patiently, as she thought through her options of exactly… none. In that event, so what if she said all she had to say? What else could happen? There might even be a slight chance he would reject her. Getting through her heat unfulfilled would be hellish, but she’d find a way around that too. “I don’t choose to be mated. I never want to fulfill such a destiny and be a second-class citizen for the rest of my life, used and mistreated for the perpetuation of the species.”
His wide brow furrowed. “We’ll discuss the latter part of your statement in a moment when I’ve had time to process it. But as to your determination not to mate, there are very few females who reject being mated. In fact, the only ones I’m aware of are— Are you … disinterested in males? Or perhaps interested in both sexes?”
“No. I’m disinterested in sex, period.” It wasn’t true. She could admit, if only to herself, to having ridiculous romantic fantasies brought about by certain novels she and Cassandra read. Except her life was so far from that fiction…
“Your scent disproves your disinterest.”
Lord, he had definitely scented her momentary lapse, even if the others hadn’t. His father had called him potent, but she had come this far and wasn’t going down without trying to dissuade him. “I’m a healthy, nearly twenty-five-year old female shifter, Jett.” Maybe she should have called him Alpha, but he didn’t correct her, not in words or with a censuring frown. “It’s nature that my body—my wolf—would respond to your claim—or that of another. That doesn’t mean I want to mate.”
His tiny growl appeared to emanate from deep in his chest and she blinked. He made no outward sign so she dismissed it as hearing things, and when he said nothing, she continued, “I simply wished to live a different life. Different from other females, different than my mother’s.”
“I can’t speak to the relationships of all shifters, and certainly not ones within other packs, but perhaps you’ll find things different within mine.” He again spoke calmly and quietly, as though soothing a frightened child.
“So you’ve decided for me. You’re taking me with you as your mate without considering my feelings on the matter.” Despite her efforts, her voice was shrill. Desperate.
His black hair shone beneath the overhead lighting as he shook his head again. “Females are destined,” he repeated, “and you responded to my claim. My father recommended you after careful consideration, and I agree with his choice. I have claimed you, despite the supplements you utilized to rebuff a claim and mitigate your heat. Surely you can accept that—as a she-wolf. Your mother must have educated you.”
His arguments meant nothing. They couldn’t mean anything. “I was only ten when she died, but, yes, she … educated me as much as fitting for that age group. And as I got older, there were no secrets in the pack as to what the destiny of a female is, and that of the male. Unfair and inequitable as they are.”
“You deem the male’s need to dominate and protect his mate as unfair? Inequitable? What of the fema
le’s power? To meet her mate’s needs as no one else can and also bring life?”
She snorted. “All diminished by mistreatment and being used.”
“Your father did this?”
Color flooded her face at his quiet question. She couldn’t bring herself to reply.
“River, did your father abuse your mother?”
“I don’t know you. I’m hardly going to confide such personal things in a stranger.” Tears burned and she blinked furiously to hold them at bay.
“I’m your mate and who better than someone you can put your utter trust in?”
“Trust is built. And gained. I just met you!”
“I chose not to reveal your subterfuge to the others. I plan to take you with me tonight to spare you the indignity of being found out. And Jericho will determine what you’ve been doing, believe me, if I leave you behind until later. I’ve also chosen not to punish you for that behavior in front of your Alpha and your father, or in front of the pack. Is that not sufficient incentive to at least trust I have your best interests at heart?”
“Punish me?”
“You’ve broken a serious clan law and you well know it. I will administer a punishment.”
“Such as?” Her heart rate sped up and she felt queasy. She knew what her pack’s Alpha would order, but had gone ahead and taken the supplements anyway. She considered them a justifiable risk.
“A physical one, little River, so you can make amends and it will pass. At a time of my choosing, but away from here. Given your antipathy for mating and your obvious desperation, it will remain between us. Any further such transgressions may not.”
And there it was. He was going to beat her, hurt her, just as Jericho would, although that man would order his minions to do it. Jett was no different, as much as he liked to pretend with his oh-so-thoughtful I won’t let your father or my father know what you’ve done commentary. It was about his ego and losing face in front of Jericho. She shrugged. “Whatever. Do your worst.”
His handsome face hardened before those icy eyes became thoughtful. “You expect the worst, my mate. You’ve resigned yourself and that’s a shame. You have a right to expect better and live a long and happy relationship with me. And our pups. But you’ll have to make it what you will. I’m a fair male, as you’ll soon discover.”
Enigmatic didn’t suit him. But then he had all the power and she was doomed to live the very thing she’d intensely schemed to avoid. The thought of Cassandra undergoing the same process in a few short years made her choke on a sob. Jett reached out his hand and she flinched away, too upset to decipher the reaction that flashed across his features. “Am I allowed to say goodbye to my sister?”
“And your father.”
“He doesn’t matter, but Cassandra does. She was upset enough that I was leaving, let alone now I’ll be someplace she’ll never see me again.”
“Where were you going, little River?” His tone was extremely quiet.
Well, she’d fessed up without even thinking. Stupid. All the more reason for him to punish her. “I’d planned to leave here shortly. I had a job and a place to live. It took me a long time to plan it out, but I did it. Cass could have joined me once I got established and made her own choices too.”
“Would you have married a human?” There was something palpable in the question, but again she couldn’t read him.
“I hadn’t thought about it. Maybe. Anything to avoid this.” Tactful she wasn’t, but he was already going to take his pound of flesh, so whatever. She wished he wouldn’t sit so close. The extra dose wasn’t working well at all, and her wolf was barely constrained. Sweat beaded along her spine and her temples pulsed.
“Well then, I’m glad I came along before you escaped. A female wolf among humans isn’t … ideal, and there are certain repercussions, though you don’t seem to realize that. I’m beginning to think your education has been sorely lacking in many areas. I’ll assist you in your packing so you don’t inadvertently throw in anything you shouldn’t.”
The last thing she needed was some arrogant male presuming to lecture her on shifter mores and laws when she’d done her best to live beneath the radar and spend most of her time with humans. “I’m packed. Except for the supplements—that I won’t need—and a few sundry articles. But by all means, hover. I’d better get used to it.”
In truth she wanted to scream and throw things at him, anything to distract herself from the eroding control over her hormones. At this rate, his pervasive claim would send her into a full heat before they departed her house, and how humiliating would that be? She’d seen the way female wolves acted when overcome by great need, and she wanted to avoid that at any cost.
Jett actually chuckled. “Get your case, feisty one. If I find anything that shouldn’t be there, you’ll rack up another punishment. And I keep all my promises. In the meantime, I’ll speak with the others and inform them of our plans.”
She rose from her seat, careful not to increase their proximity, knowing he was fully aware of her avoidance and amused by it. Damn him. Females were driven, ruled by their heat, and males, while vastly affected, were far more in control. It was nature because someone needed to ensure the female’s safety as she lost herself. River hated him and her life and her species, not that it would change anything. But the thought of losing herself to him in the coming hours was making her crazy, and not with lust. Yet.
Passing through the living room on the way to her bedroom, she ignored the looks coming her way. Cass got up as if to follow but was called back by Jett. River quit listening to whatever he was telling them. It wasn’t as though she had any say, and she wouldn’t see them again in any event. Her heart crumbled and she hurriedly scribbled a note to her sister. She told her that nature had caught up to her before she could act any differently and that Jett had promised to be kind. Not a little white lie, but she couldn’t let Cassandra fret. Let her believe that River’s first heat dictated her actions as with all the other female wolves. Cass would understand that and it would assuage the loss to some degree.
Considering the container of banned supplements, she pried the top off and poured them into the toilet, salving her conscience about polluting the environment with a reminder they were all natural sourced and could return to the earth. She knew she was focusing on the strange and the mundane and couldn’t draw out her leave-taking much longer. Jett wouldn’t allow it—she knew that about him already.
She crushed the container beneath her heel and buried it within the garbage, and then disposed of the lid in a small box of odds and ends she couldn’t bring herself to dispose of. Cass mustn’t find any evidence in the event River was found out. Then little sister could truthfully state she had no idea her big sister was circumventing pack law. A rippling shudder of need nearly overtook her and she grasped the edge of the dresser for support. It was happening. To her. She swallowed another sob and focused on the task at hand.
Adding her e-reader and her reading glasses, she took one last look around the small room she’d grown up in before picking up the picture frame that had sat on her dresser for as long as she could remember. Her mother’s smiling face looked out at her, arms around her daughters. River searched that smile, wondering how the woman she both missed and resented hid the darkness of her life so effectively, before carefully putting the photograph into her case.
Despair and glum acceptance welled up to dampen her heat and she stood, stock still and barely breathing for a moment, until she became inured enough to push past it. She’d tried to find her own way, and being stopped so close to her goal crushed her. Her upbringing wasn’t lost on her. Once Jett mated her, she was destined as his partner, if a silent, unequal one, and from that, there was no escape.
Shoving her phone in her back pocket, she grabbed her luggage and hauled it down the hallway. Jett came quickly to relieve her of the burden. “Are you ready?”
Would she ever be ready? Not in her lifetime, but it didn’t matter. “Yes.”
“That was quick,” her father laughed. “You must be hopeful Jett is your intended.”
So Jett was continuing to spin the farce that they would wait and reassess when she was closer to her birthday. River supposed she should be grateful that as promised he hadn’t outed her and given a reason for an investigation. She didn’t spare her father a word, focusing on Cassandra. She hugged her sister and whispered that everything was absolutely fine, honest. With a wolf’s keen hearing, everyone in the room knew what she’d said, and both her father and Jericho smiled widely. Jett never took his gaze off of her—she could feel him watching and her wolf stretched languidly, then rolled and showed her belly.
“Really?” Cass searched her face. “You’re sure?”
“Your sister will be fine. She’ll call you soon and … if things work out and she stays, you can visit once she’s settled. If your father and Jericho concur.”
River spun and stared at Jett. It was unheard of for a young, unmated female to travel, let alone to another pack’s territory. But he stared back and didn’t retract his comment. Jericho and her father also remained silent and she dared hope that meant consent. She turned back to her sister. “See? It’s fine. I love you, Cass.”
“Love you more.”
Jett touched her arm and she shivered, the call of his claim pulling her wolf so close to the surface she winced. The other males were standing taller, and appearing tense, and she accepted it was only a matter of minutes before they knew her to be claimed.
“Time to go.” Jett urged her toward the door.
Cassandra squeezed her hand and swiped at tears with the other. “You call as soon as you can.”
“I will.”
“Be a good girl, River.” Her father looked woebegone as he moved to stand beside her sister. He didn’t try to approach, having eschewed touching her for years. Or maybe she’d rejected his touch so often he had come to refrain. “I’ll miss you.”
“Goodbye.” She could hardly stand to say it, but she forced the farewell out and managed a nod in his direction.
Bound by Destiny (Blue Star Shifters Book 1) Page 2