by Sara Summers
He put his arm around my waist, pulling my hip to his.
“Leah is my mate. If you mock her, threaten her, or mistreat her in anyway, you’ll regret it.” He stared out at all of them, waiting for a challenge. “She can take care of herself, but if I hear anything, you’ll answer to me, and I promise that you will not enjoy it.”
“Alright, you’re free to go.” He announced. We watched as they scattered.
“Wow, threatening much?” I said dryly.
“Hey, I have to mark my territory somehow.” He shrugged.
“I am not your territory.” I pulled myself away from him, giving him a dirty look. He sighed.
“I’m sorry for lying to you, okay? I swear I was trying to protect you. I thought if you knew, you would try to run off again, and every time you do that you get hurt. If you didn’t know, I figured you wouldn’t want to leave, and you’d stay safe on the pack land. I was wrong, will you forgive me?” he asked.
I wanted to say no. I wanted to sass him and curse at him and tell him off. He had lied to me and treated me exactly the way I taught the males not to treat their mates.
But, I knew he was telling the truth this time. He was sorry, and he really was just trying to keep me safe. He had to get credit for that.
Besides my reasoning, honestly, I missed him. I missed talking to him like we were best friends, and hanging out with him while he cooked for us, and just being with him.
“No more lies? If I let it go, do you promise we’ll be 100% equal from here on out?” I checked.
“No more lies.” He nodded. “We’ll lead the pack together, as a team.” He promised.
“Alright, then I forgive you.” I nodded, giving him a little smile.
He pulled my body flush against his and dipped his head down.
“Good, because I can’t do this without you anymore. I need you like I need my wolf. You’re a part of me, and I’m not going to let you go ever again.” His breath tickled my face, sending goosebumps all over my body.
Rather than responding, I lifted my lips to his.
The kiss started out sweet, but slowly heated. Ty was all I needed—everything I needed, though I could function on my own.
Our kiss was far too hot, considering we were standing on the porch of the old Alpha house.
Someone honked a horn, and I pulled away.
“Hey, guys.” Kyle waved from the car.
Ty growled, and I laughed at him, smacking him on the arm.
“We’ve gotta go now.” Kyle said.
“Eff.” Ty muttered. He picked me up, running us over to the car and sitting me on his lap. “Hit the road.” He barked out the order, and Kyle slammed on the gas. The action jerked us forward, but it was a nice way to start. We had stuff to do, and apparently, we needed to hurry.
I guess there’s never much time to rest when you’re the Alpha. Or the Omega, as I was set on proving.
“Dean’s gone rabid.” Kyle warned. “Get ready for a fight.”
Chapter 23
“LET GO OF ME!” Skye screamed.
We pulled up next to the Alpha house just in time to see Dean shove her to the icy ground.
“HARRIS!” Skye cried out. Tears streamed down her face, and I could already see bruises on her arms.
Me, Kyle, and Ty jumped out of the car. Ty and Kyle were throwing out enough dominance to make anyone queasy, but Dean somehow stood his ground.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, kneeling next to Skye.
“Yeah.” She grimaced, picking her hands up off the dirt and wincing as she brushed off rocks. With the rocks gone, she started bleeding a little.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.” She pressed her bleeding hand against her t-shirt, and I noticed that was all she was wearing. A long t-shirt, no pants.
“We were sleeping, and then I woke up getting dragged across the pack land. I don’t know what happened to Harris, do you know if he’s okay?” her voice cracked, and I put an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m sure he’s fine.” I assured her.
“Stand down and we won’t have to hurt you.” Ty warned, him and Kyle circling Dean. Dean’s eyes looked like a wolf’s, which meant one thing:
He’d gone rabid.
That’s what we called it when someone’s wolf takes complete control over the human side of them, and there’s no recovery from going rabid. Ty and Kyle seemed determined to see if he could go back, though.
“You took her away from me. You have to pay.” He snarled.
“You’re the reason she left.” Kyle growled. “If you’d realized how much you’d been blessed, she would still be here right now.”
His words surprised me. I didn’t know he was so desperate to find his mate, but then, it made sense. I’d never seen Kyle mistreat any female, and I had a feeling he never would.
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Dean screamed. He radiated a ton of dominance, and my stomach started churning.
“Surrender.” Ty warned. “Get on the ground, and put your hands up.”
“NEVER.” He shouted, and then shifted.
Rather than jumping away, like any normal, intelligent person or shifter would do, Ty and Kyle lunged at him.
Kyle wrestled him to the ground, and Ty held a knife to his throat.
“Where did he get the knife?” I whispered to Skye, who shook her head.
“Alpha requirement I think. You can never know when a wolf will go mad.” She whispered back.
We refocused on the scene.
Wolf-Dean was foaming at the mouth, a sure sign that he had gone rabid.
“Don’t make us do this.” Ty pleaded. “Fight it.”
Dean chomped his teeth down on Kyle’s arm, and I knew what was going to happen, what had to happen.
Me and Skye both looked away as the guys took Dean out of his misery.
“Wait, if Dean’s rabid, then what about Harris?” Skye whispered, her face paling. She stood up to run, but I grabbed her arm.
“The truck.” I yanked her toward it, and we both slid into the front seat from the same door.
I didn’t bother shutting the door, instead, hitting the gas. We shot forward so fast that the doors closed themselves, and in seconds, we reached Skye’s apartment.
She led me inside, through the front door, but stopped just after we got in. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she dropped to her knees.
I gasped when I saw Harris’s body on the floor, a kitchen knife embedded in the upper part of his stomach.
“Please, no.” She begged, rocking back and forth. Tears rolled down her face. “Please, please be okay.” She whispered.
I saw his chest rise, and then Skye fell to the floor, screaming bloody murder and clutching at the cotie on her neck with both hands.
“HARRIS!” She screamed again, throwing herself over his body. “Don’t leave me.” She sobbed. “Please, please come back.” She begged, touching his face, and his body, and his cotie.
When she touched his cotie and didn’t feel anything, she pulled away, looking haunted.
For a second, she stared at his lifeless body, a look of utter hopelessness written all over her face.
“Come back.” She whispered. When there was no response, she dropped herself against his body and started bawling once again.
I knelt on the floor next to her and rubbed her back. I didn’t tell her everything was going to be okay; it wasn’t. Not in the near future, for her. I didn’t tell her I knew how she felt; I didn’t. I just sat there beside her to let her know she had a friend, and that she wasn’t alone.
Ty and Kyle came into the room and stopped. Ty fell to the floor next to me, taking my free hand and holding it to his chest. He brushed his hand over my wet cheek while tears pooled in his own eyes.
Kyle ran a hand through his hair.
“Come back.” Skye whimpered, her whole body shaking. “Please.”
I pulled her hair off her neck and away from her face, pulling my own hair out of its
ponytail so I could use the hair tie for hers.
After what seemed like an hour of the four of us sitting there together, in almost-silence, Skye picked her head up. She looked at me, her eyes still dripping tears.
“What am I going to do?” She whispered.
“You’re going to fight for your happiness.” I squeezed her hand, and she bit her lip.
“How?” her voice cracked. “He’s gone. He was my happiness. How am I supposed to be happy without him?”
“He’s not gone,” I shook my head, not bothering to try and hold back my tears. “He will never be gone. He’s in here,” I tapped the side of her head. “And he’s in here.” I tapped her chest. “He might not be here physically, but he’s your other half and he will never leave you alone.” I told her firmly.
She tried to nod, but burst out crying before she could get all the way through the nod. I pulled her against me, hugging her tight.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now,” I whispered, “But one day you will be happy again, so happy you won’t even have the words to express it.”
“I really, really hope so.” She bawled into my shoulder.
“Will you come with me back to my house?” I asked gently.
“Yeah.” She nodded against my shoulder.
It took two of us to keep her up, but she insisted on walking to our townhouse, so we helped her. Kyle stayed behind to take care of Harris’s body, while Ty and I took care of Skye.
That afternoon, we had a funeral. All the males from both packs came, and though me and Skye were the only two females, no one asked us where to find the rest of the women.
We buried his body the way all shifters do: placing them on a wooden board, then covering them with dirt. We’ve never believed in coffins because our animals don’t believe in them.
When the final shovelful of dirt landed on the grave, I squeezed both Skye’s and Ty’s hands.
Ty stepped forward.
“Our pack has suffered an immense gain and loss today, but it will not destroy us.” His voice was clear, but it wasn’t loud. “We will be an equal pack, the first equal pack in decades. Our relationships will be different because of what happened today.
“Harris was a good man, better than most. He loved Skye the way all of us should love our mates. His example has changed me, and I hope it has changed you as well. His death will not be the end of his legacy.”
Skye wiped at the tears that rolled down her cheeks, but they kept coming no matter how many times she tried to wipe them away.
“I propose a change in the name of our pack.” Ty announced.
I looked at his back with my eyebrows raised. I definitely hadn’t been expecting that and honestly didn’t know it was a thing.
“The Burgandeaus were a great family, but they left a long time ago. We gain nothing by carrying their name. So, as I said, I propose a name change. If we are all in agreeance, our pack will be known from here on out as the Harris Pack. All in favor, make yourselves known.”
In an instant, the pack started howling. Every man in the pack, the ex-Rockies included, howled for Harris, and with that, our pack name changed.
“Thank you for mourning with us, and thank you for supporting me and Leah. Welcome to the Harris pack.” He stepped back, and people began to leave.
“Thanks.” Skye let go of me to throw her arms around Ty. She cried against his shoulder. “You’re the best Alpha any of us could ask for.”
Me and Skye stayed longer than everyone else. We stood in front of Harris’s freshly-covered grave, staring at the dirt for a long time. Even when the snow started falling on us, we stayed right there.
Ty and Kyle watched from a little ways away, far enough not to intrude but close enough to offer assistance if we needed anything.
Skye sniffed.
“Thank you for bringing me back here.” She whispered. “If you hadn’t called, I would be in the forest right now, regretting every decision I’ve made in my entire life.”
“Don’t thank me.” I sighed. “This was my fault. I sent the women away, making Dean go crazy. If I’d done things differently that night, none of this would’ve happened.”
“No, we would’ve convinced you. And Dean was already crazy, that just pushed him over the edge.” She gave me a tiny, tiny smile, but it was still a smile. “You’re the reason that I got a little more time with Harris, and I’ll never forget that.”
“I’m so, so sorry.” I said quietly.
“Me too.” She sniffed again, and I pulled her close, letting her cry against me again.
“What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? I was going to be with him. I was going to be a mother, and make him dinner every night, and… love life the way he did. Now, what do I do with myself?” she whispered.
“Don’t worry about that tonight.” I said, through the hug. “Don’t worry about anything tonight. Tonight, you’re going to remember the man you will keep loving for the rest of forever. Tonight, you’ll dream of him.” I tried to bat away another round of tears with my eyelashes, but they didn’t cooperate.
“Yeah.” She choked on the words. “Okay. That sounds beautiful.”
“Oh honey, it will be.” Those darn tears wouldn’t go.
I had to teach the relationship class only an hour and a half after the funeral. We left Skye sleeping in the spare room in our townhouse, with Kyle hanging out downstairs in case she needed anything.
Ty held me close as we walked to where the class would be held.
Rather than teaching the lesson I’d planned, the class turned into a memorial for Harris.
“We can all take a page from Harris’s book.” I bit my lip, pausing to hold back tears. “He loved his mate more than anything. She meant the world to him, and our mates should be just as important to us.
“No matter how many differences we feel we have, ours is the responsibility to make our mate happy. Harris told me that he did everything he possibly could to make Skye happy, yet when she left, he came to me asking for advice on how to do better. Not because she was his mate, and not because he was playing along to get her back.
“He made her happy because to him, that was the most important thing. Her happiness mattered more to him than anything else, and I’m sure,” I paused to wipe away a few tears, “even now that he’s moved on, he’s still going to do everything he can to make her happy, because that’s the kind of man he was.”
I closed my eyes and Ty wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing his head to mine. Though our faces were cold, the contact was comforting.
“That’s the greatest lesson you’ll ever hear from me.” I shrugged. “Make your mate’s happiness more important to you than your own, and I swear, she won’t want to leave you. If she does, she’ll regret it the moment she leaves. Thanks for coming.”
Everyone left, but a few ex-Rockies stayed behind to talk to me. The only one I recognized was the one who stood in front of me to block me from going in the door.
“I’ve waited five years to see my mate again.” The big one with the scars said. “We found each other when we were both 17. I was a stupid teenager, and I didn’t treat her the way she deserved. I’ve spent our time apart figuring out everything I’ve done wrong, and I want another chance.” He put his hands in his pockets.
“I want to make her happy.”
“I’ll find her.” I promised. “It might take a while, but I’ll find her.”
“Thank you.” He choked on tears, which made me cry yet again.
A few others had similar things to say, and I promised all of them that I’d find their mates as well. I knew it could end up being a lot of work, but I would do it. I’d run across the globe to find each of their mates if it meant seeing couples happy together.
Everyone deserves to be happy.
Chapter 24
Me and Ty walked back to our townhouse together.
“Do you care if I crash here tonight?” Kyle asked, gesturing to the couch. Without
a woman at home to welcome him, I thought his bed would feel extra lonely that night.
“Go ahead.” Ty nodded. “Too much happened today to spend the night alone.” He hugged Kyle, who was probably the best friend he’d ever had.
“One of these days, I’ll find my woman.” He smiled, though he looked exhausted.
“And she’ll be perfect.” I agreed, taking my turn to hug him.
We walked up to our room, making sure to lock the door.
“What do you need tonight?” I asked Ty, after replacing my thick coat for sweats and a t-shirt.
“Just hold me.” He sighed, yanking his clothes off and collapsing on the bed.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” I pressed a kiss to his cheek, cuddling against him.
Everything that happened that day and night really put our relationship into perspective. If forgiving Ty for a few mistakes meant I got just a little more time with him, it was worth it to me.
“Are you sure you want to lead this pack?” Ty whispered. “When we get all the females back, it’s going to be massive. There will be a big target on our backs.”
“It’s what we’ve been called to do.” I sighed again, and he pulled me closer. “We’re equipped to handle it, and I think the Creator expects us to do it.”
“Me too.” Ty said quietly. “I just wish it was a little easier.”
“Me too.” I echoed his sentiments.
“I love you, Leah, and I’m sorry for everything. I promise to love and treat you the way Harris loved and treated Skye.” Ty pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I love you too.” I whispered back, tilting my head up to kiss him on the mouth.
That kiss stayed short, soft, and incredibly sweet. I really did love Ty, despite everything that had been going on, and I wanted to be the woman he deserved.
We slept that night holding each other close, grateful for the time we had. As we learned that day, we could never know when it would come to an end.
Chapter 25
The next two days were devoted to teaching classes, sitting and/or talking to Skye, and trying to figure out what me and Ty were going to do about the female situation.