Then he was poised at her entrance. Their eyes met. She stared deep into his eyes and cupped his face.
“Maya!” An angry snarl ripped through the air.
The shout sent Maya and August scrambling to their feet. August stood in front of Maya, but she refused to hide behind him and forced her way to stand before him, facing Miller.
Miller stood in the distance and now stalked forward. “What the fuck is going on?”
“It’s not,” she started to say. But it was. It was exactly what it looked like.
“Get away from her!” Miller snarled.
August held Maya to him, his powerful chest against her back, his arms clutched possessively around her middle. “Who?” he asked her quietly.
“My cousin,” she replied in a whisper.
August bent down and kissed her temple before releasing her. “Go home.”
“But—”
“I’ll be fine. Go to your family.” He nudged her gently, one hand on the small of her back.
She stepped toward Miller and was snatched by her elbow the moment she got close enough to him. “Hey!” she protested. “You don’t need to be an ass!”
Miller ignored her, yanking her behind him as he pointed at August. “I should challenge you!”
“Challenge?” Maya tugged on Miller’s arm. “That’s ridiculous. I don’t need you fighting for my honor.”
“I’ll submit to Reid, but I have no interest in facing you or any of Maya’s family in a duel,” August said calmly.
Maya didn’t understand how he could stand there and be the perfect model of composure. She struggled and freed herself of Miller’s grasp, only to trip and fall against someone else. She peered up and found Damon, who now held her tight against his chest.
“Damon,” she pleaded.
“No,” he replied. “Your parents are beside themselves. The entire pack’s been looking for you. Do you have any idea? We all woke and discovered you missing. With your history…” He ended the sentence with a growl and turned, dragging her away.
Behind them, Miller shouted accusations at August, to which the low murmured replies were barely discernible.
“I don’t want them to fight,” she said trying to turn back.
“They won’t. Miller isn’t fool enough to attack anyone, but he’s saying what should be said. It isn’t respectful to snatch a female away during a full moon and take advantage of her.”
She came to a stop, feet planted firmly in the soft ground. “He wasn’t taking advantage.”
“Hormones aren’t enough of a reason to break the rules. I’m not blind. Don’t lie and say you weren’t about to have sex with a male who isn’t your mate.” Damon gave her a shake and then a push down the trail they’d come to. “You need to get cleaned up and dressed, then you can explain yourself to Reid.”
“I want him to be my mate,” she announced.
Damon exhaled. The sound shook with weariness. “That may be what you want, but that may not be the end result.”
“Why not?”
“Because you were forbidden to go to him. He knew that as well as you did. Besides.” He took her hand and squeezed it as he met her eyes. “Did he ask you to be his mate?”
“No, but—”
“He’s passing through. Would it be possible for you to be a couple? Of course. Is it likely, given that he was already being punished for disobeying his alpha? Now, he’s broken the rules on our territory and defied our alpha as well? Not to mention he’s shown utter disrespect for you.”
“I don’t feel disrespected,” she argued.
“You deserve better,” Damon said firmly. “You deserve a male who enters the territory correctly and tells you his interests directly.”
Maya pursed her lips for a moment. “The way you respected Charlotte?”
Damon’s eyes turned cold. “That was different.”
She didn’t push the discussion. She’d heard rumors that Damon had improperly seduced his now mate, but he’d never undergone punishment for it. Everything had happened away from the pack, with only he and Charlotte as witnesses. It’s not as if they’d confess and turn on each other.
Bitterness crept into Maya as she trudged back home with Damon at her side. She and August hadn’t discussed mating. They hadn’t discussed anything official. Yet the understanding was there, wasn’t it?
Everything had happened quickly, and yet it had felt right every step of the way. Her wolf had chosen him. His had chosen her.
It was foolish to believe their situation could be resolved simply, and yet couldn’t it be? If he told Reid that he intended to join the pack and be her mate, if he confessed his feelings for her, wouldn’t that be enough? Her alpha wouldn’t stand in the way of love.
Would he?
Chapter Nine
Hours passed. Maya was ushered to her home and made to wait. Reid would come to her, Damon promised. He’d also make sure her parents stayed away until afterward, so she could worry about one problem at a time. It was a small favor, but one she appreciated.
She’d washed away the mud but lingered in the warm bath, her thoughts a confusing tangle, but her emotions an ever deeper, spiraling puzzle.
Likely there was a better way for her to have handled everything, but she didn’t see it. She disagreed with Damon’s interpretation of events. August hadn’t disrespected her. She understood exactly why Damon had suspicions. As a runner he’d seen more messy pack dealings than she could ever fathom. Miller too, only wanted for her to stay safe.
There was no straightforward case for her to make for her actions. At the root of it all, she’d disobeyed her alpha. She’d travelled to the edges of pack territory after being told not to. She’d tracked down Leon and August, again, as she wasn’t supposed to. She’d ignored common sense and become physically involved with a lupine already in trouble.
No matter how she tried to twist the facts to be in her favor, she came up empty. She’d made a mistake. Yet it had brought her to August, so she couldn’t force herself to regret a moment. However, there would be consequences.
If Miller formally challenged August, she didn’t know who would win. Challenges rarely ended in death these days, but that was a minor comfort. She didn’t want to witness the two fighting, ripping each other to shreds for the sake of her intangible “honor.”
Of course, as alpha, Reid would be within his right to mark August. It wouldn’t be the severity and danger of a banishing mark, but rather a literal mark to his face. A swipe of claws that would disfigure him and reveal him to be an honor-less wolf.
Maya had only heard of such a thing. In her lifetime, no wolf had earned it. Yet cases like this were exactly when such a punishment might crop up.
Reid knocked on the door and opened it in the same motion, clearly aware that she’d be alone and ready to speak to him. She’d been sitting in her kitchen and rose when he entered, and then they both sat at the worn wooden table.
She didn’t speak, waiting patiently for him to start.
Since she was a child, Maya had looked at Reid as a bit of a mythical figure rolled up with the comforting atmosphere of a grandfather. She didn’t know his exact age. He’d been alpha her entire life, however, and she guessed he was somewhere in his fifties, though he didn’t look much past his thirties.
Sitting in her kitchen, he didn’t strike her as terrifying, and yet her heart pounded, and a flood of guilt weighed on her. She hated being a disappointment. She hated letting him down. Even if Reid wasn’t directly related to her, even if they weren’t as close as they could have been, it tore at her.
She owed more to her pack alpha, and the shame made her shake.
“You’ve created quite the mess, young one,” he said finally. His deep voice rumbled through her bones. “You put me in a position I’ve never taken comfort in. I don’t enjoy punishing transgressions, and yet I’m required to.”
“I understand.”
“Look at me.”
She lifted her
chin and met Reid’s eyes, instantly overwhelmed by the caring displayed in the foggy blue orbs.
“I’m more disappointed than angry, but there is still much anger.” He shook his head and exhaled. “I don’t even know where to start. You know what you’ve done, so how about you explain how you began down this path. Why did you seek out the Sandstone pack’s runners?”
“I was curious,” she admitted. “Because in the past they were allowed in. I wanted to know who they were and why they were held at the border.”
“You weren’t owed an explanation of my decision. I make these statements all the time, without your consultation, and without your express approval.”
“I know.”
“Do you think I was wrong to give the order?”
She held his gaze, not defiantly but with openness. “No.”
“I gave the order to protect the pack, which is usually the case. I am aware of August’s defiance of Rostom, and it is my duty to uphold the punishment sentenced on him by his alpha.”
“Of course. But if you knew August’s side, perhaps—”
“It’s not my place to interject my judgment over another pack. I don’t need to know August’s side, only Rostom’s ruling. If August came to me seeking refuge, it would be a different matter. Yet, that isn’t the case. Whatever unfair situation you believe August to be in, he is a loyal part of the Sandstone pack. He was, to my knowledge, accepting of his situation until you found him. And why wouldn’t he have been?” Reid crossed his arms. “He disobeyed his alpha and was sent on a mission. Ordered to be isolated for a period of time. So what? There are harsher punishments.”
Maya’s stomach turned. He was right. August’s punishment had been nothing, all things considered. “It’ll be worse, now, won’t it?”
“I’ve spoken with Leon and sent him back with a full report. Now it’s not only August who will be held accountable for what happened here, but I as well.”
That Leon was already gone bothered her, but her attention caught another detail. “You?”
“I wasn’t able to keep my pack in line.” His stare hardened. “This isn’t a tiny mistake, Maya. You know that on certain occasions I’ve softened rules for the betterment of the pack. I look toward the end result and go by the guidance of the elders and spirit of the ancestors. That means that in some ways I’ve gotten a reputation as being lenient. That’s fine with my wolves until it affects others. You fell out of line. Your behavior was my responsibility, and Rostom may very well issue a challenge to me over it.”
“I never meant for any of that,” she replied in a hoarse whisper. Her mouth was suddenly dry, and she dropped her gaze down to the table, attention turning to a deep scratch in the surface.
“Rostom likely has better things to do with his time than come down here. That doesn’t mean he won’t tell the other packs in the area about what happened.”
“There must be a way to fix it.”
Reid made a noise of agreement. “It’s not for you to fix. Your concern should be for yourself.”
She traced a finger over the scratch she’d found and waited. The silence ticked by on the kitchen clock. She usually found comfort in the steady tick and tock, but now it was a deafening passage of time while she awaited sentencing.
“If it were any other lupine, I’d think grounding would be the primary consequence,” he said. “That wouldn’t be much of a deterrent to you, though, would it?”
“No,” she admitted. Grounding just meant she’d be restricted from town. She rarely went to town to start, and yet for most of the pack her age, it would be a terrible punishment.
“Still, three months of grounding is standard, and it will stand. Beyond that I’ve had to be creative. You’ll work with Ann and Boone, teaching. I’m well aware of how comfortable you are with the entirety of our territory. You’ll be suited for it.”
Maya gave a sharp nod. “Of course.” Ann and Boone trained the teen lupine in survival skills, and though spending her weekends with gossipy teens sounded like a chore, it still didn’t feel like punishment. “Is there more?”
“Do you think there should be more?” he asked watching her.
“I just know that whatever I’m put through, it won’t be a speck of what August is going through. It doesn’t sit well with me,” she admitted. “Is he… is he banned?”
“He is. He and Leon left an hour ago.”
Her heart flipped and sank. “But—”
“We have rules. Not because I choose to be a tyrant but because we are passionate beings that would easily succumb to wildness and chaos without guidance. You know this.”
“I do,” she promised. “I cherish the ancestors and I’ve always respected your authority and the rulings of all the elders.”
“But?”
“But I think… no, I know I love him. I choose him as my mate, but now…” Her voice fell and tears welled, hot and irritating, blurring her vision. She swiped at her eyes and blinked as she stared past Reid and out of the kitchen window. “I understand how it may seem. Our wolves found each other last night. I can’t help but think the ancestors were okay with it.”
Reid reached across the table and took her hand in his. His sun-bronzed skin was soft and warm, and he closed his fist around hers comfortingly. “Our wolves do a fine job of getting to the root of our needs. Yes, that usually means they know what is best for us. That doesn’t change things, though. August owes Rostom an explanation. He has to return to his pack. There’s no option there.”
“Once it was common for males to leave their packs in search of mates,” Maya said.
“That is still the case—for law-abiding males. If August simply abandons his pack, he’d have to be stricken as an outcast. We couldn’t take in a wolf marked with that shame. Perhaps there is much I could overlook but not that. He wouldn’t be worthy of you if he abandoned his pack, Maya.”
The rationale squeezed at her all the more as she recognized the truth. If he was an honorable wolf, he’d have to face his alpha. She wouldn’t want a dishonorable wolf. She wouldn’t want a mate who could easily turn on his pack. She could never trust him then, if he abandoned his family and friends to escape punishment. Even if it was for her. There was nothing romantic about shirking all of his duties and all of his ties.
Reid continued, “There is a wrong way and a right way to leave one’s pack. There is a wrong way and a right way to join another. He knows these things. I could tell he respected the pack ways.”
“There is a chance that Rostom won’t exile him, even with his crimes,” she reasoned. “Now that he’s banned here, what option is there? If we want to do the right thing… then how?”
Reid leaned forward, his brow furrowing. “Little one… August didn’t ask to be your mate.”
“It never came up with us, but I know. We have a connection. He understands me. He listens to me.”
“Perhaps,” Reid said. “I meant that he didn’t ask me. If he meant to request some sort of consideration, it didn’t happen. He took his ban and he left.”
Maya pulled her hand free and stood. She moved to the window and stared out. “No.”
“I don’t easily pardon, but in this case, there was no need. No discussion. No compromise or negotiations. He was quiet. Accepting and quiet.”
The ticking clock faded away, as if the room around her was at once submerged beneath water. She heard only a muffled rush of currents, saw only the blurry outlines of trees before her. An empty pit formed in her chest, and it ached with a force that nearly took her knees from beneath her.
“August…”
“He’s gone, Maya.”
Chapter Ten
The heavy weight pulsing through Maya’s chest was heartbreak. She knew this and chose not to acknowledge it. Not yet.
Reid’s word was law, and he wouldn’t lie to her. This was clear.
Yet, if she sat back and wallowed and moped, if she hid away and cried over August and what could have been—what she thought would
be—she would be giving in to the old Maya.
New Maya was going to track down August and get answers. Everyone had brought up what she deserved, and this was it. She deserved the full truth.
The kisses, the touches, everything before the wolf moon could be written away as innocent fun, which they both wanted. Lupine weren’t soul-bound just because one kneeled in front of another and did things, she thought to herself while fighting a fierce blush.
It was the morning after that changed it all. When they were both naked, and when there was no doubt in her mind that August was on the verge of making love to her, that’s what she deserved answers about. She refused to accept that it was within his mind to be with her while not planning to make her his mate.
This time as she raced through the trees, she didn’t worry about stealth. She didn’t leap through the canopies but remained on foot, racing in her human form and following the scent trails of the two lupine retreating from the Bronze pack territory.
She’d taken off the moment Reid had taken his leave from her place, donning August’s hoodie and inhaling his fragrance before using it as an anchor and a guide. Leon and August had over an hour head-start on her, but they wouldn’t be moving at the frenzied pace she currently employed.
She crossed the border of the Bronze pack territory and felt the loss of the invisible tether that connected her to her pack. Her wolf came to alert, but this was another reason why she’d remained in human form for her search. She’d be better at stifling her wolf’s anxiety while running on two legs.
The scents she followed added some comfort, but as time passed, she felt wild. She lost some of her honed focus. As minutes passed and the distance from the border increased, her wolf pressed more persistently along her skin, wanting to take over and kick into survival mode. She couldn’t let it.
Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection Page 87