Lupine had lost themselves this way. Away from the ancestors and pack, they’d been pulled down into wolf form. Once in that form, their human thoughts were pushed to the back and the wolf’s base needs took the forefront. They became feral and eventually forgot their other sides. There was no human, no lupine, only wolf. The true punishment and danger of being exiled from one’s pack.
And here Maya was, facing this risk by choice. At least Reid hadn’t expressly forbidden her from leaving pack territory. She was grounded from town, but not this. Chasing after lupine outside of the territory wasn’t technically forbidden, just reckless and unusual.
Honestly, even if it was forbidden she’d have done it. She needed to see August again, even if it made her a bad wolf. She’d lived the quiet life long enough, not caring about a lot of things, neglecting her desires for far too long. She knew what she wanted now, and she’d do what she had to in order to get it. He was worth challenging the rules for. If she didn’t do this, she wouldn’t deserve him.
Continuing on, she lifted the hoodie’s neck and rubbed it against her cheek, releasing August’s scent and strengthening her resolve. Her determination blossomed anew, and she raced forward.
She caught up with them roughly half an hour outside of pack territory at a run, meaning she was decidedly out of her comfort zone.
They halted as they came into her view. Likely they’d heard her crashing through the forest beforehand. It didn’t matter. She slowed to keep from plowing directly into them but didn’t hold herself back from directing herself into August’s open arms as he stared at her with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She nuzzled his chest and held him, regaining her focus and pushing away her wolf’s insistence. Above her, he asked if she was okay, if something was wrong. Leon moved close and did the same, rubbing her arm cautiously. Their touches soothed her spirit, even if she didn’t immediately answer them.
After a moment, she took a steadying breath. She touched his chest with the flat of her hand, feeling his pulse. Then she stepped back and looked between Leon and August.
“I need to speak to August,” she said.
“I can’t leave you two alone,” Leon replied sternly.
August’s brow furrowed, and he gave a sharp nod. “We can talk publicly.”
“But,” Maya began and stopped. “Fine. I thought you wanted to be my mate?”
Leon turned away, his head shaking, but didn’t leave.
August’s expression melted from concern and confusion to something less identifiable. He looked beyond her for a pause before meeting her focused stare. “I have a responsibility to my pack. I have to return and admit my guilt. Face my punishment. As I assume you already have.”
“Yes, but that’s not what I asked you.”
“You can’t have a mate who is exiled,” he said softly.
“You don’t know that’s going to happen. Why didn’t you even tell Reid anything about us? Why didn’t you argue a case?”
He arched a brow. “You wanted me to argue with your alpha?”
“Not argue, argue, but yes. You could have told him you wanted me.” She licked her lips. “Don’t you want me?”
He frowned down at her, stopping her heart in its tracks, then reached out and traced her cheek. “Of course I want you.”
“As your mate?”
“Yes.”
She broke into a smile, and yet the joy was short-lived. “Why didn’t you tell Reid? You could leave your pack and join us…”
“It’s not that simple,” Leon interjected.
“It’s not,” August agreed. He took Maya’s hand in his and placed it over his heart while pulling her close. “There are many things that have to fall in place, that have to take course before I could hope to return to you.”
“Return to me? Was it always the plan?”
“Unless Rostom killed me, yes,” he said. “I will give my reasons to him, and that is my first and primary mission.”
Maya struggled with her words. “You should have told Reid, though. Maybe he wouldn’t have banned you. That would have helped, wouldn’t it?”
Leon scoffed and turned back to face them. “He can’t negotiate with an alpha. That’s not how it works.”
“That’s exactly how it works,” Maya argued. “They aren’t dictators, or at least they shouldn’t be. Even if Rostom doesn’t work that way, that’s how Reid is. You could have reasoned with him. You could have worked something out.”
August and Leon exchanged a look. August shrugged. “Your relationship with your alpha is different from my relationship with him.”
“If you were campaigning to be my mate, he would be your alpha,” she said with a half-growl. “Why doesn’t this make sense to you?”
“I couldn’t campaign to be your mate, Maya,” August said gently. “I hadn’t asked you first. I wouldn’t have presumed to make a declaration to your alpha, and expect special treatment in line with it, when I didn’t have your word.”
She shifted on her feet, her emotions still a whirl of highs and lows. “Well, now you know. I want to be your mate, but it’s too late to change that you’re banned.”
Leon crossed his arms. “Given the right circumstances, Rostom could influence that ban. Which is what the goal is.”
“What?” she asked.
“Rostom is going to be furious, but in the end I’m sure he’d rather see me alive with another pack than exiled or dead. He certainly can’t keep me. He has to make an example of me. Sending me away to face my own destiny, even if he suspects I’ll wind up mated in another pack, would still suit as punishment,” August explained.
“And that removes your ban how?”
“If I’m exiled but not marked, I can still petition for temporary safety on Bronze pack territory.” August’s lips curved into a mischievous grin. “In which case, I would have very, very carefully sought you out and discussed a partnership.”
She tilted her head. “We can skip that now.”
“That part, yes. I still have to return to my pack first.”
“Reid won’t break up a couple. If we mated now and returned to him, he couldn’t turn you away. He may ground you, or make you do some exhaustive work, maybe even send you running for a few months, but he would keep you in the end,” she rambled.
August pulled her into a tight embrace, his hands stroking up and down her back in comforting sweeps. “As much as I’d love to do that, particularly the mating part, I have to face the consequences of my actions. It’s what we do. It’s how we honor the pack and the ancestors.”
“But—”
“I don’t want to have to explain to our pups why I lost ties with my old pack,” he said firmly. “If I return to my pack as planned, there’s a chance Rostom won’t exile me at all and then I can return to you by my own choice. That means, in the future, I could still contact my family and old friends. If I do what you ask, that chance is gone. I wouldn’t even be able to write my family.”
It all made perfect sense, but she didn’t want to accept it. “I already miss you terribly.”
“You’re strong. I’ll come to you as soon as I can. And if for some reason I can’t… I’ll find a way to send Leon to tell you,” he promised.
Maya glanced at Leon. He wasn’t a friend, not exactly. They’d spoken and interacted in his previous visits to her pack and that was all. “I’m sorry you got pulled into all this.”
“It’s not a big deal,” he said, raising a shoulder and letting it drop. “I’m a little sad you never visited me. I was lonely too, you know.”
“I wasn’t supposed to.” She bit her lip. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “I know. You spent all your rule-breaking tokens on this ass,” he said with a gesture to August. “At least he shared the meatloaf.”
She nodded, barely remembering that she’d brought them the treat. Her mood fell as she looked back to August. “I don’t know how to
go back and wait. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Don’t think of it as waiting for me. Put yourself first and I guess… leave a little room for me.” He kissed her forehead.
“You are strong, Maya,” Leon said. “You’re miles away from your pack but you’re keeping it together.”
“Squirrel isn’t a weak wolf,” August said, pride clear in his voice.
She batted at his arm. “If I’m a squirrel, what does that make you?”
“Just a horny wolf. Same as always,” he rumbled.
Leon sighed. “We really have to go.”
“One minute.” August pulled Maya a few feet from Leon and bent down. “I promise I’ll be back for you.”
His fingers tilted her chin up and he kissed her, his warmth and taste immediately sending shivers down her spine, as their undeniable chemistry swirled and pulsed. She slid her tongue against his, not caring that they had company, not minding that any moment her arousal would permeate the air and reveal exactly how much she craved the lupine she was pressed against.
She ran her hands over his chest and groaned into the kiss, savoring his masculine flavor and the intoxicating scent of him. Her mate. Not officially, yet, but soon enough. She could wait.
They pulled apart with heavy sighs. August rubbed his cheek against hers in a final act of marking her with his scent, and Maya nearly melted into a puddle from the act. The hunger in his eyes as he stepped back undid her, helping her to latch onto the hope of seeing him again, holding him again.
They exchanged a round of goodbyes, but that didn’t stick with her as firmly as the kiss. When August and Leon were distant figures, she lifted the fabric of the borrowed hoodie to her nose and inhaled, enveloping herself in the fragrance of love and dreams and promises.
She turned on her heel and ran home, needing to feel her pack’s connection before August’s absence hit her once again.
Chapter Eleven
Five weeks later.
A hard breeze whipped around Maya, ruffling through her hair and stealing gold leaves from the tall sycamore upon whose branch she was perched. After a long morning and even longer afternoon of corralling hormonal young lupine through a hiking trip, she’d ducked away to make use of her private time.
Normally, she’d return home after work, but if she did, she’d be subject to a pity visit from her mother. It was the weekend and the town the pack normally frequented was having a festival. Most of the pack had ventured off the property, and Maya, being in the middle of her grounding sentence, was stuck behind.
Her mother had stayed home and promised to keep Maya company, if necessary. It truly wasn’t necessary. While she worked off the penalty for breaking the rules, she’d spent plenty of time with her parents. They weren’t as mad at her as she’d expected, but she suspected they watched her like a hawk to keep her from slipping up again.
Not that there was anything to slip up on with August gone.
No, in his absence her life had mostly returned to normal. Or perhaps that was an understatement, since most of the lupine her age now looked at her with new eyes. She definitely wasn’t invisible anymore. She was a rebel now. The pack didn’t know everything that occurred the month before—Reid hadn’t announced her crimes in full—but they knew enough to gossip and come to the conclusion that echoed what Damon once told her. It’s the quiet ones you have to look out for.
It was strange going from negligible to having a bad reputation, which in her case, was actually an impressive reputation. There was a lot less coddling now, and she honestly welcomed the laughter that came when she would inevitably showcase her still existent awkwardness, as laughter was much more welcome than averted eyes and pity. There were fewer head pats, and more curious, possibly interested, looks from the males.
She was officially one of them when it came to her peers.
And she found she didn’t care.
She remained hiding away until the battery of her music player died and the song she’d been listening to skipped before shutting down entirely. Yanking the earphones free and winding the cord, she glanced at the horizon. A movement in the distance startled her and the device in her lap fell to the ground, making the sharp thwack sound of something breaking.
Perfect.
She tucked her earphones into her pocket then swung herself down from the branch and dropped, barely sticking the landing, distracted at finding Miller sitting at the base of the tree, presumably waiting for her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Do you really love him?” her cousin asked, pinning her with a look.
She started to ask who, but it seemed obvious. “I do.”
“After a week?”
She’d had the same discussion with her parents. Roughly four times with her mother, actually. “It’s our way, isn’t it?” She bent over and retrieved her music player, noting the spider-web crack in its screen. “We can do a long romantic courtship and that lasts what… a month? Two? Other than that, we tend to know. My wolf knew, and as I embrace the ancestors, I trust in that.”
Miller’s head tilted and he studied her.
Courtship was a quirky thing, in truth. All of the lupine of the pack grew together. Some pairings came early and were made official the moment both parties were of age. For others, it was as if they simply woke one morning and saw each other as more in an instance. Mere acquaintances one day, passionate soul mates the next.
Sure, there were dates to encourage emotions. Lots of flirting. Lupine loved to touch and snuggle, and courting was expected. That whole “no intercourse” rule was skirted by either playing safely in human form or sating one’s urges with actual humans.
In any case, for her to fall for a stranger wasn’t unheard of. She didn’t need him to bring her roses or write her a poem. She didn’t need to wake to him holding a stereo over his head in the odd fashion of human mating.
No. August only had to listen to and understand her, accept her as an equal, melt her panties with a touch, and kiss like a wet dream. It was plenty enough.
“He saw me when no one else did. He never treated me like I was weak. Being with him made me willing to risk everything,” she admitted. “In any case, why do you suddenly care?” She walked past him, back toward home.
Miller stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Because he’s on the edge of our territory demanding that you meet with him, which will only happen if all of your protectors stand down.”
“What?” Shock riveted her feet in place, and she stared at him.
“Seems the Sandstone Pack is reaching deep into the vaults of tradition. Even though your lover boy is banned, he can petition your protectors—any of your male relatives that would challenge him for your honor—for the rights to mate you and join the pack.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing. And why—”
“It’s old, Maya. Ancient. We didn’t remove the law, but it fell into disuse. It’s still valid. He has to make it through all of us, though.”
The notion swirled slowly through Maya’s thoughts, not making much sense. “By make it through, do you mean fight?”
Miller nodded, then held up his hand to silence Maya’s protest. “It’s a bloody tradition, though death isn’t usually the goal. It’s about tenacity. However, in such a case as this we could relinquish each challenge.”
“Forfeit?”
“With honor, yes. Which is asking quite a lot of us, you know.” Miller frowned down at her. “You’ve got eight male cousins that can claim honor rights for you—”
“Fucking ridiculous,” she spat. “My honor—”
Miller growled. “Let me finish. We aren’t trying to keep you from him if you want him, Maya. None of us want to be in this position, not that you see any point of view but your own.” He gripped her shoulders. “We know you’re capable of making the decision. That’s why I’m asking you. Do we stand down?”
She stared at him. “You’d all do that for me?”
“Of course
we would.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“Nightfall. The conditions include you having to mate him upon his success, under the moon when the ancestor’s guidance is strongest.” He glanced up. The sun was still high. “If this is what you want, you go get it. And I assume after all is said and done, Reid’s going to have the elders strike this insane rule from the books. He’s not thrilled.”
Under the gentle glow of the waning gibbous moon, Maya stood and peered into the dark, past two rows of her cousins lined up on either side of the path leading into the center of their territory. Her parents and most of the pack were scattered behind her to witness the antiquated challenge, and Reid stood beside her, tall, imposing, and unreadable.
He hadn’t said a thing to her regarding August’s presence or the ritual, but she knew he had plenty running through his mind. Not tonight, perhaps not tomorrow, but shortly after, he was bound to have quite a bit to say to both her and August.
Even with a lecture and possibly more punishment looming in the future, she could only feel excitement tonight. Not even the weight of her entire pack staring at her back could take her mind off of what was to come.
Her eyes searched the dark distance as minutes dragged by. Then Miller, the first in the row to the right, who’d until now stared straight ahead into nothingness, looked away into the trees.
Maya’s pulse raced. Leaves shuffled, and one sharp exhale revealed him. August. Prowling forward through the night, the shadows casting haunting silhouettes on his dark skin. The longing she had for him slammed forward through her chest with such force it left her breathless. She had to keep herself from running to him, and Reid’s hand caught her elbow, holding her tight, as if reading her mind.
“Easy, little one,” he said in a low tone, barely moving his lips.
Miller barked sharply, shooting an arm forward to bar August’s way. “You are unwelcome. Turn away or be met with force.”
Maya glanced at Reid, ready to question everything about this rite, but he watched the scene intently.
August’s eyes, which had previously been cast on the ground, presumably in deference to Reid and his own banned status, now looked to Miller. “I am August Moore of the Taylor clan, son of the Sandstone pack. I petition for my mate, Maya Johnson of the Martin Clan, moon of my soul. I challenge you to deny my claim on her heart.”
Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection Page 88