by R. E. Butler
It looked like neither was getting the upper hand, but they were both really pissed. She frowned. "This is about me, right?"
Michael looked at her like she'd just sprouted horns. "Are you fucking kidding me? How can you be so dense?"
"Hey!" She growled.
He gestured to Chris and Jason. "Do you think they're fighting over this game? Chris put his hands on you in public. He's not allowed to do that."
"Excuse me? I'm in charge of who is and is not allowed to put their hands on me."
She took a step towards them and Michael grabbed her arm. "Are you out of your mind? If you try to break them up, you could get hurt. This is a mate fight, Cadence. Chris is trying to take what rightfully belongs to Jason. They're probably two seconds away from shifting and tearing into each other that way. You can't stop two alpha males from fighting over the only partially marked alpha female within 200 miles of here."
Her mouth dropped open and her brain spun. “What did you say?”
All the blood drained from his face. He stammered and swallowed audibly. "How much did you hear?" He half laughed, nervous.
"Michael?" She asked plaintively, begging with her voice for him to tell her the truth.
Michael looked positively green, and Callie did, too. "I wasn’t supposed to say anything. I fucked up. I'm sorry."
"Why not? I don't understand." She felt even more clueless than before.
"I - I," Michael stuttered and she put her hand up.
"Forget it." She turned and pushed between Michael and Callie, hugging her arms around herself and skirting around the house to the front porch that was quiet and deserted. As she rounded the corner of the house she heard the sounds of the shifting and growling of two werewolves about to tear each other apart with fangs and claws. Over her.
Her brain argued with itself. Part of her believed every single word out of Michael’s mouth, that she had been Jason’s all along and he was just as unsure of himself when it came to matters of the heart as she was. The pessimistic part of her believed it was more along the lines of Jason not wanting Chris to have her, even if he didn’t want her himself.
Unfortunately, Chris had driven her, and she didn't feel like walking, so she sat down on the porch. She knew without seeing, that the two wolves were probably locked at each other's throats, the snarls echoed around the house and surrounding woods and both packs were just watching.
"Are you alright, honey?" Jake eased down next to her on the top step.
"No. I don't understand what's going on. The last couple of weeks, everything's gone completely berserk in my life. I always thought that Jason didn’t care for me, but his actions lately make that seem like a lie and Chris has always been a friend but now it appears that he wants more. I’m just not sure what to do."
"You have to figure this one out yourself, I'm afraid. I'd like to help you, but I can't."
"Why the hell not?" She demanded.
"Because it's your life, and your future, and you have to figure out your past, first, before you can figure out your future. I could tell you what I think, but it's not important. The only thing that matters is what you want and need." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head and gave her a one-armed hug. "You'll figure it out. I have every confidence."
After Jake left her alone, she groused for long enough that her butt started to go numb on the cool concrete step. Callie peeked around the corner and Cadence said, "Take me home, will ya?"
Callie nodded and pulled her keys out of her pocket and locked arms with Cadence. The drive to her house was very quiet. Cadence knew she wouldn't tell her what she wanted to know because Callie was part of whatever was being kept from her. She'd never felt so conspired against in her life. "Do you want company?" Callie asked when she pulled in front of the house.
"Thanks, but no. I just need some time alone."
"I know it may not seem like it, but you're very lucky, really. You have two men, two alphas, fighting over you. I can't even remember hearing about something like that. I guess there haven’t ever been two single alphas from rival packs in the same town at the same time, even though Chris isn’t technically alpha yet."
"I don't like people trying to make decisions for me." Cadence opened the passenger door.
"Of course not, but this is about more than just you at this moment in time, it's about your past and your future, and the future of both packs. You do get to decide, of course you do, but you have to be careful. There's more at stake than just two guys wanting to bone you brainless."
Cadence gave her a long look. "Jason does not want to bone me brainless."
"Are you insane? How could you not know that Jason loves you?"
"Maybe he did, once, but not now. Not anymore. And we were just kids."
"Yeah, just kids. But a lot happened back then, serious, future altering things."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about! I feel like everyone is speaking gibberish to me or I've been deposited in some alternate universe."
Her surprised features slid to furious. "You look me in the eye and you fucking tell me that you don't love Jason with every fiber of your being. You were so jealous with the thought of me and him together that you were going to walk away from my friendship over it. Chris is, Chris is nice honey, but he's not right for you and you know it. They're ripping each other apart because they both want you, but Jason has loved you since you were kids." She leaned over and got in Cadence's face. "You think back over your relationship with Jason. You seriously think about everything that went on between the two of you when you were young and then you tell me that you don't know exactly what to do with your life."
Callie glared at her in fury, and Cadence got out of the car and shut the door. Her tires squealed as she pulled away, leaving Cadence as confused as ever about her life. A million questions assaulted her mind. Did Jason love her? Why hadn’t he ever said anything? And after all the years of her mooning over him and carrying on about her unrequited love to both Michael and Callie, why had they never told her that he had feelings for her? They were her two closest friends; they weren’t supposed to be keeping things from her.
No one called or showed up at her house. She spent the afternoon thinking over her life and her past with Jason, and she had this nagging feeling that there was something she should remember, or know, but she just didn't and it annoyed her. Michael said that she was a partially marked alpha. She thought about the conversation with Callie in the car. Her sweet friend who hadn’t ever said a cross word to her had nearly bitten her head off.
She didn't know what being partially marked meant, but she was a half breed, a total anomaly. She couldn’t lead a pack, could she? And why did Michael say she wasn’t supposed to know? Jason was raised to be the next pack alpha. If she was truly an alpha female then it stood to reason she would have been told about it. Jake taught her about the packs when she was growing up, but other than the weekend bonfires she really didn’t know that much about the inner workings. The meeting Jason had at the house on Monday was the first time she’d ever gotten involved in anything other than in a purely superficial way.
The headache starting behind her eyes told her she needed to stop trying so hard to figure everything out, and she finally laid down to catch a nap before getting ready for work. While she dozed, she had the strangest dream.
She was young, maybe 9 or 10, wearing a yellow dress. She stomped her foot at the black wolf. "Just tell me, Jas. Tell me what I'm supposed to know."
He shook his head and butted his head against her, forcing her to walk forward towards his parents’ house. They rounded the corner, and he pushed her towards an open window where his father was watching. "I had no idea you were so slow, my dear." His father said.
"That's not very nice. You're not nice at all." She said, feeling tears press.
Jason butted his head into her knees and she fell down onto the soft grass and rolled onto her stomach and then he nuzzled her neck and growled. The last thing she
remembered was turning onto her back and looking into his eyes and seeing his teeth bared. She woke up, shaking, and touched the back of her neck and everything was crystal clear. Jason had bitten her when they were kids. It was a partial marking because he hadn't publicly marked her with a statement first. But why had he drifted so far from her all this time?
With too many questions blazing in her brain like fireworks, she showered and dressed for the bar in a black suede vest, red plaid mini skirt and boots, determination to set things right coursing through every fiber of her being.
She paused at the entrance to the bar. What was she going to do? Storm over to Jason’s table and tell him that she knew what he’d done and he had a lot of explaining to do? Yes. Yes, that’s what she was going to do. She was going to demand he tell her everything. And then she was going to tell him how she felt. That she had never stopped loving him, and now that she could see things clearly, she understood why she’d never been able to get over him. And after their slate was clean, she was going to make him work for her forgiveness. With her inner wolf bitch demanding satisfaction, she stormed into the club to find it half empty. Jason’s pack was all but missing.
“I asked them to steer clear tonight.” Jake wiped a beer mug with a towel, inspected it, and hung it from a hook over the counter.
Her inner wolf whined and sat down, disappointed. “Why?”
He gave her a raised brow. “I think you know the answer to that, Cadence.”
Chris walked over before she could think of anything to say to that and leaned on the counter on his forearms, clasping his hands together.
"I'm sorry. I never meant for you to be so tormented by everything. After work tonight, why don't you let me take you out to get something to eat and we can talk. Now that the alpha order has been broken by Michael’s big mouth, I can tell you everything that’s been kept from you."
Her polite “no” died in her throat, and instead she said, “So there was an actual order to prevent everyone from telling me I’m an alpha?”
“It’s more complicated than that.” He looked at Jake and she did, too, and Jake just shrugged and turned to other customers. Chris lowered his voice slightly. “Jason’s father made an edict to his pack and asked my dad to extend it to his, so he did. We weren’t really allowed to talk to you about pack workings unless you brought it up yourself, but you never did. All those years, you never came to any of us with questions.”
No, she hadn’t. Because she thought she didn’t belong to their world. She looked at him helplessly and he gave her a soft, sad smile.
“I’m going to go hang out. When you’re ready to take off, let me know.”
A little too stunned to tell him that she didn’t want to talk to him about anything to do with her and Jason, she just stared at him with her mouth hanging open until Jake nudged her to action and she began to fill drink orders. With half the bar empty, the normal Saturday rush never happened, and it gave her time to think.
Here’s what she knew so far, thanks to Michael’s big mouth. She was partially marked, whatever the hell that really meant, and powerful enough to be female alpha to a pack. Jason and Chris were fighting over her like she was the last toy on the shelf, but part of the fight was because Jason had some kind of extra claim to her. Michael said that Chris put his hands on her in public and he wasn't allowed to do that. Because, why? Because Jason and she were really mates?
Her mother was no alpha. Cadence thought that alphas only came from other alphas. Why hadn’t anyone ever told her in plain terms what she’d clearly not known? And more importantly, why hadn’t she ever asked? She never outright asked Jason why he turned away from her and she still didn’t understand. Just because he wasn’t allowed to tell her about marking her or her being alpha? That didn’t make sense. Well, none of it did, frankly.
“You want to talk, kiddo?” Jake asked, slinging his rag over one shoulder when the bar was thoroughly dead.
“No. But thanks for offering. Thanks for everything.” She kissed his cheek and he smiled.
“Come on, girl.” Chris held his hand out to her and she took it but then dropped it. Now that she had the truth of her past playing over in her mind, she now knew why kissing Chris felt like cheating. Because he wasn’t the right man for her.
“You in the mood for dinner or breakfast?” He asked when they were outside. The night air was crisp. The scent of fall and coming winter was heavy on the breeze that scattered dead leaves on the concrete.
“Neither.”
“So, let’s walk. Okay? If you’re not hungry in 15 minutes, then we’ll come back and you can head out. I’d just like to talk to you for a bit. Please?”
If he was offering to answer some questions, assuming she trusted him to tell her the truth, then maybe a little chat was in order. And fifteen minutes wouldn’t make that much of a difference, would it?
“15 minutes. That’s all I’m promising.”
Looking like he’d won the lottery, Chris offered her his arm and she took it, if only to be polite. They walked in silence down the street towards the park. On the other side of the vast green grass was the garage. Maybe Jason was there.
“So,” Chris sat down on a wooden bench near a fountain and she joined him, “how freaked out are you?”
“Not so much now. I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff, because I felt like I didn’t belong. But I did.”
“Of course you did, Cades. Your mom was pack and that makes you pack. It’s not your fault that your father hated wolves, anymore than it was your fault that Jason overstepped when you were a kid.”
“Overstepped?”
Rolling his eyes, he said, “Of course. No one picks their mate so young.”
“You don’t think it’s kind of romantic?”
The look of utter disgust that rolled through his face said he didn’t think much of anything that Jason did. “What’s romantic about physically abusing a child in the name of staking a claim that he couldn’t have possibly known would come to something he’d even desire?”
“What?”
“Look, you’re gorgeous. But there’s no way that he could have known that when you were just a little scrawny kid. He was betting you’d look like your mom.”
The bile rose in her throat and she lurched from the bench. Clearly he didn’t think he’d said anything wrong, because he stood up and reached for her. “Hey, you look sick. Are you okay?”
She put her hands up. “Don’t touch me, Chris.”
The concerned smile slid away. “What’s the matter with you? We’re just talking here.”
Shaking her head, she began to walk backwards. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore. This was a mistake. You and me. All of it.”
He mirrored her steps so that she didn’t get further away from him, but she did get deeper into the park and further away from the bar and people. The center of the park was a labyrinth of trees and shrubbery, raised flowerbeds and playground equipment, not to mention picnic tables by the dozens. She had to glance behind herself often so she didn’t trip.
As they moved through the park like some horrible choreographed dance, they kept moving through the light and shadows of the lamps, and with each flash of light, his face changed, from a sweet, lighthearted smiling face to one of pure menace. Whatever his plans were for her now, she wanted no part of them. Taking a chance, she faked right and he dove for her, but she dodged left and ran. He cursed, screaming for her to come back to him, and then his feet picked up the pace and he ran after her.
She dialed into the very essence of her wolf and begged that part of her to get her out of this mess. Surging through the park, she dodged and wove past the obstacles as if she had four legs and not two, letting her instincts carry her to the only place where she would feel safe: the bright lights of the garage that said someone was working. Someone would hear her, help her, and stop Chris from doing whatever wicked things were going through his mind.
Her lungs ached and her thighs burned, b
ut she pushed on, bursting through the row of shrubbery that lined the sidewalk and leapt into the street.
“Cadence, no!” Chris yelled, a split second before she heard the squeal of brakes and was blinded by headlights, her body caught between terror and fate, and her very last thought was that she wasn’t going to get to say goodbye to Jason.
Chapter 8
Flexing his hands to ease the ache that punching Chris had garnered him, Jason flopped around on the bed, trying to find a cooler place on the pillow. The clock read 1:14. She was probably out with Chris right now. There was no way in hell that Chris would have had that bar to himself and not tried to take Cades out or at least spend some time with her. And after their little toss up earlier, Chris was clearly more determined than ever to at least turn her from him. He’d said as much when they’d both shifted back after the fight. It had been an even match for the most part, but he was bigger than Chris, and sometimes being bigger is enough and this time it was. He’d watched him leave with his proverbial tail between his legs, but the look in his eyes said it wasn’t over by a long shot. He should have just gone to the bar anyway, stayed outside, offered her a ride. Something. Doing nothing was the same as rolling over and giving up.
His phone buzzed at the exact moment that someone banged on the front door. The caller ID said it was Linus calling him. “What?” He barked into the phone as he went to the door. “Someone better be dead,” he groused as he threw open the door, but the words hung heavily in the air when he saw Michael’s face. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Michael shoved him bodily back to his bedroom and took the phone, “We’ll be there in like 20. Call my dad, too.”
“What happened, Michael? Tell me!” Panic wove little icy fingers through his body.
“Cades’ in the hospital. Get dressed man, come on!” Michael threw clothes at him from the floor but Jason’s body wasn’t responding. He was too shocked. Michael growled and snapped his fingers. “Get. Dressed.”