A Soulmark Series

by Rebecca Main

  “You don’t need to speak with your son, Katerina. I will.” Katerina lets out a bark of laughter, covering her mouth with the back of a hand as it continues. A smile graces my lips as the older woman composes herself. “I need to stand my ground with him. Be stronger and stop second guessing myself,” I tell her, quiet passion in my words as they ring true from every fiber of my being. An old touch of confidence sparks inside of me. No more hesitating, I think to myself.

  “I’m glad to hear it. Your life can only be lived once. One should not do so passively,” Katerina agrees as we near the drawing room. “It is about time my son met his match. But never forget, you are my son’s happiness, and in time he may be yours as well. Being that, if I can help in any way to make this passage easier, I will. You need only reach out to me, and I will be there.”

  My throat tightens, thick with emotion. Katerina is much more than the alpha female of the Adolphus pack. She is truly a mother. So much so it brings to mind my own.

  “Does the marking do anything besides bring me into the pack?” I ask.

  “Only that, my dear. You may feel the undercurrent of the packs’ emotional state now that you are part of it. You are now another thread in our giant web, so to speak. And again, there is the will of the alpha that we all feel compelled to follow. Fear not. My son is a good man, Zoelle. He does not abuse his power with the pack. He might bully a person into getting what he wants out of them, but it is done with only love in his heart. My son is a good alpha,” she insists, head nodding firmly at the punctuation. “And he will make you a good husband one day.”

  I duck my head at her presumptions, though if I’m honest, I no longer think them so far off the mark. The heightened emotional connection between us and my body’s urge to heed Xander’s every word make much more sense now. A flush spreads at the base of my neck, crawling upward as I recall once more when Xander marked me.

  Katerina pulls me into the drawing room. We earn several pointed looks, but for the most part are ignored. A fact I am thankful for as I rein in my blush. A short look over my shoulder reveals no Justin. I frown. When the giant man had slipped away I have no idea, but I dislike the thought of him relaying our conversation to Xander. Hopefully the giant man would remain silent.

  “As for the binding,” Katerina clears her throat, coloring prettily. “It’s quite… intimate—”

  Crash!

  Every head turns toward the patio doors at the unexpected noise. Conversations halt as panicked looks are shared. It only takes a moment for the women to rush outdoors toward the scene, heels clicking decisively against the dark cherry flooring in their haste. Katerina and I share a grave look before running after them.

  – Chapter 10 –

  Broken

  “I unjust?” Rollins snarls through the thick of the crowd. “You have the nerve to speak to me of injustice? Your father ripped apart this pack with no regard to the aftereffects of his actions. Centuries of tradition abandoned. There are great consequences—”

  “He paid for them with his life,” Xander growls back. “Him, along with countless others. Enough is enough.”

  The women push their way through the crowd, inserting themselves closer to the scene, Katerina and I among them. Rollins’s laughter echoes in the clear night sky, a smile full of teeth directed at Xander.

  “I merely seek to claim retribution for every man and woman of the Wselfwulf pack who died at your father’s hand and that of your pack of dogs.” The crowd snarls and growls viciously at the insult, but it merely urges Rollins on. “Thirteen dead of mine, and thirteen of yours. These are the laws that rule the pack.”

  “Your pack,” Xander retorts hotly, “not mine. We seek no revenge, only peace to live as we wish.”

  “And go on so flagrantly disregarding our ways? The laws that bind us all together as one?” The gathering simmers to a quiet, and an uneasy feeling washes over me. Things are about to take a turn for the worse. I know it without a doubt. I begin to move closer to Katerina, navigating my way closer to her side when a hand snatches my upper arm and drags me back.

  “Not yet,” a female voice hisses into my ear. I turn my head a fraction to see Carrie’s mahogany curls. Her sapphire eyes shine with eerie specks of gold. Her nails dig sharply down, and the sharp point of cold metal presses into my side. Iron. I think with a shiver as I feel its piercing pressure down to my bones.

  “Let me go,” I spit through clenched teeth.

  “Not yet,” she mocks. I can feel my flesh tear beneath her unrelenting grip and bite back a whimper.

  “Twelve, Aleksandr. I am owed one more.”

  “Now.” She pants against my ear, using her extraordinary strength to plow us through the crowd and toss me forward into its center. Right into Rollins waiting hands.

  “No!” Xander roars. Rollins laughs again. The manic cackle scratches at my ears as I attempt to escape his hold to no avail. Xander's cutting fear and rage rocket through my body.

  “She is a pretty young thing,” Rollins coos, fingers dragging across my cheek and neck.

  “You’re disgusting,” I say vehemently.

  “And what bark!” The Wselfwulf pack laughs, but the others remain stoic. I catch Xander’s frantic eyes, feel his mounting panic the longer I remain within Rollins hold. I whimper in response. I must be strong.

  “Fuck you, asshole,” I snarl. “My grandmother will kill you for this. Whatever your pathetic reasons are, know that for this slight, my coven will hunt you down like the pack of dogs you are.”

  The outdoor collection silences at my threat. Certainly not expecting such savage words from such a petite girl—no, not girl—woman. And this woman is filled with righteous anger, and she will no longer stand idly by. I catch the eyes of several pack members, their shining resolve and determination giving me strength.

  Rollins cackles. “Oh, my poor little witch, what big words you have. Tonight, is nothing personal. You’re merely… collateral damage of the best sort. I only wish to crush the Adolphus pack. See them suffer and regain what I have lost.” His words are sickly sweet. Mad, I think, he’s mad. All manner of crazed joy drops from his face. A wicked leer pulling at his features. “No matter what the cost. I will not stop until I have them begging for their end.”

  Heartfelt loathing covers his words, and the pack of wolves around us become restless with nervous energy. Even Rollins seems unsettled by his manic confession. His words are a clear contradiction to his earlier justifications thanks to the bracelets effects.

  “You would seek harm to another pack for selfish gains Rollins Wselfwulf?”

  Samuel Beldig steps forward, arms folded across his mighty chest. A large man, well over six feet tall and stacked with muscles, his heavy voice laces with displeasure, and much of the crowd shrinks back away from it. From the other side the crowd parts to reveal Jacob Maccon, a dark frown on his face. He nods to Samuel and Xander, shifting toward Xander’s side of the makeshift gauntlet.

  “What say you Rollins Wselfwulf?” Samuel persists.

  I can feel Rollins heart hammering against his breast from behind. He holds me tighter, forces the breath from my lungs in his crushing grip.

  “Yes,” he cries hoarsely. The crowd gasps in astonishment, followed by a murmur of dissatisfaction.

  “Please—” I pant, squirming uncomfortably.

  “Let the girl go, Wselfwulf,” Jacob commands. But his words only stir a violent reaction. I scream out as Rollins tightens his hold, several of my ribs cracking in protest.

  “Let her go!” Xander bellows, taking several steps forward. Xander is nearly foaming at the mouth, his body shaking with terrible tremors.

  “I will have my thirteen,” Rollins thunders back, sidestepping Xander’s advance, but there is nowhere for him to run. Even his own pack stall in confusion at their alpha’s crazed will.

  “Then take me in her stead,” a voice cries from the crowd. Katerina bursts through the crowd, her head held high.

  “No!�
� Xander and I shout at the same time. But our pleas are useless. In a moment, everything comes crashing down.

  I am flung to the ground, and the wolves descend. Mutely I watch in horror as Rollins lunges toward Katerina, and she toward him. The other alphas, a hairsbreadth too late to stop their impact as the Wselfwulf pack attack to protect their alpha. Bodies collide into one another with deadly intent, and I am roughly pulled to my feet, an angry fist in my hair. I claw at the hand, panting and heaving as I am dragged backward.

  “You slu—” Carrie does not get to finish her taunt. I brace my feet beneath me and surge back into her hold, no longer resisting her forceful pulling. My head butts into the middle of her chest, and she releases me with a grunt. “You’re going to regret that,” she promises, her eyes going completely golden, her features transforming when a body slams into her own.

  I clutch my sides as I take in a few ragged breaths, trying to stumble my way out of the fighting packs. My eyes search for Xander and find him easily. He’s taken on several members of the Wselfwulf pack, throwing punches and expertly dodging their hits. I lurch toward him, only to run face first into Justin’s chest.

  “No—”

  “I have to get you out of here,” he tells me gruffly, lifting me off my feet and into his arms. He barrels through the crowd before I can protest, and then I hear it. Feel it. A shattering of something inside me as Irina’s scream cuts through the air. Justin swings around and shudders to a stop halfway. “I have to get you out of here.” His voice is strained with anguish as his feet continue to move him forward.

  “What’s wrong? What’s hap—” I pull myself up and frantically search over his shoulder into the crowd only to let out my own shrill cry.

  Because Katerina isn’t moving. She isn’t moving. I kick and punch at Justin, worming my way out of his hold despite the twisting of my ribcage and the flood of pain that follows. I have to get there. I have to save her. I barely get two steps around Justin before his arms are locked around me once more.

  “Stop fighting me, pack mate.” His orders fall on deaf ears, for my body is pulsing and shivering with emotion as I stare at Katerina’s lifeless body. “There’s nothing you can do,” he whispers roughly in my ear, his voice clotted with emotion.

  But there is. There has to be.

  My hands jut out. Ancient words hurtle past my lips. Ones I am unfamiliar with but somehow inexplicably know.

  A blinding flash of green light erupts around us, and then there is nothing. Nothing at all.

  +++

  I sleep through her funeral. It’s like a punch to the gut, when I awaken and discover this fact.

  They couldn’t wait for me to awaken from my spell-induced slumber. The one created from the backlash of my spell.

  Yet the shame and pain I feel are nothing in comparison to that of Xander’s or the pack. Pack mate. That’s what Justin had called me. There are bonds, I learn quickly, that tie us all together. Each pack member’s sorrow and mourning pulses through the pack bonds and are only enhanced through my soulmark with Xander.

  Xander and Atticus have the audacious task of soothing the pack’s heartache. It is a task I do not envy but live through nonetheless. As alpha and beta, they can manipulate the pack’s emotions. To feel courage and strength. To give love and take away the pain. Or soothe it. Calm it and put it to rest. They make steady progress, Xander caring for the higher-ranking members of the pack, and Atticus the lesser. Once enough of the higher-ranking wolves come to some semblance of peace, they too begin to help the other members of the pack heal. To accept the great loss and begin to move on.

  I wish I hadn’t woken up. Stayed in the darkness of my mind and left behind the new world I find myself in. But it’s not to be.

  I come to weeping, the pack’s pain echoing through the bonds and leaving me helpless, afraid, and so terribly heartbroken. For I know her sacrifice had been for naught. The Wselfwulf pack will not be satisfied. They will never be satisfied until Xander and his entire family lie crushed beneath their feet. Until the Adolphus pack is destroyed.

  Xander and his siblings hardly know what to do about my ramblings and hysterics. To be honest, I don’t either. Emotions overload my senses making me sick with grief. Of course, my downward spiral spills through the soulmark, and soon enough Xander finds himself combating my depression as well. The aunts and Gran are called, but Atticus puts my fears and sorrow at ease. He soothes the wound against my soul as he pours his love onto me through the pack bonds.

  I sleep for three more days after that, and when I awake next, all I feel is numb. Gran comes and brings me home, Irina tagging along with a suitcase almost as large as a Newfoundland. They force draught after draught of Essence of Peace and Tranquility down my throat till I wonder if I will ever feel anything again. Irina assures me softly each night that all will be well, and that my distress distracts Xander too greatly. He cannot heal the pack if he is so constantly wrapped up in my despondent state.

  “I thought you were supposed to be a cook,” Irina bemoans by my side. She tosses her magazine to the floor with a humph and rolls on her side to face me.

  “A chef,” I correct without much vigor.

  “What’s the difference?” A note of genuine curiosity comes through. I almost smile. Irina has barely left my side all week, and it’s clear to me now that her snobbish mask is just that. A mask. She feels with great depth, but her societal airs would have you think otherwise. Now I find them more amusing than anything since I can catch the teasing gleam in her eyes.

  “A cook doesn’t go through any real schooling or formal training. I went to culinary school. I might not have made my mark yet, but someday.” Someday when my emotions are mine again. When my heart isn’t in tattered pieces.

  “Maybe today we just have tea.” I hum idly in response. “Zoe.” My eyes turn toward the raven-haired beauty. She looks at me thoughtfully, but a particular pain stains her features. “Mother”—her eyes well slightly with tears—“she wouldn’t have wanted you to stay this way for so long. She would have wanted you to be strong. For all of us to be strong.”

  My eyes close softly, and I turn my gaze up to the ceiling. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” she reprimands me harshly, then sighs. The bed shifts with her next movements. Most likely turning on her back the same as I am. “Mother went in there with a plan in her mind. One she didn’t share with any of us, knowing how we would respond. She—she left a note. A letter for all of us. Even for you.”

  This stirs something inside of me. A small symphony of emotions swell in my stomach for just a moment before deflating. Some mix of happiness and sadness. They are at least my own.

  “It’s on your dresser. You can choose to read it or not.” These words come out more steadily. “And we really do need to start bringing you back to the real world again. Agnus and Charlie at the bakery understand the circumstances, but I’ve only recently learned that you're the one who added the bourbon apples to their blooming sin-a-bon recipe. And they won’t make them without you there.”

  I manage to lift the corners of my lips. “Really?”

  “Really.” Her disdain and pout come through crystal clear. “Your emotions should be more manageable by now. I know that you were unprepared for what you felt, but Xander and Atticus have allayed most of the pain. By the time you are off all of these nonsensical potions and such, you should find that all of your emotions are your own.”

  “And Xander’s,” I add dispassionately.

  “He’s trying to temper the bond between you. So that you don’t have to feel so much.”

  “Because he thinks I’ll go off the deep end again?”

  “No.” She rebukes me. “It is only that he mourns the loss of a mother once more. I think he does not want you to think lesser of him. To see him as weak.” Irina scoffs. “As if anyone would even think of considering him weak. He only just happens to be one of the few great alphas our pack has ever seen.�
�� She sniffs delicately, and the bed dips as she rolls away. “I’m going downstairs to put on the kettle and set out some ingredients. When you come down, we can decide what to make. You can’t stay in here forever.”