by Viola Rivard
He was struck all over again by how beautiful she was and how incredible it was that he'd found her. He had never truly expected to find a female of his own kind, but now he wondered if this was the reason he'd waited so long to take a mate. A small part of him had held out hope of finding her. She might have been imperfect, but she was his.
Chapter 9
Over the years, Shan had become adept at balancing his desires with those of his wolf. In their usual dynamic, his wolf would want something and Shan would decide whether or not to indulge him. However, in the past few days it seemed they were in agreement more and more, and it was taking all of Shan's willpower to keep from relenting.
As he stepped from the den, the inside of his pelt grew heated and he could feel his wolf pulling at him. He wanted either to return to Harper and mate with her, or go and hunt for her, feed her, and then mate with her. He had no desire to go to town or to deal with anyone who wasn't his mate.
"I don't want to be dealing with this either," he muttered, scratching the back of his neck. His wolf probably couldn't hear him, but it helped to vent.
The desire to remain at her side was stronger than he had anticipated. He knew that it would only become more entrenched as the days progressed, reaching its peak at their mating, and then somewhat waning once his mate was pregnant. At least, that was the way he'd seen it happen for other males. Shan wasn't entirely sure that it would be the same for him. He couldn't imagine being less protective of Harper once she was carrying his pup.
The path from his den to the town was two miles and ran parallel to one of the trenches that fed a wide vineyard. The path was usually well-worn from both his frequent trips to and from the town, as well as those of the various pack members that regularly intruded on his privacy with urgent matters. Over the years, he'd considered having a house built within the confines of the town, but he'd always dismissed the idea, deciding that it was too frivolous to have two residences. No matter how inconvenient the trek, he valued the solitude that his den offered. It gave him the space he needed to decompress after grueling days of sloughing through pack bureaucracy.
Though he'd been gone nearly half a year, he felt little nostalgia at being back. He wanted badly to shift so that he could clear the distance faster, but he knew that a second shift would wipe him out and there was no telling what awaited him in town.
The lights of town had just come into view over the chestnut trees when Oslo approached him, running at full speed. He was in his human form, as he most often was, which made him look particularly ridiculous as he ran, his arms flapping at his sides.
He ground to a halt in front of Shan, and when Shan didn't stop, he started to jog at his side. Oslo managed to get out a greeting before huffing for breath.
Shan asked. "What's going on?"
"Sir, it's Kalla."
"Kalla?" Shan repeated. "What's happened to her?"
"She's lost her mind!"
"Kalla?" Shan said again. "I'm sure whatever she's done, she had a good reason."
Oslo wrung his hands. He started to speak, and then stopped. Shan could see him searching for the right words.
Oslo seldom struggled with words. He and Shan were around the same age, but Oslo looked over a decade older. He'd been balding since the time Shan had met him almost twenty years ago, and the sparse hair he did have was graying. He was of average height, but had a slight build that would have been better suited for a female. But despite his small stature, Oslo never backed down from conflict, and often incited it. Though he would have been no use in a fight, he was adept at finding a person's weakness and verbally exploiting it. It was a talent that might have gotten him killed, had he not spent much of his life hiding in Shan's shadow.
"Sir..." Oslo began. "It is my humble understanding that when you left, things were not well between you and Kalla. Then, when word got back that you were taking a human mate..."
"I see."
It was all he could think to say.
Shan had spent the past five months deliberately blocking out the memory of his last interaction with Kalla. It had been bad. Necessary, but bad. He had hoped that the time apart would be what she needed to come to her senses, or at least be able to understand his perspective. In lieu of that, he'd planned on having another, less contentious talk with her when he returned from the circuit.
Shan didn't bother asking how Oslo knew about their fight. Even if Kalla hadn't been screaming at him to wake the dead, Oslo would have found out some other way. There was not much that happened within the pack that Oslo wasn't aware of.
"What has she done?" Shan asked.
At this, Oslo was ready with one of his lengthy replies. "More things than I can possibly detail. We'll be feeling the effects of her tantrum for years to come. She's exiled West, made her brother supplicant, and started a feud with Eko. They have the entire town divided, Eko leading Hunters and Scouts on one side, and Kalla with Growers and Crafters on the other. Merry is refusing to take sides and the Enforcers don't know what to do without Gareth. It's a disaster."
With each word from Oslo's mouth, Shan felt his anger intensify. He was not prone to rage, but lately he'd had less control over his anger. He knew that this situation would push him to the brink of his control, and he almost reconsidered his decision to go to town. Had he thought that sleeping on it would make him any less angry, he might have turned around and gone back to his den.
Too much damage had already been done, and he knew that he'd have even less of a grip on himself tomorrow, and every day after until Harper was his mate.
"Where's Kalla now?" he asked.
"She was in the town hall when I left. She doesn't know you've returned, but I warned her that she would incur your wrath. She didn't believe me. You always gave her too much leeway. Her, and her brother. They think they can do whatever they please and—"
"Did I ask for your opinion?"
Oslo shrank back, muttering a quick apology. For all his bravado amongst his pack mates, Oslo had always been intimidated by Shan, more so than anyone in his inner circle. Shan wasn't sure what he'd done to instill such fear in Oslo, but he'd never done anything to correct it either.
Oslo remained silent for the rest of the walk, leaving Shan to wallow in his own hypocrisy. He knew that Oslo was right. He did give Gareth and Kalla far more leeway than others in his pack. It was difficult not to, as the three of them had grown up together. He knew them better than he knew anyone, and understood their motivations for doing the things that they did, even if their judgement was sometimes flawed. But if half of what Oslo told him was true, then Kalla could have no sane justification for her actions.
At this time of night, the streets of the town were usually still crowded with people, mostly young adults playing at courtship. Tonight, the streets were empty and only a few of the houses appeared occupied. As he strode down the cobbled thoroughfare, the remaining denizens filed from their homes to greet him and express their relief at his return. Shan barely acknowledged them. His mind was already focused on what was to come.
He was having a difficult time predicting how his interaction with Kalla would go. He could imagine all of the things she would say, both the defensive and the aggressive points she could make. What gave him trouble was trying to figure out what he was going to say. His anger was so thinly bridled that he couldn't imagine a scenario in which he didn't shout her into submission.
Perhaps that was exactly what she needed.
He was distracted from his thoughts when Eko appeared, exiting a domicile and rushing to his side.
"Thank God you're back," she said, sighing her relief. "She's lost her mind, Shan. She's declared herself interim alpha until you return, and then decided that gave her the right to issue decrees and change laws. Did Oslo tell you she exiled West?"
Shan nodded. "Where are the humans? The ones that came with Harper?"
"They're with West at Green Lake," Eko said. "That's why he was exiled. Kalla issued a decree that no more h
umans are allowed to enter the pack. When Gareth refused to enforce the law, she convinced his men that she was working on your authority, and then made him supplicant for standing against her."
Kalla...
How was he going to punish her for all that she'd done? If she were almost any other wolf in his pack, he would have had her executed, and anything less than banishment would be perceived as weakness on his part.
The town hall was at the end of the thoroughfare, the road forking in either direction to wrap around it. It was one of the first buildings they'd constructed, and part of Shan's effort to inspire civility among his pack mates. Tall and centrally-located, it was where laws were passed and hearings were held, and it stood as a reminder to all of his pack mates that they lived by structured ideals, rather than the whims of whomever held power. Kalla was not the first to defile those ideals, but she was the last that he would have expected to do so.
More than most in his pack, Kalla believed in equality and fairness. In most things, she was calm and rational, a figure of peace and logic that always managed to keep chaos at bay. Her presence among his betas was invaluable.
Kalla's gentle nature was not a facade. She had always been as she was, from the time she was a pup. Shan had known her even before she'd been born, when her mother Desi would fret over her belly, asking Shan or Gareth to listen for a heartbeat anytime Kalla failed to move for more than an hour. When Desi had died, along with most of her pack and Shan's parents as well, Shan had taken on the task of raising Kalla as best he could, given that he'd been a child himself. Over the years, he had bonded with her deeply. She'd been equally attached to him, more so than to her brother, and she hadn't given Shan a single trouble until she became a juvenile.
The main room of the hall was crowded with people. If they'd been saying anything, they'd fallen silent when Shan threw open the doors. After pausing to take him in, the room erupted in chatter as a hundred voices began speaking at once.
Shan located Kalla immediately. She sat at the end of the room on the dais, occupying the oversized chair usually reserved for Shan. Her spine straightened as his gaze fell on her, but her expression indicated only mild surprise. Shan knew her too well to be fooled.
Eko and Oslo fell back as he strode down the center aisle, past the pews and up onto the dais. Kalla stood just as Shan reached her. She opened her mouth to greet him, but was cut off as he seized her by the wrist. Without a backward glance, he dragged her down the dais and towards the back of the room. There, he took her into the meeting room and slammed the door behind them.
The meeting room was sparsely appointed, with only a wide oval-shaped table and chairs, a wood stove, and a light fixture. It was a room reserved for the sole purpose of convening with his betas, and had been purposely designed to be lacking in comforts so as to avoid unnecessarily prolonged discussions. Shan flicked on the light switch and then thrust his arm towards the table, motioning for Kalla to sit. She obeyed, but not before giving him a dirty look.
"There was no need for that. I am not a child to be dragged around," she said.
Shan looked her over, making no effort to hide his disdain. He didn't know where to begin with her.
"Of all of them, you are the last one I'd expect to betray my trust," Shan finally said.
He knew the statement would hurt, even if she didn't show it.
"Sometimes people do things you don't expect, no matter how well you think you know them." She met his glare, and Shan could see lines of fatigue beneath her dark eyes. "You lied to me. I thought—"
"I know exactly what you thought. You were quite clear the last time we spoke."
Her composure finally cracking, she said, "And so were you when you said you'd never have a human as your mate!"
"And I won't."
Kalla's small frame sagged as she slumped back into the wooden chair. She blinked a few times, and then shook her head.
"Don't lie to me again, Shan. Gareth told me everything. And I can smell her on you."
"She's not human."
Joining her at the table felt like a concession, so he leaned against the wall. Under different circumstances, he might have felt guilt. He had told Kalla that he wouldn't take a human mate, and he begun pursuing Harper before finding out that she wasn't human. Yet the powerful attraction that had drawn him to her must have been some low-level awareness of what she was. That aside, he was far too pissed at Kalla to allow her to justify her actions on the basis that he'd been dishonest.
Kalla's brows drew together. "What?"
"It seems I wasn't wasting what little was left of my prime after all," Shan said. He'd never been able to resist throwing someone's words back at them. "I found one of my own kind."
Kalla shook her head again. "That's not what I heard."
"The others don't know. She's Alder's daughter, and she's only just learned to shift."
"Alder? From Halcyon? Do you mean Fawn? She's barely a juvenile."
"Not Fawn. He has an older daughter, one you haven't met. She was sent to live with humans when she couldn't shift."
Kalla folded her arms across her chest. "Still, how old can she possibly be?"
Shan knew where she was going, and it was not a place he wanted to be. "We're not having this discussion."
"Is it like fucking your little sister?"
And there it was.
Shan had never slept with Kalla, or even come close to doing so, despite her persistent efforts. He had never understood her insistence on trying to force a sexual relationship between them. She was beautiful and could have had her pick of any male she wanted, yet she'd kept her sights firmly set on him.
"I am sorry for upsetting you, but I don't regret what I said," Shan calmly replied. "You needed to hear it."
"And you know what everyone needs, don't you?"
Their conversation was rapidly devolving, and Shan refused to lower himself any farther.
"Effective immediately, you are stripped of all rank and position within my pack. Should you choose to remain, you will be supplicant until the end of next year, after which time you will still be barred from retaining a position as beta."
The color drained from her face, and when she spoke her voice trembled. "Just like that? You've been here all of five minutes. You're just going to side with Eko without asking my side? Am I not even allowed a trial?"
Shan pushed himself off of the wall. "If you had anything to say in your defense, you would have said it already. You know you are at fault, which is why you tried redirecting me rather than expressing confusion over my anger. And don't ask for a trial. You usurped my authority and spread insecurity within my pack. Men have been executed for less. If you think the law will take more mercy on you than I will, then you are a fool."
Using the last weapon she had at her disposal, Kalla began to cry.
"All I did was keep things together while you were gone. I didn't know where you were or when you'd return. Your letter was vague. I was only doing what I thought was best."
"You were angry with me and you took your emotions out on the pack to spite me."
"No, that's not it at all!"
"Another word and you're exiled."
They stared at one another for a long moment. Tears rolled down her face, but she didn't make a sound.
He still couldn't believe that any of this had happened. He'd been looking forward to seeing Kalla, as he always did. Though he had no illusions about how she would handle the news of him taking a mate, he had hoped that in time she would come to be friends with Harper, as the pair had a lot in common.
Soon, Shan saw realization overtake her, and Kalla began to sob. In spite of everything she'd done, Shan struggled with the urge to comfort her. He had always been there to soothe her when she cried, even when he was the one who'd hurt her feelings.
When he left without tending to her, it felt as though he were delivering a final blow. The entire scene felt surreal to him, and he knew that once his anger subsided he would mo
urn having to punish her so severely.
Several of his pack mates, including Oslo and Eko, had gathered near to the door. Most scattered back when he stepped into the hall, but Eko held her ground without shame.
"I'd like permission to go to Green Lake to collect West and the humans," Eko said.
"Send someone else to get them. I need you here to help me undo this mess."
As he headed for the exit the crowd closed in on him, dozens of people firing off questions about policy changes and whether or not their mates were going to be forced from the pack. Shan could hardly believe what he was hearing. He addressed the concerns with a blanket statement, assuring them that none of Kalla's policy changes would remain in place. That led to another slew of questions, these with an edge of accusation. They wanted to know what he was going to do to ensure nothing like this happened again.
There was no easy answer he could give them. It would take several days to undo the changes Kalla had made, but far longer to repair the damage she'd done to the pack's confidence.
As he exited the town hall, he wondered if his absence had been worth it. Then he thought of Harper back in his den, swathed in her new pelt and he knew that it had been. His priorities had already shifted from his pack to his new mate. Would it be temporary, or was only the beginning of what was to come?
Chapter 10
Harper scanned the sentence again, more interested in the handwriting than what was being said. Shan's letters had a swooping grandiosity about them that might have looked haphazard, had they not also possessed a uniformity on par with a computer font. The result was words that looked like pieces of art.
Why does everything about him have to be so perfect?
As her vision grew fuzzy, Harper blinked to clear it. It didn't work this time, and even after she rubbed them the room seemed to tilt in and out of focus.
It was half-past an eternity since Shan had left her in his den, tired, hungry, and alone. The second she could no longer hear his footsteps, she'd gotten up and started snooping. Had it not been for her pressing exhaustion, she would have poked through all of his belongings in the time he'd been gone, but as things stood she'd made it only to the bookcase before she'd begun to feel dizzy. Retreating back to the couch, she'd curled up with a small stack of what she'd thought were books, but turned out to be Shan's records of the region. The reading was dry and was written in a way that only Shan would be able to piece together all of the details, but every few pages there would be a drawing of a tree, an animal, or a land formation that was beautifully rendered in remarkable detail. It was worth it to thumb through the books, if only for the drawings and to gawk at his handwriting.