Shifter Origins (Series-Starter Shifter Variety Packs Book 1)

by Aimee Easterling

  Which left me alone on the other side of the heavy metal gate. Steeling my courage, I followed my companions into the jaws of Chief Greenbriar’s waiting trap.

  Chapter 26

  Rosie caught sight of me as soon as I passed beneath the half-strength lamp at the entrance to the enclosure. “Kak, kak, kak,” the toddler crowed, hands waving wildly as she abruptly lost interest in the menacing wolf at her mother’s feet. Apparently, Auntie Cake was more interesting than a predator who could have swallowed one of the child’s limbs in a single gulp.

  For her part, Harmony met my gaze steadily despite my recent verbal lapse. Protect my child, she as good as said into the intervening air, dark eyes flashing with the fervor of a desperate mother. And my feet obeyed the silent plea, thrusting me forward across the uneven ground in an ill-fated attempt to protect my blood.

  Chief Greenbriar, on the other hand, offered no leeway for me to complete my mission. “Ember, join us,” he ordered, the overt command turning me away from my original trajectory until I was being pulled up onto the knoll the alpha and his son had so recently ascended. Now Roger was the only one lagging behind in the enclosure’s shadows, and I held out little hope that the male in question would make a move to protect my family when his gaze remained firmly fixed on the younger male by my own side.

  Stage set to his satisfaction, Chief Greenbriar dismissed non-relatives as beneath his concern and turned his attention fully upon his only son. “This is the spot where your mother and I pledged our troth,” the older male began, gracing Aaron with a toothy grin that struck me as more than a little unhinged.

  Then the alpha’s tone turned honey sweet as he reminisced about events that had occurred before the rest of us were even born. “Andrea and I mated in the wolf pen,” the alpha murmured, “to prove that our wolves would always be at the forefront of our partnership.” He paused, stared up at the stars, then closed his eyes dreamily. “And that choice has served our clan well. We’ve led this pack for thirty long years, and never once has an enemy breeched our borders.”

  Chief Greenbriar is living in a dream world, I realized, tensing as I imagined using the alpha’s distraction to assist in my escape. But before I could begin prying my feet out of the compulsion that held them stickily in place, the older male’s eyes cleared and he leaned toward his son once more.

  “Soon,” Chief Greenbriar continued, the snarl of a wolf returning to his tone, “it will be your turn to make the sacrifices necessary to guide our people into the future. It’s time for you to make the proper choice and decide for the good of our pack.”

  Then beneath the male’s audible words, that familiar refrain rose in volume, circling again through my aching head. “Find a mate. Find an appropriate female mate. Find a mate and settle down. Settle down and make some pups.”

  Both words and yearning were the same ones that had pushed against my skin ever since I entered the zoological park. But now they impacted me differently. After all, for the first time since becoming affected by Chief Greenbriar’s compulsion, there was a living female present for the urge to latch onto. And I found myself craving Harmony’s touch with every fiber of my being.

  The intensity of the pressure, in fact, twisted my body around to face my sister even as feet that had been ordered to stay put brought me up short. A grunt from Aaron suggested the alpha’s son had slammed up against a similar obstacle. Unfortunately, no such impediment stood between Roger and his goal.

  I tried and failed to yell a warning. But Harmony had no eyes for the male who had attacked her two nights earlier and who now lunged forward with lupine grace but on flat human feet. Instead, her face paled as her own guard broke with shifter law and sentenced my sister to death by surging upward into the form of a man.

  “An appropriate female mate,” the guard growled, his words seeming to emanate from the body of the wolf he’d recently left behind. Then, batting Rosie’s questing hands aside, hard fingers closed around Harmony’s quivering arm.

  “Mine,” the male intoned, his final word dripping with lust.

  I WATCHED IN HORROR, my muscles unwilling to even strain now and my lungs forgetting to breathe. There was nothing I could do to stop the depredations about to occur. Nothing except watch in horror as the wave that had carried us all toward Harmony broke over each of our heads.

  Overwhelming pressure stifled our collective breathing for one split second. I was not only unable to move, I could almost feel my bones melting inside my skin as my vision hazed out. Only my wolf’s steadfast presence held me erect....

  Then the pressure was retreating back into the distance from which it had come. The tension in my muscles eased. Harmony’s guard remembered his humanity and turned aside to block his prisoner’s scent from flaring nostrils. And as quickly as it had come, the danger dissipated into thin air.

  Unfortunately, the alpha’s secondary compulsion took advantage of my momentary relaxation to slap me back into line. Legs and torso twisted unbidden until only eyes maintained contact with Harmony. Then even that connection faded until my sister and niece were once more invisible behind my rigid back.

  And now, at last, my attention returned to the closer tableau that resembled nothing so much as a human wedding ceremony. Chief Greenbriar was the officiant, elevated atop a rock that generations of wolf feet had worn smooth. On his left side, Aaron—rumpled clothing, angry eyes, and all—was obviously the groom.

  And despite my own sugar-streaked attire, there was only one conclusion I could make about my part in the upcoming farce. I wasn’t the wedding-cake baker or the caterer—my preferred roles at such an event. Instead, my stance mirrored Aaron’s, my location making my own part disappointingly obvious.

  I was the bride.

  Chief Greenbriar had even wrangled a sufficient audience to make our mating official from a human point of view. Roger and the unnamed shifter stood close enough to see but too far away to take part—witnesses. And behind their backs, I caught the first glimpse of moonlit eyes as wild wolves crept out of their cavern to form a ring around us, providing the additional spectators that Chief Greenbriar clearly craved.

  The beasts hovering in the shadows lacked humanity and boasted long teeth and nails. But they weren’t the reason my heart pounded and my breath drew short. Instead, I found myself running through every possible escape route in an effort to avoid the upcoming ceremony...and coming up short.

  There was no way out. A few short words were all that would be required to bind me to a mate and a pack I had no intention of calling my own. Words that Chief Greenbriar could easily coerce into existence. Words that then couldn’t be truly broken until my own death.

  “Find a mate,” the silent voice whispered beneath my increasingly scattered thoughts. “Find an appropriate female mate. Find a mate and settle down. Settle down and make some pups.”

  Then—mood set—Chief Greenbriar pierced me with a pack leader’s relentless gaze before returning his attention to his only son. “The moon is full,” the alpha said ceremoniously into the air between us, “and the night is young. Soon we’ll run. But first, the mating ritual must be complete.”

  Chapter 27

  To my surprise, Aaron was the one who jumped into this opening with his first real offensive move to date. “Dad, you don’t want to do this....” the younger male began, hands clenching into fists as he fought the compulsion that held us all in place.

  Down in the long grasses below, Roger’s eyes locked with those of his lover. And for a moment, I thought Aaron might be able to utilize his partner’s strength to break free of his father’s commands. After all, there was fortitude in blueberries, Roger’s chosen dessert. Maybe that same tenacity would be enough to wiggle Aaron out from under the alpha’s thumb....

  But even that thread of possibility snapped as Chief Greenbriar’s intention alone silenced his errant son’s complaints. “You’re wrong,” Chief Greenbriar countered. “This is exactly what I want to do.”

  Then the ol
der male’s heavy hands whipped out, pressing me and Aaron together until our shoulders touched. “I’ve waited long enough for my son to do his duty,” the older man intoned. “This clan craves a crown princess and a new heir on the way. It’s time and past time for you to put childish yearnings aside and to choose your mate for the sake of the pack.”

  Meanwhile, the alpha’s unspoken words continued to whirl through the air between us. “Find a mate. Find an appropriate female mate. Find a mate and settle down. Settle down and make some pups.”

  This time, though, the words slunk beneath the thin armor presented by my Haven mantle and sunk their teeth into my unprotected skin. I realized a moment too late that my white-knuckled grip on familial protection had slipped. And now Chief Greenbriar’s compulsion took advantage of that lapse to seep into my veins and run through my body like blood.

  A mate, I thought, head cocked. I need a mate.

  Meanwhile, Aaron’s gaze latched onto mine as he also gave up the struggle. The heir apparent had tried to force his father to see reason, had tried to use Roger’s bond to fight against the older male’s instructions. But, in the end, neither defense turned out to be enough. Aaron had surrendered to the inevitable...and so, at last, had I.

  “Find a mate. Find an appropriate female mate. Find a mate and settle down. Settle down and make some pups.”

  My intended reached out across the small space that divided us, taking my unresisting hand into his own. He was virile, I noticed now. Strong and handsome. Our blood would merge well together, creating offspring capable of leading the Greenbriar pack into a brighter future. Widening my mouth, I smiled at the vision of family soon to come.

  But my mate didn’t speak. Instead, he cocked his head and waited for me to make my move. “Tradition,” Aaron whispered after a long pause, reminding me that the female werewolf was the one to initiate the mating pledge.

  And Chief Greenbriar—despite having used compulsions to enforce our arrival—observed the proprieties as well. The alpha waited silently for the better part of a minute, night turning darker around us as I opened my mouth in preparation for the requisite words to emerge.

  Only my tongue refused to twist into sound. My vocal cords remained resolutely silent. I no longer remembered why I was resisting. Couldn’t recall any reason not to bond myself permanently to this prime specimen of manhood who stood with head cocked waiting for me to make the first move.

  Still, something told me to wait. Something told me I needed to touch base with my family before I made this unalterable choice. So I strained with every fiber of my being to find the tether connecting me to my home pack. I could do this, I knew...even though the Haven thread was currently so deeply hidden that it might as well have snapped and dissipated into thin air.

  Nonetheless, I trusted that my pack’s joint strength was somewhere out there waiting to be tapped, waiting to remind me why I wasn’t yet ready to embrace my Greenbriar future. And for a second, I thought I’d found the safety net my family represented. I smelled Wolfie’s distinctive aroma of pine needles and leaf mold, and I reached out with incorporeal fingers to snag the connection...

  ...only to have the tether slip through my fingers as Chief Greenbriar’s patience abruptly ran thin. “Ember, choose your mate,” the older male commanded me, his compulsion so strong it nearly sent me tumbling to my knees.

  My ears began to ring as I lost track of what I was trying to do. Didn’t I want a mate? Wasn’t there an appropriate male ready and willing and only eighteen inches away from my nose?

  Like Aaron, I was now past the point of no return. Past the point of railing at the fates or scheming for a way around my apparent future.

  Instead, I opened my mouth. And I chose the partner who would determine my clan, my future, and my happiness for the rest of my natural-born life.

  “MY MATE...” I GULPED then licked my lips as further words failed to materialize. Two feet away, Aaron’s blueberry eyes bored into my own and the thready growl of a werewolf’s complaint rose from the heir apparent’s partner as Roger padded two steps closer to our elevated mound.

  Meanwhile, the wild wolves moved in tighter as well. There were at least a dozen animals present, and their scents suggested each one was half crazed from domesticity. But despite the imminent danger, a single huff of breath from the Greenbriar alpha returned shifter and animal attention alike to the task at hand.

  “Ember,” Chief Greenbriar prompted, not bothering to raise his voice or fully reiterate his command this time. After all, he didn’t need to. The previous words hung heavy in the air between us, my skin attempting to peel away from the underlying bones as I used every tactic I could think of to delay...and failed.

  “My mate,” I began again, closing my eyes to block out the sight of the darkened zoo. And, to my surprise, the evasive maneuver worked. Because the darkness beneath my lids wasn’t entirely black this time around. Instead, thin threads of light popped into existence, most so tenuous as to be nearly invisible but two brightening by the moment as Haven pack mates managed to bridge the gap that stood between us.

  The bond was too weak to protect me from Chief Greenbriar’s overt compulsion, but the connection was just enough to kick my faltering brain back into gear. In response, I grabbed the literal breathing room with both hands and sucked in the reluctant scent of my intended, the anger of his true partner, Rosie’s chubby toddler sweetness, and the faintest hint of Harmony’s floral shampoo.

  I can’t mate with Aaron. Reality washed over me like a cup of scalding coffee, and with it came the understanding that I needed to act fast. Because at any minute, the Greenbriar pack leader would break with tradition and force his son to make the first move...in which case I’d be even more stuck than I already was.

  After all, if the stories I’d heard were true, then the only thing worse than a mate bond built like a bridge between two disinterested parties was half of a mate bond. The tether would slap in every breeze, dragging us to and fro against our will. I’d turn my head...and accidentally force Aaron to walk into traffic. He’d scratch his nose...and my own finger would poke me in the eye.

  The reality of my current situation felt like a car-sized cast-iron skillet balanced atop my head. I needed to make a decision immediately. Either accept the inevitable and mate with this male or somehow close off that possibility before Aaron could begin to speak.

  Which means, I realized even as my mouth gaped open against my will, that I need to choose a different mate.

  The flash of brilliance blinded me...then revealed, in its afterglow, an avalanche of fatal flaws. If anyone in my home pack had possessed even an iota of possibility as mate material, I would have dragged the unfortunate werewolf to the altar long since. There simply wasn’t any mate beyond Aaron on the metaphorical table.

  Wrong, my wolf whispered. Easy, she told me. Just look.

  But look where? I’d searched for mates for the better part of the last decade. I’d hunted high and low and found nothing...within the bounds of Haven, at least.

  Because my cousins, despite our lack of shared blood, were far too family-like to become mates. Instead, I’d dated a few drifters. But it had been easy to let those go once they wandered beyond Haven’s borders. None was worth a second glance.

  Beneath my skin, my wolf growled out wordless lupine exasperation. Until now, she’d been hanging back, attempting to understand the muddle of human maneuvering that had washed around us. But mate she understood. Mate was a concept she could sink her teeth into.

  Allow me, the beast said with the lupine equivalent of steely politeness as she pushed me gently yet forcibly out of the way. Then, moving my tongue without permission, my animal half spoke words I somehow knew in my heart to be true.

  “My mate,” she said—we said— “now and forever...my mate is Sebastien Carter, human professor and holder of my heart.”

  Chapter 28

  The nagging pain that had followed me ever since leaving the professor’s side dis
appeared in an instant...and in its place a tearing agony of loss forced a cry from my lips. The sensation was akin to losing a leg to a shark or ripping out my own entrails with jagged fingernails...except, I’d have to say my current agony was far, far worse.

  In response, I glanced down, half expecting to find blood squirting out of my femoral artery as the ground rose up to meet my face. But I was still standing erect and the night-darkened grasses appeared just as dry and unsullied as ever beneath my feet. No, this desperate ache hadn’t resulted from a physical injury that I’d been so oblivious as to miss.

  On the other hand, the summer air had turned so cold against my skin that I could barely prevent chattering teeth from taking off my tongue. My head swam as the moon abruptly transitioned into two moons within the evening sky. And I breathed too quickly, oxygen supersaturating my blood as my wolf clued me in to what had been lost.

  The Haven bond. Our pack. They’re gone.

  My inner animal’s reminder was silent...and even so, the words slurred as if she could barely force her thoughts to coalesce into linear form. Not wanting to believe, I squeezed my eyes further shut and reached into the darkness of my mind with ephemeral fingers. The pack tethers had always been there, just out of sight. I couldn’t believe the seemingly ironclad bonds could ever disappear entirely.

  First and foremost, my link to Wolfie—father, alpha, and cupcake-decorator extraordinaire—should have been so thick and strong it wrapped itself around my wrist like a friendly boa constrictor. And beyond that familiar foundation, there would be other connections present as well, dozens of life forces interwoven into a rope so strong it never let me drop to the cold, hard ground.

  But my grasping hands found nothing. Just emptiness, darkness, and a cold that seemed to permeate my very soul.