Mack (Black Mountain Pack Book 1)

by Lynn, Miranda

  Casey listened with wonder on her face.

  “What they didn’t expect was that little feisty cub to find her own way to escape their grasp. It took a few days for them to fess up that they had lost you and we went into a panic searching for you then. Once we gained the information needed, I placed pack members everywhere I could think a lost child might go. Homeless shelters, orphanages, and within the foster care system. Jake was the one who reported back that he thought he found you, but after his first few encounters found, that you didn’t recognize or welcome your animal side.” Jerome rubbed his forehead, a pained expression filling his eyes.

  Everyone at the table looked to Jake for confirmation.

  He nodded his head yes in agreement.

  “We consulted all kinds of professionals trying to decide if we should swoop in and rescue you. We were told over and over to let you be, that it would do more damage to force you back into the pack. I left Jake with you, knowing he would protect and guide you. I just never knew it would take sixteen years. Suzanne didn’t agree, being the mother she is, she just wanted to you home. It took every ounce of power I had at the time and ever since then to force her hand. Jake became your safety and he reported back to me.”

  Jake sat and listened as his expression showed his pain at the memories as well.

  Jerome stood and started pacing the kitchen as he continued the tale, “When you aged out of the foster system, I planned to bring you here even if you didn’t want to, but you are a sneaky one. I had to trust Jake and that he would be able to convince you to stay with him. Then Rook finally came forward and told us the rest of your history and why the South American pack wanted you.” He stopped behind Casey’s chair.

  She looked up at him with a troubled expression on her face.

  Then, he dropped the bomb, “We had named you Cassandra, you decided on the name Casey in the foster care system, but you have recently realized both names are not yours. Your true name is Sybhain, Sibby for short, and you are the daughter of the Alpha of the South American pack. On top of that, you are of royal blood. Your blood line traces all the way back to the original shifters. You are coveted among all packs, and you are here with us. Your cat recognized Rook because he was your guard when you were little. Guardian and playmate in one. He took you everywhere until your mother escaped in the middle of the night with you. She was the pack Alpha’s mate, but she had been forced into the role. She had fallen in love with another shifter, a rogue, and she ran away with him to the U.S. and took you with her. They have been searching for you ever since. When Rook realized what had happened, he knew where they would go, but he had to go through the right channels to safely journey here with protection. That is why he applied to our pack. By the time he arrived, we had found you and taken you in. He arrived only days before we were attacked and hadn’t had time to meet you. He has been searching on his own for you and not until your shift earlier, did he know for sure.”

  Casey’s eyes were as big as saucers and her scent emanated fear and a readiness to flee.

  Jerome stroked her hair. “Please don’t fear us. I am here to tell you that I will do whatever I have to keep you safe. I will not hand you over to that sadistic Alpha, ever, and neither will Rook.” He gazed at Rook for confirmation.

  “Sibby, I came looking for you,” Rook spoke now. “For your safety. Not to return you to anyone. Your safety and your mother’s was placed in my care years ago and I take that oath seriously. I no longer have ties to the South American pack, I have given my full alliance to Jerome and the Black Mountain Pack here in Aeredale. I know this is a lot to take in, but remember how you recognized me in cat form. You also recognized my tiger, didn’t you?”

  She looked between them both. “I did, I recognized you. But this is all too much to take in. How could I have blocked something so important for so many years? This is a huge part of who I am. Wouldn’t you think it would eventually come forward?”

  Rook took her hand. “That’s the amazing part about our animal half. They will do whatever it takes to protect us, even if that means lying in wait for years. She knew as soon as you shifted, your dad would know it. That is why he is already on his way. That is part of the shifter magic. Any other relative you may have, brothers or sisters, will also know. Our families are like little webs in our brain, we are all connected through the magic, we don’t know how or why, just that we are. When a family member dies, that string of the web fades and falls away, eventually it’s replaced when a new member is born or a mate is claimed. Also, when a female is mated, her web changes. Her string moves from one pack to that of her mates. All ties to her blood relatives is suppressed, they are still there but the magic doesn’t strum along them. It’s confusing when you are trying to understand it for the first time I know.” He stroked her hand.

  Casey looked troubled as she tried to take it all in. “So because I shifted, the magic let my dad know I was alive and he can use it like GPS to find me?”

  Rook proudly smiled at her. “Exactly.”

  “How can I hide from that, then?” she asked.

  Everyone except Casey turned to look at me.

  Then Jerome responded to her question, “You accept a mate.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Casey

  “What! Yesterday you tell me I am a shifter, I actually shift into a wild animal for the first time and my life is thrown upside down. NOW you tell me the only way to escape a father I don’t remember who obviously isn’t a good man is to accept a mate?” I couldn’t sit still any more. “My longtime friend admits he is a shifter too and has been watching out for me my whole life. My mother is dead, who I thought I was is nowhere near who I am and now, I have to pick a mate to be safe.” This went beyond even my definition of crazy.

  “Sibby, you don’t pick your mate. Our mates are destined and recognized by our animal sides,” Rook gently replied. “Have you had no feelings or weird actions toward anyone you have met in this world?”

  My eyes went to Mack immediately and my cat purred inside me. I just stared at him, trying to come to terms with the fact that a man I barely know could be the person I spent the rest of my life with. My brain rebelled at the thought, my cat on the other hand wanted to hike her rear end and offer it up on a plate for him, that little hussy. Damn her. Before I could reply, an explosion rocked the house sending everyone into a flurry.

  Jerome went to the back door and peered out. “Looks like they got here faster than we anticipated. Rook, you and Mack take her through my office. Mack knows where the tunnels are, get her out of here.”

  Gun shots, shouts, and the sounds of fighting drowned out anything else that might have been said.

  Rook and Mack stood together, moving in unison without a word uttered. Rook grabbed my arm and led me through the house, Mack following. We heard the back door splinter as we entered Jerome’s office. Mack closed the door behind us.

  “What about everyone else?” I asked. “We need to get them too.”

  “They will be fine. Da will take care of them. We have been preparing for this fight for years. What they don’t know is how many of the pack we have surrounding the house. Rook, move that mirror over there, the tunnel door is behind it.”

  “I won’t go Mack. Jake is out there and Marla! We can’t just leave them.”

  Mack came nose to nose with me. “Yes you will, if you want to live you will come with us. Jake and Marla will be fine, we have traps all through this house and they know where every one of them are. Jake will join us when they have your dad’s pack subdued. This is just the first wave, your dad won’t be with them. We have time, but only if we leave now.” He turned me towards the opening Rook had found. “Now go.”

  I dug my heels in. “NO!”

  “Fine, have it your way.” Mack scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder as he walked past Rook instructing him, “Follow me and close it up behind us.”

  “Put me down!” I wriggled and pounded my fists on his back, the only pla
ce I could get to. The blood was quickly rushing to my head as I hung upside down.

  He smacked my ass. “If you don’t quit wiggling, I’ll drop you. I’d hate to damage you in any way considering our cats have already decided we are to be mates.”

  “What! You are crazy, you are not my mate!” I wouldn’t accept it, even though she did purr a bit louder at his contact. I was slowly realizing that she was a little minx, and I would not let her decide who I was going to spend my life with. I pushed myself up as much as I could and glared at Rook following us. “Help me. Make him put me down.”

  Rook laughed. “Sorry Sibby, I’m not getting in the middle of this. I have learned to leave mates alone during foreplay.”

  “You’re an ass. This is not foreplay!” I huffed and pounded on Mack’s back again, which only got me another smack on the ass in return.

  “You may not think so, but I’m pretty sure your cat has already decided.” Rook laughed again.

  I decided to ignore him for the rest of the trip. “Fine, Mack put me down, I can walk.”

  He stopped and slid me down the front of his body, leaning down nose to nose with me.

  My breath hitched and my heart sped up at his closeness. I could feel the intensity of his attraction through his jeans and my palms started to sweat.

  “I will let you walk, but you stay between us and do as I say. I know you want to save Jake and Marla, but trust that they know what to do and will join us when they can.” He waited for my response.

  I could only nod in agreement.

  “Very well.” He picked me up by my waist and set me behind him as if I weighed nothing and continued to walk.

  I crossed my arms under my chest and glared at his back as we continued on. I would comply for now, but this wasn’t over. I could hear Rook trying to suppress his laughter as he followed. I would deal with him later as well. My cat twitched inside sensing that we were getting ready for a tussle. However, she was hoping for a different outcome than I was. I had a feeling I would find out she was simply a little hussy. Great, just what I needed to deal with on top of everything else.

  We walked through the twist and turns of the tunnel until it started to slope up.

  Mack stopped at the bottom of a ladder and turned to us. “I’ll go up first and make sure the coast is clear. Once I know it’s safe, I will call down for you two to follow.” He shimmied up the ladder and through the hatch at the top.

  Rook and I waited.

  “You should give him a chance Sibby. He’s not a bad guy, all he wants to do is protect you. I think he’s just as shocked as you are to find that you two are destined to be mates. Finding your true mate so young is rare and precious”

  “It’s weird to hear you call me that. I have been Casey as long as I can remember, but deep in some corner of my mind that name feels right too, but it’s not who I am anymore. As far as Mack is concerned, I don’t really care if he is shocked or not. He just better not go all Neanderthal on me and expect me to bow to his wishes. Mate or not, I bow to no one and he’ll find that out soon enough.” I rubbed my hands over my face. “This all seems like a dream, I keep expecting to wake up and find myself back at the shelter with a new day to deal with.”

  Mack popped his head through the opening “All clear, come on up.”

  My conversation with Rook would have to wait. I ascended the ladder and Mack helped pull me through the opening. I turned waiting for Rook and saw it was a trap door in the floor of a dusty old cabin. Spider webs were gathered in every corner and a thick layer of dust covered every surface. The cabin had sparse furnishings that were covered with dirty sheets and the windows were covered in grime. This escape obviously hadn’t been used in years. The dust Mack had kicked up in the air was tickling my nose and made me sneeze.

  Rook closed the trap door and covered it with the rug that had been pulled back.

  Mack opened the door, scanning the surroundings. “It looks clear, let’s try and get things cleaned up a bit before the others join us.” He went to a small closet in the room and pulled out a couple of brooms, a plastic Ziploc bag of rags and some type of cleaner.

  Rook started removing the sheets from the furniture, folding them and placing them outside on the porch.

  “Where are we?” I asked. Sneezing again, as the dust was stirred even more by their movements.

  “This is one of the first cabins Da built when the pack moved into the territory before shifters came out to the human world. This was where the pack would get away to shift and run in safety. It hasn’t been used in years, but it is connected to six other similar cabins through the underground tunnels and all the tunnels lead back to the main house.” He handed me a pile of rags and a bucket. “There is a hand pump at the kitchen sink that connects to the well, go see if you can get some water running so we can clean up. If anyone is injured, we need to have this place as clean as possible.”

  “I’m not your maid,” I huffed.

  “No, I never thought you were, but we all need to work together to rid the years of filth in here. The others could show up at any time. Rook, go check the wood pile and make sure we have enough. If more is needed you know where to find it.” Mack threw orders around as he began to sweep up the years of dirt on the floor.

  We spent the next hour working on bringing the cabin up to par. The water only took a few pumps to get going, which was good because each bucket only took a few minutes to become a murky muddy mess. I worked on the windows first, so we could open them and air the place out. Rook took the last bucket outside to empty and I took a moment to look around, wiping the sweat from my brow with the hem of my shirt. I was drenched in sweat and felt like I had layers of grime covering me. The physical exertion had helped to calm me, focusing on a task always did. The cabin was actually cute without all the dirt. It was bigger than I had first thought. A large living room centered around a good size fireplace and a full size bed along the back wall next to the bathroom. It was open to the kitchen and a bathroom was located at the other side. A staircase led up to an open loft with bunk beds. I could tell this had been built for a large family or in our case, a large pack.

  Mack descended the stairs and I got a good look at him for the first time since we had started. His face was streaked with dirt, his shirt soaked with sweat and dust clinging to the hairs on his arms.

  “You look like you could use a shower.” I smiled.

  “Have you looked in the mirror, you don’t fare much better,” Mack replied. “There’s a stream out back we can go wash up at.”

  “A stream? What about the bathroom?” I questioned.

  “The water for the shower is limited and will be colder than the stream right now. Our water heater is a wood heater and takes time to warm. You are more than welcome to take a cold shower. I’d rather rinse off and let the sun warm and dry me.” Mack smirked and headed out the door.

  Rook walked in. “I’ll stay here and wait for the others. When you guys get back, I’ll go rinse off myself.”

  I watched Mack walk away. I just wanted to hop in the shower, but my cat wanted to go play in the stream. I stood their debating.

  Rook handed me a small backpack. “Clean and dry clothes for you and Mack. We keep spares in all the cabins. You better hurry before you lose sight of him. The stream will be warmer than the water in that bathroom right now.”

  I grabbed the pack and stomped out the door to catch up with Mack. I expected him to wait for me but there was no sign of him. Heaving a sigh, I took off down the only path leading into the trees. I took my time, enjoying the peaceful surroundings. I had a feeling that wouldn’t last long. We had a fight ahead of us and I felt so unprepared. The sound of water flowing drew me towards the stream. I saw Mack’s clothing hanging from a low tree branch ahead of me. I slowed and tried to be stealthy as I approached. The stream came into view, along with a very naked Mack. My mouth went dry at the sight. He was facing away from me, washing the dirt and grime from the tunnels and our cleaning away. His
body was solid muscle. My eyes drank him in from his shoulders to where the water met his lower back. The little waves he was making gave me a glimpse of the top of his hard ass. I loved how he moved, with a grace most men didn’t have. There were a few scars along his back, remnants of past fights maybe. Watching him turned me on. Not that I would admit that to him, but it did. My cat and I agreed it was time to play. I wanted to touch him—my fingers itched with the need.

  Mack had moved into deeper water, still facing away from me.

  I hung the backpack on the tree branch next to Mack’s clothes and quickly shed my clothes. I could tell from the flow and color of the water he was standing next to a deep pool. I took off at a run and jumped, cannonballing in and sending a spray of water over him. I surfaced, pushing my hair out of my face and smiled at him. The look on his face made me laugh. Shock mixed with anger and underneath that—a hint of lust. The shock was the funniest though. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

  “So that’s how it’s going to be?” He slowly waded towards me.

  “I don’t know what you mean, I am simply rinsing off. Isn’t that how you get wet, just jump right in?” I flirted.

  “No, normally I take it slow and a step at a time. Your way does look more fun though.” Mack headed for the bank, leaving the water.