by Kat Keppeler
Finn crossed his arms over his chest. “There comes a point in life that you either accept the pack indoctrination or you just don’t care. And that’s why I left, I met Drusilla and I married her. Drusilla Easty, daughter of one of the most prominent witch lines. I believed the whole time that you can’t procreate with mortals and witches. I was wrong. I didn’t know how wrong until Dru was already pregnant.”
Finn frowned deeply. “The pack leaders are chosen, they don’t ascend to power through a fight like they would make you believe. The council hand picks anyone who they see fit to rule and if it happens that someone dethrones their lackey they find a way to make that one their pawn, or they get rid of them.”
Finn shifted. “Sixty years ago, Aiden was given orders to quell me after finding out I had broken council law and Rory, Chance, and Lee stepped in and stopped them before they quartered me. It caused quite a mess, for the council and for your mates, but when I got free Dru hid me away in Fairfax where Aiden couldn’t follow. The Easty estate is old and Dru’s power there was unmatched. They needed her family’s support so… I lived. The eventual fallout of that you already know.”
That last he said with a nod towards the three exiles. Rory looked furious, knowing his father was doing things potentially under duress was something he had to wrestle with.
“There’s more. I was there when Dru introduced her second cousin, Lara, to Darby Kinsale. Dru was already expecting my son and I think Darby somehow knew the potential power that happens when a witchborn comes to lead. I can’t speculate, Skye, but I know that Lara left with Darby and instead of doing the will of the Council, he stopped. I knew it took a few years but when Lara conceived and gave birth to a girl the council had enough of Darby’s potential threat that they sent a kill squad after him, and his whole pack. And I know that there was some very powerful magic cast to protect you. If she hadn’t then you’d be in the same place they are keeping Bennett.”
“Your son,” Skye said simply and met Finn’s gaze for a long moment. There was hurt in her blue eyes still even if she began to understand the complicated webs spun around her life and around Finn’s determined silence. “You should have told me, Finn. This shouldn’t have been the way we had this discussion.”
“I know, princess. That’s a one on one discussion that you two should have later, but there’s more I need you to know,” Chance said before the big man could speak, drawing her attention back from Finn and the tension between the two of them. He had to be in pain, there were lines bracketing his mouth.
“When I stole Finn’s deposit box-” Chance said, ignoring Lee’s gasp as he admitted to stealing things from a powerful coven of witches, “-There’s a few other things I took the time to confirm. Finn thinks he knows bloody everything, I know, and while he does know a lot, I don’t think he knows this part.”
Chance leaned forward and pulled a folder over to open it carefully. Inside was paper thin tissue paper that had been used to take charcoal rubbings. “Inside the ‘town hall’ in Fairfax, there’s a set of stairs down that leads to their sanctum sanctorum which is just full of fascinating relics. I’d love to take a tour but they weren’t exactly happy to see me. I think I probably won’t be welcome back.”
Chance’s sardonic, devil-may-care attitude didn’t cover up just how serious a situation he’d been in. That he’d escaped with his life, that was impressive - that he’d stolen information from it, that was down right miraculous. “We may owe a tiny favor to a lovely old lady who owns a crystal shop, by the way. Delightful woman, little but of a nutter but a good egg. Known her for years”
Skye stared at Chance.
“You broke into the witches’ headquarters? Are you insane?” Skye demanded, not appreciating the rubbings even a little. They weren’t worth Chance’s life, not to Skye and the placating pat he gave her thigh did not make her feel any better.
“I did, and I have no regrets. Bruises will heal but this is priceless. Before we began writing our history in tomes, it was scrolls but before that, there were tablets that the pictograms were inscribed onto. They’ve been lost - or presumed lost for ages. They’re not lost. They’re in Fairfax, in the vault in there.” Chance was perilously close to embracing his full blown history nerd but he focused, “The child of a witch and a shifter isn’t forbidden, not in these. It’s how the packs were made. In blood and in flesh, do you remember those words, Skye? You spoke them to the pack, you said, in the basement when you claimed them. Those words are here, too. It’s a pact; it’s magic.”
Chance looked up at Finn then, “They’re not holding the children of shifters and witches because they’re afraid of them; they’re holding onto them because the power of our kind is intrinsically tied to them; in blood and in flesh. They’re bound, with brainwashing, yes, but also spells and magic that contains it, controls it, and Skye is the only female child that I’m aware of that has reached her maturity unfettered.”
Chance’s gaze cut to Rory then. “Do you see?”
Rory looked aghast at all of this, Lee as well. When Finn had been admitting his part in all of this Rory had looked furious, now he just looked utterly lost. It was easy to feel played, that’s what had happened on both his father’s part and apparently Finn’s as well. The more that was revealed the more Rory felt almost used.
“Well that’s just great, Chance, you went kicking the ant nest and now those bitches are going to come swarming.” Rory’s brow was furrowed and his mind racing, it wasn’t just that now they had to worry about the council more. It was that for all of their lives they’d been indoctrinated and brainwashed. Used and pushed the way they wanted them.
“That means Aiden is a council member?” Asked Lee, looking at Chance with a concerned frown.
“They all are. The council finds those who will do their bidding and they thrust them in place. They’re not on the council - the proper council - but they serve directly. It keeps them in power,” Finn answered the question before he was taking a seat in the only available chair.
“This means, no matter if Chance had gone in there and asked them nicely, knowing what he is brings the interest in us right into a spotlight. If we’re ever going to survive their attacks we’re going to need a bigger boat.” Rory looked at Finn with confusion. “It’s more than just needed to expand the wolf ranks, Rory, you’re going to need the support of the entire community. I think you forget, they’re in just as much danger as we are.”
“You have time,” Chance said simply, “I mean, sure, they know a thief got in and stole things but you don’t think I stole just Finn’s box and some rubbings. They think a warlock stole from them. Wolves can’t use witch magic, after all. Everyone knows that.”
He rubbed his hand across his chest where his ribs ached as he stood slowly and gingerly, “I bound my wolf before I crossed the line. I don’t know how Skye stood it for all those years. It’s like wearing a too tight jacket and trying to do a backflip. You don’t really think I’d have been caught at all if I’d been able to shift, do you?”
Chance actually looked vaguely affronted as he went to pour himself a glass of Betty’s lemonade once the vellum was carefully tucked back in the folder. “I knicked about, oh, a van’s worth of goods and dropped it off at a known broker of black arts and pilfered items to distribute. I know that Finn thinks we’re all children but I thought the rest of you had a bit more faith in me.”
Skye stood up as he grumbled and carefully wrapped her arms around his waist, tucking her blonde head under his chin, her eyes tight.
“I just wish you weren’t so cavalier about your well being, Chance. We love you, you know. What would do without you?” Skye asked, tipping her head back to look up at his bruised and battered face only for Chance’s wry smirk to quirk the corner of his lips.
“Well, apparently, half of us would get ourselves kicked out of the house by the other half, Finn’s prosthetic wouldn’t get ordered nor the ultrasound machine with the blank checks that I left, and I am alread
y dreading whatever nightmare is awaiting me at the construction site across the road. Believe me, my sweet, the only place I am going in the very near future is into a bed to sleep.” He tipped his head then to Lee, in question, “Am I allowed back in the house yet or am I napping on Finn’s too-small bed?”
Lee didn’t smile at Chance, he was upset too that all of this had been done without including him.
“Bed’s all yours. And yours too, Rory,” Lee said quietly standing to get moving.
Rory frowned at Lee, his brow furrowed. “And you?”
Lee turned, his hair over one eye.
“Well, I thought that we three…” Lee meant his original friends, Finn and Skye excluded, “... that we were together in everything. You guys haven’t spoken a word to anyone about any of this. We promised a long time ago that we’d not keep secrets. Well, guess I’m excluded from that.”
Lee looked over at Finn. “At least he was doing it for a somewhat noble reason even if he is a douche for not coming right out with it. You guys just kept me in the dark. So you can have the bed. You can have the room.”
Lee walked over behind Finn. “I’ll sleep at Finn’s.”
Before anyone else’s temper frayed, Finn held his hand up. “Let’s just all take a day, get back to normal, and we can talk about how we fix all the things we’ve broken.”
Skye had been watching Lee with concern on her features. She, better than any of them, knew how ragged he’d been run by worry and care taking for the last week. Before she could stay anything though, Chance had unwound her hands from his waist and pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand.
“That sounds fair, as the bed is a fraught topic, clearly, I’ll be in my office. I need to put this away and see about catching up on all the things that have slipped in my absence. Come by and get those checks when you’re ready, Finn.”
Chance’s gaze was dark with unspoken emotion as he watched Lee before he gave Skye a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and started limping off in that direction.
“Lee, honey?” Skye said as she turned towards the omega, lifting one hand out for him, “Anything I can do?”
Lee shook his head gently and just turned and left, leaving the room for exactly where he said he was going to go. Finn frowned at his retreating back, and followed. The omega had been the only one besides Skye that had made Finn feel like he belonged. Chance and Rory both were arguably right in their feelings and anger at what he had been hiding for so long, but Lee understood why he had done it. The two of them retreated leaving Skye and Rory alone at the table.
Rory was in clear distress.
“I really suck at this whole leader thing, don’t I?” Rory asked, his gaze full of abject sorrow. “I’m sorry, Skye.”
“I feel the same way. Everything I do comes out wrong, or I feel like I’m spending half my time weeping. I feel useless or an active problem most of the time,” Skye admitted as she took a step forward to wrap her arms around Rory’s waist in commiseration. “I’m sad and angry and frustrated all at the same time… and then I feel like I’m the one in the wrong for feeling that way. I don’t even know if it’s hormones or if it’s just how awful things are right now.”
Skye let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes, turning her face into Rory’s chest. “What do we do?”
“We just let them cool down. We get Chance into bed because he needs a damned rest, and then we get up tomorrow and we need to start figuring out how we mend our bridges.” Rory sighed, wrapping his arms around Skye. “It’s all going to be alright, love. It’s all going to be alright.”
Somehow together Skye and Rory were able to coax Chance to bed where he slept like a stone for hours. When he woke the pack was busy at their normal routines again. At least as normal as it could be.
Chapter Twenty
Almost as soon as Lee had stormed off into Finn’s place he was a sobbing mess. That was where Finn met up with him, kneeling in front of Finn’s bed weeping with such sorrow that Finn felt instantly distressed over it.
“Hey… Hey!” He said, taking a seat on the pull out bed and pulling Lee up next to him. The smaller man was always the most affectionate of their small circle, the moment Finn had pulled him up Lee found himself wrapping his arms around the big man.
“I’ve never felt alone. Never. They always tell me things because we’ve always been together… Why?” Lee said, his sobs choking up in his throat at the end of his statement.
Finn smoothed his hand over Lee’s turquoise hair, trying to soothe the omega as gently as he could. He held him until the sobs stopped and Lee had long quieted. Finn let him sit there in the silence, trying to find the words to soothe him.
“They thought that keeping you in the dark would help, Lee. That if something went down you would be-”
“Stop talking.” Lee said, looking up and straightening. “Stop talking. I don’t want you to make excuses for those two.”
Lee looked straight into Finn’s eyes, the hollow feeling in his stomach at the idea of his mates leaving him in the dark. It was no mystery that Lee sought comfort in the form of intimacy when he was at his lowest feeling. He stared into Finn’s questioning eyes for a few long moments before he caught Finn by the chin and kissed him hard.
Finn threw his hands up, uncertainly. Skye likely would have no issues with sex between them but he wasn’t at all sure what Rory and Chance would think. Finn had already made enough waves within the group to be wary of risking another ripple. However, the hungry way that Lee was kissing him had Finn’s body responding. Finn gripped Lee by the shoulders, despite his growing erection, and pushed him back.
“Lee, I’m flattered and I want to but…” Finn started before Lee interrupted him again.
“Finn, I want you to fuck me. Just shut your mouth, and fuck me.” Lee demanded, reaching for Finn again. Before another protest could leave his lips, Lee was reaching for Finn’s waistband and unzipping his jeans. He pulled Finn’s thick cock free and before the big wolf could protest more, Lee wrapped his lips around the head of his cock, taking as much as he could into his mouth until Finn was throwing his head back. He felt the muscles in Lee’s throat relax and the head slip into his throat.
“Oh, my fucking word…” Finn said, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. It was short lived, Lee pulled his mouth free and looked up at Finn expectantly.
“I asked nicely.” Lee said, with small quirk of his lips before he began sucking Finn’s cock again. Finn put his hand on the back of Lee’s head and pushed his head down firmly on his cock, gripping the crown of the omega’s hair to guide his head with force. After a few moments Finn pulled Lee off his cock, holding his hair and forcing his head back. He kissed Lee bruisingly, releasing him suddenly to begin pulling his shirt off.
Lee wasted no time, as Finn began stripping so the omega followed. Even the prosthetic was off and discarded before Finn was reaching for Lee again. They fell together in a tangle of limbs, Finn atop Lee pinning him to the bed. He pressed Lee’s knees to his chest, a growl leaving his throat, his cock pressing against the tight pucker of Lee’s ass. He paused, his throbbing dick poised on the ready.
Lee looked up at Finn, his eyes wide and pupils dilated with hungry need. “Fuck me!” He growled up at Finn his teeth snapping together much like the hungry wolf that lay within his soul. Lee spat into his hand, reaching between them to grip Finn’s cock and pull him forward in invitation.
Finn pressed the now wet head of his massive dick against Lee’s ass again and felt himself push forward, Lee’s tight body giving resistance until suddenly he slipped past all the resisting muscles and Lee bowed his back and cried out with pleasure. He pinned Lee to the bed again, fucking him hard and fast until Lee was shuddering violently beneath him.
“Don’t stop!” Lee panted, his eyes clenched shut.
“Don’t stop, Finn! Please! Fuck me harder…” He begged. Finn obliged happily, pumping his hips faster and sinking his engorged cock into Lee’s ass so hard that every hard thrust el
icited a cry from Lee. The Omega grabbed his own cock and began stroking it fast, matching each thrust with the stroke of his hand until he came between them with rapid pulses. Finn felt him tense with the climax, his own so close that the sight of Lee coming on himself sent him spiraling toward it. He pulled free of Lee’s ass and stroked his dick against the pale skin of the omega beneath him.
He fell to the side, leaving Lee sitting their covered from the both of them, Finn panting with an effort to catch his breath.
“Finn?” Lee asked after a few moments.
The big wolf beside him lifted his head, a questioning look given.
“Again.” The omega demanded. Before Finn could protest Lee was up, pressing himself against Finn with need. “Fuck me again. I want to be yours too, please? Please, again…”
Finn turned the omega onto his side, pulling his ass hard against him before he slid his cock once again into Lee’s tight ass. As he began thrusting he gripped the crown of Lee’s hair again, his mouth against area just below his jugular and next to where Skye had marked him. Finn couldn’t help it, he was filled with the desire to do the same. He bit down on Lee’s neck, almost too high and barely missing the artery, marking him as his own. Lee bowed his back, quickly pulling free of Finn and turned until they were face to face.
Lee blinked in surprise, his blood on Finn’s lips still. He saw Skye’s mark on Finn’s shoulder and looked up into Finn’s eyes with questions.
“You made me your mate?” Lee asked, confusion on his features.
Finn swallowed, nodding slowly. He knew that there would be fallout of some sort, yet he had wanted Lee pretty much from the moment he had met him. Much to Lee’s surprise, Finn pulled his hair to the side and bared his own throat in invitation for Lee to follow.
A gasp of surprise left the omega, he’d only marked Skye and that had been in the heat of the moment. Yet here Finn was, offering himself almost as freely as he had taken Lee. The omega bit down Finn’s blood filling his mouth and feeling their mate mark fall into place. Between them, their lust piqued, they could feel Skye there too.