by Anna Craig
The last vestiges of remembered pleasure of the earlier hours with Cassandra melted into a storm of fury so deep Trevor literally commanded himself not to move. Shocked at his own near loss of control, he realized he could not be responsible for his actions if he did not take some moments to just think first. Breathing in quietly and exhaling with deliberation, he kept his composure outwardly calm.
Never could he let down his guard in front of the pack.
“What did you do to her?” Thayne's voice nearly cracked as he went to Aliana to comfort her while she still tried to breathe normally.
“She has been banished,” Tamsin answered. The edge to her voice revealed her satisfaction with that situation.
Thayne whipped his head around to Trevor, naked emotions racing over his face. “How dare you,” he said, voice hissing. “Your power over this pack is not absolute!”
“Oh, but it is,” Trevor said in icy tones, control regained. “I am alpha, and my primary duty is to keep the pack safe. She threatened the mate of the alpha.”
“The so-called mate of the alpha is a human!”
Trevor pinned his brother with a look. “The mate of the alpha may not be threatened by any pack member, which you well know, Thayne. My decision is just, and it stands. Aliana is banished.”
Thayne bit off his retort when Aliana reached her hand to him, shaking her head. She'd finally regained enough breath to allow her to wheeze out, “No. Not now. Listen to me, Thayne.” She looked up at him, eyes sending him some message Trevor could not decipher. Thayne gave Trevor another murderous look but kept his mouth shut.
Very interesting, but Trevor had no time to decipher their silent lovers' exchange. His thoughts began to move once again with the quick calculation that had propelled him to alpha in the first place and allowed him to hold the position for as long as he had. He'd had no idea of their pairing—a quick glance sideways at Tamsin and her “told you so” face confirmed that as usual, he wasn't particularly sensitive to the intimate goings-on in the pack—but the knowledge now was quite useful. Yes, Thayne might be angered that his plaything was banished from the pack, but it also meant he had lost a comrade. He was weaker now.
Which meant Trevor was stronger.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he let a forbidding smile slice across his face. “Thayne. You shall see to it the banished member of the pack gets her belongings and leaves. Tamsin will gather a few other wolves. They shall all accompany you to ascertain that is the case.”
“With pleasure,” Tamsin said, eyes sparkling as she threw a look at the disgraced wolf. She never had much liked Aliana.
With that, Trevor simply turned his back and left, stalking off toward the council chambers yet again. Damn it all to hell and back. He now had a small mountain of paperwork to fill out. Pack rules and politics: the never-ending price he paid for being alpha. Protocol, not to mention common sense, demanded he must immediately call the other nearby regional alphas and inform them a packless member would now be roaming the area. All he wanted was to return to the meadow and claim his sexy, saucy mate all over again and have her help him escape the weight of being alpha.
Have her reassure him she was safe.
Cruel though she'd been, Aliana had spoken the truth. Cassandra was human, and thus vulnerable. Somehow, Trevor had to find a way to protect his mate from the very forces of time which would snatch her from him sooner than he wished. But even though the harsh words had been right, just thinking them banged hard at his generally unyielding self-control.
He did not want to lose another mate. He could not.
Trevor sped up his steps. It would hours yet before he he could escape his duties as alpha, damn Aliana's duplicitous theatrics to hell and back. But the sooner he got through this, the sooner he could return to his feisty Cassandra and her sweet charms. And the sooner he could start to figure out how to keep her safe and alive with him for as long as he would live.
Chapter 2
Time ground down into something unreal and horrific, happening frame by frame while Cassie simply stared at the huge gray wolf as she leapt toward Cassie, hurtling through the air in hideous slow motion. Her terrifying jaws roared open, ready to rip open Cassie's jugular in a single vicious swipe.
So it was true. You did flash back over your whole life when you were about to die. The thought bounced through Cassie's brain in a long, slow arc as Aliana's enormous wolf body hurtled closer, still seeming like it was in a slow motion movie. Cassie slowly threw up an arm in front of her face in futile protection, watching it rise like it belonged to someone else. The jagged wall of the lava tube stabbed into her back as her mouth opened in a scream.
But oddly enough, instead of just shrieking her head off in mindless fear, she instead heard herself yell with every ounce of strength she possessed, “You fucking bitch! Don't touch me! I'm the alpha's MATE!”
All at once, everything slammed back into real, fast-moving time. Aliana emitted a startled, high-pitched squeal of confusion even as she still leapt. Thayne shouted something Cassie couldn't quite make out.
And the earth tilted.
Like, really tilted. The ground shook hard, throwing Cassie off her feet to land in a painful sprawl. Aliana crashed into the wall where Cassie's head had been a split second before, her surprised yelp cutting off into a howled shriek of agony as her body impacted with the sharp lava spikes. Thayne cursed as he, too, was lurched off his feet by the shaking ground.
Oh, shit. An earthquake.
Cassie automatically tried to get on her feet, even though rationally she knew physics weren't on her side at the moment. The shaking stopped for a microcosm of a second, replaced immediately by sharp shocks blasting through the cave.
Thayne, too, had tried to get to his feet again. But the second blunt rattle knocked him back to the ground. This time, his head hit hard and he instantly went limp. At the sight, Cassie forced herself to relax and stay low.
The temblor seemed to last forever, although she knew it couldn't be longer than forty seconds at most. It wasn't uncommon for dormant volcanoes to have earthquakes. They usually were so deep in the belly of the earth the people living on the surface didn't feel them. From her college studies, she knew this. In her rational mind, at least.
The panicky, instinct-driven part of her brain wasn't feeling nearly as calm.
With a queasy feeling in her stomach that came from more than just being shaken around like a rag doll, Cassie wondered how deep they were. Lava tubes could extend for miles. Surely these two crazy wolves hadn't dragged her into some version of hell they couldn't find their way out of?
The shaking rumbled through her body and her very thoughts. Oh, god. What if she couldn't get out? What if the earthquake had caused the tube to cave in somewhere, trapping them? What if she never saw Trevor again? She'd just met him, just been claimed by him, and just barely realized he was her mate, he was connected to her in a deep, fathomless way that made no sense at all but was the most sensible, real thing she'd ever known. She had to see him again. She wanted that more than anything she'd wanted before.
Another huge, rolling jolt shattered its way through the cave. Then all was still. An eerie quiet descended.
Cassie knew there would be aftershocks. The question was, how soon and how bad would they be?
She became aware of aches and sharp pains all over her body. Oh, great. Her naked body, as was usual around these wolves.
“For real?” she muttered. Remembering the rough cloak she'd had draped over her, she looked around for it. “This has got to stop. The alpha's mate needs to be clothed, dang it all.”
All that answered her was a low, barely growling moan. Cassie snapped her head around. Still in wolf form, Aliana lay a few feet from her in a tumbled heap at the base of the wall Cassie had had her back to mere moments ago. Her eyes were open and looking at Cassie, but they seemed unfocused and glassy with pain. The rough cloak was bunched beneath her heavy wolf body. The two locked gazes for a moment. Ca
ssie wondered how badly she was hurt. Should she try to help her?
Then Aliana growled again. A real growl. The kind that meant business.
Ah, shit. Cassie got on all fours, then pushed herself to her feet. Everything hurt, but nothing seemed broken. Looking around, she spied Thayne. He was definitely unconscious. Keeping one nervous eye on Aliana, who didn't seem ready to move yet despite her continued growling, Cassie gingerly stepped across the sharp ground to Thayne and bent down. Carefully, just in case he was faking it, she reached out to feel for a pulse. Alive.
Also clothed. Hmm.
Cassie gave Aliana a hard look. Not moving, still growling. She must be hurt. Cassie had no idea how quickly shifters might heal—minutes? Days? She wasn't about to stick around and find out. Aliana was making it very clear she still wanted to tear out Cassie's throat, no matter any injuries. Or the fact that Cassie was the alpha's mate. Even if Aliana wasn't a pack member anymore, whatever that meant, Cassie had some kind of power by being Trevor's mate, and Aliana had sensed that. Cassie could feel that power inside her, even if she wasn't sure exactly what it was or how it might define her future in the pack.
At her feet, Thayne moaned.
“Oh, no, you don't,” Cassie said. He was bigger than her by a mile, but clothes were clothes. His shoes would be gigantic, but at least she wouldn't rip her feet to shreds over the sharp lava floor trying to get out of here.
And get out of here she would. A camp lantern, source of the dim light she'd noticed when she first came to, was on the ground next to a small table, which had fallen onto its side. Thank god the lamp seemed to be made out of plastic and was in one piece. It must be battery powered. Apparently even wolves couldn't see inside a pitch-black cavern.
Quickly deciding, Cassie began stripping off Thayne's clothes, struggling to move his heavy body. Ignoring the sharp warning bark from Aliana, even though it made her flinch, she pulled on the ridiculously too large clothing and shoved her feet into his shoes. So she looked like a clown. It was a hell of a lot better than running around naked yet again, this time down a dark cave.
Gulping, she looked into the darkness that beckoned. Grabbing up the light and bolstering her courage, she took a step toward it. She was getting the hell out of here, and in one piece.
Struck by a sudden thought, she turned back to Aliana.
“I'm not fat, by the way,” she said. “I'm pleasing. You, however, are the real bitch.”
On that note, she turned and walked into the darkness before her, heart threatening to pound its way out of her chest at every step.
~~~
Trevor affixed his signature to one more piece of paper and threw his pen down. “There.”
The wolf waiting nodded, took the paper, and held it up for the other three wolves in there to see. “Signed and witnessed,” he said, sounding as bored as Trevor felt.
“Signed and witnessed,” the other wolves repeated in unison, their voices also heaving with relief. It was the last document.
Trevor nodded at the wolves that they could leave, which they all did with grateful sighs. Back in his usual tightly-controlled alpha mode, Trevor leashed his own growl of frustration. Banishing Aliana had been the right thing to do, but it meant tackling this preposterous mountain of paperwork. Nearly two hours he'd been tied up with council business while his sweet mate slumbered in the meadow. He longed to return to her. Even her sassy, talkative mouth.
Standing up to stretch, he shook out his tight muscles before striding from the chambers. As he went, certain memories began to slip back into the forefront of his mind now that he was no longer focused on tedious pack business. Memories that had been battering for his attention ever since Aliana had flung her careless, ugly words at him, taunting him as she sought to secure her own position by dismissing his mate.
The mate he could not let down, as he had done once before to another mate of his heart.
Flashes of memory flickered. “No,” he said softly, trying to force them back.
Relentless, they surged up anyway from some dark, locked part of himself he'd not looked at for many years. Unable to stop their inexorable tide, he helplessly let them scroll across his mind.
A joyful day out on the rolling lawn behind the estate, many long years ago. Sunshine scatting tiny starbursts of light over the dark, shiny head of his mate as they officially wed before the entire pack. Her laughing face as she gazed up at him, placing her hands so trustingly in his. Believing him when he said he'd take care of her, honor her, protect her. Matching his thrilled, foolish grin with her own throughout the entire day as the pack feted them, fed them, danced with them. Whispering her love to him, sharing sly looks that promised a great deal of fun later when they were alone together. Filled with happiness. Utterly unaware anything could ever shatter it so quickly, far too long before their time together should have been up.
Trevor ground his teeth so hard he felt a headache threaten.
Damn it all to hell. For years he'd managed to keep these memories at bay. Only Tamsin knew of the nightmares he'd had, early on. She'd kept him together, propelled him forward when he'd wanted nothing more than to simply give up and curl into a pathetic ball of misery and loss all the rest of his days. She'd kept hidden from the pack his vulnerability at the time, forcing him to stay focused. Only with the help of her fierce drive had he been able to survive the enormous battles he'd had to wage. Battles to keep his position as an alpha who'd not only lost his mate, but also had a powerful brother who wanted nothing more than to stake his own position of influence and dominance.
Despite Tamsin's best efforts, she'd never been able to convince Trevor he also needed to allow another love back into his heart one day. He'd been content merely bedding women, disregarding the slightest whiff of anything that smacked of true intimacy. He'd proved he was strong enough to lead the pack without a mate at his side, despite the insistence of many that he must eventually find a new one. Intellectually, he fully understood they were right. But he'd refused to entertain the notion.
Then his lovely Cassandra showed up as the surrender, and he recognized her as being his mate. The very reality of that filled him with new exultation and quietly panicked dread all at once. Once again, he had to stay focused. The stability of his pack and his own leadership within it depended upon all the Wicked Mountain wolves respecting his word and his strength. He knew many were frightened of him. Frowning as he walked faster, he once again shrugged off any doubts about his choices and manged to shove the loosed memories back where they belonged. For now at least.
An alpha could spare no room for regrets.
Rounding a corner, he almost mowed down his sister, who stopped just in time. She gave him a searching look, eyebrow raised.
He shrugged. “It is all completed. She is gone?”
Tamsin nodded. “Yes. We escorted her to the town boundary. Thayne stayed with her, naturally. I'm sure he'll be back tonight with some sort of lovelorn petition to get her back into the pack.”
Trevor frowned. “Don't start up again on how I'm blind to things like that. I've had other concerns on my mind.”
His sister flashed a mischievous dimple. “I would never dream of questioning my alpha.”
“Hmm.” Trevor snorted his opinion of that, though he relaxed just a bit. Tamsin questioned him all the time, in private. She was the only female in the pack who ever did so, and one of only a handful of wolves all told who could do it without censure. Then again, she always maintained deferral to him in public. In order to keep the Wicked Mountain Pack under the strong leadership of a Reginald, as it had been for nearly a century now, appearances were more than important. They were everything in the strict hierarchy of a traditional wolf pack.
He also knew, though they only very rarely discussed it, that keeping up strict appearances also kept him from giving in to the pain of his loss, thus losing control of himself or the pack.
That was a truth to which he clung like a drowning wolf to a log.
Tamsin's grin fell away. Trevor tensed, knowing what was coming.
“What Aliana said to you was foolish, and cruel.” His sister kept her voice soft, though her eyes searched his face with piercing concern. “Although you were right to banish her for trying to dismiss Cassie and insert herself into the equation instead, your response was pretty damned aggressive, Trevor. It was somewhat motivated by your reaction to her words. Wasn't it?”
He kept a fierce scowl on his face, but of course she wasn't intimidated by it in the least. “Tell me the truth. Cassie is edging you close to actually feeling again, isn't she? In fact,” Tamsin murmured, narrowing her eyes a bit as she studied him, “you already do feel. That is why you've been so on edge since you met her. She's touched your heart, Trevor.” Tamsin's voice held wonder as her lips curved into a soft smile. Then she shook her head. “And it scares you to death.”
Trevor glared and deliberately continued to walk down the hallway, forcing his meddling sister into a trot to keep up with him.
“She is my mate. And human. As such, she needs my protection.” And I won't let another mate down, he thought, but didn't speak the words. Tamsin already knew them anyway. “Did you—” he began, but Tamsin cut him off.
“Of course. I knew you'd want her woken up. She probably wanted a bath and clean clothes at this point. I doubt she's accustomed to sleeping in the forest like we often do.” Tamsin's voice was a little arch, but a sideways glance revealed her teasing grin. “I sent one of the cubs to fetch her. Poor thing, her head's probably awhirl with everything that's gone on.”
“As is mine.” Trevor slowed as he reached the main kitchen. He was starving and needed to grab some food before seeing Cassandra again. He intended to keep the amazing, beautiful woman quite active again for another long stretch of time. Despite his head spinning on the edge of worry about the future, the heat built in him again just thinking about her. The crystal blue eyes and golden hair, those succulent curves, the fascinating mixture of hesitance laced with little bursts of self-confidence...ah. He couldn't wait to see her.