by Ally Parker
No surprise flickered in his brother’s icy eyes. Sucking in the scents attached to Saint, no surprise hardened his smell. That information wasn't news to his brother. “But you already know that’s what happened.”
Saint jerked his head in acknowledgement and blew out a breath of misted air. “So you attacked Shadow Moon to keep my pack on edge. You knew I’d increase security. If Father had attacked, we would have been ready.”
His lips thinned. Almost word for word, Saint had recited his statement. A statement that was meant to be confidential. Except to… His eyes widened, and his heart started to pound. “You’re a part of the sentencing committee, aren’t you? That’s why you know my motivations and why none of this is a surprise.”
Running his tongue over his upper teeth, Saint looked over his shoulder and toward his home, back to where his mate waited without his protection. “Damn it, Saint. Look at me. Tell me why you are really here.”
Kali twisted the red tinsel around the stair rail. All the males had put so much work into making the place look like something out of a Christmas magazine. She bit her lip, admiring their work from the top of the staircase. An array of red, green, gold, purple, and silver was wrapped around anything that stuck out. Some of the tinsel more twine than anything else. Paper men had been strung in waves along the walls—some had legs missing.
She laughed. Maybe it wasn’t showroom quality. But to her it was amazing. Below Knox and Grayson hung the last of the lights around the room.
“Now how am I meant to get to sleep with all these lights flickering?” Grayson grumbled.
Knox straightened and pointed to somewhere toward the back of the ranch. “Man, your cabin is a mile thatta way.”
Grayson snorted. “Exactly.”
Knox shook his head and walked over to the box, yanking out another stream of lights.
She laughed, enjoying the banter between the two males. She wondered what Ryker would think of the place now. He had said go at it.
Everything was ready for her first Christmas. Ryker had been hard to buy for, even with access to their mating link. Butterflies took flight in her stomach. Her first Christmas since she was a child… With a real pack, a real family. She felt like at any moment, she’d wake up and find everything to be some desperate attempt to soothe her fractured mind.
Needing to reassure herself things were real, she reached for Ryker through the mating link. As if slamming into a brick wall, her mental touch rebounded. A dull throbbing ache spread across her forehead, and she reached up to rub her temples. “What the hell?”
That shouldn’t happen. Tapping into a mate link should be as easy as breathing. Yet she’d slammed into a solid barrier. Was something wrong with their link? She tried again. Just as before her consciousness rebounded and slammed back into her head. That’s weird. Her heart pounded. Since they had mated, the connection had simply been a thought away. He was probably busy. Surely she would sense if something was wrong?
Without even realizing it, she had grown accustomed to Ryker being with her as if the link had always existed between them. The sudden absence felt like a void had woven its way into the fabric of her heart. Her attachment scared her just as much as it knitted a bond so deep there would be no escaping it.
There was probably a reasonable explanation why she couldn’t reach him, and it most likely didn’t involve him being unconscious like her fears whispered. She would just go and check on him. He had headed to the office with paperwork on his mind. One quick check to settle her worries wasn’t creepy. He might want a drink or something. She climbed the few stairs to the top floor and knocked on the door. Nothing.
“Ryker, do you need help?”
Nothing.
Being worried was stupid. She opened the door to find the room empty. Cold air billowed into the office space blowing the faded scent of pine to her nose. He had been here a while ago. Maybe he’d gotten hungry. She didn’t think so. Energy buzzed in the air as if the fates themselves waited with bated breath.
She bit the edge of her lip. Things are different here. You don’t have to automatically assume there is an attack. But old habits die hard. Things were too new for her wolf to not be suspicious. Stopping in the hallway, she gazed out of the window.
Out of the corner of her eye something snagged her vision. Maybe it was because she would always have a sense of her mate or maybe it was the subtle gleam of the moonlight changing with movement outside? Her vision honed into the tree line, and she caught sight of Ryker talking to a naked male.
Shifter.
No human could withstand sub-degree temperatures in nothing but what his momma gave him. Pulling her wolf to the surface, her eyes prickled and vision sharpened. Saint? What was Ryker’s brother doing in their territory? To the best of her knowledge their relationship was estranged, to say the least.
A mixture of anger and guilt rose up. He was the male responsible for the vampire violating her mind. At the same time, it was due to her own actions of getting involved in darker things than the Outlaws that had taken her to the cells of the Shadow Moon pack. Still, Saint had violated an unspoken shifter law when he’d allowed a vamp to bite and control her. But he was also Ryker’s blood.
She didn’t trust the male. If he thought to hurt Ryker or their pack, she wouldn’t hesitate to defend them. Her wolf had already claimed the males as her pack. Ryker—he was the only thing that kept her level, kept her striving to be a better person. If anything happened to him—a shiver raced over her body—it would end badly.
Her feet padded lightly down the stairs. Standing in the entrance she could hear the subtle whispers of fabric moving and the in and out flow of breathing. Knox, Roan, Creed, Briggs, and Sirius hovered near the window. So they knew something was going on. Why would they hover? Were they under orders? If that was the case, why wasn’t she notified?
Each male stood easily six foot with muscles bulging across his body and a deadly wolf under his skin. Yet all instinct compelled her to protect them. Boycotting the men, she moved to the front door and eased it open. Cold air billowed into the entrance, rustling some coats hanging on the wall.
“Kali? Is that you?” Roan called out.
Damn. Sometimes shifter hearing was inconvenient. Before anyone could stop her, she sidestepped outside and quickly shut the door behind her. Along the breeze, whispers of words teased her. No one followed. So it was orders then. A healthy dose of anger squashed down the fear churning in her stomach. If something serious was brewing, as the alpha’s mate she should be in the know. Keeping her out of pack business caused segregation and would hinder her wolf’s status.
A low growl slipped out. Looked like she’d be having a one-on-one chat with her mate soon.
“…Sentencing committee…”
On their own accord her muscles froze to the snow-licked porch. Blood whooshed in her ears, and nausea fused to her cells like a lead weight in her gut. Again, she knocked on the mating link and she still couldn’t crack the barrier. She heard Ryker question why Saint was really there.
Good question.
Forgoing stealth for speed, snow crunched under her boots as she made her way across the clearing to the tree line. Ryker’s shoulders bunched, and she knew he could sense her approaching. Too bad. If he thought to keep her sheltered from the consequences, he thought wrong. Whatever was going to happen, they would face together.
Saint’s eyes snapped to her over Ryker’s shoulder.
The moon reflected the ice chips glowing in Saint’s gaze. Cold. Calculated. Merciless.
Midnight meetings in the dark shadows of the forest didn’t suggest the Alpha of the Shadow Moon pack was inviting them over for Christmas dinner. Regardless, she would be prepared for anything.
“What’s going on here?”
25
Already on edge, Ryker moved directly in front of Saint, effectively cutting Kali from his view. A feminine growl feathered across his hearing. He looked down to his left in time to see his mate
step beside him. Damn it to hell. There wasn’t one part of him that wanted Saint’s attention on his mate. Too much had happened, and there was too much at stake now.
Saint cleared his throat. “This whole shit-show has taught me that family is important. If we’d been able to push past our differences, maybe we would have been able to work together and been stronger for it. I’d like the future to be different…”
She didn’t spare him a glance. Even without the bond open, Ryker could sense the confusion surrounding her. Hell, he was confused too. Was Saint trying to clear the air between them? Their history was long and rife with anger. Yet he couldn’t deny that if they’d been able to work together maybe things would have been different in a lot of aspects.
Saint inclined his head toward Kali. “Kali. I understand our first meeting was less than… welcoming. However, I made decisions that I felt necessary at the time.”
So many emotions clung to his mate, he could smell the way her scent peppered with fury combined with the tang of shame and fear. Instinctively, he reached out to touch her, offer comfort so she knew she wasn’t alone. Her muscles tensed. Yep, she was pissed. Thankfully, she didn’t pull away. The selfish bastard he was, touching her eased the fear inside of him and he was grateful she allowed it.
He was almost tempted to open up their link but held back. She’d gone through so much, if there was a way he could spare her from the worry of his sentence, it was his duty to do so. Not to mention the uninvited visit from his brother. He’d known so much from his formal statement, there was no way he wasn’t involved in his judgment.
“You let a vampire bite me.”
Kali’s words snapped him back to the present. His teeth itched to lengthen. Fighting his wolf’s response was hard, only because he was pissed, not because he had no control. Thanks to their mating he could tamp down the urge. There was accusation in her tone. And rightly so. To let a vampire bite you was to let them control you. For a shifter to force that on one of their own kind went against every moral a shifter possessed.
Ryker growled, remembering the scent of the male clinging to her body. He hadn’t been present when his brother had allowed a vampire to bite his mate. If he had, the vampire would be dead. As long as he lived, he’d always regret not being there to protect her. If he’d ordered the Council’s team earlier, they would have gotten to that run-down hovel sooner and Kali wouldn’t have had her will ripped away from her.
“I… I had no control over my body. He could have done anything, demanded anything, and I would have been powerless to stop him.”
Across Ryker’s back, his muscles bunched. Plumes of mist chugged out with each breath. His eyes tingled with his wolf’s vision. Grounding his teeth did nothing to bite back the anger rolling through his body. Fear thickened in the air. Kali’s fear.
Fuck it. Self-control was overrated.
In three steps his fist connected with Saint’s nose. The crack of bone snapping was satisfying. His brother stumbled back, the snow crunching with each step. Blood ran down his face. “That’s for betraying not only my mate but our kind. What kind of shifter would bargain their blood with a leech?”
Saint steadied himself, cupping his nose and with a quick yank aligning the bone. He grunted and wiped the blood from his top lip. “I deserved that. I would never have allowed any harm to come to you. All we wanted was information. Nothing else. If you’d just…”
“Just what? Sacrificed my life? Because that’s what you were asking. If I gave up the information, I would have given up my life. Delmac would have been able to put the pieces together and know I was leaking information. I would have been defenseless against them. That’s on the account that you would have let me go.”
Saint shook his head. “You’re wrong. Given what we know now, the Shadow Moon pack would have protected you.”
Ryker’s nose flared, smelling the truth lacing his brother’s words. That was the only thing that stopped him from tearing at his brother’s flesh, consequences be damned.
The inside edge of Saint’s brow pulled up and in, his gaze darted to the ground before he blew out a shaky breath. “As Alpha it’s my responsibility to keep the pack safe and deal with threats when they arise. At the time you were a threat.”
Ryker took another step forward. Saint threw up his hands to stop him.
“I’m not saying I acted in the right way,” he rushed out. “I’m not perfect, and even the best of us make mistakes under the guise of good intensions.”
A gust of wind rustled the leaves and shook some of the snow from the branches deeper into the woods. Ryker caught a whiff of spice on the air and stiffened. Someone approached, and that someone smelled an awful lot like Thane.
Kali’s hand snatched his and squeezed. He looked down to meet her amber gaze. No fear glinted in her eyes, only an intense resolve. Someone was coming; they both knew it. She was going to go down fighting. He could read it in the way she adjusted her body and flexed her muscles.
He couldn’t let that happen.
A second later Thane stepped into the clearing. He still wore a tailored suit. The only change was that his feet were bare. Waiting deeper in the tree line stood a male he recognized easily. Saul Black, a council member that was rumored to have gained his position from killing any and all other candidates that thought to oppose him. And Thane’s best friend.
Ryker swallowed, his mind weighing up the odds and risks. Within seconds he’d run the battle in his head. Lives would be lost. His pack were strong warriors, but you didn’t get to the position of Council without being the strongest. The pack would fight if he called but, odds were, many of the males would lose their lives.
Quickly, his gaze shot to Kali, and he knew he couldn’t risk her life no matter the cost. Using the pack link he issued each word a command. “Thane and Saul are approaching. Stay alert. If a fight breaks out your only priority is to take Kali and flee. She is to be protected at all costs.”
Grayson growled through the pack link. “Alpha, let me help. Together we will send ’em packing.”
The odds would be in their favor that night. The backlash would be something else entirely. He refused to put Kali in that kind of risk. “This isn’t up for discussion. My decision is final.”
“Shit! Fine. But it’s gonna take me a minute to get there if all hell breaks loose.”
Good enough. He could buy some time. Unable to risk a distraction he clamped down on the pack link and refocused on Saint.
“What is this? Was this”—he gestured between the two of them—“some kind of ploy to distract me until the cavalry arrived?”
Saint’s brows skyrocketed. “What?”
Thane stepped into the clearing, cutting off Saint’s words. Ryker shoved Kali behind him. There was no way he’d let her suffer at the hands of the Council. She’d been through enough because of their lack of action. Whatever her crimes had been, she’d already paid the consequences in spades.
Fear filled his mouth. All his life he’d been scared to dream of the possibilities. Afraid to hope for a future. He’d only just gotten a mate; there hadn’t even been enough time for his gold glyph to cool. Now he faced losing everything.
For a single moment in time, fear choked Kali. Panic held her body suspended like a damn snowflake caught in a gust of wind. She'd caught the scent of the Councilor and an unknown male approaching. Which meant one thing; Justice was about to be served. Her happy-ever-after had only begun. There was no way in hell she'd stand by and watch it be yanked away.
Ryker shoved her behind him. For a split second it warmed her heart that he would risk his life to protect her, something she would never get used to. Now wasn’t the time for chivalry. Now was the time to stand united. Together, they would be a force to be reckoned with.
She sucked in a breath, drawing in Ryker's pine smell.
Home.
He smelt like hers. After a lifetime of not having anything, she wouldn’t let anyone take what was hers away. The muscles runni
ng along his shoulders bunched, drawing her attention to the gold banding glinting off his glyph. Snow crunched from the tree line, indicating Thane had moved closer. She sidestepped to stand beside her mate. The heat from his body radiated toward her. He shot her a glance. It was only for a second. So many emotions crossed his face. Rage. Love. Fear. She felt it too.
“Kali. You need to get behind me.”
Oh, now he wanted to use their link—something they'd be addressing later. “I'm not going anywhere. We are stronger together.”
Ryker kept his attention on the threat. Thane broke from the shadows and waited several feet away.
“I need you safe.”
And what about his safety? Did he believe that she would be able to stand by from the protection of the house and watch her mate be judged? “And I need you alive! If you were after a mate that would jump at your every command, you’re out of luck. This involves both of us. I'm not leaving you to face this alone.”
Ryker growled in his throat. “Female, you're going to be the death of me.”
Thane’s gaze felt heavy. The strength of it weighed down on her, and she struggled to not look away. In her peripheral vision she could see the shadow of his companion leaning against a tree. Why was he lingering in the darkness?
“Be alert. The male in the shadows is Saul Black—muscle and henchman for Thane. I wouldn’t put it past the male to attack while we are distracted with formalities.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. It wasn’t the first time she’d crossed paths with reapers of their kind. The Outlaws ran across them from time to time. Only this time she had much to lose.
Fur spiraled along Ryker's arm. He dipped his head toward the Councilor. “Thane. I gather you don’t come bearing Christmas gifts.”
Thane’s lips thinned, and tension rolled off him, making the molecules in the air hang heavy. Ryker sighed. “Judgment has been decided.”
Her heart rate kicked up to a rapid pace. The silence grew a mile long. Everything they’d survived and their existence came down to that moment. As the seconds passed, fury lit in her veins. The council hadn't done her any favors. Because of their inaction, she’d been alone and left to the mercy of males that ate weakness for a snack.