Falling into the White (The Ancients Series)

by Christine M. Butler

  “Oh, I thought you said you weren’t mated. Sorry.”

  “We’re not, but we’re going to be.” I answered her, getting myself under control better with each breath.

  “It’s complicated,” Ashley chimed in. “But they definitely belong to one another, bonded or not.”

  “Well, I will make sure my sister is aware of that then.” Annalise smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I ramble on and put my foot in my mouth a lot when I’m nervous.”

  “It’s okay.” I walked over to my bed, and showed her that there was a trundle hidden underneath. “Ashley practically lived here with me for years, so my parents got the trundle. This way, neither you nor your sister will have to sleep on the floor.”

  “Oh, that’s fantastic, because I definitely would have been the one on the floor.” She laughed, and Ashley and I along with her.

  “Are you guys going to be leaving tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know. I think my dad may wait until we have some more of our hunters show up to get home. He was worried enough to bring us with him, but now that there’s evidence that your rogue wolf has been coming and going between our pack lands, I think he’s worried about traveling with us.”

  “That’s understandable.” I agreed. “I will see what I can do about getting some more of our people to escort you back too.”

  “We’ve heard rumors,” Annalise started to say when I got ready to leave the room.

  “What kind of rumors?” Ashley asked her.

  “Are you…” Annalise paused for a moment, trying to decide if she should ask after all, but then she just spit it out. “Are you really the white wolf?”

  “I am.” It was the first time I had admitted it outside of our close-knit circle, but it was something I had been thinking about for a while now anyway. It was time that our people knew what was going on, and that their sigil of hope had returned. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be that sigil, but I was ready for change to come to my kind, to make things better. I couldn’t effect that change if I kept hiding who and what I was.

  “Oh my God! I’m staying in the White Wolf’s room!” She squealed excitedly.

  “Annalise,” I called back, “I’m just Jessica to you! If you need anything while you’re here, you let me know.”

  Ashley and I left Annalise in my room, and I could have sworn I heard another squeal of delight as we descended the stairs. “Ms. Jessica, can I get your autograph?” Ashley teased as we walked into the living room.

  “Shut it, Ash!” I laughed.

  Ashley was about to say something else, and couldn’t get it out past her laughter. “Sorry,” she managed, and doubled over.

  “You’re a jerk.”

  “Is everything okay in here?” A blond woman, around my age, asked as she came from the kitchen into the living room.

  “Yeah, everything’s good,” I tossed a pillow at Ashley, who was still laughing at me.

  The woman eyed us both wearily, and then surveyed the room. “I thought Annalise went to find you. Where is she?”

  “We met. She’s a sweet girl. I showed her around my room, and she stayed up there. I take it you’re her sister?”

  “Tess,” she offered quickly. This girl was the polar opposite of her talkative sister. She seemed to be all business as she moved through the room, checking the windows as she passed by.

  “I could take you up, and show you around too, if you like?”

  “No need. I’m sure I can find my way to the bed.” Her eyes darted across the room, back toward the kitchen, where Mikael was now standing in the doorway.

  He popped his head around further, to be able to see Ashley and me over by the couch. “Everything okay?” He called out. My heart did that pitter patter uptick in beats that happened when he was near.

  “We’re all good. I was just offering to give Tess a tour upstairs, but she declined.” Tess was staring at Mikael, appreciatively, and I didn’t like it one bit. In fact I was about to get really angry if she didn’t take her eyeballs off of my man. I’m not sure if Mikael sensed what I was feeling, or if he would have done it anyway, but just when a growl was building in my throat, he passed a cursory glance towards Tess, and started walking with a purpose over to where I still stood by the couch. He didn’t stop, didn’t hesitate, just grabbed me and kissed me deeply.

  When he broke away it was to whisper in my ear, “be a good girl if you want to keep our secrets, Jess.”

  Ashley was laughing again. “Don’t ever say a damn word about Asi and me, Jess. Seriously, Ever.” She dropped her voice low enough that only Mikael and I would hear her, “and good luck keeping that secret.”

  Mikael ignored Ashley, and leaned back in for a longer kiss. I enjoyed every bit of it, so I wasn’t about to complain. When he pulled away finally, he let me know that he had to run out to the house and grab some appropriate clothes for the sending off ceremony later. “This,” he pointed down at himself, “won’t do for a sending off, especially when I owe the man my deepest respects. He was out there tracking that little prick to keep you safe. I don’t want to disrespect him by wearing jeans and a t-shirt.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?”

  “No, Jess. If you do that, we won’t make it back in time. Stay here, and lend your mom a hand instead.” He gave me one more quick kiss, “but have a much bigger bag packed for later.” I smiled as he turned and left the house.

  “Pack a bigger bag, huh?” Ashley waggled her eyebrows at me as she whispered it.

  “You should really make it official with that one if you don’t want to lose him to another wolf.” Tessa had been watching Mikael go, since she had been standing by the front door. Something about her feeling free enough to say that to me rubbed me the wrong way. Where I had instantly liked her sister, I disliked her immensely right now.

  “He is mine, and I have nothing to be worried about.”

  Tessa simply nodded before she ducked out the front door and was gone. There was a part of me that wondered if she was going off to find Mikael, but I knew he’d already gone. If the sounds of his motorcycle taking off hadn’t clued me in, the feeling I got somewhere deep in my gut told me he was down by the end of the road that lead into the pack lands, nearly to the highway now. That must have been part of the bond, knowing where he was, because I would have put money on it.

  Ashley and I walked back into the kitchen then to see what we could do to help. The men were off to the side talking in low tones, while my mom and Sierra, Jack’s mate, were preparing some food over by the sink. Avery Daniels looked up, and noticed us, but seemed more concerned about who hadn’t followed us inside.

  “Annalise is upstairs exploring my room. She’s a very sweet girl.” I smiled at him, because I truly did like his younger daughter.

  “And Tessa?” His tone was gruff, but it didn’t seem to be aimed at me. He seemed a little peeved with his eldest daughter.

  “Stepped out on the porch, I think.” I didn’t add any compliments about her. Avery nodded in my direction, and then returned to focusing on a map the men had laid out on the kitchen table. “Mom,” I called out as I walked up behind her and threw my arms around my mom’s mid-section. “What can we do to help out?”

  My mom stopped rinsing the berries she had in front of her. “Ashley can help us here, but you should be over there.” She indicated the table full of men with a nod of her head since her hands were full.

  “Um…” I was speechless. Growing up, my father hadn’t been pack leader, but he had been council for the pack, which meant these sorts of meetings happened from time to time, but I had always been shooed away when they did. Now, I stood there feeling trapped between two worlds. My old life, as just the girl Jess who should be helping with preparations for the sending off ceremony tonight, and Jess the soon to be white wolf ruler. My dad, probably sensing my indecision, threw his arm out in invitation, and I wandered over to see what was going on. “I hate to ask for a recap, since you seem to have been busy while I was showing Ann
alise the room, and whatnot.”

  “It’s okay, Jess.” Asi was the one to speak up. I had almost forgotten he was still here. “We were discussing the areas circled in red. Those are places where Zach was physically seen by someone.” Then he pointed to a few other places on the map. “These green spots are where traces of his scent have been found.”

  “Where was Tom found?” I was going to jump in, all business. I wanted to know where exactly he’d been ambushed.

  “He was here,” Jack pointed to the map, almost at a midpoint between our pack lands and those of Avery Daniel’s pack.

  “What the hell was he doing so far out there, without backup of any kind? That doesn’t seem right.” They were all watching me, I realized, but I kept scrutinizing the map until I saw what it was that hadn’t been clicking for me. “Taking the roads, even the old dirt ones between our lands is a long ways, in a car, and more journey than most are willing to do as wolves, but…” I leaned over further, and followed the line of the mountains that bordered both the pack lands. There were thick forests and some dangerous ravines in between that made passing into each other’s lands impossible. It was why it was over a two hour journey by car, because the roads were all round-a-bout ways of getting there. “He’s leaving you false trails.” I looked up into each of their eyes, as they continued studying me. “He’s using the caves in the mountains. He’s found a pass hasn’t he?”

  Everyone around the table seemed shocked, and started taking a closer look at the map, except for my father and Avery Daniels. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, and no, Jess.” My dad said as he stood to give me his seat.

  “What do you mean yes and no?”

  “There used to be a pass, but I don’t believe there’s a soul alive today that knew all those tunnels, switchbacks, and the like that made the pass trouble from the start. Plus, bits and pieces of it caved in over the years. When your grandfather was killed, our side of the pass was closed off permanently, because we weren’t big fans of Marcus taking over instead of your father.” Avery was a blunt man, but something he said struck a chord with me.

  “No man alive today…” The thought escaped through my lips, and Asi was the first to jump on it.

  “What are you thinking, Jess?”

  “No man alive today knew them, but you closed off your side of the pass, because you didn’t trust the one dead man who could have shown Zach how to get through it.”

  “Son of a…” That was my father, and he cut himself off before he got started, but our side has been closed up for a long time too.

  “When I was there yesterday I found the other cave, where Jack saw my stuff.” My father blanched, Jack held back a smirk, and Asi had a serious ‘you’ll tell me later’ look on his face. “Anyway, there was another tunnel and cave branching off of the main one.”

  “I found that one too, Jess. It was caved in.”

  “I know it was caved in, but I felt something back there. Like a gut instinct, or…” I really wish I had a better handle on my white wolf instincts so I could articulate it better. “I just felt like there was something back there, so maybe there’s another way, something we’re missing, or it just looks like it’s caved in. I mean, I didn’t try to mess around with the few boulders that were scattered there, because I didn’t want to trigger a rock slide or something when no one knew I was out there, but none of them looked too big to lift out of the way for one of our kind.” Jack and Asi both stood up when I finished speaking.

  “Jack and I can go check it out, and be back in time for Tom’s ceremony.” Asi offered. Ashley was by his side in a second.

  “Asi?” She questioned softly.

  “We’ll be fine, my love.” It was the first time I ever heard Asi use the endearment around others, and it was sweet, but I was going to torment the hell out of him for it later, just because I could. Now didn’t seem like a good time to unleash jokes though.

  “Take Andy with you too. I don’t want anyone going anywhere in less than groups of three until this bastard is caught, and especially not until we find out who is helping him.” My father set the command in his voice, insuring those in his pack would be listening.

  “I will go with you too. I want to see exactly how this side of the pass looks. We may not have had the kind of cave-in we thought on our side if this was set up to look like one too.” Avery stated, clearly open to all the possibilities now.

  “Jess, where was the opening you saw. I wasn’t aware of it when I went before, because I picked up your scent and followed it to be sure you were okay.” There was a light behind Jack’s eyes that said he was holding some jokes of his own in right now too.

  “Instead of following the cave wall to the left, like you did to get into the other cavern, follow it to the right. There’s a big boulder behind the geothermal pool that everyone just assumes goes all the way back to the rock face of the cave. It doesn’t. There’s a narrow tunnel there, and it will be a tight fit for some of you, but it widens out again, and then you’ll see the rock slide I was talking about. I sensed another cavern back there. The space beyond the cave-in seemed hollowed out like that. I heard water drip and echo.”

  “Why didn’t Mikael tell us about that place?” Asi asked.

  “He didn’t know. He got there after I found it, and I showed him the other side first, the one with the other geo-thermal pool. Jack really did snicker then. “Shut it, Jack.”

  “Enough!” My dad cut in. “Get out there, before it starts getting too late. Take some flashlights with you too. I want to know if that’s a real collapse or set to look like one. If it’s a set-up, leave it as is, and we will go with a full party to explore it tomorrow morning. “Avery, before you go, call ahead to your second, and let him know, that way you can have men keeping watch for anyone coming out on your end. You can use my office for privacy.” My father turned and went to show Avery to his office.

  Jack took the opportunity to come whisper in my ear, “Someone’s finally a real woman now!”

  “Shut up, Jack!”

  “You should have seen your face when Eileen had to explain to poor Jameson what their baby girl had been up to in those caves. It’s probably a good thing Mikael wasn’t here then.” We were almost to the living room, but I was pretty sure everyone could still hear Jack.

  “Jack…”

  “Seriously, it was epic! And bonus, because the entire room full of people figured out what had gone down all at once. When you decide to throw caution to the wind, you go big!”

  “Damn it, Jack!” I stomped on his toes. “You’re an ass.”

  “Ouch, Jessie, that hurt! But hey, what are big almost-brothers for?”

  “If my big, almost-brother had half a brain he’d have figured things out before that whole scene played out.”

  “Water under the bridge, my friend.” He threw his arm around my shoulder casually, “especially if I get as much as I think I will for virgin blood of the wolf on EBay.”

  “Oh, gross, Jack! Virgin blood of the wolf? Seriously?” I smacked him, and he ran away, laughing out into the front yard.

  “You’re right, I’m not sure it counts as virgin blood anymore, since you know, the deed was done. There’s a conundrum for you!

  Ashley stayed behind in the kitchen for some reason, but Asi was right there on my heels, catching my elbow in his hand to keep me walking to a quiet corner of the living room. “Jess, is it true?”

  “Is what true, Asi?” My cheeks were on fire again, and I was really getting tired of having to blush my way through conversations. Most girls got to lose their virginity in private, a few had assholes brag about it in locker rooms afterwards, but my virginity was apparently topic of discussion amongst not one, or two, but three different werewolf clans. Epic indeed.

  “Did you bond with Mikael already?”

  “Oh, good lord, Asi! Seriously, my parents and Jack thought I was dead or wounded because I lost my virginity, which is a highly embarrassing topic of conve
rsation to have with all those people named, but then you have to jump in on the action too? UGGHH!”

  “Oh,” Asi was taken aback. “That’s not… I wasn’t asking about…” While it was nice to see Asriel finally stumble over his words, I was tired of the conversation already. Plus, I was a horrible liar, so if he asked me about the bonding again, I was going to end up telling him, and the cat would be out of the bag. I liked Asi a lot, and I respected how he treated my best friend, but I didn’t for a minute think this news wouldn’t make its way back to Evan.

  “We had sex, Asi. I’m no longer a virgin, and everyone here found out because Jack found a beach towel we were laying on in the cave that apparently got some of my blood on it. Is that enough humiliation for one day, or what?” My voice had raised an octave, and I think I shocked Asi enough that he forgot what he was really trying to get at, but just in case he didn’t, as I was walking away, I threw the words back over my shoulder. “We’ll be bonding at the solstice still, nothing else has changed.” I took off up the stairs then, heading for my bedroom and some peace and quiet until Mikael came back. Unfortunately, when I got upstairs, I realized I wasn’t alone. Annalise was still there, reading a book on my bed.

  “Hey,” Annalise said quickly when she took note of my face. “I can leave if you need me to.”

  “No, it’s okay. I just need to pack a bag for later, and get changed into something suitable for the sending off.”

  “I’m sorry about your friend.”

  “Who?”

  “Your friend, Tom.”

  “Oh, thank you. He was a pack mate, but I didn’t know him that well.”

  “He was nice to me. All of your pack mates were while they were staying with us.” It was a genuinely nice admission from her.

  “Thank you, I’m glad they were well behaved.” I packed my bag as Annalise went back to reading her book, and then I sat down in the big Papasan Chair in the corner of my room. I curled up, with my large gym bag down by my feet to wait for all the guys to get back from the cave, and Mikael to get back from his house. I closed my eyes, and drifted off for a bit.