Mated (Dark Ties Book 2)

by A. Vers

  She laughs abruptly and pulls me down by the back of the neck. “Oh I didn’t do it for you. I got my eye on your plus one for the run,” she whispers into my ear.

  I chuckle. “You got it, Daisy.”

  She kisses me on the cheek, steps back and waves to Nisha and Caine. “Laters.” Her lean legs bunch and she jumps out of the basin.

  Nisha gasps. “Holy shit.”

  “Delightfully blasphemous, pet,” Caine says as he tries to follow Daisy up.

  I slam my arm across his chest to keep him in place. “Half of that money is mine.”

  He widens his eyes in faux innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I growl. “Caine …”

  Nisha laughs behind me and I turn in time to watch her voluptuous ass bounce as she climbs up the slope at an easy run. Caine dips around me, hot on her heels.

  She passes him a wad of cash and pockets the rest.

  My teeth bare. “You’re both so dead.” I race up the hill after them, not sure which one I’m chasing, the extra cash or the woman carrying it.

  Chapter 13

  Nisha

  My earlier assumption that the pack is set up for the weekend like a family barbecue is entirely correct. The Sabbat Games turn out to be things for the younger shifters to do in order to start testing their place in the pack. Every moon seems to be the same. All the pack members will show up, strip down to comfortable clothes, and spend the weekend seeing whose dick is biggest.

  Tensions are high. Both among the pack and through it.

  But the worst case of it is Tanner and the Alpha, Callus. Though Tanner pretends to be oblivious, his shoulders remain tight, hardened, as Callus goes out of his way to parade through his people. Most of the women, those Tanner said were part of the inner circle, preen and gravitate to him. Daisy excluded.

  I wanted to dislike her for the easy affection Tanner seems to have for her. But the woman has done the exact opposite of what I expect. Though they were awfully cozy in the basin thing earlier, that seems to be the extent of their relationship.

  Which would be great, but he seems even less interested in me.

  Caine and Tanner walk around a group of men racing in headstand walks across the field. Their keen eyes seem to be scouring each male body as they speak in low murmurs.

  Tanner is lean and ripped as he stalks the crowd. His tattoos are a bad ass mix of sugar skulls and four leaf clovers. Something you wouldn't think would work together, he blended in a single crazy mix of Hispanic and Irish folk lore and tradition.

  But when he held me earlier …

  I wanted to roll over him, naked. Hell, I want his scent on my skin, that delicious musk that seems riddled with spice, leather, and gun oil. He damn near exudes masculine, deadly power from his pores. All in one ultra-sexy sleek package.

  “If you stare at him harder, he may turn around.”

  My head whips over.

  Daisy stands a foot away, her green eyes glittering slightly.

  I shrug but the motion is tight.

  “Look, it’s not my place to say, I know. But if you plan on joining the pack, you may want to focus somewhere besides T,” she says.

  My brows raise.

  “You seem like a decent woman. And that is strike one against you,” she adds quickly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “T isn’t a stick-around-man.” She grimaces a little. “Love him dearly, but he is the definition of a leaver.”

  “What does that say for you if you like him?” I ask. The words are bitchy, cold. I’m more angry at myself for finding interest in a guy nearly as bad as Chuck. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time, but the pull Tanner has may be worth getting burned for.

  She winces. “I get that. I do. But T helped me out of a jam a few years back. Despite his extracurriculars, he's a good guy. Loyal to that team of his and his job. But he will never have a place in this pack. Not with Callus running the show.”

  “What is the deal between them, anyway?”

  “Callus and T?” I nod, and she snorts. “Exactly what you would expect. They were best friends once. Both of them in line to lead the pack after they turned eighteen.

  My jaw drops. “Wait, T was supposed to lead the pack?”

  She nods. “Their fight was set the night T turned eighteen. But the morning of T's birthday ... “ She shivers. “We could feel him. Feel his power, his strength. He would be Alpha, and pack alliance shifted.”

  I glance back at the man on the other side of the field. His dark head is turned in profile, giving me just the strong line of his narrower jaw.

  “But he's not Alpha.”

  “Nope. He walked.”

  My head whips back to her fast enough my neck cracks. “What?”

  She nods. “It was an hour before the match and no one could find him. He had slipped away through the trees, no word. No explanation. Not long after that the horn started to blow in the Ciorcal.”

  “Callus was there on the throne, and T was gone. We had no other option but to follow Callus.”

  “It’s been years since T came back here. But none of us have forgotten what we felt when we woke up that morning. Tanner is the rightful Alpha of Silver Rock. But what ever happened that drew him away ... It was enough that it kept him away for almost eight years.”

  My eyes lock on Tanner, and I am shocked to find his silver eyes already affixed on me with a kind of super focus. It's predatory, heavy. “Can he hear us?” I ask, whispering just in case.

  She cracks a cool smile. “No, even T isn't that good.”

  I flush.

  She glances at me and climbs to her feet. “Look, the full moon is tomorrow night, and the run is a good opportunity to sample what Silver Rock has to offer.” She grins and it’s coy. “And we have quite a fair bit to offer. Should be quite the event.”

  My face flames.

  What exactly happens at a shifter run?

  “You will be here, right?” she asks.

  I nod. “Yeah. Probably.”

  Her green eyes glint. “Look forward to seeing you then.” She walks off back into the crowd and I glance around.

  Most of the inner circle is yards away with Callus and several unfamiliar males. I turn and head in the opposite direction.

  I swing by one of the food trucks and get a breakfast burrito loaded with egg, sausage, bacon, and steak before slipping into the shade of the tree line, water bottle under my arm.

  It’s cooler out of the sun. Quieter.

  A steady breeze pulls at my ponytail and my tank, tempering the fever still in my skin. I chow down on my very late breakfast and just walk along the edge of the field.

  Every few feet, I catch a glimpse of the shifters running past in bursts of energy and smooth skin. And then I catch a familiar shock of dark hair and lots of tattoos.

  Caine and Tanner stand yards away with a fewer older males. T’s face is all business as he speaks and Caine waits a step behind him like hired demon muscle.

  I lean against a thin pine and watch them work.

  If I’m being perfectly honest with myself, Tanner is fierce. Deadly. And it’s more than the brawler from the basin or his tattoos.

  He damn near screams bad ass in a yummy package. And despite Caine’s leaner build, the demon is no better with his jagged dark hair and sinister smirk. They are like really hot mercenaries.

  Heat courses through me, and I take a drink of my water to ease my suddenly dry throat.

  The wind shifts again, flowing over and around me as the trees sway and creak slightly.

  Something drops onto my shoulder.

  I look down.

  A dark droplet runs like sludge over my skin.

  I move away from the tree and look up.

  Then immediately wish I hadn’t.

  Shit.

  “Tanner,” I yell over my shoulder, heart racing and my breakfast trying to come back up. “Get your ass over here.”

  Chapter 14r />
  Tanner

  I stare up at the remains of a very human, very mauled male body and swear.

  First Nisha and now this?

  Fucking hell.

  Caine steps into my back, his hellfire gaze bare under the shade of the trees. “Gage is on the way.”

  I nod. “Feel like helping me get him down?”

  He brushes past me and his hands weave. Crimson magick spirals around the body, lifting it with ease and lowering it to the forest floor. Caine lets the magick disperse into nothing. I crouch beside the body and grimace.

  “Shredded,” I mutter as Caine comes into view next to me.

  “Teeth?”

  I point at several long slashes in one muscular thigh. “And claw.”

  “Shifter?”

  “Most like,” I say and can’t hide my frustration.

  “Same one that attacked Nisha?” he asks.

  My eyes dip of their own accord to the two women nearby. Nisha stands with Daisy, a new unopened bottle of water in hand. She isn’t freaking out, but there is a rigidness to her body now. Not to mention her scent is riddled in fear and anger.

  So much anger.

  “Maybe,” I murmur.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Callus’ voice rips under the trees and I can’t quite stop my growl.

  I climb to my feet and face him. “Exactly what I fucking tried to warn you about last night.”

  His already glowing eyes track behind me to the dead male and he stills. Then his gaze raises to me. “Did you do this?”

  Nisha makes a sound behind him.

  I ignore it and glower at the Alpha. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  He crosses his arms. “You’ve been gone for seven fucking years, Faust. Now you show back up and I have a dead human on pack land.”

  My arms cord and I close my hands into fists. “Maybe you developed a taste for flesh, Callus.” His neck colors in the dimness of the trees. “Who knows?”

  I take a step closer. “But I warned you last night that you had a rogue on pack land. You didn’t want to listen. But I bet you fucking will now.”

  His teeth bare and he crowds my front. “You’re a guest at Silver Rock. I can easily dismiss that status. Your call.”

  My chest bumps his and claws rip from my fingertips.

  Cold water splashes over the side of my face and I back up, sputtering. “What the fuck?”

  Nisha glowers at both of us, empty bottle in hand. “Are you both fucking kidding me?” she demands loudly.

  Callus turns to her, hair dripping.

  She throws the bottle at us and props her hands on her hips. “There is a fucking dead human and you both are turning this shit into a god-damn pissing match.” Her sea-green eyes are dark as they track first over myself and then the Alpha. “Call the fucking cops. The coroner. Do something productive besides measuring your fucking dicks.”

  Daisy smirks behind her as the silence grows deafening.

  I wipe my face as Callus tosses me a glare.

  “Of course, Ms. Rawlins,” he says as he looks away. I don’t need to see his face to know he has plastered some smarmy worm-like expression on his features.

  The arrogant fucking prick.

  “My team is already on the way,” I grind out. Callus stiffens and I smile coldly at the back of his head. “You may want to extend that guest status, Alpha.”

  Tension thrums through his back, but he inclines his head. “You will keep me informed of every step of the investigation, Faust.” He shoves his hand through his now damp hair and peers at me over his shoulder. “And I’ll find Ebony to assist you.”

  It’s more than I expected, so I nod.

  He storms off and the pack members that shoved their way under the trees with us disperse toward the edge of the field. Close enough to watch, but not get in the way.

  Nisha continues to breathe heavy nearby, and her anger rings her in a raw cloud of emotion. It’s all I can do not to reach for her. To soothe the beast I know is swimming very close under her skin.

  My eyes meet Daisy’s and I jerk my chin. The other woman walks over to Nisha and speaks in a low voice. Nisha slowly turns away and they move back out into the sun with the rest of the pack.

  Despite her familiarity with trauma, with her attack still so fresh …

  She doesn’t need to deal with this shit too.

  Caine’s balmy heat pours over my side.

  “Go wait for Gage,” I tell him.

  “What are you going to do?”

  I look at him and finally let the light spill from my eyes. “Hunt.”

  Chapter 15

  Tanner

  I sniff along the dead male’s body, pulling old blood and musk deep into my lungs. There is a snap nearby and my head jerks up as a familiar midnight wolf slips between the trees, two broad shouldered timber wolves close on her heels.

  Dark mist swirls and a lean dark-skinned woman steps free.

  My eyes roam from her bare feet up to the cornrows of her long, shiny hair. She smirks at my scrutiny, and once again, I can't decide if it would be more fun to fuck her or fight her.

  “Tanner,” she says in way of a greeting. Her voice is low, sultry. Rolling.

  “Ebony.”

  She inclines her head and the pack thetas slip away.

  She leans against a slim oak, skin tight leather shorts low on her hips. Her body is all muscle and hard lines. Little curve. But as the pack’s enforcer, she doesn't need big breasts and a tight ass to bring the other animals to their knees.

  She waits, appraising me from black eyes. “Callus asked me to aid you.”

  I step to the side, giving her an unobscured view of the dead male. Her expression remains impassive. Empty. But she pushes from the tree to walk closer.

  “Recognize him?” I ask as her keen eyes track over the body.

  “Depends.”

  “On?”

  “On what’s in it for me,” she says coolly.

  I blink. “Since when does the Loitímer take recompense for aiding the pack?”

  She looks at me. “Things are changing, Tanner. We can't all survive on the scraps the Alpha feels generous enough to toss our way. Surely you can sense that.”

  The jab is pointed and cold.

  Glaring, I purposefully open myself up to the ciorcal. My body tightens like a tuning fork.

  The energy flowing through the land is weak, almost non-fucking-existent. It ebbs and flows like a tide or maybe water trickling through the rocks of a brook.

  “Where is the power?” I ask, voice low, edged.

  She walks up next to me. “Callus takes most of it and does not share it with any but those he deems worthy.”

  The growl that pulls from me is ripped from between my rapidly changing teeth. “The circuit is meant to be shared. Not withheld.”

  “I knew you would grasp the problem,” Ebony says. I look at her, noting the long white teeth of her beast form as she smiles.

  “What do you want from me?”

  Her eyes glitter. “Challenge Callus. Retake the pack.”

  I back up. “I can't.”

  “Can't or won't, Tanner?” she asks, voice hardening. “We know what you are. Who you are. Why do you continue to deny it? Why come back here if you have no intention of claiming what is yours?”

  My eyes trail of their own accord to Nisha. She stands with Daisy near the edge of the trees, her sea foam gaze locked on me and the woman at my side.

  “A human?” Ebony hisses. “You would deny your people for one of the flesh bags?”

  I snarl. “I deny my people nothing. And that human was attacked on Silver Rock land, Ebony. I need to know who was near the basin last night.”

  She watches me, a trace of gold light filtering into her irises as the wolf under her skin begs to come play. “I won't sell out my pack for nothing.”

  “But you would sell them out for power?” I ask, advancing on her. At just under six feet tall, Ebony comes to my jaw. She’s t
all, lean. Powerful. She doesn't back down.

  Her teeth gnash. “Not all here are my pack. I ask for a sip. A taste of what I could be. Of what we all could be.” She tracks her glittering gaze over my face. “I will swear fealty to you, and you alone.”

  My heart slams, and I know she can hear it.

  Where Ebony goes, her thetas go. I glance past her to the two large timber wolves. Low in power, but high in strength. They have the force to barrel through anyone present. To tear them down. Or apart. Depending on Ebony's mood.

  “What say you, Alpha?” One dark hand flows down my chest, idly petting me. I grab her wrist, fingers overlapping and digging into the thin bones of her wrist.

  “Don't call me that,” I snap.

  She preens. “Then you agree?”

  To take them as pack is the first line in the proverbial fucking sand. A line I never wanted to draw. Daisy would be better suited as Alpha. More stable. Sane.

  The cat inside of me rails as I wait, trying to rip through my skin in an Alpha shift. To do what I walked away from years ago. I force the cat into submission, near to doubling in half from the pain it causes. My eyes lock with Ebony’s shining gaze. She knows she has me.

  I growl, grab her by the back of the neck, and wrench her to me. My lips slant over hers with force.

  She purrs, feasting at me. But my power breaks free to spill between us. It flows from my mouth to hers, filling her reserves and overflowing. My body responds whether I want it to or not.

  My dick hardens at the seductive press, an exchange that is not meant for such intimate contact. Not unless it is between mates.

  My hands flow down her back, grabbing her narrow ass and lifting her over my cock. She makes a noise of delight. Her arms wind around my neck as she sucks and bites at my mouth. I turn and slam her back into the tree hard.

  Her teeth loosen, but not before blood trickles down my chin. I stare at her, taking in the near luminous sheen to her irises, her erratic breathing, and the spike of arousal in her scent.

  “Alpha,” she breathes in a sultry wash over my mouth.

  I snarl. “The name, Ebony. Give me the name of the beast in the basin.”