by Sabrina Rue
The others appeared several feet away. Quiet and watchful, they waited for direction. Up close, she recognized the face of one from photos in her father’s den many years in her past.
Before her mother died, before her father allowed himself to die, before her siblings died, before she and Hope ran for their lives.
The blonde in front of her was the Second of the man who held her immobile. The third man was likely an official representative, sent to ensure Natural Law was obeyed.
Parliament, and the Council by extension, was strict about situations such as this. Whatever she’d done, her execution would fall within their laws.
The man behind her would have made certain.
If they thought to break her, they’d be disappointed. She wouldn’t beg. There would be no tears.
She lifted her head, stretched her neck to expose her throat, and stilled her body. Never submissive, never defeated.
The last of her reserves went into her voice. She infused it with strength she no longer possessed. “Do it. You’ve waited so long. Just fucking do it. I don’t care anymore.”
Exhaling deeply, she waited for death.
The arm tightened around her torso and his other hand slid into her damp hair to palm the back of her head.
She felt his head lower and forced her body to relax as she whispered a prayer for her sister’s protection.
His breath was warm against her skin. She felt him inhale her scent and couldn’t control the shiver that worked its way through her. She’d never been so close to him and her body didn’t care that he intended to kill her.
“Why have you run from me, Mate?”
CHAPTER THREE
Harmony’s body stilled. Desire, fear, and confusion swirled through her, but she beat them back.
“I’m not your Mate.”
A low growl rumbled from his chest, vibrated through her back, and sent her body the order to submit.
Primal instincts, traits she’d been born with, pushed her to bow to his dominance. Not caring if he scented her inner conflict, she fought it.
Bracing her feet, curling her hands into fists, she refused.
“Why then do you run?”
The question was one she didn’t expect. Deceptively quiet, the snarled words skittered over her nerve endings.
Humans wouldn’t have understood him. His animal was too close to the surface. His cock pressed against the crease of her ass. Their jeans separated them but she felt the heat of him and knew he was hard.
Her womb flexed in response to a need she hated. If she hoped to live, she had to crush down everything inside herself that was naturally drawn to him.
“Why do I…?” Incredulous, she kept her voice low but strong. “Why do I run? I run to stay alive.”
Another growl, louder this time, before he nipped her earlobe and made her gasp. “You think me incapable of protecting you, Mate?”
His fingers tightened in her hair but he leashed his strength. He didn’t hurt her. She felt the tips of his claws on her scalp but there was no pressure, no pain.
It added another level of sensation that made her dizzy.
“I…” She didn’t know what he wanted and she hated the trickle of fear in her blood. Suddenly furious at the game he played, she let it bleed into the words she all but hissed. “Protect me? You ordered my death. The death of my sisters. My brother.”
He would kill her, but she would not show weakness.
Fighting against the powerful hold he maintained on her, she screamed in rage, “Phoebe was only eight! She was gutted in her pink and white bedroom. Caleb’s head was severed from behind. He was only fourteen! He never saw the cowards who took his life.”
The memory of Phoebe’s screams as she and Hope raced from the barn with shotguns in hand was brutally vivid.
She cried in impotent rage, wanting to hurt the man who’d taken so much from her for reasons she didn’t understand.
“My brother, my sister! Running was the only choice and I would rip out your throat if I was able. Fight me. Let me leave you with a reminder of the so-called Mate you betrayed.”
Suddenly the band across her body was gone and he spun her around to face him.
The man who featured in her every dream since she was sixteen and every nightmare since the death of her father stood too close, his breathing almost violent as he glared down at her.
They were nose-to-nose as his hands gripped her upper arms.
They froze in shock as their eyes locked and the full physical impact of what they were to one another made itself known. Harmony’s emotions collided upon truly seeing him in person for the first time.
She pulled his scent deep into her lungs and tasted the forest, a hint of cool spice, and all things wild and free.
He was everything she’d wanted in her old life. Six-five or taller, his body sculpted and powerful, hair black as a raven’s wing, and eyes so dark blue they looked black.
When Harmony was still considered a girl by their people, their Shaman answered her mother’s fears as Journey Kassis lay dying from a disease no one could detect or cure.
Even as the devastation of her condition took everything she had, the Shaman gave her peace of mind in the knowledge that her oldest daughter’s Mate had been located.
Caleb and Phoebe were too young to search for their Mates and there was confusion regarding Hope’s own future.
According to the Shaman, this man was Harmony’s destiny, as she was his. The powerful Alpha of Texas Pack and the half-breed daughter of the Alpha of Montana Pack.
Her mother was gone almost two years before a pack uprising ended in her father’s death. Harmony believed he sought death to end his deep, endless sorrow over losing her.
Unlike those of the Greater Kingdoms, Weres didn’t die when their beloved did. Still, the pain was often more than could be endured without losing all semblance of sanity.
As the former Alpha’s half-breed get, all the Kassis children were exiled without benefit of a Parliament hearing or any of their old Pack standing for them.
Nothing that happened at the time made sense.
Half-breeds in their society were prized due to their adaptability, fertility, and resiliency in childbirth.
Harmony and Hope took their younger siblings to their mother’s childhood home in New Mexico and tried to blend in. They lived quietly and happily for more than a year and managed to make a new life far from everything they knew.
Until a quiet summer evening exploded in screams of terror.
* * *
Ryker Blackwell stared down at the woman in his arms, his nostrils flaring at the scent of her anger and fear.
For a long moment, he allowed himself to absorb everything about her. Then he tried to make sense of what she said.
He’d never been so close to her. It was distracting.
Shamans kept Mates apart until the binding ceremony. He hadn’t understood the necessity before but now it was clear.
Contracts and treaties – even seeking answers to his many questions – could never withstand the need that thundered through his body for the woman in front of him.
His gums tingled with the desire to Mark her. His claws ached to dig into the earth as he took her from behind. His cock throbbed in time with his heart.
The need to bury himself inside her, to claim her, was the thought that played repeatedly through his mind.
Her damp hair was almost to her waist, chestnut brown with warm reds shot through it. Almond-shaped eyes were the color of spring moss that covered the forest floor.
Lean, possibly malnourished, and toned where their bodies touched. She was tall for a half-breed female. The top of her head was almost to his shoulder.
The barest hint of her oncoming heat teased him, made the blood rush hot through his veins. Within weeks, she’d be in the midst of it and there’d be no way to resist her.
Ryker allowed his fury for what she’d been through to flow through him but pulled it back, hid
it so she wouldn’t fear him.
He never wanted her to be afraid again, especially not of him.
Loosening his grip on her arms, he rubbed her shoulders gently. Inhaling, he lifted one hand to smooth back the hair the breeze blew across her cheek.
She flinched and his chest tightened painfully.
“There’s no need to fear me. I will not hurt you.” He watched her jaw clench and knew she didn’t believe him. “Who did these things to you, to your family, in my name?”
That someone would make such moves in the name of an Alpha went against every law their people lived by.
Harmony knew their laws. Fear, anger, and confusion slammed through her and he scented the white-hot whirlwind of emotion.
She snapped her teeth at him. “Your fucking people. They didn’t make introductions before slaughtering children.”
She struggled against him, drawing on the energy she had left. He held her firmly but carefully.
“Execute me and end this game you play. It’s beneath an Alpha to toy with his kill.” Lifting her chin, she exposed her throat and stared at a point over his shoulder. “I’m fucking tired of running.”
His eyes moved slowly over the face he dreamed of every night and years of tension eased away. “Harmony, tell me…would you believe anything I told you right now?”
She cut her eyes to his and shook her head.
“I thought not. You have nothing to fear. You’re the Female Alpha of Texas Pack. Under my protection, the protection of my Second, and the protection of Pack. This is Natural Law. You are my destined Mate. I could not do you harm, even at the cost of my own life.”
He ignored her expression of disbelief and pulled her gently but firmly to his side. Allowing his hand to curl around her waist, he turned to the other men who watched in silence.
“Secure her vehicle and belongings. We return at once.”
“No!” One moment, she was almost docile, the next, she fought wildly. “I have to find Hope!”
He held her. “Easy. Be easy, Harmony. Talk to me. Tell me what you need, and I’ll make it so.”
His hand cupped the side of her head and stroked her hair, gentling her as one would a wild horse.
She responded instantly to his touch and he could see that her reaction confused her. The pulse in her neck pounded hard and fast. She was uncertain and exhausted.
“Tell me what you need, Mate.” She released a small whimper and he stroked his hand over her hair again.
“I smell your terror and I can see the toll this ordeal has taken on you. Let me help you. Let me earn your trust.”
Closing the distance between them, he wrapped his arms around her upper body. She leaned into the contact before she stiffened. As her Alpha, her instincts pushed her to obey. As her Mate, she had almost no defenses against him.
Employing the Alpha gift to compel Pack, he murmured, “Tell me how to help you, Harmony.”
She swayed in his arms and he held her closer. “Hope. I can’t leave until I know if she’s alive.”
“Your sister travels here?” he asked in surprise.
Her entire body strained, and she released a guttural growl. He’d never seen a female as strong. She fought to resist his questions, his touch.
He cursed the events that caused her to fear the one man who could never hurt her. “I mean her no harm. I swear this to you in front of a Parliament representative. As your blood, she comes under my protection. I would never forsake an oath given freely, Harmony.”
A growl rumbled through her and she hissed, “Is a betrothal not an oath, Alpha?”
“Yes. The most binding oath one of our kind can make.” Lifting his hand to her cheek, her eyes darted to his and he saw the uncertainty there. “I did not forsake you, Harmony. Nothing could have made me do so.”
He gathered her nearer his chest and wrapped her in warmth to ease the chill of her skin.
“I would never betray you. I could not, Mate.”
“I-I don’t believe you,” she whispered.
Distress and chaos built in her body, her blood pressure climbed higher and higher. The scent of it filled the air around them with electricity.
“I ran. I would have died! I don’t understand! Why have you changed your mind about my death?”
His other hand palmed her skull. “I didn’t order your death, Harmony. I didn’t hurt your family. I was told you ran from me and took another.”
The sound of her heart pounding in her chest was nothing compared to the speed of her breathing.
Trying to get enough oxygen, she began to shake violently. “I-I…no. Phoebe, Caleb, Hope. Oh, my gods, no.”
He caught her against him as she fell into darkness.
CHAPTER FOUR
Gripping Harmony to him, Ryker threw his head back and released a howl of barely leashed fury.
It went on and on, startling the animals nearby and triggering the two men in front of him to add their own animalistic voices to the still night.
When the echo of it trailed away, he stared down into the face of the woman he’d glimpsed several times over the past weeks, only to lose her again.
Her ability to evade even her Mate was something that both infuriated and impressed him. He’d never seen a faster runner, even among the Werecats.
Only when both teams he sent to find Harmony and bring her to Texas Pack headquarters managed to lose her repeatedly did Ryker inform his Second that they would take up the task themselves.
“I’ll not leave it to others one more day. I must have answers. She can look me in the eye and provide them.” Punching a hole through the wall of the barn, he added, “We leave now.”
They chased her across fourteen states, always barely missing her. Until he glimpsed her in Oregon.
The scent of her blew past him on the air and every instinct inside him turned for her, ran for her.
Still, she evaded them. Her running form getting further and further away. She had an unbelievable ability to remove herself from his line of sight long enough to change direction. Long enough to steal a car.
Every time she slipped through his fingers, it took them hours to find her trail again. Harmony was resourceful, and her energy never seemed to flag.
Even Jax, the best hunter among them, struggled to stay on her trail. When they picked up Harmony’s scent outside Salt Lake City, he mumbled, “Boss, I’ve never seen a Were so skilled.”
Frustrated but also proud, Ryker responded, “She was trained by her father. We should have expected this.” He sighed. “Remind me to apologize to the first two teams we sent after her. We’re doing no better.”
A call from a human male in Lebanon who’d done business with the local Weres for decades was the only reason they’d found her again.
At the time, they were going the wrong direction and Ryker imagined she’d placed used clothing on a moving vehicle to buy herself time.
Standing in the middle of a rundown campground, the night dark and quiet, he raked his fingers through Harmony’s hair.
“Finally…finally, I have you.”
He held her close and buried his face at the bend of her shoulder. Filling his lungs with the scent that made his blood boil, his heart race, a low growl rumble from his chest.
There was no way to stop the extension of his canines or the glow of his eyes. They were biological reactions to the only being on the planet who suited him in every way.
“The world will be right again, I promise you.”
Planting a chaste kiss on her jaw, he lightly licked her skin. A whimper of need escaped him and he breathed through it.
Forcing himself to straighten, he held her closer. Raising his eyes, he stared at his Second and snapped his teeth.
The Parliament representative stilled instantly and bowed his head. Their people were territorial and prone to violence. Arman recognized that he needed to let the Alpha and his Second come to an understanding.
“Alpha. Be easy,” Jax said carefully.
“Mine.” Ryker knew his voice was inhuman. “Mine.”
“Yours, Alpha. You have your Mate at last.”
His arms tightened on Harmony’s painfully thin body and he didn’t blink for almost a minute. His Second didn’t flinch.
Exhaling roughly, logic returned. Ryker loosened his hold on the woman he held and murmured, “I…apologize, my friend.”
“There’s no need, Alpha. Do you think I don’t understand?” He shook his head. “I know the toll these years have taken on you.” His Pack’s second-in-command, his best friend, his oldest ally was lean, almost pretty.
Many underestimated how lethal Jax could be, distracted by angelic golden hair and gentle brown eyes. He used the perceptions others had of him to his advantage.
Nodding, Ryker supported her with one arm so he could move her hair away from her face.
The breeze lifted the damp strands and he wondered what it would look like dry, wild, when she was healthy again.
He murmured, “She weighs nothing.” To the other men, he said, “We need to wait for her to check the post office for contact from her sister.”
“One of them was spotted here by local Weres last winter. It could have been Hope.” He added, “It’s difficult to tell with twins. Their scents are identical.”
Ryker breathed deeply of the faint scent of oranges that wafted from Harmony’s skin and said softly, “Not to me.” Meeting his friend’s eyes, he added, “Soon enough, you’ll know the difference between them as well.”
“Be certain, Alpha,” Jax replied. “Not every Mated pair includes a Second…”
The Parliament representative interjected, “Alpha pairs must choose a Second. It ensures the continuity of Pack should an Alpha fall. In this, your instincts will be powerful.”
Ryker didn’t intend to growl.
Arman smiled carefully with his head lowered in deference. “Once you’ve claimed and Marked your Mate, Alpha Blackwell, you won’t be able to deny the biological imperative for your Second. There’s no need to think about it now.”
“She needs food, rest.” Cutting his eyes to Jax, he said, “Find adequate lodging. Secure her belongings.”