by Lola Gabriel
He still couldn’t understand why she would lie to him about her feelings. It wasn’t like he didn’t feel the same way and she was trying to save herself from admitting she was into him.
He had made it entirely clear that he was into her, and that he wanted them to make a go of things. So why, then, would she pretend that what they had didn’t exist? Why would she pretend that she couldn’t feel the connection between them? Rocco had no answers to those questions. All he knew was that Marin was meant to be his. And he was almost certain that she felt it too.
As he tried to work out what she was doing sending him away when it was clearly such a bad idea, he also began to ponder his own next move. He was at his parents’ place again, waiting to get the enchantment, but now he was wondering if it was such a good idea. What if he took the enchantment and completely forgot his feelings for Marin? Didn’t he owe it to both of them to fight for her and at least try things between them and see where they went? Or was it better for them both if he pretended he believed Marin when she said she was over him and just let her get on with her life?
In the end, Rocco found himself on his feet pacing the floor when his father came into the room. He frowned when he saw Rocco pacing the ground.
“You look nervous, son,” he said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. The enchantment is nothing like the rumors claim. Seriously, you just take a drink of a potion Simeon, the high warlock, has made.”
“It’s not that,” Rocco said. He flashed his father a smile. “Although that is reassuring to know.”
Rocco’s father sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to him. Rocco sat down beside him.
“What is it, then?” he asked.
Rocco thought for a moment. Was it a good idea to be honest with his father about this? He and his father had always been close and he had been able to go to him with anything and he always got good, solid advice from him. This time, though, it felt different. Would his father give him impartial advice when he was so likely to disapprove of Marin as his choice of mate?
Oh, what the hell, Rocco thought to himself. It’s not like he can do anything to me that I’m not debating on doing to myself by taking the enchantment anyway.
“I like this girl,” Rocco started. He gave a soft laugh. “I more than like her, Dad. I think she’s the one I’m meant to be with. I’m pretty sure you and Mom won’t approve of her, but despite that, the idea of not being with her makes me feel empty inside.”
“Who is she?” Rocco’s father asked him. Rocco didn’t respond straight away and his father smiled. “Now that you’ve told me I’ll disapprove of her, I bet she’s nowhere near as bad a choice as I am imagining her to be.”
Rocco figured that much at least was probably true. He decided to tell his father who she was. What harm could it do? It wasn’t like it would change anything.
“Marin. Marin Bailey,” Rocco said with a sigh of resignation.
“What makes you think your mom and I wouldn’t approve of her?” Rocco’s father asked him.
Rocco sighed. He knew what his father was doing. He wanted to make Rocco focus on the negative things about the possibility of a relationship with Marin and then he figured Rocco would see for himself why Marin wasn’t suitable as a mate for the alpha of the pack. It was a waste of their time; Rocco already knew the answer to that one and it didn’t change a thing.
“Well, her family are known to be troublemakers,” Rocco said with a shrug.
“That’s true. They are,” Rocco’s father said. “But Marin isn’t responsible for the actions of anyone except for herself, and any future children she has while they are still minors. And she isn’t trouble. In fact, I think she’s a very nice girl who has her head screwed on tightly.”
“Wait,” Rocco said, hardly daring to believe he had understood this correctly. Are you saying that you do approve of Marin as a mate? That I could be with her and still take over one day as the pack alpha?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” his father nodded.
Rocco couldn’t believe that his father was serious, but he knew he would never get his hopes up like that over something so important, and he felt himself breaking into a smile. The smile faded slightly as a new thought came to Rocco.
“Then I can’t take the enchantment today, can I?” Rocco said.
His father frowned and shook his head.
“You must take the enchantment today whether you want to or not, I’m afraid. It’s not optional for you, Rocco. As the heir to the pack and the son of one of the ruling couples of the USA, you have to take the enchantment if you want to fulfill your destiny,” he said.
“But you said I could do both. That I could be with Marin and still run the pack,” Rocco said.
“Oh, that’s what you’re worried about,” his father said with a smile. “If you’re right about Marin being the one for you, then you have nothing to worry about from the enchantment. It works by drawing you to your one true mate. That means it will confirm it for you if that is Marin. You’ll be drawn to her.”
“And what if she’s not my one true mate? I’ll lose my chance with her,” Rocco said.
“True,” his father agreed. “But think of how amazing you feel when you’re with this girl. And then consider that if she’s not your one true mate, you’ll feel even better with your true mate than you do with Marin.”
“I don’t think it’s possible for me to feel better than I do when I’m with Marin,” Rocco admitted with a shy smile.
His father beamed at him and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Then you have absolutely nothing to fear from the enchantment. It will take you straight to her, and if she has any reservations of her own, they’ll disappear too,” his father said.
“What makes you think she has reservations?” Rocco asked with a frown.
“Well, the fact that you thought we wouldn’t approve tells me you and she discussed the possibility of that being the case and she likely thought the same thing. I figured that means there’s a good chance she’s holding back in case you choose her and regret it. This way, you don’t have to choose and it will remove her misgivings,” Rocco’s father explained.
As soon as his father said the words, Rocco knew that they were true. They explained everything, giving him answers to the questions he had thought he would never be able to answer. The smile began to spread across his face again and he was so happy, he even found himself wanting to laugh.
“That’s why she told me that what we had was just a bit of fun and that we couldn’t see each other again. I knew she felt the connection between us, but I couldn’t figure out why she would lie about this. And it was to save me from having to make a choice between her and the pack? Well, if I didn’t know she was meant to be with me before, I sure do now. She’s putting the pack’s wellbeing and my happiness ahead of her own,” Rocco said.
His father was cut off from answering by the doorbell ringing.
“That’ll be Simeon,” Rocco’s father said, standing up and crossing the room. “Are you ready to do this, Rocco?”
Rocco nodded and smiled, and for the first time since he had decided to walk away from all of this for Marin, he knew he really was ready to take the enchantment. It would lead him straight back to Marin, he was sure of it now that he had talked to his father.
Rocco stood up when his father came back into the room with Simeon in tow. He wiped his hand down the leg of his jeans, aware that his palm was a little bit sweaty from nerves. He told himself he had nothing to be nervous about, but it didn’t really help.
“Simeon, how are you?” Rocco said, closing the gap between them and shaking Simeon’s hand.
“I’m good, thanks,” Simeon replied. “And you? Are you nervous?”
“I was,” Rocco admitted. “But my dad and I talked and now I’m more excited, to be honest.”
“Fabulous, fabulous,” Simeon said. “Sit down, then, and let’s get started.”
Rocco walked back
to the couch and took the seat he had just vacated. He waited, filled with nervous excitement, as Simeon dug through his bag and came out holding a small glass vial filled with purple liquid. He smiled and offered the vial to Rocco, who took it and uncapped it.
“Do I just swallow it or do I need to do something else first?” he asked.
“Just swallow it,” Simeon confirmed, smiling at Rocco’s eagerness.
Rocco poured the liquid into his mouth and swallowed it, surprised that the mixture tasted nice. He had been expecting it to be bitter, but instead, it was sweet and almost fruity and Rocco thought it would go well sitting out by a pool on a nice sunny day.
“All done,” Simeon said. “How do you feel?”
Rocco considered Simeon’s words. How did he feel? Disappointingly, he felt no different really. His wolf stirred a little but it soon settled down and Rocco frowned.
“I don’t feel anything,” he said. “I just feel normal. I don’t think it’s worked for me.”
“Oh no, it has worked. Feeling normal after taking the potion is good,” Simeon said. “You’re not supposed to feel anything, but occasionally, we get someone who the potion disagrees with and they can feel all sorts of strange things.”
“There’s definitely nothing strange going on,” Rocco said. “So, what do I do now?”
“Nothing,” Simeon said. “Just keep on living your life as usual, that’s all.”
Rocco smiled and nodded his head. He pictured Marin and his heart skipped a beat. Of course he wanted to go to her, but he truthfully had no idea if that was the enchantment’s doing or not. He had wanted to go to her ever since he had left her place the other day.
“Do you have a minute before you leave, Simeon?” Rocco’s father asked. “There’s something I really would like to discuss with you while you’re here.”
Simeon nodded his head.
“Yes, of course. What is it?” he asked.
Rocco’s father beckoned to Simeon and began to leave the room.
“I need to show you something first. It’s in my study. Rocco, I won’t be too long, okay?” he said. “But if you have things to be getting on with, don’t feel like you have to wait around for me.”
Rocco nodded, deciding to wait for his father to return. He wanted to ask him how he had felt after he had taken the enchantment when it had been his turn, and if it had made him think of his mate. It would have been different for his father, though—he hadn’t known Rocco’s mom before taking the enchantment.
The door opened and Rocco looked up, surprised his father and Simeon were finished their meeting so quickly. He smiled when he saw it wasn’t his father coming into the room, but his mom. She smiled back, but he could see she looked a bit stressed out.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I have a package I need to get to Mark. He needs to have it within the next twenty-four hours and none of the delivery services I’ve tried will overnight it. They’re all saying I’m too late,” she said. “It’s only morning. How bloody early do they expect me to be?”
Mark was one of the pack betas, running the wolf pack in central Nevada, a good two or three hours from where they were now. Rocco opened his mouth to ask his mom if she couldn’t ask one of the royal guard to run the package up to Mark when she smiled and nodded her head.
“Of course,” she said, as though answering a question no one had asked. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Rocco, will you take the package up to Mark for me?”
Rocco nodded his head, unable to think of any way to refuse to carry out her request. And really, what would be the point in refusing? Even if Rocco didn’t go to Nevada, he had his answer about his one true mate. Marin wasn’t the one. The enchantment was taking him further away from her, not closer to her.
Rocco felt his heart sinking and he nodded absently as his mom told him she was going to go and grab the parcel from the study. Rocco had been so sure that Marin was the one, and now that he had learned he had been wrong all along, he really didn’t know how to handle the news. Maybe getting away from this place was the best thing for him. Maybe after he dropped off the package with Mark, he would just keep driving and see where he ended up.
7
Marin shook her head. She still couldn’t believe she was here, locked up like some common criminal. She had thought that she had known what she was getting herself into when she had agreed to come here, but she hadn’t been expecting this. Her captors knew she was no criminal, that she was here by choice, and while she hadn’t expected to be welcomed with open arms and treated like the guest of honor, she had thought she would be treated with respect at least.
The men who had brought Marin here and put her in the cell hadn’t hurt her, but they had been anything but respectful, barking orders at her and pushing her around if she didn’t obey them quickly enough. She had twice told them to stop and that she was quite capable of walking without them dragging her, but it was as though she hadn’t spoken at all. They just kept going, ignoring her pleas until she had given up even trying to talk to them.
It was Kyle who had gotten her into this mess. Well, no, technically, that wasn’t true. Technically, she had gotten herself into this mess by stepping in to take Kyle’s place. He had been up to his usual tricks and this time, he had crossed the wrong person, running his mouth and then starting with the threats, only for it to turn out that the man he was insulting was a bear shifter. And not just any old bear shifter either. The one he had chosen to insult was one of the higher-ranking members of his pack.
He had followed Kyle home and learned where to find him and then he had sent troops in to collect Kyle and take him to the main bear court where his fate would be decided. When the troops had arrived at the house, Marin had been watching the boys and she had begged and pleaded for the soldiers to spare Kyle, but they wouldn’t hear of it, insisting someone needed to be punished for this.
In the end, she had suggested taking his place as their prisoner, as they had said someone needed to be punished for the crime, almost as though they didn’t care who it was, as long as someone was held accountable. They had agreed to that, saying that they were just as happy to punish Kyle this way, leaving him with the knowledge that his sister had taken the consequences for his actions.
Marin had no idea how long she would have to wait in the jail cell before her punishment commenced. Unless, of course, this was her punishment, because she wasn’t exactly enjoying her time here. She knew by the changing light in the tiny slit of a window in the cell that she had been here for four nights, and in that time, she had been well fed and given plenty of clean water to drink, but no one would answer her questions of where she was or how long she would be here, and certainly not her questions about what would happen to her.
Marin blinked in surprise when the door to her cell opened. Up until then, any time she had been brought food or anything, it had been passed through a small flap in the door. She stood up from the hard bench where she was seated, the thin mattress doing nothing to make the bench comfortable, and she frowned as a man entered the cell. He stood blocking the doorway. He didn’t look particularly unkind and Marin didn’t think he was there to harm her, but she also got the impression that if she tried to get past him and escape, he would hurt her without hesitation.
“What’s going on?” Marin asked.
She didn’t really expect an answer, but this time, the man surprised her. He gestured to the bench she had just vacated.
“Sit down and I will explain,” he said.
Marin sat down and looked up at the man expectantly.
“Your trial has been scheduled for today,” he said. “For two p.m.”
“But I don’t have a lawyer,” Marin objected.
The man laughed softly.
“This isn’t a John Grisham novel. This is real life. And in real life, this is how we bears do things,” he said.
“Okay,” Marin said, trying to swallow down her panic. “So how does it work, then?”
She was afraid of the answer, but she knew she had to learn what she could and at least try to prepare herself for the process.
“You’ll be taken from your cell and you will stand before some of the pack elders, including the man whom your family member insulted. The pack beta will be present and he will hear the victim’s story and your own, and from there, a decision will be made as to your fate,” he explained.
Marin felt slightly better after his explanation. At least she would be given a chance to put forth her side of the story.
“And what likely outcomes might there be?” she asked, expecting to be told she would be fined or be made to complete some sort of community service, working for the bear pack for a time.
“You will either be declared innocent, which, let’s be honest, is unlikely in these circumstances as we all know you came here voluntarily, or you will be executed,” the man said.
“Executed?” Marin repeated, shock making her brave enough to shout her exclamation. “Are you kidding me?”
“Lower your voice,” the man snapped instantly, ignoring what she had said.
Marin did as she was told and when she spoke again, her voice was a lot closer to its normal volume.
“Are you honestly telling me that I might be executed? For something that isn’t even so much a crime as it is about hurting someone’s feelings?” she said, still shocked to the core to hear this.
“If you were a bear, you would be put to work on something until you learned your lesson. But you’re not a bear and generally, our beta has no time to waste teaching other species our ways, because educating you will not benefit us in any way,” the man said as though this was something trivial they were discussing rather than Marin’s life.
“What about a fine?” Marin said, trying once more to swallow down the panic that threatened to engulf her. “My family has money and you can’t say that having some extra money given to you wouldn’t benefit your pack.”