I could do that. I had to. I had nothing to lose anymore. Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes as I nodded.
A chair scraped out across the floor, then creaked as a heavy body descended on it. Dare’s gaze tracked his brother’s movements before focusing back on me. “Are you a mole sent by Xan’s pack to spy on us?”
“No,” I said quickly.
“Why did your brother leave?”
“To rescue our sister.”
Bay made an odd sound, and Dare tilted his head. “What did you say?”
I slowly raised my body into a sitting position, Dare still crouched over me. I needed to look him directly in the eye, so that he saw I was telling the truth. “I’d always wanted to leave the Bluefoot pack. They killed our parents, for fuck’s sake. But it wasn’t until Xan said he planned to mate with my sister after her first muto that I knew I had to get my family out. I’ve seen the mates he’s chosen. They last maybe a year.”
“Fuck,” Bay muttered.
“So, I made a plan. I got Jude out, hid him away, and I was heading back in for Selene when Xan’s men caught me, beat me and…you know the rest.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Dare demanded.
“Because I knew you had a truce with Xan. Why would you break a truce and risk the whole damn pack for one wolf you’ve never met?”
Dare didn’t argue with that. “Then what was your plan?”
I blew out a breath. “Well when I first found out you were my mate, my plan was to obey and play nice so you’d give me freedom that would allow me to escape.” He sucked in a breath, and I hurried on. “Did you give me enough freedom to escape if I’d really wanted to? Yes. Did I do it? No. First, because of Mate Pain. The thought of you…suffering because of me was inconceivable. And what if Gage took advantage of me leaving to challenge you, using your lack of control over your mate against you?” Dare’s teeth were grinding, his eyes swirling. “I couldn’t come up with a good plan. One that saved my sister and didn’t put you at risk. But I was running out of time, so I’d planned to leave today—sneak out the gates at dusk when the scout left. I didn’t want to do it, you have to believe me, but I couldn’t leave my sister there. Jude was going to tell G, so he and the rest of the guard could protect you while you were hurting.” Saying this out loud was killing me. “Jude knew I didn’t want to leave, that the thought of you in pain was making me sick. I guess…he decided to take the choice out of my hands.’
Dare held my gaze for a long time, before turning to his brother. Bay was watching me, his elbows resting on his knees, fingers in a steeple in front of his face. Finally, he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “So I was wrong. He’s not deceptive, but he’s not smart.”
“Hey!” I protested.
“Bay,” Dare growled.
He threw up his hands. “Reese, you should have told him. I get why you were holding that in your back pocket. As soon as you told Dare, your element of surprise would be gone if you ever wanted to escape. But you played this all wrong. And now your brother is out there all by himself and your sister is…what? Days from being mated to some crazy wolf?” He tsked. “Not smart.”
I jumped to my feet with my fists clenched at my sides. “Fuck you, Bay. I was beaten to within an inch of my life, chained in the basement of a Were compound, then found out I was mates with the alpha. I wanted to keep myself alive, as well as my brother. I made the best decision I could at the time. I see how this ended up, but you know what? It could have ended up a lot fucking worse.”
Bay shrugged. “Fair enough.” Then he grinned at Dare. “I like hanging out when it’s just the three of us. He’s much feistier then.”
I started toward the joking Were, intent on pummeling him, but Dare grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back. “Let me at him!” I yelled.
“If you want your brother back, you’ll calm down,” Dare hissed in my ear.
I went limp.
Dare set me down and turned to his brother. “Form a rescue team of a dozen Weres. Include G, Rua, and Vaughn. You’ll stay here as interim alpha.”
I nearly fell to my knees. “What did you say?”
Dare ignored me. “We leave in two hours, so make it quick.”
Bay saluted his brother. “Consider it done, Alpha. Although, fuck me. I never get to see any action.”
“You’re needed here.”
“Yeah, yeah. You gonna rescue Selene too?”
“Yes. As the sister of my mate, she’s within my right to possess,” Dare said. And I got tingles at the sheer bad-ass alphaness in his tone.
“Dare,” I whispered. “The truce.”
He responding by gripping the back of my neck, his gaze still on his brother. “We meet at the front gate in two hours. Go.”
Bay took off running, slamming the door behind him. I crumpled in Dare’s arms, clutching his shirt and snuffling against his chest. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so so sorry.”
Dare didn’t move, didn’t wrap his arms around me, and when he spoke, his voice was tight. “I know.”
I pressed closer. “As much as I don’t want to say this, Bay’s right. I should have told you. But at the time, I didn’t think it was the right decision.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then his fingers slipped into my hair, and he yanked my head back so I’d have to look up at him. “You lied.”
I searched his face for a glimmer of affection. I saw none, and my heart dropped onto the floor. “Because I thought this would happen. Tell me, Dare. If I’d told you, what would you have done?”
His voice was tight. “I would have organized a team like we are now and gone after her.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And where does that leave this pack if something happens to you? To me? I was trying to prevent you from choosing me over your pack.” Fuck, my eyes were filling as Dare continued to glare at me stonily. “I’m sorry if I made the wrong choice. You have to understand why I did what I did!”
He pointed a finger at me, and for a second, hurt flashed across his eyes. “You didn’t trust me to save your sister.”
I shook my head violently. “No, I trusted you too much. Your pack—”
“My pack will be fine,” he spat. “Bay’s in charge, and we won’t be gone long.”
“But—”
“This decision isn’t yours to make!” He roared, and the sound shook my bones. If I hadn’t been his mate, I would have cowered. “Instead of having the luxury of time to form a plan, now we’ll have to rush out in the middle of the night.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared. And this was Alpha Dare. Not my mate, not the one who cuddled me and called me his little wolf. “I’m risking my pack for you. Tell me this is the right call, Reese. Tell me I’m not being drawn into an ambush.”
“I swear to you, on Jude’s life, I’m telling you the truth.”
He shoved me away from him, his features hardening as he strode toward the bureau where he kept his clothes. “We’ll make the journey as wolves. Pack some clothes to take with you.”
“Dare—”
He whirled around. “Say my name one more time like that, and I’ll leave you here. I don’t want more apologies or excuses. I want to get home with every Were I take, plus your brother and sister, and then I want to learn to trust my mate again. Do you understand?”
I was sufficiently cowed. “Yes.”
“Now pack.”
I packed, my eyes blurred with tears. I’d taken for granted Dare’s affection. Now that he was withholding it, I was very aware how much I’d grown to love it. Somehow, while I’d been learning about the Silver Tip pack and plotting ways to escape, our bond had become much more than fated mates.
And I’d blown it all.
Chapter Fourteen
Reese
* * *
I was ready to shift.
The night air was cool, and a dewy mist stuck to my skin, settling in little drops on my arm hair.
I bounced on the balls of my feet, stifling a whine in my throat. My mind was already on the run to chase after my brother and rescue my sister.
Dare’s presence was both a source of comfort and guilt. He didn’t show me the affection he normally did, where he dipped his chin and held my gaze, silently asking me if I was okay. Instead, he mostly ignored me as he rallied his team. I didn’t fault him for it, but I couldn’t deny it stung.
When he turned to me, his eyes were hard, mouth tight. “We’re going to head in the direction of the Bluefoot compound, since we know that’s where Jude is headed. Explain the compound’s security to me.”
Hey, I could actually be useful. I told myself to stay calm, and focus on telling Dare everything I knew. No more lies. No more surprises. “Xan’s guards work in shifts. There are a dozen posts on the top of the wall, which are manned all the time. And then there are patrol guards. There are three of those, and each handles a small section outside the wall. It typically takes them fifteen minutes to canvass their area before they start again or are replaced by the next shift.”
“How often do the shifts rotate?”
“The wall guards rotate every six hours. The patrols every four.”
“Entry points?”
“Locked gates. There are two of them.”
Dare’s jaw worked. “And how did you get caught?”
In my head, I heard the howl that went up when I’d been spotted. I’d never forget the sharp spike of fear that lodged itself in my ribs at the sound. “There is a twenty-foot area on the south side of the wall that is a blind spot for the wall guards. Whenever we could, Jude and I snuck there to loosen a chunk of stone. I’d observed the guard who patrolled there, and he’d begun to shorten the distance he canvassed out of laziness, I guessed. The day I escaped, he’d been replaced without my knowledge. And the man who took his place did a much more thorough job.”
Dare’s lips twitched, and I thought for a minute he’d give me that amused smile, but then he turned abruptly to Rua. “When we get close, we’ll secure ourselves in a camp and send scouts to find weaknesses in their security.”
She agreed and they began to talk about the details. I had been dismissed. I ducked my head, not wanted to piss off Dare any more than he was already.
Standing at the gate, G ignored us all, nearly blending in with the darkness. The moonlight glistened off the damp skin of his naked body. His shoulders were massive, his back like a sculpture. I walked over and stood next to him, but he didn’t acknowledge my presence, until he held a crumpled piece of paper in front of my face.
I reached out cautiously and plucked it from his fingers. After smoothing it out, I gazed at one of Jude’s drawings. It was a sketch of G in profile, wearing an expression I’d never seen. His head was tilted down, and he wore a small smile. A gentle smile.
I couldn’t look away from it. Was this Jude imagining G with that expression? Or did G actually make that expression? Because I’d sure never seen it. I blinked and turned the paper over, surprised to see Jude’s writing on it. I glanced up at G, who was watching me silently. “Do you want me to read this?”
He nodded.
Feeling like I was intruding on something private, I squinted at the paper in the dark. “‘Gav…’” I stopped and glanced up at G with an eyebrow quirk. He didn’t react. Okay then. I returned my eyes to the paper. “‘I broke my promise to you, and I’ll carry that guilt forever. I’m not sure how long forever is, but know that you’ll be in my thoughts until the end. You never broke your promise to me. Not once. You deserve someone as loyal as you.’”
I knew shit was going on between Jude and G. But this…this indicated something much deeper than surface affection. Of course I was protective of my brother, but he was smart, and this note showed that whatever they had between them was reciprocated. I cleared my throat as I finished reading. “It’s signed, ‘yours, Jude.’”
G’s entire body was vibrating. I had no idea what that meant, but I backed away slowly, hoping he didn’t shift and tear me apart.
A yell went up behind me. Dare’s voice.
With a low creak, the wooden gates swung open.
Snarling, G snatched the paper from me, shoved it into his pack, then shifted. A second later, a massive black wolf leaped through the open gates and took off into the darkness. A couple more flew past me, and I stumbled forward when something smacked me on the shoulder. I glared at Vaughn, who grinned at me before shifting midair and racing out the gates. I shook myself, shifted, and did the same.
As we galloped into the wilderness of Eury, I looked over my shoulder. Bay stood at the entrance, his hand lifted in a wave. The gates closed and blocked him from view.
Head down, I plowed forward, knowing I was going to have to work extra hard to keep up with the larger wolves. My energy was high, though, from the adrenaline of Jude’s disappearance and the hope I was getting my sister back.
Teeth nipped at my tail, and I jumped to the side. Rua’s eyes met mine amid black fur, and she flicked her head to the front of the pack, where G ran along Dare’s left flank. Oh, right. I was Dare’s mate, even if he hated me right now. I sped up, passing the wolf pack and taking my rightful place at Dare’s right flank.
He glanced over his shoulder at me, and then continued on at a fast pace. I squared my shoulders, dug in my paws, and kept going.
* * *
In a couple of hours, we’d covered half the distance to our goal, but the pace wasn’t going to be sustainable. The back of our pack was starting to lag, and Caro, a Were who often farmed with his younger brother, was limping.
Dare took a sharp left at a grove of trees, which led us up a steep slope and into a small clearing. I was surprised he chose this place, as we were penned in. The only way out was the way we came or…off a cliff. But I didn’t question my alpha. He came to a stop, circling the area as we all collapsed onto the ground. G stood at the edge of the clearing on four paws. His sides contracted with heaving breaths, but other than that, he didn’t look tired. He pawed at the ground near Dare, who snapped at him. G ducked his head, and sat down, his tail curled around his hind legs.
G didn’t want to stop, but the pack wasn’t going to make it at this pace without some rest.
This was Nowere territory, and every single tree branch snap had us on edge. Once Dare seemed content with the perimeter, he shifted. After a sharp order from him, we all shifted too. Dare immediately went to Caro to examine his leg. They murmured to each other quietly.
I reached into my pack and drew out an apple, as well as a handful of peanuts. Everyone else was digging into their packs for some provisions. I was halfway through my apple when Rua settled next to me, braids secured at her neck with a tie. “You doing okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I squinted at her. “So what’s everyone think about this mission?”
Her brows drew in as she crunched on a carrot. “What do you mean?”
“They think we should just let Jude go?”
“What? No. Why would they?”
“He’s just a wolf, and if I had told Dare—”
“Look, Reese.” She leaned closer. “You’re our alpha’s mate. That means something to us. And Jude is your brother. You’re a part of us, our pack. We consider it an honor to be on this mission.”
I watched as Dare went from Were to Were, checking on them and overall being a fucking awesome leader. Like he’d proven since I’d been taken in by the Silver Tip, and then I went and rewarded him by being a lying liar who lied.
In that moment, I hated Xan even more, for being a shitty leader who enslaved his people and half-starved them.
And as Dare clapped G on the shoulder and murmured words to him, the big man finally began to relax. My chest tightened, my apple forgotten as my brain confirmed what my heart had been feeling. I was falling for Dare—for the person he was—independent
of our mate bond.
Fuck my life. I rolled the half-eaten apple in my hand before offering Rua a small smile. “Thank you. This means more than you know.”
“Should have known Dare would do anything he could as soon as you mentioned a sister. He’s been mourning his for a decade.”
“Wha—”
“Rua!” Dare called from across the clearing. “Need you over here.”
She hopped up immediately. “Talk later, Reese.”
I stared after her, blinking. Dare mourned…a sister? Now who was keeping secrets?
Dare
* * *
I kept one eye on Reese the entire time we rested. What if he snuck off to warn Xan? What if all this had a been a ruse to bring down the mighty Silver Tip pack?
What if I was making a huge mistake?
Bay believed Reese was telling the truth, and I did too, but the logical part of my brain told me to remain aloof, to keep my distance. That was hard as fuck, especially when his scent drifted on the breeze as he sat alone, back hunched and head bent, on the outside of camp.
Fuck this situation. I wanted to be back in my compound, working out how to deal with a lying mate, not out here on high alert for Noweres and about to ruin a decade-long truce.
Reese’s words nibbled at the back of my mind. I didn’t look at it as choosing him over my pack. He was my pack—and that included Jude and Selene. But it was clear he didn’t look at it that way. Did he not feel a part of my pack? Insecurities began to swell inside me as I remembered him reading about Astria. Did he want to go home? Especially if he knew about surviving Whitethroat pack members…
Reese lifted his head and locked eyes with me. Lust surged in my gut, as it always did. As it always would. Reese could hold a knife to my throat and cut slowly, laughing gleefully. I’d still want him even as I bled out as his feet.
True Mates was a curse and a blessing.
I left Rua to talk to the pack and made my way over to Reese. He watched me approach, his gaze hungrily taking me in as I stalked toward him.
Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series Page 15