by SJ Himes
Andromeda stood just in front of them, waiting with them for the vehicles to stop and park. She sent them a sharp glance over her shoulder, and said calmly, “Say nothing of your bonding until we have Caius alone. Or your humans, Ghost. Cat and Glen are staying out of sight until later. I don’t know Heromindes well, and I’d rather not find out how his reaction will go at the same time Caius learns of this. Let me sound out Caius before we tell him the happy news.” She gave them both another glance, before turning back to the SUVs and saying, “Stop holding hands, younglings.”
Kane stiffened at his side, and Ghost gripped his mate’s hand tighter. Kane gave him a soft look and squeezed once before gently unclasping their fingers. Ghost growled, displeased, and he fought to keep the curl in his lip from showing when the vehicles came to a full stop and the doors opened.
A number of wolfkin stepped out, and Heromindes, Clan Leader of Ashland, was easy to pick out; the greater alpha was huge, towering over Caius and even Kane, hair long and braided, and he bore a striking resemblance to Gabe and his family.
Ghost immediately recognized Caius McLennan, the Clan Leader and greater alpha unchanged through the years. Still as large, still as formidable, and the stony reserve on his face was exactly the same. He suddenly felt five years old again and scolded for running in his grandfather’s study, playing tag with his siblings. Ghost shivered, lost in his memory, while the strangers climbed the stone path to where they waited. Kane leaned into his shoulder, snapping him free, and Ghost relaxed, his mate’s presence enough to ground him. Everyone else’s nerves were starting to get to him now, and he pushed it aside, recognizing the worry of how his grandfather would react to his soul binding as useless. Whether or not Caius approved was a moot point: his Goddess blessed them, named them soulmates, and that was more than enough for Ghost.
As it should be for every wolfkin.
Ghost was so focused on his thoughts it wasn’t until Caius was staring down at him, brows furrowed, that he realized he’d missed the introductions. Kane shifted next to him, and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
“Little one, this is your grandfather, Caius McLennan. Alpha, your grandson Luca, who changed his name to Ghost in his… absence,” Kane said, trying to be diplomatic. Ghost sent his mate a wry smile, and before he could restrain himself, kissed Kane on his cheek. Kane blanched, and looked at Caius, but stayed close, letting Ghost lean into his side.
“His absence,” Caius grumbled, towering over Ghost, and once he would have been intimidating. Yet Ghost was no longer that tiny cub, cowed by a firm growl. He was a shaman and mated to a fine alpha. There was no room for fear in his heart, not with Kane’s presence there growing stronger by the hour. Andromeda was just past Caius’ shoulder, shaking her head and smiling, and he looked back to his grandfather as he kept speaking. “Subtle way of reminding me that you were right all these years. Right that he lived.”
“Hello, Grandpa Caius,” Ghost said with a small smile, cutting in, not wanting an argument in what he sensed was a sore subject between both alphas. He was home now. “You look the same.”
“You sound like… you sound like your momma, cub,” Caius replied, paling slightly. “And you look just like her, too.”
“Shaman, Grandfather. Not a cub,” he said gently, softening the rebuke. He would not be treated or seen as a child, and having Caius recognize him as fully grown and a shaman, outside of his influence, was the only way to maintain control when surrounded by greater alphas and clan leaders.
Caius gave a small start, and Ghost heard Gerald snort from where he stood behind them with the others. He collected himself quickly and eyed Kane and he with something close to disfavor and what smelled bitterly like spite. Caius watched how Ghost leaned into Kane, and Ghost decided that lying, even by omission, was never the best way forward. Humans lied; he was wolfkin, and a shaman. Lying served no one.
Ghost took Kane’s hand, his mate bravely following his lead, pulling him into his strong arms. Caius watched them, eyes wide, and he breathed in deep. Ghost felt a buzzing, a building mental pressure, and knew it came from Caius. He pushed back, and Caius frowned, staring at them both, expression hard.
“Kane…” Caius growled, realization dawning in his eyes. “What have you done, you fool?”
“Grandfather, Kane is my soulbonded mate,” Ghost revealed, and he stood strong against the shocked expression on his grandfather’s face and the exclamations of disbelief from those watching.
Kane paced back and forth in front of the door, the big alpha nearly bristling with indignation and anger. Ghost’s declaration to Caius, in front of Heromindes and their combined entourage, hadn’t gone very well. Kane was listening, as he was, to the arguments happening in the living room of Andromeda’s cabin. They were in her study, two greater alphas that Ghost did not know outside in the hall, presumably guarding the door. Though how anyone thought to keep Kane restrained by a single door, or Ghost for that matter, left him amused. Kane had gone willingly when Caius ordered him into the room, and Ghost shrugged, following his mate. The guards were confused as to why a shaman was being detained, but they said nothing when they locked them in here.
“...how do you expect me to not say anything to the other Clan Leaders?! This is an abomination of our Laws!” Heromindes yelled, the Clan Leader’s opinion hard not to hear at that volume.
“Their bond is Goddess blessed and sacred, you fool!”
Ghost sat up from where he was leaning against the desk, brows raised in surprise. That was Shaman River out there, defending them, in a wholly unexpected move. Kane stopped pacing, his reaction the same as Ghost’s.
“Yelling at each other solves nothing,” Andromeda said, cool and calm. “Heromindes, this is a soulbond, not a mating bond performed by ceremony. That means our Goddess bound Kane and Ghost, and it is not our place to dispute her actions or to interfere in their bonding.”
“He has the Voice. He broke our Laws once already in Worcester when he used it on me outside of a Challenge. Who is to say he didn’t do so to the youngling he’s taken as his mate?” Heromindes retorted. “I’ve never seen a soulbond, so for all I know, that is naught but a forced mating bond I can sense between them!”
“No shaman can be affected by the Voice, Hero,” Caius said, his voice emotionless. “I know this fact well.”
“There is something wrong here, Caius, and it’s not just the abomination of an alpha mating with a shaman. It is your son who has been killing and torturing our people, and betraying our kind to humans! And from the information we tortured out of the human captives from the Worcester raid, Roman has been selling the kidnapping ‘cast-offs’ to sex slavers! Abomination rots in the heart of Black Pine, and how can I trust this wasn’t endorsed by the Heir or his wolves? Twenty years to catch a traitor is a bit extreme! So far I put nothing past Black Pine and the laws your wolves seem willing to break. Your grandson may be a shaman, but he is too young to be fully trained, and I see no reason Kane couldn’t have used his powers on Luca if he can’t utilize his powers correctly.”
Ghost grumbled, flashing a hint of fang at that insulting idea. Kane would never do that, never try something so evil. Kane shook his head, and walked over to Ghost, pulling him along his side, both of them still listening to the argument down the hall. Ghost breathed in Kane’s scent, the heat from his long body warming Ghost as they snuggled. He didn’t sense any fear or shame from Kane, no worry. Ghost gave himself a tiny smile, gladdened again that he was gifted by such a fine alpha.
“That’s enough, Hero,” Caius said, some heat returning to his voice. “My son will face a tribunal if that will alleviate some of your worries. We have three clan leaders here now, and I can call in another who will be impartial if that is your wish. Even so, I don’t doubt the outcome. Roman will pay for his crimes.”
“I should declare a blood feud on Black Pine for the loss of my wolves and kin! I entrusted
my kin to you for safe keeping, and all along they’ve been under the protection of an alpha who didn’t hesitate twice to break our laws, and the White Wolf succors this mockery of a mating. And Shaman River, who I never thought would allow such a thing, just defended it to my face. What has been done to my kin here, while my attention was elsewhere?” Heromindes demanded, his growls heard all the way down the hall.
“Hero, you saw Gabriel yourself. The youngling is well, and much improved, surely the rest of your kin is...,” Caius began, but Heromindes cut him off.
“Kane will sit in front of the tribunal as well, for the violation of entering a mating bond with a shaman. That’s a crime punishable by death,” Heromindes stated. Ghost froze, and Kane went still beside him. “And I want impartial shamans here to break the forced bond.”
Ghost’s heart thumped once, hard.
“Kane and Roman face the tribunal for their crimes, or Ashland revokes all bonds of treaty, and we will have a blood feud.”
There was a whisper in the silence, Heromindes’ declaration stealing everyone’s voices. Ghost tried to hear it, but it faded away under the sudden cacophony of voices raised in anger from the other room.
Kane gave Ghost a slow, easy smile and caressed his jaw with a big hand when Ghost turned his head and looked up at his mate. There was no fear, still. Kane was not afraid. Ghost wasn’t too sure what the clan leader meant by a tribunal, but he was not worried about the validity of their bond. They were gifted to each other by the Great Mother herself, her words to Ghost in the snowy meadow proof enough for him. Kane was innocent of breaking that Law.
Ghost became lost in Kane’s eyes, the dark orbs full of affection, desire, and an emotion Ghost could not name. It burned in his heart too, fiery and pure, and left him feeling invincible.
The whisper returned, teasing Ghost’s comprehension, and Kane reacted to it too, both wolfkin tilting their heads. The whisper called to Ghost, and he stepped to the door, pulling a willing Kane along by his hand. Ghost opened the door, and the two greater alphas outside both jumped, peering down at him. Ghost ignored them and pulled Kane out into the hall. The greater alphas tried to stop them, but Ghost stilled them with a single glance, knowing somehow his eyes burned like silver fire in warning. The whispering led him down the hall, to the living room.
Everyone abruptly stopped yelling, and turned to look. Ghost stood, calm, feeling remarkably centered. Kane was at his side, both of them together, hands clasped.
“Kane has broken no Laws, and I have willingly claimed him as my mate, in front of clan leader and family,” Ghost said, meeting everyone’s eyes equally before landing at last on the Ashland clan leader. Heromindes was glaring, the huge alpha vibrating with insult and anger. “If Kane is to stand in front of the tribunal for giving me the privilege of loving him, then I will stand there with him, always by his side. I will share his fate.”
To Be Continued
The Wolf Of The Northern Star
The Wolfkin Saga returns in Early 2016
Contents
Dedication
Author’s Note
Part One
Shaman Gray Shadow
Ambush
The River and the Wolf
Wayward
Sins of the Brother
Part Two
Ghost
What Was Once Lost
Escaping the Past
A Long Way Back
Thinner Than Water
Reign of the White Wolf
To Be An Alpha
Learning a New Path
When Stars Collide
Homecoming
Dream-Walker
She Said You’d Be Shirtless
When She Speaks
The Family We Choose
Part Three
The Ties That Bind
Unexpected Gifts
Plan For The Worst
Treasonous Acts
Hope for the Best
When Storms Converge
Carnage and Chaos
Epilogue
To Be Continued
Other Books by SJ Himes
Other Books by SJ Himes
The Wolfkin Saga
Wolves of Black Pine
Wolf of the Northern Star
Beacon Hill Sorcerer Series
The Necromancer’s Dance
The Necromancer’s Dilemma
Standalone Title
Saving Silas
Titles as Revella Hawthorne
Bred For Love Series
The Prince’s Consort
The King’s Command
A Royal Rebellion
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