by Rae Foxx
“Betrothed?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I thought wolves decided who their mate was with some kind of soul connection. Or is that a book thing?”
“Fated mates? It used to be real, but not anymore,” Evan said, his eyes suddenly downcast, his fingers pressing against the edge of the table. “Your fated mate was the one that was made for you—only one in the world. The most powerful shifters are paired together. It’s like royalty. The higher-ranking families, the stronger animals, they breed to ensure lines.”
Breed. Gross.
I flicked my eyes over to Howl and his betrothed, a ripple of goosebumps taking over my skin and making me shiver. Even from the back, he was gorgeous. Not just because he had a super fine ass. Which he did.
Which I probably shouldn’t be looking at because he had already been assigned a breeding partner.
My stomach could flip for more than blood it seems.
“That’s nice,” I said forcing myself to look away as Owen put his arm around my neck, leaning in to whisper in my ear.
“Lucky for you, we are the poor lower class. In our world, the animal chooses their mate. Maybe you’ll choose mine?”
A growl roared to life in my head, the sound loud, pronounced and familiar. I yelped in shock, turning to find the owner and instead smacked the side of the table with my hand, causing my fries to fly into the air. If it weren’t for Evan’s hand on my back I would’ve fallen backward.
“What the hell was that?” I asked them but their furrowed brows told me they didn’t know what I was talking about.
‘Careful there. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself.’
“Seriously. What the fuck was that?”
I turned, desperate to find some owner, but it was only Selene and Howl slinking away, hand in hand.
She was laughing.
Chapter 8
I’d gotten back to the dorm room and settled in to tackle the Everest of books that I still hadn’t made a dent in when Scarlet hit me with the worst possible news ever.
Also, a rubber ball which she threw at my head.
“Ow!” I shrieked, curling into a ball to avoid any other objects thrown my way. Scarlet laughed, folding her arms over her chest as she stared at me.
“Before you fall asleep in yet another book, I’m warning you that we have a pack meeting tonight. You can’t miss it.”
“Warning me?” Was I sure I had a hamburger for lunch today? It sure felt like a rock right then. “Should I be concerned?”
“Don’t think so, but everyone will want to meet you before the run.”
“The run?”
She quirked an eyebrow at my question. Nicky would have classified the question as stupid.
“Yeah, when we all shift… and run… under the moon.” She blinked at me again when I didn’t immediately respond. “You know, maybe you should stay back and read those books.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Fine by me. Don’t forget, I’ve never actually shifted before. My week has already been stressful enough to think about mutating into a giant hummingbird, or whatever it is.”
“You aren’t a hummingbird,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously, you are overthinking this. Once the rest of the pack shifts, your animal will recognize that they need to belong to the pack and you’ll burst forth like a lotus blossom.”
“A lotus blossom? What hippie commune did I walk in on?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at her. She ignored me.
“It will happen. Plus, don’t you want to know what animal you are?”
Not really, no. I kept that bit to myself. “Not if it involves lotus blossoms.” That part I said aloud.
“I guess you’ll have to find out.” She threw a pair of cotton grey shorts and a white tank top at me, the scraps of fabric falling over the massive page I was supposed to be reading. I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure what I was reading, my eyes kept glossing over. “Put those on and let’s go. You’ll do fine, trust me.”
“Wait. Right now?” My bones and muscles ached from the day of running from one class to the other and up all those damned stairs that this place seemed to be breeding. There was no way this was going to end well.
“Yes, right now. Move your ass!”
She stared at me the entire time I changed, insisting I needed a black sports bra despite me and the non-sportiness.
“Don’t we have to shift naked or something?” I asked as I stepped into a pair of flip-flops and followed Scarlet out, water bottle in hand.
“Well, yes, but we aren’t going to walk through the halls tits out,” Scarlet said as she pulled me around one corner and then another. “That’s like presenting a buffet to a vamp. Blood and sex go hand in hand with them.”
I nearly fell on my face I stumbled so bad, feet tangling up as I zoomed toward the floor. Thank God Scarlet pulled me back up.
“No vampires.” she continued to drag me through the halls, and down some steps that were getting colder and colder.
“So, where is this mysterious pack meeting? Where are we going? Because this is starting to feel like Vampire country.” I parroted the question for probably the twentieth time that day. After being tossed and dragged through the school all day, I was starting to get used to it.
“The meeting is in pack lands, by the Alpha’s house on the edge of the Redwood forest. I’m gonna drive, seeing as you haven’t shifted yet and can’t run. I’m not interested in escorting you through the forest for five hours.”
Yesterday, she had pulled her car around to the front of the school, as though she had been waiting for the invitation to go shopping. Today, she was dragging me down to the bowels of the school, or hell is it had frozen over.
“Are you driving a vampire there? Gods, why do they need it so fucking cold.” I pulled myself into a run, my teeth were chattering and I was having trouble making sure my numb feet were hitting against the icy stone the right way.
“Driving a vampire? When you finally meet one of them you are going to feel really silly.” I could practically hear her eyes roll.
“Meet a Vampire?” I shrieked, stumbling again.
“Yes, I mean this is their territory and I am sure they can smell the fear in your blood. They are coming for you, Ivy. They want to suck your blood.”
“Are you laughing at me? I’m pretty sure you are laughing at me.”
“I am. If a few bat-boys freak you out this bad I don’t know what you are going to do when you meet the Alpha?”
“The Alpha?” I snorted. Sounded like some weird kinky shit that involved whips and ropes. “Why do I have to meet him?”
She turned back to glare at me before dragging me through a heavy wooden door and into the massive garage hidden beneath the school.
Every make and model of car ever made could fit here with ease. Looked like they were, with the variety of dust-covered relics that were parked near the front.
“Oh, I don’t know, because he’s the leader of our pack and if you expect to stay here you have to do what he says. Other than Nicky, he’s the one to know.” She gave me a wink like she was trying to transport some kind of code, but it was all over my head.
I let her drag me through the bright yellow sports cars and black limos, and a van that looked too much like Tommy’s for my stomach to stay still until we arrived at her old Corolla that had more rust than paint.
“Ah, that’s more like it.” I had been half worried I was going to be subjected to another chauffeur situation. “A bit of normalcy among the chaos.”
“It’s the same car as last night,” Scarlet giggled as she slid into the driver's seat. “Don’t worry about the chaos, you’ll figure it all out, I promise. A lot will be going on when we come back from breaks but it will slow down.”
I wasn’t about to challenge her, mostly because I was too exhausted to do so. I leaned against the window and watched my breath blossom against the cool glass, the trees zooming by us as Scarlet began to prattle on about, so exciting, more rules!
>
“Now, remember, don’t take all your clothes off until the Alpha does. Don’t do anything before he does. You don’t talk to him, or his mate, or Howl, or Selene without them talking to you first. You sure as hell don’t look any of them in the eye. Especially the Alpha. It’s seen as a challenge for your place in the pack and trust me when I say he will rip you to shreds…”
I was beginning to doze off when we made a sharp left and stopped short in front of a large iron gate. The massive thing could have been the granddaddy to the school gate. It was more ominous with its green oxidation and massive wolf head in the center, but less intricate with massive spikes that were devoid of flowers. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“So, are they going to murder me if I run away now?” I swallowed as she pulled through the gates.
“Maybe.” She didn’t even crack a grin; I didn’t want to know how honest that answer was. “Okay, we need to double check, you know all the greeting and fighting traditions, and rules to baring your neck and stuff before we get there.”
“Wait. What?” Considering we could see the house; I had a feeling that she had purposefully saved this for the last goddamned second. “What nonsense are you going to spew at me now? If I have to bare my ass or curtsy or some shit, I’ll take my chances vaulting the gate.”
“Chill out, Ivy, it’s nothing so bad,” she said as she parked the car and locked the door. Locking us inside of the car. I threw her a look and she rolled her eyes at me.
“Listen, Ivy, this is serious,” she shifted in her seat until she faced me. I did the same pretending to be all good and shit.
“Okay. I’m all ears. Or gills. Or whatever is hiding underneath all this boring human flesh.”
She chose to ignore that. Which was good. I always kind of turned into a prattling asshole when I was nervous.
“We bare our necks to the Alpha like this,” She turned her head sideways like the girls did in the vampire movies when they gave them permission to suck their lifeforce out. I shivered.
“The Alpha Female--same thing.” She did it again. You will know who she is--she’s always touching the Alpha. Touch is important to a mated couple. The Alpha will shift first, then his female, then the rest of us. You do it before them and you are asking for a fight. Literally.”
“Okay,” I whispered, feeling like a floppy pancake among smart, strong, knowing all the things paranormal waffles.
“Okay. Follow me. You’ll be fine.”
Uh-huh. Sure, I will.
We got out of the car and I could have sworn I was cut to half the size. Massive redwoods towered over me, trunks as big around as Scarlet’s car cutting through the dirt lot and the walkway that led up to a house that was as huge and oppressive.
Glittering yellow windows were inset into a huge fortress of log and stone as least three stories high, the massive picture window on the main floor peering into a living room full of squishy couches, huge televisions, and what looked like a miniature arcade.
Well, miniature against the size of everything. Guess I wasn’t the only thing that had been shrunk down. Scarlet led me down the path that curled around the massive house and passed seven log cabins that looked like dollhouses in comparison. They probably were bigger than the trailer back in the Nevada desert. As if I needed a reminder of why I felt so small. And why I didn’t belong here.
“That’s the Alpha’s house,” Scarlet said with a head nod to the enormous house. The swinging baskets of purple flowers that was only adding to the midnight pine scent that was in the air. “One day that will belong to Howl.”
“And Selene,” I said without a second thought.
She shrugged and tugged me around to the back of the house, where hundreds of similarly clad people were gathered in the clearing there. Cut off gym shorts, ratty old bras, there were even a few women that stood topless chatting to those around them like it was nothing.
Oh god. This was not going to end well.
Especially considering that I only recognized less than half of these people. It seemed that the pack was made up of more than the students.
“Where did all these people come from?” I asked, more to myself than to Scarlet.
“Different clans, families from around the area,” Scarlet said, still weaving me through the crowd, eyes ahead. “The pack isn’t just the school. It’s every shifter in this area. Howls grandfather, Wulf, brought everyone together hundreds of years ago.”
“Hundreds?” I choked out, fully aware of the implications there.
“Yep. Sometimes tensions still fly between the clans. Which is yet another reason why the powerful bastards arrange their breeding.”
She shot a look toward the edge of the crowd and a smug Selene who stood with fifteen other smug, dark-haired, shifters. Selene stood close to Nicky and a man who looked so much like her that he had to be her father. The three mumbled, whispered, and scowled like they had aged a hundred years overnight.
I hadn’t seen Nicky since that first day. Seeing her now was making me want to high-tail it out of there.
Thank God Scarlet had the same idea.
“Come on. Mr. and Mrs. Wulfson are over here,” Scarlet grumbled again, tugging me away from the angsty shifters and toward the back steps of the house. A brunette man stood, drink in one hand, as he stared over everyone with light grey eyes that I was sure wasn’t missing a damn thing.
He also wasn’t letting go of the equally tall, olive skin women beside him. Their pinkies were linked.
Alpha and Alpha female recognized. At least I won’t fuck that up.
Scarlet continued to drag me after her pulling me closer and closer to the Alpha who was now staring at me. Howl wasn’t with him. Good. I wouldn’t be able to keep my face as impassive as I was if Mr. Holier Than Thou was present. Although with the look his dear old dad was giving me, I was thinking Howl hadn’t fallen very far from the scowling tree.
The Alpha’s eyes narrowed at me as we came to a stop at the foot of the stairs, Scarlet shaking my hand in a not so subtle reminder.
Oh yeah, don’t look the guy in the eye. He will take it as a challenge.’
I looked down so quick I might as well have been slapped there.
“This must be the lovely Ivy Potter I have heard so much about.” Mr. Wulfson’s voice was like ice trickling over my skin and pooling in my nerve endings in a chill that sent me shivering. Every bone and muscle snapped together as though the low seduction in his voice was trying to force me to stand, to stare.
I had no idea how that would end, or if he was doing this magically or something, so I stepped back again, using every bit of willpower I had to focus on the toe hair on his bare feet.
Eww.
“Yes, nice to meet you, Sir,” I said, when Scarlet elbowed me, pulling me away from the toe hair to nod and curtsy, although still not looking him in the eye.
At least he wasn’t smelling my ass. I mean, that’s what dogs do, right?
“And I, you,” he continued in that same creepy voice, the ice continued to drizzle over me. “We all look forward to seeing what beautiful creature is hiding inside of you.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Scarlet said, pulling me away as though we had been excused. I mumbled the same still looking at his toe hair.
“What the hell was that all about?” Scarlet hissed when she pulled me away, darting through the crowd of people who were all now turning to stare at me.
“Toe hair.” I stuck out my tongue, shaking my head to banish the image as she pulled me to a stop at the edge of the group. At the back. Near the shadows.
Luckily no one was staring at us anymore, they were all zeroed in on the Alpha, who was now spreading his hands out like he was throwing something to the crowd.
“Not that! The--” Anything she was about to say was suddenly cut off, her and everyone else turning as though they had been pulled on a string.
“My people.” That same slimy rumble cut through the air, stiffening my bones and twisting in my
gut. I had no interest in looking at the guy, but I wasn’t going to mess stuff up on my first day.
“Welcome to our first run of the school year, and our last run before our Summer solstice celebration in a few weeks!” He raised his hands and the clearing filled with sounds, rippling, rumbling, vibrating, howling sounds. None of them were human.
“My tribe! Yield to your Alpha!”
Okay, that didn’t sound normal.
It got even weirder when every person craned their neck sideways like Scarlet showed me in the car. Quickly, I shifted my gaze to the ground like Scarlet but when I went to expose my neck, I couldn't move. It was as though my spine had fused itself upright. I grabbed my head with my own hands and tried to force it into the weird, ‘come bite my neck’ pose. Still, nothing.
Fucking great.
I was in the back of the crowd, so instead of forcing my neck to move in a way it obviously didn’t want to, I squatted down a little to make it look like I’d done it. That I could accomplish, although whatever was stopping me from exposing my neck didn’t like that either. I was what… growling?
Oh, fuck. I’d lost it now.
Luckily, everyone stood a second later, as seeing as no one was glaring at me, I doubted they had heard whatever monster was trying to take control of me.
“We have some new pack members with us today,” the Alpha said once everyone had turned back to stare at him, I immediately stepped back, I was barely surviving this thing as is. I didn’t need to be the center of attention. “Make sure you introduce yourselves after the run. Maybe during the run, if you can.”
Laughter rumbled through everyone, a few heads turning in my direction, although I didn’t see anything funny. Maybe it was like that rabbit thing and I would figure it out after I release my inner lotus blossom or whatever Scarlet had been on about.
“Prepare pack!” Pater Wulfson’s words acted like a bomb, everyone moving in a ripple as they all began to shed their clothes.
“Oh damn.” I gasped, as shirts and pants and underwear fell to the ground, floating down in raindrops of scandalous lace and stain-free cotton.