by M. Ekman
After a moment of staring into each other’s eyes, she broke the contact and shook her head, mumbling, “What I don’t understand is why the Great Luna took away Alpha Stone’s mate bond if his mate was already dead? Couldn’t she have just cursed him to never get a second chance mate?”
“I’ve asked myself the same question many times. Perhaps, the Great Luna wanted my father to feel, in the harshest possible way, what he’d lost. Taking away that bond entirely instead of just quieting the call of our other potential mates leaves an almost tangible hole in the mind.”
Ruth looked up to stare at the man seated before her. “But you deserve so much better than this.”
“You won’t think that when you learn what I did…what I became,” Tyler said morosely.
Ruth leaned forward and gently placed a hand on his leg to get him to look at her, “I’m sure—”
He angrily shot to his feet and stepped away from her, “I grew up to be—a coward.”
Ruth tried to reach for him again, but he wouldn’t allow it. His denial of her touch caused her anger to rise, “Tyler, no. You are not a coward.”
“But I was. I was a weakling. I did unspeakable things all because I feared my father. And when I couldn’t live with the guilt anymore I ran away. Leaving my pack to fend for themselves against a monster. I didn’t even come home until forced.”
She sat in stunned silence as Tyler began to recount his past, “9 years ago…”
He sat in his wolf form at the mouth of a cave as far north as his wolf could handle. His bid for freedom from his father’s terrible dictatorship had been successful, but had come at a cost. Complete and total solitude.
Abruptly, he was broken out of his thoughts as a dark wolf appeared trudging along the southern mountain path. It couldn’t be, but Tyler could swear that the scent on the wind smelt like Jason. Jason had been put in a lot of the same training classes as Tyler, but they weren’t close. They would sit and spar together, but that was as far as it went, since Tyler wasn’t granted the luxury of friendships.
As the wolf got closer, Tyler gave a warning growl, though he didn’t move from his ridged position in front of his cave. At the sound, the other male looked up and gazed at Tyler for a moment before he shifted into the form of a boy.
“Jason?” Tyler tried to mindlink before he remembered he couldn’t talk through the pack mindlink since he had gone rogue. It was good to know that he wasn’t seeing things and going crazy, at least not yet.
For a second, the two boys stared at each other in disbelief before suddenly Jason threw himself at the tan colored wolf in an unbreakable embrace. “I feared you were dead. Your tracks were basically non-existent.”
Tyler opened and closed his mouth a few times before he realized he was still in wolf form.
Jason must have come to the same conclusion, because he suddenly released Tyler and stepped back. “You’re okay, right?”
Tyler gestured with his head for Jason to follow him into the cave. Sitting on his haunches, Tyler closed his eyes and pictured his human body like he’d learned to, as a pup, in order to switch forms. After nearly a year of being in wolf form, Tyler expected to meet resistance when he shifted, but if anything it was easier now than it’d ever been before. In less than a minute, Tyler sat in the jeans and simple red shirt he’d worn the day he’d escaped.
“I…” Tyler cleared his throat a few times. Though shifting was easy, that didn’t mean that talking after a year of silence would be, too. He tried again, “I thought I was going crazy, thinking there was someone out there. I thought—never mind.”
Jason laughed, awkwardly running a hand through his hair, “Yeah, sorry about that…It’s worse than before. With you gone, your father seems to have lost all sense.”
Tyler blinked in shock, his father’s corruption didn’t have any lower depths to sink to, but before he could say this, Jason spoke again. “He has started killing off the weak. He says that we will be the best pack, the strongest pack, in the world. He wants to unite the entire continent under his rule.”
“That was always his goal,” he interjected.
Jason jerked his gaze to meet Tyler’s and anguish filled his eyes, “Yes, but his means have changed. He no longer accepts surrender, just death to all who don’t agree or align with his agenda. Please, you’ve got to come back.”
He felt his eyes glow as he stood up and backed out of the cave, “No. There is no way. I can’t beat him. I’ve never once even come close to so much as drawing a drop of his blood in those fights he used to force me into.”
The wolf followed step for step determined, “Tyler. You just spent a year running through blizzards, but you don’t even act like a rogue. You can beat him.”
“No!” he said more forcefully this time, holding back his need to shift and run.
Jason stopped in his pursuit of the reluctant son of a blood-crazed alpha. He shoved his hands in his pockets mumbling down at the ground, “Guess I should have seen this coming.” Still not looking at Tyler, Jason raised his voice to a more audible volume, “Can I at least stay the night?”
“Stay the night? You can stay as long as you want. You don’t ever have to go back.” To be honest Tyler wanted Jason to stay with him more than anything. While he could cope with being lonely, it didn’t mean he liked it.
Jason glared up at the boy before him, “You may have abandoned your people, but I won’t. I can’t leave my mother and baby brother. I’ll be gone by the morning.” With that he stalked towards the back of the cave before sitting down in a huff setting his glaring eyes on the grey stonewall.
Tyler felt bad for Jason and his old pack, but there really wasn’t anything he could do. He wasn’t a hero, and he’d never be the one to save the day. Slowly he sat down at the entrance to his cave to give his friend space.
Eventually Tyler fell asleep, but his dreams were a series of nightmares. At one point he could have sworn he heard Jason’s voice saying something about being sorry. Before Tyler could dwell on it, his dreams went from bad to worse.
He was being chased and thrown all over his mountain, sometimes by his father and sometimes by a group of decrepit looking wolves. Tyler kept trying to wake himself up to no avail. His mind felt heavy and he couldn’t seem to get it out of the mire it felt stuck in. Finally just as his father was opening his deadly jaws to deliver a killing blow Tyler jerked away screaming.
His abrupt movement caused him to trip over his feet and come crashing to the ground. As his eyes opened Tyler found himself in a terribly familiar wood with no sign of his father.
He sat up and saw Jason slumped down nearby picking blades of grass from the earth. “I’m sorry Tyler. I didn’t want it to be this way, but I had to. You refused to see the truth.”
It dawned on Tyler what Jason had done, “You knocked me out with wolfsbane!”
To his credit, Jason didn’t so much as flinch at the accusation, but instead ignored it. “We are within the borders so I’m sure your father has been alerted to your presence. I would recommend not showing the fear you undoubtedly feel, otherwise he will kill you before you can say ‘alpha challenge’.”
Tyler tried to stand but found that his body was still woozy from the poison in his system. In large doses, wolfsbane could kill, but in small ones it would merely put its victim in a paralyzed dream state. “I already told you there is no way in he—”
He snapped his jaw shut as sounds of many footfalls reached them. Tyler’s body suddenly found its strength and both boys stood shoulder to shoulder to face the oncoming group. The first to emerge from among the tall trees were several warriors Tyler recognized, and even a few he didn’t. As expected, Tyler's father also appeared, though he was strategically placed in the middle of the group so Tyler couldn’t come within feet of the older man.
Though his father looked the same, midnight black hair and tall lithe build that lent him a deadly air, there was something about his eyes that had changed. It took a minute for Tyler t
o figure out what had altered, but when it did, he had to work hard to hide his shock. Alpha Stone’s irises had turned a deep burnt red color. That coloring only occurred in wolves that drank the blood of other werewolves. Jason was right, Ray Stone had sunk to a whole new level of depravity.
Tyler crossed his arms to keep them from quivering with fear, “Alpha Stone. I hear that things have changed here since—”
He was cut off by a loud off-kilter burst of laughter from Alpha Stone. “So my son returns. Before you foolishly try challenging me, or some such idiotic thing, why don’t you come and see the new world I’ve built. No sense to end your life when it could still be useful to me.”
Brusquely, Alpha Stone turned and began walking back the way he had come with his personal bodyguards in tow. Tyler followed, since that seemed what his father wanted, though he had a feeling he didn’t want to see what was coming next. Even from the few miles they were from their small pack town, Tyler could smell the stench of refuse and the dead. The closer they got, the worse it became. He couldn’t even pick out Jason’s scent, despite the wolf walking right beside him.
It took everything Tyler had learned from years of growing up with Alpha Stone to not react to what he saw on the edge of town as they drew closer: a gallows. There was a body still hanging from it; about a week old, judging by the smell and decay. Not only that, but the town looked grey and crumpled somehow, like all life had left it.
Everyone stood outside their homes or shops with noses nearly touching the ground in a deep bow. Every man, woman, and child was dressed in patched brown and grey rags with dirt or grease covering the parts of their bodies that the “clothes” didn’t cover.
These were the gaunt faces that had haunted Tyler’s dreams, but instead of being some kind of undead creature, they were alive, which somehow made it so much worse. About midway through town he saw a child no older than three with scars covering his face, and something in Tyler broke.
He started speaking quietly, gaining volume as his anger surged, “This is enough. You have not been the alpha you should to your people. I, Tyler Stone, hereby challenge Alpha Ray Stone for the position of alpha in the Blood Mountain Pack!”
If Tyler’s father was surprised he didn’t show it, instead turning on his heel to nod at his son, “I accept the challenge.”
Before Tyler could blink, his father was on top of him in human form trying to scratch out his son’s eyes with hands that had morphed into paws. He let the alpha’s momentum drive him to the ground and continued the motion until he’d flipped them both so Tyler ended up being the one on top.
During the roll Tyler had managed to shift into his wolf face and neck for better protection. He bit at Alpha Stone’s exposed and vulnerable neck before the wrist he’d been holding was ripped from his grasp. Alpha Stone punched his son in the temple so hard that Tyler stumbled backwards giving the alpha ample time to make it to his feet.
With a roar, Alpha Stone shifted into his wolf and charged once more at his son. With a speed that belayed his size, Tyler jumped and began to flip forward, reaching one hand down for the scruff on Alpha Stone’s back. He grabbed a handful of fur and pulled the alpha off of the ground, and as Tyler’s feet hit solid ground again, he flung his father up and over his shoulder in an impressive throw.
Alpha Stone crashed into a building shaking the timbers and nearly causing the whole thing to collapse on him. Not giving the older man time to recover, Tyler shifted and sprinted towards the nearly unconscious wolf.
The alpha had managed to stand back up on his four paws, but that was all he could do before Tyler was on top of him. The air was filled with growls and howls as both men bit and scratched at each other. They only broke apart when Alpha Stone got a lucky bite on the tendon in Tyler’s foreleg.
Tyler couldn’t put any weight on the paw, and knew he was as good as dead. Out of the crowd of onlookers that had gathered around them in a loose circle he heard a voice, “Alpha Tyler!” Other voices joined in, and soon the name, Alpha Tyler, was being chanted throughout the town. The warriors of Alpha Stone stood in silence not stopping the people's cry, waiting to see if their alpha was to be defeated or not.
After all, Ray Stone lived by the law of power and strength. If one wasn’t strong enough, then they deserved death, or so he taught his people. His warriors would not stand up for him, no one would any longer, and Tyler would see to that. With a mighty howl, Tyler charged at Ray Stone and ended his rule as alpha of the Blood Mountain pack.
“Ruth, it wasn’t until I had no choice that I finally faced my nightmare.” His shoulders bunched up as his whole body tensed in anger.
“Tyler,” she said exasperated, “you were a child. A child shouldn’t have to deal with what you faced.” When he didn’t loosen his stance, she gently pressed her hand to his cheek. “Your pack wouldn’t follow you if they thought you were a coward.”
Instead of responding to Ruth’s comment, Tyler leaned into her hand for a moment closing his eyes. When they opened again they took on a determined glint and he stepped back, turning to leave.
“Where are you going?” she asked puzzled.
“Now you know everything and you understand why this—why we can never be,” Tyler answered as he reached for the closed door.
Ruth scoffed, “So you’ve decided then, huh and I get no say in the matter?”
He whirled on her, “What is there to say? Would you be happy with a man who would be your mate in name only? Would you be happy in a childless life?”
“How would you know? You’ve never asked me!” she shouted.
Tyler shook his head as if he could shake her words away, “You would come to hate me if I asked that of you.”
“See that’s your problem. You’ve already decided how I feel and what I would say.”
“Ruth, you can’t—”
She cut him off, “Let me decide for myself.” She closed the distance that he had created between them and placed her hand on his chest. “Tyler, I have never felt like I belonged before. I have been alone for my whole life. I’m not going to pretend like I understand what is happening between us, but I don’t want to turn it off or block it out. Please.”
He groaned in despair, “You have a second chance mate out there. Maybe he—”
Ruth abruptly dropped her hand, “How long do I have to wait for that? And what happens when I find him? Are you going to try to choke the life out of him like you did Eddie?”
Tyler ran a hand through his hair, “Of course not. I would let you go.”
Instead of responding she made a pfft noise and went around Tyler to lean against the door effectively blocking the alpha’s exit.
He growled out, “Be reasonable.”
A wicked grin lit Ruth’s face, “I am being reasonable. You’re staying here until you consent to giving us a chance.”
The two had a silent stare down for a few moments before she ordered, “Ask me to stay.”
“NO! Stop being…I can’t—” with that Tyler bodily moved her out of the way as he picked Ruth up by the waist and placed her to the side. He then stormed out of her old bedroom and into his office, locking himself inside.
CHAPTER 23
A day ago Ruth would have curled up in her bed in a ball of despair over once again being rejected by Tyler, but no more. She was too angry to feel anything else. Angry that Tyler had decided for her, and angry that he was protecting her from something she didn’t need protection from. After he’d stormed into his office Ruth stomped her way back to her bedroom downstairs and furiously paced back and forth, wearing out her blue shag rug.
“Ruth,” a gentle knock sounded on her door.
Still locked in her own bitter world, Ruth didn’t answer, but it didn’t matter because a few moments later the door opened anyway.
“Please, Ruth. Cassie told me that you went to go talk to Tyler. I thought—you aren’t answering my calls through the pack mindlink. What’s going on?” Violet stood just inside the open do
or looking like she was ready to bolt if necessary.
Ruth knew she must look crazy with her glowing eyes, but she couldn’t get a grip. Her fury was just too strong to control, even for speaking. Instead of being intimidated Violet walked slowly into the room and quietly shut the door behind her.
Violet spoke in a soft tone that she rarely used due to her tendency to be loud and rambunctious, “All men are idiots.”
The comment stopped Ruth in her tracks and suddenly she found herself laughing uncontrollably. She knew she must sound manic but it was hard to stop once she started. Violet gently grabbed Ruth’s arm and guided her to the bed and they both sat there until she got ahold of herself.
With a sigh Ruth mumbled, “And yet I keep coming back for more.”
“Alpha Tyler will get over himself…eventually, he has too,” the last part Violet said more to herself then to Ruth.
Without warning Ruth stood and began pacing again, but this time instead of fury, her face burned with purpose. “You’re right. Tyler needs to stop thinking he knows everything. We need to get him to see that not everything is as abysmal as he thinks. It’s like Cassie said, it doesn’t do good for an alpha to be alone.”
At first, Violet appeared shocked, but, after a moment, she bounced up with a giggle, “Let’s do it. Operation Get Tyuth Together is a go!”
Ruth stopped pacing with one eyebrow raised at her best friend, “Tyuth?”
Violet flapped a hand, “It’s your couple name. We need to start planning. I’ll run and get some snacks really quick. You get the supplies.”
Chuckling, though this time more naturally, Ruth asked, “You really will use any excuse to eat sweets won't you?”
Halfway out the door, Violet stuck out her tongue, “Duh. Now go find some paper and something to write with. I’m not waiting for you if I get back here first.”
After she returned, the two girls stayed up until nearly four in the morning concocting a plan. Or rather, a series of small seemingly accidental meetings that would soften Tyler’s resolve.