by Jade Royal
I pulled my arms back to look at the red hair covering them. Big paws moved in the air as I tried to shake off the arm warmers that they’d put on me. I couldn’t get to the seam or tell where the suit ended or began. Was it Halloween already? I clawed at the sheet that kept me attached to the bed that I couldn’t seem to free myself from.
Sharp claws shredded the blanket easily. I moved over the floor trying to get the suit off until I rolled in front of the mirror across the room. What I saw only made me jump backwards, sending me headfirst into the bed.
A loud roar erupted from my mouth while I rubbed at the pain in my head. The door to the room swung open and Alice walked in.
“Oh dear, she’s awake!” she shouted.
Footsteps pounded up the steps, and I squinted at the huge man staring at me. Where am I?
“Justice, I’m Maddox. I just need you to shift back into your human form so that we can discuss things.”
I moved toward him and fell to the floor. This coordination …
“Oh, the gods… I don’t think she’s ever shifted before,” Alice said.
“She’s an adult female. How is it that she’s never shifted?” Maddox mumbled.
I growled at him, and he took a step back. “Okay … maybe she hasn’t.”
I sniffed the air and moved around in circles trying to find that scent. It seemed to be all around me, but the source was undefined. Where was it coming from? It was driving me crazy, and the lack of answers pissed me off. I charged for Maddox, and he and Alice backed out of the room. I stumbled over my legs until I crashed into the closed door. I hissed and then growled some more.
“Shift, Justice,” Maddox said firmly.
I chuffed. I wasn’t taking orders from him. Where was the god that smelled like a walking orgasm? He smelled even better than I remembered. Or rather, I hoped it was a man.
“Maybe we should let her into Seuss’ room,” Alice said.
I whined. I wanted to find that smell.
“Alec, can you bring Augusto up here?” Maddox asked.
Was he the one that smelled of deliciousness? I sat down and tried to take off the stupid suit. The more I tried, the more I realized that it wasn’t a suit. I was a wolf! I strutted in front of the mirror before climbing back onto the bed. The smell of him was strongest here, and I curled into a ball to help calm my nerves.
Wolf? No. This was a dream, and as soon as I went back to sleep it would all be over. It had to be. I wasn’t a wolf for real. I snuggled into the bed burying my head into a pillow that smelled of him. I heard mumbling outside the door before I succumbed to sleep all over again.
When I woke up, darkness surrounded me. I checked my body to find myself covered in a sheet but naked underneath. Skin not hair. I exhaled relaxing back into the bed. It had been a dream.
There was a knock on the door before Alice walked in and flipped on the light. She carried a tray of meats and bread. They smelled amazing, and my stomach grumbled.
Alice giggled. “Good thing there’s plenty more.”
“Thank you so much,” I said as she set the tray down next to me.
“Very welcome. Make sure that you eat very slowly. I don’t want your stomach to become upset.”
I nodded and took the bread slathering butter onto it. Salty cream exploded along my taste buds when I bit into the bread. It was so good. I moaned, loving every bit of it.
“Am I good to come in?” a voice asked from the stairwell.
“One sec!” Alice yelled.
Alice ran over to the chest of drawers and pulled out clothing. She came over to the bed and helped me put on the sweatshirt. I sniffed it and sighed in content.
Alice laughed. “Smells that good, huh?”
I nodded and buried my head into the crook of my arm.
“I’ll take you to meet him tomorrow. I have to get you fed and make sure that you’re well tonight, though.”
I sunk into the bed and began eating again.
“I need to get these pants on you, too.”
“No, thank you,” I said. The sweatshirt was warm, and I didn’t want to get hotter. My skin was sensitive for some reason, and I didn’t want to agitate it.
Alice picked up a shredded sheet from the floor and threw it into a corner before grabbing a blanket from a closet. She put it across the bed and covered my lower half.
“We don’t want you indecent in front of Maddox,” She said.
I went back to eating the bread and butter.
“All good now!” she shouted.
Maddox entered the room, and that’s when I froze. I looked around at my surroundings, Maddox wearing that same green shirt from my dream, and I looked over at the destroyed sheet in the corner. What in the world? And why wasn’t I in the hospital anymore?
“It wasn’t a dream?” I blurted.
“What are you referring to exactly?” Maddox asked. I hate how he was assessing me.
“I’m not crazy!” I shouted.
“No, I’m just trying to figure out what dream you think you had?”
“That I was a red wolf. I growled at you.”
“You did.”
“You commanded me to shift.”
“I did.”
“What is going on here? Somebody needs to explain what in the hell is going on,” I demanded.
“Is that the first time that you’ve shifted?” Alice inquired.
“Shifted?”
“Into a wolf,” Maddox clarified.
He was really starting to annoy me. “And if it was?”
Maddox moved closer and I snarled. “Stand down.”
The command and his movement toward me only riled me further. “Don’t come any closer,” I warned.
I stared at him, and he returned the stare. He was challenging something inside, and it wanted to win badly. It threatened to push forward, but I held it at bay letting the power tingle along my skin.
“There she is,” Maddox said. Slowly he bared his neck and triumph soared through me.
I hadn’t realized that my chest was pumping wildly. I was excited and ready to hunt something, anything. Wolf. I felt it more than anything else. It wasn’t a dream. I had so many questions. I opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it. Wolf. But how?
“I have answers to the questions that you seek. If you’ll eat for me, I’ll explain,” Alice said.
I nodded but then looked over at Maddox. He backed away and took a seat in the chair across the room. The aggression that he wore like a second skin seemed to dissolve at the same moment that he submitted to me. He smiled and just watched me. The bastard was testing me.
“Why?” I asked.
“I’m a dominant male. There’s no way that I’d submit to just anyone as my king and queen.”
“Queen?” I looked over at Alice.
“Seuss is the king of this region. Alpha of our pack. He’s your mate.”
“Mate?” The one-word questions were starting to drive even me crazy.
“Yes,” Alice said. “You’re destined to be together and rule these lands. He’s sick, and the only one that can heal him is you.”
“How am I supposed to heal him?”
“He suffers from a mating curse that gives him pneumonia like symptoms. I can keep him from dying with my healing powers just as I’ve done with you. The curse that he’s under can only be cured by his mate.”
“Who put him under a curse and why?”
“He did it to save you. He had to sacrifice his life to heal yours. That pill that the guy slipped you was to turn off your mating call to Seuss. He would have killed you if you hadn’t gotten away. The antidote requires Seuss to bond to you to heal the effects of the spell draining him of his life force and feeding yours.”
“How do we replenish his?”
“You’ll feed it to him slowly so that you can recuperate what you lose through healing sleep. If you do it too quickly, you’ll heal him but kill yourself.”
“What if I can’t heal him?” I ask
ed.
“Then he dies, and you’ll be challenged for the throne.” Maddox spoke up for the first time since the conversation began. “We can’t let that happen. I’d die first before I let someone take the throne from Seuss.”
Everything about his tone and the words let me know that he could be trusted. Having someone so loyal to him that they’d give their life firmed my decision.
“Just show me what to do.” I said. If Seuss really was my mate I wanted to save him and his position on the throne. It all felt and seemed so surreal, but waking up as a wolf put things into perspective quickly.
“Eat up. You’ll need all of your strength for tomorrow,” Alice encouraged.
I picked up the first piece of meat from the plate symbolizing the initial steps to solving this messed up dilemma.
Justice
“What am I to do first?” I asked.
The man Alice claimed to be my “mate” lay in bed unconscious. He was covered in six or more blankets, but his skin was pale as if he couldn’t get warm enough. He appeared cold and ashen.
“You don’t feel anything, Justice?” she asked.
What did she expect me to feel? “No. Alice, you’re the nurse. You know more than I do.”
“I’m not a nurse. I’m a healer, and none of my powers have worked to heal him. I’ve kept him from the brink of death but that’s all.” Alice walked over to me and reached for my hand.
If it was true that Seuss gave his life for mine, the least I could do was try whatever she thought it was that would work. I rested my hand in hers, and we walked closer to the bed. I could feel the cold radiating from his body. It made my skin crawl as if it were running toward warmth. Being so close to whatever ailed him made me feel sick, too.
“I can heal you, but I can’t heal him.” Warmth moved over my body like the first sip of hot cocoa on a teeth chattering day. I exhaled. She could heal me. “You’ll have to wait until this is over, though, before I can do that again.”
I took a moment before I nodded. That feeling wasn’t something you wanted to ever know. Whatever she’d been doing stopped, and the horrid feelings rushed back in. Alice placed my hand on his, and his eyes opened briefly. He looked into my eyes, and for a moment I knew what it felt like to be whole. It was warm and cozy, different than anything I’d ever felt. My pulse quickened. I sniffed the air, and the aroma of cognac and amber mixed with earth heightened the atmosphere. It was him. He had that scent that I craved. I leaned closer needing to inhale more of it.
A rope I couldn’t comprehend to be real, but a figment of my imagination slowly began to wind around my arm. The rope’s end slid across my hand into his, escalating the rhythm of my heart. Warmth spread over my skin where the rope wound. I felt like a predator about to pounce Seuss. I wanted him so badly that my soul ached. The moment that the rope began to wrap along his arm the tension lessened, and I could feel the essence of Seuss as it entered my body. He invaded my mind first, and I closed my eyes momentarily to revel in the sensations. Satisfaction on a completely different level washed over me until suddenly Seuss jerked the rope, pulling it from my grasp, burning my wrist and palm.
I screamed, and Alice pulled my hand from Seuss. I blinked to see him still asleep, no signs of rope, yet the burn was angrily visible on my skin. Alice rushed to wash the wound with cool water before she mended the skin with a balm.
“It will only heal the outer skin, the rest will have to be cured by your body. You were burned by magic.”
“What happened?!” I exclaimed. It hurt like the dickens, and the only response she had was that it was magic. Why in the hell did Seuss purposely burn me?
“It was a binding spell to bind your souls the way that a mating would. You could cure him faster that way. Seuss just rejected that idea.”
The flinch must’ve been noticeable because sympathy stared back at me. How can my mate, someone that is destined for me, reject me? Pain from the rejection stung more than the damn burn did. He could rot in that bed for all I cared.
Alice began wrapping my wound. As soon as she was finished I was headed home. Alpha or not, I wasn’t dealing with his foolery.
“I need a taxi to take me home,” I explained. I’d had enough of this whatever it was. It was time to go home where the people were normal and not wolves and witches.
“If you need to lay down there are plenty of places here that you can rest. This land is yours. You’re his mate.”
“No! News flash! In case you just missed that scenario, he clearly doesn’t want to be mated to me. Who can blame him? We don’t even know each other.”
“Your souls do. Your hearts. Justice, he needs you,” Alice pleaded.
“And while he gets the little wife and his strength back, what do I get? What does this mean for me?” I yelled all my frustrations directing them at her. Seuss wasn’t around to take the ass chewing.
“Whatever you want it to mean. Justice, you can lay down and take whatever is thrown at you, or you can make this an opportunity.”
“Did it work?”
Startled, Alice and I turned to see a tall man approaching us from the hall. Maddox was big like Seuss, but his steps were quiet and careful. His hair was long and swept his broad shoulders as he moved. His jeans were worn and dusty like his soiled work boots. The sleeveless black t-shirt on his back wasn’t much better. The hopeful expression on his face made me look back at the resting Seuss.
“No. He rejected the bond again,” Alice said.
“Again?!” I shouted. “When was the first time?”
Maddox closed the door behind him and walked over to Seuss. “You’re one stubborn fucker, Alpha.” Maddox bowed his head and raised a fist to his heart and held it there. He then turned to me and repeated the action.
It made me stand straighter and prouder. Honored. “Thank you, Maddox.”
“I know that you must be starving. Allow me to escort you to dinner?” I could tell that Maddox was tired, but he held firm, bearing his strength and honor first.
It was difficult to deny him after that. Dinner and then I’d leave. I looked over at Alice who was busy checking Seuss’ vitals.
“Yes.” The small gesture seemed to delight him. Alice finished what she was doing and led the way to the kitchen.
The girls running around the kitchen looked frantic and out of sorts. Smoke rose from the frying pan before flames ignited. Maddox sprang into action grabbing the extinguisher and killing the grease fire. Alice opened the back door to let out the smoke while the alarm whirled. I chuckled at the mess of things and wondered whose bright idea it was to have a bunch of teenage girls cook.
“Justice?” Alice asked.
I held up my hand as the tears poured from my eyes. “I really appreciate the gesture but …” I spread my arms out to indicate the mess in the kitchen.
Maddox spoke up first. “It’s tradition that dinner is made for the lady of the house on her first night. You were bed ridden last night so we moved it to tonight. These girls are responsible for caring for the queen.”
“They can’t be more than sixteen!” I exclaimed.
“The prior Alpha kept only a few people around to maintain the house, and when he moved to the other house, he took them with him.”
“But …” I stopped short of the list of reasons why this wasn’t a promising idea. This wasn’t my problem. Everybody stood looking at me, waiting. “Nothing. Let’s get this mess cleaned up.”
Everybody started cleaning, and I looked at what they’d started. I threw away whatever was in a bowl that looked spoiled. The ground beef looked untouched, but everything else needed to be trashed. Maybe that yellow concoction was mashed potatoes, but I wasn’t chancing it. Once the dishes were cleaned, and I’d surveyed ingredients on hand, I had a decent meal in mind. I’d been introduced to the girls during the cleanup and had a promising idea of who was who.
“Anna, you’re on bread duty. Ree, you’ll make the pasta. Tina is on sauce. Beth will brown the beef. Lisa, yo
u’ve got the salad. I’ll show you all how to do it step by step. Alice can you set the table?”
Alice nodded, and Maddox stood by the door observing. I made homemade butter cookies while keeping a close eye on each of the girls. The appliances looked brand new, and there was plenty of space for everybody to spread out. They took turns helping me when they had to wait for portions of their meal to cook. Maddox kept stealing cookie dough when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. We pulled the meal together nicely with fewer errors than I’d hoped for.
I’d had fun with the girls, and Maddox ate like a king at the table. The homemade garlic bread was my favorite part. Hot bread, melted butter, tangy garlic seasoning to compliment the spaghetti and meat sauce. Using the bread to dip into the salad to gather the dressing for the crisp bite of vegetables only added to the meal.
“I’m so full.” Maddock leaned back and rubbed his stomach.
“I bet! You had three plates!” Anna joked.
Everybody laughed, including me. “Alright girls, we need to get cleaned up so that you can get home at a decent hour,” Alice chimed in.
Everybody stood to clear away the plates. Beth loaded the dish washer, and Alice agreed to put them away in the morning. With no left overs, clean up was easy. The girls filed out the back door, and I yawned.
“Let me show you back to your room,” Maddox said.
“Maddox, I appreciate everything, but I really need to get home,” I explained.
“I’m not sure what Alice told you about your stay, but we really need you here. The Alpha needs to take his mate to restore order around here. Currently, the pack is stable but all it takes is somebody to rock the boat and we’ll have issues. Nobody has challenged the throne but if he stays down for long, they may. After he’s better, he’ll need an heir and for all of that to happen, he needs you.”
“I’m not the one that keeps pushing away from the bond. That was your Alpha,” I pointed out.
“I don’t exactly see you looking for ways to make it work either. At the first sign of resistance, you’re ready to run. Without you, he could die. If you decide that you don’t want to be his mate after this is all over, that’s fine. You’re the key to healing his life force. All I ask is that you help do that. After he’s better, you can do what you want.”