“What the hell was that?”
Daddy laughed. “Your new Pack is growing, sweetie. And now I need to get a new financial consultant.”
“Craig? Isn’t there something that has to happen? What about the formal release? We can’t take Craig from you.” I was taking too much from Daddy as it was.
“It’s where his loyalty is, sweetie. I don’t hold anyone in this Pack that doesn’t want to be here. You’ve grown into your role. I’ve seen this coming for quite some time, and now it’s time to leave the den and create your own. Craig will be a good fit. I hope he’s ready to be led by a hybrid.”
Ever put too much food on your paper plate and feel the plate start to ripple with the moisture? You know at that moment that you have to put some of that on another plate or stand the chance of your chili dogs tearing through the thin skin and exploding all over your pants. Turns out Jake was carrying too much on his plate.
The rippling I noticed when he was still attempting to gain control of his wolf was back. I could see his skin waver and twitch. His eyes closed. It was the definition of pain that was rolling over his body. I slid to Doc for a quick whisper. Jake’s eyes were closed, and he had made his way to a wall solid enough to hold his frame.
“Doc, what’s going on with him? He can handle his wolf and his vampire side. Why is he reacting like this now?”
Doc tried to smile, but there was strain instead of happiness in the creases at the corners. “We’ve been talking, Amber. An Alpha has a big load to carry. So does a Protector. We had hoped that due to his dual nature he would be able to handle this.” We all turned to look at Jake. The tremors were increasing. “I think we may have put too much hope in that theory.”
“As his mate, I am the Alpha female. Won’t some of the burden be shared with me? At least through his wolfy side?”
“He has more than one side Amber. He needs to share the rest of his burden.”
I had to turn
. Good thing that was the plan anyway. Sometimes I didn’t need to know why. Sometimes I just needed to trust myself. For some reason, the right path always found me. By now I didn’t question it. Jake needed to share the leadership. His mate—that would be me—needed to ease his burden.
“What do we do about the Family coming for his miasma? I can ease his burden, but how will that help if he’s still on the hit list? We had hoped us forming our own group would keep his brain where it belongs. Will it?”
Shelly, who I was now quite in love with, since she wasn’t about to tear the brain from my mate’s head, had the words I wanted to hear. “Once you are a vampire, or at least half one, Jake can start his own Family. The miasma will split. It will stay with him, but it’ll also find another host in his former Family. Jake’s not the first Protector to get around the lifetime sentence by starting his own Family. It’s not widely advertised due to the higher rate of battles that can result, but it has been done. There are other ways as well, but this one involves a lot fewer murders.”
Shelly knew something the miasma didn’t?
Wow
. Point for Vampire Barbie.
Shelly continued with the education I needed on this whole miasma thing, while Jake stood against the wall shaking enough to make the house creak. The miasma was bound to the person it entered. And that person was irreparably bound to their Family. Sharing your Family’s miasma with others or leaving—and essentially stealing the miasma—was the big no-no. There were two ways around it. One was to start your own Family, our route. The second was to kill the Family’s Matheo. Essentially, making the Family belong to another figurehead by default.
But there was something that didn’t ring quite true. “Your dad knows that we’re planning on doing this. He loves you. He knows we’re not going rogue, and someone will get the miasma for his Family when it splits. Why the rush? Why are they still trying to kill me?”
“I don’t know for sure. I don’t understand it, Amber. I don’t agree with the Matheo on this. Jake has been an ideal Protector. He has sent us on a path that has kept us from public awareness.”
For someone I’d nicknamed because of her cold plastic appearance, it seemed there was a lot of respect for Jake coming from Vampire Barbie. She almost seemed to have a bit of emotion.
“We have a lot because of him. I don’t know why he wouldn’t let you come on board. Having our Protector’s mate in our Family would only add to our stability. He’s insistent on your death. I don’t agree.”
I was liking her more and more.
“I don’t have the power to fight my Matheo, but I do have the speed to make it here before him. He’s on his way with the rest of the Family. Jake, he has them convinced that you are trying to give the Paulson Pack our miasma. They’re coming for you all. The only thing we have is the truth.”
“Fat lot of good the truth is doing us. Nobody rolled out the welcome mat at your place. In fact I felt a distinct lack of welcome and an overpowering amount of ‘wish you didn’t exist’.” I wasn’t looking to relive that moment, so I was grateful for Barbie’s continued speech. The fact that she had useful information to add was a bonus.
“You have to prove your intentions. You have to do this publicly. And unfortunately, you will have to do it without my help. If I assist you…let’s just say, you aren’t the only one who might not make it through this.”
The next fifteen minutes went by way too fast. I got a text from Craig saying that he had Mary. I got a text from Mary saying that she was going to have me killed if I let myself die. The irony was that I really
was
planning on dying.
I put my hand to my chest. There was a heartbeat strong beneath my palm. It ran faster than it did before I turned wolfy. It could push blood through my body faster as it helped heal me, and I was about to make it stop. I was literally giving my heart to my mate.
My gods
. Was it really only a few days ago that I first saw him? Love at first sight had nothing on mating pheromones. I had a mate, a partner, a lover and a bonus—he was very easy on the eyes. He really was everything I had ever wanted in a man.
The terminology for what we had and what we were didn’t exist yet. We were starting a new life, and a new future. Did that mean we got to make up the rules as well? Would we be strict? Would we create deep traditions for everyone to fight against, or would we pull off something really radical and work from acceptance? My mate was a hybrid. Our new Pack/Family member was a werewolf, and my best friend was a witch. Could I live without any of them? Could I have all of them, like I’d always wanted?
The phone in my hand exploded with colorful curses and loving threats from my best friend, and I realized I would turn a million times for the people I loved. I would take this leap. I had so much to protect.
I took a deep breath and reached for Jake’s hand, and felt the magic rolling though him. I had too much to lose if I didn’t do this.
The only problem was that I wasn’t sure I would exist afterward to enjoy it.
Chapter Eighteen
I heard the noise before Jake. He wasn’t looking too good. With every minute that passed, he was a little farther gone. His eyes had stopped flashing, but he was starting to have random hair eruptions all over his body. His claws had extended, as had his fangs. His irises were pulsing as he took in everything that was going on around him.
Jake couldn’t make himself focus. He was staring at the streamer batting against the air conditioner vent like it was more of a threat than the vampire death squad that was marching in.
“They’re here.” Shelly looked at me, then she turned a quick glance to Doc and Daddy. “This isn’t how I want this to be, but I have to go stand with the Family. I’ve done all I can.” She ran toward the back of the building and the fire escape.
I walked the other direction and pulled the curtains aside to survey the scene. “At least they don’t have pitchforks.”
“We need to get started. Are you ready?” Doc was speaking, but I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or to my dad. Alpha Paulson took it as his question. He replied with a fast “yes,” and then I heard feet moving as he made his way down the hallway.
I heard his howl—his battle cry. There was chaos through the whole building. Every wolf in the building would be assembling behind him. Every one of them would stop what they were doing, and every one of them would gather in the lounge. Those that weren’t here would feel his call and come running. They would all listen as Daddy told them they had to be ready to fight a bunch of vampires if it came down to it.
I wasn’t sure all of them would stay for that fight. Some might just stay because it gave them a chance to shift and use their teeth for more than a meal. Most of Daddy’s Pack were more evolved than your average werewolf, but there is a little bit of the call of the wolf in all of us.
Turning furry calms me, centers me. It helps me forget about what is going on in my two-legged life. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t feeling the itch to turn as I looked out that window. Fight or flight, and this wasn’t the time for flight.
I spotted Shelly walking up to the Family from behind. She must have run around and approached from the back, because it wasn’t obvious where she had come from. The Matheo acknowledged her presence with a pointed glance. I wondered if he knew where she had been. For her sake, I hoped not.
The Matheo scanned his Family. He was taking inventory. Seemingly satisfied, he led the group like Braveheart. Only he was scarier than any face-painted Mel Gibson. He took a step forward and the line of people fell into rank behind him.
I spotted the butler that had answered the door at their Family home, and I recognized two or three other people who had been facing toward me for the brief moments I had been in that mansion. The Matheo’s eyes took stock of all he was facing, and they had victory in them as he looked up—right at me.
I felt the pressure of his power, but he was calling to Jake. I only felt the pull because of my mating bond. I wondered if Craig could feel it too. I hoped he could resist coming to the aid of his new Alpha, because he was all I had to keep Mary from this.
I walked out to the hallway and listened to my elevated pulse pound the wolf’s demands through my system. I wanted to shift. I wanted to fight. I wanted to tear the flesh from the people who would harm my fragile new existence. I stopped at the top of the last flight of stairs.
Someone had left the door to 1A open. People spilled out into the hallway. Many were ready to fight in blind allegiance to their leader. But not all. Ben, one of our newer Pack members, spoke up over the mumbling of the others. He always had a bit of the disgruntled uncle vibe. He was proving my instincts right.
“She’s your offspring, but no longer Pack. Are we really going to start a war with those heartless bastards? Over what? We’re Pack. Are you choosing her over the livelihood of us as a whole? That’s begging for a challenge…sir.”
A chorus of agreement bubbled up around him. How quickly Ben forgot what he had come from. He had joined our Pack because he was sick of living like an animal and wanted to keep at least some of his humanity. Apparently, Daddy’s humanity wasn’t worth fighting for.
“I won’t demand you fight for me. But if you won’t fight for me, my wolf won’t fight for you. That is my daughter. I have lost my wife. I have lost my only other child. I will give up everything to fight for her. You are all my Pack. If you don’t have the kind of fight in you to protect other members of this Pack and fight for what is right, leave.” His voice rang in the hallways.
Ben turned and walked out. So did two others. Each time the door slammed the Pack flinched. More ties severed.
“Anyone else?”
A murmur of
no
went through them all. Then the crowd parted and Daddy walked outside. Every last wolf followed him out. Not one looked up at me. They were warriors now. Whether they hated me for it or just loved the Alpha enough to fight, they were battle ready.
I couldn’t let it come to that—not as long as I had life in my body. I had a plan.
You have to prove your intentions. You have to do this publicly.
That conversation replayed in my head, and Shelly’s words dug in their claws. A public display. Daddy might think that meant a show of solidarity, but I knew it had to be my turning. One way or another, my death needed to take center stage.
Jake was behind me. His entire form vibrated with the need to go before his father. He was fighting the urge to give me time. Or maybe he was stalling a little too.
I put my right palm against my heartbeat one more time. Then I grabbed Jake’s hand with the feeling of my heart between our palms. He had regained his full human form, but he looked more feral than I had ever seen him. There was wild bursting from every pore.
The cord that bound us as mates and Pack was shaking. So I took it slow as we walked out the door together.
My Pack—former Pack—parted before us, and we walked through the ranks. Some looked at us with pity, others with confusion, and even with how focused I was on making it before the Matheo, I could see the hatred that was present on some of the wolves’ faces. It wasn’t their fight.
I couldn’t blame them for feeling angry, but it didn’t hurt any less.
I looked to Jake, and he stepped to my side. We entered the space between our former support groups. I kept my eyes on him and let him take the lead that was his right as my Alpha. Curse the creator who decided the Alpha had to be male.
I let my connection to him solidify and sent him some of my strength through it. We were mates. That meant sharing everything, including strength. Too bad I couldn’t ease his vampy burden. Yet. We were about to put on a hell of a show to see if I could do just that. No time like the present to jump off that cliff.
Voices pounded against us from both sides. The vampires were calling for my head.
“She plans to use our own Protector against us!”
“They are showing their support to her! The wolves are starting the war!”
“End it! End them all!”
The shouts beat against me. There was power building. Anger was a powerful fuel for magic. The adrenaline that coursed through the bodies of humans did the same through supernatural beings. I wasn’t sure about the vampires, but the wolves were taking advantage of the boost.