“She does not seems so enamored of me now.”
Claudiu rolled his eyes. “What woman wants to hear that a man is drawn to her against his will? You practically told her you came back because no matter how hard you fought you couldn’t stay away. You made being with her sound like an obligation, like it was all Aphrodite’s doing.”
Sorin’s head swam with what Claudiu was saying. The image of Gia’s rage as she stalked away from him filled his mind’s eye, contradicting Claudiu’s claim. Part of him didn’t want it to be true. Love was a curse, not a blessing. Passion was the quickest way to weaken a man’s control. Still . . .
“Aphrodite has not brought us together,” Sorin said quietly. “Gia locked herself away with me. I was the only one for Aphrodite to bond her to.”
Claudiu’s eyes widened and he stepped back, looking expectantly at the sky. Sorin frowned.
“What?”
“You really are an idiot. You just said, out loud, that it’s possible to
hide
from
Aphrodite
.”
The way he said it imbued the phrase with a disturbing weight. Sorin shifted uncomfortably, not sure why he was suddenly nervous.
“I’m surprised Aphrodite hasn’t convinced Zeus to fry your ass where you stand already,” Claudiu muttered.
“You mentioned that Gia’s mother was lupa,” Sorin said out loud, trying to distract himself from his growing unease. “Was that just an informative tidbit or did you have a purpose for mentioning it?”
“Gia’s father died when she was very young. Both he and her mother had been good alphas and their pack loved them. After he died, Gia’s mother continued as lupa unchallenged. She raised Gia to be like her, a kind leader who wasn’t afraid to fight.”
“She did excellent work,” Sorin murmured.
Claudiu nodded. “They were very close.” He shook his head, a sadness weighing in his eyes. “Then one day Gia’s mom took a mate. I don’t know if she’d just grown lonely or what, but Gia was devastated.”
Sorin frowned. “Gia did not like the man her mother chose?”
“Gia was eleven years old. She was used to having her mother to herself. It wouldn’t have mattered who her mother chose, it was going to take time for her to accept anyone into her little family unit.”
“Understandable,” Sorin acquiesced.
“Yes, but unacceptable in a werewolf pack. You see, her stepfather was also her lycaeon.”
Comprehension dawned on Sorin. His heart went out to the eleven-year old Gia. “I see.”
“Yeah.” Claudiu shrugged. “Gia’s stepfather wasn’t a bad person, he just had very firm ideas about how the pack should be run. At that point, Gia viewed anything he did differently as an insult to her mother. Unfortunately, anytime she so much as made a face at her step-father, her mother and everyone else in the pack came down on her with orders to respect her lycaeon. No one gave her the room she needed to adjust to having a new father—to them he was lycaeon and that’s all that mattered. It pissed Gia off.” He smiled. “We went to high school together. She used to talk to me all the time about how someday she would be lupa and no one would ever be able to control her life again.”
“That’s how you got her to take you for her lycaeon. You were the only one who listened to her ‘treasonous’ complaints.” All the pieces of the puzzle that was Gia seemed to fall into place. Sorin stared at Claudiu, both impressed and outraged by his manipulation of the situation.
“We dated for a while in high school, but then my family moved and I went with them. When I came back, we picked up where we left off.”
“And you convinced her to take you as lycaeon even though you knew you didn’t have the necessary strengths,” Sorin accused, the embers of his anger burning anew.
Claudiu glared at him, defiance shining in his eyes. “It was a symbiotic relationship. I wanted a position where I didn’t have to worry about being beaten into submission and Gia wanted a mate who wouldn’t try to dominate her. We were happy.”
“Then why did you stray?” The question burned in Sorin’s mind like a star, torturing him with its incomprehensibility. How could anyone betray Gia like that? How could any woman tempt him away?
For a moment he didn’t think Claudiu would answer. The blond man stared at him with the decision warring in his eyes. Finally his shoulders slumped.
“It’s not as easy as you’d think. I thought it would be enough to be called lycaeon and do a lot of the things lycaeons do. Lead hunts, eat first at a kill, have other wolves drop into submissive postures when I’m around . . . I thought that would be enough.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “But it was all empty. No one respected me, not really. Everyone knew I wasn’t powerful enough to be lycaeon, that I was basically a kept man. After a while it got to me.”
He looked away as if too embarrassed to meet Sorin’s eyes. “Rhianne was always talking about how smart I am. She’d tell me what a crime it was that Gia didn’t listen to my ideas, how great a leader I could be if Gia would stop holding me back.” Finally he raised his eyes to Sorin’s face. “I felt more like a man with her than I had with Gia in a long time.”
As angry as he was at the chaos Claudiu had brought down on Gia, and himself, Sorin couldn’t help the flare of empathy that rose inside him. Brains without physical strength would not get one far in the world of werewolves. There had to be someone stronger to help.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Claudiu held up a hand. “I don’t want your pity. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Gia deserves to be happy. That means you, so listen up.”
Sorin raised his eyebrows at the command, but remained silent.
“Gia needs someone who needs her. If you act like you’re strong enough without her, or worse, that you’re stronger than her, she’ll never let you see her vulnerable side. And she needs someone to show that vulnerable side to. We all do.”
“It does not seem as though having a weak mate served her very well in the past,” Sorin observed.
“That’s because the whole pack saw my weakness.” His voice grew strained, but he didn’t flinch. “You need to make sure Gia sees your weakness, but the rest of the pack can only see strength. Just like Gia does.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what your issues are, man, but you need to get over it. You’ll never find anyone like Gia.”
“What if I don’t want anyone?” The words escaped his mouth before he could stop them. He stared at Claudiu, helpless to take it back.
Claudiu just shook his head, the corner of his mouth lifting in a half smile.
“Well that’s just not true, is it?”
He turned to leave.
“Claudiu,” Sorin called.
“Yeah?” he asked, turning his head back.
“You are not as foolish as I previously believed.”
Claudiu smiled. “I was lycaeon for over a decade and I can’t fight worth a shit. How stupid could I be?”
Gia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, nodding with satisfaction when her chest didn’t hitch with the remnants of her earlier bout of crying. The sun’s last rays trailed over the sky, leaving a chill in their wake that matched the growing cold in her heart. Sorin would be here any minute.
Sorin
. The echo of his name in her head nearly brought the tears back. Curse him for that moment. That one glorious moment in her cabin when he’d invited her into the challenge and she’d let herself believe the offer had been so much more. For a short precious while, she’d given in to the bond Aphrodite had forged between them. The world had never felt so right.
Her eyes burned as her chest constricted. She hadn’t even known she wanted it until she had it. And now it was gone, just the same. She was alone.
Her mind danced over the details, gleefully tormenting her with her own stupidity. If they won the challenge, the rules dictated they live together for a year, barring expulsion from the pack. She didn’t think she could make it a year. It would be too much to bear, living with him as a mated pair and knowing he wanted to leave. She gritted her teeth, forcing the ice of indifference through her veins. Let him leave. They could start planning his expulsion after they won the challenge.
One step at a time.
“Good evening.”
His voice caressed her like a hand, raising gooseflesh on her arms. Memories pricked her brain, reminding her of how her name sounded on his tongue, cried out in the heat of passion. Her steely façade wavered.
“Are you ready?” she said out loud, trying to drown out her own thoughts.
“I am.” Sorin watched her with a strange look in his eyes. His gaze flitted around her face and his nostrils flared as if he was scenting her. “You have been crying,” he said softly. “Perhaps I should ask if
you
are ready?”
“Of course I’m ready,” she retorted coolly. “Let’s go.”
She didn’t wait for his response, instead turning away and stalking off to the east. The challenge circle was only a mile away, it wouldn’t be long until the moment of truth arrived. Perhaps she worried for nothing.
An image of Byron’s face, his eyes burning with hatred roared into her mind. Her steps faltered. What if Sorin lost?
Her feet planted themselves on the ground as her mind spun with the new possibility. Strange that it had never occurred to her. Sorin had fought so well during the Hunt, the perfect warrior swift and deadly. But Byron . . .
“Gia?”
Sorin’s voice turned her head before her mind could finish its thought. She stared at Sorin without seeing him, her mind busy supplying her with all sorts of horrifying images. Byron was one of the best fighters her pack had to offer. A former soldier, he had the skills to go with his brawn. He wouldn’t be so easily beaten as Marco.
“Gia, are you all right?”
A stab of iron guilt cracked her icy exterior. She blinked and shook her head.
“Sorin, you don’t have to do this.”
Sorin raised his eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”
“You don’t have to fight.” She took a step closer, her brain still spinning with all the macabre possibilities. “This is all my fault, you shouldn’t have to pay the price for my mistake.”
“Gia, what are you talking about?” Sorin frowned. “I cost you your position, I am honor-bound to—”
“You don’t have to die for it!”
Her voice broke on the last word and she had to scramble to keep her emotions from spilling out of the crack in her calm. He stared at her like she’d lost her mind and she reached deep inside her for a handful of anger. Glaring at him, she poked a finger into his chest.
“You’ve already said you don’t want to be my mate,” she ground out. “You don’t want to be lycaeon. Why should you get in the challenge circle and risk true death for some stupid misguided sense of honor?”
“First of all, I am not certain your Byron can kill—”
“He could rip your head clean off of your shoulders! Can you survive that?”
“My beast is calmer in your presence.”
Gia froze, momentarily stunned into silence by his strange response. She stared at him, searching his face as she tried to follow the abrupt change in the conversation.
“Most werewolves are pack creatures at heart,” she said finally, too confused to try and steer the conversation back. “Your beast will feel safer with his own kind.”
Sorin nodded. “It is remarkable.” He stared ahead and started walking. She dropped into step beside him. “After I died, I lost that feeling of connection with my pack. I tried to get it back, but . . .”
His steps faltered and Gia reached out to run a hand down his back. Her emotions hung in suspended animation as the lupa in her sensed another wolf in distress. She didn’t say anything, letting Sorin gather his thoughts and speak when he was able.
“I suppose it should not have surprised me that death would change things, but the wolf in me wanted to go back as if nothing had happened.”
He stopped suddenly and turned to her. The haunted look in his eyes disturbed her and she reached out to take his hands, automatically offering the touch of another wolf to comfort him. He gripped her hands, his eyes still a little too wide. It was the look of a new wolf remembering his first night after the change.