Bound to the Tribe (Bound to the Pack, #2) (3 page)

Always the pissing contest between these two.

Kristen spoke as she walked up to the rest of us, breaking some of the tension. “I wouldn’t say she ‘simply’ needed to eat. She ate more food than should have been physically possible. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never even
heard
of anything like it.”

The three shifters were all staring at me like I was some kind of puzzle they needed to solve. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’ve been human all my life and I’ve never heard of or done anything like that before either.”

“If it is neither a human trait nor a shifter trait, what then is it?” Liam asked quietly, curious or worried. Probably both.

“Irrelevant,” Kristen said matter of factly. “We need to leave.”

“Your bags are in the trunk of your car,” Troy said as he fished the car keys from a pocket and handed them to Kristen. “We should take Jen’s car since it isn’t registered to any clan.”

Kristen took the keys and nodded before leading us back to my vehicle while Troy went over to get his own bag. A few minutes later, Troy and Kristen’s luggage was in the trunk, next to mine and Liam’s.

“Jen, I’ll keep driving, ok? Just in case you have another episode.” Kristen didn’t even wait for me to answer before opening the driver’s door and getting inside. Troy took the passenger seat, leaving Liam and I stuffed in the back. After some adjusting of seats so that Liam wasn’t eating his knees, we left, heading north towards Canada.

The lights of town, of home, slowly grew dimmer behind us as we drove further and further away. The hum of the engine and quiet inside of the car had me feeling sleepy immediately. Closing my eyes, I leaned against Liam who put his arm around me to hold me close.

Wrapped in a cocoon of warmth and protection, I fell asleep.

Liam

J
en’s head lay softly on my lap as she slept, my hand resting on her side. I thrilled in the feel of her body against mine, all luscious curves and smooth skin. The need to have her fully naked again tore through me and was forced down. This was not the time, nor was it the place.

I was unaccustomed to waiting.

We were parked, engine still running, near a small cabin on the side of a dirt road. I watched warily as a large man approached us, waiting for the wind to blow our way so that we could confirm he was a shifter. As he had already done with us.

There.

The musk and earthiness that identified all shifters came in lightly. The nuances of his scent told me the large male was a Kodiak, border ‘officers’ were usually bears. It was rare that anyone would challenge, or even push, one of that clan’s notoriously cantankerous members.

Without a word the inspection began. A slow walk around the car, all our windows open so he could test the air, before leaning in on Kristen’s door. He made a show of breathing each of our scents in turn, lingering as he faced Jen’s prone form. The entire purpose of his position was to ensure humans didn’t know about border crossings like this one. Even his uniform was the same as the human officials wore.

Fortunately Jen was asleep and obviously had no idea where she was, so her telling other humans was unlikely. She was also carrying my scent which marked her as my mate, which took time to build.

Without taking his eyes from Jen he moved to my window and went so far as to lean inside to get the best possible scent from her. If we had drugged or kidnapped her for whatever reason, he’d be able to smell it. Doing so wasn’t completely unheard of, though it was frowned upon. He would have to alert the local tribe at the least.

Surprisingly, he reached in as if he were going to touch her. More surprisingly I found my wolf taking over and I growled challengingly, staring him down. So much for that being a rare occurrence.

But I’d be damned if I would let anyone touch my mate.

Troy and Kristen were staring back at me in shock. Fortunately the guard just snorted, gave a nod, and withdrew from our car. Stepping back he waved us on, turning to his cabin without a single word spoken.

“That was a stupid thing to do, I thought we’d be scraping what was left of you off of his cabin.” Kristen’s nervousness came through in her words as she rolled up all our windows.

Troy still stared at me, shock clear on his face. The coward likely wouldn’t stand up to a mouse, even one about to touch Kris.

I said nothing and we continued on our journey in silence. Internally I marveled at how much my life had changed in such a short time. From being the next clan alpha and starting a pack of my own, to breaking one of our oldest laws and going into hiding to delay my execution.

All for a human.

Jen was hardly ‘just’ a human, though. She ignited something inside of me that I hadn’t known existed, and that made all the difference in the world. Never before had I met someone who could feel so many emotions so strongly, yet retain control over herself as she experienced them. She was full of a passion for life and possessed an inner strength many shifters lacked.

It didn’t hurt that she was stunningly beautiful, either.

I drank her scent in deeply, greedily, thrilling in the mind-spinning complexity of it. Even while she slept she gave off such an intoxicating array that it was easy to understand how I had become addicted.

Lost in my thoughts of an impossible future with my bond mate, I didn’t notice when we had reached our destination until we were parked in front of a tall building. Our hotel, apparently.

“I’ll go see what they have available.” Troy opened his door and stepped out, disappearing into the building.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get rooms here. I’m ready for bed, not a ride around Montreal looking for open rooms.” Kristen’s voice was muffled. I looked around the seat and found her resting her head on her arms across the steering wheel.

It had been a long and exhausting few days for everyone.

Unfortunately, the hotel was full. As was the next, and the one after that as well. Troy disappeared into the fourth one, I didn’t even look at the name.

“If this one doesn’t come through, I’m going to sleep in the car.” Kristen was getting progressively more exhausted. She had even lost some control of her emotions and I was catching uncharacteristic scents from her, all of which were covered in loss.

I had been so wrapped up in my own concerns that I hadn’t given any thought to hers. She had lost everything as well, more than she had planned on. If it had just been her and Troy on the mountain last night, she would have just been exiled. For her that would have only meant moving in with Troy since the tribe would no longer pay for her house in town.

Everything else would have remained the same.

For the first time, I realized that what I had inadvertently done by bonding Jen had uprooted my sister and Troy as well. I suddenly hated him a little less, he had left his life behind as well.

All because of me.

“Kris... I apologize for everything.” My voice was quiet, I rarely felt as if I needed to be sorry for my actions. “You and Troy should return to your homes. This is an issue of my own, neither of you need to be here.”

“An apology? Jen
has
had a positive effect on you, Li.” Kristen sat up and sighed heavily, sadness rolling off of her in waves. “Who knows how much time you really have before... Well, I want to spend it with you. You’re the only family I have left.”

Yet another thing I hadn’t given thought to, my execution would leave my sister with nobody. She would lose her last connection to the tribe, exile likely had seemed a blessing to her before.

Troy opened the door, disrupting the moment. He eyed us both, obviously aware of Kris’s sadness, but let it pass without comment. “We have rooms here. We need to bring our bags up first, parking is a block away.” Troy’s voice seemed strained as Kristen handed him the keys to unlock the trunk.

“Jen, we’re here,” I said as I gently shook her awake. Mumbling incoherently she shifted in the car seat and rubbed her face deeper into my lap. “Mate, as much as I love where your head is currently at, we do need to get out.”

“Mmm. What?” Jen sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Enjoy your nap?” Kristen asked from the front, grinning back at us. “We’re here.”

Jen looked around, surprised, and nodded as she yawned before leaning her head against the car window. Her hand fumbled around awkwardly before she found the door handle. Getting out of the car she stood, stretched, and immediately began to shiver.

I left the car as well, but thoroughly enjoyed the cool northern air. Small flecks of snow danced in the atmosphere as I walked to the back of the car and retrieved the bags for Jen and I.

We were in a popular part of the city, a street sign nearby showed that this was Sherbrooke. Humans were walking or driving in a constant flow even with the late hour. Not one that I saw had the scent of a shifter. For the first time in my life, I was lost in a sea of humanity; it was far more unsettling than I would have thought.

“L’Appartement,” Jen said softly beside me, reading the sign on the building.

“Our new, temporary home,” Troy commented as he closed the trunk. “Here are your room keys.” The cards he handed Jen looked nothing like keys to me, but it was a human hotel, so what did I really know. “You’re in room seven thirty-one.”

Jen nodded and I followed her as she walked through the lobby to two metal doors where she pressed a button, causing it to light up. We simply stood there for a time, Troy arriving to stand beside us with his and Kris’s luggage, before a bell rang and the doors opened on their own. They led to the smallest room I had ever been in.

Catching me looking around, Jen chuckled and said, “It’s called an elevator. It’ll take us to the seventh floor faster than the stairs. Less effort, too, especially if we were dragging our bags up.”

I could only shake my head.

Troy stepped in with his luggage, truly filling the room, then pressed two buttons on a wall, lighting them up. The doors closed on their own and a moment later I felt a sense of vertigo and movement that quickly passed.

Looking at the two lit up buttons, I found myself confused. “I assume that the seven represents the seventh floor, but which floor is ‘PH?’” For some reason my question caused Troy to stare ahead and for the scent of irritation to waft from Jen.

“It stands for penthouse, it’s just a fancy way of saying a room at the top floor,” Jen answered softly and yawned again.

Surprisingly, Troy turned to her and the light scent of gratitude came from him before he controlled himself again. “It was the only other room available.” His voice had an edge to it.

A second wave of vertigo passed through me as the hidden bell rang again before the door opened into a hall stretching to the left and right. The lobby we had entered from was nowhere to be seen. Troy stepped back and let Jen pass with me on her heels.

“Goodnight,” she said offhandedly as the door closed behind us, Troy giving a small wave through the shrinking gap.

Jen looked at a sign and began taking turns down several more long halls until we stood before our room number on a plaque. Using one of our ‘keys’ she passed it through a slot by the handle, eliciting a metallic click.

Entering our room, I was pleasantly surprised to find we were actually in a small apartment. It wasn’t much smaller than the one Jen lived in, really. A cursory exploration even revealed a balcony with a view of a large hill just outside the city that had a giant glowing cross on it.

Relaxing slightly for the first time in days, I was suddenly overcome by an exhaustion so deep that I felt it in my bones. Moving sluggishly into the bedroom, I found Jen already asleep, fully clothed, on top of the blankets.

Yawn followed yawn as I lowered myself to the bed beside her and closed my eyes. Where had this tiredness sprung from so suddenly?

I was unconscious before my head fell the last few inches to the pillow.

Jen

“W
hat’s going on, exactly?” I held my coffee cup, enjoying its warmth.

Kristen sat across from me at the kitchen table of my little hotel room and looked down at her own untouched cup of coffee. She had been standing outside my door this morning, waiting for her shifter senses to tell her I was awake.

Those irritating senses. I had wanted to go back into the bed to wake Liam with a little surprise, but then the soft knocks came with a whispered ‘It’s me’ from Kris.

Now, a full cup of coffee later, she still hadn’t said anything else. “Kris? Hello?”

“Sorry,” Kristen sighed, finally looking up at me. “I wanted to talk, but now that I’m here, I can’t really think of what to say.” She looked back down before continuing, “I’m sure you’re full of questions though, so I promise to answer them. Truthfully,” she finished quietly.

That took me aback. Kristen? Completely truthful? I had just found out her entire life was a lie, to me at least. All the questions that I had about our plans and what had happened fell to the wayside.

“Why didn’t you tell me about... you? About everything? We were supposed to be best friends,” I asked quietly, the hurt of the situation coating my words.

Kris hunched lower in her chair but still looked at me before answering. “I just, could never bring myself to. It isn’t forbidden if the human is trustworthy.” She reached across the table to touch my hand. “And you always were. I was just, afraid. Afraid of bringing you into this world, my world, and what it could do to you.”

As I was opening my mouth to respond, she held up her hand to hold back my comments and continued.

“But,
truthfully
, I was afraid you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. You are the only real friend I’ve ever had.” I heard the nervousness in her voice and knew she was still very afraid of exactly that.

“Kris, I was your best friend. I still am.” I grinned at her across the table as she blew out her held breath. “A tiny detail like you secretly being a werewolf spy could hardly change that.”

Kris stood, came to my side of the table, and pulled me into a hug, whispering, “Thank you, Jen.” We shared a smile before she sat back down, looking far better and actually taking a sip of her coffee. “So, what else ya got?” she asked, really smiling for the first time in days. “I’m sure you’re full of questions.”