Thrown to the Wolves (Black River Pack Book 3)
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Authors: Rochelle Paige
Tags: #General Fiction
Thrown to the Wolves
Rochelle Paige
Copyright
© 2015 Rochelle Paige Popovic
All rights reserved.
Edited by Mickey Reed
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locals are entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/ Use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.
Dedication
Crystal, Ella, Harper & Tessa,
Thank you for keeping me sane, making me laugh, trusting me with your words and being the best soundboards a woman could ask for. I’m not sure what I would do if a day went by without talking to you all, and I don’t plan on ever finding out.
Prologue
Annora
I knew there were people who didn’t believe in obeying their parents. Hell, I wished I could say I was one of them. Unfortunately, I knew better from personal experience—and not the good kind. I learned at a young age that, if I stepped over the line even one little bit, there would be consequences.
Some of my earliest memories were of my father’s punishments. When I was four, he took his belt to me in front of a store full of our pack members because I’d misbehaved when we’d been out shopping and hadn’t liked an outfit my mom had wanted to buy for me. Then, when I was six, he wouldn’t let my mom feed me anything but bread and water for a week because I’d sneaked an extra cookie before I’d gone to bed.
As I got older, my father’s treatment became worse. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to meet his expectations. I started to feel like the harder I tried, the worse it got. When his punishment was particularly severe, he left me hurting for days even though I healed quickly because of my shifter blood. For my father, obedience wasn’t just an option—it was a requirement.
Because I was his only child, he wouldn’t accept anything less than my total capitulation. I’d never understood why there was so much distance between us when all the other fathers seemed to spoil their daughters, but I assumed it was because there was something wrong with me. That I was a failure in his eyes.
Being different from everyone else when I was growing up meant his attention was directed my way more often than I liked. While wolf children were full of energy and wanted to play, I was happier staying home and reading because I was more interested in what I could learn than tumbling around with friends. Everyone else was fiercely competitive, but I couldn’t seem to care about the sports that were so popular among our pack members.
By the time I hit high school, most of the other she-wolves were sleeping with any guy who wanted to hump their legs. I was curious about sex but much more selective about who caught my eye. Although my dark hair and eyes were similar to the other pack members, I was the smallest girl in my class and never seemed to get the growth spurt my mother always told me was just around the corner—unless my tits and ass counted as growing. My curves definitely set me apart from the other girls, who were lithe and athletic.
When my sixteenth birthday rolled around and I didn’t shift, I felt like an utter failure. The celebratory feast the night of what should have been my first change was the first time I felt like my dad might actually be proud of me—until his eyes filled with disdain when it became clear I wasn’t going to shift. For two more years, I lived with the knowledge that my father thought I was a waste of space. A girl who was too weak-blooded to even shift into the animal I knew lived inside me. The treatment I’d received for sixteen years seemed like child’s play in comparison to what I endured during those years.
It wasn’t until my eighteenth birthday that I realized why I had grown up feeling like an outsider in my own pack. The look of anger on my father’s face when I shifted for the first time confused me at first, and then I realized my mom was also looking at me in horror. Glancing down, I nearly fell over in shock when I didn’t see the wolf body I’d expected. Instead, I had inexplicably changed into a bear. I quickly transformed back to my human form right as my father turned his anger on my mom.
“What in the goddamn hell is the meaning of this?” he roared.
My mom’s face had lost all its color, and her eyes were frantic as they bounced back and forth between my father and me. “I d-d-d-don’t…” she stuttered, clearly searching for an acceptable answer to explain why I wasn’t a wolf shifter like my parents.
“You cheated on me, Lucie?” my father asked, utter disbelief in his tone since cheating was almost unheard of amongst wolf mates.
“No!” my mom protested. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You and I are both wolf, so there’s no fucking way any daughter of ours would be bear,” he snarled as he prowled over to my mom and lifted her by the neck until he was holding her against the wall.
My mom’s eyes darted to me, and an apology flashed in them before she looked at my father and offered an explanation.
“I was raped,” she claimed.
My heart plummeted when her words registered in my brain. This could be the explanation for why my father had always been distant with me—because he’d never felt the bond to me that men feel for their children. His wolf might have known all along that I didn’t carry his blood. And if I was a reminder of a brutal moment in her life, then I better understood how my mom could have stood by for years and never interfered with the manner in which he had treated me.
My father turned to glare at me as I silently watched their exchange. “Raped?” he spit out. “How could you hide something like this from me for so many years?”
“I couldn’t stand the idea of you looking at me differently. Maybe turning away from me because another man dared to touch what belonged to you. So I kept quiet and hoped she was your baby and not his,” she answered.
“You’re my mate,” he rumbled before setting her down on her feet. “I would have defended your honor if you had given me the chance.”
My mom gently stroked his face as she gazed up at him with pleading eyes. “You were gone on pack business when it happened. By the time you returned, my injuries had healed and there was nobody for you to hunt down because I had heard that the bear died in a car accident. So I buried the memory deep and tried my best to move on with our life together.”
“And when you found out you were pregnant?” he asked.
“I prayed with all my heart she was yours,” my mom whispered. Then her gaze swung to me, her dark eyes locking with mine as she spoke. “Convinced myself she was our baby girl and ignored any signs that she might not be what I desperately wanted her to be.”
As the man I’d thought of as my father for my whole life looked down at my mom, I knew he would forgive her. He was already softening towards her, and I figured he would need an outlet for his anger. Their words of forgiveness and love drifted towards me while I slowly inched my way to the door. When I had almost made it out of the room, his head snapped up and his eyes narrowed on me.
“Don’t you dare,” he snapped. “You might not be my daughter, but I’ve claimed you as mine for years.”
Smelling my mom’s fear mixed with his anger in the air, I knew this was going to be bad for me. If he had treated me roughly in the past when he’d thought I was his own blood, I could only imagine how he would react now that he knew I wasn’t. My mind blanked as I struggled to think of something—anything—I could say that would make him forgive me for what had happened to my mom, but I knew there was nothing I could say or do.
The man who’d raised me would never want a daily reminder of what he would consider his mate’s shame and his own failure to protect her. I prayed that his solution wouldn’t mean my death.
Chapter 1
Parker
When Spencer asked me to come to the cabin he shared with his mate, I wasn’t sure what to think. He had kept his home on pack lands closer to Hunter and me but still on the outskirts of town, and Eliza was still adjusting to life in the center of the pack and needed her space sometimes. They didn’t stay there often, but she’d been edgy lately, and Spencer had let me know that they planned to lie low for the weekend. I hadn’t expected to hear back from him until Monday morning unless there was an emergency that required his attention.
As I pulled into the driveway, I ran through every possible scenario I could think of and had only come to one conclusion—this couldn’t be good. Finding my brother waiting for me on the porch reinforced my feeling of impending doom. And the serious look on his face certainly didn’t alleviate any of my concerns. When he stood to greet me, I could see the tension in the way he held himself so stiffly even though he should have been relaxed from spending time alone with his mate.
Not a good sign at all.
“What’s up, bro?” I asked.
Spencer glanced towards the door and lowered his voice when he answered. “Eliza needs to tell you about a dream she had last night. I need you to stay calm until she’s done and keep in mind that she’s my mate and that she’s completely freaked out by what she saw. Tread lightly with her.”
“She’s my sister now. Of course I’ll be careful with her,” I assured him. “I would never do anything to hurt Eliza or Grace.”
“I know, man,” Spencer sighed. “But her dream? What she saw? It’s going to mean something to you. Just keep in mind that she sees what she sees. She doesn’t have any control of what the visions show her, and she wishes like hell she had more information for you.”
“What the fuck did she dream that’s got your panties in such a wad?”
“I think it’s best if I tell you from the beginning,” Eliza said behind me.
I turned to see her standing in the doorway, dressed warmly in jeans and a sweater, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were red and swollen—a clear indication she’d been crying. With her arms crossed and hugged tight to her body, she seemed like she was waiting for the sky to fall. If I hadn’t been worried already, seeing her like this would have been enough to make me concerned about what was going on.
“You okay, little sis?” I asked in a teasing tone, hoping to lighten her mood.
Eliza’s lips twisted in what could have passed for a smile if I didn’t know her better, but her eyes remained sad. “I’ve been better,” she admitted.
“And you will be again,” Spencer promised. “Parker and I will make sure we get to the bottom of what you saw.”
I followed them into the cabin as Spencer guided Eliza inside. After he sat down on the couch, he pulled her onto his lap. Once I’d brought one of the chairs closer, I sat across from them and waited for Eliza to begin her story.
“You know about my past,” she began. “About how I was kicked out of my pack after I told my alpha about a dream I’d had about his son’s death.”
“Yes. I’ve known all along, and what they did to you says nothing bad about you. It just makes me want to hunt your alpha down and teach him a lesson about how families really should treat each other,” I assured her.
Eliza smiled again, and this time, a small measure of happiness reached her eyes. “You have no idea how much it means to me to know my new family loves me unconditionally.”