Page 13 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
KNOX
I couldn’t get home to Whil fast enough. It felt like forever before the storm passed when really it had blown through quickly and only took up the morning. But then we moved at an agonizingly slow pace, trying to balance speed with not aggravating the woman’s injuries and worsening her condition.
The woman. My mate.
There just was so much wrong with those two words.
A mate meant someone living with me, around me, crowding me. Just the thought made my pulse race. It was difficult enough to be around my brothers and they understood me. This woman, like everyone else, wouldn’t.
And it didn’t matter that my soul and my wolf were certain that wouldn’t be the case, that she, even if she wasn’t as broken as I was, would still accept me. That was just the mating bond.
It was already hard to ignore her, to resist the need to gather her in my arms and comfort and protect her, and that desire to be near her, to do more with her and seal the bond, would only get stronger the longer the situation went on.
As it was, I’d only managed to hold myself back because Cyrus had commanded me to eat and the shed’s fifteen by fifteen windowless space had made me feel — a lot more than usual — like I was suffocating.
It had been easier to ignore the frozen bond in my chest once I was outside, but not by much. There had only been a door and a few feet between us, and my wolf really wanted to shove Bishop aside and take his place beside her. It was certain with her in our arms, the small space wouldn’t bother us so much.
I wasn’t convinced. Nothing alleviated the anxiety of feeling trapped except getting outside. Outside was the only place I was truly safe.
Except now we were outside, the gloom of twilight heavy around us, and there was no door separating us. I tried to roam ahead, but even if Cyrus hadn’t cared how far I went, I couldn’t get very far. The chain around my heart that I was determined to keep frozen kept yanking me back, drawing all my senses to her.
I’d heard that the compulsion from the mating bond to be with your mate in every way, especially when it first formed, was powerful, but this went beyond powerful. It was consuming. She needed me, needed to be protected and held and loved. It didn’t matter that I didn’t even know her name. She was mine and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.
Which wasn’t true. It was gods damned not true.
I only felt that way because of the magic connecting us. It wasn’t a real emotion. It couldn’t be, so I concentrated on wrapping more mental ice into the cage around my heart and the chain linking us together.
She whimpered and my wolf snarled. Bishop needed to be more careful. She would be better off with me carrying her.
Fuck, no. I wrenched my attention back to the rolling grass-covered foothills and the shadow of the towering mountain in front of us and the faint glimmer of light at the mountain’s base. Home.
Focus on home and getting to Whil and getting free. The woman was just fine with Bishop. Given her injuries, she would have been whimpering and moaning just lying in the shed. Besides, her pain, while regrettable, didn’t matter.
I didn’t care.
I couldn’t care. Not if I wanted to get through severing our mating bond as unscathed as possible.
This ordeal would be over soon. I just had to hold on a little longer and keep the ice around my heart strong. I sure as hell couldn’t give in and hold her. Holding her would lead to other things. Nothing serious because she was too badly injured, but some gentle kisses wouldn’t be a prob?—
Stop it! No holding. No kissing. No nothing with this stranger.
Why couldn’t I remember she was a complete stranger?
For all I knew Cyrus was right and she’d been trying to strengthen her pathetically weak essence by waking Tzanagoth.
It was full dark by the time we reached Stonehaven, the pack’s town that sprawled down the mountain’s sloping base. The original buildings at the top — Old Town — were almost a thousand years old, although thankfully they’d been modernized over the years. They were big and blocky, and with the exception of the alpha’s residence, which was surrounded by gardens, were crowded together with a mix of shops and residences interspersed with a warren of gardens and small parks all surrounded by the original town wall.
Over the years, though, the pack had grown beyond the couple hundred that Old Town could hold and with the area surrounding our land becoming safer, houses and shops had been built beyond the wall, the architecture growing more modern the closer you got to the edge of town.
Much to my surprise, Lucius, Zavier, and Whil waited on the outskirts of town with two travel packs resting on the ground by their feet.
Lucius, our first beta and primary advisor since he’d retired from being huntmaster — and was really better suited to administration than battling beasts — along with Zavier, his nephew and newly made warrior who showed great promise, were dressed to travel.
“What’s wrong?” Cyrus asked the second we were in earshot. We’d arrived later than scheduled, but given the strange lightning, a late arrival would have been expected. Zavier might have been sent to greet us to find out if we needed anything immediately, but Lucius and Whil would have stayed in the Residence. And no one would have brought travel packs with them or worn the protective leathers necessary to travel the mountain pass to Savaria and the lands beyond.
“Jundar called an emergency meeting of the Mountain and Sea Alliance to discuss the increase in beast activity in the area,” Lucius said, his attention on my mate.
My wolf curled his lips back, but I managed to swallow his growl before we released it.
She was not my mate. She was just a woman. I didn’t want her. Anyone could look at her and it didn’t matter, and while I wouldn’t be able to stop Cyrus from telling everyone I was mate bonded to her, I’d hoped he’d spare me the attention and keep it between us and Whil.
And if I really wanted that, I couldn’t afford to get all protective and reveal the situation on my own.
Except no matter what I did, my focus always returned to her. I’d yank it away, be determined not to pay any attention to her, and be unable to resist seconds later.
“We need to head out,” the older man said, “but we wanted to wait until you got back before we left. I’m assuming you investigated that lightning and power wave?”
“We didn’t get a chance,” Cyrus said, his expression dark.
Yeah, strange lightning and power, and now the towns on the other side of the mountain were experiencing the same increase in beast activity we were. Not good.
“We found her in Darkweald barely alive,” Bishop added. “Two ampuls of healing elixir this morning and she’s still unconscious.”
“What happened to her?” Zavier asked, drawing closer to get a better look and making my pulse pick up. He was young but of an age where he was courting potential mates?—
I shook my head, trying to clear it.
He wasn’t going to flirt with my mate. She was unconscious and she wasn’t my gods dammed mate!
Bishop tightened his hold on her, drawing her closer to his chest as if he, too, instinctually wanted to protect her, and even that made my wolf heave within me.
We should be holding her, protecting her.
Jeez. How many times was I going to have to tell myself we wanted nothing to do with her? We didn’t even know her.
“We don’t know what happened,” Bishop replied.
“We’ll send a hunt team out in the morning to restock shed twelve and see if there’s anything in Darkweald to indicate what happened,” Cyrus said. “Unless you know what happened,” he added, turning his attention to Whil.
The willowy fae with her ever-so-slightly glowing skin pulled her bright green gaze up from the woman.
Damn it! Was everyone going to stare at her? Did Whil know about the mating bond?
I mentally rolled my eyes at myself. Of course she knew. She could sense bonds and magic and all manner of things shifters couldn’t. She’d have known I was chained to the woman before Lucius and Zavier had even spotted us on the road.
“I have a few theories,” she replied, thankfully not mentioning my unexpected mating bond with a stranger. “But nothing concrete.”
“Anything we need to deal with immediately?” Bishop asked, his worry over the situation seeping into me even though I was actively trying to keep him out.
“Probably, but until we know more, there’s nothing we can do.” She frowned, and her gaze drifted to the rolling hills beyond the town that were cloaked in darkness and thankfully not back to the woman.
“And with that, I should get going.” Lucius nodded at Zavier who started to race back into town.
“Wait,” Cyrus said, and a shiver of his power rushed over us even though I knew he wasn’t purposely trying to command us. “You better be taking at least half a squad.”
“I might be retired, but I’m not an idiot,” Lucius huffed, and Cyrus jerked his chin at Zavier, giving him permission to continue on his errand. “If Jundar is concerned, then the pass isn’t safe even in the daytime.”
Which meant our situation was worse than we’d first thought. Beasts in the pass meant they were getting closer and closer to our town, and if they were also encroaching on the borders of Ciliaran and the other towns, states, and kingdoms in the Alliance then that meant for some reason there’d been an increase in their population and that would endanger the lives of all our farmers as well as trade among our communities.
I had a bad feeling that something dangerous was on its way, and I could tell from everyone’s expression that they feared the same thing as well.
And if something dangerous — or rather something more dangerous than usual — was coming our way, I couldn’t afford to be distracted by this bond. It was getting harder and harder to focus on the conversation between Cyrus and Lucius. It’d be even harder in the middle of a battle.
Lucius’s attention flickered back to the woman. “I hope rescuing one life doesn’t endanger everyone else’s.”
The asshole! My wolf seized control of our body, sent a wave of our power over all the shifters in the group, demanding submission, and snapped at Lucius, not caring that we were raising suspicions. Lucius dropped to one knee, his eyes wide at the sudden use of force, while both Cyrus and Bishop staggered.