Page 154 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
BISHOP
I couldn’t stop looking at Audrey. Even with both her eyes bruised and her face slightly swollen, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She practically glowed with relief, and the sense I got through our mating bond was that everything was right… well, almost right. Almost right because of my surly, obstinate older brother.
But now I knew why he was holding back and that he’d realized a solution. He wasn’t going to die thinking he had to mate with a woman the pack would accept. He just had to make the pack accept the woman he wanted.
We hiked until the sun reached the horizon, moving at an even slower pace than the one we’d set for Audrey after her heat, and I was still exhausted when Deacon found us a campsite.
We’d even stopped for a longer than normal lunch, Cyrus making sure Audrey had eaten everything before moving on — apparently there’d been something about walking and choking while I’d been unconscious, and Cyrus was his usual overprotective self — which I wasn’t going to complain about.
Audrey was everything to me, and while I knew I shouldn’t treat her like glass and she wasn’t going to break, I couldn’t calm my need to keep her safe.
Part of that came from Knox, his wolf riding him hard after all the stress from the last couple of days, but the other part was all me.
The poison that had nearly killed me with my more powerful healing had been meant for Audrey. And the thing that had attacked us hadn’t smelled natural.
Cyrus ordered Knox to hunt, Deacon to gather firewood, and Whil to find berries and greens to supplement our dinner. Then he grabbed our canteens to fill them at the nearby river, leaving me alone with my mate since we’d woken up this morning.
“How are you feeling,” Audrey asked me, gathering enough wood from the surrounding forest to start a fire.
“Tired,” I confessed.
“You feel tired.” She stacked the wood like I’d taught her and pulled a starter from her pack. “I remember when Cyrus asked me if I could start a fire without a starter as if everyone could do that.”
“Most of us can,” I replied. “We learn as pups, but the starter is faster and more consistent.”
She rolled her eyes at me, a soft smile tugging at her lips and the feeling of a groan teasing through our bond — and not the sexy kind of groan, the kind made when Deacon told a bad joke.
“I’d like to see him in my realm.” She lit the kindling and gently breathed on the flames, encouraging them to grow. “Tell him to turn on a smartphone and make a call. We all learn that as children.”
I snorted a laugh. “I have no doubt Cyrus would be lost in your realm, and I doubt he’d be as gracious learning all the things he’d need to know to survive as you were.”
“Yeah, I could see a whole bunch of broken phones. God, I can’t imagine him behind the wheel of a car. All the other drivers doing crazy driver stuff would drive him crazy.”
I sighed, my chest aching with longing. “I really wish I could visit your realm, see you in your element.”
Her gaze dropped to her hands, an action born of years of abuse that she probably wouldn’t be able to completely get rid of.
“I wasn’t that impressive there, either.”
“You weren’t given a chance to be impressive,” Whil said as she stepped through the underbrush about twenty feet away. “And I wish I could open the gate, allow you and the boys the share each other’s realms. I think I’ve figured out how to recreate the spell that brought you here, but…”
“But it involves an incomplete mating bond,” Audrey replied as her expression darkened, probably remembering the horrible events that brought her to our realm.
“Yes and I’m not willing to do that to someone.” Whil set her foraging down — a collection of wild spinach and mushrooms that would go well with whatever Knox caught — and started pulling the collapsible rotisserie and everything else we needed to make dinner out of our packs.
“You shouldn’t,” Audrey said, settling in my lap and cuddling against me.
Her scent flooded my senses, sweet and fresh, as warmth billowed around my heart and contentment radiated through our bond.
I wrapped my arms around her, drawing a soft sigh, while trying to ignore my hardening cock. She wouldn’t want everyone watching, or even just hearing us have sex, and really, we were both too tired for it.
A few minutes later, Deacon returned with an armful of firewood, then Cyrus came back with our canteens. A few minutes after that, Knox returned with a perfectly skinned and gutted goat… in his human hands and not his wolf’s teeth.
Deacon raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What?” Knox huffed, handing him the goat.
Deacon continued to stare in disbelief as Knox stormed to my side, sat, and pulled Audrey into his lap.
A part of me wanted to protest that she was mine and our bond was still new, but the rest of me knew he needed this. He’d been under extreme stress and hadn’t gone feral, but also hadn’t been able to hold Audrey because he’d been holding me, keeping me alive.
“Audrey, you are a goddess,” Deacon said in exaggerated awe, drawing a growl from Knox. “I’ve rarely seen him choose to be human.”
“Don’t poke him,” Cyrus warned. “I won’t stop him if he wants to pick a fight.”
“I’m happy to help him let off steam,” Deacon shot back. “But he’s not going to.”
Knox growled again but didn’t move and I felt Audrey’s pleasure at knowing that Knox would rather cuddle with her than let the feral creature inside him take over and fight Deacon.
We ate and chatted as the sun sank below the horizon, and it felt right, comfortable. Even Cyrus relaxed and I laughed at a few of Deacon’s bad jokes. Whil, whose glow was weak — indicating she’d completely drained her magic saving me — turned in early, and Audrey dozed off in Knox’s lap soon after.
We need to talk about what we’re returning to, Cyrus said in my head. Your campaign to show Audrey off at the festival worked on most of the pack, but not all, and Audrey was with you when you were attacked.
When she was attacked, Knox corrected.
Pretty sure the rumor mill will have it twisted around by the time we get back, Deacon replied, and I hated that he was right.
Some of the pack seemed to think so little of Audrey that I doubted it would even occur to them that she had actually been the target. They’d chalk it up to a foreigner attack and not even consider that it could have been a pack member.
Of course, it hadn’t been a pack member, but it also hadn’t been a foreigner, not one I could identify.
I think we might have a bigger problem than the rumor mill, I said, making everyone look at me. Whatever attacked me and Audrey didn’t smell like anything I’ve ever scented before.
The closest scent I could compare it to was a grimalkin with its foul, almost rotting scent. Except it hadn’t been quite the same, and the thing that had attacked us had fought like a man. It had hidden in the shadows waiting for us and there’d been an intelligence in its attacks that went beyond that of a beast’s instincts.
I shuddered. Had the grimalkins gained the ability to shift? The idea seemed impossible, but in a realm where powerful beings leaked their magic into the ground where they slept, anything was possible.
We need Whil looking into whatever it was, I said, even though I knew it was going to be impossible. Without the creature, she had nothing to study, and all we could do was wait for it to make another appearance.
Still doesn’t address how we’re dealing with Audrey and the pack, Deacon said, knowing as well as I did that Whil couldn’t do anything with the current situation.
She’s my bonded mate. My fated mate, I said. They’re just going to have to get over themselves. You and Cyrus might be more powerful than me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t defend Audrey or my position in the pack.
But as soon as I said it, I knew that wasn’t what Deacon was really talking about. Not everyone would take a direct path to expressing their dislike for the situation, and that meant Audrey wasn’t safe being alone. And trying to convince everyone Audrey and I were fated for each other wasn’t going to be easy, either. Velora had already accused Audrey of using magic to trap Knox. She was going to lose her mind when she learned I’d mated Audrey as well.
“Fuck,” I hissed. Velora is going to be a problem.
She’d been not-so-subtly trying to catch my eye for over a year now, and I’d been trying to keep her at a professional arm’s length.
Do you have someone to replace her as beta? Knox asked, jumping straight to the heart of the matter.
Yes, Cyrus replied. Zondra knows most of what Velora does.
But it’s not that easy, I added, having already had this conversation about replacing Velora with her assistant with Cyrus since she’d been less than welcoming of Audrey. Her fur is already bristled thinking Audrey is stealing me away. If we release her from her position, we won’t be able to keep as close an eye on her and she’ll be able to spread rumors.
More rumors, Deacon corrected. She hasn’t left proof, but I’m pretty sure she’s spreading them already and with us gone, I’m sure they’ve gotten worse.
Cyrus ran his hands down his face. She was such a good beta in the beginning.
Deacon snorted. She’s always had her eye on Bishop and a spot as one of the alpha’s mates.
Well, we all know I’m shit at dealing with situations like this, Cyrus said with a growl of frustration, knowing as we all did that this situation needed to be handled carefully. He couldn’t just demote her. Figure out the best way to approach this, he said to me, then tell me what you need me to do.
I nodded and reached for Audrey’s hand, the urge to touch her swelling inside me. I needed to figure out the right way to handle the situation or I’d make everything worse for her.
And while I knew all four of us would fight whoever disagreed with the fact that Audrey was my mate and therefore an alpha of the pack, she’d feel guilty and embarrassed, and I wasn’t sure if I could convince her to be angry about it instead. Not yet.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure if there was a good way out of this.