Page 2 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

A shudder swept through me as I fought to keep standing and not kneel in front of Sterling like his power demanded. They’d made that threat before and followed through with an incident that had left me limping for weeks. I’d thought once they’d become adults the bullying would stop, that they’d get on with their lives, but I’d been wrong. I was too much fun and with their animal natures fully heightened, they used me to hone their new hunting abilities.

Sterling nicked a claw against the back of my neck with a sharp sting and sauntered over to Joan as I slapped my hand over the wound.

The warm blood oozing from the cut coated my palm. It wasn’t deep, but it wasn’t a papercut, either. Swell.

It would heal when I shifted… if I shifted?—

No. I would shift tonight. But until then, I’d draw even more unwanted attention.

He cocked a pale eyebrow and smirked, the look doing nothing to diminish his striking appearance. He was a devil in an angel’s skin, blond, beautiful, with a naturally sculpted physique, and a cruel speck of black nothingness for a heart. He knew full well that he’d made it so that if I didn’t shift, the newly awakened wolves, with their predatory senses suddenly on overdrive from being repressed, might see me as prey and attack instead of going on the run with the alpha, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Joan sniffed sharply and sneered, her lips curling back revealing her extended canines. “She always smells like prey.”

Shae inched closer to me, her eyes darkening as her wolf’s nature rose closer to the surface, her hunger clear in her expression. Even her brother and Joan’s sister, on the verge of awakening their wolf but not yet wolves, drew closer, their noses working, picking up the scent of my blood.

My pulse roared and I fought the urge to hug myself.

Don’t look like prey. Don’t. Or at least not any more than you already do. Stay. Calm.

But I wouldn’t put it past them to double back after the shift took over the newest adults of the pack and that thought terrified me.

Merrick and our packs’ beta would lead their first run, but those who’d already shifted didn’t have to join in and didn’t have to stay with the group like the newly made adults did. And if I didn’t shift, I was a target just waiting to be attacked.

“If you kill her, who will clean your house?” Royce asked.

A hint of his power rolled over me as he stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the circle and sauntered toward the group, but then he pulled it back completely like he always did when he was around Sterling, like a good beta should. His eyes were just as dark as the others, his wolf close to taking over, but his expression remained flat, not hungry, and I was almost relieved to see him.

Almost, because he’d never attacked me or put me down. Of course, he’d also never publicly gone against Sterling to stop him. As far as everyone was concerned, he was on team Sterling. Like almost everyone else. He had, however, since that first year when I hadn’t shifted, been making little comments to protect me and subtly distracting Sterling and Joan so I could slip away before things got out of hand. And while he’d been doing it for four years, I still had no idea what to make of it.

“Of course, when her wolf wakes tonight, you’ll need to find a new housecleaner regardless. She’ll be an adult and able to move out of your house. You know,” Royce added with a pointed look at Sterling, “that thing kids do when they become adults.”

“There’s no point in moving out of my father’s house. It’ll be mine soon,” Sterling huffed, jumping right to Royce’s jab about still living at home. “And she’d still be an unmated female with ties to the alpha. Dad will want her to stay until he can find her a suitable match.”

My thoughts lurched at that. “He what?”

Had Sterling just implied that Merrick was going to arrange who my mate was?

Everyone’s attention snapped to me. The force of their ferocious natures pressed against my senses, and I froze.

Crap. One wrong move and their wolves would take over and they’d attack. Or rather they’d let their wolves take over.

“Your mate would have influence over the alpha. You are my sister,” Sterling said even though he’d made a point over the years to remind me that I wasn’t his sister. “Every male in the pack knows that.”

But that was just another excuse. I didn’t have any power and everyone in the pack knew it. The only way I could get power was if my mate was powerful. Of course, that was if I stayed. If I left… yeah, the odds of me having power in a different pack were slim, too, but that was better than being here.

“Dad probably won’t even wait for your wolf,” Sterling said. “You’re old enough. You need a good match. One that looks good for our pack. Since by pack law you’re still a child, it’ll be up to him to find you a suitable mate.”

He flashed me a wicked smile, wrapped an arm around Joan’s waist, and led her, Shae, and their younger siblings away.

My heart slammed inside me, no doubt audible to everyone around me. Would Merrick let me leave even if my wolf woke this evening?

I’d be an adult. He’d have to.

Now my wolf had to show up. It wasn’t the dark ages and our pack didn’t have arranged matings, but I wouldn’t put it past Merrick to use me as political leverage. He was pissed that his wife had left him for a human and pissed that our pack no longer had the same political influence over the other North American packs that it used to have.

And he was really pissed that he hadn’t been asked to be the North American shifter representative in the Joined Parliament where supers governed pretty much the whole supernatural world. There was no way he’d sacrifice his precious heir with an arranged mating to improve his position among the other packs, which left me as the sacrificial offering to his political goals.