Page 45 of Fighting Fate (Monsters of London #4)

Dax

Five months later.

“I don’t know what you’re so nervous about,” Patch says. He takes a sip of his beer, eyeing me across the table.

We’re at the pub, our final meeting here as packmates. Well, for now. Patch hasn’t outright said anything beyond the conversation we had on the way back from Millie’s months ago, but I don’t think he wants to stay in Axel’s pack, either. Kieran’s already told me he’s happy to take good, competent wolves, so it’s just a matter of taking things slowly in trying to get Patch to follow me over.

After I’ve officially joined the pack, of course. Which is happening tonight.

And then—

“We’ll still see each other all the time,” he continues.

“I know.” It doesn’t stop me from feeling a little sad. I moved out of our flat a week ago, and even though I’m living with Vince now, I still miss Patch. Of course I do. He’s my best friend.

“Though I guess you’ll be busy for the next couple of weeks.” He waggles his eyebrows at me, and I laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, I will.”

We’re doing that too, tonight. Vince and I. Mating. He’s been asking for the last month, apparently ready for a full mating bond, but I didn’t want to go through with it without being connected to his pack.

That, and… I think I needed a little more time. He still hasn’t said he loves me, but I can feel it. I wasn’t as sure when he first mentioned our mating, and it made me apprehensive.

Now I’m just excited.

“And don’t think I don’t know what you and your new alpha are doing with all these invitations to dinner,” Patch adds. “If he keeps going around poaching from other packs like this, he’s going to find himself in trouble.”

I snort. “I don’t think Kieran’s that worried about that.”

Patch rolls his eyes, but he’s still smiling, so I think it’s fine. “I’ll work out what I’m doing eventually,” he says. “But I’m happy for you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Even if your mate was a dense arsehole.”

“Patch.”

He laughs and finishes his beer. “He’s perfect for you.”

I narrow my eyes. “ Because he’s like that, or—”

“Nah. I haven’t seen you this confident in years, if at all. He lets you be you , Dax. That’s how things should be.”

I glance away, cheeks heating. Part of me is surprised Patch hasn’t put up more of a protest—Vince has only met my parents once, the same number of times I’ve met his—and though we’ve spent the last five months in and out of each other’s houses, we’ve only been living together for a week, but…

My wolf knows. And I know. I’ve known for over a year.

“Go on, then,” Patch says. He puts a tired sigh into his voice, but his eyes sparkle. “Go join your new pack.”

“You can come if you want.” Kieran said so, even if it’s unusual. Sometimes I’m surprised to remember he was pack-raised. He really doesn’t care for tradition at all.

“No. It’s for you and them.” Patch shrugs. “You’ll be there if I decide to join you.”

“Always.”

I can feel the nervous edge to Vince’s emotions as I arrive at Kieran’s pack house. I pause outside, tipping my head back to stare up at the building. It’s not huge, all things considered—Vince told me there are no more than thirty flats inside—and Kieran and Sam have slowly been taking it over, buying up the flats that are on the market whenever they can.

The only reason Vince and I have moved in here already—before my ceremony—is because we want to mate tonight. That, and Vince should really have been here all along. Whether he knows it or not, he’s intrinsically involved in how the pack runs, and he needs to be close to his alpha.

Our alpha.

I shake my head at myself and let myself into the building.

I have to pass by the main flat the pack uses—Kieran and Lucien’s, still—to get to Vince’s and my place, but I don’t think anyone will mind. Our bond is strong enough that, this close, I can tell he’s waiting for me at home. I can tell he knows I’m here, too. The bond lights up inside me, and I grin at my mate’s excitement.

Vince swings the door open as I step onto our floor, already reaching for me. I step into his embrace, burying my face in the side of his throat. Doesn’t matter that we’re out in the hall. There are some non-pack humans left in the building, but everyone on this floor is with us.

“How did it go?” Vince murmurs. He rubs circles on my back, and I want to melt against him.

“I asked him to come. He said no.”

Vince leans back, looking me in the face. “Did you push?”

“No.” I run my hands down his arms until we’re standing together, just holding hands and looking at each other. “I knew he wouldn’t come. It’s not… usual.”

Vince grins, quick and sharp. “Nothing Kieran does is usual, I think.”

“You’re right.”

He kisses me on the cheek, then lets go of me to lean back and pull the door shut behind him. “Come on. You’re ready?”

I nod. I could change, could fuss a little more, but there’s no point. I’ve more-or-less been a member of this pack since Vince came back to find me in the pub that night. It’s just been a case of making sure everything was covered for Axel and my old pack and finding a date that would work for me to join the pack and for me and Vince to go off and mate.

Vince wanted both on the same night. Insisted on it.

I’ll give him whatever he wants.

He leans against me as we head for the stairs and the giddiness I feel from him makes me smile. “I put a bag in the car.”

“Did you pack everything?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“ Yes. ” Vince huffs. “Drew came and checked.”

“Drew?” He wouldn’t be my choice.

Vince shrugs. “He told me—and I quote—that Sam said I’d be bitchy to anyone else.” I swallow a laugh and Vince shakes his head. “I mean, I know he’s not wrong. It’s just rude.”

“That’s your pack’s second you’re complaining about.”

“God, I know. You can still back out, you know.”

I laugh and Vince’s eyes glitter when he looks at me. Oh, I love him. And he loves me. I can feel it. He reaches up to kiss me on the cheek, lips lingering. Heat simmers between us, my wolf torn between the change that’s about to happen and what we have planned for later tonight.

It’s not that I’ll never move packs again. I know Kieran won’t be the alpha of his pack forever—though he is mated to a vampire, I suppose—and even if he is, he might take things in a direction I no longer want to be a part of.

Only, this does feel different. Less temporary than when I first came to London and joined Axel’s pack. Part of it is because of Vince, because I’m tied to this pack in a way I wasn’t to Axel’s, Patch aside.

Part of it is because I really feel like I belong.

“Ready?” Vince says when we’re standing outside the door to Kieran and Lucien’s flat.

“Ready.”

Vince opens the door, and a wall of noise hits us. Just about everyone in Kieran’s pack is here, it seems like, though the usual suspects are all gathered together in the centre of the room.

The room, which goes silent when people realise we’re standing there. Vince threads his fingers through mine. There’s something daunting about this, which I’m not expecting.

“Dax,” Kieran says, and the feeling passes. My wolf is so, so ready to accept this man as our alpha, and I take a step into the flat without even realising I’m doing it. “You’re still up for this?”

“Yes, of course.”

“All right. Come here.”

He asked me a week ago how I’d like the ceremony to go. There are traditions, usually, but his is such a new, small pack that he told me he’s just letting the new additions tell him what they’d like.

There’s nothing special I want. Vince told Kieran to make sure everyone was here—I don’t care about that much, either. I want to join this pack, and then I want to take my mate and claim him.

We stand in the centre of the room, everyone surrounding us in a loose circle. Lucien is directly behind Kieran, and Vince sidles in on his left, still in my eyeline. He gives me an encouraging smile and I return it before I focus on the alpha.

“Okay, I guess we’re just gonna do this,” Kieran says, and I hear Sam chuckle. Kieran steps in close and puts his hand on the back of my neck.

My wolf surrenders immediately. Kieran raises his eyebrows when I don’t move.

“Oh!” I do the same to him, and the energy in the room shifts. I don’t know if it’s because of the pack bond that’s about to form between us or it’s just that everyone is frozen in anticipation.

Kieran smiles. “Dax Skelly, will you join my pack and accept me as your alpha?”

“Yes,” I say. I don’t hesitate, not for a second, and the moment the word passes my lips, the pack bond between us flares to life. It’s not as strong as the one that already exists between me and Vince, but that’s not unexpected.

It’s stronger than the one I had with Axel, though. The one that’s gone now, shoved aside by this new one. I’m not sure he’ll even have felt it break, although obviously he knows I’m doing this tonight.

My wolf pushes me to shift, but I hold firm. It won’t be long now. Kieran squeezes the back of my neck and when I let go, he does, too.

“Welcome to the pack, Dax,” he says, and then they’re all piling in, Sam and then Lucien, and then the others, too.

At some point in the congratulations and well wishes—and, whether some of them know it or not, being scented by the entire pack—Vince leans against my side. He slips his hand into mine, and his whole body vibrates with tension.

Sam laughs and nudges Vince with his shoulder. “Ready to get going?”

“Yes. Thanks for letting us borrow the car. That’s really nice of you, but we really should be—”

“Vince,” Kieran says, tone ever so slightly reproachful. “You could give him a minute.”

Except now that the idea’s in my head again, I don’t need one. I cling to Vince’s hand tightly and offer Kieran my own smile and a duck of my head. “No, he’s—Sorry for leaving so soon, alpha, but we should go.”

Amusement flickers in Kieran’s eyes. “And here we had a whole celebratory dinner planned…”

“My love,” Lucien says, “do not be mean.”

Kieran snorts. “Yeah, fine. Go. We’ll see you in a week or whenever you leave your nest. And then we will have dinner. Got it?”

“Got it,” Vince says. He rushes forwards, all but dragging me over to the door. “Bye. Thanks, everyone!”

I hardly manage to get my own goodbye out before we’re out the door and hurtling down the hallway. I laugh as we go and Vince looks back at me, confused.

“We don’t need to rush this much, do we?”

“You might not, but I do,” Vince replies. “Come on. The sooner we get there, the sooner you can run.”

We park the car out of the way and as Vince rummages through the bag he put in the boot, I stare up at the trees. The moon is almost full, casting a pale light over everything. Even with that, I’ll have the advantage, but it’s nice to know Vince will be able to see somewhat.

“Okay,” he says, slamming the boot shut. “There’s a change of clothes for both of us in there. You’ll come back and get those, right? I really don’t fancy a walk of shame back through the woods naked.”

“Walk of shame?”

“You know what I mean.” He’s fidgeting, and the bond feeds me his nervousness.

“What are you worried about?”

“I’m not.” The answer seems too quick, but he shakes his head and tries again. “I’m really not, Dax. I’m excited.”

I feel that, too. Maybe it’s just the idea of running in the dark. Of being chased by a wolf. He’s seen me shift a few times—once, he came when I went running with Patch—but the idea of me running him down…

“We don’t have to do it like this.”

Vince strides over to me and kisses me hard on the mouth. “I want you. And I want this . I’m not going to regret it.”

“Me neither.”

He kisses me again, this time softer, but before we can really get into it, he steps back. “Should I strip before I set off?”

“How do you feel about me tearing those clothes off you?”

Vince’s expression goes a little hazy before a dirty smile crosses his face. “I’m not against it.”

“Good,” I say and kiss him this time, holding him close by the front of his T-shirt. “Now you should run.”