Page 4

"You're delusional!"

I expected her to be angry, but I didn't expect her to explode so loudly that the windows nearly shook.

"Do you really think that you can force me into marrying you and living under your thumb like the rest of your pack?" Kiera's eyes blazed. "You're more insane than I thought."

"Kiera—"

"You have no right to tell me what to do!" Kiera leaned forward in the passenger's seat. "And I won't allow you to punish me by forcing me into this!"

I flexed my jaw. "You need to understand that I am your Alpha now, and as such, I am responsible for you—"

She jerked her cuffed wrist over and over, so hard that I cringed from the driver's seat. "Let me out of here, you maniac. I am not marrying you!"

"Stop! You're going to hurt yourself."

"Like I give a damn!"

Kit stirred behind us. "Mama?"

I swore under my breath. Kiera quickly leaned around the seat, "Go back to sleep, baby. Mommy's fine. Go to sleep, sweetie."

"No," Kit said stubbornly, rubbing his eyes, "Where are we going?"

"You know," I said quietly, "You shouldn't lie to children like that."

Kiera whirled in her seat to look at me. "Shut your mouth!"

"Mommy, you're not supposed to tell people to shut their mouths! It's rude."

I laughed, shaking my head. My son had my back, and he didn’t even know it. Hearing him talk made my heart start to race, and it was an odd thing to realize that I was...nervous? Alphas didn't get nervous, as a rule, but meeting your estranged son after seven years was probably an extenuating circumstance.

Kiera attempted to console her... our ...sleepy, confused boy while I took the nearest exit and pulled into a 24-hour gas station. I heard her telling him that they were going to be away from home for some time, but that it would be sort of an adventure. I liked hearing her speak to him, the gentle way she reassured him, and told him as close to the truth as she possibly could without getting too into detail. I had never doubted that Kiera was a good mom, even though she had stolen my heir away from me, but it was good to see it in person.

At least Kit had experienced a full, love-filled life when he was away from his pack.

I parked the car, undoing my seatbelt, and turned around to look at the child in the back seat. He looked different now that he was awake, his expression mirroring his mother's so much that it was almost comical. His focus shifted from Kiera to me, and I hated that I could see a thread of fear in his eyes.

It's nothing, I told myself. He has no idea who you are. It's normal for him to be afraid of a stranger.

And yet it wasn't, was it? If I'd accepted Kiera as my mate when she first came to me, he'd have known me as his father from the day he was born, and he wouldn't have feared me in the slightest. Kiera and I had both stolen that from him in different ways, and now I'd never be able to make up for that.

Still, I offered my hand to him. "Hi, Kit," I said. "My name is Samson."

"S...Samson?" His little fingers brushed mine. His touch was warm and innocent. I don't think he was aware that his scent was swirling in my head, and that his touch felt like it had shocked my body awake after seven years of sleep. "Why are you driving Mama's car?"

"That's for your mother to answer. I'm going to go in and get some snacks and give you guys a minute to talk, okay?" I said as gently as I could, but even that made his eyes grow wider. "It'll be alright," I assured him. "I won't be gone long, I promise."

Kit nodded, though I could still see his hesitation, but Kiera turned in her seat and drew our son close to her in an attempt to soothe him. She didn't even look at me when she spoke to him, but the tension in her voice made my teeth clench.

"I know this is going to be confusing, my love, but please just listen, and I'll explain everything..."

I exited the car like I said I would, despite wanting to hang back and listen to the conversation. I didn't trust Kiera at all, but if there was one area I'd give her an ounce of it in, it would be her parenting of Kit. I pushed down the pissed-off, bitter voice telling me that if she'd given me a chance, I'd know how to parent him too, but there was no going back in time.

Inside the gas station, I went to the restroom before filling my arms with whatever I thought a seven-year-old might like—gummies, granola bars, candy, soda, and a few bottles of water. The guy at the register looked me up and down when he noticed how much food I was carrying and raised an eyebrow at me.

I shrugged. "Long road trip."

The man behind the counter smiled, "Yeah. Your kid is gonna be bouncing off the roof of that car, family man."

I ignored him, paying and carrying my overly heavy bag back to the car. I hoped I'd given the two of them enough time to talk, but if not, Kiera was just going to have to deal with it. Letting her explain alone was the only kindness I was ready to give her right now.

I was pleased to see Kit staring out of the car window with a big, goofy grin on his face. Something in my chest seized when he opened the back door and popped out of the car, offering me his hand like I had done for him earlier.

My son was taller than I expected, and that made the tug in my chest even worse. Still, I shook his hand, man to man, somehow holding my composure when the handshake turned into a quick, shy hug from the boy before he jumped back.

"It's nice to meet you, Papa."

The tug in my chest got harder, and my composure cracked, but only for a moment. I felt my lips stretch into a genuine smile as Kit jumped into his seat again. "You too, kid."

Kiera was silent in the front seat, but her silence was far less friendly.

I handed the bags to the two of them before taking a moment to call ahead and have them start preparing everything for our arrival. When I returned to the driver's side, I found Kit watching me, a smile on his face and a chocolate bar in his hands.

"Only one," Kiera told him, harsher than I think she intended, "Or you won't sleep for the rest of the ride."

I doubted it—Kit was happily eating his candy between yawns, and looked more than ready to return to slumber now that the mystery of the trip and my identity had been solved. He seemed happy and well cared for. His smile made the bitter, resentful feeling in my chest even worse, so I focused on Kiera and the cold distance in her eyes.

"How did it go?"

"Well, enough. We don't need to talk about it." She kept her attention focused on Kit, avoiding me. “He has a million questions, but I told him to hold onto them until we were settled in wherever you’re taking us.”

Pulling back out onto the road, I could already see Kit snuggling back down into his blanket cocoon to sleep. Whatever we needed to discuss could wait until he was out again.

The car ride back was mostly quiet. Kit fell back asleep quickly, and the only sound was the rumble of the car engine and the wind. Kiera was so quiet that I thought she might be asleep at times, but then she would move ever so slightly, or her scent would shift. Then I could feel her eyes on me, and I knew that she was watching.

"What?" I said, without taking my eyes off the road, "You want to yell at me again?"

Her silence stretched, and for a moment, I thought that was it, but then her voice came, soft and cautious, "How did you find me, Samson?"

The question caught me off guard. It had never occurred to me that she would even ask, much less sound so nervous. "What does it matter how I found you?" I snapped, my rage returning with a vengeance, "The point is I did, and you can't run anymore."

She seethed in her seat, and when she didn't respond, I continued, glancing at my sleeping son in the rearview mirror. "Should I be worried that he sleeps so much?"

Kiera seemed surprised, but relaxed a few degrees. "He's always been a deep sleeper, and he's going through a growth spurt, which makes it even worse. Some days, I feel like he's endlessly hungry and endlessly tired." She smiled at the thought, her expression softening. "Don't worry. It's normal."

It should have comforted me, but instead, it just made the bitter anger flood back. I wanted to keep quiet, to at least wait until we were back in Crystal Creek before getting into a full-on fight again, but my mouth had other ideas. "Ah, well, good to fucking know. If I had known my son in the last seven damn years, maybe I'd know more about him.'

Kiera bristled and leaned back against her seat, crossing her arms as best she could with one cuffed. "What's your problem with me?" she asked in a tone so cold I half expected the windows to frost over.

"What's my problem? You're my problem. You left, and you didn't have the fucking guts to tell me about my kid, and now you're here, and you're refusing to take your rightful place in my pack as my wife."

Kiera made a strangled noise. "Rightful place?"

"Yeah, you heard me," I growled. "It's your duty, Kiera, your destiny, to be at my side as my wife. My mate.”

Kiera stared at me like she thought I had lost my mind.

"I can't fucking believe this. I knew you were stubborn, Samson, but I never knew you were so arrogant and stupid, too." She scoffed. "You have no claim on me! I'm not one of your pack. I don't bow and scrape to your will just because you say so! I don't give a damn what the hierarchy says about our status!"

"Our status is Alpha and his mate! Don't you get it? There is no other status for an Omega other than the one who's tied to her Alpha!" My voice rose, and my eyes burned in a way they hadn't since I was a teenager. Fuck, she made me so angry.

She turned back to her window. "You don't get to tell me what to do," Kiera said, and it almost sounded like she was in pain, "Not after what you did."

"What I did?" I growled.

Kiera was silent. I wanted to reach out to her and grab her, pull her around to look at me, and demand that she speak, but I kept my hands on the wheel, my gaze ahead. I knew what she was talking about, and it infuriated me that she had the gall to even bring it up. Rejecting her when I had no idea she was pregnant was nothing compared to her running away and hiding Kit from me. Nothing.

"Don't," she said quietly, "I'm not talking about it, Samson. Don't push it."

It wasn't just anger I was feeling now, but the cold bite of loss and regret, and I didn't want to deal with that. It felt too close to admitting that I'd been wrong, and I would have rather eaten dirt than admit that to her. "Fine," I bit the word out. "But this conversation isn't done, mate . That I can promise you."

***

Dawn was touching the horizon when we pulled into Crystal Creek, and while Kiera had made it clear she had no interest in coming home, she still sat forward excitedly as the city came into view. She looked good like that, her body tense and her face excited, her dark eyes looking out over the familiar landscape. She'd changed over the past seven years, and so had the city.

Two packs inhabited the coastal town—my pack, the Saltfangs, and the Brokenclaw pack led by Joe Longwood. Joe had made an alliance with my father and kept it strong and steady when I took over. While I didn't love sharing space with another dominant Alpha like Joe, the town was large enough that it wasn't a problem.

No one except my Beta, Waylon Brown, my council, and a few higher-ranking pack members even knew I was bringing Kiera and Kit home. The honorable thing would have been to tell her parents, but they’d moved four years ago. I didn't want any interference for what was about to come next.

Crystal Creek was beautiful—even I wasn't jaded enough to deny that. The rising sun shone on the sea, glinting and glittering as if it were trying to show off for the small town it bordered. The scent of saltwater was in the air, along with the smells of people and breakfast food from nearby diners. It was still early enough that there weren't that many cars on the road, but we were on the way to my house and out of the main part of town in minutes.

"Home sweet home," I said dryly.

Kiera didn't look at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on," I said as I pulled the car into my garage, "You know it feels good to be back in pack territory."

"Like hell it does," Kiera strained to look out the window, absentmindedly rubbing at her cuffed wrist. "Where are we going anyway?"

"My place." I grinned at her. "Where else would we be going? I don’t exactly have time to wine and dine you, mate.”

"I'm not your mate!" She snarled, turning toward me, but her gaze shifted from my eyes to my mouth, and a pink blush crept into her cheeks. She wasn't lying when she said it, but her body certainly had other ideas. I could smell her interest in the small car, and it made me grin despite myself.

"Just relax, firecracker. I've got a little 'welcome home' event for you at my house."

She was clearly suspicious, but didn't press, because Kit was waking up in the back once more. Kiera gave him a bottle of water and a granola bar, choosing the same for herself and absentmindedly chewing on it as we turned onto my street. Her suspicion grew when she spotted the group of cars outside of my family home, her head jerking over to me.

"Why are so many people here?"

I didn't answer. There was no going back now, and Kiera was just going to have to swallow down the bitter pill of her punishment—being locked to me for life, as my mate, whether she wanted to or not.

The family home was on the edge of town near the pine forest line, huge and old, built by my great-grandfather when he first settled his small pack in Crystal Creek as the first Saltfang Alpha. It wasn't a perfect home by any stretch of the imagination. It was way too big for just me; it needed repairs and upkeep constantly, the furniture was older than the town itself, and there were rooms that I didn't use at all. It was still home. The place where I grew up and where I hoped Kit would grow up, too.

I parked and looked at Kiera, but her attention was on the house. I didn't have to look at it from her perspective; it was rustically beautiful and probably looked strange and empty, especially at this time of morning. It looked like a huge, lonely cabin that had been untouched for years.

Without a word, I reached over and undid her cuffs with the key I had kept in my pocket, watching as she massaged her sore wrist while glaring at me. Part of me wanted to throw her over my shoulder and carry her inside the house, but I knew that there was a much simpler way to get her to go where I wanted.

"Kit," I turned to look at the boy, "You want to take a tour and pick out your new room?"

The kid was practically vibrating with excitement. He didn't seem worried that the man driving the car was his long-lost father and that his mother had been forced to return here. In fact, Kit seemed to like me a great deal already.

The kid nodded, and I hopped out of the car, opening his door and taking his hand to lead him inside. When I looked over my shoulder at Kiera, I was sure her eyes could shoot daggers, but just like I suspected, she was never going to let me take Kit out of her sight. In seconds, she was out of the car and following behind us.

The front door was unlocked, and there was an air of seriousness in the house as soon as we stepped inside. I led the two of them through the first floor, not stopping even when Kit tried to pull at my arm to look at something, and didn't pause until we were exiting out of the back of the house into the yard.

There, gathered on the wooden porch my father had built, was my entire council, waiting in a semicircle in complete silence. Waylon, my Beta, was in the center. The rest of the pack's dominant wolves were on either side of him, and on any other occasion, that much dominance in one place would undoubtedly start a fight.

Not with me there, though. The pack's Alpha is what held it together, and they all bowed their heads to me in respect. Behind me, Kiera sucked in a breath, and I knew she was about to flee. I dropped Kit's hand and grabbed Kiera's, pulling her forward as I approached my pack.

"Kiera Langley," Waylon rumbled, thick arms crossed over his chest. "Welcome home, and welcome to your mating ceremony."

"Ceremony?" Kiera looked like she'd been slapped. "No way in hell!" She tried to jerk free from my hand, but I kept hold of her, leaning close so when I spoke, she was the only one that could hear me.

"You're worrying the boy," I growled, "Look at him."

Her gaze fell on Kit, who was shifting from side to side, watching his mother with his eyes wide and fearful. He was starting to sense that something was wrong and that Kiera was unhappy. The urge to protect and keep him calm came out of nowhere, but I wasn't about to let go of that instinct now.

"Smile, Kiera. This isn't going to end anytime soon. Once you're mated to me, you and the boy will be under the protection of the entire pack. Do you really want the son of an Alpha out here unprotected?"

Kiera froze, but slowly forced herself to smile at him and let her hand relax in mine. She even went so far as to squeeze my fingers back, a little pressure to tell me that she would go along with what I wanted, but when she looked up at me, there was something dark and angry in her gaze. She didn't have to tell me. I already knew. This was not how she thought her homecoming would go; I could tell she wasn't happy about it.

Not that I could blame her, but I didn't really give a shit what she thought. The important thing was that she was my mate, my Omega, and I would be damned before I let her get away again.

Waylon spoke up, "Samson, are you ready for me to perform the ceremony?"

“Yes. Let's get on with it." I didn't like standing out here on the grass any longer than necessary. There was still the chance of one of the other nearby packs taking a run at Kiera or Kit while they were unbonded to me.

Kiera was breathing harder by the second, and while she didn't try to pull away again, I could feel that she was shaking through her hand in mine. I couldn't care less about her feelings in the matter right now. There was a child involved. Kit needed to be safe, and as much as she wanted to run away, I was sure that Kiera was smart enough to realize the benefits of this arrangement.

Waylon went back and forth, speaking about duty and honor, and all of that nonsense that the old generations liked to throw around, but the one part that made Kiera jump was when he told her, "You will now take your true place at your Alpha's side, as his Omega, his mate, and his wife. For life."

She had known what the ceremony entailed, but now, it was hitting home just how final all of this was.

Kiera glanced at me, then her gaze shifted down to Kit, who was looking up at us, trying to figure out what was going on. She must have been able to tell that I wasn't budging, because she swallowed hard and nodded her head. I looked up at my Beta, who seemed satisfied, "It's your time now, Alpha. You may seal the bond."

I took Kiera's beautiful, defiant face in my hands and felt pack magic swirl around us like a gentle storm. It lifted her hair, surrounding me with her scent as her lips parted. Centuries ago, an Alpha would seal his Omega to him with a mating bite, but the practice had fallen out of favor long ago. Still, the urge to sink my teeth into her skin right above her scent gland had my mouth watering.

Instead, I controlled myself, tilting her head to the side and slanting my mouth over hers. It was supposed to be a quick kiss, uneventful and chaste, but as soon as our lips touched, that idea went out the window. The pack magic surged as I sealed my Omega to me, Kiera's hands grabbing my shoulders as she held on for dear life while I kissed her.

It was supposed to be quick, dammit. I told myself that I didn't feel that little spark that ran over my tongue when our lips first touched. The way she gasped as our mouths molded together didn't matter, nor did the way my hands ran up into her hair, and I angled her head to get even more of her. She let out a breathy sigh that made my blood pump hard when my tongue flicked out to lick her lower lip. None of it should have fucking mattered, but my God, it rocked me to my core.

I broke the kiss with a curse. Kiera looked at me like she was in a daze, but when her eyes focused on my face and her brain caught up, her cheeks turned pink, and she turned her back on me. I was right, and the bond had never faded at all. It had just been hidden under the surface of her skin all this time, waiting to rise.

It should have been a triumphant moment for me, feeling our bond coming to life, knowing that Kiera could never escape me again. Instead, I was furious—not because it was clear that she still wanted me after all this time...

No, I was furious with myself because I thought any traces of feelings I had for Kiera were long gone. Instead, my entire being had lit up at the contact of our lips, and I was standing there, in front of my entire council and my son, wondering how long it would take me to get her alone.

I'd never wanted anything more in my entire life than I wanted Kiera Langley, and something told me that I wouldn’t be able to have her anytime soon.