Page 10 of Rejecting his Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #2)

Chapter 10

Halle

I try not to think about the fact I’m in a car with a group of wolves I don’t really know. My thoughts shift to my aunt. Will I ever see Adeline again, or is she lost to me forever?

My gut rolls at the thought. Adeline is the only parent I’ve known, and without the pack link, I can’t communicate with her. I don’t even have a phone to call her or know what her number is.

I peer out the window as the truck rumbles further into the mountains. The trees are thick on either side of the road, and the sky is a pale blue.

“Where are we?” I ask, suddenly curious.

“About two hours from your old pack lands,” Sawyer answers, glancing over his shoulder.

Wyatt and Jackson are in the truck behind us, meaning I have the entire back seat to myself. I could lie down and rest my aching ribs, but instead, I’m watching the landscape whizz past the side window.

“No, I mean, where are we? I’ve never been outside the territory. I don’t even know where the territory is…”

Cade and Sawyer exchange glances before Cade lifts his eyes to the rearview mirror. “You’ve never been outside your pack lands?”

I shake my head, suddenly feeling like I should have kept that to myself.

“We’re in Wyoming,” Sawyer says.

I repeat the name, feeling it roll off my tongue. I know where it is. “My aunt kept me pretty sheltered. Guess that was ‘cause I’m, you know, different .”

Sawyer turns around in his seat, giving me a toothy grin. “Welcome to the mutant club.”

Mutant?

My brows drift together. “I’m not a mutant. Wait, are you?”

“Ignore him,” Cade snaps, glaring at his brother.

Sawyer snorts and leans back in the seat. “Means we’re all different, Halle. Our genes are just as jacked up as yours.”

I sit a little straighter, ignoring Cade’s growl to shut his brother up. “What are we?”

“You? I got no idea,” Sawyer says. “Me and the boys, we’re vargr.”

“Sawyer,” Cade growls his brother’s name.

I’ve never heard that word before, so I stare at Sawyer, ignoring Cade. “A what?”

“Vargr. Part of that old Norse mythos we’ve all been told since we were pups. We’re an anomaly too. Bigger than most wolves, not always in control of them, either. Though some of us do better than others. ”

Cade swears under his breath. “Are you fucking done?” he hisses.

“I deserve to know,” I interject before Sawyer can fire back a retort. “I’m putting my life in your hands.”

“I could say the same,” Cade snaps.

The tension between the three of us is suffocating, choking. I grit my teeth, trying to think of a way to answer without calling Cade an asshole.

“I don’t know what I am,” I mutter, “and you know I don’t. If I knew, I’d tell you. No one ever even hinted I was not a full-bred wolf. All I heard my entire life was that my bloodline was as pure as unicorn dust. I expected to go through my shift like every other wolf in my pack.”

“It’s strange your pack noticed nothing, especially your alpha.” Sawyer’s voice has an air of musing about it.

“There’s nothing to notice,” Cade says. “She seems normal .”

“I am normal, asshole,” I grouse. “Quit talking about me like that.”

Sawyer twists to look at me. “Were your parents both wolves?”

“I don’t know. I guess so. Adeline, my aunt, is a Beauford. My dad too.”

Sawyer snaps his head around to me. “You’re a Beauford wolf?”

The tone of his voice makes my skin prickle, and an uneasy feeling goes through me. I know my family name means something—both Adeline and my pack told me that often enough over the years—but hearing someone amazed by this outside of my pack is strange. “I guess so. That’s why Dalton wanted to bond with me.”

Sawyer faces forward, whistling under his breath. “Didn’t realize we had a legit celebrity in the truck with us.”

I scoff at his words. “Hardly.”

“You do know the Beaufords are one of the purest bloodlines among our kind.”

I try to stop my eyes from rolling, but I don’t succeed. “Don’t tell me you buy into all that purity bullshit.”

“No, but I’m surprised you don’t. I can imagine Klaus drummed it into you, especially considering his own past.”

That makes me sit a little straighter, even though it makes my ribs twinge. “What past, and how do you know Klaus?”

Cade grips the steering wheel tighter. “Sawyer.”

“She should know.”

“I want to,” I add. “What did Klaus do?”

Sawyer glances at Cade, whose fingers have tightened around the steering wheel, the skin tight over his knuckles. “You know about his sister?”

I frown. As far as I know, Klaus has no family except for Dalton. His mate was killed when I was maybe twelve or thirteen. She broke her neck during a pack hunt.

“No.”

“Esme. She was wolf, but her dad was human, making her half of both. Klaus’s mother had an affair, and it was a scandal in the shifter world for a wolf as powerful as her to step outside her own kind and get pregnant.”

“What happened to the sister?”

“She grew up with her mom, within the pack, but Klaus hated her. She was a stain on their family name. He lured her out into the woods and killed her. Made it look like a rival pack, but everyone knew it was him. She was six years old, barely big enough to fight him.”

The ripple of shock and disgust that goes through me makes my stomach clench. This was the same Klaus I respected and even loved on some level, who was always kind to me—until he wasn’t.

He kicked me out of the pack and removed my pack bond without a thought. I have no doubt he would have killed me if he thought it would save his precious son from being shackled to me.

No wonder Dalton has no hangups about ending my life. He’s the son of a man who killed his own blood, a pup no less. Bile collects in the back of my throat. I had been eight when I came to the pack. If they’d known I was different, would they have ended my life too?

I close my eyes, trying to ignore the pain settling in my stomach.

“Halle?”

Cade’s soft voice, something I’d barely heard from him, has my eyes opening. “Klaus killed her just because she wasn’t full wolf. That… that’s so sickening.”

“Klaus is a piece of work,” Sawyer agrees. “We keep away from his pack as much as we can. Or most of us do.”

His words floor me. I had no idea how we were viewed by outsiders, but seeing how fast my pack turned on me, I can understand why they would be wary.

Sawyer casts a glance at his brother, accusation in his expression, even if there is a smile playing on his lips.

I want to ask more, but that sick feeling persists. I sink back into the seat, holding a hand to my roiling stomach, willing it to calm down.

“Are you scared Klaus and Dalton might retaliate?”

Both Cade and Sawyer scoff at my words.

“Klaus is no match for one vargr, let alone four of us,” Sawyer says. “Don’t worry. We’ll protect you.”

Cade speaks next. “He won’t risk coming, especially not now that he’s three wolves down.”

“You killed three?” Sawyer whistles, seemingly impressed.

“I should have killed four,” Cade mutters.

Killing Dalton would have solved our little mating bond issue, but Cade has already fought enough of my monsters for me. I can’t ask him to murder my ex as well.

“Well, aren’t you bloodthirsty,” Sawyer says.

“He’s not going to give Halle up! He knows the only way to sever the bond is to kill her.”

“I’m guessing he’s not personable enough to be on good terms with a witch.” Sawyer blows out a dramatic breath. “Which means we have to find one first.”

“Halle… I think she is one.”

Sawyer’s head snaps in Cade’s direction at the same time as my eyes lift to his in the mirror. “She’s a wolf.”

“Halle healed me. In the woods.”

Sawyer twists to look at me and sniffs. “You don’t smell like a witch. They smell funky.” He draws another noseful of air in, his brows drawn together. “All I smell is wolf,” he says to Cade this time. “And… wait, there is something. Very faint. What is that?”

“She’s got witch in her,” Cade presses. “Your dad was a Beauford, meaning he was likely a wolf. What about your mom? Any chance she could have been a witch?”

I ignore the ice pick of pain that slices between my ribs at the mention of my mother. I wish I could remember anything about her, but there is nothing there. Just a void. “I don’t know.”

“What do you remember about her?” Sawyer presses.

That pain is getting stronger. “Nothing.”

“What about her parents?” Sawyer asks.

I curl my fingers into fists. “I don’t know!” I snap. “I have no memory of her!”

The truck falls silent, but I can sense the weight of judgment from the front. Cade glances in the rearview mirror at me. “She died when you were young?”

“I really don’t know,” I say, rubbing a hand over my temple. “Adeline says she died when I was eight, just before I came to the pack, but I have no memories before that day.”

“What happened?” It is Sawyer who poses this question. A lump forms in my throat.

“I don’t know. My aunt told me it was a car accident. Mom veered off the road and through a barrier. We ended up in the river, and I drowned. They brought me back, of course, but the lack of oxygen screwed with my memories. I don’t remember it happening, and I don’t remember anything before it. My first memory is being in Adeline’s truck outside a big house.”

Even as I speak the words, I feel their weight. I never questioned Adeline on their truth, but now I’m wondering if I should have. My aunt knew I wasn’t going to shift at the first moon ceremony. That’s why she was being weird. She tried to tell me what I was in the woods, but there hadn’t been time.

Maybe I’ll never know now.

“And you believe that story?” Sawyer cocks his brow.

“She had no reason to lie to me, and I had no reason not to take her at her word.”

“Unless she knew you were part witch in a pack with an alpha who killed his own blood because she was a hybrid.”

Considering this, I wonder why Adeline took me there at all. It could have been so dangerous even before my first moon ceremony.

“Klaus didn’t seem like he wanted to kill me,” I say. “I mean, when he discovered I was latent, he wanted me gone, but he never tried to end my life. His son did.”

“Maybe he regretted his actions,” Sawyer says. “He might be a cold-hearted asshole, but he’s also an alpha now and has to care for and protect many wolves. Maybe that’s softened him.”

“No, there’s a reason Klaus didn’t touch Halle,” Cade mutters.

“If you think he holds some kind of love for me, you’re wrong. Even before my failed shift, Klaus wasn’t exactly paternal. ”

Cade considers it for a moment, his mind working. “This is a guy who killed his own fucking sister for being a hybrid. You think he’s going to give a shit about keeping you around when you’re latent? Klaus’s pack is about strength. Think about the members of your pack. You’re a Beauford. Other members are from important families. Klaus collects bloodlines like they’re trinkets.”

I frown as I mull that over. “Klaus didn’t seem that surprised I didn’t change,” I muse.

My thoughts scatter as Cade directs the truck down a narrow lane between the trees.

Where the hell are we going?

This feels right out of a horror movie.

I peer out the back window, noting the other two vargr wolves follow in their truck, keeping close to the back of ours.

As if sensing my discomfort, Cade glances over his shoulder at me. “You’re safe here,” he promises before turning back to the narrow lane he’s driving along. I don’t tell him that it’s not my old pack I’m worried about.

The trees are thick here and don’t open until we’re about half a mile from the road. I move so I can get a look at the house properly.

It looks a little like the main house of the Red Deer Pack, with a wraparound porch and two stories. There’s a large shed off to the side and logs piled in front of the doors.

If I didn’t know the home belonged to four dangerous wolves, I would have said it looked almost homely. Cade stops the truck in front of the shed, the other one pulling in next to us.

I don’t move to get out, even though Cade and Sawyer both do. Sawyer opens the back door and bows flamboyantly. “Your castle, princess.”

I’m not sure if he’s being sarcastic, so I fire him a dark glare, but before I can move, Cade is elbowing his brother out of the way. He dips down, scanning my face. Whatever he decides has him moving. He pulls me into his arms, holding me under my legs and around my back.

“Cade!” I squeal as he pulls me out of the car. “What are you doing? I can walk!” Even as I say this, my ribs throb, and my vision rolls.

“Don’t argue with me,” he mutters, which instantly makes me want to bite back.

Sawyer shifts his shoulders at me, a smirk playing over his lips as his brother carries me up the porch steps and into the house.

The outside may have been like the house I grew up in, but the inside is not. It’s clear these males have never used a vacuum or a duster in their lives. The living room is massive, with the biggest television I’ve ever seen on the fireplace wall. There are plates stacked on one end of the coffee table and mugs on the other.

And the smell.

I wrinkle my nose. “You guys live here?” I ask, unable to keep the horror out of my tone.

“No need to sound quite so judgy,” Sawyer says, flopping onto the large sectional that fills most of the wall opposite the TV.

“If we’d known we were going to have company, we would have cleaned up,” Jackson adds, rubbing at his neck, his expression a little sheepish.

“It’s like a science project in here,” I say as Cade lowers me onto the chaise section of the couch, allowing me to stretch my legs.

“Feel free to go back to your old pack,” Sawyer says. “They seem so welcoming.”

“Is he always like this?” I say to Cade, who hasn’t cracked a smile yet.

“He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s my little brother.”

That explanation says so much. Can’t choose family.

I understand that more than he thinks. Adeline didn’t choose me, she was saddled with me after the accident… or the supposed accident. I’m doubting everything I’ve ever been told right now.

“If I have witch powers, does that make me a witch?”

Cade seems as if he’s not going to answer. Then he says, “A wolf-witch hybrid is called a tau. I’ve never come across one, but sure, I’ve heard of them. The Order of the Crescent Moon hates tau wolves almost as much as they hate vargr, but they leave us alone because we’re a force to be reckoned with.”

“Who are they?” I demand. I’ve never heard of this Order.

“Hunters,” Cade says at the same time as his brother says, “Assholes.”

“They’re hunters,” Cade repeats, glancing at his brother though he doesn’t correct Sawyer on his assertion. “They believe emphatically in keeping the shifter bloodline pure. They hunt and kill anything that is outside those parameters. Half humans, half witches, half anything. We only escape their radar because, despite everything, we are still full-blooded, even if we’re feral.”

My eyes flare wide. I have never heard of this organization, and I’m starting to realize just how sheltered Adeline kept me over the years. I know nothing about the world outside the pack. “They… kill them?”

Cade scrubs a hand over his beard, his eyes hard. “They have strange ideals about how our kind should live.”

“My theory is if we exist, it’s ‘cause we were meant to,” Wyatt interjects as he stacks the dirty plates on top of one another. “Nature doesn’t allow for accidents.”

Jackson snorts. “Nature is one big cosmic accident, brother. You exist because nature fucked up.”

“Because of the magic pelts?” I ask.

Wyatt laughs, but Cade silences him with a look. “We’ve all heard that story. The seidr, Revna, gave her lover a magically infused pelt that made him a wolf while he was wearing it. It’s a fairy tale.”

“Then how were we created?” I ask.

Wyatt fumbles for his words before he shifts his shoulders. “I don’t know. No one does, and that’s the point. None of us were alive in Revna and Torsten’s time. We have no idea what really happened, but magical pelts? I mean, it’s ludicrous.”

“Maybe he fucked a wolf,” Sawyer unhelpfully supplies around a grin. “And who are we to kink-shame our forefather for his love of our four-legged friends?”

My nose wrinkles. “How do you make a story about our origins seem so sordid?”

“It’s a skill,” he says.

Cade takes my face in his hands, bringing my attention back to him. As soon as his skin meets mine, I feel electricity wash through me. The little moan I make is a little embarrassing, but Cade keeps my focus on him. “You need to rest. I don’t know if Dalton knows where our home is, but we might need to leave at a moment’s notice. I need you strong.”

I blow out a breath. “I’m sorry I brought this to your door,” I say, meaning it.

He shakes his head, his eyes crawling over my face. “I’m not. Rest.”

He helps me lie down and pulls a blanket from the back of the couch over me. I don’t close my eyes for a moment, just watching the four wolves clean up before my lids feel heavy.

Eventually, I drift off and let the darkness claim me.