Page 11 of Rejecting his Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #2)

Chapter 11

Cade

T he air outside is nearly as chilled as the beer bottle I’m clutching in my hand. I glance out over the property at the little slice of paradise we built for ourselves, away from hunters and judgment. For years, we have enjoyed peace, but I know everything is about to change.

I scent my brother before I hear the creak of the wooden boards under his feet, but I don’t look around as he sits beside me. The porch wraps around the house, two steps leading down to the path that goes to the workshop.

The bench dips as he settles himself on it. The wood needs replacing, a job each of us kept putting off, and now I guess it won’t get done.

“She still sleeping?” I ask, taking a sip of my beer.

I hear the fizz and hiss as Sawyer opens his own. “She’s exhausted, which isn’t surprising. Her face is all kinds of fucked up.” He takes a sip of his drink. “The mate is a piece of work, huh?”

I finally give him my attention, twisting my head to look at him. “He’s an asshole,” I confirm.

“He gonna come looking for her?”

It’s a legitimate question, one he deserves an answer to. I brought her here, and I delivered this shit to our doorstep. “He’s a prideful fucker.”

“That’s a yes, then,” Sawyer says. I watch as he rolls his bottle between his hands. “The others are worried.”

They should be. “I didn’t expect this to happen,” I admit, even though my position is indefensible. I put the life of a stranger over the wolves who have become my family, my pack.

“I’d guess you didn’t,” Sawyer drinks before leaning forward, his hands clamped around the bottle. “I like her. Sure as hell like her more than those fucks who think we’re abominations.”

“I like her too,” I admit. More than like her, even with that claiming mark on her neck that says she belongs to someone else.

“I can tell. You’ve been stalking around her pack lands for months.”

He noticed, then. I wasn’t careful about hiding what I was doing, but I didn’t think I was that obvious. “Something draws me to her.”

“It’ll be the red hair and the perfect tits.” I smash my fist into his side, making him grunt. My knuckles burn, but the satisfaction I get from hurting him makes it worth it. “Ass.”

“Watch your mouth.”

Sawyer rubs his side. My brother is five years younger than me, but sometimes he acts like he’s still a pup of fifteen. “This one really has you by the nuts, but I couldn’t help but notice the large claiming mark on her neck, Cade.”

The very visual elephant in the room.

“She doesn’t want him.”

“No, but she chose him, and she let him mark her. What if you fall for her, and she decides she doesn’t want you, either?”

I hate him for saying that, for putting that paranoid thought into my head.

“Dalton tried to kill her,” I snap at him. “He was a chosen mate, not a fated. He can easily be erased.”

“Easily? No. As far as I know, you don’t have any witches on speed dial, Cade. How are you planning on breaking the mating link?”

I have no answer to that, so I hold my tongue.

“I’m all for helping damsel wolves in distress, but if she is a tau—” He breaks off.

He doesn’t need to say anything else. We both know what it means.

“You suggesting I throw her back to her old pack?”

“No, of course not, but she’s a beacon for the Order. They make a sport of hunting hybrids, especially those.”

I sigh, letting my gaze go back to the grounds of the house. The breeze ruffles the leaves of the trees and shrubs, the smell of them catching my nose. “We’re not that far down their shit list,” I counter.

“Exactly. We’ve remained living because we’ve stayed out of trouble and off the radar of those demented monsters. You really want to put us back on their list by hiding a tau? ”

I don’t, but that ship has sailed. “I killed three wolves. Think it’s safe to assume we’re top of that list once the hunters find out.” They’ll believe I’ve lost my mind and gone feral. They’ll be looking for ways to put me down.

Sawyer says nothing for a moment, and I wonder what my little brother is thinking. I don’t sense his anger, not even through our pack bond, but there is a feeling of unease from him. “You know I’ll fight anyone who comes at us and you, but are you ready for what is going to hit us?”

I take a sip of my drink, needing a moment to just center my thoughts. “I don’t know what it is about this female, Sawyer, but I can’t walk away.”

“She really has a hold on you.”

I don’t deny it because it’s true; she does. “I understand if you and the others want to get gone before trouble comes— if it comes—but I won’t leave her.”

Sawyer doesn’t take the offered olive branch. He places his bottle on the wooden slats beneath the bench. “We’ve been fighting against the world since we were pups. You’ve always had my back, Cade. You think I’m going to walk away the first time you need me?”

Warmth fills my chest, and my throat feels clogged. My brother has been at my side from the moment we knew we were different and that society does not favor things that don’t conform to what they deem normal.

“She makes my wolf lose his shit,” I admit. “I struggle to control him when she’s around, but she soothes that rage he has too. It’s strange.”

“Yeah, it is. Never heard of that happening. Then again, I’ve only ever known four vargr in my life, and I’m among that number, so maybe it’s totally normal.”

He stands, moving to the rail that surrounds the porch. “There’s a lot of shit about her that doesn’t make sense, Cade. Know you’re in this, know you care, but watch yourself too. If you lose control of your wolf along the way, you’re going to force everyone to make some difficult decisions.”

If I turn feral, Sawyer and my vargr brothers will have no choice but to stop me in any way necessary.

“I’m in control,” I assure him, then I frown at my brother. “You think she knows more than she’s saying?”

“I think we don’t know enough about her to gauge that.”

He pushes off the rail and makes his way across the gravel driveway to the workshop. I watch him go, my mind stuffed full. I have questions. So many of them, but there are no answers.

Why does Halle make my wolf feral yet calm him too?

Most of the time, I can control my inner beast. There are few occasions where he’s taken command from me, and his behavior has been all animal, but when I started to lose control, she’d brought me back, almost like a mate would.

She can’t be my mate, though. She is wearing another male’s mark on her neck. She smells of him, too. Even though he is not here, his presence very much is, and I fucking hate it.

I push up and head inside the house. When I step into the living room, Halle isn’t lying on the couch where I expected to find her.

Panic momentarily renders me immobile before my feet move, rushing from room to room, searching for her.

Eventually, I catch her scent and follow it toward the back of the house. I freeze in the kitchen doorway.

She’s bent over, rummaging through the fridge. Her red hair is tussled and loose down her back. I watch her for a moment, but I know the moment she realizes I’m watching her.

“You always spy on women you hardly know?”

“Depends on the woman,” I say.

She turns to face me, holding a carton of milk. I don’t miss the way she winces as she straightens. Her ribs probably need binding.

“Nice to know I’m on your list. Did you know your milk expired two weeks ago?”

The quick change of direction has my lips quirking at the corners. I don’t give a fuck about the milk. “You look a little better.”

“I wish I could say I feel it. Aside from the demonic eyes, my throat is pretty sore, and my ribs ache like a bitch.”

Her eyes are still bloodshot and more red than white. Knowing that son of a bitch caused her injuries makes me want to go after him and slit his throat. “Should you be up?”

“I’m hungry, but you’ve got nothing in the fridge. What do you guys eat?”

I stride over to her, ignoring the way her scent infuses my nose. Halle smells so good, and I want to nuzzle against her neck and take in more of her scent, but my eyes trail over the claiming mark, and I step away to open one of the wall cabinets.

Halle is right. There isn’t much food, but I manage to find a can of soup, which I hand to her with an apologetic shift of my shoulders. “I’ll send Wyatt to the store once we’re safe.”

“Is there one out here? It seems pretty remote.”

“There is,” I say, but don’t elaborate. We’re about thirty minutes from a small town, and that’s where we get most of our supplies.

“Is it safe for them to go?”

Her concern for wolves I consider as close as blood warms me. “They can handle themselves.”

She leans back against the counter, still clutching the can of soup. “Because they’re vargr?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m still not really sure what that is.”

I rub my nose before I take the can from her and open a drawer near the stove. Finding the can opener, I place it on the lip and open it. “We don't either, and that's who we are. There’s a lot of legend and mythology about us. We’re Torsten’s children, but all wolf shifters are of his line, so I don’t know how we became what we are.”

“And I’m a tau, whatever that means.” She says the last part quietly.

“Tau are like vargr.” I lean into her, and I don’t miss the little shiver that runs through her body. “We’re both myths, and neither of us is meant to exist. ”

“And yet we do.”

I pull away to grab a pot and empty the soup into it. I can’t look at her while I do, trying to control and calm my wolf, who is pacing anxiously, whining.

Halle eyes it with a hint of uncertainty. “Are you sure this is safe to eat? Most of the stuff in your kitchen should come with a biohazard warning.”

We both reach for the can at the same time, and my wolf roars the moment our skin touches. The instinct to push her onto the floor and take her is overwhelming. I want to be inside her. I want to claim her as mine. My body feels wired tight, like a spring too tightly coiled.

Fisting my fingers into balls at my sides, I try to shove my wolf and his desires down. It’s a fight. He doesn’t want to be silenced. He wants her.

I want her too, but she belongs to another, even if it is not by choice.

I stumble back from her, unable to be in her space any longer. Halle’s confused step toward me has my hands raising. “Don’t,” I gasp out in desperation. If she touches me again, I’m going to lose the tiny bit of control I have over my emotions.

“Cade… are you alright?”

“The soup needs a few minutes on the heat.” I stagger out of the kitchen toward the front door. My throat feels closed up and tight. I need air.

I hit the door heavily, fumbling for the handle. As soon as I get it open, I lurch forward and sag against the railings of the porch.

My chest feels as if a house is sitting on it, and the tightness around my lungs is making it hard to breathe.

I grip the rails, trying to drag air into my chest. What the fuck was that?

Her scent infuses my nose again, and I spin to see her standing in the doorway. Her cheeks and neck are flushed, her expression a little wild. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry.”

I shake my head. “It’s not you. It’s my wolf. He’s… out of control.”

That statement should scare her, but she doesn’t move away or try to calm me.

“There was a connection between us, more than I’ve ever felt between me and Dalton.”

“Yeah,” I agree, “but it doesn’t mean anything. My wolf is difficult sometimes, and he doesn’t like to take no for an answer. You’re mated. He shouldn’t want you because of that alone.”

He shouldn’t. I can smell her mate on her, too, faint but still there. And then there’s the claiming mark. I tear my gaze from her, urging my wolf to calm himself.

“You think this connection is because you’re a vargr?”

I don’t know, so I just shrug.

“I want this mark off me,” she says, scratching her fingers over it. “How do we do that?”

“It’ll fade on its own in time.”

She takes this in with a tight jaw. “I hate him.”

“I know, but the magic that bonded you together isn’t something you can just remove.”

“But you said a witch can.”

Scrubbing a hand over my chin, the hairs of my beard pricking my skin, I try to formulate an answer that won’t destroy her hope. “Even if you find one willing to, you have no idea what side effects it could have—what it could do to you. Magic always comes at a price.”

Halle’s tongue wets her bottom lip, and I watch the motion, completely fascinated by it. Her plump, kissable lips call to me, and I have to shove those thoughts down.

“It’s better than being chained to him for eternity.”

“It would be easier to just kill him,” I mutter.

My wolf likes this plan. He whines and urges me to find him.

“Probably, but I don’t want his blood on my hands, or yours, if there’s another way.”

“An impossible way, Halle.”

She steps over to the railing, careful to keep a distance between us as she leans against it. “You said I’m a witch. Can’t I do it?”

“Can you?”

She scrunches her face up but nothing happens. “Hmm, maybe I need more practice.”

“You don’t smell like one.”

This seems to amuse her. Halle’s lips kick up at the corners. “And what does a witch smell like?”

I don’t know how to describe it, but I give it my best shot. “I’ve only come across one and she smelled like—like the air before it rains. There’s an underlying scent to you, but it’s shoved deep down, and I can’t make it out.”

“When I healed you, it was the first time I’d ever done anything like that,” she admits. “If I were part witch, wouldn’t I be able to do more… witchy things?” Sh e waggles her fingers at me as if bolts of electricity might fly out of them.

I snort. “Tau aren’t full witches, Halle.”

Her expression sobers. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t shift, because I’m not fully a wolf.”

“Maybe.”

“These hunters in the Order of the Crescent Moon… They hunt those like me, right? Wolves that are different.”

“Yeah,” I say, though my jaw instantly locks. Nothing is touching her.

Wincing, Halle scrubs the toe of her sneakers over the wooden decking. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to bring anyone else into my mess.”

My chest feels suddenly tight. I lift her chin with my fingers, meeting those bright green eyes. Touching her is a mistake, but one I don’t want to stop this time. My wolf calls for me to claim her, take her as ours, but I shove him down savagely, focusing on the sadness reflecting back at me.

“I willingly inserted myself into your mess. This isn’t something you forced me to do, little wolf.”

She cracks a smile, and I’m not sure if it’s at my words or the endearment. “Are you sure you can call me that, considering I might not even be a wolf shifter, not a true one anyway?”

“The Order talks about purity and bloodlines, but who the fuck are they to decide what makes anyone worthy? You’re not defined by your DNA, Halle.”

A little snort is followed by the wrinkling of her nose. “It sure feels like it.” I release my hold on her chin, my fingers instead skimming over the dark purple bruising on her neck. She doesn’t move, her breath trapped in her chest.

“Why did you watch me for weeks?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.

I caught her trail one day, a hint of her scent while I was hunting in the woods. I knew I went too far, strayed into Red Deer Pack territory, but the moment my nose picked up that scent, I was lost. I had to know who it belonged to.

“There were times I felt lost and alone with Dalton. Knowing you were there made everything better.”

She’s killing me. I want to claim her mouth, but I keep still. I don’t know how to respond. I’d stalked her like a creeper, but if I hadn’t done that, she would be dead now, and I would have lost her. That thought makes me angry as hell.

“Are there others like me?”

“More tau?” She nods. “I don’t know. Probably, but considering they’re being hunted I doubt they are out in the open.”

“I don’t feel anything witchy.”

“What about when you healed me?”

Her shoulders shift. “I wanted to remove your pain, and I just… knew how to. I felt this warmth build inside my belly and pushed it out through the rest of my body. It was weird, but it felt like my mind was battling against itself as if there was a wall in the way. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“Like a block?” I press.

“Yeah, something like that.”

I open my mouth to respond, but the pack bond opens, and I feel Jackson’s unease before his voice resounds in my mind.

Red Deer Pack look like they’re gearing up to come after us.

I’d put Jackson on guard duty, hoping it would give us the time to escape before we’re attacked. Seems to have been the right decision.

Get to the road. We’ll meet you there.

I respond and then wait for his confirmation before turning to Halle. She’s watching me carefully, no doubt wondering if I’m okay as I went silent for a moment.

“Your old pack is coming for us,” I tell her.

Her face blanches, the color draining from her skin. “Oh. I’ll leave. They’ll follow my trail then.”

I shake my head. There is no chance in hell I’m letting her go without me. “If we leave, we go together as a pack.”

The dimple between her brows deepens. “But I’m not pack.”

“No, not yet.” I take her hands in mine, wincing at the heat that rushes through my body. She lets out a little whimper at my touch but doesn’t let go. “Your former pack bond is gone?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” I have no idea how it works, but I push something inside me, a hint of magic that exists in all shifters, and shove it in her direction. Her back arches as she takes the power joining her mind to the rest of my pack.

As soon as I sense her presence in my mind, I realize my mistake. This is too much, having her inside me like this. My wolf rears up onto his hind legs, snapping and baying, whimpering too, and I know I shouldn’t do it, but before I can stop myself, I lean forward and press my mouth to hers.