Page 20 of Rejecting his Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #2)

Chapter 20

Cade

I don’t want to let her out of my sight, so when Tessa and Halle stand, I rise with them. Halle is far too quick to trust these people. She has no idea what they are or what they are capable of. I refuse to believe they drove all this way just to save her life. They don’t even know her.

Sawyer starts to rise, but I place a hand on his shoulder. “Wait here,” I tell him.

My brother doesn’t seem happy with this arrangement, and I don’t blame him for that. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t allow him to go and meet a coven of tau.

He doesn’t argue with me, though, not in front of outsiders. I keep close to Halle as we head out of the building and back into the parking area. The road beyond is quiet, not a single car in sight. It is desolate out here—the perfect place for an ambush.

I keep my wits about me as Tessa leads us around the side of the building. My pack is inside, and if they try anything, all I have to do is call them. That eases some of the tension growing inside me. I want to trust that this little wolf-witch hybrid means Halle no harm, but I have a hard time trusting anyone.

Holding Halle’s wrist, I keep her close to me as Tessa and her mate, Abel, lead me over to a large SUV. I can see figures inside, females.

Pulling on Halle, I force her to stop before we get too close. I want to make sure we have an exit route in case we need one. Abel is a big guy, and while he smells like a wolf, if he is with these other hybrids, it’s hard to know what he might be mixed with.

The back door opens, and a woman climbs out. She gestures inside the car, telling someone to wait there, though I only glimpse a dark-haired woman in the back. When she turns toward us, I take her in.

She has raven-dark hair, and her skin is smooth as if she has never laughed a day in her life. She’s wearing a dark green jacket with a ribbed shirt underneath, her slim-fit jeans tucked into a pair of boots. She looks normal, but as I scent her, I smell something powerful beneath her wolf.

My own wolf paces the confines of my mind, urging me to shift and give him control. His sole thought is Halle, and how we can protect her. I don’t agree with a lot of things my wolf does, but we’re on the same page about this. If this female so much as twitches in Halle’s direction, she’ll lose a hand.

She must sense the direction my thoughts have taken because the tau wolf snaps her gaze toward me, a warning in her eyes. My defiance shines through, but she doesn’t seem affected by it.

“I didn’t realize Halle had a bodyguard.”

“Four, in fact.” Tessa smiles as she says this, and I wonder if she ever stops being happy.

My eyes drift to the claiming mark on her neck, and I know why she is happy. The depth of their connection suggests they are either fated or chosen who have been with each other for a long time.

“Halle and Cade, this is Hester.” Tessa gestures toward the raven-haired woman.

I feel a light brush over my mind, like the ghosting of fingertips. Is she in my thoughts? I step back, growling at her and tugging Halle with me.

“Stay out of my fucking head.”

Hester shifts her shoulders. “You can’t blame me for looking. I have to protect my girls. The easiest way to do that is to know what your intentions are.” She glances between us before her gaze comes to rest on the claiming mark on Halle’s neck. “The wolf who gave you that… Where is he now?”

I feel Halle stiffen in my grip and squeeze her hand, assuring her she is not alone. “I’m not sure. He was chasing us, but then Cade kicked his ass, and he called in the hunters. I don’t know if he is still tailing us.”

Hester doesn’t speak as if she is considering what Halle has said. This woman is odd. I feel her power, her magic, and it calls to my wolf in a way, but she makes no move to use it against me in order to take Halle.

It leaves me wondering what she wants.

“Is he your chosen mate? ”

“Was. At least until the point where he tried to murder me.” I don’t miss the bitterness in her words, and I rub my thumb over the back of her hand. Instantly, she starts to calm down.

“Interesting.”

“What is?” I demand. This female talking in riddles is pissing me off.

“Your wolves are connected. The link is faint, but it is there.” She steps up to Halle, gently turning her head to the side. As soon as her hand touches her, I tug Halle back. Hester smirks. “And look how protective you are.”

“What does it mean that our wolves are connected?” Halle tries to pull free of my hold, which I don’t allow. Hester has essentially confirmed that she knows nothing about being a wolf, even if she has a wolf half. My suspicion of her increases tenfold. Every wolf in existence knows how mating bonds work. Once you’re joined to someone, there is no connecting to anyone else unless it’s through a pack bond. Perhaps that is what she is feeling.

“She’s part of my pack.”

Hester’s fingers trail over her lips, her gaze locked on us. “It’s not a pack link I sense.”

“Then what?”

The only other bond it could be is a mating one, and that is impossible.

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” I say to Halle. “Our wolves can’t be connected because you are mated to somebody else.”

“Her bond with her first wolf has not yet cemented into place. You were at the beginning of that mating process?”

Halle frowns. “We’d been together six months, but neither of us particularly liked the other. He wanted a breeding mare, and he was cruel to me. I didn’t feel anything for him other than pity and hate.”

My wolf and I both feel the anger at knowing Dalton made her life miserable. I already knew that fucker had been cruel to her. I’d seen his abuse first-hand, stopped it even, but the little quiver in Halle’s voice as she says those words makes me wish I had killed Dalton in the woods.

Hester doesn’t elaborate, and when she speaks again, she goes in a different direction. “When I brushed across your mind, I felt a block. I don’t know what it is, but I’d like to look again. Will you allow it?”

Halle says, “Yes” at the same time as I say, “Absolutely not.” At my refusal, she turns to glare at me, and although she says nothing, I understand.

Stay out of my business.

But she is my business, and I don’t know how to switch that off, even if she wants me to.

“Please. I want you to look. My magic feels as if it is locked away somewhere I can’t reach.”

Hester steps forward and slowly places two fingers against Halle’s temple. She closes her eyes and speaks something under her breath that I don’t understand.

I don’t like this. I don’t like it one bit. This feels too invasive, too dangerous. I have no idea what this witch might be doing to Halle’s mind, so I try to tug her away, severing the link between them .

Halle stumbles, and I wrap my arms around her to steady her. “Why did you do that?” She berates me, and I want to explain that I’m only trying to keep her safe, but Hester speaks first.

“You’ve been bound.”

I can tell by the look on Halle’s face that she doesn’t have any idea what that means.

But I do.

It is a practice that I thought no longer existed. It is seen as barbaric, even among those who desire purity above all things, and it is hard to achieve. It relies on finding a witch who is both willing and able to perform the magic required, which is not easy since many see it as oppression of witch power.

There was a time when vargr bound their young, though not because they could do magic. They hoped it would subdue their strength and enable young vargr to live normally within a pack.

The practice was phased out before I was born. It was seen as cruel, and as relations got worse between wolves and witches, it became impossible to find anyone willing to perform the binding.

So, where the hell did Adeline find a witch willing to bind her niece’s magic?

I know I’m taking a leap assuming it was Adeline who did this, but I don’t think I’m wrong. Halle’s aunt knew something might not happen during the first moon ceremony—Halle told us that herself. Did she really think that binding Halle’s magic would be enough to give her a normal life? Halle is not normal. She has this other side to her that is so special and precious yet remained suffocated inside her.

I didn’t like Adeline before, but now, I want to wrap my fingers around her neck and strangle the life out of her. How could she take the very thing that makes Halle who she is? I understand the risks of hunters discovering her, but she should have found a different way to protect her niece.

“What does that mean?” Halle asks. She glances at me, no doubt able to sense the anger swirling inside me.

“It means somebody purposefully hid your magic so that everyone would assume you are a wolf.”

Halle’s mouth pulls into a tight line. “Adeline.” I’m not surprised she comes to the same conclusion as I did. She tries to pull away from me, needing space, I guess, but I don’t allow it. I don’t want her to think this changes anything for me.

“So, if we find a witch, we can unbind my powers?”

“I can unbind your powers,” Hester tells her. “But it is not without risk. I don’t know how the original spell was performed and what might happen if I pull it free.”

“I understand,” Halle says. “But I want you to try. I think whatever was done to me also modified my memories. I can’t remember anything before I came into my aunt’s care. Though I’ve been seeing snapshots of the past—at least I think it's the past. They feel so real I don’t know how they can’t be.”

“Your magic is trying to break through,” Hester says. “I sensed that when I looked into your mind. You’ve managed to access part of it already?”

“I healed Cade and another of our pack. ”

“Can you do it here?” Tessa asks.

“I’d prefer to do it in the sanctuary. I don’t know what will happen when I break through those bindings.”

I almost roll my eyes. Of course, they want Halle to go somewhere more private. “No offense, but I don’t know you, and I don’t trust you. You’re not taking Halle anywhere. If you’re going to undo it, then you do it here.”

“Can you stop trying to fix everything?” Halle snaps at me. Her brows are drawn together, leaving a cute little dimple between her eyes that I want to kiss. I must linger too long there because she reaches up and covers the area I’m staring at.

“This is what I mean when I say your wolves are connected,” Hester interrupts.

“What does that mean?” I finally snap. “All this talking in fucking riddles is annoying. Just spit out what the hell you’re trying to say.”

“The link between you is faint because of the other mating bond, but there is a mating link between you both as well.”

Halle jolts, her entire body moving as if she has received an electric shock. I feel the same thing go through me. There is a mating link between us? Is that even possible when she has a chosen mate?

“How?” Halle demands. “We went through a mating ceremony. Dalton and I are joined as chosen mates.”

I suddenly don’t care how. It makes sense to me. I have always felt this pull to Halle. Even when we were back in the woods, and I watched her every day, I wanted to be near her and with her from the moment I caught her scent. I have always felt as if I was the one she should have been with, not fucking Dalton. I thought it was jealousy, that my wolf was envious of a bond I thought I would never have. Seeing her in the shower, touching herself like that, awoke something primal in me, a need to have her completely.

My life, though good, is cursed. I never wanted or thought it would be possible to have a mate and, perhaps one day, pups. How could I force that on wolves I care about?

But looking at Halle now, even with the fear dancing in her eyes, I know what Hester is saying is true. There’s always been this link between us. There’s never been a moment, even when she was bound to that bastard, that I have not wanted her.

Hester shifts her shoulders, and I want to shake the answers out of her. “I just know what I sense.”

“A witch can remove a mating bond, right?” I ask.

I don’t look at Halle, not wanting to see whether this is something she desires or not. “In theory.”

“When you remove the block from her mind, can you also remove the mating bond to that fucker?”

“Again, in theory, but I’ve never tried it. I have no idea what will happen, and I’m not doing it here in case something does.”

It’s an ultimatum, and I hate it. Keeping Halle safe is my priority, and riding off into the sunset with a group of witch-wolf hybrids doesn’t seem particularly smart.

Tessa steps forward, and I see her mate tense, ready to protect her from me if necessary. I have never hurt a female before, but if any of these women come for Halle, I will unleash my wolf.

I watch carefully as Tessa takes Halle’s hands in hers. “I know you’re scared. I felt the same when I first met Hester. I was running for my life through the woods, hunters on my tail, with no way of escaping. They had killed members of my pack who tried to protect me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before more died. You have magic, Halle, and because of what you are, the Order will not stop hunting you. We have a place that is protected and concealed from them. A place where you can be who you were always meant to be. You just have to take that step.”

It’s a nice little speech, but it doesn’t offer anything in the way of trust.

“We took a risk leaving the safety of the sanctuary to come and find you,” Hester says, speaking to us both. “Don’t make that for nothing. Don’t die out here because you are too stubborn to trust someone who wants to help you.”

Halle glances over at me, and I see the question in her eyes. If she goes with them, will I follow? “The only way I will come is if the guys can come too. They are being hunted as well because of me.”

Before she can answer, a lone truck moves up the road in the distance, heading toward us. Behind it is another vehicle, kicking up dirt under its wheels. Then another appears on the horizon behind them. A caravan.

“We need to leave now,” Hester says.

It is the first time I have agreed with anything she has said since we came out here. It could just be a group traveling together, but I know it’s not.

“Hunters!” Abel snarls.

I open the pack link and warn the others, telling them to come to us. “We need to run,” I say to the females.

Hester shakes her head and gestures to the back of the car. Another wolf climbs out, and I can smell the magic coming off her too. Another tau wolf—how many of them are there? She has hair nearly as dark as Hester's, but she’s young, maybe a few years older than Halle.

“What are you doing?” I demand. “Get back in the car and get the fuck out of here.”

“And how far do you think we will get with them following us?” Hester asks. Her words are calm, and I wonder if she has a death wish. Does she not realize the danger these hunters pose?

“So, you’d rather just stay here and die?”

“No one is going to die,” the other dark-haired tau wolf says. She gives me a smirk that does little to ease the tension rolling through me. “I’m Apryle.”

I ignore her introduction. I don’t want to get to know any of these hybrids. My sole focus is on keeping Halle and my pack alive.

“What’s going on?” Sawyer asks as he jogs up to me, Jackson and Wyatt behind him.

“Hunters.”

Hester reaches out and takes Apryle’s hand in hers. Tessa moves to the other side of her, slipping her palm into Hester’s .

I don’t care what they are doing. I give Halle my full attention, gripping her shoulders and dipping my head so I can focus on her. “If anything happens to us, you run.”

Her eyes fill with fear and denial. “No. I’m not leaving without you.”

“You have to. I need to know that you’ll be safe.”

Tears prick her eyes, and as one rolls down her cheek, I wipe it away with the pad of my thumb. I don’t want to see her cry, and I have no intention of leaving her here alone, but we are outnumbered, and there is nowhere to go.

I lean down, and despite my past misgivings about being with someone already mated, I kiss her. There is no regret, no remorse, no sense of betrayal as I move my mouth over hers. She tastes sweet, and I want more. My fingers splay over her cheeks as I turn her head slightly so I can deepen our connection. Dalton might’ve marked her, but she belongs to me. Hester was right when she said there is a connection between us, and I’m tired of denying it.

Dalton rejected her and threw her aside like she was trash. His loss is my gain because I will never walk away from this wolf. Even if I have to die to protect her and keep her safe, that is what I will do.

Halle is mine.

I pull away, reluctant to end the kiss, but knowing I have to because I can hear the engines getting closer. I touch my forehead to hers, needing contact before I let her go .

“You stay behind us. No matter what.” I turn to my brother and the rest of my pack. “Get ready to fight.”

“Do we shift?” Jackson asks.

“You won’t need to shift,” Hester says.

“Stay as you are,” I confirm, trusting Hester will do everything in her power to keep at least herself and the women with her safe.

With one final glance at Halle, I turn back to face the line of trucks getting closer, and then I drop, ready to fight.