Page 18 of Taming His Vampire Mate

She hadn’t bothered with pack business since she’d left for college, practically the moment our father was safely in the ground and could no longer stop her. The pack had wanted to drag her back, but I’d become alpha by then and forbidden it. I loved her far more than our father ever had. She could have the life she chose. Always.

But what was she doing here now, interrupting my peace?

“Emma sent for me,” Lindsey said, practically reading my mind. “Your pack is worried about you.”

Before I could stop myself, I let out a low growl.

They weren’t my pack.

Not anymore.

“Very mature.” Lindsey shook her head and sighed, grabbing a wad of dark clothing beside her. She balled it up and threw it with practiced aim. It landed next to me. “Put some clothes on and come talk to me.”

I stared at the bundle for a long moment.

“Look, Jer, I drove two and a half hours to get here, and I’ve spent most of my morning searching the forest for you. Wouldyou mind at least telling me to fuck off properly, so I can go back to the pack with a clear conscience and say I tried?”

A sudden rush of fondness caught me off guard. I realized how much I’d missed her. She’d come back to the commune for nearly a month after Ian died, but I’d barely noticed. I had been too hollowed out to notice much of anything.

She hadn’t left then, and I knew she wouldn’t leave now. Not until I talked to her.

Sighing, I grabbed the clothes and dressed quickly. Loose gray sweatpants, a soft black T-shirt I hadn’t worn in years—now a little too tight. She’d probably fished them out of the dresser in my old cabin. The fabric felt strange, constricting after a year of nudity.

I joined her on the steps.

“What are you doing here?” My voice was rough. Apart from the vampire, I hadn’t spoken in a long time.

“I already told you. Emma called me.” Lindsey winced, probably at the rasp in my tone. “And hello to you, too. You look and sound like shit, Jer.”

“Whatever Emma is after, the answer is no. All I want is to be left alone.”

“Listen, I get that you’re in pain,” Lindsey said, resting her chin on folded arms, studying me sideways. Her knees were drawn up tight, but she was still nearly as tall as me. Anyone looking at us might not have believed we were related. Different mothers, same asshole father. Her skin was darker than mine and perfectly smooth, her eyes so deep brown they were almost black, like twin pools of ink. Concern shone in them, and I hated every second of it. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Jer. I loved Ian too. You know I did.”

The mention of my former mate made me want to crawl back into wolf form and run until I could lose myself to instinct.

“I just want to be left alone,” I repeated, steadier. “I’ve told everyone that. They can find themselves a new alpha. Reed—”

“Is your second-in-command. And he’s been your best friend since diapers. He’s doing the best he can, but we both know how this works. He can’t really be alpha. Not until you’re dead. Or until he defeats you, which he doesn’t plan on doing anytime soon. Your pack needs you.”

“I don’t belong to a pack anymore.”

“The fuck you don’t,” Lindsey said. “Daniel and Emma think the bleeds will start again soon.”

“Bullshit.”

But a chill ripped through me at her words.

“Daniel says the magic’s been unstable for six months. It got worse with the last full moon. Another lunar cycle, maybe less, and the bleeds will start again.”

My words died in my throat. Daniel was a powerful warlock who’d joined the pack a year and a half ago. One of his main tasks was tracking mystical forces in the area. Emma was the elder and keeper of our lore. She’d been ancient even before my grandfather was born. If they believed the walls separating this reality from the strange Otherworld were weakening, they probably were. And when those walls failed, monsters always came through.

Just like the creatures that took Ian.

I thought back to the dying deer. Meeting the vampire had wiped it from my mind, but whatever killed it hadn’t been natural. It had flayed half the skin cleanly off without touching the muscle underneath.

Lindsey nodded, reading my expression as easily as when we were kids. “You understand why they sent for me, then. It isn’t just about you running off and living rough like a crazy person. They need you. The pack is weakened.”

She was right. A year ago, there’d been fourteen of us. Now only seven wolves and one warlock remained. The rest had left around the same time I did. The smart ones. The ones who wouldn’t die senselessly in a forest, the way Ian had.