Page 18
Story: What’s Rogue Got To Do With It (Fur-Ever Mountain Pack #1)
CREVEN
Brave . That wasn’t a word I’d ever associated with myself. Not ever.
If I’d been brave, I would’ve challenged Rayne, tried to avenge my father’s death, despite knowing my father wanted me to flee.
I could say all I wanted, to both myself or others, that I left my den because it was my father’s last wish.
But the truth was, I’d have made the same decision had he not said a single word because I hadn't been brave then, I’d been terrified.
And now Auden was back. I was fully mated to my pregnant mate, and he needed me to alpha-up and be the mate I needed to be. A life on the run wasn’t an option. Not with a growing family. Our kit or pup deserved better than that.
I reached over and grabbed Larkin’s hand and held it tightly. We were in this together.
“We’ll do whatever it takes.” Larkin’s voice came across as confident and strong.
If only I could say the same for how I was feeling.
“Well done.” Auden bit back a yawn. “Let’s have a meal by the fire tonight. We can discuss everything.” And off he went.
I didn’t want to wait. Knowing that there was something that needed to happen and that decisions needed to be made, all for the protection of those I loved had my fox on edge.
Not knowing what was to come, that caused a level of stress I struggled to handle.
So I did the only thing I could do and held my mate close, promising him that I was brave enough and that we would be okay. A promise I feared I couldn’t keep.
He held on just as tightly, telling me he trusted me not to underestimate him. I didn’t. I never would, but I didn’t want him to have to carry the burden of any of this. I was the one who brought him danger, it should be I who protects him from it.
They say that fate gives you the mate that you need.
I never really understood what that meant.
In my mind, that equated to fate giving me the person who had my heart racing, who made me smile, who liked similar things to me.
And there was that with Larkin, but that wasn’t what I needed.
It was more like a fun free gift with purchase.
Fate knew what they were doing, they gave me an omega who would be strong when I wasn’t, brave when I couldn’t, optimistic when I only saw darkness ahead. I could only hope that I was that for him as well.
Waiting until it was time for us to meet around the fire had been rough. I kept waiting for the shoe to drop. Auden wasn’t one to play games, from anything I had seen. He wasn’t doing this to keep us on edge or as some sort of power play.
And still, I felt like a pawn, which wasn’t fair to Auden. He’d done nothing to make me think that he was using us. If anything, we were the ones reaping all of the benefits.
Even with my mate by my side, working on the overgrown garden as a way of distraction, my mind kept spiralling.
A couple of times, I nearly allowed my fox to take over and hunt the annoying squirrel who kept startling me.
But abandoning my mate to sate my beast didn’t sit well with me and I pushed on, determined to be the strong, brave alpha he deserved.
After what felt like decades, it was time to meet Auden and discuss his trip. My mate and I sat near the fire, waiting for him to join us.
When he came over, his eyes were still sleepy. “Thanks for waiting. I needed a nap.”
A nap? I’d been in inner turmoil all day because he needed a nap? He’d been tired from his trip, from all that he’d been through since he left and needed downtime. Or maybe that was an excuse he gave to pull his thoughts together. I’d been known to hide away while making decisions a time or two.
“I’d love to hear about your trip.” Larkin might not understand the workings of a pack, but he innately had the diplomacy required of them.
“Before I start, I need you to trust that you are safe right now.” His words were not instilling confidence.
“I went to the Shifter Council.”
My mate grabbed my hand, squeezed it tight. Neither of us said a word.
“I reminded them that my pack existed, and that I am a pack of one, and that a pack of one is no pack at all.”
I hadn’t considered it in that light and it saddened me. Auden was a self-sufficient shifter who had ties to the local packs. That was great and all, but being a pack of one as opposed to a lone shifter, felt like a very different thing.
“They agreed that my pack wasn’t what it needed to be and offered to buy the pack lands for Council use—and to help me find a new pack.”
My mate leaned into me, his body trembling slightly. I felt the same. He’s set out to help us and the Council took that as an opportunity to try to take what little he had left from them.
“I refused them.” Could one do that? Refuse the council? Apparently so because Auden was sitting up straight, looking physically stronger than I’d seen him since we met.“This is my pack and I want to watch it flourish once more.”
He stood up. “And what did they do? They laughed. How could an old man like me grow a pack? Ha! They don’t know about you two. I have everything I need right around this fire.”
“The Council approved?” Nothing I’d heard about the Council suggested they were flexible on anything. But also, I was quickly learning that there was a lot I’d been taught about shifters that was full-on wrong.
“They didn’t know who they were messing with.
I grew up learning the laws of old as well as the laws of modern times.
I don’t count on a Council Librarian to find me answers,” he tapped the side of his head, “I have all the information right here. When I quoted the rights of a pack Alpha from the laws of old, they backed off. I suspect they are waiting for my failure. They’ll be waiting a long time. ”
I hadn’t really considered that he was the pack Alpha.
But of course, he was. He was the only one left.
It wouldn’t matter if he was an alpha or an omega.
He was the leader. It didn’t matter that leadership was over exactly one person.
Looking at it through that lens changed my perspective, that was for sure.
“And that’s where I need you to trust me, and be brave.
I want to mark you as pack. I’m an old man without much to offer other than what you see, but when I tell you that while you two are not the first to pass through these lands, please believe that you are the first I’d ever considered inviting to be pack. ”
“But I’m rogue.” As tempting as his offer was, I couldn’t bring him harm. I refused.
He nodded. “You are. But if the Alpha of a pack marks a rogue as Pack while reciting the ceremonial words nearly lost with time, you will no longer be rogue, you will be pack, under the eyes of both the goddess and the council.”
“I didn’t…” words weren’t coming, the possibilities he’d opened up tossing everything I thought I knew out the window.
“It rarely happens. Most packs don’t acknowledge that this method exists. They don’t want the trouble that taking in another outcast might bring. It’s easier to forget that there’s a way around the mark.”
His eyes fell to where I was scarred. “And I’m sure that some packs have removed it from their pack education for so long that no one alive still remembers. But I remember… and I’d like to make you pack. But that means you would need to stay here, to truly be Pack.”
“Do you think the packs you have an agreement with have a problem with this?” I asked. If they would, it was a no brainer. We’d leave.
“I don’t think so.” Not a resounding yes.
I turned to my mate, and he put his free hand on his belly and gave a single nod.
“It would be an honor to be pack.” I answered for us both.
The ceremony was short. He spoke the ceremonial words in a language I was unfamiliar with. I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that Auden didn’t know what they meant word for word. I wasn’t sure they mattered, because without that knowledge, they still felt right.
And when the final words were spoken, he reached out his partially shifted hands and clawed each of us. Me, over my rogue mark, slicing deeper and wider than the scar.
I was able to keep a cry of anguish coming from my chest, the searing pain nearly too much. But as bad as that was, it wasn’t as difficult as seeing my mate bleed.
“As your alpha, I command you to shift.”
And for the first time since my father passed, I felt the power of an Alpha. Even if I hadn’t wanted to shift, it was happening. There was no choice. My beast took over before I could reach the hem of my shirt.
Auden might be this cute, little, adorable man you expected to see at a bingo if he were human, but there was no mistake about it— he had power… power he’d been using for the benefit of others for years.
And now, he was using it for us.
I didn’t know what the future would hold from here, but as the three of us treaded off into the woods, following Auden’s lead, I knew one thing.
This was home.
And these people? They were my pack.