Текст книги "Alphas burden"

Автор книги: Luna lark

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14AVERY

It’s just after dusk when I meet Taryn at the tree with the gnarled formation resembling one of the Farrows elders. This part of the border isn’t far from the natural swimming hole I prefer instead of the main one the rest of the pack uses at Silver Falls.

All the times I’ve slipped away to my favorite secret spot on the mountain, I had no idea I was so close to another way in and out of packlands.

The tree divides a stream flowing around it and is surrounded by a thicket of bushes. Beyond the vegetation, there’s a steep drop off to lower ground where the stream becomes a waterfall.

I see now why this point is written off by the security team’s perimeter sweeps.

“Ready?” Taryn shows me where to shimmy between the bushes.

I peer over the edge. “How do we get down? I don’t see a spring large enough to jump into at the bottom.”

“We have to scale it. But don’t worry, the root system from the tree goes most of the way down. Or you could go the hard way. I assume you don’t want to waste time waiting for a broken bone to heal itself.”

“No,” I respond dryly. “I’d rather avoid that at all costs.”

“Be quick. We’ve got about ten minutes before a patrol passes nearby.”

I let her go first, keeping a close eye on the spots she places her hands and feet. She makes it look easy. My wolf stretches and climbs to her feet when I begin my descent with my satchel swiveled to my back. She’d rather shift and trot the woods herself. I picture snapped stems and plants covered in slobber if I let her have my skin.

There will be time to run later, after I’ve looked for anything else I can use to help Lena.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to this part of the mountain.” When I reach the bottom I search the surroundings to get my bearings, trying to figure out which way Ashbury is if I were to try this route in the future. “How’d you end up finding this area?”

“By accident when my wolf was running down a rabbit,” Taryn says. “I’d gone off on my own after getting separated and we were tracking our way back to packlands. My wolf is a stubborn thing and tried to climb up those roots when she couldn’t jump it.”

I laugh as she leads me to a trailhead that splits in three directions. I smell humans and guess this is where they hike.

“Did you make it up that way?” I pause a few minutes into the trail to trim sprigs of goldenrod.

“About halfway up before I lost my footing. Landing on a log hurt like a bitch.” Taryn rubs her flank. “But I could smell pack—actually, it was mostly Eddie’s laundry he rinses in the stream and hangs to dry behind his cabin. You think those are pungent to our noses now? Wait until you catch a whiff of them in your fur.”

We both wrinkle our noses and giggle.

“I shifted back and scraped the hell out of my tits and stomach scrambling up,” she finishes. “Do not recommend naked hiking. Always go for the wolf.”

“Noted.” I tilt my head, giving her a sidelong glance. “That’s been a new change since I discovered my wolf. That some males smell vile, different from how their scents were for me before, even if it was muted. What’s that about?”

“What do you mean?”

I scrunch my face up and crouch to pluck juniper berries from the tip of a shrub branch. “Bad. Unappealing. There was a lot going on that night, ah…” Taryn makes an understanding noise. “When Lorne grabbed me, I almost gagged from how strong and unpleasant his scent became.”

She holds open a linen bag for me to brush them into. “What did he smell like compared to usual?”

“I wasn’t really analyzing his musk,” I say flatly. “Sour? Like milk that’s gone bad. I was a bit busy.”

“I don’t find Lorne’s scent appealing in the slightest, but he’s never smelled gross to me.” She opens and closes her mouth. “I really want to ask what it feels like. Callie keeps reminding me it would be unimaginably rude to make you recount it. But, Fates, I’m so curious, it’s killing me.”

My mouth twitches. “Honestly, it sucked. It felt like my soul was being ripped from my body and set on fire.

“That’s horrible.” Taryn grimaces.

“I don’t wish the experience of rejection on anyone. Except Lorne, but he’s far too much of an asshole for the moon goddess to bless with a True Mate.”

She chuckles. “She would never. But no, I don’t think all the males smell like rotten milk. A few have overpowering musks, except I don’t notice their scents usually.”

I purse my lips. “They all smell like it to me now, not just Lorne.”

She bites her lip. “Caden, too?”

I close my eyes and shake my head, releasing an uneven breath. “No. He…he smells incredible.” I lick my lips, searching for how to describe his dizzying scent whenever it encapsulates me. “He’s the kiss of mist on your skin before you jump into the falls, and the smoking logs freshly lit for a bonfire to honor the moon goddess.”

Taryn stares at me. “Wow. All the time? Even after…?”

“Yes.” My brows furrow and I pick at the strand of twine dangling from my bag.

“Sounds like how True Mates talk about each other and their bond like it’s the best thing to ever happen to them. I guess it’s how the Fates encourage us to accept it.”

I was afraid of that, though the same thought has crossed my mind several times since the bonfire. Hopefully the allure of his scent will fade with time.

We make our way down the meandering trail, stopping every so often so I can wade through patches of wild plants. Taryn observes, then begins pointing out anything she sees asking if it has an herbal use.

“What about those mushrooms?” She indicates the fungus growing on a dead fallen branch.

I grin. “Same ones you saw ten minutes ago. Again, those skullcaps are poisonous and shouldn’t be ingested. See the tan umbrella shape of its top? That’s how to identify them.”

“They kind of look like bread. What happens if I eat it?”

“At first, cramping and puking your guts out. Then kidney and liver failure. Good luck getting our healer to fix it. You’d better hope your accelerated healing flushes it from your system before that happens.”

“Okay, why is everything out to kill us?” She hugs herself and shudders.

My gaze softens and my mother’s stories come to mind. “I think it’s ancient druid magic. The forest’s way of protecting itself.”

Taryn bows to the dead branch. “You have my utmost respect, elder.”

I glance up at the treetops to the stars peeking through. “Let’s go for a bit longer, then head back.”

The trail winds down another decline and opens to a wide field past the break in the woods.

“Those flowers over there are pretty,” she says.

I perk up. “Evening primrose. Perfect, this will be wonderful for Lena. These are great for so many uses, but especially good to treat a severe cough.”

I ran low on primrose leaves weeks ago once the chill set in higher up the mountain. They’re one plant that doesn’t respond well to the concoctions Jade taught me to mix into the soil for longevity even when I try to grow it on my windowsill by the workbench.

“Wait, do you hear that?” She goes still as I harvest, listening. “Something’s in a hurry.”

She’s right. Whatever’s racing through the woods is doing it at breakneck speed, kicking up dead leaves, trampling twigs and any other underbrush in the way from the sound of it.

“Deer? No, that’s got to be something bigger. Maybe some hikers woke a bear,” I suggest when I rise.

I’ve gathered enough primrose clippings to fill a basket. I should’ve brought one to carry them back in.

She grins, licking one of her canines. “Or a wolf. In fact, I’d bet on it.”

Our laughter cuts off when two males come into view up the slope. The smile drops off my face and my stomach sinks. Instead of hikers, we’ve been caught far down the mountain by Caden and Liam.

They’re running straight for us, not bothering with the zig-zag of the trail. Caden’s leading with Liam trailing behind. Caden’s flannel is unbuttoned, as if he considered shifting. He doesn’t slow until he reaches us, almost colliding with me when I don’t budge.

“Shit,” Taryn mutters. “Busted.”

Caden ignores her and gets in my face, scratching irritably at his exposed chest. It’s covered in raw, red marks as if he’s been itching it for a while.

“What the hell do you both think you’re doing out here?”

I hold my ground, raising my chin. His eyes narrow, suspicion written all over his features. It’s not all that different from the last time we were in this position when he caught me before. Except this time his spiced woodsy musk isn’t just delicious, it’s making my knees weak with the urge to wind my arms around his neck and rub against him. My mouth goes dry.

“I want an explanation, and it better be a damn good one,” he says.

“I needed some evening primrose.” I hold up my bundle of clippings, waving it in his face. “This variety only grows at a lower elevation.”

He releases a rough noise. “And that gives you the right to break the rules whenever it suits you? You aren’t the pack’s healer and you’re outside the border. Without permission.”

I press my lips together against the sting of needing to become my own healer. “Oh, come on. I’m only out here foraging for plants that aren’t within the border. You can’t bend all of nature to your will, too.”

Thankfully we didn’t go all the way to town. If this is how he reacts to sneaking off packlands, he’d lose his head if he caught us in Ashbury.

He swipes a hand over his mouth. “How did you do it? How did you slip by the patrol team without them catching you?”

“We walked,” Taryn replies sardonically.

Liam hasn’t taken his attention off her since they spotted us. “It’s Taryn’s doing.” He grips her by the arm with a scowl. “She’s always causing trouble and is allergic to any rule. I’ll take care of her.”

“You wish,” she simpers. “You couldn’t handle me if you tried. Not even in your dreams.”

A muscle jumps in his cheek and he addresses Caden. “I’ll take them to the patrol cabin.”

“No,” Caden growls as he steps in front of me to block me from Liam’s view. He stiffens, then blows out a breath. “I’ll handle this. You go on ahead.”

Liam lifts his brows. “Are you sure?”

“Go,” Caden orders with a flash of his lengthening fangs.

Taryn covers a snicker. “Are you sure that’s a good call? You could be the dangerous beastie out here.”

“Don’t question your alpha,” Liam snarls as he carts her off.

Once we’re left alone, Caden scrubs his pec again. I hope he’s breaking out in some sort of uncomfortable allergic reaction to ruin his perfect, sculpted chest.

He scans the trail as if he’s looking for any threat of danger. I roll my eyes, then tie my bundle to my bag and start walking back. He catches my arm and whirls me around, intent blue eyes searching my face.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To spend the night in a holding cell for breaking your suffocating rules, I assume.” I jerk out of his grasp with a huff. “I’m not sorry, either. I’ll do it again.”

He swipes a hand over his face with a grumble. I fold my arms, not sure what’s come over me. My wolf’s in my corner, though. She’s not impressed he ignored us when we walked around the commons today.

“You’re not going anywhere without an escort,” he says.

“I can handle myself.”

“You’re a female, alone after nightfall. Out of the question.”

I glare at him. “You didn’t care before if I was by myself. I’ve been doing just fine for the last seven years.”

His mouth presses into a hard line, accentuating the sharpness of his jaw.

“Shift,” I suggest.

His head jerks and his brows furrow. “What? Why?”

“If you won’t leave me be, then stalk me in your fur. I prefer your wolf’s company to yours. He’s far more tolerable to be around.”

The corners of his eyes tighten before he tears them from me to glare past my shoulder. “You like my wolf.”

I don’t think the puzzled mutter is meant for my ears. “It doesn’t have to be you at all. Not if I don’t want it to be. I’ll just wait here for Liam to come back.”

At the mention of Liam, he’s on me, backing me against the nearest tree. He plants a hand on either side of my head. Something hot and pleasurable tugs low in my gut at his proximity, leaving me breathless even though I’m angry with him.

“Damn it, Avery, there are rules for a reason. You can’t just do as you fucking please,” he thunders. “No one else but me is around to escort you. Do as I say because I’m your alpha, and you will respect my orders.”

I swallow and stare him down. His bare chest brushes against me, heat rolling off him in waves leaving me lightheaded. My pulse thrums for all the wrong reasons.

He’s the one who rejected our bond…yet he won’t let another male near me, as if I’m his.

Caden would have to claim me as his mate if he wanted to make me his.

“Careful, Alpha,” I warn with a cold tone to guard against the flutter in my heart. “All your rules are starting to tread a little too close to old pack views you pretend we’ve moved past.”

15CADEN

The accusation is a slam to my gut. I could never treat pack females like that. I’m not my grandfather’s heavy hand when females didn’t obey.

Nor am I my uncle or his sons now.

They’re the ones that harp about things being better the old way where our females had no rights. The males kept them practically locked up once they were mated, expecting them to roll on their backs and birth pups.

There’s no way I’d ever let things go back to that.

My stomach roils at the thought of Avery thinking I could.

Does she believe I want to be this strict on every little matter of pack life?

This approach is the only way I’ve learned to lead from my father before the injuries he sustained from the challenge with Clark Morgan took their toll on him. The only way I’m able to demand obedient loyalty and trust as the youngest alpha this pack has had.

Her anger stings my nose with the sharp bitterness wafting off her. Hurt, my wolf barks, rising to his feet, alert for any sign of danger causing his mate distress. Doesn’t he realize it’s me that’s pissing her off?

She’s so close, her body brushing my abdomen.

Mine. Claim.

I shove away from the tree with a grunt, raking my hands through my hair. “No,” I push out rigidly. “That’s not what I meant.”

She sets her jaw. “Why do you care so much about this now?”

It’s not because I think she’s weak, it’s for her protection to make sure no female is vulnerable and unguarded.

And because my wolf is restless at the idea of her out here alone. I don’t like it either.

I haven’t felt in control, not from the minute I found out she was meant to be my fated. If I don’t do something to regain my footing, it could derail my preparations for the summit.

Every night since the bonfire, I’ve gone to sleep in my own bed. And every morning, I wake up as my wolf sleeping outside Avery’s cottage. He’s as taken with her as I once was.

I dragged Liam down the mountain because we went for a run to blow off steam after the first day of tryouts. I didn’t mean to, but we ended up near Avery’s. My wolf took down a boar we both knew was for her. When we went to drop it off at her place, Liam eyed me without saying anything.

But she wasn’t home. I could smell her, sweet honey warmed by sunshine and fresh rain, but my wolf insisted it was stale, hours old.

On the way back down the road, I picked up Avery’s scent again and felt the bond stretching over the distance between us. The moment I realized how far she’d gotten from packlands, my heart clenched with the worry she was in trouble, like when my mother went missing.

Should I even be able to feel her through the bond? It’s broken. It makes no sense for it to act the way a bond does between True Mates that accept the will of the Fates.

I squeeze my nape with a sigh. “I forgot how stubborn you could be.”

“You mean before you believed I betrayed you?” At my sharp look, she shakes her head, rolling her lips between her teeth. “If you’re so sure I’m out to stab you in the back, then follow me.”

She gives me a fierce glare with her challenge, then abruptly spins on her heel and stomps off without waiting for me. I work my jaw, wondering again why I’m letting her get away with this instead of hauling her ass to warm the benches in the holding cells.

“Well? Are you coming or not?” she calls over her shoulder. “Come see for yourself that I’m not doing anything wrong.”

Grudgingly, to my wolf’s approval, I follow her. She pauses every so often to gather tree bark or scrape sap into a jar from her satchel.

“What’s that for?”

“Plenty of things. This bark can be distilled into an oil for ointments. It can be used for pain relief. To fight infection, depending on the species of tree. Bark is always handy to keep around.”

“We’re shifters. We rarely need that.”

She levels me with an unimpressed stare. “Rarely isn’t never, and not all shifters have strength on their side. Like those who are Wolfless. I learned all this to help.”

My brows knit, trying to see the forest as she sees it. It’s our shelter, a source of food. Yet the weeds she stops to lovingly stroke carry an entirely different meaning to her that isn’t obvious to me.

People always whisper she’s become a witch holed away on the northern ridge. I’ve written them off, never smelling spell craft on her, not like the electric, cool tingling scent of the wards woven into our border by witches long ago.

A twinge pulls in my heart because she’s different. Still curious and intelligent, but not quite the same person I called a friend. We used to explore together as kids. I’ve missed out on the exploring she’s done on her own.

I’m still thinking about her mouth, though. The fullness of her expressive lips. Kissing them.

“Wait.” She smacks her hand into my torso, stalling my thoughts. “There’s more over there. We missed it before. Take off your shirt.”

My brow quirks. “Why?”

“I didn’t bring a basket and I’m not wasting them.” She gives me a look that says this should be obvious.

I hold her gaze, shrugging it off and handing it over. She bunches it in her hands, throat convulsing with a swallow. Her eyes dip for a fraction of a second, flickering over my chest and biceps, following the trail of darker hair leading into my pants. The corner of my mouth lifts when her cheeks flush the loveliest shade of pink.

I forgot how pretty she is when she blushes.

A warm tingle spreads through my chest. It gives a gentle tug, encouraging me to get closer to Avery. Same as it has been for days, since the moment this fated connection awoke. My wolf is on board with the urge.

He’s fixated on her neck, wanting to glue his nose to it and inhale deeply until he’s had his fill, licking, then biting, claiming while we mount our mate.

I lick my lips, pointedly not staring at her ass when she bends to harvest more weeds. My wolf yanks at me, grumbling to convince me to watch her present for us. Idiot. Presenting is likely the last thing on her mind.

Those inquisitive murmurings to herself have him all riled up. He wants me to let him out. I swipe a hand over my mouth and squat to examine what she’s so interested in.

“What is that? Why do you need it?”

She huffs, showing it to me. “It’s a variety of primrose. A wildflower to most.” Her eyes lose the illuminating spark and she tears her gaze away. “It’s for Lena. She has a bad cold and this will help her fight it off.”

A wrinkle creases my forehead. “A cold? Shifters don’t get colds.”

The rest of her playfulness evaporates. “Yes we can. And despite what the healer probably claims, they can progress to illnesses that are deadly.”

I don’t like the weight in her tone, or the implication that there are those not properly taken care of in my pack.

Our healer mostly deals with monitoring pregnancies and setting broken bones after fights or accidents so they don’t heal wrong on their own. To my knowledge, no one’s ever been in true danger outside of contracting shifter diseases like moon sickness rotting the brain, a lone wolf going feral, or suffering the death of their mate.

“If Lena or anyone else is too sick for the healer, there are other options⁠—”

“Hospitals? Human medicines don’t work, and without something stronger like a spell or potion from a witch⁠– ”

I growl on instinct, the distrust of witches ingrained in me from birth. She sighs, shaking her head.

“Without the help of magic, or the natural remedies I’ve learned by experimenting, healing is down to the Fates.” She worries her lip. “No matter how much I try to do it all on my own. If the moon goddess made it possible, all I can do is fight an illness with every resource available.”

I frown when she holds up the makeshift sling of wildflowers. I should’ve paid closer attention once I became alpha.

“So.” Avery rises and starts off without me. “As you can see, Alpha, I’m not doing anything dastardly out here.”

Sneaking off isn’t any worse than what we got up to growing up together. She’s picking flowers to care for her sister, not plotting an uprising.

I scrub the back of my head, catching up to her. “You have my permission to gather as you need. As long as you stay on Silver Mountain. And take a guard with you.” My wolf rumbles. I clear my throat. “Liam will make himself available. If I’m not.”

Her gaze cuts to me, then darts forward. “No.” She halts. “I’ll take Taryn with me. Only when I feel like I need an extra hand.”

The rumbling increases. “Fine.”

I’ll be tracking her whenever she goes out. My wolf shuts up.