Fate Bound, page 2
“You’re a werewolf.”
Chapter Three
She’s crazy. This kind-looking blonde girl is stark-raving mad.
“A werewolf?” I ask, not bothering to hide my disbelief. “Sure, sounds legit.”
I fling off the quilt and swing my legs over the edge of the bed. I want to get away from her, but this is my apartment. If I tell her to leave, will she? I might have to call the cops to intervene, but first I need to find my phone. It was in the back pocket of my pants and I scan the room for them.
Except they’re not in the room. They’re not even in the apartment. If they were, I’d be able to smell the blood on them.
The thought stills me.
I stand, frozen in place, as the idea pings through my brain. I’d be able to smell blood if it were near. I sniff the air, feeling silly until I detect a hint of vanilla and honeysuckle radiating off Lillie. I inhale again and catch a fading note of sage. It must be a remnant from the girl who Lillie was talking to.
Lillie isn’t crazy. She’s telling me the truth. I don’t know how I know it, but I can’t deny what I sense. There’s something inside me that wasn’t there before—something primal. There’s a power thrumming in my veins that I’ve never experienced—which is saying something, considering I’ve had to be strong all my life.
Her words sound impossible, but I know in my heart—in my soul—that they’re true. The golden eyes, the shifting form—those memories aren’t hallucinations. What I saw was real, and somehow I’ve become the same thing.
Lillie raises her eyebrows as she studies me. “Wow, you’re taking this much better than most people do.” She lets out a soft laugh. “Jack still teases me about how long it took me to believe. I was convinced someone had slipped me LSD when they first told me. Then again, it was the sixties, so it wasn’t that ridiculous an assumption.”
A thrill courses through me. My skin tingles in a way that’s completely unfamiliar—but I like it. “Who’s Jack?”
An understanding smile stretches across Lillie’s lips. “He’s our pack leader—our alpha male. He found you last night after you were hurt.”
I mull over this information. I remember clearly the look in his eyes before they turned yellow—an unspeakable sadness paired with unimaginable anger. I’m not sure why my wounded body would elicit such a visceral reaction. I’m also not sure why hearing his name would make the cells of my body hum. Is it because he was there for me when I thought I was dying? Or is it because of how I remember him—human him—before he shifted? I had wished then I’d met him under different circumstances, met him before I was dying. But now that I have a second chance, maybe I’ll have the opportunity to know him. “Where is he?”
The corners of her mouth quirk again, but she struggles to force a neutral expression. “He’s back at the enclave. It’s a camp about twenty miles from here—where the pack lives.”
I tamp down a surge of disappointment. What had I expected her to say? That he was in the living room sitting on my lumpy, used couch? No—I’d know if he were in the apartment. I settle back on my bed. “Can I… I mean, would it be possible to… see him? I’d like to thank him—you know, for saving my life.”
Lillie bites her lower lip. “Yeah, about that… I’m not sure he did.”
I tilt my head, studying her. “Then how am I okay?”
She shrugs, offering upturned palms. “That’s the big question. You have to understand—we turn humans only as a last resort. Take me, for example. My friend was taking me for a ride on his motorcycle and it started to rain. I wanted him to pull over, but we were so close to my house…” She shakes her head. “He lost control and we crashed. He did immediately, but I didn’t. I was pretty far gone, though. And then Jack happened by. He bit me and turned me into a werewolf.”
“Bit you?” I study my arms and legs. “But…”
She nods, understanding. “He didn’t bite you. At least not so far as I can tell. To be honest, I don’t really understand what’s going on. Jack asked me and one of the other wolves to stay here with you until you woke up.”
Something about the way she says it makes my stomach drop. “Until I woke up? Well, I’m awake. What happens now?”
Lillie reaches forward and brushes her fingers down my arm. Typically, I’d pull away from such a touch, but something about her puts me at ease. She exudes a kind of peace and tranquility I can’t quantify. “Now you have a choice. You can join our pack—be part of our family. Or we could hook you up with another pack. Jack has lots of connections.”
I weigh the options she’s presented. I haven’t been part of a real family since my father died. When I didn’t fit in with my aunt’s life plan, she pawned me off on the foster care system. No matter how many houses I found myself in, none of them was ever a home. I gave up years ago on finding a place to belong. “What if I want to stay here? Keep living my life?”
Her lips twitch and her eyebrows scrunch together. “I’ve never heard of anyone who did that. Weres… We need a pack to keep us centered—to remind us of what we’re meant to do. I can’t expect you to understand yet, but you’re not the same person you were two days ago. You may look the same and have all your memories, but everything else about you is different. And we can help you deal with the changes.” She offers a smile. “That being said, if you really think you’d like to live as a lone wolf, Jack would honor that.”
The words lone wolf make me shiver, but I can’t identify exactly why. It’s as if something within me is terrified at the prospect. It must be something werewolf-related because being alone ceased fazing me a long time ago.
“I think… I’d like to be part of the pack. Your pack.” I bite back what I really want to say—Jack’s pack. I know it’s crazy, but I want to see him again. I want to feel his gaze on me when I’m not about to die. Will he look at me the same way as he did the other night? Or was I completely imagining things?
Lillie grins broadly. “Good. I’m so glad.” She springs off the bed and pulls a phone from her back pocket. “Let me just call Mel…” She taps the screen and puts the device to her ear. From my spot on the mattress, I can hear the line ringing.
“Hello?” I recognize the voice on the other end. It’s the same girl who was in the apartment when I woke up.
“She’s awake.”
A snort sounds. “You’re cracked. It hasn’t even been two days.”
“I understand, but that doesn’t change the fact that I just had a conversation with her.” Lillie catches my gaze and rolls her eyes. “She wants to come to the enclave, so get back here with the car.”
“I just got my food.”
Lillie brings her hand to her forehead and rubs the spots above her eyebrows. “Can you get it to go? Please?”
There’s a beat before Mel responds. “Fine.” She loads so much irritation into the word that I can’t help feeling bad for Lillie for being on the receiving end of it.
She ends the call and tucks the phone back into her pocket. “Sorry about Mel,” she says. “She’s a little…”
“Bitchy?” I offer.
Lillie doesn’t quite suppress a smirk. “Rough around the edges, I was going to say. But she’d die for me. And I’d do the same for her.”
The words hang in the air between us. The only one in my life who ever cared about me that much was my dad.
I stand and take a few steps toward the small, dingy window that overlooks the alley. “So… should I… pack?”
I don’t have many possessions. Living in foster care meant I had to keep personal belongings to a minimum, and I haven’t kicked the habit yet. I can’t imagine hauling away my crappy sofa or the ten-dollar end table.
Lillie shrugs. “You can if you want. We could throw your clothes and stuff in a garbage bag or something. But you don’t have to. There’s plenty at the enclave.” She glances around the sparse room.
It looks more like a motel room than someone’s home, if I’m honest. There are no decorative touches—no pictures, no trinkets. Just my bedspread and two baskets of clothes. The only thing that meant anything to me was the picture of my father the mugger took off with.
“I guess there’s nothing I really need.”
Something like sadness flickers across her face, but it’s gone before it can take root. “Okay. Then let’s go out front to meet Mel.”
Chapter Four
As Mel guides the SUV over a series of dirt roads, tension drains from my body.
I’ve never been a huge fan of nature. I don’t go for walks in parks. I don’t wake up early to watch the sunrise. And I think people who go camping for fun have a screw loose.
Or at least I did.
As miles stretch to separate me from the traffic and street lights of the city I lived in for the last year, an odd peace settles within me. I should be nervous. I just agreed to leave my life to join a pack of werewolves, after all.
But by the time Mel makes what has to be the final turn into the enclave, I’m satisfied I’ve made the right decision.
It looks a little like the summer camp a foster family sent me to one summer. Several one-lane dirt roads circle around the gently rolling hills. Dozens of log cabins are situated at intervals among the trees.
Lillie turns in the passenger seat. “That’s my place.” She points to a house with flower boxes affixed to the porch railing. Red, purple, and yellow buds spill over the sides. When Mel clears her throat, she adds, “Not all mine. I have roommates. It’s really too bad we don’t have an extra room—then you could move in with me.”
I don’t miss the way Lillie’s eyes slide in Mel’s direction. Despite Lillie’s assertion that the two would die for each other, I get the sense they’re not particularly close.
Mel pulls to a stop at the base of a grassy hill. A long brick building stands atop it. “I’ll see you up there.” She hops out of the SUV and takes off at a run.
I move to release the latch on my seatbelt, but when Mel’s form streaks up the hillside, I’m frozen. She’s so fast I almost can’t process what I’m seeing. No human should be able to move that quickly.
But she’s not human. She’s a werewolf.
Like me.
Lillie slips out of her seat and opens the back door for me. “Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting up in the meeting house.”
It takes a second before I comply. I try to convince myself I’m still shocked by Mel’s speed, but I know it’s more than that. “How big is the pack?”
“There are sixty-five of us.” She closes the door behind me. “Sixty-six now.”
I make no move toward the hill. “And everyone lives here—in the enclave?”
She leans against the SUV, apparently in no rush to hurry me along. “Yeah. Most of us have a roommate or two. The alphas and betas usually have a cabin to themselves. I’m trying to figure out who Jack might have you move in with, but I can’t think of any cabin with an empty room.”
My stomach clenches. There’s no place for me. I should be used to it by now, but it still comes as a blow. Why ask me to come here at all if they can’t accommodate my presence. I swallow around the lump forming in my throat. “So, what does that mean?”
Lillie shrugs. “Jack will probably set you up in one of the empty cabins,” she says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Although I’ll bet Mel will lobby pretty hard for giving up her room so she can have a cabin all to herself.”
I study her expression. “You don’t like her very much, do you?”
The color drains from her face and she turns her wide brown eyes on me. “No—it’s not that.” She pauses, pressing her lips together. “Well, we’re not really close. She can be a little… abrasive. We get along fine, usually. She’s just a little irritating to live with. I like things tidy, and Mel has a habit of leaving things everywhere.”
“Why don’t you just move out?” I may be new to the dynamics at play here, but the solution seems obvious.
Lillie offers upturned palms. “The alphas and betas are in charge of those kind of decisions. I could go to them with a formal complaint, but it’s a trivial reason to want to move. Besides, I don’t want to hurt Mel’s feelings.”
While Mel doesn’t strike me as the kind of person whose feelings are easily hurt, I understand where Lillie’s coming from. I was in a similar situation once in a foster home I lived in for half a year. The girl I shared a room with talked in her sleep, and it woke me up almost every night. I’m sure if I’d mentioned it to my foster parents, they would have shifted things around, but my roommate was the kind of girl who felt abandoned by everyone—and I knew that feeling all too well. I hadn’t wanted to abandon her too, so I caught catnaps when I could throughout the day and dealt with the inconvenience of not being able to sleep through the night. Maybe Lillie and I aren’t so different.
“Are you ready?” she asks.
I’m not sure that I am, but who am I to keep sixty-four werewolves waiting? “Let’s go.”
As we start up the hill—walking, thank goodness—Lillie points at the long building at its apex. “That’s the meeting house. It’s always open, and we use it pretty frequently—almost any time the whole pack gets together. Jack likes to make announcements there, and it’s usually our home base for pack-wide parties.”
I nod, trying to sift through the questions spinning in my head as we crest the hill. But my mind goes quiet when my eyes land on Jack. He stands at the end of a long, covered porch, and he smiles when his gaze rests on me. His dark hair is somewhat less wild than it was the last time I saw him, like he’s done his best to tame its unruly nature. The curls at the nape of his neck are the only evidence of the waves I saw the other night. His gray V-neck tee stretches across his chest and shoulders in a way that leaves nothing about his musculature to the imagination. My fingers stretch with the desire to skate across those muscles.
Heat creeps into my cheeks, and I fight the urge to hide my face behind my hands. I don’t think any guy has ever had this strong an impact on me. I do my best to keep my breathing even as I approach him.
He holds out his hand. “I’m Jack.”
After a moment’s hesitation, I settle my palm against his, inhaling sharply when an electric jolt speeds up my arm at the contact. He smells like campfire. “I’m Ava,” I say, immediately feeling silly. Does he already know that? How could he?
He holds my hand for a beat longer than strictly necessary before releasing it. “I’m really glad to see how quickly you recovered. Back in the parking lot, I wasn’t sure you’d survive at all. I’m not sure how much you remember, but you were badly injured. I’ve never seen anyone complete the transition who was as close to death as you were.” His gunmetal-blue eyes lock on mine, and I feel as if he’s staring directly into my soul. “Your heart stopped. I thought I lost you.”
My heart flutters in my chest, and I wish Jack hadn’t already released my hand. I try to shake the feeling off. It’s just gratitude—it has to be. “Thank you for saving me.”
Jack blinks, and the spell is broken. “I didn’t.”
His words make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Of course, Lillie already alluded to her confusion around my transformation, but I figured Jack would have more details. Questions chase themselves around my mind. If he didn’t intervene, how am I alive? If he didn’t have an active hand in turning me, how am I what I am now?
Before I can land on one query to pose, he nods toward the building behind him. “I’d like to introduce you to the pack. They’re all excited to meet you.”
I don’t know if I’m ready for that—not with my mind spinning with uncertainty. But if Jack is the leader of the pack, do I really have a right to demand anything from him right now? I’m sure there will be time for questions later.
I glance at Lillie, who nods encouragingly. “I guess I’m excited to meet them too.”
Jack nods. “That’s good. Now listen: I want you to follow your instincts when you’re talking with your new family. We need to learn where you’re going to fit in with the pack. This will help.”
“Okay,” I say, injecting a measure of confidence into my voice that I don’t feel. Heavy dread settles in the pit of my stomach, the way it always did whenever I met a new foster family. I was forever trying to figure out where I was supposed to fit in. At least I have practice.
“Wait here for a minute. I’m going to go get their attention.” Jack pivots and strides to the nearest set of doors, and it’s only with great effort that I tear my gaze from his retreating form.
“Don’t be nervous,” Lillie says, but her voice holds a note of apprehension. “Just remember, you have two sides now—your human side and your wolf side. We all do. Your human side is reasonable. It can compartmentalize feelings and disagreements. Wolves can’t do that. Wolves need to know who’s strongest, whose lead they can trust on the hunt or in a fight. Jack and our alpha female are both strong, smart fighters, but they’re also compassionate and willing to do anything for the others in the pack. Their brains are tactical. They can see the whole picture. That’s part of why they’re alphas. We know we can trust them with our lives because they’ll do anything to protect ours. Some of our wolves are nurturers and shy away from fights. Some are hotheaded and will run into battle without an exit strategy. We need to figure out what kind of wolf you are.”
I chew on my lower lip. I’ve barely got a handle on what kind of human I am—how am I supposed to figure out what kind of wolf is inside me? But before I can ask, Jack opens the door and pokes his head out.
“Ava, we’re ready for you.”
After another encouraging nod from Lillie, I walk into the building. Everyone’s eyes are on me as I enter, and my defenses go up immediately. Instinctively, I scan the room and take note of where the exits are, just in case I need to get away.
But escape is unnecessary. Some of the girls closest to me step forward and offer their hands. They smile in a way that puts me at ease, and I can’t help wondering if their wolves are the nurturers Lillie spoke of.
_preview.jpg)
