Pack Obsidian Gold_A Reverse Harem Werewolf Romance Page 9

  “Pack Azure Frost, I think,” I added with a long breath.

  “And the faerie?” my mother asked, cool as a cucumber.

  “She's a soothsayer,” I said, “the daughter of the Unseelie queen. I'm sure Majka's told you about the prophecy she read for me? She also helped us find the missing wolves with a little haruspex.” Even the mention of a faerie princess reading animal entrails didn't phase the two of them. Fuck, they were stone-cold scary sometimes. “She's told me that if the wolves fall, so does the Veil. And Crown Aurora doesn't want another kingdom out there with the power to daywalk, and their princess wants desperately to shift.” Both Nikolina and Majka would relax a little if they knew there were selfish motivations behind the actions of the two girls. They could at least understand that.

  “She can't shift?” Nikolina asked, lifting one red brow. It seemed morbid to have this sort of conversation over the dead body of poor Kit Cole, but if the Alpha Female and Alpha Mother of Pack Ebon Red wanted to have a talk with you, well, you had that talk wherever and whenever they wanted it.

  “Not at all,” I said as the two women exchanged a glance and my mother sighed.

  “You can finish filling me in later,” my mother said, focusing her dark eyes on my face. I felt a slight buzz in the air, and I knew she was speaking with her betas. Glancing over my shoulder, I found the boys waiting patiently. They were all in human form—even Jax, standing there in all his naked glory. “Merliah and Charlene will bury the girl.”

  I looked back as she stepped forward and captured my wrist in her hands, lifting it up and rubbing her thumb over the mark. The look on her face was … interesting. I couldn't place it, some strange mixture of longing and melancholy that made no sense to me.

  Nikolina dropped my wrist as her betas came into view, loping across the grass and shifting mid-run. Charlene's red curls slid over her shoulders as she bent low and scooped up the body, taking off with her mate at her heels. They moved quickly enough that I knew something was going on.

  “The witch hazel,” I said aloud, but Anubis was way ahead of me, dousing the back of the SUV and then kneeling at my feet to soak the grass next. Not three minutes later … Allister Vetter was coming over the crest in the hill, a bodyguard on his left.

  As soon as I saw him, I wanted to fucking scream.

  The asshole was going to give himself away. I wouldn't have to do shit and Nikolina would just know. She wasn't an idiot. And as much as I'd love to see her particular form of vengeance visited on our packs' traitor, I wasn't putting Silas at risk.

  “Alpha,” he greeted, dipping his chin as if he actually gave a fuck about my mother's position in the pack. It was the first time I'd seen him since learning the truth, and my stomach clenched tight. I had to fight with everything I had not to show my disgust on my face. “Sorry to bother you here,” he added, glancing over at me with gold eyes and dark hair that matched his son's almost perfectly. He was a beautiful man, no doubt about it, but looking at him … all I could see was hideousness on the inside. “But Kaylee Hahn's requested an emergency meeting of the Convocation.”

  “I see,” Nikolina said, meeting my eyes for a moment before she turned away. “Mother?”

  “I'm not deaf, you know,” Majka snapped, but I knew both my mother and grandmother well enough to tell that their banner was slightly … staged.

  Without waiting to see the rest of their interaction, I turned and gestured with a hand for the boys to follow me.

  'Stay in the car and keep Aeron with you,' I told Harlem, appreciating the fact that she could use wolfspeak in that moment. Between Aeron's glamour, the witch hazel, and the fact that my boys were smart enough to close the back of the SUV, I didn't think Allister would even think to look for anyone in the Yukon.

  At least, I hoped not.

  The less he knew, the better.

  'Let's get inside. If we hang out too long, Nikolina will decapitate Allister in the front yard.'

  'Why do you think my mom called a meeting?' Tidus asked as we headed up the steps and into the Pairing House. Silas was the last one in, closing the door behind us and leaning his back against it. His face was tight and his expression sour.

  “God knows,” he snorted, scowling. “But he was clearly trying to fucking spy on us and throw off suspicion at the same time. I can't decide if it was a brilliant move or a really goddamn stupid one.”

  “Why would my mom call a meeting?” Tidus asked, aloud this time. But I didn't know the answer to that and nobody else did either. He was clearly stressed out though, so I stepped close to him and put my arms around his waist, trying out Monty's famous hugging technique. Seemed to work wonders. As soon as my arms closed around him, he relaxed.

  “We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure,” I told him as he wrapped me up and pulled me close, my naked body pressing up close against his. I could smell both his natural scent and the freshness of the laundry detergent from his clothing. Most werewolves I knew used scent-free soaps and cleaners, but whatever Tidus washed his stuff in smelled amazing and surprisingly enough, wasn't overpowering or pungent like most detergents. “Let's wait a while and see if Nikolina calls us in there.”

  I tried to step back, but Tidus' arms were bands of tight muscle. He wasn't squeezing me, but he definitely wasn't ready to let go either.

  “So we got our answer,” Che said, sitting down on one of the chairs in the living room and raking his fingers through his dark hair. “Now what?”

  That was a good fucking question.

  I'd bought us a few days … but now those days were up. It was only a matter of time before Coven Triad, Kingdom Ironbound, and Allister Vetter realized nothing was going to happen, that we weren't gearing up for war. And even though I warned my mother, something would happen, someone would drop a hint or stage a setup that would guarantee movement from the Convocation.

  Because without proof, at this point, it was just my word against Allister's.

  Alpha Heir against Alpha.

  And even then, even if they did believe me … it wouldn't stop the fighting and the bloodshed.

  “I don't know,” I told Che, taking a deep breath and finally pulling away from Tidus. I looked around the room, meeting the eyes of each of my mates, one by one. “But we'll figured it out together.” I bit my lower lip slightly, sucking on it for a moment and wondering why I'd waited until I was naked to say this. “First though, there are some … personal things we need to take care of.”

  “You think sex transfers the mark?” Nic asked, staring at the rose tattoo on his wrist. There was something off about his facial expression, like the sight of Kit's dead body was disturbing him more than he was willing to let on. I could almost see it written across his features—that was almost me; I was almost an empty pile of flesh that needed to be buried.

  “Yes,” I said, glancing over at Monty and catching his green-eyed gaze. “I think the Forest Spirit … the white stag, whatever you want to call him, gave it to me and Nic and then I gave it to Montgomery.”

  “Like an STD?” Che joked, sitting on the edge of the bed and sipping a beer. We were in the bedroom with the door closed, Harlem and Aeron downstairs in the living room. I felt like Lana and Leslie were under enough pressure with their young pups and the burden of all our secrets. I didn't want them staying there permanently, so for tonight at least, one of the girls would be sleeping in the living room and one in the study.

  “Thank you for that, Mr. Nocturne,” I said, giving him a look. “Compare the mystical mark on my wrist to herpes.”

  “I never said herpes,” he added with a smirking smile, “that was you. Is there something you're not telling us?”

  “You're kind of an asshole, you know that?” I threw back at him, crossing my arms over the baggy t-shirt I was wearing. It was just after midnight and no word from Nikolina or Lana or anyone else. Whatever the Convocation's meeting was about, we'd have to wait for someone to pass the information down to us. Until the Pairing Year was up, my mates
and I wouldn't be invited to attend.

  Mates.

  Hmm.

  I wonder what they'll think about me choosing multiple males?

  I might be the future Alpha, but I hadn't given much thought to what the Convocation might think about my decision. I imagined they'd appreciate it, having a representative from each of the major packs involved in my ruling decisions, but what if they didn't? I had no idea how I'd handle that.

  One problem at a time, Zara Wolf, I told myself, trying to stay focused on the mark on my wrist, what it meant … and how I could make sure all the boys had one. It seemed silly, to pass on something to my mates that I had almost no clue about … I could feel the mark on my skin, this pulsing, throbbing thing, alive with power.

  Nic and Montgomery were like bright stars in a night sky compared to the other boys. And Anubis and Tidus? They were almost completely dark, even in comparison to Che, Silas, and Jax.

  “I've been told that a time or two before,” Che finally said when I looked up at him, almost like he was waiting for me to get out of my head before shooting back a quip.

  “Only a time or two?” I replied, sitting up and holding a bottle of beer between my thighs. I liked the cold against my heated skin, tracing a finger around the rim of the glass. “You must be used to hanging out with fucking dense individuals, huh?”

  “Nah, I'm such an asshole that nobody really likes to hang out with me,” he said and I smiled, picking my beer up and taking a healthy swig. I might need it considering I was about to tell the guys that I needed to, you know, fuck them all. Well, technically, I just needed to get through everyone but Nic and Montgomery. No problem, right?

  I took another drink of my beer.

  “Why don't I find that hard to believe?” Silas asked, smoking his vape pen and giving Che a mean smile that the other boy was more than happy to return. I was pretty sure they were teasing each other though. There'd been much less bickering in the past forty-eight hours. The price we'd had to pay for that peace had been high, but what was done was done—I'd take it.

  “I'm guessing you don't have a lot of friends either?” Che asked, finishing his beer and setting it on the ground at the end of the bed. He took up a casual lounging position with his elbow on the mattress, propping his head up on a fist.

  “My friends pay high prices,” Silas said, tracing a finger over his scar. “So no, I really don't. Although I have to say, getting Zara's first kiss was worth it.”

  Gold eyes meet mine and a thrill shot through me, hot and greedy. I wanted my fingers all over his tattoos, tracing the lines, kissing the highlights and shadows. Lucky me that we'd be getting there soon enough.

  My skin flushed hot at the idea, and I stole another drink of my beer.

  I was about to ask like, five dudes to have sex with me.

  This wasn't exactly a trick I could pull out of my wheelhouse.

  “I'm glad you think of it that way,” I told Silas, desperately wanting to ask him more about the day Allister scarred him. But I didn't want to do it front of the other guys. That was a question I'd have to save for when we were alone; it might not be a story he was particularly fond of sharing. “But I'm sorry it happened regardless.”

  Silas chuckled and shook his head, mussing up his espresso brown hair with long, inked fingers.

  “My father's a psychopath. And I don't just mean, like, figuratively. His brain is goddamn broken. I don't think he's even capable of love.” Silas looked down at his sweats and picked off a piece of lint. “Thank fuck I didn't inherit that disease, you know? I used to beg my mother to tell me she cheated on him or something, but there's no way, right? We look way too alike for that shit.”

  That was true, but I wasn't going to say it aloud. Silas wasn't looking for a confirmation; he already knew. But whatever was broken and twisted inside Allister Vetter, that same sickness hadn't transferred to his son.

  “But can we, uh, get back to the sex thing?” he added after a moment of silence.

  My heart thundered as I sat back against the headboard and took another sip of my beer.

  “The sex brings us closer,” I said, looking over at Nic, meeting his ebon dark eyes for a long moment. I wanted to crawl inside them and banish all the demons, free him from the fresh, sharp pain swimming there. I'd never once seen my childhood friend so twisted and sad inside, and I didn't know how to fix it. Time would help, but I wanted to offer him something more, a reprieve from the awful memory. “Not just in the usual sense, but in our pack connection. I mean, not only can I get a better sense of where you guys are and how you're feeling, but this mark … I think it's important.” I tucked my beer bottle between my thighs again and ran a thumb over the rose shape on my wrist.

  “Well,” Anubis said, his tongue teasing the corner of his mouth as he sat there and stared at the black comforter under his legs. “Like I said, I can't be certain, but based on some things I've read, I think it's a like … a power store. It's absorbing magic. You guys can feel it, can't you? That … echoing pulse of power?” He reached out and gestured at Nic's wrist. “May I?”

  “Go for it,” Nic grumbled, letting Anubis take his hand.

  “And if this mark is holding magic, then the witches aren't getting it.” He studied Nic's arm for a while and then let go, turning his crimson gaze up to mine. “Werewolves come from the earth. More than any other animal on earth, we're connected to it. The Earth Mother is speaking to us through the white stag.”

  Che made a small scoffing noise, but like I said, the ridicule between my men was down to a minimum.

  “Are you making this all up as you go?” Jax asked, still naked and sitting cross-legged on the corner of the bed. “Because it sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me.”

  “It's not nonsense if you've studied our people's history,” Anubis said with a sigh, trying for an artful disheveling of his own hair, the way Silas had done. Instead it just ruffled it up and made it stick out all over the place, like usual. I found it charming actually. “The Earth Mother isn't some made-up New Age bullshit. She really existed once upon a time. There's plenty of documentation—”

  “There's documentation about cyclops and shit, too, but we all know that crap's probably not real,” Che said with a long sigh, closing his violet eyes. “Look, I'm not actually trying to be the asshole or the bad guy here, but I want to be realistic.”

  “The Earth Mother is nothing like a cyclops,” Anubis growled out, curling his fingers in the bedspread. “She's a spiritual incarnation of the earth itself. There are alpha-mothers and alpha-fathers alive today who claim to have seen her with their own eyes.” He ran both palms down his face and sighed heavily. “Look, I know it sounds crazy, but for centuries, our people prayed to a goddess and a god, the Earth Mother and the Earth Father, forest spirits. The Moon Goddess and the Horned God. Whatever. They had a hundred names for the same damn concept.”

  “You think the gods care what happens to us?” Montgomery said quietly, tracing his own mark with a single fingertip.

  “I think they always have,” Anubis replied, just as softly. “Look, whatever you guys think, white stags don't just appear in the middle of a hunt and offer themselves up for slaughter by chance. And they certainly don't show up again hours later and resurrect a werewolf from the dead. They don't bestow magical marks on people that grow fucking vines.” He rubbed at his face again and dropped his hands into his lap. “Is it crazy for me to try to make some sense of it? Even if it's not a god as we know the word that's involved our shit, it's a powerful Numinous that gives a crap. That's all I'm saying. Does it matter that I call if I call it the Earth Mother or not?”

  “No,” I said, smiling at Anubis' passion. I had to hand it to him. When he believed in something, he committed to it and he made damn good arguments, too. “It doesn't matter.”

  “Besides,” Anubis continued, giving me a look. “If this mark is going to kill Zara, we might as well go down with the ship, right?”

  “Dude, not funny,” N
ic said, but he didn't sound particularly upset.

  “It's not going to kill her or anyone else,” Anubis said, like he wasn't just making an educated guess, but like he knew exactly what he was talking about.

  “How do you know we're not feeding magic to this like, creature or whatever the fuck it is?” Che asked, opening his eyes and flicking his gaze around the group. “Maybe it is sucking magic out through the mark?” But he was only asking that because he didn't have one on his wrist, couldn't feel the magic trapped inside of it.

  It was like having a second beating heart inside my wrist.

  “That's not it,” I promised Che, “but I can understand why you're nervous. None of the decisions we make should be taken lightly. I think the added bonus we get from … being mated”—I almost choke on the word, like a human instead of a werewolf—“is worth the risk. I don't know that I would've found Che in that river if we hadn't …”

  “Fucked?” he adds and I toss him a wry look.

  “So poetic, but yes. If we hadn't had sex, you might've died.” I exhale sharply and then finish off the last of my beer, passing the bottle to Tidus to set it on the nightstand. He wasn't being very talkative, but I didn't blame him. I knew he was worried about his mother. “So I'm giving you all a choice.”

  “To sleep with you or not?” Tidus asked, jumping into the conversation for the first time. I looked over at him, on the other side of Monty. He was looking at me with a slightly bemused half-smile.

  “Now look who's excited to join the conversation,” Silas said, blowing out a mouthful of steam.

  “Actually,” Tidus said, looking down at the blankets for a moment before redirecting his attention back to my face. “I want to wait. Like, don't get me wrong—I'm super excited about having sex.” He flashed me a beautiful grin, like sunshine in a blue-blue sky. “But I want it to be organic, you know?”