34. Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Three
Locke
I grabbed my mate’s hand and whisked her past the large pit. It contained logs, old timber, and trash from the cabins. I swallowed, aware that fire would soon consume me, but it wasn’t my first time being surrounded by flames recently. Months ago, I was in a burning building and I did just fine when Grim and Journey dealt with Idris.
“Keep telling yourself that,” my wolf grumbled.
I had nightmares for weeks and my smoking and drinking picked up, not that anyone noticed with everyone getting mates and all.
Emm stumbled and I slowed down. Her body was burning up but I wasn’t sensing any arousal from her. I wrapped my hand on her arm and gave her a worried glance, but her eyebrows shot up.
“Are you going to explain to me what’s happening or am I going to have to try to figure out this head thing?” She tapped her temple and gave me a smile.
I shook my head, and gently tugged her along. With a firm grip, I pushed the heavy double doors to the packhouse open. As they creaked, a sliver of light flooded in, revealing the vastness of the space. The sudden flicker of fluorescent lights illuminated the bare walls, casting long shadows. The silence was broken by the sound of my voice reverberating through the hollow halls, echoing with each syllable.
“You understand we were a club, just a bunch of rogues coming together. We were helping one another, but we weren’t really a pack.” I led her up to the third floor and took her to our room. I pulled out the drawers and gave her fresh new clothes.
I cursed myself that I wasn’t able to do more for her. With the Law of Ares I would have supplied her with our own rutting cabin, clothing, food, gifts and supplies. All the things I wanted to give to my mate were flickering to a distant memory, but being an alpha I wasn’t allowed such luxury to spoil a luna.
“Being a part of a pack also means you are bound to one another. You are together not just as a group with common interests, but also in mind and spirit. A large family unit. You can speak to one another through a link common link. It comes in handy when you are in your animal form and need to communicate.”
Emm put on a pair of black leggings and I did my best not to stare. The bruises that I left on her body were fading—far faster than I thought they would. I tilted my head to get a better look and she swatted my ass.
“Hey, don’t get distracted,” she giggled.
“Anyway, it’s called mind-linking. A mind-link breaks when you become rogue. Your wolf is helpless. It needs an alpha to guide the wolf, to make them feel safe and secure. The only way you can have a pack is with an alpha, and alphas are not made; they are born. In combination with my alpha blood and my sister’s death—” I took in a deep breath and immediately my mate was beside me. “I have double the strength of an alpha. But with no mate, I am nothing but an ordinary man.”
“You are more than an ordinary man. You have lasted longer than a lot of these rogues, Locke. You’ve saved many.”
I shook my head and pulled up my jeans, fiddling with the belt. “But not enough. I felt like a failure, but no more. Since I’ve found you, I’ve been given hope not just for me, but for everyone.” I pulled her body flush with mine and whispered into her lips. “But, if you told me to run away with you, I would. I’d leave them all—”
“Don’t say that.” She narrowed her eyes. “You care for these people, your pack—”
“I want you to know that I love you because you are my soul, Emmie. Not just because I’m trying to put a pack together.”
Her eyes widened. “It never crossed my mind that you would only be with me to save your pack, Locke. I feel your intentions are true, in here.” She laid her hand on her chest. “It’s a weird feeling but I believe it. And any person with a heart would naturally want to help others in need.”
I chuckled darkly, and grabbed my boots from the floor. “Baby, I don’t have a heart. You should know that by now.” I roughly tied my boots while I sat in the chair and she knelt beside me.
“I know you don’t have a heart, because you gave it to me,” her voice rasped.
I stopped tying my boot and looked at her.
“Now I’m giving you mine, and that means we are going to help them,” she pointed to the window. “We aren’t gonna run away, so don’t keep telling me that like I’m gonna do it. They are my family now, too.”
“You love me?”
“Is that all you got out of that?” she sighed heavily.
I smirked. “Yup.”
I pulled her up for a kiss and threw her on our nest, pinning her between my arms. “You love me.”
“Alright, alright, don’t get your panties in a twist. Now, come on, we have to go cure some mind-link headaches.”
I placed a kiss on her shoulder and let her rise from the bed. As painful as it was to do so, I let her stand and looked longingly at our nest. This should be our time, but as always, according to Ares’ Law, a luna is always the most thoughtful one.
Maybe I could enjoy some parts of the old ways.
I continued to explain the basics of the mind-link to Emm as we descended the stairs. The mind-link is what makes the pack. No other pack can infiltrate it. It’s strong and sacred.
What I failed to see before was that we were creating a new pack. It wasn’t just a matter of the wolves pledging allegiance to an alpha and a luna. We were creating a whole new pack, and it wasn’t as simple as the link ‘strings’ coming together to form between Emm and me. We had to create the center.
Emm and I were the conductors, while our pack members were like roaring electrical charges and currents. Their electricity was zooming through the air, ready to find common ground. While they were close enough to us to keep their pain at bay, they needed guidance to find us, and that is where Tajah and Bram had to come in.
Establishing a pack needed guidance by a powerful witch or warlock.
When Emm and I entered the middle of the courtyard, the blazing fire already hot and ready, my mate snarled toward Tajah. I had almost forgotten Emm’s dislike for her, but I knew Emm could handle her own.
“I don’t like her,” Emm said loud enough over the roaring flames. “I don’t trust someone who deliberately bullies another.”
Tajah jutted her chin towards Emm. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t intentional. I was making sure your intentions were just.”
“By forcing a male, who isn’t used to it, to be in the field?” Emm stomped forward nearly chest to chest with Tajah. I didn't pull her back, I was actually quite turned on by the spectacle.
It was then I realized my mistake by not stopping my mate, when Emm reared her arm back and gave Tajah a right hook to the face. The small group that gathered all gasped and watch Tajah tumble to the ground. Beretta hissed, her fangs bared and lunged forward to cover her mate.
Fuck, that was hot.
Grim grunted in approval.
Emm bared fangs in return, and fuck if I didn’t get hard at the sight. “Never force someone to do your own bidding. You knew it made Switch uncomfortable, and you defied orders.”
I crossed my arms and covered my smile with my hand. It seems Emm has dug deeper in my mind than I cared to admit. What else did she know?
Tajah stumbled as she stood, wiping away the blood on the corner of her lip. “As I said before, I misjudged you. But, when you first entered our territory, your intentions were not, let’s just say, positive. I sensed your deceit. We all could. I was trying to protect what Locke had built, in his absence.”
My mate stared at everyone around the fire. The mated, even Sizzle, Bones and Switch, who had come for security all watched to see what the two strong females would do.
“You could have backed down,” Emm continued. “When Journey entered our conversation at the bar, telling you to chill out, you didn’t. With Journey being a priestess to the goddess of pairing I’m surprised you didn’t. If you had chased me off, which - by the way, you wouldn’t have,” my mate looked Tajah up and down, “this club wouldn’t be a pack. You could have destroyed all of it with your intentions.”
Tajah’s stern face softens, and her fists unclench. “You’re right. It was a poor choice.”
“And using Switch? You are supposed to be a family, not using him to do your fucking bidding.”
Tajah winced again and crossed her arms. “Again, trying to find out your lies. But, obviously I was mistaken—”
“Tajah has been punished,” I interrupted Tajah, taking my mate by the arm. “I didn’t go as far as hitting her in the face, but she has served time.”
My mate scrunched her nose. “It’s two strikes in my book. A third, and I can’t promise what I’ll do to you,” my mate smirked and put out her hand for Tajah. “And, by the way, I do have my own secrets, but they are to keep people safe. In time, you will know who they are.”
Tajah gave a playful smile and shook Emm’s hand. “I like her,” she said to me. “The Goddess did well. A perfect pairing.”
“What the fuck just happened?” Hawke said from the sidelines. “Are they friends or—”
“More like frienemies,” Delilah said. “Like they understand each other, but I don’t think they will be sharing nail polish anytime soon.”
Thank fuck Emm hadn’t dug too far into my head. If she had she would know that Tajah knew her secret about her family, and where they were located.
I let off a low growl, pulled my mate into my arms and whispered into her ear. “Look at you being a luna and shit. That was hot as hell.” I rub my shaft against her pussy and she let off a whimper.
“Don’t do that, I’m sensitive still.” She grabbed my vest and held it tight.
I licked the underside of her ear. “I don’t know. Fucking you in front of them might be kinda hot. Show them just how we don’t give a damn.”
“We can hear you!” Bear grunts. “Can we get this done? My mate has had about enough.”
Nadia, the smallest of the females, was being carried by Bear. Her hands covered her ears and fuck if it didn’t make me feel like a bastard.
“You’re right, let's proceed.” I adjusted myself and turned to Tajah, who held a large leather-bound book in her hand. Bram stood beside her in a long cloak, which covered his face. He held it with her and pointed to several places in the book. His voice was so low that mated pairs wouldn’t be able to hear him, but I could and it appeared that Emm could too.
“It’s powerful enough to reach Luna’s sister and her mate, so they don’t have to be present.”
“Wait, what!” Emm pulled away from me and ran toward the sorcerers. “My sister, she said she had a headache. So, she—she really is mated? And she’s close? Where is she?”
I leaned my head back in exasperation and pulled her away from them so they could continue talking. “She’s fine, but she cannot be here right now.”
“Why?” My mate hissed. “I haven’t seen her. I want to know where she is.”
“She’s indisposed,” Bones says. “She can’t be present, but I promise you she is alright.”
“Why?” My mate demanded.
I grabbed my mate’s chin. “She will be a distraction, and I need your full attention. This is serious, Emm.”
“Indeed, it is.” Tajah let out a long breath, “because we can’t perform this unless our luna is a full shifter and of the same strength as our alpha.”
My body stiffened, and my eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I meant what I said; to form a pack, we need an alpha and luna of the same strength to form the ties of a new pack. This means that Emm will need to force shift into a wolf of equal caliber. That’s why you didn’t see many new packs formed in Elysian. It was difficult to find lunas and alphas of the same strength. In fact, it was hardly heard of.”
I growled and stomped toward Tajah. “No, I won’t allow it. That is fucking painful, ask Journey. She almost fucking died when she forced a shift.”
And this time, Emm wouldn’t be force-shifting into a wolf—but a Lycan. The highest form.
Journey stepped forward, Grim beside her with his arm around her. “It’s true, she will have to shift.” Journey’s eyes glazed over bright blue until they faded back to their normal color and she gasped. “Goddess!” She covered her mouth.
“The Goddess must have shown her what you truly are,” My wolf spoke, deeply. Our secret will finally be set free.”
I forcefully ran my fingers through my disheveled hair, feeling the strands tangle and knot beneath my touch. With each step I took around the crackling fire, the ground trembled beneath my feet, echoing the fury that consumed me. My eyes, ablaze with an inferno of rage, reflected the torment that awaited her.
The impending shift would put her in an enormous amount of unimaginable pain. I dread the thought of witnessing her agony, of seeing her body contort and transform from human to wolf, and then to Lycan. It was an ordeal I had endured before as a pup, being an adult is a whole new experience they say.
But when I made the transition to Lycan, it felt like a death sentence. The excruciating torment was beyond anything I had ever known, a visceral torment that tested the limits of my endurance. I couldn’t bear the thought of subjecting my mate to such suffering, to watch her endure the same indescribable pain that had nearly broken me.
Emm has undergone enough emotional trauma of my past in just a few days, and now I’m asking her to go through physical pain as well?
I gazed over the mated and the unmated. I started this club for them, to give them hope. A part of me wanted to save those that were like me—rejected and alone. I’d give it all up for her, I’ve told her many times, but now that my mate has given me her heart, part of her soul—I still wanted to save them too.
Emm stared at me from across the fire. She showed no weakness, just determination in her eyes. She slowly walked around the fire, her gaze set on me.
“You don’t have to do this,” I linked her. “They can live with the pain just a while longer until you can shift into a wolf. We can get you used to that form and then—”
Her eyes fluttered when I first used our own personal link. And understanding how it worked quickly filtered through her mind.
“I don’t half-ass things,” she said back to me, “and I will not start now.”
“You have no idea how much fucking pain you are going to be in.” My wolf snarled when she came closer. The air was thick with tension, and everyone who had surrounded the fire backed away. “ Like your body is glass and then rearranges itself—”
“Stop,” she whispered to me. “It’s sweet you are trying to save me from the pain, but I said we are in this together, didn’t I? My sister is a part of this, our friends, our family. We need to do this. What if Idris comes?”
She was right. We were vulnerable with the mated experiencing pain, but what about my mate?
Emm rubbed her hand up my cheek. “You’ve been through pain, I’m here to match it. We are supposed to be equals, right?” she chuckled.
I wrapped my hand around her throat and gave her a rough kiss. It was desperate, and it was painful, but I needed it. “I’ll be here. Through all of it.” I rasped into her lips.
“I know.”