17. Seventeen
Seventeen
March 2021 - One Year Ago
Phoenix Campbell
Me: Can you meet me at the Kendal cottage asap? It’s an emergency! x
Alice: Are you there now?
Me: No, I’m on my way
Alice: See you there soon x
W hen Alice eventually arrives at the cottage, I’m already sitting on the floor of the study with every relevant book pulled off the shelves.
“Um, when you said it was an emergency, I wasn’t picturing emergency studying,” she says as she walks into the room.
“I have two days to find a way out of this, and I need your help.”
“Two days to get out of what, exactly?” she asks.
I explain the peace agreement that my mum and Alpha Kelly have had me sign and how the main proponent of it is that Niamh and I get married.
“Holy shit. That’s fucked up. Why can’t you ask them to let you marry Connor instead?” She raises a valid point. However, it highlights an essential bit of information I’ve withheld from her since she discovered us.
“Because Connor has been promised to another member of his pack since he was sixteen years old,” I say it quickly to rip the plaster off because I know this news will go down like a lead balloon.
“He’s been engaged to someone else this entire time? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Not exactly. They were meant to get married when they both turned twenty-one, but Cee has been putting it off for years, and we always figured there would be time for him to find a way out of it,” I tell her, sighing at the mess we’ve got ourselves into.
“Okay. Truth bomb to one side, you can’t marry Connor’s sister; not only is it gross as fuck, he’s your mate, Nix. You have to tell your mum you can’t go through with it. They’ll find another solution,” she says, like it’s all so simple.
I try explaining why I can’t do that, but I literally gag on the words. I need to take a different approach. Picking up the book I found earlier, I hand it over to her with the relevant page open.
“I need you to read this book and listen to exactly what I say. I have to go through with marrying Niamh. I do not have a choice, okay?” She raises an eyebrow at me but reads the page before her.
The book I’ve given her is a book on the Wolf Shifting Code from 1901; the page she’s reading is on the laws pertaining to Alpha Orders. Alice audibly gasps when she reaches the relevant section, and my shoulders sag in relief that she’s worked it out.
“She didn’t?!” She looks furious. If she were a cartoon, steam would be exploding out of her ears in plumes. I physically cannot confirm or deny it, so I just stare at her pleadingly, needing her to understand my lack of any response for the admission it is.
“Oh my god—she did.” Her words are hardly more than a whisper, and my relief is short-lived when I see the expression on her face. She looks devastated. I never wanted to burden her with this, but I can’t do this on my own.
My mum showed up at the safe house shortly after I received those cryptic texts from Jasper and Cee. She asked me to take a walk with her, and regretfully, I did. She informed me she and Alpha Kelly had come to an agreement that would not only keep Jade and the baby safe, but would bring an end to the feud between our packs. The pit had formed in my stomach before she even told me what they’d agreed, my brain replaying the texts I’d already received on a loop.
She told me they’d agreed I will marry Alpha Kelly’s daughter, Niamh. That once the ceremony has taken place, Niamh and I will move onto the Yorkshire territory and start to build our own pack there.
We got into a massive row. I was so livid I could hardly even see through the red mist of anger. It was probably the first time in my life I’d ever really stood up to her because she isn’t just my mum—she’s my Alpha. Being a pure beta, everything inside me screams for me to follow, to submit, to not break rank. But there was no way I could marry Niamh when I already knew her twin brother was my mate.
I had debated telling her about Connor right then, but I knew the risks to her finding out I had been lying by omission—for years. The party line of the pack had always been clear on one thing—no fraternising with members of the Kelly pack or risk expulsion. I had no doubt, that as her son, I would be used to set an example, familial bonds be damned.
My mum and I have never had the easiest relationship; I think she loves me deep down in her own way, but I’ve always been acutely aware that I’m expendable to her. Jasper is the Alpha Heir, and I’m not even the Alpha spare because, as I said—I’m a pure beta. My mum had laid the guilt trip on thick, telling me it was a noble sacrifice to protect the future Alpha line of our pack. She told me I’d be doing my part to end the war and keep everyone safe.
When that didn’t work, she tried telling me how beautiful Niamh was, how I’d be lucky to marry a woman as pretty as her, and I just felt sick to my stomach. And finally, when she realised I was still unconvinced, my mum did the unthinkable, the unforgivable.
She gave me an Alpha Order.
She Ordered me to go through with the marriage, and to top it off, Ordered me not to breathe a word of it. It seems she learned from her mistakes in that regard; it was watertight this time. The page Alice just read details the laws that were put in place to stop Alphas from doing precisely this.
Alpha Orders supposedly existed as a way to keep pack members united and safe. However, there are still Alphas who use their Orders to control and manipulate their pack. Amongst most packs, though, the general consensus is that there’s very rarely an excuse for an Alpha to use their Order.
“Does Connor know?” Alice's question brings me back to the tangled web of issues at hand.
“No, I tried to explain the best I could, but he was too upset to hear what I was saying. Even if I could find a way to tell him, if I can’t offer a solution, then what’s the point?”
“The point is he wouldn’t be out there thinking you’re voluntarily marrying his twin sister? What the fuck, Nix? I could tell him. He must be wrecked by this.” I sigh and press the heels of my palms into my exhausted eyes. Maybe if I press hard enough, I can erase the image of Cee's heartbroken expression from my mind.
“If I tell him or get you to tell him, he will out my mum. He’s hotheaded, and he’ll react before thinking of all the consequences.”
“Would that be the worst thing? What she did is illegal. Shit like this is outlawed for good reason. She wouldn’t have pulled this crap if you weren’t her son. She shouldn’t get away with this.”
I understand Alice’s outrage; I do. But it’s more complicated than that.
“If it gets out what she’s done, she’ll be stripped of her title and expelled from the pack. My dad would then have to choose either to go with her, to stop her from becoming an omega, or to stay behind. Alfie is only thirteen years old. My mum isn’t going to win Mother of the Year, but he needs both his parents. I can’t be the reason he ends up being raised by his brothers. Jasper will be a father in a few months; he’s not ready to suddenly become the Alpha of our pack. I love Connor, more than I can even express, but I can’t ruin the entire lives of my family for him.” When I look up, I see now that Alice understands the gravity of the situation. She reaches over and squeezes my shoulder before taking a deep breath.
“I guess we better read some books and find you a loophole then.”
I’m so grateful for my best friend I could cry. Although that could also be the exhaustion, who knows. Her pragmatism gives me hope there may be a way out of this after all.
“So, in conclusion, there is no solution besides exposing your mum’s crime,” Alice says as she snaps the final book closed a few hours later. Fuck. There is nothing here to help. “Unless…”
“Unless what??” I ask, desperate for something. Anything.
“What if there was a spell to undo the Order?” Alice asks. It wasn’t something I’d thought of. My pack hasn’t had a witch for so long that we rarely turn to them for a solution.
“Who, though? If Nina Fenwick caught wind of this, she’d tell her Alpha.”
“The only other witch I know is Orla McNamara, and you can’t exactly ask her.” Since Orla is the Kelly pack witch, she’s a definite no, but that does give me another, potentially insane, idea…
“I wouldn’t even know how to reach him, but if anyone knew a way out of this, it’d be Noah…”
“Noah?”
“Orla’s great-grandson and Connor’s cousin. He’s always refused to become a pack witch, so he’s a bit of a nomad. From what Cee's told me of him, he avoids getting mixed up in shifter business, so I doubt he’d spill.” Alice nods thoughtfully in response.
“I’ll give Nina a call, see if she has any contact details for him.”
Alice returns to the study just as I’ve finished putting all the books back on the right shelves.
“Any luck?”
“She gave me a number that went straight to voicemail, but she said she visited him a week ago to pick up some ingredients, and she gave me the address.”
“Where is it?”
“Got time for a road trip to Edinburgh?”
We pull up outside an old stone house around three hours later. It’s only nine pm, but the curtains are closed, and the lights are all off downstairs. As we get out of the car, we both tip our heads up and spot a light on upstairs, providing an ember of hope that Noah is home.
“It’s warded,” Alice says as she steps through the small iron gate ahead of me. Wards always leave a faint smell of burning rubber in the air, I scrunch my nose up as I pass through. By the time we’ve walked down the cobbled path, and my fist is raised to knock on the front door, it opens, and I have to do a double take. It’s eerie how much he resembles Cee.
“What do you want?” he asks in a strong Northern Irish accent.
“Nina gave us your address, I’m Alice Graham, and this is Phoenix Campbell. We need some help, and we ran out of people to ask.” Noah’s gaze rakes assessingly over both of us. Faintly lit by the streetlamp outside, he’s topless with two full sleeves of tattoos and more spread over his rib cage. He’s slimmer than Cee, but their facial features are all the same sharp angles. They look more like brothers than cousins, but where Cee's eyes are a deep, mossy green, Noah’s are a calculating, icy blue. Right when I think he’s preparing to close the door in our faces, he steps back and gestures for us to come inside.
Alice walks in first, but we both stand to one side of the hallway, waiting for him to lead the way. He walks past us wordlessly, and we follow him into a kitchen at the back of the house. With the flick of his wrist, the ceiling lights come on, bathing the room in a soft yellow glow. He gestures for us to sit down at the rickety kitchen table but doesn’t join us, instead choosing to lean against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.
He must have shoved his jeans on in a hurry when he felt us come through his wards because his top button is undone, and he isn’t wearing any underwear. Heat spreads across my cheeks when he catches me looking and raises an eyebrow at me.
“Colour me intrigued. What might two Campbell wolves possibly want from me?” he asks, breaking the awkward eye contact.
Before I begin to explain, there are loud footsteps on the staircase. A moment later, a guy—a human guy—around my age appears in the kitchen doorway in nothing but a very tight pair of white boxer briefs. Noah seems entirely unphased, but the guy blushes when he spots us sitting here.
“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t realise anyone else was here. Should I, erm… go?” he asks Noah, looking over his shoulder towards the front door and back again. I try not to stare, but the guy is cute and has a pretty big hickey on his collarbone.
“No. Wait for me upstairs; I won’t be long,” Noah replies, returning his attention to us. The guy mutters something unintelligible but quickly retreats back to the bedroom. I can’t help but shift in my seat at how incredibly awkward this is. “Go on then.”
Right, the reason we’re here.
“Will whatever we ask you stay between us?” His eyes narrow as he considers the question, but then he shrugs and nods for me to continue. I guess that’s as good as I’m going to get.
“Do you know much about Alpha Orders?”
“Plenty.”
“Do you know if there’s any spell or any way of undoing an Alpha Order?” He tilts his head inquisitively as he considers the question before answering.
“No spell, no. To undo an Alpha Order, you have to strip them of their title by either expulsion from the pack or killing them. Alternatively, the Ordered wolf can leave their pack.”
And with those words, my final sparks of hope are snuffed out. It's like a dam breaks inside me and I need to get out, need to be alone.
“We're sorry for barging in on you. Thanks for your help. We'll let you get back to… your friend,” I ramble. Noah and Alice are both looking at me like I'm a ticking time bomb. I stand up abruptly and dash for the front door; it's like I can suddenly feel the walls closing in on me, and I need to be outside. As I begin to panic, it feels like my ears are filled with cotton wool, and I can distantly hear Alice saying goodbye to Noah.
Once we're back on the street and Noah's closed his front door, I bend forward with my hands on my knees and attempt to catch my breath. Alice stands next to me, stroking a soothing hand up and down my back as I try and get my shit together.
“I'm sorry, Nix. I really thought we'd find a way out of this,” she says softly.
“Me too, Alice. Me too.” I tip my head up to the sky, willing the tears that are threatening, to remain at bay.
As I lie in my bed later that night, I ruminate over the options Noah gave me. I replay Cee's words from the other day, asking me to run away with him and wondering if he’d still be willing. He told me he hated me, but my gut tells me he was just lashing out and he didn’t really mean it.
I immensely regret what I said to him about Will. Deep down, I wanted him to instinctively know I wouldn’t have done any of this on purpose. I wanted him to give me the benefit of the doubt that more was going on here. But he didn’t know, and I just dumped all my insecurities over Will in his lap at the worst possible moment. I’ve texted him several times apologising for what I said, but they’ve all sat on ‘delivered’.
If Cee's right and Niamh isn’t going to call off this wedding, then it looks as though I only have one option left. With my mind made up and a heavy heart, I set my alarm for the next morning. My dad and brothers will feel completely blindsided and betrayed, but it’s the only choice I can live with.
Tomorrow, I’ll go to Alpha Eastwood in Northumbria and beg if I have to. The only way out of this, without bringing everyone down with me, is to leave my pack and join another.