Chapter Fourteen
Phoenix
I panicked. Utterly and completely. Taking a step toward Emery even as I registered the step he took back. “Em—”
“Come with me,” Esther said in a no-nonsense voice, and we both followed.
I didn’t even look at the pack; I just left Dad to deal with it.
I could hear him ripping Karl a new one as I left, but I knew the damage had already been done.
She didn’t walk to a vehicle, simply entered what I knew was her friend’s cottage across the circle.
Emery opened his mouth, but she sent him such a blistering look, he closed it immediately. I didn’t dare open mine.
“Sit,” she commanded, and we both did. Emery took the single chair, much to my anguish. He was too far away, and that made my skin itch.
She huffed and went to the fridge, pouring three glasses of juice and returning with them. I took mine out of politeness, but for the first time in my thirty years, I wanted liquor in the hopes I could numb my feelings.
She practically turned her back to me and regarded Emery. “What has Phoenix told you about the challenges we’re facing?”
Emery blinked in surprise, but I didn’t blame him. I hadn’t been expecting that question either. He glanced at me briefly, but he didn’t let his gaze linger. “He told me about wolf shifters. He insists I’m his mate. And I know the pack has no kids.”
Esther turned to me incredulously but then back to Emery. She smiled, and I saw Emery relax a little. “Did he tell you what being a mate meant?”
“There’s a lot he doesn’t seem to know,” Emery said dryly, and he was right. I cringed. I was supposed to be the alpha.
“Because a blood mate comes along once in probably a thousand years,” Esther said gravely.
“And that’s what you think I am?” Emery asked. He huffed. “I’ve barely got a handle on the whole turning-into-wolves thing.”
“Not just wolves,” Esther said gently. I wanted to die. Really? She was going to destroy my relationship before it had a chance? I glared at her, but she took no notice.
“You mean Phoenix can turn into a different type of animal, as well?” Emery asked.
“No,” I ground out.
“I know you’ve met Kaylan and Bayer,” Esther said. “Bayer is a bear shifter, and Kaylan a mountain lion.”
Emery just stared at her, then laughed as if he couldn’t help it. “Tigers? Oh, my?”
Esther grinned. “Tiger shifters are extinct as far as we know, but there may be some secretive packs in other parts of the world.”
“If you tell me there’re spiders or cockroach shifters, I’m moving to Antarctica,” Emery said with a shudder. He thought about that. “Penguins?”
She shook her head with a smile. “Large mammals capable of changing into a human body only. I am aware of the three we have mentioned in America, plus jaguars. If there are other shifters in different parts of the world, they’ve never made contact as far as we know.”
Emery nodded, looking relieved. “Why me then? I’m not a wolf shifter.” Esther took a sip of juice but nodded.
“That is quite possible. Blood mates may be human. I’m assuming your parents—”
Emery shook his head. “I don’t honestly know.
I’m a designer baby. My mother refused to get pregnant, so my dad got a surrogate.
He insists the agency agreement meant they never met, just a file.
My dad has green eyes, and they wanted that.
I suppose there’s the chance I have wolf in me.
” He thought about that. “Would it be a wolf, though?”
“I haven’t sensed another animal in you,” I admitted reluctantly. “But then I didn’t sense any the night we met.”
“And you can do that?” Emery asked, surprised.
I nodded. “I thought you were human, and because of that, couldn’t possibly be my mate even though my wolf was doing his best to convince me otherwise.
” I looked at Emery. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen.
I should know better. I do know better.” And I was ashamed.
Anything could have happened to him. “There was a chance I might not have found you in time.”
“In time for what?”
I glanced at Esther helplessly, not knowing what to say.
“When a mate goes into heat, their bodies undergo a massive change, and it can make you very ill without help. In females, it happens when they’re twenty-five. Or any time after eighteen if they meet their blood mate,” Esther explained.
“But that’s females,” Emery said. “I still don’t understand what that has to do with me.”
“And if Karl thinks for one second…” I growled out. I was still furious.
“But you need cubs,” Emery pointed out, the anger in his voice bled to sadness.
“I don’t care.” And I was way too far away.
I moved quickly and hunched down in front of where Emery was sitting, slid my arms under him, and before he had the chance to react, I was seated in the chair with Emery on my lap.
I wrapped my arms around him. “Sweetheart, you’re it for me.
Both my wolf and me. My pack needs me whole, and I need you to make that happen. ”
Emery bit his lip, but he turned to Esther. “Do you know why the women aren’t going into their heat?”
I closed my eyes. Here it was. The question I’d been dreading.
Esther sent me a sympathetic look, but she continued. At least Emery relaxed in my arms. His wolf knew me, even if Emery hadn’t learned to recognize the difference.
“Shifters aren’t the only creatures living on Earth that the humans don’t know about,” Esther said.
Emery arched an eyebrow. “If you’re going to tell me about otherworldly fae creatures, then I won’t be shocked.”
“You won’t?” I asked in surprise.
“No, witches have existed for thousands of years,” Emery said, as if explaining it to one of his pupils. “Am I saying they ride about on broomsticks? I doubt it, but there are people with gifts a lot of mere mortals don’t understand.”
Esther grinned, but my heart sank. I didn’t mean things like fairies if that was what he was expecting.
Esther agreed, “I’m sure that there are many gifted people that may be termed witches, but that’s not exactly what I mean either.
The creatures we’re talking about who existed on this earth even before wolf shifters, we call silver-skins.
I believe you would know them as vampires. ”
Emery blinked slowly at her, opened his mouth, closed it, then glanced at me, then back to Esther.
But as if Esther didn’t notice his bewilderment, she carried on in a reasonable voice.
“Thousands of years ago, lupines were banished supposedly because they angered Zeus, and in forgiveness, he created wolf shifters to exist in both worlds, but there’s another legend.
Zeus overthrew Cronus to become king of the gods because Cronus was interfering in other worlds, namely ours.
Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft and had powers of Hades, the god of hell.
It’s said, to punish Zeus, she tempted a demon from hell to reside on Earth.
The demon was of pale skin and feasted on the souls in hell.
On Earth, he fed on humans but bred with human women and multiplied.
In this legend, Zeus creates wolf shifters specifically as the only being capable of destroying the silver-skins and protecting humans. ”
I risked pressing a kiss to Emery’s neck, and he didn’t look at me or protest, but he arched his neck a little, so I nuzzled some more while Esther continued her story.
“The only way a silver-skin can be killed is by ripping out their heart, and only wolf shifters are fast enough and strong enough to do so. Fast forward many thousands of years, and the earth was in chaos. The silver-skins were enslaving the humans in droves, and the only thing that could be done was the banding together of all the shifter species. The resulting truce was agreed upon. The silver-skins agreed to simple feeding and not enslaving, on the condition that the shifters kept their existence a secret.”
Emery shivered slightly, and I wrapped him up tighter, trying to soothe him.
“We can’t prove it, but the fact is that stopping the females from going into heat and therefore breeding is decimating our packs.
The silver-skins are immortal. There are many that believe somehow the silver-skins are responsible,” I said.
“Because all they have to do is wait?” Emery said, immediately.
I nodded, not in the least surprised he understood. “I told you the problems with the lack of alphas.”
“Which I understand. Completely. In an awful way, I even understand Karl.”
“It wouldn’t work,” Esther said confidently. “You’re blood mates. You’re both incapable of lying with anyone else.” She paused. “And by lying, I mean—”
“Yes,” Emery squeaked out before I did. “We get it.”
“Don’t be surprised if the rest of the pack want to spend all their time with Emery,” Esther warned.
I looked up. “What do you mean?”
“Many reasons, but the draw of an alpha-mate is hard to resist. An alpha-mate is the glue that holds the pack together, but a blood-bonded alpha-mate? Times that by a thousand.” She grinned.
“If there were cubs, Emery would find them following him around. The she-wolves will find themselves drawn to him for the same reason, but add in their hope his presence might make them fertile, and I guarantee he’ll be the most popular person here. ”
“If I stay,” Emery said in a quiet voice.
Esther smiled sympathetically. I stayed very, very still. I barely dared breathe. I knew she could easily point out the risks to him being anywhere I wasn’t, especially so soon after initial mating, but she seemed to know guilting him, or making him afraid, wasn’t going to help.
“You still haven’t explained why I went into heat,” Emery said.
I looked up. That was a good question.
“I’m not sure,” Esther confessed. “There hasn’t been a male same-sex pairing in hundreds of years. I could consult my books… see what I can find out.” She paused. “See if the goddess speaks to me.”
Emery didn’t comment, and I was glad. That Esther got visions granted to her by the goddess might’ve been a step too far, not that the existence of vampires, as he would call them, wasn’t already.
“Perhaps—”
But I never found out what Esther wanted to say because she was interrupted by a shrill alarm that echoed all over the camp.
“What the hell?” Emery straightened up, wincing at the racket. I carefully stood and deposited Emery back, my heart thudding in my chest. He jumped up. “What on earth is that noise?”
Esther nodded to the door. “Go. We’ll get the she-wolves together.”
I looked down at Emery, pulled him in tight to press a kiss to his lips, and then ran.
“Phoenix, what the hell?” I heard my mate yell, but I had to tune him out. His safety, and the safety of the entire pack, depended on my doing my job.
As I ran to the circle, my hearing was acute enough that I caught Emery’s words even over the noise of the alarm. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“It’s the intruder alarm,” Esther said. “Come, we need to get the elders and the rest of the wolves to safety. The gammas will be going to fight.”
“Fight who?” Emery nearly yelled again.
“It’s the alarm warning of the presence of silver-skins,” Esther said. “It means one or more just crossed into our territory.”