CHAPTER 3
Idon’t understand. How did this happen?” I demanded, gripping Audrey’s wrists like I could squeeze the answer out of her.
She shook her head. “We don’t know. It must have been the Goddess intervening.”
“Why?” a woman demanded from behind me.
Michael and I weren’t the only ones mated against our will, and fear, anger, and disbelief ran riot through those around us. It was one thing to willingly submit to a ceremony that would result in a lifelong magical commitment to someone else, another thing entirely to have it forced upon you.
“We can’t be sure,” Audrey said. Her tone was apologetic. “The Goddess doesn’t always reveal Her divine intentions.”
“But we didn’t offer up our blood,” I said. I was still in shock. Or was it denial? I was having trouble untangling the ball of emotions in my mind. Probably because half of them weren’t even mine.
Audrey pulled her hands from my hold and placed them on my cheeks. “I know, Layla. I don’t have any answers for you right now. Go home. Your parents need to know what happened.”
The blood drained from my face. Oh, no. My parents.
She released me and moved away to where Antoinette was laid out on the grass. I turned from her to face Michael.
My mate.
This couldn’t be happening.
This had to be some horrible nightmare. Any moment now, I would wake up.
Michael held himself perfectly still. His hands were in the pockets of his suit pants, feet braced wide, the picture of calm.
Nathaniel stood at his side, one long arm draped across the shoulders of the pretty redhead he’d been bonded to.
Her much smaller arm was wrapped around his waist. Despite the concern on their faces, they looked settled.
Like they’d accepted their fate and looked forward to getting to know each other. The sight turned my stomach.
“Layla, I’m so sorry,” Gia said from beside me.
I couldn’t stand to hear the heartache in her voice.
Not when she should be filled to bursting with happiness.
I wanted to look at her, tell her not to worry, but it was impossible to pull my gaze from Michael.
Our hearts beat in tandem. We breathed as one.
He occupied far too much space in my head, though he’d done something to calm the storm of emotions that raged beneath his polished exterior.
“We need to speak with each other,” he said. The words rolled off his tongue with precision, slower than I was used to, as if he chose each and every one with care.
I nodded and forced my gaze away. “Gia, go with Natalie. I’ll be fine.”
She bit her lip and looked back and forth between me and Michael. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll call you later. Go be with your mate.”
Gia hugged me, hard, and when she pulled away there were tears in her eyes again.
Natalie reached out and clasped my shoulder, no doubt experiencing my best friend’s emotions firsthand. “I’m sorry.”
Her attempt to comfort me made me realize I’d been looking at it all wrong earlier. I wasn’t going to lose Gia. Gia’s love for me meant that I’d be gaining another friend.
I gripped Natalie’s shoulder in return. “Thank you. Take care of her.”
She nodded. “I will.”
“Now go.” I released Natalie and pushed them away.
While I’d been saying my goodbyes, Michael’s younger brother had disappeared with his mate, leaving the two of us alone together in a sea of wolves.
I wanted to reach out and touch him, this stranger who, until a moment ago, I had only ever felt sorry for.
The urge to bury my nose in his neck and learn his scent was as irresistible as it was unwelcome.
“Come on,” I said. “Unless you want to have this conversation in front of everyone?”
He shook his head and motioned me forward. “After you.”
I turned and led him through the crowd. Not even the highs and lows the people around us were experiencing distracted them from Michael’s presence.
They watched him pass with expressions ranging from wariness to disgust. Those who glanced from him to me wore open pity on their faces.
One or two even mouthed I’m so sorry at me, and I fought the urge to snap my teeth at them in response.
It’s the bond, I realized.
It made you hypersensitive, instilled a defensive set of instincts in newly mated wolves that made simple slights against your partner seem like full-blown attacks.
I dropped my gaze to the ground and kept it there until we rose out of the hollow.
Michael pulled even with me, strolling by my side as though he hadn’t a care in the world. “I’m Michael Kolbeck.”
I know who you are, I wanted to snap.
“Layla Fitzpatrick,” I said.
“Courtesy dictates some polite response here, perhaps something along the lines of ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ but given our current circumstances…” He waved a hand in a vague sort of gesture.
“I understand,” I told him.
We fell quiet as we neared the mouth of the forest trail, our hearts beating as one, our strides perfectly even thanks to the fact that we were the same height.
I wanted to say something more, if only to keep him talking.
I liked the sound of his voice. Would like it even without the bond.
His rich timbre and careful cadence were soothing, and I needed soothing right now, but I had no idea what to say.
I’m sorry this happened to us? Do you and your family really control all of Boston?
My head was filled with the rumors I’d heard of them.
He broke the silence when we reached the trailhead. “I hope it’s not an inconvenience, but I gave my keys to my brother so he and Sarah can find somewhere to speak in private as well.”
Sarah must have been the name of his brother’s mate.
“It’s fine. We can go to my truck. Besides, before we can talk, I have to tell my parents.
I can’t let them find out what happened from someone else.
” My stomach sank at the thought. “You don’t have to come with me.
I can swing back here and pick you up after. ”
He glanced at the unfamiliar forest around him.
“I believe I would prefer to accompany you.” A small, humorless smile tugged at the corners of his full lips.
“I didn’t think to bring security with us on this little venture, and the Kolbeck name is one that often inspires animosity and antagonism in our kind. ”
“Then maybe I should leave you here. I might get lucky and someone will break our bond for me.”
Michael’s gaze latched onto mine. Suspicion and distrust filled my mind. The only way out of a bond was death, and it looked like he knew that.
I sighed. “It was a joke.”
The feeling of distrust eased. Just a little. He looked away and began setting himself to rights, smoothing a hand over his hair, tightening his tie. Outward calm returned to him with every gesture.
What had the Goddess done to me? Why had She forcibly bonded me to a man who had no sense of humor? I couldn’t think of anything more uncomfortable than cracking a joke and having the person it was aimed at not laugh.
I glanced over at Michael. His spine was stiff, and he stepped carefully, as though the thought of dirtying his Italian loafers was loathsome.
The man spoke like he was raised in a different century.
He must average four syllables a word. Hell, he probably even texted in complete sentences, and here I was, struggling just to string a coherent one together.
I wanted to rage. I wanted to scream about the unfairness of it.
All this reserved politeness on his part was unsettling.
Especially when I could still feel the distant echoes of his more volatile feelings threatening to boil over.
The dichotomy of someone who looked and smelled perfectly calm but felt like they were barely keeping it together was going to drive me crazy.
I wanted to reach out and shake him until cracks appeared in his facade and he let out the scream I felt building inside of him.
“Why are you even here?” I asked. If he hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t be in this mess. “I thought your pack forms political alliances instead of taking part in bonding ceremonies.”
“We do,” he said. “Nathaniel is the lone believer among my clan. He feared it would anger your Goddess if he allowed himself to be matched in our typical fashion.”
She’s your Goddess, too, I wanted to say, but didn’t. No good had ever come from trying to push religion on nonbelievers.
“You came to support him?” I asked.
“I did. Our mother was quite upset at discovering the whereabouts of her two errant children.” He paused for so long that I thought he was done speaking.
“Imagine her outrage when I inform her that both of us were mated, and my prior engagement is over, thereby spoiling the multimillion-dollar business deal my parents brokered with my fiancée’s family. ”
He was engaged?
I missed a step and stumbled over a tree root I had dodged a thousand times before. Michael’s hand shot out. He grabbed my bare arm above the elbow and steadied me. Metaphysical heat sparked between us, centered around our contact, and then flared into a full-blown conflagration.
We leapt apart.
Michael flexed his fingers and shook his hand as though trying to rid himself of the lingering sensation.
I rubbed my own hand over skin that felt like it had blistered.
The bond had made us so hypersensitive to each other that a casual touch felt like being struck by lightning.
Great. Just wonderful. I couldn’t wait to find out what other nasty surprises were in store for us.