Chapter 24
Ryan looked around the room and felt his breath freeze.
This wasn’t going well, and he’d worked with enough teenagers to know why.
No one was listening to the words. They’d long since made up their minds.
Some wanted Raoul and his promises to make werewolves the most powerful people around.
Others wanted Frankie and to live their lives without all this conflict.
And everyone was getting angry, which was like piling dynamite on top of smoldering coals.
“You have to show them,” he said. He stepped into Frankie’s line of sight and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. “They have to feel the difference.”
“I did that,” she said.
He nodded. “And you have to do it again. Now.”
He saw the panic enter her gaze. He knew what she was thinking.
That she’d done it in a moment of orgasmic bliss, which was a far cry from broadcasting as an alpha on command.
But she wanted to take control of her pack and this was the only way.
She had to do it or her brother would win.
And if that happened, then they would likely have to fight their way out of here. Or die trying.
“Ryan—” she began, fear echoing in his name.
He smiled at her and held out his hand. “I’m here. Let me help you. This doesn’t have to be done alone.”
She looked at his hand and then at the people around them. He saw the tension in her body, the twitch in her hand, and the way her eyes looked everywhere but at him.
Refused.
His heart sunk and his body froze. She wasn’t going to do it. She wasn’t going to claim him or their relationship to her pack. She’d said he was her pack, and he’d told her she was his home. But just like every other time he’d thought he’d found home, it turned out to be a lie.
The reasons for her betrayal piled up in his head. She was a wolf, he was a bear. This was pack politics, not love. They’d just met and while he was falling in love, she was just having great sex.
God, the pain of it made him feel as if he were cut in half and left bleeding right there in front of everyone. His hand dropped to his side and he drew back from her. But he couldn’t go far because then she wouldn’t have anyone to watch her back.
But who would watch his? Where could he go where he was safe and loved? Obviously not—
“We got you,” Hazel said loudly as she stepped across Delphine’s unconscious wolf body to stand in front of Frankie.
Noelle crossed to protect Frankie’s back. “Do what you need to do. Nobody will touch you.”
And then two more women stepped up to circle Frankie…
No, actually they were surrounding both Frankie and Ryan. He was in the safe center. And as soon as Frankie felt like they wouldn’t be attacked, she nodded her thanks to her friends and reached out for Ryan.
It threw him, this sudden openness on Frankie’s face as she looked at him.
He was still deep in the litany of betrayal in his head.
She was just like Nanook and his so-called friends on the police force.
Turning their backs when things got rough.
She didn’t really love him. How could she when even his parents weren’t so sure about him?
And yet she stood there with her eyes wide and her hand stretched out to him. He couldn’t quite process it.
“I need to be open to do this,” she said. “And I can’t watch for attacks at the same time.”
There it was. The verbal proof that she hadn’t been rejecting him at all. And yet, his body couldn’t catch up.
“Ryan?” she said, confusion flitting across her expression, and no wonder. He’d just offered himself to her and now was contracted away.
“What do you need?” he asked without touching her.
She’d know if he touched her. She’d realize he was afraid to open himself to her again.
Even though he’d been wrong, the pain of betrayal still ate at him.
God, it hurt, and she hadn’t even done it.
And now she needed him, and he was holding back because he was afraid. Damn it—
“I love you,” she said. “I should have said it before, but I’m saying it now. Whatever happens, I love you.”
He felt the resonance in her words. Even if that was just the vibration of her alpha voice, his heart responded.
Warmth pulsed through his body, melting his panic.
His mind stopped its litany of betrayal and was shocked into seeing something completely different.
It saw a wolf declaring her love to a bear right in the middle of her pack.
And she was doing it during a dominance fight.
She was declaring to all around her that this was who she was, and then letting them choose.
It was the bravest thing he’d ever seen. And if she could do that, then he could face down his own demon. She hadn’t betrayed him, and he needed to trust her.
“I love you, too,” he said, and he reached for her hand.
Click. Bonding magic locked in place. He felt it like a shift in the order of the world. There wasn’t even a sound, just an internal shift as the two of them became a bonded pair. Bear and wolf, alpha mates, while in front of the entire pack.
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t speak. Neither did he.
He was feeling too much for words, and he felt the echo of her surprise and her love as their palms connected.
She gripped his hand and smiled. And a moment later, she stretched her other hand out to him, so he could clasp that, too.
They stood face to face, hands held and hearts open.
She loved him, and he loved her. They were home together, each other’s safe harbor. Bonded mates, and the beauty of that pulsed back and forth between them. It grew stronger in his heart, swelling with each beat. Strong. Solid. Safe.
When he thought he would burst from the power of it, she let her gaze move outward. She looked first at Hazel’s back and Noelle’s side. She did a slow circle, looking at each member of the pack in turn. He followed with her, knowing that where she loved, he would as well.
And as he did, his heart expanded. He offered himself as a safe home to her pack.
He would protect and serve them. And—to his surprise—he saw them accept his offering.
He knew it was carried on the force of her love, but he didn’t care.
They welcomed him with varying degrees of surprise and suspicion.
But even so, they accepted him as her mate, as her shelter, and as her love.
At least most of them did.
It took a while for her to turn full circle, and he had to release one of her hands to let her do it.
But when she completed her turn, her gaze landed solidly on her brother.
Ryan thought this would be the hardest for her, but the depth of her love for her brother stunned them all.
He felt it well up in the room. A pure, sweet love that accepted him and cherished him as part of her pack.
Even with everything Raoul had done to betray everyone, she still loved him.
He watched Raoul’s eyes widen in shock, but he held himself back. His hands were clenched, and his jaw worked though no sound came out.
“I’m not blind to our problems, Raoul,” Frankie said. “But we have to start from love first.” She held out her hand to him, just as she’d done to Ryan. But here was the problem with this pack openness. It required a measure of vulnerability on both sides.
In order to receive it, Raoul would have to become open to it, expose his inner heart to everyone in the pack. Ryan could see that the man wasn’t going there. Raoul couldn’t. And while Frankie opened her hand and her heart to her brother, Raoul teetered and fell on the opposite side.
He landed in hate and fear. Maybe the two emotions were the same thing.
Noelle was closest to Raoul, but her eyes were on a pair of bristling wolves near the wall. When Raoul roared his defiance, she was caught off guard, jolting sideways in surprise. That gave Ryan the space to save her life.
He leapt forward to protect her and was met with Raoul’s open jaws.
The prick had gone wolf and was of a damned impressive size and strength.
Ryan’s only hope was to go grizzly or lose an arm.
But when he reached for the power, it wasn’t there.
He might be a healthy human, but his magical tank was empty from all the shifting he’d done. Which meant—
Frankie shoved him aside. She was in full hybrid mode, both wolf and woman as she saved Ryan and protected Noelle.
She rolled with her brother’s attack, dropping him into the center of her circle without suffering any damage.
But Raoul wasn’t staying down. He scrambled on the wood floor but was able to gain purchase as he spun back and attacked.
Ryan tensed to intervene, but a cry to his right showed him that Raoul wasn’t the only werewolf too afraid to open up to what Frankie was offering. Some of Raoul’s men were attacking as well, and Noelle was not trained in hand-to-wolf combat.
He wanted with every part of him to protect Frankie, but he knew she had to face her brother alone.
It was the only way for her to establish dominance over the pack.
Plus, he had complete faith that she could hold her own.
She might not defeat Raoul, but it wasn’t going to be a quick fight and Noelle needed the protection now.
So Ryan engaged the wolves coming at them.
Two medium-sized ones with speed behind their assault.
He pulled Noelle out of their path and timed his own attack for the exact moment they sprang past. To the other side, he heard Hazel chuckle, apparently pleased with whatever attack she was handling.
And then there was no more time for thought.
Just duck and punch, kick and haul ass. Most of the bystanders scrambled away while a few closed in to help.
It was just like before. In the sewers and the loading dock. The sweat, the adrenaline, the blood. Only this time something else stood with him. A shimmering pool of strength inside his soul.