Chapter 4 - Drake
Liv sat at the kitchen table when I walked in. I still hadn’t gotten used to the sight of her being here. I hadn’t gotten used to the smell of coffee whenever I woke up. I hadn’t missed that she brewed enough for both of us every morning.
Her eyes raised to meet mine when I walked in.
For the briefest of moments, her lips pursed, and her eyes darkened as I walked into the room.
Then it disappeared, her normal smile that was nearly always on her face emerging.
Despite the smile, I didn’t miss the lingering awkwardness that had hung between us ever since she moved in.
“I made coffee,” she said, the way she did whenever we ran into one another in the morning. “Feel free to have some.”
“Thanks,” I grunted.
As I poured my coffee, my mind wandered.
I still couldn’t believe what I had done, forcing Liv to move in with me.
I wasn’t entirely sure what had come over me, only that I had known in my core that I couldn’t let her leave.
Some primal instinct had roared to life when I saw what she was planning.
I knew she hated me for it, even more than she already did.
I didn’t know how to broach any of this, though. I guessed the best way was the direct approach.
“So I figure we should at least talk about the mating ceremony,” I grumbled.
She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to be so surly about it.”
“I’m not surly.”
Liv giggled. “Drake, you are quite possibly the grumpiest person I’ve ever met.”
I tilted my head, one eyebrow raised. Her laugh deepened.
“See? There’s that surly expression you always have.”
I scowled, and the giggling intensified. It would have been annoying from anyone else, but on Liv, it was charming and adorable. I waited for her laughter to subside before pushing further.
“I wanted to know what sort of ceremony you wanted,” I grunted.
She blinked, her brow furrowing. “What?”
“A lot of women have specific ideas about their mating ceremony,” I muttered, sipping the still-scalding coffee. “Given everything, I wanted to make sure that you at least got the type of ceremony you wanted.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Something wrong with that?”
“No, no. It’s more that I didn’t…” she trailed off. “I appreciate you asking. That’s all.”
I had the feeling she had been about to say, “I didn’t expect you to ask,” but didn’t want to follow that path.
“Well, is there anything you want?” I asked.
She bit her lip, something flickering in her gaze for a moment as she hesitated, then the smile resurfaced. “I mean, I was kind of hoping for a smaller thing, you know.”
That hadn’t been the answer I’d expected from Liv.
I had thought she would want something large, more extravagant.
Not because she was shallow, but because she liked sharing festivities and celebrations with people.
I would have anticipated a massive guest list that comprised half the pack, a large dance party, a pretty dress.
She deserved it, if that’s what she wanted.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I think it’s easiest, don’t you?”
“Sure,” I agreed. “But I’m not asking what’s easiest. I’m asking if there’s anything you want in particular.”
She studied me for a long moment before shaking her head.
“Small is best,” she said.
Something about that didn’t sit right with me, but going deeper didn’t seem like a good idea. If she wasn’t going to tell me otherwise, then I was going to have to take her at her word.
“What about after the fact?” I asked.
Her brow knitted together as she smeared jam on her toast. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to be mated,” I said. “Typically, that means sharing a bedroom.”
She knew what I was suggesting. Her knife paused halfway across the bread.
Her eyes rose to meet mine. Our gazes lingered on one another for a long moment.
I had never admitted just how attractive I found Liv.
I’d always found her attractive, but she had matured into someone who was absolutely stunning.
It wasn’t the first time I had pictured what she would look like, undressed, lying on my bed.
Something flickered in her gaze, and I wondered if she had ever had similar thoughts, and if she was having them right now.
Once the mating bond clicked into place, it would only get worse. The bond intensified that physical attraction, making it all but impossible for newly mated pairs to keep their hands off one another.
She finally shrugged. “I like my bedroom.”
And that was that. I gave a brusque nod, and she returned to her breakfast.
I stared at her for a long moment, watching as she nibbled at the toast. None of this seemed real. Liv was my mate. The mating ceremony was in a handful of days, and she was living in my house because I had refused to let her leave.
Whatever happened next, I had royally fucked up by dragging her here and making her go through with the ceremony. I hadn’t been able to help myself. The thought of her leaving and running from it—from me—had sent my wolf into a frenzy, and I knew that no matter what, I couldn’t let her go.
I would just have to accept the consequences.
***
On top of being mated to someone who hated me, I was also having to contend with a psychotic monster terrorizing the town, which was why I was in a cramped, overpacked room, looking at a map.
“We’ve gotten whispers of sandstorms to the west of town,” Oz said. “Some pretty nasty ones, if reports are to be believed.”
A blanket of tension draped over everyone in the room.
Since our last fight with the wraith, things had been relatively quiet.
We hadn’t seen any sign of it. We had raided its lair a few weeks after that encounter, only to find nothing but sand-covered taverns.
We had tried to track the wraith ever since, but so far our search had been fruitless.
It had hidden to lick its wounds and get back to health. Apparently, it was back in action.
“Great,” I muttered.
“Well, we knew this was going to happen sooner or later,” Elias, the pack alpha, murmured. “Though I was hoping for later. Still, it isn’t as though we’re unprepared.”
“What about the demons?” I asked. At some point, the wraith had enlisted the help of lesser demons: imps and other creatures like that.
We had yet to figure out how the wraith had managed to convince them to join its cause, but demons were agents of chaos and had no qualms about sowing discord all over the desert.
Even without the wraith, we’d come across swatches of desolate land, rotten brush, and cacti; rivers that normally flowed freely, barely a trickle in massive basins—the types of things that could never happen normally.
Humans in Adobe Creek had explained it away with global warming, but the pack here in Silver Falls knew better.
“Still the obnoxious, pesky menaces they always are,” Oz said. “Though carrying around iron weapons helps.”
I nodded. Rachel and Emma, who were both witches, could use magic against the wraith. Although some magic still deterred the imps and other demons, it wasn’t nearly as effective against them. So far, iron knives and other similar weapons had made the most impact whenever they attacked.
Sam frowned, rubbing his mouth as he stared down at the pages. “If the wraith is making itself known again, that means it’s going to come after the town soon.”
“Yup,” Elias agreed. “Rachel and Emma have been working on setting up wards for the town, so we should have some protection.”
“We know it’s strategies, at least,” Sam muttered. “So we have things we can do that might work.”
“That isn’t everything, though,” I said.
The others’ eyes turned toward me.
“Please tell me it isn’t as bad or as ominous as you just made it sound,” Oz said.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s some murmurings. Just a few reports from patrols about some unexplained desolation, and I’ve heard of some humans in Adobe Creek who have been seeing some strange things going on. Things that the wraith couldn’t do, and the imps aren’t strong enough to do.”
“So there’s a new player in town,” Elias muttered.
“Looks like that might be the case,” I agreed.
“Great,” Oz grumbled. “I really felt like one psychotic and malevolent creature wasn’t enough. It really felt like we needed a second one.”
Elias let out a long, low breath as he ran his fingers through his hair, scowling down at the pages strewn across the table. “Just what we need,” he said. He turned to look back up at me. “Any idea what it is or what its game plan might be?”
I shook my head. “Again, just murmurings, and a few strange things the guys have noticed. Could be anything. Could be the wraith managing to sow some confusion for all I know.”
Even as I said it, I knew I was probably wrong. My mind went back to my conversation with the Oracle, her warning of something worse to come that we needed to prepare for. Vague and cryptic, but still important.
“The Oracle told me there was some new danger on the horizon,” I said. “I think we might be seeing the start of it.”
No one responded. Even Oz remained quiet.
“That would have been useful to know sooner, don’t you think?” Elias growled.
“I’ve been a bit preoccupied,” I growled back. “Besides, I was hoping I’d be able to gather more information before bringing this to you. Ominous portents aren’t exactly useful, now are they?”
Elias tilted his head in concession. His brow knitted together as he stared at the map.
“If what you’re saying is true, then we need to figure out what’s coming our way,” Elias said. “The Oracle hasn’t been wrong yet. I can’t imagine she’s going to start now.”
The Oracle has never been wrong. The words reverberated in my head, swirling, though not because of whatever danger loomed over the horizon.
It was because of Liv. If the Oracle was never wrong, that meant that Liv had been right all along and fated mates were real, something I had grown up believing was an idle, childish belief.
My jaw clenched as I drummed my fingers against my thigh. It didn’t matter whether Liv was right or wrong or what I thought. They were all distractions from the problem at hand.
I shoved those thoughts away and went back to the map.