Chapter 1 - Rachel
I stood on tiptoe as I stretched up, trying to reach the top shelf. I could almost get the box of cereal onto it. Just as I thought I had it, the box teetered over the edge once more and hit the ground.
Huffing, I bent down, grabbed the box, and repeated the process.
“Stretching like that isn’t going to make you any taller,” a voice teased.
I twisted and glared down at Alex, who gave a playful, boyish grin.
“Another short joke? Wow, how original,” I drawled, my voice oozing sarcasm.
“Don’t mess with the classics, eh?” He laughed at my scowl even as he plucked the box from my hand. “Here, let me.”
He reached out and slid the box onto the shelf with ease, still giving me a smug smirk.
“Are you trying to give Jenson a reason to fire me?” I asked. “If he catches you doing my job for me, he’s going to demand to know why he’s paying me.”
“Trying to do the opposite,” Alex said, one eyebrow raised. “Because if he sees that you aren’t able to even shelve items without having to lug a stool around with you, he’s going to call you dead weight.”
I raised my eyebrows in a you’re not wrong gesture. “You know, he said I was mopping too quickly last week and that I needed to slow down. Then this week, when I did, he told me I was taking too long and needed to hurry up.”
Alex snorted, rolling his eyes as he flashed a grin. “Yeah, he would do that. But he’s always been like that.” When I shot him a disbelieving look, he bobbed his head in concession. “All right, he’s worse with you, and we all know it.”
“God, why do I even care?” I muttered, glancing over my shoulder. “He makes coming here miserable. I don’t know why I even want to keep this job.”
Alex didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. This job was the only way I could get out of my mother’s house.
When I tried to move out and search for an apartment, she had thrown a fit, saying it wasn’t proper for a daughter to live on her own before she was mated, especially someone with my particular “deficiencies.” It had been too much effort to argue with her over it.
We had compromised when she agreed to let me get a job, but she had only agreed to that when I spun it as a way for me to find a mate.
To my mother, that was really the only good contribution I could give to the pack.
According to her, I’d be lucky to mate with a semi-strong shifter and produce some kids who might be shifters themselves.
But it had at least gotten Mom to agree to the idea of me working.
Which was how I ended up working at Jenson’s Goods, a small grocery store on the outskirts of town.
I hated the hours and my boss, but at least it got me out of the house.
“Thorn!”
I closed my eyes. Only my boss ever called me that.
Already knowing who I would see, I turned to see a large man with a paunch and streaks of gray in his hair moving toward me.
In my mind, I raced through the last couple of hours, trying to figure out what I might have done that would piss Jenson off since I started my shift, but coming up empty.
He must have found something to blame me for, though.
The fact that the pack alpha was my older brother hadn’t softened his antagonism toward me in the slightest.
Alex raised his eyebrows and gave an innocuous whistle as he turned and walked away.
“You’re just going to abandon me like that?” I asked.
Shrugging, he said, “You can handle it on your own. I have faith.”
“Coward,” I hissed without any real malice.
He turned his head and gave a playful wink as he smirked, then disappeared around the corner just as Jenson arrived.
I straightened, turning to face my boss as he scowled down at me with distaste. He always stopped just short of outright antagonizing me, or, at least, doing so in a way that I could prove it and complain about to Elias. Not that I would. I didn’t let my brother fight my battles for me.
“Yes, sir?” I asked.
His tongue prodded the inside of his cheek as he looked me up and down, sizing me up the way he did whenever we came face to face.
I waited, bracing myself for whatever he was going to yell at me for: not putting the mop back in the storage closet the right way, putting an item on the shelf crooked, breathing wrong.
“You’re clocking out early,” Jenson said.
I frowned, unease crawling up my spine. “Am I being fired or something?”
“No.”
“Then what—?”
“The Oracle’s summoned you to a meeting.”
I froze as the words sank in. I blinked in surprise.
“The Oracle?” I managed to ask.
His lips pursed. “Did I stutter, or is your hearing just that bad?” he demanded.
“I heard you the first time, sir,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “I’m just surprised. What does she want with me?”
He rolled his eyes and shrugged. “You’d have to ask her that, wouldn’t you?” he said. “Now, go.”
He made a dismissive, shooing motion with one hand before turning and marching away, leaving me alone as I tried to figure out what the hell the Oracle would want with me.
***
I found the office in the town hall where I was supposed to meet the Oracle and came to a stop the second I opened the door, taking in the scene in front of me.
The Oracle sat facing the door. Her gray hair fell down below her shoulders.
Gray eyes studied me as her wrinkled face gave a smile.
There had always been something slightly unsettling about the Oracle.
It was the way she looked at everyone, as if she knew all your secrets.
Could see into your very core and knew every little thing about you.
That wasn’t what unnerved me. What unnerved me was the fact that Elias and Sam were also here, also sitting, and neither of them looked particularly thrilled.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Have a seat, Rachel,” the Oracle said.
At first, part of me wanted to turn and run out of the room.
My entire body seemed charged with unease.
Except running wasn’t an option. It wasn’t as though there was a place I could go.
It would only delay whatever was about to happen.
Which, based on the expression on my brother’s face, was about as pleasant as eating an orange after brushing your teeth.
“Come on, Rach,” Elias said, using the nickname only he used as he jerked his head toward the one empty seat. “You need to hear this.”
I searched between Sam and Elias, but it was clear I wasn’t going to find out what happened until I sat down. I finally lowered myself into the chair.
“Did something happen to Mom?” I asked Elias, who shook his head.
“Nothing like that,” the Oracle said, lacing her fingers together as she leaned forward toward me. “But we do need to discuss your future.”
My brow furrowed. My future? What did the Oracle have to do with my future?
She typically dealt with high-profile things that affected the entire pack.
She didn’t take an interest in single individuals unless they were either very important, like Elias, or she saw something in her readings that involved them specifically.
I was nowhere near important in the grand scheme of the pack, which meant that she must have seen something to do with me.
I waited, trying to keep my heart from exploding out of my chest from nervousness. No one spoke. The silence lingered. Neither Elias nor Sam would look at me. I squirmed in my seat, begging for someone to speak up, to shatter the tension.
Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer.
“What about my future?” I asked.
Instead of answering, she went on a tangent. “The sand wraith is still out there,” the Oracle began. “I have been following the signs. It’s only a matter of time before it strikes again.”
“I know,” I said. Everyone knew about the sand wraith and the chaos it had caused.
Although Emma had managed to deter it and hold it at bay for a while, we all knew it would strike again.
It fed off despair and had grown strong during the summer drought.
Since then, it had started feeding on the despair of the pack, unleashing terror wherever it could.
“But I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to do about it,” I added.
It wasn’t a secret that I couldn’t shift or was weak, particularly for a Thorn. If these three expected me to be able to fight the wraith, then they were insane.
Except that wasn’t what they were planning.
“It’s time for you to be mated,” the Oracle said.
The words rang in my ears, and I stared, dumbstruck. Mated? Me?
“What?”
The Oracle nodded. “I’ve read the signs, and fate has told me that the path toward defeating the wraith lies with you and your mate.”
“So I have to find a mate?” I asked. “I hate to break it to you, ma’am, but that isn’t going to be easy. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly desirable.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, dear,” the Oracle said with that grandmotherly smile of hers. “You have plenty of wonderful qualities, even if you don’t see them yourself. But that’s beside the point. We already know who your mate is.”
“You do?” A sinking feeling settled in my stomach. All my life, the one bit of solace I’d had was that I would be allowed to mate whoever I wanted. I wasn’t important enough to have an arranged marriage or to marry for any reason other than love. Apparently, that had been foolish.
The Oracle nodded.
“Who?” I asked, turning my attention to Elias and Sam.
Elias’s jaw was tight, and his fingers drummed on the table as he stared straight ahead.
Sam, for his part, looked at the table, then at the Oracle.
When she gave a firm but polite nod, he took a deep breath and twisted in his seat until we were facing one another.
“Me,” he said.
I laughed without an ounce of humor. “Funny,” I said, not bothering to bite back the bitter edge to my words. “Great joke.”
“It’s not a joke, Rach,” Elias said.