Chapter Nine
Violet
I’m in Dax’s spare room, where all of my suitcases are taking up most of the available floor space.
Okay, I might have overpacked just a teeny bit. I’ve never travelled before, so I pretty much took everything. Oops.
The door opens and Dax pokes his head in.
“The weather is favorable for a walk today,” he says. “Where should we go?”
“Oh, we can just say in.”
Dax gives me a puzzled look. “We did that yesterday, and the day before. Is your wolf not getting restless?”
Yes, very. Most shifters like to take at least a daily run through the woods. While my wolf is loving being with our fated mate, she’s also clawing at me in a frantic bid for release. She wants our wolves to run through the woods together. Where people might see us together.
My wolf doesn’t understand that, of course.
“It’s fine,” I shrug, and smile at him to show I’m okay.
It’s not fine. I’m getting a headache and my skin itches with the need to release my wolf.
“But I do not want things to be just ‘fine’ for you, I want them to be excellent. I also do not think you’re fine. I am starting to experience your emotions, and I sense…frustration.”
“We could…we could run around in the woods behind your house, I guess,” I say cautiously.
“I know! I will buy us each an ice cream sundae. I will eat an ice cream sundae with you,” he declares, and he looks so proud of himself for coming up with this that I almost cry.
A ridiculous, helpless warmth blooms in my chest. This huge, intimidating Alpha—this warrior who could level a tree with one punch—is standing there looking triumphant because he’s willing to be publicly seen eating a sundae, just for me. For me.
My throat tightens. Oh my fates, he has no idea what that does to me. No idea how sweet it feels to be seen, to be considered, to matter enough that he’s ready to brave sprinkles and public judgment just to make me smile.
And yet panic prickles under the glow.
“Really, I don’t want to go anywhere today,” I protest, and then wince as pain hammers my temples.
“Are you afraid to go out because…” he trails off.
“Because what?”
He scowls, and looks away.
So he’s keeping something from me. I’ve sensed that for the past few days. He’ll start to say something and then interrupt himself and not finish the sentence.
I really feel that he’s completely devoted to me, that he wants only me, that I am so very important to him, so why is he hiding things from me if he’s my fated mate?
Fated mates shouldn’t keep secrets from each other, right?
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, and then open them again. Maybe if I’m honest with him, he’ll be honest with me. It hurts to think that the man who fate has chosen for me is keeping secrets.
“I do not want us to go out together because people will immediately be able to sense that we’re fated mates.
” At his look of shock and hurt, I hurriedly add “And you could get in trouble! What if your Alpha doesn’t approve?
What if my father gets mad? I know that duty to the pack is more important than anything in your life. ”
“Other things are important too. One thing in particular.” He takes a deep breath, and pulls his cell phone from his pocket. “Wait here,” he says, all serious Alpha authority, and before I can blink he’s out the door with his phone like he’s about to negotiate a hostage release.
I stand there chewing my lip trying to make out words —it’s too quiet to make out the words, but definitely loud enough to make my anxiety do parkour.
I wish I had an angry goat to pet, or maybe a bull.
I think that bull is just misunderstood.
I’ve tried to discuss this with Dax, but it makes his heartbeat accelerate and his breathing goes all funny.
A moment later the door swings open and he fills the frame, eyes blazing with purpose. He crooks two fingers at me in a come here motion that is so effortlessly commanding my feet start moving before my brain even clocks what’s happening.
Maybe I should be offended about how domineering my sexy murder man is, but honestly? It is so hot.
We step out into the cool, pine-scented air, and before I can ask what’s going on, Dax is already tugging his shirt over his head.
And wow. Just…wow.
I’ve seen him multiple times over the past few days, and yet, every time is a fresh marvel. Muscles ripple down his torso like a thirst-trap artist’s reference sketch come to life.
He turns to me, completely unapologetic in all his Alpha glory. “Shift,” he orders, voice a low rumble that rolls right through my bones.
My wolf practically does a cartwheel.
Before I can even muster a reply, his body begins to glow with that soft, silver shimmer of magic.
His spine lengthens first, shoulders broadening and dropping.
Fur ripples outward in a wave, racing across his skin as his face reshapes—jaw stretching, nose narrowing, those fierce amber eyes becoming even fiercer.
In one smooth, breathtaking motion, the man I love collapses forward and rises again as a massive, midnight-furred wolf, powerful and perfect.
The shift pulls at me like a magnet, my own magic answering his. Heat floods my limbs; my bones melt and reform. The world blurs and sharpens all at once as my senses explode open—earth rich beneath my paws, wind humming through my fur, my wolf singing with the thrill of being beside her mate.
He turns and races away, and I follow. We’re heading towards pack headquarters. What on earth is he thinking? I want to ask, but he’s running too fast – and I know he’s holding back so he doesn’t leave me behind.
Minutes later, we’re at pack headquarters.
I see Jesse helping Lane out of her car.
My cousin Nero is holding the hand of the tall, pretty Viking-like woman who is his mate.
Cole is already there, standing next to his fated mate Alexis and his mother, and the pack council is there. It looks serious.
He runs up in front of them, and I have no choice but to follow.
He shifts back to human form, so I do too.
“What’s so urgent? Why are we here? Whose fur is on fire?” Jesse arches an eyebrow at him. I suck in my breath.
“There is no fire. Alpha, Alpha Genetrix, Secundis in Imperio.” Dax nods at Jesse and his mother and then Cole, using their formal titles. My Murder Mountain Mate is all about the formality. I find it sexy.
But right now, I’m very worried.
“I have a very important announcement to make.” Dax’s voice booms loudly through the crowd.
Jesse and Cole exchange glances.
“Violet is my fated mate!” Dax pronounces dramatically, his voice ringing through the air. I suck in a worried gasp and stare at the crowd, waiting for the outburst of fury, of condemnation. We’ll be in so much trouble. They’ll all hate me. They’ll tell me to leave immediately.
“We know!” Jesse, Cole, his mother, Nero, and approximately fifteen other shifters yell at the same time.
“You…know?” Dax’s eyes widen.
“For the love of fate,” Jesse groans. “How could we not? The way your voice changes when you talk about her and you get all snarly and your body stiffens…”
“The scent of pheromones from your mating rut drifting from your house through the woods…” Cole adds, and everyone nods vigorously.
Oh my fates.
I blush furiously, my face heating up, and slide behind him in the hopes that I can just disappear.
Where’s a giant sinkhole when you need one?
“The other day, when we brought up the fact that your father was trying to arrange a political mating for you, we thought you’d say something,” Jesse says.
“But it was way funnier that you didn’t!” Cole adds cheerfully, which earns him a low, rumbling growl from Dax.
“So…you are not angry that this may cause problems with Violet’s father?” Dax asks.
Jesse frowns. “I don’t love it, but now that I’ve met my own fated mate…
” he seizes Lane’s hand, and she smiles at him adoringly, “I understand that once you feel that pull, once you meet the one that the universe has fated for you, there is no denying it. We’ll have to find a way to make this work.
I mean, there’s no reason he should be upset about this.
Clan Rowan is old and highly respected throughout the shifter kingdom. ”
I step out from behind Dax. “My father and my mother were fated mates,” I say. “He doesn’t like to talk about it at all, but I’m willing to bring it up when I’m talking to him, because I think it’ll help.”
“If he questions the veracity of our bond, we could call in a truth mage,” Dax says.
Jesse agrees. “Not a bad idea. The pack will pay for it.”
“The Rowan family will pay for it,” Dax says. “It’s a matter of family honor.”
“In the meantime, why don’t we have a “welcome to the pack” luncheon right now? Jesse can have our chef whip up something right now,” Lane calls out. “And we need to plan the mating ceremony!” She winks at Dax. “Will you follow the mating ceremony tradition followed by your Alpha?”
“I will not,” Dax says gravely. He glances at me. “I will explain some other time. Jesse chose an…interesting outfit for his mating ceremony.’
I smile at him, but my heart is stuttering in my chest. I’m not so sure that my father will be all right with this. I don’t want to cause trouble for the Moonstone Pack, or, especially, Dax.
“Well, we might as well get dressed,” I shrug. The headquarters will have extra clothing for us.
Nero, who’s wearing his security uniform, holds up his hand and appears to be listening to something on his microphone.
He glances up at Dax. “There’s an unknown wolf near your home, Dax.”
A feral gleam lights Dax’s eyes. “It must be the…” He glances at me and stops himself. My heart drops.
He’s still keeping secrets.
“Good,” he says to his cousin Nero. “We’ll take care of this once and for all.” He glances at me. “You need to go inside the pack headquarters and stay there.”
“But why? What’s happening?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“You can’t!” Jesse snaps at him.
My heart thuds in my chest. Excuse everyone very much? So it’s not just Dax who’s lying and keeping secrets. It’s everyone.
I thought they liked me. I thought they accepted me.
I look over at Lane. She looks at Jesse with a questioning expression, arching one eyebrow. He shakes his head at her firmly, and she sighs and her shoulders sag.
“I disagree,” she murmurs.
“I know.” His voice is a low rumble.
I am so sick of this. I am sick of my father everyone protecting me until I suffocate, of everyone keeping secrets to me.
“Do not talk to me. Do not follow me. I will be inside, being protected by everyone because apparently I’m too dumb to walk without tripping over my own shoelaces.
” The fact that I have, actually, tripped over my own shoelaces on more than one occasion, is irrelevant.
I shoot Dax a furious look and storm down the path to pack headquarters without looking back.
“Violet!” Dax shouts. “Violet!”
I don’t say a word.