Chapter 23
twenty-three
KAT
We met Jonah in the parking lot outside the villa the next morning.
Despite the meeting we were about to go into, Jonah looked relaxed. He was wearing running clothes, and dripping in sweat.
"So last night went well," I drawled.
"This morning did too." Jonah wore a shit-eating grin.
Callum hit him with a gust of icy wind, his eyes narrowed.
Jonah's grin widened, and he gestured to his sweaty self. "I was talking about the running. We ran for like three hours. It felt good."
I reluctantly tapped into the pack link that neither of us liked to use. "Be careful. And don't use Liv to try to make Gwen jealous."
Jonah's smile vanished. "I took a shower before the run, and we barely touched. I don't smell like sex. She shouldn't smell Liv on me. I'm not getting back with Gwen, so it wouldn't matter if she could anyway. Have a little faith in me."
I inhaled.
He was right, he didn't smell like sex. I could faintly recognize Liv's scent on him, but if I hadn't known they had been together, I didn't think I'd notice it. "Sorry. I'm just freaked out about this meeting."
"It'll be fine."
"Are you using the pack link?" Callum asked, his eyes still narrow as he looked between us.
"Yes. We're technically a pack, so that's allowed," I said.
"No."
"Yes, it is." I laced my fingers through Callum's and gestured toward the front of the villa with the other hand. "Ready?"
"I don't like you having a mental conversation with him that I can't hear," Callum said into my mind. "It's too intimate."
It was a little intimate, but only because our pack was so tiny.
In larger packs, there was so much noise that it just felt like normal communication.
I hated packs like that, though. The constant discussion was distracting, and I had a harder time cutting it out than most werewolves for some reason.
"I'm sorry it makes you uncomfortable, but Jonah and I are friends. I'm not going to agree not to use the link."
"Having your minds sandwiched together like ours are can't possibly be purely friendly."
"The pack link feels completely different than a mate bond. Our minds are nowhere near each other. It's just each other's voices in our heads, and it feels more distant than my conversations with you."
I felt Callum's surprise with the explanation.
Suddenly, he had less of a problem with the connection.
"Let's get this over with." Jonah strode toward the front of the villa.
I felt a little better about the whole thing, knowing he wasn't looking forward to it any more than I was.
Callum and I stood behind Jonah while he knocked on the door. Our hands were still connected, and his thumb stroked my knuckle lightly, as if he was picking up on my stress about the coming conversation and trying to calm me.
Gwen opened the door, wearing her usual jeans and simple, fitted t-shirt.
I noticed werewolf guards on either side of the entrance when Gwen waved us in, and more of them were stationed throughout both floors of the open foyer. Thanks to a large balcony, we could see into the second floor.
Looking at her in person, up close like this, kind of hurt.
Gwen and I had always been inseparable.
It hurt that she hadn't bothered to reach out in five years.
It hurt that she'd asked Jonah for help instead of me.
That we were only sisters by blood, now.
That our parents still weren't interested in a relationship with me because they thought I had betrayed them all when I tried to get her away from Simon.
That she'd screwed me over to the point where I had to trade my soul to prevent myself from losing the cafe we'd dreamed about, and going through a level of financial ruin that I could never have escaped from.
It all fucking hurt.
Callum pressed lightly on my knuckle. His cold magic washed over my skin, the feel of it easing my hurt just a little. I doubted he'd used it to calm me on purpose, but it helped anyway.
We followed her to a room filled with couches. Gwen sat down on one with an identical piece of furniture directly across from it, and a pair of armchairs sitting on both sides of those. The seating arrangement formed a large rectangle.
When Jonah strode toward the empty couch, Callum and I followed. My mate sat between me and my best friend.
Though the couch was large, it wasn't quite large enough, so I was squished between Callum and the arm of it. He and Jonah were pressed together just as tightly, neither of them seeming concerned about it.
I rolled my eyes inwardly. "Possessive asshole."
"I wear the title with pride."
"What's going on?" Jonah asked Gwen directly. Her gaze was flicking between the three of us, like she couldn't decide who to focus on. I supposed the three of us were probably a lot for her.
Her ex-fiance whose heart she had shattered, who had become an MMA fighter with even more muscle than he'd had before.
The sister she had betrayed, who now ran the largest chain of coffee shops in the city.
And the fae king who was known for ice, torture, and pain.
"You were supposed to come alone," Gwen finally said, looking at Jonah.
I tried not to let the words hurt me, but they did anyway.
Callum's grip on my hand tightened, and the air around us chilled.
"We're a pack. We deal with shit like this together." Jonah wasn't nearly as bothered by her words as he should've been.
He loved her.
He absolutely did.
"A fae can't be part of a pack," Gwen pointed out.
"He's my mate. That makes him pack," I said.
Mixed-breed matings, as they were called, were extremely rare for wolves. But when they did happen, the werewolves adopted the other immortal in as if they really were a part of the pack.
"If you're desperate enough to reach out for help from one of the two people whose lives you fucked up entirely when you became the Alpha, you should be thanking us for bringing Callum," Jonah said calmly.
"He says that as if I'm an accessory," Callum drawled into my mind.
"You're the gun I'm slinging, remember?"
"I'm still not sure whether to be flattered or offended by that."
I bit lip to hide a grin.
Gwen let out a soft breath and pulled her legs up onto the couch cushions with her. "You can't tell anyone outside this room."
"Alright," Jonah agreed.
I wasn't going to give her my word. She was either going to trust us, or she wouldn't. Either way, I wasn't going to make her any promises. Like he said, she'd fucked me over too thoroughly for that.
"Simon was... abusive." She trailed off for a moment, making real, genuine eye contact with me for the first time in years.
"I should've listened to you. You were right, and it was so much worse than I ever realized it could be.
Mom and dad don't know, because they loved him.
They blame his loss on you because of your mate, now. I'm sorry."
Gwen looked down at her hands. "Simon got worse as the years went on. He hurt me badly three months ago, and I was stuck in bed for a few weeks. I got desperate, and asked someone for help that I shouldn't have."
God, I hated knowing that he'd hurt her so many times, and for so long. I hoped there was someone she could talk to and rely on, too, because I couldn't be that person for her anymore. I wished there was a way to fix all of the shit that had gone down between us.
"I thought he was the only genuinely nice guy in the Cabinet," she admitted. "I realized recently that he's just as cunning as everyone else in power positions, and I'm kind of fucked. I shouldn’t be dealing with all of these older immortals. I'm terrible at it."
Callum stiffened.
"Who?" Jonah asked, but I was pretty sure I already knew based on what Callum had told me before.
"Grayson Darke. The demon king."
Merrily's fated mate.
"Does Merrily stalk him?" I asked Callum.
"No."
Shit.
"He's looking for a mate," Gwen said. "I don't know why, and I know it's abnormal.
He didn't want to go into it when I asked.
He agreed to kill Simon for me if I agreed to seal a bond with him.
We signed a magical contract just a few hours before Callum killed Simon.
A spellcaster made the agreement unbreakable. "
Oh my god.
"This is bad," I told Callum.
"Very."
"Darke worded the contract carefully. It only specified that I would mate with him when Simon was dead.
I assume he was going to send that assassin he has.
The one people whisper about. Now, he keeps sending demons here to remind me that he wants to go through with the ceremony in a few days," she explained.
"Do you have the contract?" Callum was even stiffer than before.
Gwen pulled a worn, folded sheet of paper from her pocket. Her forehead was creased, her lip trapped between her teeth as she brought it over to us, handing it to me instead of Callum.
She was either worried she would make me territorial by handing it directly to him, which was definitely overkill, or she was just afraid of Callum. Probably the second one. And if so, her fear was warranted.
"If she mates with Grayson, isn't Merrily screwed?" I asked him.
"Basically."
"Why do you think he wants to mate with Gwen?"
"He would control two more seats in the Cabinet. Between our allies and his, we have one more vote than he does right now. If he takes the wolves, the Shadow District has the numbers."
Callum unfolded the sheet and read the contract slowly.
"Why did you ask me for help?" Jonah asked Gwen.
Her face reddened.
I had a sinking feeling that I knew why.
"The only way we could come up with for me to get out of the contract was by sealing a mate bond with someone else first. It doesn't say I can't, and it can't be enforced if I take a different mate," Gwen explained.
"So you were expecting me to mate with you to get you out of this," Jonah said flatly.
Gwen's cheeks reddened further. "I was hoping we could talk about the possibility, not expecting anything. I know it's not ideal, and we have things to talk about, but—"
Jonah rose to his feet. "Kat. Callum. I assume you can handle this."
"We've got it." Callum didn't look up from the sheet of paper.
Gwen stood quickly, too. "Jonah, don't—"
He strode out of the room without a backward glance.
Even if he did still have feelings for her, this was a horrible idea on her part. No one liked to be used. I knew that personally.
"Shit," Gwen whispered, sinking back to the couch.
"You broke his heart. How did you think he was going to react to that?" My words were gentle, but I wasn't going to act like she hadn't just screwed up majorly.
Tears filled Gwen's eyes. "I know. I didn't know how to apologize, and I'm just trying to survive. That's what I've been trying to do for years. Simon would've tried to kill you both if I reached out in any way."
"I would've rather been his target than lost my family."
A moment of heavy, painful silence stretched between us.
"There's no date on here," Callum said, lifting his eyes off the contract.
His thumb brushed my knuckle again, silently comforting me like before.
"Your best bet is to loudly announce that the ceremony will take place a year from now, before he goes to the media about it.
Tell them he's being patient with you. Make sure everyone knows the bond is an arrangement, not a love match, so you can get out without ruining either of your reputations, as well. "
"You think that will really work?" Gwen asked Callum, wrapping her arms around her middle.
"Darke is very particular about how he's perceived. He'll be pissed, but he should go along with it. You'll have that year to find another mate, but you'll need to be quiet about looking. We'll try to come up with another way out, but the contract is thorough."
"I'll have to win Jonah back," Gwen murmured. "I still love him."
"I'd recommend a backup plan, unless you're willing to bet your immortality on him." Callum stood, pulling me to my feet with him. The tug was gentle, giving me plenty of space to resist the motion, but I got up too.
"Kat..." Gwen bit her lip. "I want to do a family dinner at mom and dad's house tonight. They should know about all of this. If you come, it'll be like it used to. Just the four of us."
"Callum's my mate. My family. If I was even going to consider agreeing to a family dinner, he would have to be invited too."
"I'll talk to them. Is it okay if I text you?"
"I guess."
Her eyes flickered, her wolf peeking out.
I shook my head. "Sable is asleep. We'll let you guys know if we figure something else out."
With that, Callum and I left.