15. Cas #2
He grimaces. “Look, if it’s any consolation, Declan doesn’t usually keep anyone locked up for long.” He glances sidelong at Niall, who nods. “A few days at most, yeah? Think Patrick was the last one, for killing old Magda’s chickens.”
Killing some chickens seems innocuous compared to inadvertently driving every unmated alpha in the pack into rut. It also doesn’t seem like a crime worthy of being locked up. “That’s not comforting.”
“There’s food,” Eden offers, unnecessarily. “Some croissants and fruit. Practically a continental breakfast! You must be starving.”
I am, and I know I can’t remain in my makeshift nest forever, so as my stomach growls in loud agreement I cast off the pile of blankets and sit up.
Eden averts his gaze in the sudden and apparently shocking presence of my nudity—what is with this pack, anyway?
I’ve never met wolves so shy of one another’s nakedness—and to spare him the horror, I wrap the pink fleece around myself.
Adrian lets out a low whistle as I sit gingerly at the small, rickety table jammed in the corner of the room. “Fucking hell. They did a number on you, huh? Nathan and Kato.”
“It wasn’t just them.” I retrieve a picture-perfect red strawberry from the basket. “Half the pack ran me down.” I remember that much. And I remember wanting it, too. From any of them. I bite the inside of my cheek only to discover my teeth have sharpened.
“Did they…catch you?” Niall asks. His voice is very careful—clinical, almost—but his slightly wide eyes betray his horror.
“No, no,” I hasten to say. “Not like that. I meant—they were all trying to get to me. And they weren’t very gentle about it. That’s all.”
“They sure weren’t,” Adrian remarks wryly. “Should’ve seen the state of the village after you disappeared. It was a goddamn bloodbath, they were all so frustrated. The betas have been working round the clock cleaning everyone up.”
“We’ve got so many unmated alphas right now,” Niall murmurs, almost to himself, tugging at his lower lip. “Too many. Declan hasn’t matched any breeding pairs in months, so everyone’s getting restless…”
What the hell? Declan decides who mates with who? I open my mouth to ask, but Eden says, “Who’s the father, then?”
My stomach lurches. I squish the strawberry in my fist. “What?”
“You came back with Nathan and Kato, so—” He begins stammering again, the way he seems to whenever he’s nervous. “I-I mean, was it one, o-or both, or—”
I glare at him contemptuously. Without thinking, I snap, “What about your children, Eden? Shouldn’t Declan worry more about breeding his own mate instead of playing dolls with the rest of his pack?”
The omega reacts like he’s been slapped. He blanches and reels back from me, face ashen and mouth agape, before exiting the room without another word.
“Eden.” Niall immediately follows suit, calling after him. “Eden, wait, I’m sure he didn’t—”
The door shuts behind them with a quiet click. Immediately I feel like an absolute shit, which isn’t helped when Adrian says, “That was really mean, Cas. He’s sensitive about that stuff.”
“I didn’t mean to.” The strawberry in my hand is little more than mush. “It’s not like I even know anything. I just—I don’t want to talk about it. What happened.”
He leans across the table and hands me a napkin. “Could’ve said as much. Eden just gets excited about babies, that’s all. It’s not like we’ve had a lot of them lately.”
“I’m not exactly at my best, alright?” Trying not to lash out like a wounded dog, but I can’t seem to help it.
Every inch of my body is throbbing. I want to go back to sleep, where none of this is real and can’t hurt me.
Where I can’t feel Nathan and Kato pulling at me constantly, leashes taut.
I have no way to get to them, can only stand on the precipice of something very close to despair and wonder why they won’t just come get me.
Declan rules with a goddamn fist of iron, clearly.
So much that neither of my alphas will cross him.
My alphas. Fucking hell.
And now I’ve gone and offended one of the few allies I have in this pack, when Eden has shown me nothing but kindness. I drop my head into my arms. “I’m an ass,” I mumble.
Adrian nods at the basket. “Now eat,” he admonishes. “I can hear your stomach from here.” My appetite has wholly disappeared by now, but I obey anyway. I pick up an apple and bite into it. It tastes like cardboard. “And just so you know, Declan won’t breed him. Eden, I mean.”
“What?” I ask in astonishment. “What do you mean, won’t?”
“Just that. They’ve been mated nearly a decade and he won’t breed Eden. Apparently says he’s not ready for the privilege of it.” He leans against the wall, folding his arms.
“But that means…” I turn the apple over in my hands and do the maths in my head.
“A hundred heat cycles or more that he’s not been bred.
What on earth does Declan do, then? Let him lie there and suffer?
” I can’t imagine it. Wouldn’t have been able to before, but especially not now.
Not since I’ve been through it myself. It would be nothing short of torture.
“That’s exactly what he does.”
“But that’s so cruel.”
“You’re surprised?” Adrian shrugs one shoulder. “Cruel is Declan’s specialty, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“But why do you put up with it?” The question bursts out of me. “This pack is so…it’s fucked up. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s this awful malaise over you all.”
“Be glad you’re not pack-bonded, then.”
“And he decides who you mate with—you don’t even get to choose. Is that why you’re with Niall?”
“I’m with Niall because I like him a lot, beta or no.” He smiles faintly. “And no, he wouldn’t be thrilled if he knew we were shacking up. Any pairings outside of alpha and omega are strictly forbidden, especially before a proper bond. He thinks we all should be saving ourselves.”
I can’t help the face I make. “It’s all so…archaic.”
“Trust me, I know. I’m glad Declan’s dragging his feet pairing me up with anyone. He was threatening to throw me to Kato for a while there, but I guess he decided against it. And now it’s too late, thank god.” A pause. “Uh, no offense.”
“None taken,” I say, bemused. “He’s a bit of an acquired taste.
” Which he is. In a good way, though, I think.
Poor Kato. All you have to do is get under his coarse exterior and find that eager and wanting core that lies beneath, one that wants so desperately to love and be loved, to please and be pleased, in equal measure. A wolf who contains multitudes.
“I’m not ready to pop out a litter, anyway, assuming I could. And I don’t want to leave Niall behind.” His face falls a little, eyelids flickering. “Look, we all know what a big mess everything is. There’s not all that much we can do about it.”
“No one’s bothered to challenge him?”
“I didn’t say that. There have been challengers.
” He wiggles three fingers at me. “He’s wrecked every single one of them.
Decisively, every time. That was enough to scare anyone else off.
Now all the big dick alphas just suck up to him instead.
The rest get pushed to the side and sort of… languish, I guess.”
I think of Nathan immediately. How he’s one of the most impressive and dominant alphas I’ve ever met.
He is what I picture when I think of an alpha, brave and protective and oh-so-strong, able to make you bow and scrape with a single look—not because you have to, but because you want to.
You want to submit to him and give him throat because you know you’re safe if you do.
God, I miss them both, him and Kato. I don’t think it’s even against my will anymore. I genuinely wish they were here in a way that has nothing to do with the bond.
Niall chooses that moment to return. “Are you finished eating?” he asks me, sort of abruptly. “I’d like to look you over.”
And now Niall’s mad at me, too. Well done, Cas! “What for?”
“He’s our pack midwife,” Adrian says.
The walls suddenly begin crashing in, the room jolting violently on its axis. My chest lurches, can’t quite get enough air. “Why?” I say thinly, my voice trembling only slightly. “Isn’t it too soon? I thought the earliest was a week after heat.” Please, no. Give me at least a week of ignorance.
“Usually,” he says. “But sometimes I can tell early with maiden omegas.”
“Niall’s got the best sniffer,” Adrian adds cheerfully. “He knew when Noah was pregnant the day after his first heat.”
I seize the inside of my cheek between my teeth and cast about for an excuse, some cruel barb that’ll send them both running like Eden, but the panic’s emptied out my brain. I stare at them like a deer in headlights.
“It’ll be quick,” Niall says. “And painless.”