Chapter 2
Thyme Olson was frustrated as she trudged through her wildcat pride’s hunting territory. During the April full moon, not a single member of their pride had found any game, which left everyone on edge. Wildcats needed to hunt and catch things. Unsuccessful hunting led to unfulfilled feelings, and that led to people acting like jackasses and getting into fights.
It didn’t help that the pride alpha, her father, had died during a hunt four months earlier, and that meant there was no alpha running things. The pride was being led by the two elders—Liam and Jacob—until the next alpha took over.
Which was her.
The alpha position was hereditary only to the blood members of the Olson family, which meant that when her father died, his mate—her stepmom Brilla—wasn’t allowed to remain alpha female. The position was rightfully Thyme’s, but she was missing one of two requirements to take over—having a mate.
The full moon her father died, he told her that it was time she put away the foolishness of waiting for her truemate and simply choose a male to mate in order to take over the pride. She’d argued that waiting didn’t hurt anyone, but if she mated a male she didn’t love, then she might get hurt. It had been clear from the arch of his dark brow and the curve of his mouth into a frown that he didn’t understand and they’d both ended up frustrated, going their separate ways to hunt.
That was their last conversation.
She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts of the past. She’d think about her dad later, and the fact that her younger half-brother was turning twenty-one in a couple weeks and had been eyeing the alpha position for as long as she could remember.
The elders had asked her to scout the territory for game for the full moon that night and she was disappointed to have to tell them that she’d seen neither furry butt nor antler in her search.
Pollution from a nearby factory had ruined the groundwater and driven the wildlife to other, less toxic areas, away from Marin, Kentucky. Hunting game had been dwindling for months, hell years, since the factory had set up shop, and now the truth was clear: their hunting grounds were useless.
As a shifter she wasn’t too worried about the toxicity because she could heal from most anything, but she sure as heck didn’t like the chemical smell that lingered in the air or the fact that she hadn’t been able to hunt for anything for a long time.
She walked in through the back door of elder Liam’s house, following the sounds of talking to the family room, where she found both elders, Brilla, and Leif.
“Well?” Jacob, who was Brilla’s father, asked. He didn’t like Thyme, and the feeling was mutual. Jacob, like Brilla and Leif, had only tolerated her and had never made her feel like she was part of their family.
“Nothing,” she said with a sigh. “Not even birds in the trees, the chemical smell is really bad toward the back of the territory.”
“I’m sure there’s game in the woods,” Brilla said with a condescending smile.
“No one found anything during the last full moon,” Thyme pointed out, ignoring the smile that always made her think of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland . “And no one will find anything this month either. I think you both need to really consider what I suggested.”
Liam arched a graying brow at her. “We’re not moving the pride. That’s in the hands of the next alpha.”
“So you’re going to just wait?” she asked.
“You know what must be done,” he said.
She did know, but she didn’t know how to move forward.
According to pride laws, the alpha could take over once he or she reached age twenty-one. Thyme was twenty-five. But the other caveat of the law was that the future alpha couldn’t take over until he or she was mated, and Thyme was as single as a dollar bill.
None of the males in the pack were her truemate.
She could pick a male, there were several interested in being mated to her, but whether they actually liked her or liked the idea of being alpha male because of her was anyone’s guess.
Wildcats didn’t always wait for their truemate.
Her father and her birth mother, Estra, had been truemates. But when her mother was killed while out on a full moon hunt, he’d chosen Brilla for a mate and they’d had Leif almost immediately.
She wanted to wait for her truemate, the one male in the world for her.
Her half-brother was biting at her heels like a wayward puppy, his eyes on the alpha position and his mother and family fully supporting him. Thyme wasn’t sure that Brilla had ever even liked her, let alone loved her. And knowing that she didn’t have her stepmom’s or half-brother’s support had left her feeling hollow.
She’d had her father’s support, but that was gone now. And the elders supported her, but only as much as they could within the boundaries of their laws.
Or at least Liam supported her fully. Jacob only seemed to have her back when it suited him. And he would definitely support Leif over her.
Once Leif turned twenty-one, he’d be able to challenge her after he found a mate. Since no one liked the smarmy male, thankfully, his options were nil for now and she could breathe easy.
“I have a request,” she said.
“What,” Jacob asked, his upper lip curling.
“I’d like to go scouting for new hunting grounds.”
His brows lowered in suspicion. “Where would you go?”
“I don’t know. Maybe north? I would shift and let my cat lead. Maybe if we go north of the factory, we can find fertile hunting grounds and when I take over as alpha, we can move as a pride.”
“ If you take over,” Leif said, his voice a low hiss of disapproval.
“I don’t see anyone lining up to be your alpha female,” Thyme retorted.
Leif growled at her, his eyes flashing to the cranberry red of his cat. His whole body flexed and bulked, like he was two seconds from shifting. Then Brilla put her hand on Leif’s chest, and he relaxed fractionally.
“You may scout,” Liam interjected. “But you do need to find a male to mate so you can take over. It’s been four years that we’ve waited for you as you hold your breath for your truemate to show up.”
“I know,” she said. “I want to find my truemate, I don’t want to just mate anyone.”
Liam gave a small nod. “Be careful scouting, and let me know what you find.”
She nodded and turned on her heels, leaving the house as quickly as possible.
Her sporty two-door was parked in front of the house, and she climbed in and backed out of the gravel drive, heading toward the duplex she shared with her best friend Dana.
Dana was the sweetest female that Thyme had ever known, and she was thankful to call her a friend. It was hard as hell to have friends when your dad was alpha. But Dana had stood by Thyme’s side through all the harsh realities of daily life in the pack, including the loss of her father.
“I think you’re nuts.”
Thyme glanced at her friend across the kitchen table where they were working on a five-hundred-piece puzzle of a covered bridge in the countryside.
“What? Why?”
“Because,” Dana said, hovering a piece over a section to see if it matched up, “going out on your own to scout for new territory is nuts. Dangerous.” She lowered her voice. “Spooky.”
Thyme snorted. “It’s not spooky or dangerous. It has to be done. Once I’m alpha female, the pride has to have a place to go where there’s good hunting grounds. Do you know how many fights broke out during last month’s full moon?”
Dana shook her head, blonde curls bouncing. “No, but I heard about a couple.”
“There were five fights, and two of the fights merged into one big mess. Several of the males ended up at the healer’s home for severe injuries. Without game to hunt, the males are on edge, and hell, so are the females.”
“But we just bitch at each other, we don’t throw punches,” Dana pointed out.
“True, but it could always come to that. I feel like there will be more fights tonight, you know?” She pressed a piece into place, smiling at a family of ducks that were floating under the bridge. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Hell no. Plus, Robby said he wanted to hunt with me tonight.” Dana wiggled her brows suggestively and Thyme chuckled.
She paused in her chuckle and said, “You don’t want to wait for your truemate?”
Dana shrugged. “I kind of feel like it’s antiquated, you know? Like something our ancestors did. Life moves at a fast pace now. Why wait to start the next chapter? My biological clock is keeping me up at night.”
“You’re twenty-five.”
“Yeah, and my mom was mated at eighteen and had three kids by the time she was my age. Which she never lets me forget. I feel like half my life is over. And Robby is sexy as hell and fun to be with, plus he’s got a great job and he’s high in the pack. I think he’s going to ask me to be his mate soon.”
Thyme hummed and let the idea of not waiting for her truemate roll through her head. Did she really want to just choose a male to mate that she liked? Sure she could grow to love a male in time, but she didn’t love anyone right now. Hell, she hardly liked most of the males her age.
Her wildcat let out a definite no in her head in the form of a snarl.
No. She was going to wait for her truemate.
“Well, it might not be your choice anyway,” Dana said.
Thyme blinked in surprise. “What?”
“I mean, Robby said that Leif was going to petition the elders to challenge you when he turns twenty-one.” She twirled a puzzle piece between her finger and thumb. “Wouldn’t you rather just forget about being alpha and settle down with someone? Let Leif have the headaches.”
Thyme wasn’t sure what to say first. She eventually sputtered, “He’s awful.”
“Sure. All alphas are, I think. Assholes to the core. You’re not an asshole, though. And you haven’t found your truemate and maybe you won’t ever, so why keep the pride waiting when you could just step aside?”
Thyme waited for Dana to look at her and said quietly, “Because I can’t just step aside, Dana. According to our laws, if Leif wants to leapfrog me and take over, assuming he can find a female desperate enough to mate him before I find my truemate and take over, then I have to fight him. Like really fight him. Leif is dangerous and unhinged on the best of days, imagine what he’d do to me in a fight for dominance, even if the elders say it’s not to the death?”
Dana’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t know. Robby said that Leif wanted to take over and that it wasn’t a big deal for him to take it from you. He didn’t say anything about a fight. That would not be good.”
“Definitely not.”
Thyme sighed and put the puzzle piece down on the pile of ones that looked like they belonged together. “I’m going for a walk.”
“I’m sorry, don’t go.”
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know.”
“I just feel like shit, now. Maybe you’ll find your truemate tonight and you won’t have to battle Leif at all. Or maybe he’s just a blowhard and doesn’t have the balls to take over.”
If there was one thing Thyme knew about her half-brother, it was that he very much had the balls to do anything he put his mind to, no matter who he had to hurt to get what he wanted. She couldn’t let Leif take over the pride.
She didn’t think she’d survive the fight.