Chapter 10 #3
“How about you stay in the packhouse for now? We have a couple of shifters living here at all times. Also, you wouldn’t be the only newcomers. Our mage is a recent addition too.”
Very recent. As in, just as recent as they were, not that they needed to know.
“Wait… you let your mage stay here?” Connie asked in shock, mouth dropping. “You don’t like… keep him at your side?”
“Keep him…” What the fuck? “He’s not my prisoner.”
Now they looked at me as if I were the crazy one.
“He’s a mage, though,” Nick said very quietly, each word deliberate. “That means he’s your property. Or do you consider him the pack’s property?”
Proper…
My wolf’s hackles rose, and a snarl escaped that had the teens shrinking back.
“He’s a person,” I rumbled, thoughts of my mate so deathly afraid of shifters running through my head. The way he flinched away from me. The way he kept eyeing my hands when he thought I wasn’t looking. “He’s not property.”
“I’m sorry, Alpha,” Connie said, raising his hands.
“Our old pack has a mage, and he… uhm…” He took a deep breath.
“He’s our property. The pack’s property.
Well, I guess more like the Alpha’s property.
My dad acquired him three years ago. Bought him from another pack.
They had his mother and didn’t need two mages, so they sold him.
I didn’t know mages could be part of a pack. ”
He didn’t know mages could be part of a pack?
His dad had bought a mage? Like it was common?
Blood drained from my face, hands shaking as I worked through the information. The picture I was getting was a grim one. One that was so abhorrent I didn’t want to believe it.
If what they were saying was true… I swallowed, my wolf whining in my chest as a lump formed in my throat.
If what they were saying was true, Nix had probably stayed hidden out of fear.
Because he’d thought we’d what… enslave him on sight?
How would we even do that? He was a mage; he should be able to protect himself.
Then again, if it was so common, there had to be options, right?
A colourful swirl of problems was spinning in my mind. Suddenly, I longed to have yesterday’s problems back, when finding a thief had been the biggest of my issues.
The two teenagers were still staring at me warily, their scents a mix of fear and guilt.
“I’m not mad at you,” I said, taking a deep breath to keep my wolf under control. The lump in my throat was still there, making it hard to speak. “But in this pack, we don’t keep people as property. No humans, no mages, no shifters. We’re all people first. And people are not property. Got that?”
They nodded.
“Sorry, Alpha. Can you… Can you tell the mage thank you for helping us?”
I nodded.
“I can. And so can you when you see him. You don’t have to stay in your rooms. I’ll send someone up who can show you around. I only ask that you stay on the premises. If you want to go for a run in the forest, ask me first. I’ll find someone to accompany you.”
“Yes, Alpha,” came back in unison.
“Gray,” I said, giving them a smile even though I felt like vomiting.
Packs kept mages as property. That information was entirely new and utterly horrifying.
How was it possible I’d never heard that before.
Hell, I’d visited plenty of packs during the past couple of years, and I’d never seen any signs that they kept people as slaves.
Was I blind?
Was it as common as they’d made it sound?
My body felt like it was on autopilot as I got up and told them I’d send someone up to fetch them and show them the dining room. Their breakfast was probably cold now anyway.
Shutting the door behind me, my wolf howled in my mind, the sorrow chilling my whole body.
Some packs kept mages as slaves.
Some shifters kept people like my mate as slaves.
I headed down the stairs, gut churning, my eyes focused on the nearest door. My ears were ringing, blood whooshing through my veins, spreading icy clarity with each frantic beat of my heart.
Nix had every reason to be afraid of shifters. He’d had every reason to stay hidden.
How could I ever win his trust if my whole existence had to seem like a threat to him?
I opened the door and stumbled out into the snow, a howl ripping its way out of my chest as I let my wolf take over and ran into the woods, losing myself in the even rhythm of my paws hitting the snow-covered forest ground.
The wind was icy, but it brought clarity, slowly cutting through the cloud of rage and sorrow. I ran and ran and ran until my muscles burned and my tongue lolled out of my snout.
When I slowly approached the clearing just a couple hundred feet away from our packhouse, I found Rhett waiting for me, holding out a pair of sweatpants.
“Feel better now?”
The answer was yes, but also no.
Yes, I felt better now, but the dread coiling tight in my gut was still there.
I changed back to human, took the clothes and got dressed.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, running a hand through my hair. “With everything I found out today, I think it might take a while until I’m okay again.”