4 Meg
Meg
The last few days had flown by in a blur of normality.
I cleaned houses and the inn, trained with the rest of the pack warriors, and ran last-minute errands for Kera.
All while my mind was racing and my wolf kept up her frantic pacing, and the rest of the pack treated me like I was heading to the slaughtering block.
Trish still hadn’t come back from Amarock, not that I was expecting her to find anything so soon, and Morrigan had made herself right at home, delighting in terrorizing the pack with her strange ways.
If she was any indication of what the other gods would be like, I would’ve married whoever they asked to keep them all asleep.
Mom and Aunt Coral had given me a crash course on the humans, but I still couldn’t believe I was physically standing here behind their great walls. The sun was shining above. The breeze was pleasant.
It was such a surreal day.
“It stinks here.” Alec scrunched her nose as she climbed out from the backseat of Mom’s Kia. We’d borrowed it for the trip here, because Kera couldn’t stop growling at Morrigan, and I was trying not to piss off the goddess further.
“It does stink,” Morrigan said as she stood from the passenger side, stretching her arms above her head. Two black crows seemed to materialize from thin air as they perched on top of the vehicle.
Alec gave me a strange look. How did she hear me? I shrugged in response.
The two crows cawed and took off, circling the parking lot above.
Human men dressed in black uniforms came marching forward as Kera and Aunt Coral crawled out of Jareth’s armored vehicle with their mates.
A few guards positioned on the high wall eyed the birds warily.
The nervous tension in the parking lot was thick, making my wolf whine.
What if one of them gets anxious and shoots? Alpha Kera is in the open, unprotected. What if this is a trap?
Protect the pack. Get closer.
Alec’s hand brushed against mine, and she gave me a knowing shake of her head. It didn’t do much to ease my racing thoughts, but it helped a bit.
I hurried to act, moving into position to protect Alpha Kera and Aunt Coral, as Alec stayed to my right. We stepped in sync, having trained for scenarios like this most of our lives.
“Are you sure about this?” Alec seemed to whisper over our pack link. “There’s still time to run.”
Morrigan smirked as she drifted to the front of our little wolf shifter party, heading up the stairs to the building.
I stared at the back of the goddess’s head as the human guards stopped us in front of the heavy glass doors. “I’m seeing this through.”
It’ll be okay, my wolf tried to reassure me. We can always eat the husband if he’s a dick.
Morrigan’s laughter rang out, startling a few of the closest guards and making the crows caw louder overhead. My heart started racing.
Alec’s hand brushed against mine, our pinkies locking for a quick second. A reminder of the past. Of when we were young and carefree and she actually wanted to be around. I glanced at my sister, only to see her snarling at a human guard who approached with a strange device.
“It’s a metal detector,” Ethan was saying. The human man often worked with Uncle Jareth, connecting the city of Ethica with Anubis Pack. “They’re checking for weapons,” Ethan explained.
Alec’s shoulders softened. Barely. She didn’t like most humans, but Ethan had been in and out of our lives for long enough that she tolerated him.
The guards motioned for me to step forward and raise my arms. A wand of sorts passed over my body as I stared ahead, looking at the glass doors.
Morrigan’s patience was wearing thin. She disintegrated right before our eyes and reappeared in full on the other side of the glass doors.
“Okay, that’s kind of cool,” Alec said, just as a human yelled a frantic order.
Then everyone panicked.
Weapons were raised. Guards started pushing in on us. Alec and I acted as one. Our training took over as we moved to neutralize the threat to our Alpha. We pinned the humans on either side of Kera to the walls surrounding the entry stairs, removing their weapons faster than they could comprehend.
“Enough,” Kera commanded.
My sister and I struggled against the alpha bark, looking over our shoulders as more guards came rushing toward the stairs.
But Morrigan pushed open the glass doors, causing us to release the men in our hold.
“Come on,” the goddess said. “We don’t have time to play.”
Mom had told me about the humans. She said the city would be cold. Devoid of nature. This was the colorless world she’d been born to.
She was right.
The room we entered was vast with high glass ceilings that gave a sort of false grandeur to the sterile room as the blue skies shone above.
The air felt fake and recirculated. Tainted somehow, as if too many people breathed it at once.
The pristine white floor we stood on was beneath a row of benches and tables where the humans sat elevated, as if they were above us.
It isn’t safe. My wolf growled and paced. Aunt Coral, Kera, Alec… They’re all too exposed. Need to protect my pack. Need to get us out of here.
I tuned out the very real worries of my beast as I looked around the room, making note of any more exits while guards holding weapons piled in after us and formed a semi-circle at our backs.
I don’t like this, my wolf snarled.
Even Alpha Kera was tense. She moved closer to Alpha Jareth. Skoll bared his teeth in a grimace as he stepped in front of Coral.
Only Morrigan seemed unaffected by the tension growing in the vast room.
“What is the meaning of this?” The human woman seated at the center bench stood. Her voice rang out stronger than her thin frame suggested.
Something in her tone had the guards all moving into formation, training their weapons on us.
It’s a trap!
Silently, I cursed the goddess for getting us into this mess. I turned, giving the humans on stage my back, and using my body as a shield to protect Alec from the guards.
She growled and pushed me aside. “Told you this was a bad idea.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Morrigan waved her hand in the air. “Everyone drop your weapons.”
The sound of metal clinging against the tiled floor reverberated through the building before the goddess even finished her command.
By the looks on the guards’ faces, I assumed they hadn’t willingly disarmed themselves.
“Who are you?” the human woman asked.
Morrigan didn’t deign to answer as she continued her march up to the stands. We hung back, wary about what she’d do next.
Aunt Coral recovered quicker than the rest of us. “This is the ancient goddess, Morrigan,” she introduced her. “Thank you, Councilwoman Troy, for arranging this meeting on such short notice.”
Alec growled again beside me, and I knew she was frustrated at hearing our aunt seem to make herself more pleasant for the humans. That was Coral, though. The Beta peacekeeper.
Something my sister couldn’t understand.
“This is the goddess,” the human woman repeated. I guess she hadn’t been expecting her to be real.
Welcome to the party, I thought to myself as I looked over the other humans at the table.
My eyes locked with the male beside the councilwoman.
The breath left my lungs.
It’s him. My wolf was as stunned as I was. We took in the rugged outline of the large male who stood, raising his arm in front of the councilwoman as if to protect her from Morrigan.
His brown hair was shaved short, and a haunted look radiated from his dark eyes, making him appear older than he seemed.
The uniform he wore clung to his massive shoulders and tapered down to his waist. He wore it well.
That uniform—unlike the rest of the council—did something to his persona, making him powerful. Commanding.
Mine.
I forgot how to breathe, but that didn’t stop the air from rushing past my ears. My heart beat frantically in my chest.
My mate.
As adult wolf shifters, we knew when this happened. There was never any doubt. One meeting of the eyes. One whiff of each other’s scent. And that was it. In strange situations like Trish and Jaxon, they’d been too young to know for sure.
There was no doubt in my mind now.
I’d seen it happen a thousand times before. The world seemed to stop for two souls who met across the room. Some of the more open packs wouldn’t mind if they consummated their union and sealed their bond right there on the floor.
It'd seemed so romantic, like in the books I read. Where you had your person. Fate decided. It was always going to be them. No doubts. No second-guessing. A romance lover’s dream.
One I’d thought I’d never have in real life.
“Stand down, Roman,” the councilwoman whispered. She might as well have yelled it to our wolf shifter ears.
Roman. The name bounced around my head, sending butterflies dancing in my stomach even as the sense of dread buried itself deep.
My mate was a… human.
“What is he doing here?” Morrigan spoke directly to the council for the first time since she’d entered the building as she turned her attention to Roman.
A growl slipped from my chest.
The goddess glanced back at me. A knowing smile lit up her face.
Of course she knows. My thoughts started racing again. Did she set this up?
“It doesn’t matter.” The councilwoman nodded at Roman and he retook his seat, staring straight ahead. “You asked for my son in marriage. I’m afraid I still don’t understand why.”
Her son?
“Are you okay?” Alec moved closer. “You’re shaking.”
“I’m fine.” I forced my body to stand rigid so as not to worry my pack.
Morrigan’s laughter echoed through the room as she turned, sitting on the edge of the platform and giving the council her back. The goddess’s eyes lingered on me a moment longer before she spoke again.
“The gods demand a sacrifice. Retribution for the spell cast to wake them from eternal slumber. This union will be a gesture of peace. One that shows the goodwill of humans and wolves acting together as nature intended.” At least Morrigan’s eyes didn’t go white again while she talked.