32 Meg
Meg
“How much did you give him?” I laughed as I watched Justus try and fail to stand from my dad’s kitchen table.
Roman and I were soaked after the sky had opened up on us. The weather was having a hell of a time making up her mind. It’d been hot and sticky this morning. An afternoon wind beat at the windows now, but at least the wood stove was roaring to fight off the sudden cold.
Dad sniffed the bottle of whisky he’d placed on the table. “Less than I’d give your mom.”
His eyes narrowed on where I was still holding Roman’s hand.
The one I couldn’t quite let go of.
“You’re mated,” Dad spoke through our link.
“Surprise.” I grinned sheepishly. “Turns out I’m into humans too.”
Good one. Mom would laugh.
Dad grunted as he looked Roman over.
My mate tensed beside me.
The awkward standoff was broken by the sound of tires crunching the dirt road.
“Your mom is back.” Dad’s face lit up like a pup at Christmas as he headed outside.
“You want to kill me.” One of Justus’s eyes shut and he pointed at the bottle. “That’s poison.”
“No, it’s home brew.” I tried not to let my frustration show.
Now was not the time for Justus to be wasted. I could sense Roman’s worry and the impending doom he struggled to bury. I thought Justus would be able to make him feel better about this whole plan.
Justus blew out his lips as he shook his head. “We will not be having that at the wedding.”
I swore Roman growled, and it made my heart flutter.
Rawr, my sexy human. My wolf smiled.
“I’ll take care of notifying the council that the wedding is canceled,” Roman said. There it was again. That bitter sense of disgust with himself that he quickly soothed as he brushed his thumb over my knuckles. “There won’t be a wedding with you.”
“Woah. Woah. Woah.” Justus flapped his arms, almost tipping back his chair. “Until we know what the gods are agreeing to, the wedding is still on. But bigger. Do you still like cherry flavor? I can ask Mom to change the cake.”
Roman’s brow furrowed as he turned to me.
After trying to sort through all this man’s internal emotional turmoil while he seemed nothing but calm on the surface, maybe I was the one who needed a drink.
“What Justus is trying and failing to say is that we’ll still have the wedding, but you and I will be getting married instead. If that’s okay with you?” I asked, suddenly nervous.
It was one thing to drag him by the literal teeth into my world. Another to have him openly admit he wanted me in his world. Not that I was pressuring him to do that.
Crap. That’s exactly what I was doing.
“And I might possibly be a third in this polyamorous union.” Justus stood from his chair and threw his arms over our shoulders.
It was my turn to growl. “Maybe this is a bad idea.”
“It’s fine, Meg.” Roman pulled me away from Justus, leaving him to stumble back to the table. “I have a plan. Do you trust me?”
“You have a plan to stop the gods?” I asked.
“No… That’s not…” Roman dragged his hand over his face. “I’ve been trying to tell everyone for weeks now that’s not possible—”
“Let me meet him!” The door swung open with a crash and my family piled into the small cabin, forcing Roman and I apart.
“This is the human?” Trish asked. “He’s bigger than I thought.” Her teal hair blocked the view of my mate. I couldn’t see her either once Jaxon’s large frame ducked into the cabin, forcing us further apart.
Then Mom’s arms were around me. “I’m sorry it took so long. We had to give everyone a ride.”
“Everyone?” I glanced over the top of Mom’s head.
Calla, the wolf witch from Amarock, sniffed as she stepped into our small family cabin. Her cloudy eyes glanced past me, to Roman, and I had the unreal urge to stop the seer from seeing him.
“Like I said.” Her gaze found mine again. “We’re already too late.”
“Too late for what?” I asked.
“Someone needs to explain what is going on.” Alpha Kera came inside next, forcing all of us deeper into the house.
It reminded me how crowded the cabin had been while my sisters and I were growing up. There was a reason we held family dinners outside now.
Mom squeezed my arm, leaving a wave of soothing magic she couldn’t help but give, and turned to Kera.
“I drove up to the archives in Amarock to get Trish,” she explained. “We didn’t have any more time to wait for them to find an answer. But I guess we’re still too late.”
Dad grumbled something about rushed mating. Mom patted his arm to soothe him.
Everyone in the room looked at me.
I shrugged. “Nature is unpredictable.”
They’re wolves. They understand.
Alpha Kera couldn’t even argue that since it’s what she’d always taught me. “So the wedding is off?” she asked.
“No.” Justus yawned. He looked so small compared to everyone in the cabin as he sat at the table with his chin propped on his hand. “We’re both getting married to Meg.”
“You’re what?” Dad growled.
“Don’t mind him.” I waved my hand in his direction. “He can’t handle his whisky.”
Mom nodded sympathetically. “Then what do we do now?”
“That’s why I was trying to—” My poor mate got cut off again as Trish pulled Calla into the middle of the room.
“She had a vision,” Trish said, glancing at me. “It’s not good.”
Calla and Trish held hands as the seer took a deep breath. Then her eyes turned white and her voice echoed. “The warrior goddess only buys time. The gods are already awake.”
“What does that mean?” Kera asked.
“For science’s sake,” Roman barked, causing all of us to look at him as his deep voice commanded attention.
“This is what I’ve been trying to tell everyone from the beginning.
The gods don’t play by human or shifter rules.
They do what they want, when they want. And they don’t care about the sanctity of a human marriage.
Hell, gods will be the first to knock up someone else’s wife.
A sacrifice of the heart might appease one, but it wouldn’t work for all of them at once.
The gods desire suffering and prayers and respect and adoration.
They want to be alive and awake. The amount of sacrifice you’d need to make hundreds of them happy enough to give up the power of walking among us again would be on a scale so massive we’d never be able to do it ourselves. Morrigan has been lying to you.”
I felt his relief at finally being heard mix with my own at knowing I wasn’t crazy.
“She is lying,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out about what, but I know she is.”
Kera looked at me and nodded. As alphas, we could tell these things. “The question is, what do we do about it?”
“If what you say is true, and I’m not doubting you,” Mom hurried to add, “then how do we not anger the gods any more than they already are?”
Roman shrugged. “You pray to stay out of their path.”
“And like I said, it’s too late.” Calla sighed.
Thunder cracked above the house, making the lights flicker.
Now they’re just being cute. My wolf rolled her eyes.
Everyone started talking at once, asking questions and seeing if Roman knew anything else about the gods we were missing.
Trish sidled up to me and laced her fingers through mine. “I’m sorry. I thought I could find a way to fix this.”
“It was never really your fault. Please stop worrying.” I squeezed her hand. “How are you anyway? How’s mated life treating you? We haven’t had a chance to talk.”
And I didn’t know when we’d get another, so I wasn’t wasting the moment again.
Trish smiled at Jaxon, who was leaning against the table and speaking with Roman and Mom.
“You’ll know soon enough,” she spoke through our link. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“It doesn’t feel real yet.” I wondered if it ever would.
Just like I knew it’d happen, my family welcomed Roman with open arms. But how much longer could we stay here stuffed into the cabin while the storm raged outside?
“It’ll take a while to feel normal.” Trish and I sat on the three-person sofa with the dented springs and worn flannel fabric that we’d spent many years jumping on as pups.
The absence of Alec hit hard at that moment as we both looked at the empty third cushion seat.
“I refuse to believe there is nothing we can do,” Alpha Kera said from across the room, and everyone spoke over each other as they tried to offer solutions.
Trish leaned against me, and we sat silent for a moment, enjoying the warmth of each other’s presence again.
“Where is Alec? She’d have something to say about all this.” My sister must’ve seen me tense because her eyes narrowed. “What?”
There was no use hiding it. “She’s fighting the circuits,” I spoke through our link, not wanting Dad or Mom to overhear us.
Alec would kill me if they did.
“Damn it. She promised.” Trish seethed. “I should come around more, especially now that I have my powers back. We can fight instead of her having to go there. This is my fault too.”
“Don’t say that.” I squeezed her hand between mine. “I told you not to worry anymore about whose fault anything is.”
“Apparently, none of us are good at listening,” Trish huffed.
“Ain’t that the truth.” Dad glanced our way, and the two of us sank deeper into the couch as we both smiled and waved.
I caught Roman’s eye from across the room, and it was as if the world stood still for that brief moment. All the noise and chaos fell away.
The small smile he gave me made butterflies dance in my stomach, but it was tainted with the feelings of a deep sadness. Suddenly, I knew what this strange feeling was in my chest.
He’s going to sacrifice himself for me.
Over my dead body. My wolf growled.
“What?” Trish tried to hold me back by my arm as I shot to my feet.
“This is what they wanted,” I said, loud enough for everyone to stop talking. “The gods. They wanted us to be separated. You said it yourself that they reveled in our suffering. There’s no greater pain than for a wolf to be kept from her fated mate.”
“You think Morrigan planned this?” Mom asked.
“I think she knew about Roman when she made the deal,” I said.
“You could’ve died from rejection or moonsickness if she kept you two apart.” Kera twisted her hands behind her back as she paced. “The goddess wouldn’t have knowingly put you in harm’s…”
“That fucking bitch.”
Alpha Kera’s eyes burned as she growled.
Then suddenly everyone was growling. At least the wolves. Justus shrieked, and my poor mate paled as he took a step closer to me.
“Is it true?” he asked. “That you’d get hurt if I wasn’t with you?”
“Yes,” I told him. “We can’t be too far apart for too long or the bond can make me sick.”
It’d be better now that we were mated, but I wasn’t giving him all the details until I was sure he didn’t plan to do anything stupid. Maybe I’d learned a little from my time with the humans after all.
He closed his eyes as the inner turmoil raged inside him again. “I didn’t know.”
“We’re still learning things about each other.” I took his hand in mine again, feeling him relax at my touch. “But we’ll take it slow, okay? We’ll figure this out.”
I thought everyone was still growling about the betrayal of the goddess, but their attention turned to the window as a howl came from outside.
The front door blew open. Rain and wind raged behind my aunt Coral as her blonde hair blew wild and her fingers gripped Skoll’s soaking fur.
“The river,” she cried. “We have to go. It’s about to flood!”