Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“So tell me again about this living box thing?” Jericho asked two weeks later.
The bear sat up to his hairy chest in a spacious hot spring deep in the forest. Fenris, Brett and Brody Nash—the annoying red wolf brothers—and Gibson, a brown fox, basked in the soothing water after a day spent hunting.
To his surprise, Fenris actually liked the group.
He’d spent his first week under Red’s watchful eye, not surprised when she sent him to Jericho.
Though the sex between Fenris and the alpha grew more and more explosive each night, the days were filled with tension.
Red didn’t trust him, that he knew. She also expected him to turn on his clan, which he’d never do.
He didn’t agree with Uncle Mike on most clan matters, but he’d never go against his own.
Not when Red had every intention of ripping out the Silver alpha’s throat.
“Spill it, Goldie. What’s the deal with a mating ceremony? Anything we should know, if and when Rudra’s mom tries that on us?” Brody asked. “I wouldn’t put it past her. Woman’s always trying to match lone wolves.”
Fenris sighed. “It’s Fenris, not Goldie. I think your alpha’s a bad influence.”
“Damn straight.” Brett laughed. “But she can kick our collective asses, and she’s pretty pleasant when she’s not dealing with the Silver Clan. So we do what she says—”
“—when she says it,” Brody finished for him. “Now, this box?”
Fenris explained why he’d been running in the forest the day they’d found him.
“My uncle had this notion that my brother and I need to mate. By the Wolf, we’re—” No need to tell them he was still considered a pup by many.
Jericho and the others treated him like an equal, and he had no intention of changing their minds.
“It’s too soon for us to be tied down to one lone female.
And the Silver Clan females are too bitchy for my peace of mind.
Not one of them has ever held my attention for more than a night. ” Not like Red.
“But how do you know the ceremony actually works? Just more priest bullshit,” Jericho offered.
“In my old clan, they tried that same crap with us. But my old man told the priest to go to hell.” He frowned.
“’Course, not more than a few days later we were thrown out of the Great Forest. Maybe it wasn’t all bullshit. ”
Fenris inwardly flinched. These shifters he’d come to think of as friends had been ousted from their rightful home by his own uncle.
Bad enough he came from the Silver Clan.
He knew they gave him slack because Red had ordered it, and because they thought of him as another victim of the Silver Clan.
A misguided golden wolf who still refused to accept the truth about the decimation of his clan.
The more time he spent with them, the more he worried about eventually learning the “truth.” Had there once been clans of golden wolves? And if so, did his uncle have anything to do with their passing?
Fenris shook off his doubts. “Yeah, well, you wanted to know about the celebration. Every ten years, the Silver Clan gathers together to join mates, unwilling or not, in tribute to the Wolf in the Forest. The males are forced to take a lock of hair, bind it in the sacred petals and toss it into the green stalk of Living Wood, which is actually a plant with a hard, bowl-shaped flower given to us a long time ago by the Dark Elves. Personally, seems like the Dark Elves cursed us. Not much of a gift if you ask wolf males.”
“One woman? Forever?” Jericho shuddered.
“Come on. To find that special female?” the brown fox interrupted. “I’d love to find a female, have kits, and settle down. But in the Great Forest. Not here,” Gibson added.
Fenris sighed. “I can’t blame you. I mean, your land is still forest and woods, but the humans are so close.”
“Don’t let Rudra hear you say that,” Brody said in a low voice and moved in the water. “She’s a bit sensitive about mention of anything human.”
“I don’t see why.” Fenris raised his arms above his head and stretched. Damn, the hot spring felt good in the encroaching chill of autumn air. “Her father’s a sorcerer. He’s not human. A like species, maybe, but he’s different. I can smell it on him.”
Brett blinked. “Really? Because they all smell alike to me.”
“What does your alpha smell like, then? Because she’s part sorceress.” Fenris wanted to know. His emotions were in a constant tangle over the sexy, stubborn female. He couldn’t even think of her as human anymore. Just one more objection he no longer had to put between them.
He’d had sex with her as a man, and despite his intention not to, they’d had sex while in wolf form, which put him one step closer to mating with her. Two weeks with her wasn’t enough. He wanted to lose himself in her body, in her heart and mind.
“Rudra’s big for a female, but she’d fit me just right. She smells sweet. Like magic and wolf and sex, all rolled up into a delightful—” Brett clutched at Fenris’s hand wrapped around his throat.
Everyone stilled.
“Ah, go easy, Fenris.” Jericho chuckled. “Brett likes to fantasize, but Rudra would eat him for breakfast. And not in a good way.”
Alarmed at his loss of control, Fenris tried to play it off. “Sorry. I swear she’s put some kind of spell on me so I won’t leave. Makes me antsy anytime I feel like anyone’s talking bad about her.”
Gibson nodded. “That’s our alpha. Strong, sly, and a devious heartbreaker. If she weren’t so out of my league, I’d try for her myself.”
“How come you haven’t, Jericho?” Brody asked. “You’ve known her forever.”
Jericho looked ill. “She’s like a sister, you ass. Honestly. Are you sure you’re not part cat? You think with your dick more than your brain.”
Fenris couldn’t help laughing with the others.
Jericho continued. “She accepted me without question. Just cubs together, and we hit it off. I’d kill anyone who screwed with her,” he said, glancing at Fenris in no uncertain terms. “But I also know what she needs better than she does.”
“Great. Here we go again.” Brody groaned.
“What?” Fenris asked.
“Jericho thinks he’s a shaman. Has dreams and shit. Really annoying,” Brett said.
Fenris admired Jericho. Strong, solitary yet protective of his clan, the bear never made excuses for others’ failures or his own.
And he was a hell of a shifter to have in a fight.
They’d crossed a large group of rebellious cats the other day, spoiling for trouble.
Fenris had considered the need to shift into his werewolf form, but then Jericho had stepped in.
After one swipe of his paw, the cats hissed and ran fast and far away.
“What kind of dreams do you have?” he asked Jericho.
“Oh, funny ones. Dreams about living again in the Great Forest. About running with a golden wolf, a future alpha of the Silver Clan.” Jericho’s dark brown eyes drilled holes into him.
“About Dark Elves and sorcerers and the Wolf in the Forest. And about the spirit’s long-lost brother, the Bear in the Cave. ”
“Interesting.” Fenris’ heart raced. How much did Jericho really know?
Jericho studied his fingernails. “Yeah. Seems Uncle Mike is right now scouring the Great Forest looking for his missing golden nephews. Red orbs of danger, a missing twin, and demons. Ring a bell?”
“Demons? Anson’s gone?”