Shameful by May Dawson
17
Legacy
Lucas stayedclose to me as we joined the other shifters, which was comforting. My dad was standing with Tyrone, but he winked at me from across the distance, and relief flooded me. The pack would have a plan. The vamps wouldn’t catch us unprepared again.
“Legacy,” Lucas said quietly, and I turned to facehim.
I’d been angry at him, but some of that slipped away when I saw the worried look on hisface.
Gently, he said, “I meant what I said earlier. I’ll be alpha when my father passes the pack tome.”
“I know,” I said, confused.
“I thought you were ready for the kind of responsibility that goes with being an alpha’s wife. You’ve always seemed so level-headed, you’ve always seemed like you do the right things.”
“I do,” I said, confused. “Itry.”
He shook his head. “Not last night. You were reckless and stupid. Somehow you lost control of the shift. Then you made up that stupid story. Lying to the pack, on top of everythingelse.”
“No,” I said, my voice coming out in a whisper. I cleared my throat and said, “No, I told the truth.”
“I can’t marry you,” hesaid.
My stomach dropped. My wolf inside cringed, remembering how right it had felt when he and I ran together. But my chin lifted.
“Fine.” Maybe I didn’t want to marry him either.
I stared at his face in profile as he turned toward his father. He had to feel the bond between us as much as I did. We’d find a way to work through this. I couldn’t imagine living withouthim.
Cyrus began to speak. I barely heard him, despite my best efforts to focus. I could feel Lucas’s every moment beside me, every time he shifted his weight. My thoughts were racing.
I tuned back in to hear Cyrus say that the pack had been endangered the night before.
I heard my name, and then I realized everyone was staring at me. The entire pack. The meeting felt unnaturally silent.
Lucas said, “Legacy.”
His voice breaking the silence startled me. My eyes darted to hisface.
My mother hissed in her breath. My father grasped her shoulders, and I could’ve sworn he was holding her back from a fight.
“The way you betrayed the pack was shameful. I reject you as a mate,” Lucas said. “I break the bond betweenus.”
I gasped. I thought the words would change something, but nothing happened. They just hung in the air. Lucas turned back to his father; I had the feeling he wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Maybe he never would again.
How the hell was I going to live in this pack like this? Seeing him, but not having him. I was so in shock I could barely breathe.
“Lucas will be freed from his bond to find another mate, in time,” Cyrussaid.
What about me? Would I find anothermate?
I wanted to scream.
“Because Legacy has proven to be so fragile and may not be able to endure the process of breaking the mating bond without exposing us all,” Cyrus said, “she will remain at Reject Island until she’s proven she can live among us safely.”
“What?” I demanded.
“That’s all,” Cyrus said. The thrall he had over the pack broke, and whispersrose.
Tania made a beeline through the crowd toward me. My parents started moving too; the look on my mother’s face made my heart twist.
Lucas started to say something, but I ignored him. I only had eyes for the alpha.
I charged toward Cyrus.
“What about the vamps?” I shouted above the din, and suddenly everything went very quiet again.
He whirled to face me. “Shut up about your daydreams, Legacy. You really think you’re so important, a vampire would stalk you? Foolish child.”
I could’ve sworn his eyes darted toward the crowd, gauging if they believed his words.
“I don’t know why,” I said, “but I know a vampire isstalkingme.”
I heard the crowd shift, heard their laughter.
Cyrus’s lips twitched. “Let us talk about this inside.”
He swept his arm toward the house.
“You have to protect the pack,” I said, begging him to actually hear me, to listen.
“I will,” he said, his face like thunder. “Don’t presume to tell me how to do my job, child.”
“I’m not a child. And you know myname.”
The alpha grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me ahead of him into the house. I turned over my shoulder, caught a glimpse of the crowd.
Courage headed toward us, and my father grabbed his arm. He shook his head. My mother said something to Courage as my father headed for the house. My parents were right—my hot-headed, protective little brother needed to be protected rightnow.
“Your father should’ve listened to me and beat the sass out of you long ago,” Cyrus growled. “You wouldn’t have made a very good wife anyway—at least not at first.”
I lifted my chin and stared into his eyes defiantly, but I couldn’t help backing across the floor as he advanced on me. It was hard to believe I’d been in this same expansive living room a few nights before when I was here for the party.
I had to protect my parents and my brother. If that meant going to Reject Island, that was what I woulddo.
The realization somehow hit like a blow to my stomach, and straightened my spine, all at the same time. I had to take care of the people I loved.
Sometimes that means fighting. Sometimes it means submitting—at least until you can fight again.
My father stepped into the room, closed the glass doors behind him. I didn’t want to make this any harder on him than it had to be. I didn’t want to put him in a position to fight with the alpha.
And I didn’t want to make my father choose between us, either, because after the last twenty-four hours, I wasn’t entirely sure I trusted anyone. I didn’t want to lose my faith in my dadtoo.
“I’ll go,” I said. “I’ll go to Reject Island.”
Cyrus scoffed. “That was never in question.”
My father stepped toward me, his back to Cyrus. His lips moved, his words unvoiced. Give me a signal if you want torun.
“I’ll go,” I said again, and my dad nodded.
Despite the sorrow in his eyes, there was pride there too as he wrapped his arms around me in a hug goodbye.
“Could we have a few minutes to say goodbye?” Dad asked. “To bring in Courage and hermom?”
“I think we’d best get this over with, given how sensitive she is.” Cyrus said, a world of dismissal in that sensitive. “But she’ll be back once she’s better.”
“You’ll be back soon,” my dad agreed.
“Sure will,” I said, but my voice came out toosoft.
Reject Island.The name conjured up nightmares; it was the boogeyman for shifter kids. It was where we sent the criminals and the insane and rejected mates who lost their minds, those who we couldn’t hide among our packs. Reject Island was the one place the packs all united—to imprison their rejects.
“Our pack has our own island there,” my dad said. “You’ll find friends.”
Cyrus laughed his short, bitter laugh at that, which wasn’t comforting. My father released me and held out his hand, and it took me a second to realize he was reaching for my purse.
I handed it over to him. My phone was still in my hoodie pocket though, where I always carried it. I felt its weight against my stomach when I shifted, and I thought about turning itover.
That’s what a good girl would’vedone.
But apparently, I wasn’t a good girl anymore.
“You really won’t let me say goodbye to Courage and Tania and my mom?” I demanded. “That’s just cruel.”
“Maybe. But it would be stupid to give you one more chance to expose and embarrass us,” Cyrus snappedback.
“I’ll tell them,” my dad said, and my eyes flooded with tears, because how would he know what to tell them? How would he know what would make Tania feel better, what snide remark would ease Courage’s frown? How could he ever replace me hugging my mother goodbye and pretending like everything was going to beokay?
Because suddenly I knew it waspretending.
A handful of kids, older than me, had gone to Reject Island before.
And none of them had ever comeback.
“Okay,” I whispered, blinking back my tears because I didn’t want to make any of this any harder on mydad.
Cyrus whistled, and the front door opened.
Two big, burly shifters stepped through.