Due North by Kelsey Gamble
Paxton
“Fuck.” I slink through the trees, putting as much distance between myself and my unwitting mate as I can. “Fuck!” My voice gets louder as I get further away from the Sovereign Pack and the risk that someone might hear me.
This isn’t how I expected things to go. Tasha was supposed to take one look at me and feel that familiar pull of a mate bond. As a wolf that’s had it once before, how could she look at me and not feel even the slightest spark of recognition?
She looked at me like a stranger. And worse, like I had Mason lure her out there to hurt her or something.
Why didn’t she feel it?
Go back and claim her.My wolf isn’t rational. He doesn’t care that we’ve just been snubbed. As far as he’s concerned, there’s one easy fix. She can’t run from us if we mark her.
It’s tempting. I’ve already waited so damn long to get to my mate, and now I’ve blown our first face-to-face meeting. I expected it to be easy. Effortless. Instant. I didn’t expect her to look at me like I’m some kind of monster. She’s not supposed to look at me the way shifters look at me when they’re gearing up for a fight.
I’ve heard the stories about what happens to wolves who never get to mark their mate. It weakens them. Keeps them from reaching their full potential.
“This is bullshit.”
“Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.” Mason materializes behind me, giving me a hard shove. “Quinn would never have sent me to help you if she knew about this.”
“Knew about what?” As far as I’m concerned, this can’t be more than a minor setback. She’s my mate for fuck’s sake.
“That your whole story was bullshit. What do you really want with that poor woman?” The way Mason narrows his eyes at me is almost laughable. I’m tempted to return his shove and remind him I could easily kick his ass if I wanted to, but I’m not keen to piss off Cupid’s Pack.
He thinks we’re lying about our mate. “I didn’t lie about anything. Tasha Jarreau is my mate.”
“No. That was not the reaction of someone facing their mate. I would know.” He gets a smug look on his face. Mason has a reputation for being the kinder of Quinn’s guards, but it’s hard to see it right now. He’s adding insult to fucking injury.
“Tasha is my mate.” A low warning growl slips out to punctuate the words.
“Well apparently someone forgot to tell her.” Mason shakes his head. “What is this really? You got a crush and making it out to be something more than it is?” The muscles in his face twitch, his mouth sinking down. He knows as well as I do it doesn’t work that way.
A wolf knows their mate. If I know Tasha is mine, but she doesn’t know I’m hers… Something is very, very wrong. Fate doesn’t make mistakes.
I feel like someone threw a mean right hook into my gut.
“Take me back to Quinn. Maybe she’ll have an explanation.” Not likely. I’ve heard of wolves rejecting their mates, but never one outright denying the mate bond. Even a rejection would be more merciful than Tasha’s blank stare.
Mason shakes his head. “We have travel plans as soon as I return.”
“But—“
“No.” He cuts me off sharply. “Quinn rarely gets to go anywhere. If you show up, she’ll feel obligated to stay and fix it. You’re not taking this from her.”
It seems to me like there’s a lot more to the story, but I don’t care enough to ask for the details. I’m still tempted to insist. The whole reason Cupid’s Pack exists is to mediate issues between mates and the unmated.
But I’m not stupid. I could beat the shit out of any of Quinn’s mates one-on-one or maybe even two-on-one, but there’s no way I’m taking all of them alone.
Plus, I’m not exactly in a position to piss off Cupid’s Pack. If it’s this hard to get face time with my mate, I’m not looking forward to what it might look like trying to put my mark on her.
Which we need to do soon. The sooner the better. Now would be good, for instance.My wolf is fighting against all my instincts that tell me swooping into the Sovereign Pack and taking what’s mine isn’t the most well thought out plan.
It was almost impossible to get this close. If they hadn’t been expecting someone from Cupid’s Pack, it would have taken weeks, maybe even months, to figure out the rotating guard schedule. The Sovereign Pack works hard to keep everyone away, which only makes me suspicious.
And drives home the fact that I can’t trust them with my mate.
“Fine,” I concede. “I have someone else in mind to help me.” She won’t like it, but she owes me. It’s time I pay my sister a visit.
* * *
I explode out of the tall grass and into the center of the makeshift campground that exists on the edge of Ohio. I’ve been running for too long without enough breaks.
“Callie! Delivery for you,” someone jokes as I plop down under the nearest tree. I should have taken another break about an hour back, but I was too close to stop. If anyone is going to be on my side, it’s Callie. I can only hope she’ll have a better idea than my current one.
There’s not going to be a better plan. Mark her and she’s ours. No one questions a mark.
At this rate, I’m starting to think my wolf is right.
Usually, there’s no question of the fated bond between two wolves and the marking is inevitable. There’s technically nothing stopping a male from marking his female regardless of how she feels about it. The mate bond makes the decision, not the wolves. An unmated pair has to choose to mark each other to form a bond. I always thought it was kind of bullshit that it didn’t work that way for all mates, but now I’m rethinking my stance.
For once, the outdated bullshit traditions of our ancestors might be the only way for me to take my mate properly. The Sovereign Pack won’t just let me walk away with her. If she were anywhere else, that’s exactly what I would do. Lock her down somewhere and rid her of all the distractions obviously keeping her from acknowledging our bond.
But no. Of course my mate has to be under the protection of the one pack no shifter would dare touch.
“Based on the way you’re scowling, I’m guessing it didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped with your mate.” My eyes jerk open to see Callie in human form smirking down at me. Her hair falls in loose curls around her shoulders, her dark eyes identical to mine. She continues, “Of course, I’ve also heard the announcement about the new Luna Sovereign. I’m guessing that might have put a dent into your plans too.”
Even though it feels like it drains me of the last of my energy, I shift into human form to talk. Callie has a strange aversion to talking via mind link. Thinks it’s impersonal or something, and I don’t dare make fun of her for thinking it, considering some of my own opinions about the ways of our people.
“Oh, it gets better,” I tell her dryly.
“Oh no.”
“She already had a mate. A Beta from a smaller pack that got killed by rogues.” It makes my jaw clench to even say the words aloud. I found out everything I could about her original mate, Jimmy Law, and the guy was a freaking saint.
The opposite of me in every way.
“Shit, Pax.” If anyone can understand the pain of losing a mate, it’s Callie. I don’t think she’s ever healed from the accident that took her mate.
“And the best part of all of it? I managed to get face-to-face with her, and she stared at me like I was nothing. Like I showed up to kidnap her or something.”
Callie barks out a laugh. “If I recall correctly, that pretty much is exactly what you were planning to do. Even before you found her, you were talking about taking her.”
She’s got me there.
“It’s about context,” I grumble.
“Well it looks like the context is that things didn’t go so well. You’re here, and she’s not.” Callie’s eyebrows wiggle on her forehead, taunting me. “What did you do?”
My jaw clenches. “I didn’t do anything. I barely got the chance to see her before she ran away from me.”
“Do you think it’s because you’re a rogue? She’s not the only one who’s lost a mate to a rogue attack. There have been more and more stories reaching our ears. And they’re getting closer and closer to home. If she’s really meant to be the Luna Sovereign, maybe her instincts for safety just overrode your mate bond?”
My shoulders relax for a second before tensing up again. “What do you mean closer to home? Are you safe here?”
I’ve never liked her insistence on shacking up with other rogues. If I wanted a pack, I would live with one. To me, being rogue means not answering to anyone else. But Callie has always felt safer with others, so I’ve begrudgingly accepted her place among her little clique of rogues.
The fact that Callie hesitates to answer tells me everything I need to know.
“You’ll leave with me.”
She shakes her head sharply, sending dark curls bouncing around her face. “I’m not like you, Pax. I like being surrounded by the people here. If it wasn’t for your feelings on packs…” She trails off, knowing this is an argument that neither of us ever wins.
“You can’t stay here if it’s not safe, Callie. Especially if you’re in danger from rogues who may or may not follow shifter laws.”
She snorts softly. “You don’t always follow shifter laws yourself. Besides, I’m not planning to stay here. None of us are. There’s a rogue community that’s been developing up in Maine. It’s civilized and modern.” She emphasizes the last word, knowing it’s the only thing to keep me from snarling.
“You can’t run from rogues only to join more rogues. That doesn’t make any sense.” She’s blinded by her infatuation with Baylor, the de facto leader of the rogues she’s been living with.
“Baylor knows the other group. They’re not strangers.”
All I can do is grimace. No matter how much I like to pretend otherwise, I’m not the boss of Callie. Of all our siblings, we’re the only two that keep in touch as far as I know. And we stay that way by following a simple motto.
Live and let live.
As much as I want to put my foot down and boss her around like a proper big brother, it’ll only drive her away faster.
“Pax. I love you, but these wolves are my unofficial pack. I’m not turning my back on them when things get hard. We’re stronger and safer together.”
I lean forward and kiss her cheek, conceding despite my feelings on the matter. “You have a good head on your shoulders. I know better than to try to tell you what to do. Now, I’m hoping you’ll do the opposite for me. You’re a female, tell me how the hell I get my mate without scaring her off at the sight of me.”
She studies me skeptically. “Even if I give you advice, you’ll be too stubborn to follow it. I’ll bet you’re going to end up throwing her over your shoulder like a caveman and trying to Stockholm Syndrome her into submission.” Of course the thought has crossed my mind.
“What about you? You’re no better at taking advice than I am. Have you asked Baylor about his mate yet?” The first step to her either getting the guy for herself or finally moving on is to figure out what the status of his mate bond is.
If Baylor’s mate is gone or rejected him, he could be fair game. If he’s yet to find his mate, then my sister is only setting herself up for hurt by mooning after him like a starstruck pup.
She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, and I know I’m right. She’s too chickenshit to approach the guy like that. The hero worship is annoying.
And speaking of Baylor.
The tall blond strides toward us with long steps. I’m pretty damn tall, and the guy still has several inches on me. He’s built like a freaking California Redwood tree. Tall and slim. From what I’ve seen, the guy distinctly lacks personality or substance. Somehow, Callie is still infatuated with the pretty boy.
He plasters on a fake smile as he joins us. I don’t make it any secret that nothing about him or his makeshift pack impresses me.
“Paxton. Didn’t realize you were visiting.” He tilts his head down to study Callie. “I was waiting for you over in my tent. We’re supposed to talk logistics about the move.” His voice is smug as if he thinks he’s spoiling the news for me or something.
Callie blinks at him with a blank look, and I know that means she caught the tone too. My sister’s infatuation with Baylor might be beyond logic, but she’s not stupid. “Something came up. I’m sure Nicole could help you go over the plans. She really knows more about the terrain heading that direction anyway.”
Baylor stares at her, his jaw falling slack, as she gives me her full attention. I’m proud as hell of her as she tucks her hand into my elbow and starts to lead me away.
“I’ll be back for dinner,” she calls over her shoulder. Then, mumbling low, “Prick.”
I can’t help but smirk. She might have mumbled the word, but with wolf hearing, I know he heard her. I raise an eyebrow at her and wait for an explanation. She has a lot more attitude with him than the last time I was here.
“He’s been sneaking off to fool around with a wolf from a nearby pack,” Callie admits when we’re surrounded by a thick cover of trees and fully out of earshot. “He doesn’t know that I know, but the second I started to back off, he suddenly started asking me to contribute more. One-on-one. He clearly knows I have a stupid crush on him and intends to string me along to boost his own ego.”
“Well, hell, why didn’t you tell me?”
“For one, because I don’t want you running off to beat the shit out of him for it. And two, because I’m hoping…”
“What?”
She clears her throat. “There’s been talk that there are some widowers among the rogues we’re joining. The kind of males that might actually be looking to take a mate and have a proper family.” She smiles wistfully. “It might not turn out to be anything, but…” She trails off again, shrugging as if it’s nothing. But it’s not nothing.
I squeeze her arm with mine. It’s an unspoken rule that we don’t talk about the mate she lost. They’d barely met when they were in a freak car accident in the middle of nowhere on a mountain. Callie was lucky the damage wasn’t bad enough that her body couldn’t heal, but Adam hadn’t been so lucky. Killed instantly. Callie spent days stuck in the car with her dead mate until she healed enough to go out and find help.
“That sounds promising,” I say casually. I’ll support anything that keeps her seeing Baylor for who he is. “And it makes me feel better about your move, to be honest.”
If she’s ready to start thinking about having a family again, she deserves someone who feels the same way.
“I know you don’t get it, Pax, but you’re going to have to try. Your mate is going to have friends and family she cares about. If you go in and rip her away from all of that, she’s only going to resent you. They’re not all like our family; you have to know that by now.”
“I know.” And I really do. I’ve met shifters all over, from one coast to the other, so I know that some wolves are good. Genuine.
Our parents taught us an important lesson, though. One I can never forget. The more shifters you collect, the more chances you give yourself to be disappointed. Our parents thought having a dozen pups would strengthen the family, and instead, all it did was tear all of us apart.
I don’t even know if all of my siblings are still alive. And I don’t really care enough to find out. As far as I’m concerned, Callie is the only one who matters.
“You’re thinking so hard right now I can practically feel the brain waves radiating off of you.” Callie smiles up at me so I know she’s only teasing, but she’s not wrong.
Usually, my mind focuses on what’s necessary for survival and not much else. But ever since I laid eyes on that photo of Tasha… “She’s my mate, Callie. I have to have her.”
If we have Callie and our mate, we’ll never need anyone else, my wolf promises.
“If I help you with this, you have to promise me you’re going to treat her the way you treat me. She’s allowed to think for herself. You don’t get to take over her life and steamroll her.”
Callie stares at me expectantly until I nod.
“Then I do have one idea for you, but you’re going to need to come up with one hell of a distraction.”