Her Mates by Tamara White
Twenty-One
Wow, these guys don’t look old at all. All the guys freaked when Walter burst in, saying I’d been summoned by the elders. I didn’t see what the big deal was—a couple of old dudes in robes questioning me, what was the harm?
They are definitely not old dudes, and they aren’t wearing robes. Instead, I’m facing four older men and a woman, but they only look to be in their forties rather than hundreds of years old, which is what I expected.
“Do you understand why you’ve been brought to the elders today?” the one on the far right asks.
They’re all spread out in a semicircle, facing the one chair which is supposed to be mine. It feels like I’m being sentenced to something, but at least everyone is standing behind me, showing the elders they support me.
The man on the far right has bright red hair and a beard, which makes him look like a big biker. Well, apart from his brown eyes. There’s a softness in them that makes me feel safe.
The one to his right—my left—is tall with black hair. Tattoos cover every inch of what’s visible of his arms and snake up his neck. His eyes are also brown, but more of a pale chocolate.
The elder in the middle is female and the only one of the elders who’s a woman. She’s so beautiful, it’s hard to determine her actual age. Ebony hair flows down her back and her blue eyes scream malice. My wolf is on high alert, watching her warily. We both know something’s off.
The fourth elder looks slightly younger than the others, but just as wise. His hair, midnight in color, makes his blue eyes sparkle. There’s humor there, as well as a hidden knowledge.
The fifth elder is staring at me with such hatred in his deep green eyes that it unnerves me. Why would someone hate me when it’s the first time I’ve met them?
“Well, I believe you’ve brought me here because Luke has said I’ve done something wrong by killing the three wolves who attacked me while offering protection to the fourth. What I feel we should be discussing, however, is why four of his enforcers were allowed to attack me on a friendly pack’s land. I trust you, as the elders of our society, to know what issue we should be focusing on,” I respond, being as diplomatic as I can under the circumstances.
Walter told me they would try to bring me up on charges against the pack and advised me to use the skills I’d learned over the past few days. There was a lot of diplomacy subjects mentioned in the journal too, so I’m pretty sure I can handle this effectively.
“You say they attacked you, but we have no proof of this,” the female elder states, sitting back in her chair with a smirk on her face.
“On the contrary, I do. I have a wolf who assisted in the attack, as I said before. He can relay the course of events if need be. He’s right here,” I counter, gesturing in James’s direction with my head. He takes this as his cue to step forward.
“Be that as it may, you can’t call a wolf you’re protecting to testify for you, since he would do anything to keep your favor. Unless you have another viable witness, we will have to rule in favor of Luke.”
The redheaded man is staring at me, glancing between James and me for some reason. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume he was trying to tell us something.
“What about Jake? He was there the whole time and helped me fight them off,” I offer, knowing they will dismiss him for being my mate. I already told him before coming in he might need to confess that he and Rick aren’t my mates so they could back me up.
“Again, he may be a witness, but as your mate, he would side with you regardless,” the bitch in the middle sneers at me. I want to smack that look off her face. I definitely think she’s in Luke’s pocket.
“Actually, he’s not,” Tim interjects, making the bitch suck a lemon. “Sorry to interrupt, your eminence, but I wanted to clarify that Rick and Jake are not Dani’s mates. They’re two of my newer enforcers, entrusted with protecting the future Alpha Queen. I made sure one of them was always near her in case something like this happened.” If she could leap from her chair and strangle Tim, she probably would.
“Very well. Jake, please step forward to recount your version of events and remember, if you tell anything other than the truth, you will be punished to the full extent of the law,” the tattooed elder warns, sitting forward with a gleam of curiosity in his eyes.
“I understand,” Jake responds, his respect for the elders clear. I listen as he reports what occurred, telling them how he distracted them while I ran, hoping to give me a chance to get to safety before I was hurt. Now that I’m thinking about everything, taking in what he’s saying about being stabbed and me saving him by using his wolf to heal, I have time to focus on a detail I missed. The wolf stabbed Jake with a knife. There were at least two knives, one which I took with me to Jake, but what happened to the one the other wolf had when Jake was stabbed?
James didn’t have one, and there wasn’t one near the wolf I killed, yet he stabbed Jake. So where did it go? I’ll ask James after and see if I can figure out what happened. Maybe the other wolf lost it, but it seems too unlikely to be the case.
“Ms. Jackson, are you listening?” one of the elders asks, causing me to jar out of my mind.
“Yes, sir. Sorry,” I reply sheepishly. My mates chuckle. They must have thought I dozed off.
“As I was saying, we understand your need to defend yourself, so no crimes were committed in murdering your fellow wolves. However,” he says ominously, almost making me roll my eyes. Any time the word “however” is involved, it usually means something bad.
“You still protected one and you were wandering on pack lands without an introduction. As enforcers, it was within their right to kill a perceived threat on pack lands when their alpha is around. You hadn’t formally introduced yourself, so they had no idea you were not a threat. Seeing that you killed three of them, I would have assumed the same as they did when they came upon you,” the redheaded biker guy addresses me.
“These actions will result in the trials happening tomorrow morning at dawn. Your mates will be penalized for your actions, and I hope you learn your lesson from this,” the black-haired bitch announces, smiling evilly at me.
As much as I want to rant and rave at the elders, I know that won’t change anything, so I pull up my big girl panties. “Thank you for your lenience and understanding on this matter. We’ll leave you. Until tonight,” I say, bowing my head to show my appreciation.
We leave the room together, each of us keeping quiet until the door closes behind us. As we walk away, my dad breaks the silence. “Who are you and what did you do to my smartass daughter?” he inquires, feigning shock.
“Very funny. I knew no matter what I said, I wouldn’t win them over. As far as they’re concerned, I’m an imposter. They need to trust me before they’re on my side. Dinner tonight gives me the perfect chance to show off my charm.”
It’s not a ball like the trials require, but more of an evening dinner with everyone. I’m still going to have to dress up, however, so they may as well just have called it a ball. Besides, I still don’t have a dress to wear, so I may not be going. Maybe Laura has a spare I can borrow?
“Hey, Laura, speaking of tonight,” I begin, seeing a smile light up her face.
“Don’t worry, honey. I’ve got you covered.” She winks.
Oh, thank God. I don’t want to be dressed in jeans and a t-shirt when I formally meet the elders. That means I’ll be wearing a dress though, damn!
“Okay, guys, we’re going to get things ready for tonight. Behave, or I’ll send Jake and Rick after you,” Alpha Tim teases, grinning.
“If you don’t mind, could we have a word, Danielle? We haven’t really had time alone. I need to tell you some things before tonight,” James calls, catching my attention as Dad and Nate’s parents walk away.
“Um, sure. You can come with us if you want? We were going to watch a movie and pig out on snacks before we have to get ready.”
He nods and follows us down the hall as I take multiple turns I’m finally used to. It was so hard not to get lost during the first few days. Especially with all the shortcuts the guys showed me.
“We’ll get everything ready so you two can talk,” Nate offers. He leaves James and me to take seats in the recliners at the back of the room. I keep a seat between us and turn to face him head-on.
“Okay, so what’s up?” I prompt.
He fidgets with his hands, which is such a hilarious thing to see from such an intimidating man.
“I’m not sure how much of this will make sense, but Malina told me to come to you. One of the last visions she had before she cursed us was of you and your mates. She told me you would need me to help you control your powers and that I needed to protect you when you needed it most. I die protecting you, but it’s a vision I’m willing to fulfil to be with her again.
“Malina wanted me to warn you. Now that you’ve shifted, your powers will reveal themselves like they did while we were outside. It wasn’t just your dominance that forced Luke to submit, it was power as Alpha Queen. In the vision, you also had the ability to heal, detect lies, and turn humans.”
Whoa, hold on a second, turn humans? Is that even possible? From what I read in the journal, we can’t turn anyone. They have to be born a wolf. What he’s saying contradicts everything I’ve been learning.
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. Nowhere in the journal does it say any of us can turn humans. Least of all me.”
“Well, no, it wouldn’t, because everyone would hunt you down until you were a slave or dead. Some alphas seek power more than they care to admit. Working with the rogues, I learned that everyone has a price for more power. If they heard you could turn more people into easily controlled wolves, then they could build an army. Imagine how powerful someone would be if they could change hundreds, thousands, possibly even millions if they were ambitious enough,” he reasons solemnly. I take it all in, thinking of the ramifications.
Would someone really do that? Wouldn’t that just mean more wolves to challenge them? This world is so much more complicated than I expected.
“Okay, say you’re right and someone tried to use my ability to turn more people, they’d still have to go through everyone to get to me. That’s not exactly easy. What happened with you in the woods was a fluke. I’m barely ever alone, and after that, I don’t think anyone will leave me alone for a long time,” I tell him, thinking of how protective they’re going to get.
“You’ve got that right. Two of us will always be around you, and all of us will be with you if you leave pack property,” Jason states, having heard the tail end of our conversation.
Waving off his concern, I go back to the discussion with James. “So, what about the lying? How will I tell?”
“You use scent. Malina could always tell if one of us lied. She described it as a bitter smell coating their words. While our sense of smell is already strong, I could still never scent the bitter trace she described. I trusted her though. The amount of times we caught Petra and Lucinda in lies was remarkable,” he says fondly. I hear his love for his daughters in his voice and admire his devotion. He’s lived through watching them die. How is that even possible?
“Sorry, before I forget, I have to ask—how are you still alive? Shouldn’t you be long dead?”
“I wondered when you’d ask. Malina and Nora had a small amount of energy leftover that they used to extend my age. Unfortunately, it ends when I’ve fulfilled my job. I won’t know exactly when that time is until it happens.” It leaves me a little unnerved that he’s so blasé about his impending death.
“Okay, well, if there isn’t anything else, do you mind if we get back to the movie? You can stay if you like,” I offer, hoping he refuses. My mates and I have barely been spending time together since I started learning about the packs. The only real time we have is at the end of the day, and then we usually end up watching a movie before crashing. Other nights, I go straight to my room and one of them, Jake, or Rick sleeps over.
“No, I’ll leave you and your mates. Thank you for offering though. We should still speak later about being able to use your will. If you put too much force into what you’re saying, you could unintentionally force someone to do what you want,” he cautions, giving me one last warning before leaving.
“Well, that was creepy,” Pete mutters, picking me up. I wrap my legs around his waist until we get close to the mattresses, waiting for him to toss me. It’s become our routine. One of them picks me up and tosses me on the mattress like a child.
The first time was after I’d spent the day with my grandparents, learning all their etiquette for the diplomacy trial. It was all how to sit, how to eat, how to blow my nose, anything that seemed pointless to me but was important to Monique. Anyway, when I got back here, I was depressed, thinking about how tiring it would be to lead when Pete scooped me up, tossed me toward the mattresses, and I landed giggling like a child. The boys all thought it was hilarious to hear my girlish giggles, so they each took a turn. Nate didn’t even reprimand Pete for his childish behavior, he just joined in on the fun.
“So, what are we watching?” I query, looking at each of the guys.
“Nope, you can’t distract us with the movie. We want to know what the hell kind of magic you worked. You were already pretty before, but now you look like a goddess,” Jonnie murmurs, sighing softly.
I have no idea what he means. There was barely time for me to look at myself after the shift, getting changed, or before meeting the elders.
“How do I look? I haven’t seen myself yet,” I admit anxiously. Dad told me that after the shift I would be ten times prettier than I was, but I’m scared. What if it just made me look worse? And what did my wolf look like?
“Come with me. I want you to see just how amazing you are.” Jonnie holds out a hand, helping me to my feet so we can go to his room next door.
He shares a room with Mitchell, and it’s such a mix of colors that it suits both of them. While they each have individual tastes, their room shows how eclectic they can be.
One side of the room has posters hanging on the wall, and a variety of different types are displayed. There are a few small AC/DC album cover posters, a large Ed Sheeran album cover on the ceiling, and pictures of various other artist’s albums I don’t recognize. Then there are car and bike pictures pinned up too, though I have no idea what they are. Cars are not my thing. Bikes, however, are another story. I love me a good Harley. One of my friends at the last school I attended had a beautiful, remodeled engine that purred underneath you. I went for one ride before Dad banned me.
“Over here, Dani. We have a full-length mirror in our closet,” Jonnie insists, leading me to a door that looks like it leads to another room, and in reality, it may as well be. The closet is massive.
It’s parted down the middle, and I see my reflection right at the end. I barely notice that the boys’ clothes are separated on either side, because all I see is myself. The shift really did change me.
If it’s possible, I look taller and leaner. My body has filled out much better than before. Instead of being a stick figure with boobs, my body has equaled out its proportion. My ass isn’t as big, but that could just be because my hips and thighs have filled out. Whoa! Look at my boobs! They were a generous C cup before the shift, but now they are on the verge of being a D cup and are slightly perkier than before.
My face is still round, though plumper. My lips are fuller, my eyes brighter, and my hair is magnificent. Vibrant auburn locks now highlight my face instead of a ginger orange that was so pale it was almost gross. I look like a grown woman, a princess, a leader.
