Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1) (9 page)

BOOK: Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1)
11.43Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

She’d had her breakfast and her lunch, and before she knew it she’d spent the whole day moping and reflecting and wishing things were different, and now it was time to get ready.  Bea was in her element.  It was the Den Mother’s responsibility to present her to the ceremony, a vision to heat any man’s blood, mated or no.  It was said if a mating ceremony didn’t heat the blood and stiffen at least one mated male, she would have no luck with the un-mated ones.

An excuse for an orgy, if you ask me,
she thought bitterly.

Suffering the vigorous ministrations of her Den Mother, as she scrubbed and brushed and sorted the many tangles from her hair, Beth floated in bitter indifference.  “Stand up.  Tilt your head back.  Close your eyes.  Don’t bite your lip.  Stay perfectly still while I…got it!  Now don’t open your eyes yet.” 

On and on and on it went.  The ghastly primping and pampering that any mother does for her daughter on the eve of her wedding, but this was vastly different.  This was no wedding, but an auction – no matter how she wished it weren’t true – and this was no mother, but a woman relishing the thought of being free of a troublesome girl.  So Bea would work miracles on Beth this evening.  And Beth would look exquisite, no doubt, drawing envious glares and heated glances in equal measures, and Bea would be free of her in less than a week.  Perhaps the whole pack would be free of her.  Gareth too, would be free of her.

Maybe it’s all for the best.  I never really did belong here,
she thought sadly. 
But I will miss David.  And my creek.  And yes, even stupid, cruel Gareth.


You’re ready,” Bea declared with a half hour until moon’s rise.

No, I’m not.

“Don’t touch off anything or you’ll ruin the whole thing!”  Bea smiled broadly.  “What a magnificent mate for any male lucky enough to claim,” she breathed.  “If I hadn’t done the work myself, Beth, I wouldn’t believe it was you,” she laughed, shaking her shoulders with mirth.  Beth thought it was the first time in a long time she’d seen Bea laugh without guile when it came to anything Beth-related.  It suited her.

 

There was a very good reason for the wolf dance.  It drew potential suitors to her.  Those who desired a mate fair of form and strong of body would instinctively be drawn to her power.  For power would ride the moon tonight.  Patina was not only a teacher of dances, but a wielder of the oldest magics left to any wolf pack. 

She would call on the moon to draw out potential mates, whether they wanted to be drawn out or not.  The moon would pull on them relentlessly, using the power of Beth’s own wolf, until their desires were out in the open.  It was unfair and indiscriminate and merciless – it would not leave any potential mate untouched.  There were no secrets during a mating ceremony.

Her Den Mother walked along the path, her hand at Beth’s back, lest she decide to make a run for it.  They would enter the clearing when the Alpha called for the drums to beat.  Somebody else was working the drums tonight, Beth noticed.  Patina would be busy working her lunar magic.  Beth took a deep breath as the drum picked up a slow and steady beat to which she was supposed to make her slow procession toward the camp fire.

Bea released the clasp of the cloak that had covered Beth’s body up until now, and the cloth whispered down her body, revealing it in all its polished glory to the eyes of all.  For hours Bea had applied glistening oils, and shimmering gold flakes, and she fairly shone in the moonlight.  Her Alpha smiled his benevolent smile and beckoned her forward with the crook of one finger.  Beth took a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other, letting her hips lead the way, as Patina had taught her. 

She looked around the assembled crowd, but could spot neither the cruel wolf, nor her foreign suitor.  One corner of her mouth lifted in the parody of a smile, as she undulated toward the heat of the flames.  Would that she could throw herself atop them, but her fate had been sealed from the moment she’d decided to teach that cruel wolf a lesson. She had no one to blame but herself for her predicament.

And so, she danced.  She undulated, and rolled her hips as Patina chanted to the moon – a full moon, it seemed, even though it was not due for a week – and invoked her inner wolf.  Her wolf raised its eyes to the crowd, seeking out her mate – the strongest, most fierce wolf, one that was able to protect her and her young. 

Several wolf eyes glowed back at her, visible to her even behind the human facade, some amber, and some blue, all male.  Some mated, some not, all wanting.  The mated ones were not to be held responsible for their actions – Patina’s magic distinguished not between one mate and another.  Their own mates would understand.

She disappeared from view behind the massive flames, rolling her hips and shuffling her feet, shimmering with oils and dusted with shavings of gold.  Her long blond hair swung like a rope, bound up in ribbons and beads, tickling the small of her back as she moved.  When she was at the proper angle and distance from the flames she ran for them, shimmering in mid-flight, and landing in front of the awed crowd as a dark blond wolf, eyes shining brightly with power. 

She sniffed at her potential mates, discerning the power level of each one, stopping to rub her head against a thigh here, a hand there.  Patina’s chanting rose in volume, until she was hoarsely barking at the moon.  And the men began to shimmer, one by one, until each of the seven potential mates stood before her, legs shaking and ears flattened from the forced change. 

A harsh cry broke through the sound of the drums, ending in a piercing howl of frustration and angry resentment.  She knew that howl.  In human or wolf-form, it didn’t matter – she knew that howl.  And on he came, giant strides eating the land between them, until he stood before her, growling and angry. 

She liked the power in this one.  He was strong.  He would protect her cubs.  His seed would take strong root in her belly.  His jaws would lay fresh kills at her feet.  His loyalty would never waver if he was hers.  Yes, she liked this one.

Dimly aware in some distant part of her mind that she was not in control of things, Beth began to panic.  She had lost all control of her senses and reactions when she shimmered, the moon’s pull taking over her instincts and desires.

She was aware of her seven suitors.  One or two she recognized from her visit to the Alpha two days before.  One who was already mated, and who was the recipient of one or two raised brows, and the rest were just pack wolves that she had never had much to do with. 

And then there was him.

The shining beacon of power to their weak flashlights.  She went to him.  She had no choice.  Just as he had no choice but to come to her.  The moon did not discriminate.  She offered him her throat.  The power had chosen.  Her wolf had chosen.  She had chosen.  It was done.

He whined, agonized it seemed, and made no move to claim her.  This was unheard of.  When a wolf chose a mate, it was never one-sided.  A touching of muzzles, a rub of his head, a playful nip – something – but Gareth made no move to come closer to Beth, humiliating her all the more.

Aware of the uncomfortable and embarrassed mumblings from the crowd, she looked from Gareth, to her Alpha and back.  An imperceptible nod of the head, and Gareth moved toward her.  The Alpha nodded again.  Gareth rubbed his cheek along hers, licking her head.  He whined in her ear and seemed to push her in the direction of the woods, but she neither moved, nor acquiesced. 
He needed the Alpha’s incitement to claim me.  He doesn’t want me.
  The realization tore through her, and she fled.

Right into the arms of a strange Were.  A Tall Grass pack wolf, she realized, as the sharp tang of the neighboring pack entered her nostrils.  “Easy, girl,” he whispered.  “Everything’s going to be fine.”  He murmured half truths – she could smell them – into her ear as she shivered with suppressed anger and mortification.  Her wolf recognized the power in this one, also. 

She gazed up into the face of the strange wolf, and noticed his eyes were turning a darker amber as he spoke, the musty scent of desire thickening in the still air.  He was a handsome man, by all accounts.  A straight patrician nose perched above a generous mouth, and a shock of black hair almost as long as hers, braided down his back.  He wore no clothes, and so she had an unobstructed view of his body, muscled and powerful.  The strong arms wrapped around her squirming form were thickly roped with muscle and hardly straining at all.

This male was an Alpha in the making, she knew.  Just like Gareth.  And like him, he felt the pull of the moon and her wolf, drawing him from wherever he had been hiding and dragging him into the open.  One moment he was holding her and murmuring pleasantries, the next he was a giant black wolf with warm golden eyes, rubbing his body against hers.  She could not object.  It seemed the power of the moon had changed its mind and now viewed this stranger as a serious potential mate.

A low growl interrupted their bodily communications, and she turned her head to see her other mate, the one who had rejected her, come striding forward on legs that shook with brutal fury.  His lips curled back, exposing sharp and oh, so white canines.  Beth watched as his hackles rose, sending a shiver up her spine and flattening the ears of this stranger who had found her.

What are you doing?
she asked Gareth in her mind voice.

Mine,
was the only reply she received.
Mine.

You didn’t want me a moment ago,
she argued. 
What does it matter to you if the power of this wolf interests me?

He growled, a mixture of regret, anger and possessiveness. 
Oh, do as you wish,
she sent. 
You usually do.

The stranger trotted out in front of her, hackles also raised, and growled at her mate.  They would fight, she knew.  She’d been at other mating ceremonies.  She knew what happened when the power couldn’t decide between wolves.  The strongest would win and the loser would limp off, alone and heart sore.  As of right now, she was mated with two wolves, it seemed.  The irony of it all nearly toppled her.  She had wished for this in a round about way, hadn’t she?

All the days since Gareth had first kissed her, she’d spent mooning for him alone in her room.  And when she finally understood that he did want her in some way, she was mated to a member of the Tall Grass pack.  Oh, the bitter irony.  She whined, and both giant heads turned to face her for only a moment.  She was the reason they were fighting.  And she was the only one who objected to it.

Her Alpha sat on his haunches, watching it all with a dispassionate eye, his own mate silent beside him.  Others in the crowd had begun to murmur amongst themselves, placing bets and sharing jibes on who would win the contest.  She even heard one of them say, “It doesn’t matter who wins the contest, what matters is who mounts her!  And who will that be?”

She turned her back on all of them and loped off alone.  Nobody tried to stop her.  Nobody reminded her that she needed a Guardian.  No, they were all too interested in the two magnificent wolves about to tear each other apart. 

She eventually became aware of a presence behind her. 
A Guardian, no doubt,
she told herself, and kept the pace up.  She would lose him soon enough.  She was well used to that by now.

It seems you are destined to become an Alpha female, no matter the outcome,
a female mind-voice informed her. 
They are both Alpha material.

Beth swung her head around and stumbled over an exposed root.  Melinda strode behind her, keeping a respectful distance but close enough for company.  She didn’t know how to respond to her Alpha female, having never had a conversation with the female in her life, so she just dipped her head in agreement and sat on her haunches.  She was out of view of the desperate fight by the fire, but could still hear the occasional growl and yip. 

She could well imagine the teeth snapping, claws raking and basic male posturing going on there.  She was not impressed by it.  It just proved to her that neither mate cared about her personally.  Just the status she would bring them.

It is a hard thing, letting them duel it out,
she carried on as if Beth had made a reply.
But it is necessary.  And don’t think that they aren’t both consumed with thoughts of you, right now.  They are.  But to each of them, the other is a threat.  They must eliminate the threat.

So,
Beth replied slowly. 
It will be a fight to the death, then?

Yes, and no,
came the reply. 
They will both live, but it will be a death of sorts for the loser.  He will be without his mate this night.

What am I to do?  Cut myself in two?
  The angry retort was flung from her mind to the female’s without thought.  She whined in apology.  Things were going from bad to worse.

Wait it out,
she told her. 
What is meant to be, will be.  I know you feel torn in two right now, but it will ease.  Your true mate will take your pain as his and together you will be stronger.

So, the Alpha has no plans to send me to Tall Grass pack?
Beth asked, incredulous.

I know not of what my mate has planned for you, Little Wolf, but know this, the Great Mother will not be thwarted by any plans we could make.
  With that last ominous statement, the Alpha female turned her back and strode away into the darkness. 
Be happy, Little Wolf.  Things have a way of working out.

BOOK: Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1)
11.43Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Henry Knox by Mark Puls
Uncaged by Alisha Paige
One Sweet Christmas (novella) by Fredette, Darlene
The Gentle Barbarian by V. S. Pritchett
Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel
The One That Got Away by Megan Hussey
To the Manor Dead by Sebastian Stuart