West of Destiny (Book 5 of The Claimed Series) (Sample)

Chapter 3

Lucy

After taking my quickest shower on record, I raced toward the falls, at least twenty minutes ahead of schedule. I hoped he was early too, because even though I knew I was dreading what he would say, I also didn’t want to read too much into it either. It’s what I would do if I sat there in my room, waiting to head out.

Maybe his father wanted to have an old-fashioned mating ceremony first? It hadn’t been done in a few decades, but Alpha Artemis was known to be a bit nostalgic when it came to certain customs and traditions. He was forever having old mating balls and inviting visitors from other packs, hoping to expand and deepen his foothold in the rolling hills of Northern California.

I looked past the falls and to the northwest, my gaze far-off toward the foothills and craggy peaks of mountains in the distance. I knew there was another pack out there that was surrounded by the more rugged topography of the land, but it had been a while since I had heard anything about them and wondered who they were and how they lived. Were they all that different from us? They were even further off the beaten path than we were? Arrowhead could be considered to be in the very depths of the wilderness.

The falls, our favorite place to meet, was awash with excess water from the previous rains over the past several weeks, and though it was nearly deafening due to my oversensitive hearing, I pushed the sounds out as panic started to set in. Every passing moment felt like an eternity, and I looked at the bluish hue of the peaks in the distance, wishing I could see the world from atop one of them. It had to be an awe-inspiring sight.

And far away from my problems here.

I’d always pushed away my troubles before. It was my safety net from getting hurt.

My mind reached back as I watched some clouds passing over the mountains. I remembered the time before last when we had met here at the cliffs overlooking the water and seeing into our future. A future that I didn’t know would be set aside in just seven days.

My mouth opened to his, and his tongue swept in between my lips. It tangled and stroked against mine as I let out a needy moan. It was so hard not to get carried away and mate with him already, but I knew that once I was marked by the scent of his release upon me, his overbearing father would be sure to be pissed. I didn’t think my mother would mind all that much, but my father was always on the fence about knowing anything of his daughter’s intimate life. His medical background got mixed up in his feelings about me being marked and mated, and I was sure he felt odd about possibly seeing his pregnant daughter giving birth to an Alpha heir, even if we were marked and bonded. It was why I was glad we had Dr. Sauer, the female intern that was working under my father. With dad, she headed the clinic and small hospital next to the packhouse.

It was almost funny when I found a stash of condoms—the largest kind they made, mind you—in my backpack one day. I certainly hadn’t purchased them, and when I approached my mother with them, she almost snickered and claimed she knew nothing about it. It seemed Doctor Dad didn’t want to see his little girl grow up too fast. He was always complaining about “babies having babies” whenever he watched the news. It wasn’t so bad in a community as tight knit as ours, but in the human world, many young moms were looked upon as scandalous. Just look at that show, Teen Mom, and the idiotic youth who were struggling to be parents.

That was the main reason I was glad to be born with shifter blood. That and the high s*x drive men always had. Part animal, part human, we rutted like the wild beasts we could be, even if we were in human form.

As Zach’s tongue stroked against mine, I could feel the press of his c**k against me, hot and rigid. He ground the length in a slow circle, hitting me in just the right spot to make me whimper helplessly into his mouth.

“f**k, baby, I’m gonna have blue balls if we keep this up,” he imparted when our lips finally slowed. I couldn’t help but grin.

“You’ve had blue balls for the past four years,” I reminded him. “What’s another week or so of enduring them on the daily?” Besides, even if I wasn’t sexually experienced in the basest of ways, I knew how to get him off with my hands and mouth.

He rolled off me and laid by my side, his head propped up on one fist as he stroked my belly through the comfortable cotton of my t-shirt. He lingered a little longer below my navel, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. His mother had become pregnant with him within a few short months of being mated, and I knew Zach loved children.

“You know what’s pretty f****d up right now?” he asked, still continuing to caress the flat of my belly.

“That you’re thinking how quick you can impregnate me after mating?” I didn’t pull any punches. We were completely honest with each other. If he was thinking it and I knew it, I was bound to blurt it out sooner rather than later.

He gave me a wicked grin in response. “Can’t get anything past you, can I?” he asked, chuckling.

“Nope,” I quipped, reaching up to his face and twirling one of his silky curls through my fingers. “I’ve known you since we were practically babies. I might even know where your mind’s going before you do.”

“True,” he agreed. His fingers skated over my jeans and came to rest on my thigh. I could feel the warmth of his hot skin even through the thick material. I laid my head on my right hand, palm up.

“I can’t wait to make you mine,” he whispered softly. It was said as if it was only a pipe dream and not some certainty that within a week, I would bear his claim on my skin.

“I already am yours,” I assured him. “Even if not officially.”

That made him smile, and he dipped his head to take my lips again before my other hand fisted into his hair. Our kiss was cut short when he stilled, and I sensed he was being linked by someone with enough power to break through the walls in his mind. It could have only been his father, and I sighed as I leaned back, separating from him.

“You gotta go?”

He nodded unhappily. I hated when he frowned, though he looked utterly delicious even when irritated like he was now.

“Dad wants to ‘talk’, or so he says. He’s got the worst f*****g timing. Man’s got ‘cockblocker’ written all over him.”

I hummed. “It’s like he knows precisely when to interrupt us.”

That wasn’t the first time we were together and his father called on him to come home. It was like he had some supernatural GPS locator attached to the two of us, and he always intruded just when things were starting to get interesting.

Zach stood from the ground before dusting off his immaculate pants and stretching. He leaned down to give me hand up off the grass, and I took it, even if only for the small comfort of his skin against mine. I was no wilting flower, but Zach was a gentleman that way and always made sure I was taken care of, first and foremost.

We held hands on the way back to the community, talking about our dreams of how we wanted our mating to go before we split ways, him to the west to his house, and me to the east in the direction of my own home.

Or at least what I thought would be my home for maybe another week or so. Once you were mated, there was no separating the two of you, and you shared your bed with the other half of your soul.

I blinked moisture from my eyes and sniffled. How simple life seemed just a week ago. Now I was standing here, waiting for Zach to arrive so he could tell me what his father said to him.

A few minutes later, I heard the rustle of leaves and topsoil being dispersed and turned around to meet Zach’s eyes.

He looked terrible.

“Baby.”

I wanted to cry. Two simple syllables were about to break me down, tear me apart.

Rip out my soul.

“No,” I whispered.

φ φ φ

I ran from the falls, faster and faster, falling over gnarled roots and hidden tree branches. I was usually more observant than this, but how could I see when the tears in my eyes wouldn’t—no, couldn’t stop falling?

Zach—he explained everything to me. He said that he was going to try and work something out with this foreign alpha, and I told him he should just mark me anyway. He refused.

That wasn’t his fault, though. His father gave him the Alpha Command, and I knew what that meant—go against him and be exiled as rogue, or worse and suffer a painful death. In this case, Zach said, the penalty was death.

I hated Artemis Greenwood with a passion. I hadn’t been too fond of him since I was younger after I felt the mating pull to Zach, and his disdain for me had only increased over the years. Zach said he didn’t hate me, but I saw now that he was wrong.

And what had he done so wrong that he owed this neighboring Alpha anything, much less his son’s happiness and soulmate? What had he done that was so grievous that money couldn’t repair whatever damage he’d caused? Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Really, really bad.

I sped through the forest at top speed, not knowing where I was going, but also not caring. I thought I heard a howl far off in the distance, but it could have been just my imagination. At any rate, I couldn’t bear to go home to my mother. I didn’t want her sympathy or her condolences. I wanted to be left alone in my misery.

Rejected. I was going to be rejected so that my mate—mine—could take up with some Alpha’s daughter for reasons I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to understand them either. They were killing me with their intrigue and stabbing at my heart with raw brutality.

No! This couldn’t happen. I had known he was mine for almost four years—four happy years, and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Until he rejected me officially, I was going to do all I could to try and fight this, whatever this was.

I didn’t get back home until well after dark that night. I had been out for over twelve hours, wandering around, getting lost, then finally picking up my own backtrail to the falls before sniffing around. Zach had been long gone, and that only wrenched my already tattered heart further.

A figure stood up from the front porch when I got there. My mother. She immediately opened her arms, and I ran, tears streaming down my face as I leaped into her arms. I was done being alone, done with trying to be strong. I needed a few minutes of coddling, and my mother was just the person for it.

“Zach came by. Hours ago.” I could hear the watery croak of her voice and knew she was crying, too. “He explained what happened. Baby, I’m so sorry.”

So, she was giving up too? Was I the only one that held out any hope? Was I the only one that was going to fight for what was mine? I wanted to rail against her, make her see reason. Most of all, I wanted to make the Alpha see reason. He obviously had never had to deal with this type of situation before, and I was certain he didn’t feel any remorse for what he had done to his son and me. If he had an ounce of pity, he would have tried harder to save what Zach and I had.

Again, I thought about how much I hated the man. It was like a burning knot in my stomach as I wept, only it kept getting larger, making my chest and abdomen ache with a pain I had never felt before, even when I had broken my arm falling from my bicycle when learning to ride on two wheels ages ago.

“You…you think I should give up, don’t you?” I pushed my mother back, holding her at arm’s length from me.

She bit her bottom lip, wet it with her tongue and closed her eyes. “An Alpha Command was not meant to be broken,” she replied quietly. “It will kill him if he marks you. Would you want his death on your hands?”

I had no family right now. I didn’t have Zach.

Zach

She was hurt, and I let her go. I knew my Lucy, and she needed to be alone with her grief, so I let her run off. When she didn’t come back and the walls in her mind were still locked in place after a few hours, I think I lost it a little. I’d lost the better part of myself already, so what’s a little more shaved off?

I would never be or feel whole again, that much I knew.

After letting Lucy’s mom know what was happening, I went back to my house, feet dragging. I was pretty sure my heart was too, and more than anything, I wanted to go and find her, but I’d received a link from my father to get back to the house. We had company.

“Zachary, you’re home.” My mother’s warm voice failed to lighten my broken heart. I only nodded, the lump in my throat growing harder and more difficult to swallow down.

I hate my f*****g father.

Knowing I was going to be meeting with company and my dad, I went upstairs to change into something decent. I looked down at the outfit I had taken out in preparation of spending the day with Lucy and quickly averted my eyes. I didn’t want any reminders of what today should have been, so I walked to my closet and grabbed the first nice thing I saw.

Slipping on the fresh clothing felt like an out of body experience, like I was covering up who I was inside. I wasn’t the guy who wore nice slacks and a dress shirt only to say things like, “yes, Father,” or “right away, Father.” I was the heir to the pack and deserved some level of respect, even if it was only from my old man.

Quite dawdling, I heard my father say through the link.

I’m coming.

I didn’t say anything more. As far as I was concerned, the man may have been my Alpha, but he was my father no more. No loving parent would do this to their son, no matter what the circumstances were. Arranged marriages didn’t happen anymore, not even in human society. That was basically what this was, just with a little more heartbreak added in.

I slipped past my mother again without saying a word and wandered off to the kitchen. Grabbing a bottled water and downing it quickly, I crushed the plastic and dropped it into the bin, just moving on muscle memory. Every step I took toward my father’s office was like a knife to my throat, threatening me with a pain I’d never before felt in my life. The pain of heartbreak.

“Yo, bro! Wass—”

I cut off my younger brother’s greeting with a strong gesture of my hand. It must have looked more forceful than I had meant, and his words cut off before he stared at me as I walked by.

I could hear music coming from Leah’s room, as usual, but it all sounded new to me. I couldn’t understand what tune it was, though I thought it sounded vaguely familiar.

Everything sounded like a lie, one big fat falsehood, and I grimaced as I knocked on my father’s study door.

“Enter!”

I opened the door and looked around. My mother must have cleaned up after my hissy fit this morning, because it was no longer a mess. The top of the desk still probably bore the deep scratches from my claws, but it was covered with a wide table runner in deep scarlet that covered the majority of the desk and fell off a few feet on the sides.

Appearances. It was all about appearances.

It always was.

“Zachary, this is Alpha Seneca Strasser and his daughter, Enid,” my father politely introduced before narrowing his eyes at me. Their message was clear. Be courteous, my disobedient and willful child.

Yeah? Well f**k you, Artemis Greenwood. f**k you and your shady, f****d-up deal with this prick.

The man in front of me was grinning as he thrust his hand out to me. I couldn’t say it was a welcoming smile, but I nodded back and mumbled a faint, “pleased to meet you” as I pumped his fist a few times with my own.

“Pleasure to meet my future son-in-mating finally,” the man replied jovially.

I listened to more of his polite chatter as I studied him from the top down. He was a good-looking older male, approximately 40 to 45 years of age, I’d say. His dark hair was longer than I would expect of someone his age and a bluish midnight black. The bangs brushed over dark eyes and thick brows that gathered in the middle over a long, aquiline nose. His lips were thick with a divot down the middle of the bottom one. He had a strong jawline and a dimple in his chin that almost faded away under the short beard he maintained.

The other visitor in the room was his exact opposite. It was surprising, as the Alpha was all dark features. His daughter had blond hair and light blue eyes with a button nose. She must have taken after her mother, for the most part. She lacked the vigor of the older man. She was light to his dark. That made me think.

Mother. Where was this young girl’s mother?

“Enid, dear, come over and meet your future mate,” the man gestured to his daughter. Dutifully, she wandered over, her hand out to take mine with a soft grip. We shook, and I murmured a greeting before shooting my father a brief look. He was stone. Solid, unyielding stone. Like none of this was affecting him at all, and like he was watching some strange ritual occur from behind the safety of a screen on a TV set.

He was a spectator; acting like a mere bystander and not the catalyst in all this. But I remembered. I would always remember. If I lived to be a 120 and forgot my own name, I would forever recall what this man did to me.

Enid nodded at me. I sort of felt bad for her. I wasn’t unsympathetic, and she hadn’t asked for this, of that I was certain. She had lost a mate somehow as well, even if it was four months or four years ago.

“Your father has told me that you refused to mate with my Enid at first,” the man started. “I understand—”

“I have a mate already, sir. My apologies. We just have yet to forge the bond.” I knew it was rude to interrupt, but I couldn’t help myself, and the words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I love my mate, Alpha. I’ve known she was mine for almost four years now.”

The man looked surprised and arched a questioning brow at my father. “Is this true? You felt the bond before your maturity?”

I had to give him credit. At least he asked me and not my father. If it had been Artemis, he would have deferred to the Alpha in the room.

“Yes, sir. Quite true. We’ve known what we are to each other since a little after our fourteenth birthdays. That’s why I have to ask you—no, beg you—to reconsider. I can’t be without my Lucy. She’s everything to me.”

He patted my arm like the condescending prick he probably was, his thick, wet lips mashed in a straight line over his chin.

“It’s a shame alright, but this has to happen in order to repair the damage done between our two communities. My Enid has been through some rough times after the loss of her mother a few years ago, and then her mate being made rogue and then dying? If it were up to me—”

“I won’t ever be able to love your daughter, sir.” I gave an apologetic nod to Enid, whose face remained placid, as if I had merely said the weather was lovely today. “I already found my love, and there is nothing that can make me want another. Please. Don’t make us do this. We can think of something else that can right whatever wrongs my father has done. I’m pleading with you.”

I was begging at this point, and unashamed of the fact. I thought I was making some headway when the man started to look conflicted, a thick haze of fog covering his eyes before he cleared his throat and stood up straight once more.

“I’m sorry, son, but there’s nothing else that I need except for my daughter to be mated to someone worthy of her. Her true mate was not. He was a vile, despicable—”

“Papa.” Her voice came out like a whisper, and my head shot towards her just as the first tears started to trickle down her face.

Her father must have had no soul, because he looked stern, as if her tears were completely unwarranted.

“Well, he is—or was. What he did—” He cut himself off abruptly and cleared his throat again, as if ashamed of even the memory of what the man was like. What one of his pack members was like.

“There’s no proof. Only hearsay,” she reminded him softly as she wiped away the tears from her eyes. If I hadn’t been determined to keep my distance, I would have offered a tissue or even a shoulder to cry on. After all, this wasn’t her fault either. It was my father’s for whatever he had done to deserve such a punishment. Now my punishment.

“Enough, Enid,” he scolded her, recalcitrant. The severe look on his face brooked no argument, and she became silent except for the occasional sniffle. He turned back to me.

“Enid will make a good Luna to you, and you’ll have strong pups from your mating,” he informed me. “Many of them. Her mother was only able to grant me her, so I’ll leave my pack to your second son when I give up the title of Alpha. The friendship between our two communities will grow—”

I shook my head quickly. “Don’t you understand, sir? Don’t you have a heart?”

I could see my father getting ready to interject, and I cut him off with a look. This was my fight. “Quiet, old man,” I growled at him. “This is your fault in the first place. I need to have my say and try and convince our guests that this would be wrong.” I turned back to Seneca. “It is wrong, sir, to keep true mates apart. I’m sorry for your daughter’s loss, and my heart goes out to her, and for your departed mate, but I can never love another like I love my Lucy. Please, let us put our heads together and think of some other way we can mend the rift between us.”

He shook his head immediately, the stubborn bastard. It was like talking to a brick wall for all his leeway.

“I understand it may take a few months, but get to know my daughter,” he urged. “Your father has said that you will wait a little while before you mark and mate with her, and I can understand that as you are near-strangers right now. I agree with those conditions, but before the day is out, you must reject your true mate. Let her go. I will not bend on this decision, and your father, as he told me, has placed the Alpha Command on you. You must do it or face certain, painful death.”

Fuck him, but he was right. If he didn’t bend as I wanted him to, what was the point of refusing at all? Deny the visiting Alpha and I was dead and Lucy would be heartbroken. Reject her, and break her heart anyway. No matter how this played out, someone’s heart would shatter, but at least if I rejected Lucy, she had a chance to be happy with someone else.

The thought made jealousy burn deep in my gut, but what could I do? The man was insistent I mark his daughter. If I didn’t reject Lucy, she would lose me anyway by my death.

My head dropped to my chest as I gave up the last hope of my happiness. I was f****d.

Seneca clapped his hands once, as if he had sealed some long-awaited deal. “Then it’s finally settled. The two young ones will get to know each other for a while, and we can probably expect grandpups—”

“Finally?” I blurted out as I eyed the two alphas in the room. “Just how long has this deal been in the works? I was under the impression it had only been for a short amount of time.”

Seneca laughed. Laughed. He slapped one meaty hand on my shoulder condescendingly and chuckled his motherfucking black heart out.

“Son, you’ve been promised to my daughter since you were 16 years old,” he answered me mirthfully. “We only started ironing out the details in the last couple of months.”

My father averted his gaze, looking ashamed.

Stepping forward to him, I spoke. “I hate you,” I iterated to my father. “I will always hate you. I will do as you ask, but only because no matter what, Lucy and I are f****d as a couple. If I deny you and go against your Alpha Command, I die. Appease you, and we’re just heartbroken. I can and will find some way past this, but mark my words, old man. I. Will. Never. Forgive. You.”

I stalked out of the office and slammed the door shut without any protest. Clothing came off quickly as I ran out of the back door of the house. Leaping off the veranda, I shifted mid-air, my boxers and undershirt shredding as my wolf’s skin burst into its thick coat of fur and flesh.

Howling in anguish, I raced off into the woods in search of solitude. I was going to try and find Lucy, speak with her, but I had no idea what I would say to her when we met as mates for one last time. By the time I could smell her around the community, it was well after dark, and I shifted back to my human skin and got dressed quietly in my bedroom.

Lucy, I linked. We need to talk. Now, please.

Midnight was only a couple of short hours away. I had to do this before we both lost everything.