Pack Ruin (The Splintered Bond #3)

12. A Terrible Solution

12

A Terrible Solution

FLOR

I ’d never gone from bliss to pissed faster in my life.

Glen’s blue eyes crackled with intensity as he held me while I trembled. “What happened?”

“Cityboy decided to cheat on his true mate,” I gritted out, feeling blood where I’d bitten my tongue a few seconds before. I rolled to one side, pulling away from his hold and curling up into a ball as my wolf thrashed inside me.

“Are you sure?” Glen asked, and I directed a little of my rage at my newest mate.

“You think I’m lyin’?”

He shook his head, helping me sit up as we disentangled our limbs. The sweat and other fluids drying on my body were suddenly uncomfortable. I headed for the door, the feeling of an invisible knife stabbing into the mate mark Finnick had given me making me stumble. I stomped the rest of the way out of the cabin, picturing Finnick’s face under my feet.

Behind me, Glen scooped up a blanket and followed. When Brand appeared from beneath the shade of the nearest trees, I shifted directions toward where he’d been waiting. Waiting for Glen to have a moment alone with me.

Thoughtful mate. Unlike — The mating mark flared again, sharper than ever. “Shitfire, that turtlefucking asshat! I will stew his damned balls for this!” I stopped at the edge of the water, panting from the barrage of pain. There was no escaping this feeling. I couldn’t run from it. The cold water might numb it, but if I tried to swim now, I’d probably drown.

In seconds, Glen was on one side of me, Brand on the other. I let them hold me up as I cried into the lake.

When I could speak again, my voice was hoarse. “I never thought… I watched my mama go crazy from this. Watched her scream and cry every time my fucker of a father screwed one of the pack’s other females. This is exactly why she made me promise not to let a true mate near me. This exact damned scenario.”

“Little flower, don’t say that you regret our mating,” Brand murmured. “That would be a worse pain than I could bear.” Our bond pulsed with a quiet sadness.

“Oh, Bearman, no!” I turned to him and held on, letting my tears wet his chest. I felt Glen come up behind me, his warmth comforting me, and I reached back to pull him closer. Their closeness helped, the pain in my narrow bond to Finnick fading to a manageable, yet sharp flicker.

“How could he?” Glen whispered. “I know how he feels about you, Flor. That man wanted nothing more than to be yours. For you to be his.” His eyebrows flew up. “He’s got a mating mark, too, doesn’t he? This has to be agony for him, too. There’s something you don’t know.”

Brand rumbled in agreement. “Before he went home, he told me that he had no choice. His little sister Tana was being forced into a mating. He had to go back to stop it.”

“What?” I gasped.

“She’s only seventeen,” Glen added. “Super shy. Innocent. Who the hell are they asking her to?—”

“Niall,” Brand spat.

Glen went still. “Tell me you’re joking.”

I pulled back from both my mates. “Who’s Niall?”

By the time Brand finished explaining, I felt sick, almost dizzy with an amorphous fear. Was I feeling Finnick’s fear? I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to focus on the bond that had felt aching and distant.

My mate mark was still burning, but the emotional pain that had begun in the cabin was worse… and it wasn’t coming from me. I knew Finnick was with another woman, was still with her, touching her. I felt rolling waves of possessiveness, an itchiness under my skin that mimicked my own mother’s fits when I was little.

Could it be… I closed my eyes and focused on the bond, that narrow band of energy that led from my chest to somewhere far to the east. But the connection wasn’t rich and full, like Brand’s, and Glen’s now.

It wasn’t like what I had with either of them. Their bonds felt almost as if part of them had parked itself inside my heart. Finnick and I hadn’t done whatever metaphysical thing it was—or more likely, a physical thing—to cement our claims.

Would I be in even more pain if we had? I remembered my mother’s agony, so much that it had driven her insane, and had my answer.

When I opened my eyes with a sigh, Glen took my hand and guided me into the shallow water of the lake’s edge. “Let’s get clean, while we hash this out. There’s something we’re not seeing.”

Brand jogged to the cabin to get us towels to dry ourselves, then returned and waited on the rocks by the shore. He told us everything that had passed between him and Finnick back at Northern, while Glen and I washed ourselves clean in the cold water. “I didn’t put it together before, but Finnick must have had an Alpha command placed on him. When he told me about Tana’s mating, I asked for more information. He wanted to, but he wasn’t able to talk about what was happening at his home. He tried to make me promise to keep you away.”

“You told me on the trip here that Finnick said he couldn’t be the mate I deserved,” I mused aloud. “ Couldn’t. Not wouldn’t.”

“Are you feeling better?” Glen asked as he pulled me back to shore, dried us both off, and wrapped a towel around himself and a blanket around me.

I sat, shaking my head. “Not great. If he does this often, I’ll get worse. That’s what happened with Mama.” I tried not to let myself think about what “this” was, what exactly he was doing with someone else, far away.

“Your mom? Tell me about her.” Glen held me as we looked out at the lake, and I tried to remember everything I could about my mama.

“What do you want to hear?”

“Describe her, little flower.” Brand had a lump of wood in one hand, the size of my fist, and was shaving at it with a pocketknife.

I smiled, picturing her from one of my favorite memories, one of my earliest ones. “She was a little taller than I am now, I think. She was thin like me, but her face was rounder. She had a dimple in one cheek, right here, when she smiled. Though she didn’t smile a lot. Del was sweet on her. He used to make her caramels in the kitchen for her birthday.” I closed my eyes and pictured her face, cheeks stuffed with sticky candy, laughter in her eyes, looking down at me.

The Alpha had been out on a long hunt that year, trying for white-tailed deer. There hadn’t been any females in the group that went out, and Mama had felt better and better as the days went on. She’d been clear-eyed that day, the one when Del had made her birthday sweets.

I sniffed and leaned against Glen. “I think Mama wanted to be a good mother, but she couldn’t. She was stuck in a trap.” I blinked, then turned to Brand.“Finnick is, too, isn’t he? He’s being forced somehow. Made to…” My mark burned even more fiercely, and I whimpered until Glen and Brand both snuggled in close again.

Brand had carved a face in the wood, and he held it out to me.

“Is this the art you promised to tell me about?”

“It is,” he said. “I make small things. Sculptures out of stone, and carvings out of wood. This isn’t as small as the ones I usually do, though.”

Glen laughed. “He made an entire chess set for my pack one year carved out of limestone, with the Queen as Mom, the King as Dad. Mom keeps it in with the pack’s treasures, and won’t let anyone touch it.”

I held the chunk of carved wood up and gasped. My mother stared back at me, her dimple captured in the pine, curls tumbling down the sides of her face, her cheeks round and her lips full. The carving looked like it had been plucked straight from my memories.

“How, Brand? How did you…”

He wore a somber expression, and his moon-bright eyes were shuttered. “I’ve been carving a long time,” was all he said.

That wasn’t an answer. There was no way, unless…

“You can read my thoughts, can’t you?” I asked, suddenly shy. Glen sucked in a breath.

“I can’t help it, love,” Brand replied quietly, with a furtive glance at my expression. I hoped he saw my wonder, and not anything else. “It’s not just a mate bond now, the connection between us. Something happened, something that feels permanent. When I had to save you from being pulled down with Luke, it altered our bond.” He swallowed. “Forgive me.”

For some reason, those words echoed inside me. As if it wasn’t just Brand saying them, but one of my other mates. Like a whisper, from far away: Please forgive me.

And when I murmured, “I do forgive you,” it might have been a coincidence, but the burning in Finnick’s mate mark stopped almost completely. Huh. I didn’t have long to appreciate the lack of pain, as a howl came from the direction of the Alpha’s Den.

Glen sighed. “Sounds like they realized I left. I’d better go back; I don’t want to get Ida in trouble.”

Brand snorted. “Don’t worry about Grandma. Dad may be Alpha, but she rules the Den. But he’s calling...” He went still as another howl went up, and then another, until there were dozens of wolves howling. Running toward the Den, it sounded like.

“Who’s he calling, the whole pack?” I asked as we returned to the cabin and dressed, gathering our things.

Glen and Brand exchanged glances, but didn’t answer. As we ran back to the house, wolf after wolf—some with two feet, but most with four—ran past us. More than one curled a lip at Glen, but most of them yipped a greeting.

When we reached the Den, Ida and Verona were there at the front door, arguing. Ida was clearly incensed, shaking a wooden spoon in the taller woman’s face. “Just because you can’t find a better solution doesn’t mean you tell my son that. You know how he is about honor and duty. Black and white, day and night. He’s a good Alpha, but at the end of the day, he’s still a male and can’t see the smaller paths through the forest!”

Verona bristled. “I didn’t tell him I’d given up looking—in fact, I told him to wait! I’m not done with my research; I told him I had four more books to examine, but that stubborn son of yours has made up his mind, and you know—” Her narrow face turned toward us. “Ah, Flor! Maybe you can talk some sense into my idiot son-in-law.”

“Samuel? Why would he want to talk with me?” I glanced at Brand, who shrugged and escorted me through the front doorway, prompting the women to follow. “Shouldn’t Brand be the one?—”

“No!” the women both shouted.

Verona’s narrow shoulders bowed in. “That’s the last thing we need. I’m afraid Ida’s right. Samuel thinks he knows the right way forward. It is a way—it’s just not the one anyone would want. Especially our dear boy Brand.”

“It’s what’s best for the pack, Verona,” Samuel said from the doorway to his office. “It’s the only way I won’t have to send Glen and Flor to the Council. And my son to his death from losing his mate, when they get their tainted hands on her.”

“Brand, help him!” I gasped, but Brand didn’t move from my side. His moon-bright eyes were fixed on his father, and an expression I’d never seen shone on his face. Horror and understanding. Anguish and resignation. Brand knew what was happening.

Samuel was shaking, his hands grasping the doorframe on both sides so hard, small splinters of wood were coming off in his clawed grip. His nose was bleeding, and his eyes shadowed. He almost looked like he’d gotten sick. Was he losing control of his wolf?

“What’s wrong, Samuel?” Glen took a step toward the Alpha, who shook his head.

“Stay back. I’m fighting this damned leash as hard as I can, but…” He broke off, panting, his head hanging.

Ida huffed, folding her arms around herself. “That awful Aidan called again. He put the full force of the Council’s command on my boy. He’s been ordered to execute Glen immediately. He can’t disobey… Well, he can. But it’s killing him.”

“I’ll go,” Glen offered, though he was still holding my hand. “Flor can stay here with Brand. I’ll go to Southern and help Luke.”

“Won’t be… enough,” Samuel groaned. “Flor. Once I knew her lineage, saw her name on that page…” Glen’s eyebrows flew high, but no one else reacted. I’d need to tell Glen everything soon.

“Shit,” I muttered. “I should’ve guessed. I suppose we’ll all need to go.”

But Brand was already shaking his head. “Pack law means he’s honor-bound to make Flor leave, given her parentage. But the Council command is another thing. Even if Glen left now, Dad would be driven to hunt him down and obey their rule. Obey or die. Isn’t that right, Dad?”

Samuel’s head rose slowly, and I saw the mirror of Brand’s expression on his older, lined face. “Years ago, I made a mistake that no Alpha of this pack will ever make again. I was so mired in my suffering, I gave my power to the Council. But you won’t do that, son. You’ll know who the enemy is now. You’ll know how not to fall into that trap.”

I didn’t follow what he was saying, but the others all reacted with shock. “I can’t challenge you,” Brand said softly, taking my free hand. “I won’t. The pack needs you.”

I blinked as I understood. “Challenge? You think if Brand takes your place as Alpha, then… Wait. Would that work?” My pulse quickened, a flare of hope exciting me. “Brand can be Alpha and not swear to the Council, right? Not get put under that command to obey Finnick’s dad?”

Glen answered. “Right. None of our packs are required to belong to the Council. It means there would be no trading between Mountain and the others, no alliances against rogues, or sharing of information. It would be close to a declaration of war.” When I took a breath to ask, he shook his head. “Of course, my parents wouldn’t go along with it, and Mountain is the largest pack by far, with almost as many shifters as the other main packs combined. No one would come all the way across the country to attack a fortified, massive pack. But…”

I remembered something from back at Southern. When I’d asked if the Heirs had to kill their own parents to become Alpha, they’d assured me that wasn’t the case. “But don’t you have to go to the Council to transfer the Alpha power?”

Brand didn’t speak, and neither did Samuel. They were staring at each other, dark brown eyes meeting moon-white ones, both filled with pain and resolve.

Verona answered me, her voice shaking. “Those are the new ways. Moving that power from Alpha to Heir takes more energy, more of the moon’s blessings than any one wolf can hold.”

“I challenged my grandfather,” Samuel said after a long moment. “My father was dead, and Grandfather could no longer lead.”

“No longer wanted to,” Verona corrected. “His mate had gone on.”

“It’s not the same,” Brand whispered. “You are not sick. Not dying. No. ”

The tension in the room was palpable. Verona broke it, turning back to me. “The new way of sharing power has only been adopted in the past hundred years, and not by all packs. Only the North American and European ones, in fact. It takes a group of extremely powerful shifters—like the Council working together, with the combined strength of their individual packs behind them—to reassign the role of Alpha.” Her nose wrinkled, like she’d smelled something bad. “Thousands of shifters, all lending their power to the task. The old ways are…”

“I already said I won’t do it,” Brand said softly, his grip on my hand almost too tight.

Watching Samuel crushing the solid wood of the doorframe in an effort not to lunge forward and attack Glen made me think that whatever the old ways were, they were worth a shot. “What are the old ways?”

Ida spoke quietly. “All it takes is the power of the moon and of blood. If Brand challenges his father and defeats him in combat, when Samuel dies, his power will pass to Brand.” I had guessed this was coming, but hearing it made me feel sick. The old ways sucked.

“It’s an easier transition under a full moon. That’s not for well over a week,” Verona muttered. “But I need more time. I can find some other way. There are texts in some of the cabinets I haven’t read for decades?—”

Samuel waved her to silence. “We don’t have time. Bradley and Margarette arrived at Eastern to meet with Aidan. But someone has lodged an official complaint about Bradley’s decision-making. He and Margarette are under investigation for executing their own Enforcers, and Aidan’s refusing to give Bradley his seat back until the judgment.” Blood was now running from his nose. “I won’t make it there to contest the findings, and even if I did, I’d be under investigation as well. If I don’t obey pack law and the Council Head’s command, I’ll die anyway, but slowly, and for nothing. You must challenge me, son.”

Tears were pouring down my face. Of course Finnick’s dad would do anything to hold onto his power. Of course Samuel would give up everything, even his life, to fight against that.

Samuel rasped, “There’s no other way. Challenge me and defeat me tomorrow night. Swear to me you will never let the Council leash our pack again, and I will go to your mother’s arms with joy. And pride, knowing you will be a far more worthy Alpha than any of your ancestors.”

The pain from Finnick’s mating mark was almost gone now, though not entirely. But the agony that flared from my heart was every bit as bad.

No, worse, because it wasn’t all mine. My massive, strong, warmhearted mate was silently weeping next to me, tears running down his cheeks and into his dark beard as he stared with those beautiful moonblessed eyes at his dad. He opened his mouth, and I knew he would refuse. There was no way he would kill Samuel. His love for his father was so strong, I could sense it in every breath Brand took.

Of course, I’d been wrong before. And I was wrong now.

Brand’s voice broke audibly as he addressed his father. His heart broke at the same moment, but I was the only one who felt it. “Alpha, I challenge you.”