Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1) (19 page)

Shaking his head now, he frowned.  “Courtship period…”

“
I had three weeks to choose between them,” she admitted.  “I chose Donovan.”

“
Well,” he snorted.  “At least you made the right decision…in the end.”  His lips twisted on those words, and she wondered if she’d live to regret being so candid with her new Alpha.  She’d had no choice; the alternative was to lie to him and have him sniff it out.

“
Yes, Alpha.”

Beth’s feet were killing her.  That didn’t happen very often, and she wondered just when they’d get a chance to sit down and eat.  She was starving, having eaten nothing since dinner the previous night.  Ill-advised though it may have been, she’d declined the Alpha’s offer of breakfast. 

So far they’d chosen a bed – “the single most important item of furniture for a new Den House,” he’d told her smugly – and a set of dining room furniture, along with some couches and appliances, all of which would be delivered when her own Den House was completed.  They were now hunting for the “little things women like” as Bradley called them.  Things like bedding and rugs, pots and pans, curtains and throws and mirrors.  She honestly couldn’t care less if they had a bare mattress and cardboard in the windows so long as she could rest soon. 

The Alpha, she had discovered, experienced a certain ecstasy when spending human money.  He’d spent more money than she’d ever seen before, and the day was only half over. 

“
Lunch time?” he asked.  “If you’re feeling up to it, that is.  That wine can certainly be a bitch the morning after the night before.”

A sudden laugh bubbled out of Beth’s lips, causing several people in the textile store to glance their way.  “Sounds wonderful,” she admitted.  “And yes, that wine certainly was a bitch this morning.”

“Suppose I should hold off on that re-stock order?”

“
Gratefully,” she laughed.  “Burgers?” she pointed to a stand across the street where a vendor was selling burgers to passers-by.  The aroma had chased her right into the store, making her mouth water and her nose practically swivel on her head to catch the last lingering wafts of beef.

“
Can’t beat a good burger,” the Alpha surprised her by announcing, his big, bass tones reaching every customer in the store.  “And I happen to know the perfect spot to eat them.”

Happily following in his wake, Beth stepped across the street where Bradley ordered four burgers “with everything”, and paid for them with one of the notes he pulled from a roll of cash in his pocket.  

“Follow me,” he ordered, crossing the street again, burgers in hand.  Beth trotted behind him towards the back of the store they’d been in, gasping in surprise when they emerged from the dingy alley into a wide open area of grass and trees.  “The town lake,” he told her, smiling.

Companionably, they sat munching on burgers, watching ducks diving and begging for food.  Beth tossed them a piece of the bun and laughed as two large drakes fought for it, racing each other in the water.  The victor swallowed his hard-won prize without as much as a quack.

Thinking perhaps she’d been wrong about Bradley from the get-go, she considered the time they’d spent together today since their conversation in the car.  He hadn’t been boorish or offensive, and she had expected that and more from the Alpha of the Tall Grass pack.  First impressions, she realized, really didn’t count.

“
You Bonded with this Gareth, didn’t you?”

His quiet voice shook her out of her reverie and she turned to him with a frown.  “Bonded?”

“You both formed an emotional attachment to each other.”

“
Why do you say that?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“
I can smell him off you,” the Alpha admitted slowly, with a frown. 

“
Oh…” she muttered.  “That.”

“
Yes,” he replied stonily.  “That.  I know what it is to be Bound.”

“
You say that like it’s supposed to mean something.”  Bound.  She might have formed an emotional attachment to Gareth, but she’d never been more than a roll in the hay to him.  That last night in the woods flashed in her mind, and she was again transported into darkness and lust. 

“
What have you done to me?”

“
It means a great deal,” Bradley told her now.  “If you can’t form the same attachment with my son.”

“
I have,” she insisted.  “I love Donovan.” 

“
But you are Bound to another.”

“
I don’t know what that means,” she protested, voice barely above a whisper, eyebrows pulled together in a frown. 

“
You really don’t know how a Bond works, do you?” he questioned on a low growl.

Shaking her head, she started to say it didn’t matter, but the look in his eyes, so fierce, so serious, froze the words in her throat.

“Did they teach you nothing in Loam Floor?” he demanded angrily. 

“
I was un-mated,” she shrugged.

“
No excuse!”  He rose and began to pace, his giant strides eating the ground between steps.  His powerful arms shook with anger as he growled low in his throat.  “You were intimate with this male?”

“
Yes,” she admitted, slack-jawed.  “How did you–”

A wave of his hand cut her off.  “When two wolves share intimate experiences of a sexual nature, it can form a Bond between them.  One that distance and time may or may not sever.  It can make it stronger in some extreme cases.  You begin to take on characteristics of his scent, and vice versa.”  He glanced at her for confirmation and she nodded numbly. 

“Separation can be…difficult to deal with,” he went on in a lecturing tone, still pacing.  Beth watched him avidly.  Finally someone was explaining the intricacies of pack life to her.  Albeit a little late, it seemed.  “First comes sadness, then anger, and jealousy, frenzied emotions all roiling and boiling inside, just waiting for a chance to let loose.”

He seemed to know exactly what he was speaking of, and Beth had to wonder who it was that hurt this hulk of a man so soul-deep.  “Left alone, the beginnings of a Bond will most times unravel and fade, unless both parties are happy to complete it.  When you are finally Bound, you will both wear a scent marker.  Proof, if you like, of whom you belong to.”

“Scent marker?” Beth questioned, her face draining of color.  “But what does it all mean?”

“
What does it mean?” he rounded on her, anger in his tone now directed at her.  “It means that you had better form the same Bond with Donovan.”

“
I will…I had planned–”

“
To the Devil with what you had planned, Elisabeth Tall Grass,” he hissed, halting his steps to tower over her.  “I am a reasonable man,” he went on quietly.  “But you cannot walk around my pack wearing the scent marker of a foreign wolf!”

“
I understand.”  He stood there quietly, watching her face pale with dark eyes which never left her face.

“
Do you?” he asked her with quiet intensity.  “I doubt it, Elisabeth, I doubt it very much.  But let me make this clear to you.” 

She forced herself to meet his eyes as his body language was demanding. 

“This cannot be tolerated.  You must break this Bond.  When you carry a scent marker from another, you will no longer be Bound to this Gareth,” he explained slowly.  “And as your Alpha, I demand it be sooner, rather than later.”

She swallowed thickly, trying to deny the fierce need to ask her next question.  “What will happen to him?”  She cleared her throat.  “Gareth, I mean.”

Shrugging his colossal shoulders, he affected an uninterested air.  “He might Bond again some day.”

“
He won’t be hurt?”

“
That’s beside the point.  This Bond has to be broken.  It is unspeakable that you should flaunt being under the ownership of another male.  Think of my son, if no one else.”  His intense glare seemed to pin her to the spot. 

Of course she knew it was devastating for Donovan.  She wasn’t stupid.  She knew that it was a trial for him to even be close to her when all he could smell was his rival and what they shared.  “I think it’s time we were on the road, Beth.  You and Donovan need to spend some time together if you are to Bond him.”  Bradley held out a beefy arm and offered her a strained smile.  She told herself she was imagining the nasty glint in his eye.

She took his arm and let him lead her back toward the car while her mind wandered.  Time and again it came back to the way Bradley wouldn’t answer her when she asked if Gareth would be hurt.  She had to find out more.

The two and half hours spent driving back to Tall Grass pack land were spent in stifled silence.  Both wolves considering their own thoughts quietly while the scenery passed in a blur of greenery and wild flowers. 

When at last the car pulled up to the vast Den House that belonged to the Alpha, Beth put her hand on the door to step out.  Swift as a snake, Bradley clamped a hand on her forearm, bringing to mind the hand of some muscular god. 

“Beth,” he whispered conversationally.  “I will be spending the night on the hunt.  I won’t be home until dawn.  If I were you, I’d spend time together with my son.  Bonding.”

It was said pleasantly enough, but Beth could read the threat between those lines.  It said if she dared make a fool of his son there’d be trouble to spare, and hell to catch.

“Yes, Alpha.”

He smiled and released her arm.  Beth fought the impulse to rub the feel of him from her skin.  Every time she revised her opinion of the Alpha of the Tall Grass pack, he reminded her that he was the ultimate authority here.  And that he wasn’t above his darker nature.

“Beth!” Donovan called from the doorway.  “Wait until you see,” he bellowed his face the very picture of an over-excited child.  “We’ve picked the perfect spot for our Den House.  You’re going to love it.  Work begins first thing!”

“
Wonderful,” she replied in her best, I’m-thrilled voice.  Her own Den House couldn’t be further from her mind.  She was expected – no, ordered – to Bond with Donovan this very night, and she couldn’t go through with it without first finding out what consequences it would have for Gareth. 

“
Donovan,” the Alpha roared.  “Stop your hollering and come collect Beth’s purchases from the car.  I’m going to attend to some duties in my office before tonight’s hunt.”  He glared at Beth in passing.  “I’ll be leaving just after sun-down.  Don’t disturb me.”

“
Yes, Father.”

Bradley had just locked himself away in his office, and Donovan begged her to take a look at the site of their new home.  “Don’t you think it would be more romantic to take me to see the finished product, rather than a patch of dirt?”

She knew she was being deliberately standoffish, but she simply had to speak to someone who might know enough to help her understand.  The ladies were probably still in the weaving house at this hour, although she couldn’t say they’d be there much longer, with the sun sitting so low in the sky.

“I suppose you’re right, my mate,” Donovan replied, kissing her hand.  God, but she didn’t deserve him.  Here she was, raining all over his parade, and he was still gracious and forgiving.  Even agreeing with her.  She wanted nothing more than to stare at that patch of dirt and imagine her own home standing there in the days to come, but she had to speak to Margo and Marybell as soon as possible.  If she was to mate with Donovan tonight, she needed to be sure.

“
You’re home earlier than I had planned for,” he told her regretfully.  He wrapped her in his strong arms and kissed her temple.  “I still have things to hash out with Hale, but I’ll be back before you know it,” he promised.

“
Alright,” Beth forced herself to inject some regret into her own voice.  “I suppose I can pass the time with the ladies in the weaving house.”

“
You do that, my mate, and I’ll count the seconds until we meet again.”

She smiled, sick to her stomach already with the deception.  “I’ll bring a stool with me this time, my butt still hasn’t recovered.”

Laughing, Donovan strode away with her bags containing table cloths and other dressings.  “I’ll grab one for you from our room.”

“
What would I do without you, Donovan Tall Grass?” she asked his retreating form. 

“
Fetch your own stool,” he replied with a wink.

“Ah, so you’ve returned, have you?” asked Margo, her rheumy eyes taking in the stool in hand.  “Planning a long visit, I see.”

“
I have,” she answered glibly.  “And I am.”  Giving Marybell a wide smile, she settled in beside the fire and poured tea for herself.  It was a smooth blend, different to the last and was going down easy.  She drained the whole cup before Margo once again spoke in her direct way.

“
Spit it out, child, or choke on it.  What’s brought you here?”

“
You see right through me,” she admitted with a slight grimace.