Destiny's Choice (3 page)

“My
True
Mate
.”

Saying that was the equivalent of having a bucket of ice water thrown in her face. She quickly moved away, those strong arms reluctantly letting her go.

“No. No, no, no.” She shook her head, denying his claim even if her heart and soul told her otherwise.

The look he gave her was one of hurt and sadness but changed to curiosity. “You are upset. Why?”

“I can’t have a
Mate
. I just can’t.”

Without another word, she bolted.

Running through the house and out the backdoor
to shouts of her name, she fled to the woods, racing to the one place that never ceased to calm her. This time though, she had a feeling it wouldn’t help. For the man she just escape
d
from was more than just someone claiming to be her
Mate
. He was the Pack’s Alpha, Roan LeGuer.

Chapter Two

When the shock of his
True
Mate
fleeing from him vanished, Roan snapped into action and raced after her. He barely made it to the back door when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Roan, wait!”

Whirling around, he snarled at Ian. “She’s my
True
Mate
.
I need to go after her.” He turned to go. 

“Roan, please.”

The sound of tears in Lillah’s
voice kept
him from opening the door.
He turned
back to his friends
.
Ian was holding his crying
m
ate
.
H
er shoulders
were
shaking.

“What’s going on, Ian?” This was so not how meeting his
True
Mate
was supposed to happen.

Ian let out a deep breath. “Come into the living room, we’ll explain everything.”

“But, Rivera…”

“She’s fine.” He smiled wanly. “She’ll be at the waterfall. It’s her place when she needs time to herself.”

Seeing as he didn’t have much choice, he nodded. “All right, my friend. But not for long. The bond has begun to form so being separated for any length of time could cause problems.” Problems he didn’t want his
True
Mate
to suffer from.

“I understand,” he said as he led them all to a comfy room done in Earth tones. Once he and Lillah were ensconced
on the sofa and Roan on a leather arm chair, he began.

“First of all, I want to apologize for not confiding in you sooner and I’ll understand if afterward you need to do your duty as Alpha. You hold no blame, that’s all on mine and Lillah’s head.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Ian?” With the emotions swirling around the two, it was hard to pinpoint which was more dominant, guilt or sadness. It certainly didn’t help that the need to get to his
True
Mate
was riding him hard.

“I’m talking about lying to the Pack for the last 177 years.”

That brought Roan up short. “About what?”

“My attack. It didn’t happen the way we worded it. In fact, I was never attacked at all.”

Roan could smell the truth of that
statement;
see it in Ian’s light green eyes. “Shit,” he groaned. “And how the hell did you get away with that?”

“It’s all in the wording, my friend.” He grimaced.

Taking a moment to let that sink in, Roan couldn’t help but agree. He’d also been known to play that game a time or three. But to keep at it for almost two centuries, well… “Alright, Ian, explain.”

“Everything we’ve told the Pack about how we met was true. I did save Lillah from that bear trap and we did fall in love afterwards. But I was human when it all happened.”

Human. Which mean
Lillah
had broke Pack Law letting a human know of their existence. “Go on.”

“With her parents away all the time and only Phillip to watch over her occasionally, it wasn’t all that difficult to be together. But we both knew anything could happen. Times were harsh back then. Most barely made it to adulthood and the ones who did were lucky to live past forty. If we wanted a life together, I would need to be Lupus. It was the only way.”

“And considering I had found out I was pregnant, well, I didn’t want our child to grow up without a father,” Lillah said softly.

Pregnant…Ian still human… Roan’
s mind whirled.

“So I did it. I bit Ian in wolf form and made him one of us.”

Without thought, Roan sprung from his seat and blasted the two with his power. “Do you realize what you have done?” he shouted. “What your selfishness and silence have wrought?”

         
Even though he’d known Ian and Lillah for less than a century and today was the first time he had ever met Rivera, he’d been told about her from them both. The birth had been difficult, Rivera’s childhood fraught with illness and frailty. Reaching adulthood had been a miracle. 
E
ven after reaching her late twenty’s, she had still not gone through the First Transformation. That glorious and painful event when a Lupus shifted for the very first time. Lupus went through it in their mid to late teens. Rivera never had. Ian and Lillah had been beside themselves with worry. Then after
numerous tests, all the doctors surmised
it was because Lillah had become pregnant so soon after Ian’
s First Transformation that was causing Rivera to not shift. And maybe never would. Now Roan knew the real reason. She was only half Lupus. Probably the only child to ever survive
such a pairing
. And she was Roan’s
True
Mate
. Christ.

It was that thought that drained away his anger and made him fall back onto the chair. “Does Phillip know?”

Lillah gave a delicate snort. “My brother is, as always, more concerned with himself than anyone else. He may suspect, but I really don’t think he cares one way or the other.
Th
e
re’s n
othing to gain if he said anything and the family reputation to tarnish if it was true. Only my parents would care about that.”

“Heaven forbid that should happen,” Ian sneered.

“Being a part of a high ranking Pack family does have
its
drawbacks,” Roan quipped then fell silent for a moment
.
T
he weight of what Ian and Lillah had done weigh
ed
heavily
on him. “Why?” The look he leveled on them demand
ed
an explanation.

Ian let out a
deep
breath. “Fear, mostly. I was barely twenty-one and Lillah had just turned eighteen. We knew the
consequences;
Lillah had told me in detail what would happen if ever we were found out. But-“

“
You were in lo
ve with a child on the way,” Roan finished for him.

“That, and well…” Ian gave him a wan smile. “I had no family left after loosing them all to smallpox.”

“And mine were too busy traveling and making important Pack connections to be bothered with me,” Lillah
said
. “I didn’t want our child raised like I was or to be without us should we be executed for breaking Pack Law.”

“So you kept as close to the truth as possible without giving yourselves away and hid the facts of Rivera’s birth.” Roan shook his head, not sure if he should be disgusted or impressed.

“We knew this day would come, Roan. It was only a matter of time, after all,” Ian said with resignation in his voice. “And we’re prepared for our punishment.”

Looking at the two who he had considered his closest friends for nearly a century, Roan couldn’t help but laugh. Ian, with his dark hair and light green eyes was built like the scholar he’d always been, slender and tall.
Lillah
was
a blond beauty with flashing topaz eyes and an iron will housed in a five foot frame. Together, they were a perfect match. His mind and her spirit. Was it any wonder he had become so close to them over the years? Now
,
their daughter, a half-breed mix of the two was his
True
Mate
. The Fates were most definitely having a good chuckle with this one.

“You’re right, punishment is due.” Roan rose slowly out of his seat and walked in front of the pair. Their heads were bowed in submission, ready to meet justice. “As Alpha, I hereby order you both to tell your daughter everything you’ve told me today.”
 

Both heads jerked up, two sets of eyes wide with shock.

“But…I thought…” Ian stammered.

“That I’d execute you?”

Light and dark head nodded in unison.

Letting out a harsh breath, Roan rubbed the back of his neck. “
As Alpha, I’m well within
my right to pronounce sent
ence and carry it out
then announce my reason to the Pack after justice is served. But to say that this sort of problem is unprecedented would be somewhat of an understatement. And considering it happened nearly two centuries ago, I don’t think that Pack Law has established any sort of statute of limitations on such a crime.
I wouldn’t even know where to begin to bring up such an addendum to the law. And, truthfully, I can certainly understand your reasoning.
I don’t particularly appreciate it at the moment, but I can understand it.” He gave them a small smile.

“Roan?” Ian’s expression showed how shell-shocked he was while Lillah simply jumped into Roan’s arms, sobbing.

Now that the anger had died away, Roan was able to think rationally about the choice his friends had made. Yes, in a way, it was selfish. The pair wanted to be together.
They’d
broken the Pack’s most sacred law.
But a child changed everything. They were the next generation and were to be cherished, loved, and sheltered. Unfortunately, Roan had a feeling that telling Rivera the truth would be more punishment than her parents could ever imagine.

“She’ll hate us after we tell her,” Lillah said softly after her tears had dried and she went back to her
Mate
.

Ian gathered her close, planting a tender kiss on her blond head. “It’s no more than we deserve, my love. She will forgive us
.
I
n time.”

As punishments went, it was worse than being executed. Dying was
easy;
living with your mistake was hard. Possibly losing the love and trust of your only child would be soul shattering. But this was the choice they had made long ago. Now they would have to deal with the consequences of it.

Leaving them to console each other and prepare, Roan went out the back door, stripped, and shifted. The woods and surrounding area were an unknown to Roan. He had come here a few times and never stayed that long. He certainly never went for a run in the woods. But after having Rivera’s scent branded
in his brain, it wasn’t hard to find.

There,
to the side of the back yard, was
a small trail through the trees, the smell of gardenias and
freshly fallen snow
on the wind. Roan took off like a
bullet;
the trail and his nose lead the way. A quarter of a mile in, he heard the falls before he saw them. Not wanting to scare his
True
Mate
, he made a bit of noise
.
He
spotted her through the trees, sitting with her back to him on a very large boulder. The small falls made a rainbow in front of her
. She was
visible
through the spray as she hugged her legs to her chest. The image would be imbedded in his mind forever as the moment he finally realized that Rivera was truly his
and Sasha
was merely an excuse. Yes, he cared about his brother’s
True
Mate
. B
ut if he had closely examined his feelings
, he would have discovered that believing himself in love with her kept him from experiencing heartbreak with anyone else. Kept him from finding disappointment with a Lupa that wasn’t his
True
Mate
. And that was the meat of the matter right there. Wanting a
True
Mate
of his own and being crushed when he didn’t find her. The epiphany rocked Roan to his soul.