Page 102 of Confusing Hearts

This time tears of happiness pricked my eyes and he winked at me.

“Now I can’t tell you how or why this happened. Until it happened to me, I had no idea that my true mate could possibly be anything other than wolf. I just didn’t know. So, for those of you questioning it, I get it. Unless it happens to you, you may always have a bit of skepticism about it, and that’s okay. This isn’t really about whether you believe the origin of our mating or not, because the fact is, Jenna Lockhardt is my mate. She carries my mark as I proudly carry hers. Our bond is strengthening at an alarming rate. As best as we can figure the panthers and the wolves have different bonding signs, and we are meeting both simultaneously. It’s remarkable, actually. You are free to test our bond if need be. We have nothing to hide. Her father doesn’t just want her back, trust me, she’s tried to reach out to them. They know she’s safe. What they want is my head, literally, not figuratively, and not attached to this body.”

That caused grumblings throughout the room.

“Rest assured, the only reason King Lockhardt went to the Grand Council was to use intimidation. They don’t understand the power of pack. Their kind doesn’t form bonds and relationships the way we wolves do. He does not understand that you come after one, you come after all. It’s a foreign concept. He expects the Grand Council to hand me over to him, as per his request, because he believes it’s okay to cut one, for the good of the whole. Is that how we feel? Is that what we believe?”

“No!”

“He will not win this battle!”

“We fight for all!”

And other shouts came throughout the room.

“Westin Pack is ready to fight. We are large and we are fierce, but the word coming in is that he has rallied every able bodied large cat to come after us. They are already en route to North Dakota, taking up every available seat into the area, because he thinks that will stall our numbers even further, should we have to fight. I do not wish death upon our kind or theirs. It hurts my heart knowing what we’re asking here—knowing that some of you, or some of your people, may not make it out of this alive. Westin’s been at war against our own brothers for too long. It’s time to mend those differences, not just for this, but for good. And if you all choose to turn tail and head home, then I truly pray they kill me swiftly, because living a life without my mate, is far worse than death itself.”

The tension in the air was tangible. Chase had angered and rallied an entire room filled with domineering Alphas. My pulse was racing when he took his seat next to me again. Omar came back up, thanked everyone for their consideration, and adjourned us for break.

Several people came up to me and introduced themselves. There were too many names for me to keep up with. The Alpha from Collier pack came over to speak with Chase.

“I’m sorry to have put you on the spot like that, but I’m proud of how you handled yourself, son. That was exactly what they needed to hear. I think you’ll have your majority before we reconvene. And in case no one else has bothered to say it, congratulations. It’s not always easy to follow your heart. I wish you both many years of happiness.”

“Thank you, Zach. I really appreciate that,” Chase said before turning to me. “Jenna, this is Zach Collier, Maddie’s father.”

The mention of his daughter made his eyes glass over. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was on the verge of tears.

“I know what it’s like to lose a daughter. Your father is a fool for pursuing this,” he said sincerely. “A damn fool.”

Chase

Chapter 29

I couldn’t believe it. Zach was right. We had full support of all the packs before recess ended. Kyle and Nikolai came to a peaceful agreement for a temporary treaty. The wolves were aligned and ready for battle.

In a whirlwind of organized chaos, we were settling into North Dakota within twenty-four hours. Those packs that had already known they would align with Westin had sent their wolves on ahead of the meetings. The holdouts scrambled to get theirs in on time. In all, the fifteen largest packs supplied fifty percent of their biggest and strongest wolves for battle. Of course, no one could question or argue if the numbers were legit because packs kept such information tightly controlled, but it equaled out to a whole lot of wolves.

Westin Pack brought in even more. It looked to me like our entire pack was present, but Kyle assured me it was only around seventy percent. I hated knowing he and Kelsey had argued over her attendance. She was pregnant and therefore couldn’t shift, but she had been working on her witchy talents and could call upon nature and do other stuff, that I shuddered to think about, even while in human form. Plus, under the code of shifters she could be neutralized, but not killed as it went against the law of shifters dating back to the bible. We couldn’t kill a human while in animal form. I mean, technically it could be done, but it went against all shifter morals. We may have our differences from the cats, but everyone agreed that would not be one of them.

It took a heck of a lot of convincing, but in the end, Mom and Dad conceded and stayed back to protect the mostly women and children who remained behind. Maddie, being pregnant, also couldn’t go, and after a screaming match with Liam he finally conceded to stay behind, too. He was not happy about it, and I loved him for that, but the reality of the situation was that he was already CEO of the Westin Foundation and that secured the financial future of the pack. If something happened to Kyle, God forbid, Alpha power would transfer to Patrick as Elise’s mate until Zander came of age and shifted for the first time. Patrick, as Beta to the Alpha and head of security for Westin, was not going to step down from the fight. If anything happened to him as well, Liam would be next in line for Alpha and we needed him safe to preserve the pack.

North Dakota was still cold despite the spring weather we’d been experiencing in California. What was Jenna’s dad thinking? Most of the large cats tended to live in warmer climates, didn’t they? I realized I really didn’t know all that much about the felines. Since my kids someday had a fifty-fifty chance of being one, I vowed to ask more questions and research panthers when all this was over.

In total there were over five thousand wolves present. Plus, all my fraternity brothers had showed up. They literally dropped what they were doing, canceled their own spring break plans, and came to stand by my side. Even Chad was there, though I wasn’t sure what benefit he could possibly be, and I worried the big cats would eat him whole, but there he was, and it meant the world to me.

“You did this?” I asked Matt, looking around at my brothers.

He shrugged as I bro-hugged him. “What’s going down is wrong. We’re ready to stand by you. Brothers for life,” Matt reminded me.

“Brothers for life,” I repeated, feeling a little overwhelmed.

Later I pulled Matt aside to make certain he really wanted to go through with it. “I know you were ordered to fight with the cats. I don’t want you getting in trouble for this.”

“I spoke to my parents, right after talking with you the other day. They respect my decision to stand with the dogs. Enough that they refused to come at all. My family won’t stand with them to fight against you. Not all the cats are blindly following him,” he informed me.

“How many do they have? Do you know?” I asked, not a hundred percent sure I was ready to hear the answer.

“I don’t know. I considered checking in and going all double agent like, but that’s just not right. So, I’m gonna stick around over here and get to know as many of these dogs as possible so I’m not mistaken as the enemy when the time comes,” Matt said.

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