Page 10 of Moonlit Bonds

I land hard on my side and roll.

The last thing I see above me is Gloria’s face shifting as her body becomes human once more and her fist collides with my temple. Then everything goes dark.

Kieran

My restless wolf howls one word over and over.

Mine.

Seraphina is mine and all thoughts of breaking the bond between us disappear. The word echoes in my mind and I wonder if we can somehow outrun Fate, or if we are just fooling ourselves that there might be some way out of this.

Maybe tonight will bring more clarity. We can talk things out.

At the thought, my wolf demands I claim my mate once more. The urge is overpowering and only tempered by the sight of Auntie.She gestures me forward, her arm windmilling until I’m right in front of her, still struggling to focus.

“What did you need, Auntie?” I force myself to soften my voice rather than giving into the roaring inside of me.

“Kieran, you brought a witch here, I can tell it,” Auntie McClellan shuffles even closer and pulls on my sleeve. “First, Isaid to myself, no. Kieran knows better than that. She can’t be a witch. Not here. Not on pack lands with the alpha. But I smell her, don’t I?”

Before I’m able to smooth things over with Seraphina, I have to get the pack on board, I remind myself. Step one. What do they call it? Putting the cart before the horse.

The wolves, in this case, are the focus, and I have to make sure we are headed in the right direction.

“Auntie, if Fate brings her here, it is for a reason,” I explain, my voice tight. “She is no simple visitor.”

Her wrinkled face scrunches in a glare. “I won’t have it. Not after what her kind has done.”

I bite back a groan. “We know who the true enemy was back then…and it wasn’t the witches. It was humans.”

“Don’t try to tell me. I was there. I know what it was like as the Alpha’s daughter. I lived it. Their magic induced scars I still wear.” She pulls up her sleeve for good measure to reveal the zigzag scar running up her arm as if it were a streak of lightning.

“I’ve called the elders,” she finishes.

I swear under my breath. Here I thought I had time. Time is up.

“They’ll be here within the hour.” Auntie shows me her back, absolutely done with me and my hedging. “Prepare yourself, Alpha. They won’t tolerate anything less than your best.”

When the pack’s elders arrive right on time, the gray-haired pack members listen silently to my story of bonding accidentally to a witch. None of them interrupt until I’m done with my tale, sparing them the details of our coupling and focusing more on the bond itself.

“Fate,” I explain. “Who are we to deny it? I never wanted to find my fated mate, yet here we are.” I let those words hang in the air. “Here we are, now we must make the best of it.”

Mortimer, the eldest of them, steps forward. “We know what the books say for the days that will come, when the truce must be renewed between the hands of magic, when Fate binds them together,” he says to Auntie, only to then turn to face me. “Until that happens, the Alpha cannot be connected to one who will sully his leadership.”

His proclamation is an anvil slamming down on the top of my head. The verdict is rendered. The other elders mutter their agreement while my wolf howls, demanding justice.

This isn’t justice. This is bigotry.

Had they not listened to anything I said?

“Wait just a damn minute,” I argue, but Mortimer raises his hand, silencing me. No matter what I say, no one truly wishes to hear how Seraphina will be a great addition to the pack. It can’t matter though, their opinion of me and mine. Not when it comes to love.

“The decision is final, Alpha,” Mortimer continues.

“She is mine.”

“She is not yours until we declare it.” Auntie interjects. “You are willing to put it all on the line for one like her?”

My wolf paces just beneath the skin. Effectively, they’re trying to neuter me as Alpha if I don’t walk their line. The threat, though never stated directly, is as loud as day.

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