Page 10 of Undesired Mate

“Like she could,” the smallest of the three mutters. “I would send a half-weaned pup to do something like that before I would send her.”

“Then why was she here?”

“She wandered here on her own,” Shane explains. “We didn’t leave her here. We set her loose close to the border of our territory and told her to leave if she knew what was best for her.”

Frustration curls my lip in a snarl before I release a growl that is impossible to hold back. “Why? You must’ve had a reason.”

“Because she’s an abomination.” Shane spits the words out, harsh and bitter. “She has no place with us, no place anywhere.”

“Because she can’t shift?” It’s a problem, of course. What good is a shifter who can’t shift? “You would leave her alone to die in the elements because of that? Something she can’t control?”

“You’re talking about things you don’t understand,” he insists, the energy flowing from him turning dark now, lifting the hair on my arms and the back of my neck.

“Make me understand. How could you leave one of your own to die that way? How could your wolf allow it?”

He’s trembling, almost vibrating, when he replies, “Because my wolf knows she is wrong and should never have been born in the first place.”

“You say these things, but there’s no reason behind it.”

His eyes glow brighter. “Her mother is a witch. Is that enough of a reason?”

I rock back on my heels, knocked breathless for a second. A witch. She’s half-witch. No wonder she didn’t want to tell me. Witches and shifters don’t mix. How in the hell did her father mate with one without knowing it? Clara’s very existence is a crime against our species.

Shane’s knowing smile makes me bristle dangerously. “Satisfied? Is that acceptable to you? Since you’re the judge of everything all of a sudden? Obviously,” he continues, throwing his head back, “you didn’t know the facts. We can overlook this for now—I’m sure harboring her seemed like a decent thing to do. It’s even commendable.”

A growl stirs in his throat, making my wolf growl in response.

“But now you know. Clearly, we underestimated her, and she survived until you found her. That was on me. I shouldn’t have shown mercy.”

I’m still reeling but can see through his bullshit words. “It’s mercy to leave a defenseless girl in the woods to die?”

The smallest of the trio smiles, stirring a sick feeling in my core. “Compared to what we’d do to her?” There is an entire universe of cruelty in that smile.

“She’s ours.” Shane reminds me when the most I can do is stare, unwilling to believe what I’m hearing. How can she be half-witch? “She made the move of trying to join our pack, which makes her ours to do with as we wish.”

His words make sense. On the surface, he’s correct. She’s not a member of our pack. We have no jurisdiction over her.

And yet my wolf knows a deeper truth, a truth that cannot be denied or reasoned through. She is mine. Just how, I don’t know, but there are mysteries even the oldest of our kind don’t quite understand.

“Isn’t that enough?” Shane demands when my silence goes on too long. “Now, if you wish to avoid unnecessary conflict, you will bring her to us so we can dispense her as we see fit.”

Dispense. That’s the word that makes up my mind. My wolf is right. When I imagine leaving her—young, helpless, innocent—to the likes of them, everything inside me rears up in refusal. “I have a better idea. The three of you get out of our territory before the rest of the pack joins me and makes you wish you had. You can’t have her.”

And as I back away, never taking my eyes off them, I add, “Make the mistake of following me, and you’ll meet my pack. Believe me, you want to take my advice. Go while you still can.”

It might be a mistake, but I’ve made them before. For worse, weaker reasons, too. She might be an abomination, like they say, but something bigger than any of us brought her to me and demands she be mine.

I can’t believe that’s a mistake. There has to be some reason behind it, just like there’s a reason why she can’t shift and a reason why she had to find a pack rather than joining her father’s. They could have shunned her, too, even if one of them sired her.

One thing is certain as I make my way back to where she’s waiting. I’m going to find out. I won’t rest until I do.

6

CLARA

Funny.I told myself while I was lying here alone that I wanted him to come back. I didn’t want to feel helpless like this. I was afraid he had no plan to return for me, that I would rot and die tied to this bed.

So I should be glad when I hear his footsteps outside the bedroom. I can’t see him. There shouldn’t be any way for me to know it’s him… but I do. I feel it. And now, I wish he wasn’t here. I want more time.

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