Page 114 of Mates: Posy

Well, we'll just have to cuddle together later.

Really?He perked up.

Yep. Just you and me, okay?

And you'll rub my ears again?

Of course.

Promise?

I promise.

26: Running with Wolves

Jayden

As Lark ran her darling little heart out, the rest of us ambled along and Mase took the opportunity to catch us all up on what they'd discovered while interrogating the Tall Pines prisoners.

Most were hardly more than pups. They'd submitted to Ranger at the diner instantly and hadn't put up any resistance when taken to the cells. After the king broke their alpha's command, they'd told him everything he wanted to know.

Conditions at Tall Pines were every bit as bad as Luke MacGregor had described to me. Alpha Halder controlled most of the pack with threats of harm to individual wolves or their families, and he and his bully boys made a spectacle of killing any who voiced opposition to them. The smart ones fled.

Like Luke and Lilah MacGregor,Wyatt said.

You meanQueenLilah now that the king has claimed her, Ash laughed.

We all snickered, knowingexactlywhat King Julian had been doing last night.

And this morning, Quartz complained with a scowl.Nyx won't shut up about it. I'm going to beat the crap out of him if he doesn't stop his obnoxious gloating.

Soon,I soothed him.We'll mark and mate Posy soon.

But behind the privacy of my mind shield, I wasn't so confident.

I was keeping a secret from my brothers, one that made me sick with worry, but I couldn't tell them because I knew how they'd react.

We'd been down this road before.

When I was twelve, Quartz took control and killed a wolf who was beating his pup. Afterwards, my brothers and I sat down with our dads and had a hard conversation about what we'd do if I couldn't keep him contained. We'd considered several ideas, including using wolfsbane to drug him and maybe even put him down.

It might sound cruel, but a shifter had to be in control of his or her animal half. Otherwise, they became a danger to themselves and everyone around them, turning into monsters that were all needs and now and no restraint.

After that, I put Quartz on a leash and kept him there with a combination of brute force, mental toughness, sacrifice, and my burgeoning alpha power. Sometimes, I could reason with him, but I never dared to relax. It drained me down to nothing most of the time, but I'd managed to keep the beast in his cage for the last few years.

Then we found Posy.

At that store, when she and Lark had become so upset? Yeah, that wasn't me letting Quartz out. That was him lettinghimselfout.

The same thing happened when we heard Lilah call for help through the Moonset link, and then again when the king had moved too fast toward our mate with a face full of fury.

That last incident scared me the most. Quartz had been prepared - no,willing- to kill Onyx, a wolf he considered his brother, and he'd broken through my hold as if it were tissue paper.

I wasn't as in control of Quartz as everyone thought I was. I wasn't sure how much longer I could pretend to be, either. Mase especially was going to start noticing things soon.

I knew what was going on. Giving a wolf like Quartz someone to love was dangerous. All his instincts, all his thoughts, turned to one mandate: Protect mate. Above all else and above all others, protect mate.

I understood where he was coming from. I loved Posy with every particle of my soul and would protect her just as fiercely.

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