Page 104 of Grim

“You are so blind.” She shook her head. “Your members are receptive to the chance to get a mate, yet your attitude has doomed them all. They follow you, Locke, alpha or not, and they see your distrust and now they’ve lost the hope of gaining a mate again. That Grim was just a one and a million chance, and they have nothing.”

Locke frowned but didn’t reply.

“I don’t think you believe that,” Sizzle stated. “I don’t think you believe either, you are just repeating what Tajah has said.”

Beretta snarled in response. “I promised her I’d help.”

“Tell us this legend,” I interrupted. “I’m becoming impatient, and Tajah’s life is hanging by a thread for what she’s done to me and my mate.”

“Fine. The shortened version since I’m in the presence of toddlers.”

Sizzle scoffed and scooted his chair forward.

“Like I said before, the wolves have forgotten, hell the royal council has forgotten because even they do not speak of what happened hundreds of years ago. Panthers tend to act like human females and hold on to things that supposedly don’t matter, but it actually does matter, and we bring it up at the right time when all males have forgotten,” she ranted.

“Beretta!” Locke slammed his hand on the table.

Beretta glared and continued. “There was a female alpha wolf of an ancient pack. It was small, weak. Despite that, her parents told her to wait for her mate. That everything would work according to plan as long as she obeyed the mating ways of the goddess. But the neighboring pack’s alpha was pressuring her secretly. Telling her he wanted her and would protect her and the pack if she would just give in. If she didn’t, he would take her land by force.”

“The female alpha relented to her parents and listened to their guidance. She had hoped she would be mated to a king, or another powerful alpha that would help her in this crisis. Unfortunately, that did not happen.” Beretta closed her eyes and winced.

“The female stumbled upon her mate in the forest while she hunted. He never saw her, never smelled her because his abilities were not strong enough to notice. Seeing that he was weaker than her, she ran. She ran straight to the neighboring pack, to the alpha that wanted her not just for companionship, but to combine their packs to strengthen them.”

“She was trying to protect the pack, her people. She didn’t do it for selfish reasons,” Locke argued.

Beretta smacked her lips together. “Ah, but it was for selfish reasons. She did not trust the goddess. She did not have faith it would all work out with the one she would have.”

“It’s easy for you to still trust the goddess. You weren’t rejected. Someone killed your mate, he didn’t reject you,” Sizzle snapped.

“That may be true, but it didn’t hurt any less.” Beretta stood and walked over to me.

She sat on the couch next to me, trying to brush a hair from my mate’s face, but I pulled her away from her. Beretta’s hand dropped and landed on my knee.

“The rogue felt the pain a short time later. His soul shattering into a million pieces as the bond dissolved. He didn’t understand at the time, but his smell changed to something rancid, and his pack mates shunned him because of his smell. He was dubbed a rogue and sent to the realm of the humans.”

“He traveled to the first town he could find and eventually fell in love with a young human woman. He courted her, marked her, and knotted her. But with no pack, no alpha, his wolf was restless, and he took them both back through the veil into our realm so his wolf could be around his kind.”

I rubbed my thumb against Journey’s cheek, my body relaxing the more I stared at her sleeping face. She was so fucking perfect for me, so soft and sweet. She thought she was weak, a burden, but she was far from it. Journey gave me life again; she showed me love.

“On the day that the male decided to take the trek through the veil, his human became ill. The wolf decided it would be best to take her through the veil, to get her magical attention as opposed to human medical care, because she had a scar on her shoulder. He didn’t want the humans to ask questions. As soon as they arrived at his pack, she had a fever, her fingers grew claws, and her teeth transformed into fangs.”

My stomach churned. Journey’s temperature had been spiking while she slept. Her ears had bled, and now she was dead asleep in my arms. She wouldn’t fall into the same fate as this other woman, could she?

“The elders of the pack noticed she had the smell of a wolf, not a human, but the male denied it. He could not smell a wolf’s scent on her, just his own scent tangled with hers.” Beretta closed her eyes and let out a heavy breath.

“That night, the female died mid-shift, and the male died shortly after.”

“No!” I yelled, picking up my mate. “That will not happen! Why would the goddess do that?!”

“Because she is a cold, heartless bitch, that’s why!” Locke stood from his chair. “You and I both know she is, Grim. We shared the same sentiment when we first met before we crossed the veil. She is there to pick on the weak, to pick on the strong. All for fun, like a human with a magnifying glass, watching an ant burn in front of their eyes! It’s all a game!”

“It is not! Surely the gods aren’t that cruel!” I took fumbling steps toward the door. The wind howled outside, and I grunted in frustration. Finding a blanket hung over a nearby coat rack, I bundled my mate as best as I could.

The witch betrayed me—the goddess, my friends were no help. They were all giving up on Journey, on me.

“Grim, wait. Let’s talk about this. Surely this can’t be right.” Bones tried to leave his chair, but Locke pushed him back into his seat.

“She will not die. I’ll make sure of that,” I growled at them. “She will have a successful shift. She will survive. This is not all for naught!”

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