Page 86 of It's You
“You’ve been bound,” she finally whispered.
“Yes,” he answered. “She belongs to me, and I belong to her.”
Tallis dropped his hand and shook her head.
Jack continued. “I’ve come to tell the council. For the acknowledgment.”
The acknowledgment was the second part of the binding. It wasn’t necessary that every binding be acknowledged, but it made the contract official in the eyes of the pack and afforded both members the status of full-grown, or mature, Roux-ga-roux with rights to vote, work, and establish a household.
In a flash, his mother had raised her eyes to him, and he could see they were desperate and grave.
“Oh, Jacques. Don’t be a stupid child! If you do, they will kill her.”
“But all bindings must be respected, must be ack?—”
She placed her hands on either side of his face, silencing him. Her grip was painful, the bones of her fingers rigid against his skull in a way that made him grimace.
“You listen to me, Jacques Beauloup. I have no love for the humans. None. But the council will not believe you. And if you convince them as you have me, they will hunt her down and kill her so that you can be re-bound to one of our own kind.”
His eyes had burned again with confusion and fear. “That can’t happen. I love her.”
His mother flinched, her hands slipping from his face. When she met his eyes again, hers were fathomless in their grief. “This is aterriblething.”
Jack stood up, crossing his arms over his chest, and growled at his mother. “She’s mine.”
Tallis rubbed her hands on her thighs, regarding her son.
“Then there’s only one option. You must turn her.” She finally sighed.
Jack shook his head quickly. “I won’t.”
Turning a human was a crapshoot, and Tallis knew it as well as Jack. It was possible, but the death toll was high, plus there was another, more important reason that Jack refused to turn her. Turning a human into a Roux-ga-roux was like a rebirth on every level, which meant that while Jack would remain bound to Darcy, there was no guarantee she would remain bound to him. In Jack’s mind, it was unthinkable to risk the binding.
“Jacques, if she’s not one of us, she’s a threat to us.”
Jack thought about Darcy walking into the library, about her light and goodness. The thought of turning her dark like him made his stomach turn. “I won’t do it.”
“You can’t stay bound to a human.”
“Why not? Just because it’s never happened before? I don’t care. I’ll…I’ll leave her at the full moon. I’ll come north to hunt. I’ll?—”
“And when she bears your children? How will you explain when they cut their teeth? When they long for the flesh of their own mother? How will you explain the eyespeak? And Jacques, you don’t know yet, but when your eyes burn for her, your skin will burn her too. How will she accept you when you shift? How will?—”
“I don’t know! We–we won’t have children. I’ll only shift when the moon is full. I’ll…I’ll?—”
“Jacques, this can’t be what you want.”
“She belongs to me. Exactly the way she is. I won’t let her go, and I won’t turn her. I’ll figure it out.”
“Itcan’tbe figured out.”
“It must be!” He snarled at her, baring his fangs, his eyes burning hot.
She stared at him, searching his eyes, unflinching.
“It would take a lifetime.”
“Then it’ll take a lifetime.” He growled back at her.
