Page 26 of The Forbidden Wolf

Blaze made his eyebrows very flat and deadpanned, “Well, we did go to school together.”

Groaning, I turned away from him, but honestly, addressing the elephant in the room put me more at ease. As long as he knew this was hella messed up then we could move on to making the best of it.

A thunderous crackle of static brought every conversation to an immediate standstill. All eyes turned toward the center of the ballroom where an inevitably tall and broad-shouldered, middle-aged male stood next to an inevitably gorgeous, slender female who hardly looked old enough to be twenty-something Sebastian’s mother. But otherwise, the resemblance was unmistakable—golden-brown eyes, dark wavy hair, full brooding lips, and tan skin. It was safe to say my nephews and nieces would be exquisitely beautiful in addition to being inevitably heinous brats.

“Welcome, welcome,” the Manhattan Alpha murmured into his handheld microphone. “On behalf of the entire Manhattan pack, let me just say how pleased we all are to have the Bronx Pack with us here today. For those who don’t know, I am the Alpha of the Manhattan Throne, and my name is Maximo, but now that we are family, you may call me Max.”

He smiled in every direction, nodding warmly at anyone brave enough to smile back. I was not, but I felt comforted by his gentle but confident manner of speaking, which reminded me a little of Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. He slid his arm around his mate’s shoulders and hugged her close. Protective. She smiled up at him, but her eyes seemed a little unfocused. As if she, too, had spent the last ten minutes guzzling champagne and resignedly flirting with someone who went to school with her father.

“And this glorious creature is Yara, the source of all my greatest blessings in life.” Max gazed down at her adoringly. “We may not have been fated, but after twenty-five years, I am proud to stand here and say I cannot imagine any love larger than the one we’ve grown into. And to know such joy in his own life is our deepest desire for our treasured son Sebastian, and one we believe he will know with your cherished daughter Kiana.”

“Don’t forget the puppies!” A raucous male voice shouted from somewhere in the throng. “Ow-ow-ow-ooooooooo!”

Several other young male voices joined in with the cartoonish howling, and even some of the older adults joined in the eruption of laughter. Max’s shoulders sagged, and he slapped a palm to his forehead. “No more drinks for Kenzo. But yes, of course, may Halo and Leto bless this union with a bountiful litter.”

The floor shook as hundreds of shifters stamped their right feet like jackrabbits. It was our way of audibly expressing pleasure, a human-form substitute for thumping our tails because silently wiggling our butts would just be weird. Looking around the ballroom, I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to see my own packmates stamping with far less enthusiasm than the Manhattan shifters. No one who actually knew Kiana would ever assume she had any interest in producing a bountiful litter. Sebastian would get an heir, a spare, and a snippety-snip.

Casting a sideways glance at Blaze, I found him staring sadly at the chicken wing in his palm. I was not the person he’d wanted standing beside him during Max’s speech. I rolled the tip of my own chicken bone between my fingers, letting little drops of sauce splatter on the floor. Would our feelings change after mating? Would a pup soften my heart? Would I look back one day and wonder how I ever thought this wasn’t the life I wanted?

Chapter Eleven

Probably not.

Oh, there you are.

He’s too old for us.

I am well aware, but unless you want to be a lone wolf, we’re kind of stuck.

Doesn’t feel right.

You’re just mad I found a way to keep going to the movies with my friends. But news flash: I don’t care. This is what I want. Deal with it.

My wolf huffed and threw herself down with enough force that I had to rub my chest. Gods, she could be such a bitch. Why couldn’t she see this was in her best interest too?

Max held up one hand to calm the crowd. “But we have gathered to join far more than these two hearts. As Sebastian and Kiana become one, so do we all. Let this ceremony herald a new era for the wolves of New York as we face an unprecedented threat from those who would destroy what they cannot understand.”

More foot stamping followed with equal enthusiasm from both sides. Was I really the last wolf to know about all this? Was my head really so far up in the clouds? And was I crazy for wondering how we could expect humans to understand us when we were the ones who insisted upon lurking in the shadows of their cities to protect our Old Ways from their scrutiny?

Yes, yes, and hell yes.

Well, then so is Sebastian.

My throat tightened, remembering our walk. The fire in his eyes and the passion in his voice as he spoke of how we were allowing ourselves to be used as pawns by refusing to let anyone know us. Flustered by my close call and the intensity of his attention, I hadn’t fully appreciated the radical nature of his opinion. He believed we should show ourselves. The Alpha Heir of Manhattan disagreed with the very decision that had forged our fathers’ friendship and led to this surprising mating and pack merger.

So does Damian.

Oh, right. Gross.

It hadn’t been that long of a walk. For all I knew, Sebastian’s conspiracy theory—that high-ranking humans were using a silly TV show to stir up fake outrage so someone could swoop in and offer to solve the shifter problem—was rooted in the same distaste for human culture that drove Damian to believe men were the only thing standing between women and universal nudist colonies. In other words, he might not be a visionary. He might just be batshit crazy.

Perfect for Kiana.

Truly a bullet dodged.

Blaze gently grasped my elbow and tugged me backward. The stamping had given way to shuffling as every shifter in the ballroom moved to form the Eternal Ring in which the mateship ceremony would play out. Father had joined Max and Yara in the center of the circle, facing East. It was quite unusual that Yara had remained by her mate’s side, but perhaps mateship ceremonies in the Bronx only included fathers out of respect for their Alpha’s great loss.

The crystal chandeliers hanging high overhead dimmed their candle-shaped bulbs to a soft golden glow. The crowd parted, and Sebastian strode into the circle, looking obnoxiously perfect in his slim black trousers and red velvet jacket. He greeted his mother with a kiss on each cheek, and then bowed first to his own father and then to mine. The Alphas returned the gesture in unison, and then the two families split apart, leaving a wide space between them with Sebastian almost in the center.

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