Chasing Destiny (Silver Tip Pack Book 2) Read online

  “Fuck no!” he screamed in my face.

  “Yes!” I punched the bed. “You don’t understand!” I gritted my teeth and spoke inches from his face. “They own me.”

  With a roar he shoved me back onto the bed, and then he slid on top of me, pinning my arms over my head with one hand, while his other circled my throat. Not tight, but enough pressure to make my nostrils flare. “No, you don’t understand. They don’t own you.” His eyes were swirling, red mixing with green as the tendons in his neck bulged. “I own you. You belong to me, Nash. You belong to this pack. And we will make them pay for what they’ve done to you. All the years they kept me from you. They. Will. Pay.”

  I didn’t know Bay was capable of this possessive anger, this strength. His grip on me was iron, and I knew no matter how much I struggled, I wouldn’t be able to break free.

  Except, for once in my life, my bonds didn’t terrify me. My heart didn’t race in panic. Bay’s eyes shone with sincerity and determination. For the first time since I’d been taken as a teenager, I relaxed. “Okay, Bay. Okay.”

  Some of the tension left the taut line of his jaw, and his eyes returned to their normal color. He pressed his hips down into mine, giving me all his weight. “I need you to say it.”

  “Say what?”

  He dipped low and lapped at my lips. “That you’re mine.”

  He still wanted me. Despite knowing what I’d been through, the damage that had been done to me. I needed to tell him about Lee, but I was too selfish to ruin this moment. “I’m yours. And you’re mine.”

  “I am.”

  He kissed me, delving deeply with his tongue, claiming ownership of me. I was safe. With Bay at my side, I wasn’t Were372 anymore. I was Nash, an alpha of the Silver Tip pack, and Bay was my mate. Strong, beautiful, charming Bay, who was grinding his hips into mine as soft growls rumbled up his throat, vibrating on our tongues. I swore his saliva was healing my throat. I nipped his bottom lip and took advantage of his relaxation, breaking from his hold to roll him onto his back.

  I slipped down his body, needing him so badly. My mouth watered at the thought of sucking on his hard cock. I tugged his pants off his body and latched onto the head of his dick, taking some time to focus on the tip, dipping my tongue in his slit as he moaned. I pushed on his thighs to force his legs farther apart, and took his balls in my mouth, bathing them in spit so that it ran down into his crack. He tasted fresh and soft and like home. Everywhere. I couldn’t get enough of his scent, his skin. He was my drug that I’d only had once, then been denied for fifteen long years.

  I went back to his cock, fisting the base, running my lips up and down his shaft before taking him in my mouth again, deep, to swallow around his tip.

  He thrashed on the bed, arching his back as he fisted the sheets with one hand and my hair with the other. “Your mouth is goddamn heaven,” he gasped as my throat spasmed around him. I needed oxygen but I needed Bay’s dick more.

  His grip on me tightened and, with a cry, he came down my throat. He was still coming when I pulled off and rose above him, stroking my cock through my tight fist until I came on his stomach, mixing with the rest of his release.

  I fell onto the bed beside him, nuzzling into his neck while he heaved deep breaths. His hand curved around my head, fingers slipping through my hair.

  “I can’t get enough of you,” I said. “For so long I’ve had no attraction to anyone, no desire to…nothing.”

  “Really?” He turned his head to gaze at me with heavy-lidded eyes.

  “Yeah, I thought they did something to me.”

  “Could you get hard?”

  “Not anymore. It was one of the reasons they sent me out instead of choosing another Were. I couldn’t breed anymore.”

  Bay’s face crumpled. “For fuck’s sake.”

  I rubbed my fingers through the mess on Bay’s stomach, coating them before lifting them to Bay’s lips. He didn’t hesitate and sucked on them greedily, never taking his eyes off mine.

  I loved him. I loved him so much that it terrified the fuck out of me. In this world, life was fleeting. If something happened to him…I wasn’t sure what kind of beast I’d be.

  Bay’s tongue slipped between my fingers, licking them clean and when I pulled them out, he smiled at me. A tender smile I rarely saw on his handsome face. “Well, now we have each other. The way it was always meant to be.”

  I couldn’t speak, could only nod, as I bent over Bay and began to clean his stomach with my tongue. He sucked in a breath as I ran my tongue along the grooves of his muscles, into his bellybutton. The tastes of us mingled on my tongue, a delicious tang that I wanted to have all the time. Every day.

  His long cock lay on his thigh, mostly hard, and I wanted it in my mouth again.

  When I lifted my head, he was watching me, his eyes heavy with sleep. “Come here,” he whispered, and I lay down beside him. He immediately curled into me, hooking a thigh over mine. I was wrapped up in Bay, and his weight on me made my muscles feel heavy.

  “Let’s sleep,” he said quietly. “Later, I’ll talk to Dare. But for now, we’re here and we’re safe.”

  I wanted to believe it because Bay did, but the worries still rolled over in my mind. I was half asleep, believing his presence was kicking the nightmares, when the door nearly burst open from the loud knock.

  Bay flailed at the sound so badly that he fell onto the floor in a tangle of limbs. I scrambled out of bed, bleary-eyed and smelling like sex. I threw open the door to find Vaughn on the doorstep, not wearing his ever-present smirk. His face was etched with lines of exhaustion and he held onto the doorframe with bloody hands. “Dare needs you down in the Hall.”

  Bay was at my back now, pulling on his pants. He shot me a worried look and threw me my own clothes. I stumbled into them as we hurried down the hall.

  The Silver Tip compound wasn’t much different than I remembered it, and even the smell of the wood took me back to all those years ago. There wasn’t time to dwell though. The atmosphere was charged with energy and tension. Weres lined the balconies on each floor, and once we descended the stairs, we found the source of the chaos on the floor of the Hall.

  Dare stood over two slumped forms. They were bound with loops of heavy silver chains, preventing them from shifting, and Dare held the ends of the chains in a gloved fist. He struck an imposing figure, a mass of muscled alpha. Reese stood off to the side, shifting his weight from foot to foot, clearly antsy at whatever had his mate on edge.

  I gaze around at the Weres lining the balconies, many close to their shifts as they growled at the bound forms. This was the kind of supportive community that Dare’s mother had fostered. And one that Dare continued.

  With Bay at my side, I drew closer to the bodies in chains. When one raised his head and looked at me, I froze. One look at those blank eyes, that cruel mouth, and I was back in my cell, covering Hannah with my body while the blows rained down on my back. My knees buckled. Right there, in the middle of the Hall, with the entire pack looking on, I lost my fucking mind.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I was screaming. In some far recess of my mind, I knew I should keep it together instead of falling apart in front of the whole pack. This was a weakness. The Blanks never would have allowed this. But under Dare’s steady gaze, after the tender touch of Bay’s hands, I couldn’t keep my guard up anymore.

  All the pain, the anger, the frustration ripped through my ragged throat right there on the floor of the Hall.

  I couldn’t see—I was only capable of curling into a ball. I expected the blow, the needle pricks, the heavy chains, everything the Blanks had done to me, except the only sound I heard other than my own screaming was Bay’s voice in ear. Those gentle hands on my head, my body, surrounding me. Bay’s scent in my nose.

  Bay, Bay, Bay.

  But no, I didn’t want him here, not around the Blanks.

  Protect. Mine.

  I shifted without thought, without warning. My fangs punched down
, fur cascaded down my back and my deadly claws extended.

  Something was threatening my pack and, most importantly, my mate. I rose onto two feet in my Were form, towering over the pack members gathered around me, and I roared. The stone floor shook beneath me, and even Dare stumbled a bit. He held out his hands to me. His mouth moved, but I didn’t hear him. Bay’s voice hollering my name penetrated, but not enough to stop me. My only mission was erasing the threat to me and mine. The Blanks in chains. They would die.

  I ran toward them, claws at the ready, intending only to kill. My name was shouted again, but in Were form, I had one purpose. I didn’t care anymore what happened to me, but Blanks in my home? Around Bay? Never.

  The Blanks’ eyes widened at the sight of me. I reached for one but came up with empty air.

  Their chains were yanked, pulling them out of my reach, and when I turned to growl at who denied me, I came face to face with a Were larger than me. Dare. He’d half-shifted, his claws out, canines down, so he could still talk, and he spoke two words with saliva dripping from his jaws. “Stand. Down.”

  My alpha was giving me an order, and my body wanted to obey, but the threat was still there behind Dare. I could hear them, I could smell them.

  “Shift back now!” Dare roared.

  Then I didn’t have a choice. My body was yanked back to human form by Dare’s command. I fell to the floor on my hands and knees, gasping for breath as my body sought to adjust to the sudden shifts. My limbs trembled, and I dripped sweat onto the stone below me. I didn’t raise my head, unsure what kind of reprimand I would receive. What had I done? Would Dare kick me out of the pack now?

  Hands were on me again. Bay.

  Fuck, I was a mess. Why was I here? Would Bay finally realize I was too damaged to be his mate? Because I fucking was. Why had I ever thought this could work?

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, hanging my head. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

  My head was forced up, and Bay’s face filled my vision. “It’s okay. You have to calm down though. We need to talk to them, and we need you here too, okay?”

  I locked gazes with him. Yes, I could do this. I could hold it together, as long as he didn’t leave my side. I swallowed, and my torn-up throat protested. “Yes.”

  Bay nodded and tried for a smile, but his concern was evident in his face. He shook slightly as he rose to his feet and tugged me with him. Dare watched us carefully, and then he moved to the side to reveal the Blanks trembling in their chains. Now that I got a better look at them, I noticed one had been worked over. His left eye was swollen shut and he was holding his jaw at a weird angle, like it was broken. The other had a large bleeding gash in his side with a clean edge. Knife-work. Vaughn’s specialty.

  For over a decade the Blanks had been larger than life to me. My captors, my tormenters. But now, looking at them, guards who I’d seen every week, I realized they were just Weres. Evil ones from an evil pack. But still only Weres.

  I couldn’t help myself. I spat at one of them, the wad landing on his bleeding, bare chest, and he flinched. He’d raped Hannah. I could remember now that my head was clearer. He’d die second, so he’d get the added pleasure of watching the death of his buddy.

  “Vaughn and Dal found these two prowling around outside. They wouldn’t say what pack they were from, but Vaughn suspected this has something to do with you. Is that right?”

  I nodded, and when I spoke, my voice was surprisingly clear. “They held me for fifteen years as a prisoner. I was told I couldn’t return to my pack and that if they found me here, they’d attack. So they were on the lookout for me and probably on their way back to tell the pack alpha I was here.”

  Dare yanked the chains, and the silver cut into their flesh. The one with the beat-up face whimpered. “That true?” Dare asked.

  The one with the bleeding side glared at me, but the other one nodded at Dare.

  “They’ll know anyway,” the bleeding Were said. I remembered his name now—Ovu. “They’ll know, and they’ll wipe out this pack. We can always use more breeders.” His gaze shifted toward Dal, who bared her teeth at him. “Besides,” he said, smirking at me, either not caring that his death was imminent or he was an evil bastard who needed a last jab. “We all know they won’t want you here when they know the truth.” The anger and despair rose swift in my blood, the sound like white noise in my ears. But he kept talking. “You tell your alpha yet how you let his sister die? How it was all your fault?”

  I didn’t give a fuck about Dare’s command anymore. I shifted to my Were form and plunged my claws into Ovu’s neck. The smirk dropped from his face as his eyes went wide. The light was still in his eyes, until I pulled my claws out. Immediately blood poured from the holes in his skin, and he didn’t take his eyes off me as life drained from his body. With a growl, I swiped my hand across his throat and severed his head.

  I broke the other’s neck with a twist of my paws, and then it was done. The truth was out, but at least the Blanks were dead. They couldn’t rush back to tell the rest of the pack where I was. Bay was safe for now. I shifted back to human, dizzy with the effort, and fell to the floor on my knees at Dare’s feet, head bent. He’d punish me—he’d have to. I’d disobeyed him in front of the whole pack.

  I waited for his harsh words, his banishment, but all I heard was his bark ordering a meeting with his guard. I was pulled to my feet and ordered forward in a swift tide of Weres. I couldn’t see Bay. Only hands pulling me forward, up a set of stairs, then more stairs, until I was in a room with Dare, Vaughn, Rua, G, Reese, and Bay. My mate stood at the table in the center of the room, face pale, staring at me like I was a monster.

  I was a monster. Because of me, Lee was dead. The truth was out, and a part of me was glad. No more secrets. I was purged, everything laid bare.

  The room was eerily quiet. It’d been so long since I’d seen all these Weres. Reese looked like he wanted to go to me, but held back. I was alone in the far corner, the outcast. The hope I’d felt for a fleeting moment that I’d fit back into this pack was gone. Vanished. Mingled with the blood of the Blanks seeping through the cracks of the Hall floor.

  With a flick of Dare’s hand, the Weres around the table sat, including Reese. Extra chairs lined the wall, but I didn’t dare take a seat at the table without an invitation. Dare clasped his hands together on the table top, his great shoulders heaving. Reese laid a hand on his back, and the alpha seemed to relax somewhat.

  “Nash,” he said without looking at me. “Grab a chair and sit at the table.”

  I didn’t want to, not really. The only empty space was across from Bay, who was looking at me like I was a stranger.

  Dare was my alpha, and he always would be, so I gripped the back of a chair, slid it to the table, and sat down. I kept my eyes on the surface in front of me and ran a finger through a deep groove caused by a claw. I wondered how it got there. Who had made it.

  “I need you to tell me what happened the day Lee died and you disappeared.” Dare’s voice was clinical. This was an interview, maybe an interrogation. All eyes were on me, including Bay’s. I’d been through hell and back with the Blanks, but having to tell my pack the truth might have been the worst torture.

  I couldn’t look at them, so I spoke to the table with my eyes closed. I felt so small, like a novus, not a full-grown alpha wolf. I had to tell the truth though. Bay and Dare deserved it, and the whole pack deserved to know I wasn’t the hero they thought I was.

  I cleared my throat. “That day, Lee was gathering roots and berries, and I was looking out for Noweres. We got separated from the main gathering group. Lee had found a patch, and since the scouts hadn’t seen a Nowere pack in weeks, we thought we were safe.

  “But there was a dormant pack. There were less than ten of them, and I thought we could take them…” I could picture it all now. The Noweres chattering. Lee’s determined set of her jaw as we both shifted.

  “I ran at them first in my Were form, intending to take out as many as I c
ould before they got to Lee. I thought I would be a shield but they…they…” My voice gave out. Fuck, I’d thought I could do this.

  “They ran right by you,” Bay’s voice finished for me. “They didn’t smell you and converged on Lee. Right?”

  My answer was an agonized whisper. “Right.”

  The room was deadly silent. Reese’s hand was over his mouth, eyes shiny and wet. Dare’s expression was blank, his eyes looking right through me, and I wondered if he’d just end me right there. I almost wished for it.

  “You hadn’t known you were immune before then?”

  I shook my head. “I’d never encountered a Nowere before that.”

  “And then what happened?” Dare’s monotone chilled me. I respected him more than just about anyone, and knowing I caused him pain killed me.

  “The sounds of the fight drew the other gatherers and scouts. I began to fight my way through the Nowere pack to Lee, but it was too late. And before anyone arrived, something touched my neck. Like a bee sting. And the next thing I knew, I was waking up chained to a wall in my human form.”

  Cold. So cold. Pain. Hunger. That had been my life for two years, alone in that cell. I began to shake, and a hand reached out, smoothing my hair. Rua. I could smell her. We’d known each other back when we were teenagers, and her touch was comforting.

  “I learned later,” I said, “that they scout all the packs, waiting for us to leave the walls. They release Nowere packs to test if anyone is immune. That was how they found me.”

  Again the silence, so deafening I wanted to cover my ears. I hated feeling this vulnerable, this fragile, but I had no armor anymore. I was nothing but soft flesh and open wounds. I waited for the condemnation, the exile, but Dare didn’t say a word.

  Bay spoke, repeating what I’d told him earlier, saving me the pain from having to repeat it. About the Blanks, what’d they’d done, who they were. The entire room listened and Reese broke down when Bay mentioned Hannah and the threats.