Page 18 of Primal

“What part of that confuses you?”

“I came into my wolf a year early at seventeen.” In the long line of Fallamhain, I’m the only one to have done that. At the time, my father boasted to everyone who would listen about how it meant I had a powerful wolf, and I’d make a good Alpha one day. “That means my wolf hadalmost four yearsbefore Noa left the pack to sense this so-calledmate bond.Yet, he never did. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

Canaan’s big shoulders shrug. “Can’t answer that one. Never experienced finding a fated mate, not that I think I’m missing out. I have Rhosyn, and I’d choose her every damn time.” Some Alphas hold out hope for the rare chance of finding their scent matched omega. Others, like Canaan, don’t sit around waiting for fate to decide. They fall, hard and fast, destined or not. Rhosyn may not be his fated mate, but that meansjack-shitto them. They chose each other, and every day, they keep choosing each other. “But from what I’ve heard? When you find your scent match, there isn’t any questioning it. You justknow. Your wolves recognize each other and that’s it.” He watches me closely. “Let me ask you this, Nick, are you questioning it because your wolf didn’t pick up on a bond with Noa when you were younger? Or are you just flat-out denying it to protect your arrangement with McNamara because you think that’s what you owe the pack?”

“Both—”

The conference room door opens so hard, I’m surprised—and relieved—the drywall doesn’t crack when the door handle connects with the wall.

As if he’d summed her, Rhosyn charges into the room.

“Canaan Orion Roarke!”

Damn, my buddy’s mate lookspissed.

“Rosie?”

After slamming the door closed just as effectively as she opened it, the beta stalks toward her mate. I don’t know how she manages it, but her wild, fawn-colored curls even look pissed off. She stops before him, long, slender finger stabbing into the middle of his wide chest.

“Please tell me I didn’t mate with a man who would move me to a pack that exiles latent wolves from their ranks?”Oh shit.Her ire makes sense now, but I will admit, I’m confused why she’s directing it toward Canaan. Poor guy. “My mama’s been trying to convince me you were a dog since the day I broughtyou home, and I’ve always defended your ass to that unpleasant as hell woman. You better swear to me I didn’t waste my time and breath doing that, because if I find out you knew about thispolicy, I will personally hand you to Mama on a silver platter and she’ll eat youalive.”

There are only two instances in which you’d know that Rhosyn ss was born and raised in the swamps of Mississippi. When she’s two drinks past tipsy and when she’s madder than hell. And right now, she’s basically spitting fire.

There’s genuine fear in my second’s gaze when he looks at me over his furious mate’s shoulder. “Rosie, honey, I have no idea what you’re saying right now.”

Like an owl—or the goddamnExorcist—Rhosyn turns her head, setting her sights on me. “You. Are you exiling pack members who can’t shift?” There’s marginally less heat in her tone as she addresses me, a wise choice since she’s speaking to her pack Alpha, but the fury is still clear as day on her pale face. “I swear to the Goddess herself, Nick, if what Noa said is true I’m going to?—”

“What did she tell you?” I demand, wondering if Rhosyn got more information than I did about Noa’s version of the past.

Rhosyn shifts so she can look at both her mate and me. Her arms tighten angrily across her chest, and she’s so full of simmering anger on behalf of the little stranger, her foot taps as she talks. “Noa told Zora and me about how she was cast out of this pack when she was still basicallya childbecause your father refused to allow a latent wolf to tarnish his pack’s fearsome reputation or some bullshit like that. Tell me she’s wrong.”

“Fuck.” I scrub a hand down my face, my trimmed facial hair scratching against my palm as I do. “She truly believes that story, huh?”

“And what story should she be believing?” Canaan asks. “What’s the truth? That she was banished or the one we’ve always been told about her mother?”

Rhosyn nods. “I want to know how a sweetheart like her ends up believing she’s been banished from this pack.”

I drop my hand from my face and shove it into the front pocket of my wool trousers to stop myself from rubbing the ache in my chest. The ache that deepens every time I think about what was done to that poor girl. The girl my wolf still insists is ours.

“Noa wasn’t exiled from this pack for being a latent shifter,” I start, hating that for the past seven years, she’s been living a lie. “Thalassa, for reasons no one knows, broke one of the most sacred laws as a charmer and used her gift to bind her daughter’s wolf.” Despite the fact this story has been shared amongst the pack like its own personal ghost story, the way Canaan’s tanned face drains of all color it’s like he’s hearing it for the first time. I guess it’s different when you can actually put a face to the name. However, the dramatics of Rhosyn’s gasp has me wondering if this really is her first time learning this lore. She’s still relatively new to the pack having only been here a handful of years. “She escaped with Noa in the middle of the night before my father could intervene and punish the vile bitch. Dad told me he sent enforcers out to find them, but Thalassa was too clever and powerful to be easily tracked. They were just…gone.

Chapter 7

Rennick

“And Noa has no idea?” Rhosyn asks from her place at the conference table. After a few minutes of discussing the atrocious crime committed against Noa—by her own mother, no less—Canaan’s mate had to sit down.

My head shakes. “I'll ask Zora. She’d know more about the full extent of Thalassa’s charmer gifts than I do, but from what I remember, she was a damn powerful weaver with the ability to manipulate energy and magic to her will. One of those wills, I know for a fact, was mind manipulation.”

“Meaning, not only did she bind her daughter’s wolf, but she also fucked with her memories?” Canaan surmises, still looking grim over the whole situation. “Who could do that to their child?”

Silence falls over our trio, each of us grappling with what has been done to Noa Alderwood. All this time, she’s been living who knows where with the very woman who altered the course of her life. She could have had a pack,thispack, had she known the truth. Instead, she’s spent the better part of these years believing us to be heartless, prejudiced people who would shun someone who couldn’t shift. There’s no saying what damage that line ofthinking and belief has done to her self-worth. It’s no wonder she hasn’t found a new pack to join. She probably believes she doesn’t deserve to. Latent shifters are rare, nearly unheard of, but that doesn’t make them any less of a shifter at their core. They’re still pack animals.

My wolf mourns for the little female, aching over the fact that she’s been alone all this time. Knowing he wasn’t there for her is causing him real, tangible pain.

Shit, this whole thing is a mess.

“Okay, why are we still sitting in here then?” Rhosyn pops up from her chair, a look of determination overtaking the displeasure that’s been etched on her pretty features since we started talking about Noa’s past. “Let’s go tell her the truth. She deserves to hear it, and it should come from you, Nick. Especially, since you’re her mate and all.”

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