Page 56 of Feral Werewolves

“Maybe I changed, too,” she said. “Or maybe, in the end, I didn’t have a choice. But then, neither did he. He knew it, from the first time he scented me, and I think he was terrified. He didn’t want to change. But then maybe I didn’t either. Now, though, we have something that’s undeniable, and we want other wolves and tithes to have it, too.”

I nodded. “I think I know what you mean.”

“Which of them are you really mated to?” she said.

“No, I swear, it’s not like that,” I said. “It really is all three of them. It’s been all three of them. I couldn’t choose.”

She licked her lips. “It’s Paladin, isn’t it?”

“No, I swear—”

“And he’s always been willing to play the other wolves, I think, so he told you that it’s safer if you pretend to be mated to the others, and he’s not wrong. He probably thinks he can handle sharing you, but—”

“I can see why you’d say that,” I said. “You seem to understand Paladin pretty well. But I swear, it’s really all three of them. It can happen like that.”

“I don’t know that it can,” she said. “How does that make any sense? There are no wild animal wolf packs with three alpha wolves to one woman.”

“Maybe not,” I said. “But I’m sure of it. You know how you just knew with Griff? It’s like that. I’ve never even considered it being one of them. They’ve never considered it either. When you brought it up, it was honestly the first time I considered I probably should have only mated to one of them. But I didn’t. All three, and I feel like the way we all know it is what confirms it.”

She drew back, thinking that over. “Well… if you don’t mind. And they don’t mind. And they don’t start fighting each other over you.”

“Not so far,” I said. “But last night, they all left me alone, so I don’t even know what’s going on.” Last night, I’d slept out in the sun room, all alone. Paladin probably would have let me sleep with him, if I’d begged, but he said it was probably a better idea if I didn’t. The others seemed shut down to me entirely.

“Look, if something needs to be done, if Griff needs to step in, you can come to me,” she said.

I couldn’t see how that would solve anything.

She must have seen that on my face or something. “We can make a wolf leave you alone. Griff is committed to supporting mating bonds, and there’s strain put on them when the mates can’t be monogamous to each other.”

Was that true? “I don’t want any of them to leave me alone,” I said. “Promise you wouldn’t force them to leave.” I definitely didn’t want to be here just with Paladin.

The truth was, I’d seen another side to Paladin the night before. He’d seemed only sweet and innocent before, and I’d made assumptions about him, that he was inexperienced and guileless. But I realized that he was canny and maybe even a little manipulative. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Maybe that was why I hadn’t begged to sleep in the bed with him.

I did feel love for these men. Against all reason or sense, I did.

But what we did not have was trust. Not yet. That would have to be built over time, I thought.

She nodded at me again. “Okay, that reassures me.” Shereached out and took my hand, just briefly, and squeezed it. Then she let go. “You don’t know what it was like before, when I got here. It’s barely been two months of my being here full time, and I’ve done my best to undo as much of the awful oppression that I saw before, and Griff is on my side, but the other wolves, they don’t like it. They put pressure on women to say things, and they threaten all sorts of things. I believe you, though. And Griff said these guys were different.”

“Different how?” I said.

“Well, there are other packs like this,” she said. “Packs that are equal packs, where wolves are allowed to make their own decisions. But they aren’t the norm. The norm is that one wolf rules the whole thing and he has a best friend or right hand who tends to be his enforcer, and the other two or three wolves beneath them are basically doing grunt work. They treat them horribly.”

“But why would they agree to that?”

“For protection,” she said. “This is the devil they know, and there are a lot of other devils out there.” She shrugged. “And I’m mated to one, right?”

“So, that’s what Griff is, a reformed devil?”

She considered. “He’s reformed to a point. He worries that if he goes too soft, there will be a revolt. He has his own enforcer, and they’re not getting along right now, which is a problem.”

“Red,” I said. “I heard of him.”

She tilted her head to one side. “He’s the worst man I’ve ever met.”

I didn’t know if I should share the pack’s concern that Griff wouldn’t be able to hold onto his position as leader, that they were worried about themselves and me if that happened. I thought she would tell Griff, and I didn’t know if Griff should know that he didn’t have their confidence. So, instead, I said, “Could he be right? Could there be a revolt?”

“If there’s a revolt,” she said, “I won’t survive it.”

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