Page 12 of Claimed

In the cell, it occurred to me that maybe he’d use me as a bargaining chip to lure Wyatt here. But if this pack kills Wyatt, that’ll be the end of our problems. We can start again.

Yes, it’s awful to even ponder that the death of your own brother might not be all that bad, but anyone who lives under Wyatt’s reign of abuse would feel this way.

Wyatt is all I have left of my immediate family. I’ve got Aunt Shea, Jimmy, and Lucas. Addy is practically a cousin and I’m close with Misty and some of the other girls, but my only remaining immediate family member has brought me nothing but abuse and heartache.

Greyson moves us toward the green door by walking down a slightly sloping driveway of the prettiest house. There are three levels. It’s white brick with a garage on the bottom level, a steep pitched roof with black metal scrolled balconies on the second and third floors. The lush lawn is dominated by shrubs and even has two rosebushes. He has a neighbor on one side and a park on the other.

It's a good-sized park with playground equipment, benches, and a walking path leading to another street.

I feel choked up. There are flowers everywhere. On people’s lawns. In the park. Hanging in big pots from hooks attached to the posts holding the streetlamps. There’s a tricycle on the driveway next door. A basketball net on the driveway across the street. Someone has a sprinkler on, showering their lawn with what smells like clean water! I have the urge to shift and eat this beautiful green grass. And the urge is strong.

This village looks and smells incredible.Hesmells incredible.

There’s no way this is really about to happen. Greyson Blackwood is not about to take me into this big, beautiful house and claim me as his one and only forever mate. I can’t fathomit. We’ll get inside and his eyes will change. His gorgeous mouth will twist into one of those ugly smiles I know too well, and then he’ll tell me he was joking. Just keeping me docile.

He’ll probably do terrible things to me to punish me until Tyson Savage has the chance to dole out his revenge for what I did. These extra-alpha alphas will probably all take turns debasing me before they choose to mangle me and leave my remains in the center of this village so everyone here can shift, chew my bones and then take their turns urinating on them. That’s what Wyatt would do if some woman showed up to poison some of our pack and shoot someone important. He’d play with that woman for days until she begged for death.

But, I already know from all I’ve seen and heard that he’s not like Wyatt. That none of these awful things will happen. But I just can’t wrap my mind around what he’s said. Around whatcouldhappen. That he scents me as his fated mate. That can’t be right.

Aphra’s words come to me again, saying I’m the key to our pack’s future, the key to change for my pack. Is today the beginning of that?

This handsome, strong, extra-alpha alpha from Arcana Falls can’t truly be all he seems. Can’t believe I’m meant to behis. If we go inside and he doesn’t turn mean, I’ll know I must be dreaming. I didn’t wake up this morning and shoot Tyson Savage. I didn’t shift and run and then get tackled by the tall, muscled guy with the color-changing eyes and the salacious smile. He didn’t carry me, naked and crying back to his village and then dress me in his soft t-shirt and give me Kleenex. I’m not being taken to his home to be claimed and kept sheltered and fed for the rest of my days. I’ll never get to laugh and enjoy myself in that restaurant without a care in the world because everything in my world is right. No way.

It'll all go bad like it always does.

Or, any minute now, I’ll wake up in that motel room and know this was a dream. It’ll mean I still have to go hide in the woods and hope to catch sight of Tyson Savage so I can shoot him. So I can be a murderer in order to further Wyatt’s twisted agenda in the hopes it’ll really help me to help my people.

“This is home,” Greyson says, and he says this with weight to it that I feel in my chest.

Wyatt laughs at the idea of fated mates. Monogamy. Love. Wyatt believes the alpha is the king and everyone in his kingdom exists to serve him as he rules with his iron fist, a thundering anger, as everything he touches turns to charred ash and foul-smelling rubble.

Our past wasn’t easy but our present and future under Wyatt’s reign is bleak. There haven’t been any live births in too long. There have been too many deaths and too many running away.

While there are some couples in our pack that haven’t fled, they’re older. They’re leftovers from our father’s generation. And so many of them have gotten sick and died in the past year. They take a sudden turn and despite our best efforts, they wither quickly.

Most women in our pack are fair game, especially the pretty ones like Adelaide, Ellie, and Caroline. And Wyatt takes his pick of the prettiest ones on a regular basis. Women are fair game to him, and we’re used as rewards for his betas. There was also that night Wyatt got really drunk and did that awful thing and made those threats. I shove that memory aside.

Can this Arcana Falls alpha really think he’s meant to mate with me? Mate, not just copulate? Is this a dream? A lie? It doesn’t feel like a lie. The entire village wouldn’t be in on the lie so convincingly, would they? My mind is whirling like a tornado.

“Take a deep breath and calm down. It’s gonna be all right, Blossom, I promise,” Greyson whispers and then he pushes the door open.

4

Grey

The feel of her is more than right. The feel of her body with my senses full of her true scent, the sensations stirring in my blood… Everything is right, except her fear, and the fear feels so wrong that not being able to take it from her makes it like an itch I can’t reach.

I get why the guys were concerned. Especially Joel, Linc, and Jase. They don’t get it. Yet.

It doesn’t matter what she’s done; the urge to do what fate intends me to do is stronger. Ty would get it. Mase would understand. I wonder, briefly, if Rye is doing what he needs to do right now, too, despite what his mate has done.

But I don’t linger on that thought for long, because that’s a complex situation. I mostly focus on what I do know – that nobody gets between an alpha and his mate. The councildoestake care of the whole pack so that’s why they almost tried, assuming my judgement was clouded. But if they’d have stopped me from leaving with her, it would’ve meant they don’t trust me. I’m glad I didn’t have to point that out.

Yeah, she shot Tyson. Yes, she’s poisoned some of the pack members. And I’ll get to the bottom of that. Bottom line: this is who I’m fated to be with, and it’ll get figured out.

My grandfather told me as a kid that matings aren’t always logical at first glance, but eventually they make sense. When I questioned my parents’ mating being short-lived, Granddad told me he believed Dad was meant to be with Carrie, but that hisunion with my mother served a purpose – the creation of me for this council, for this pack, for the Blackwood family. Part of Dad’s job as a council alpha was to provide for his pack and he did that with a further legacy of providing me for his pack. I’m for this pack; Carrie is for Dad. The way Granddad put it made sense to me as a kid, and I haven’t spent much time questioning it since then.

There’s a reason or reasons that the woman who’s been trying to harm our pack is here, is mine, and I’ll get to the bottom of it after I claim her.

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