Page 4 of Untamed

My advisor presses her lips together, frowning. “A political position.”

I roll my eyes. “Very.”

“I understand his concern, then.”

The bite of her words puts me back in my place. I keep forgetting where I am and what I’m supposed to be doing. Despite everything riding on this, I can’t find a reason to fight for my fated pairing. I don’t know how anyone who gets stuck here does.

Feral, my wolf reminds me.

Fuck. That’s right. I shiver. Living solo means no chance of survival. Lone wolves aren’t equipped to sustain themselves. We persevere in packs. The shifter race has a long history—and a dwindling population—that proves this very thing. The solution to our problem? Fated mates. It’s the only coupling that will breed healthy wolves. They’re so important to our society that we do anything to protect them.

“No comment?” Ms. Ebon probes.

I eye her, still unable to figure her out. Is she on my side? Or theirs?

Hell, who am I kidding? I’ve never had anyone on my side.

Time to play the part like I’ve been attempting my whole life. “Yes, I can see that,” I tell her. “His mate will have to be involved in alpha and pack business.”

“Kind of hard to do that with a wolf who hasn’t tried to be a part of the pack. The alpha’s family has to trust you.”

I stifle the eyeroll that threatens, but I don’t quite curtail my tongue. “Why couldn’t Jonah have mated with someone who they could trust, then?”

She tilts her head to the side. “You don’t want a mate?”

I backtrack quickly. “No. No, I do,” I lie. Well, it’s not totally a lie. I never wanted a pairing from Lunar Pack. Give me one from any of the other seven packs, and I would have been happy. I think.

She doesn’t seem as if she believes me, and that’s a problem. Saying I don’t want a mate is like saying I deserve to be here, among other things. Like fucked-up, living feral things.

I clear my throat. “I was just wondering aloud that if fated pairings are essential to pack life, how come fate didn’t pick someone who would’ve been a perfect match for Jonah? Why pick me when he was going to reject me?”

Ms. Ebon’s brow furrows. She regards me for a long while before answering. “Your question is like asking why the moon dictates the tides. It just is.”

Will I get smited if I think fate was wrong in this case? Because…hello, the proof is in the Mate Rejection Slip.

My wolf yips at me. Looks like there’s one being in this body that doesn’t think the universe played the wrong hand. Even so, the advisor’s reasoning sounds like one of those “there, there” shoulder-rubbing scenarios, as if she’s trying to talk down to me while also not having the real answer herself.

Or maybe I’m really not cut out for pack dynamics. My whole life I’ve been watching from the perimeter. I’m not sure if I was born that way or circumstances dictated that I put up a barrier between me and my pack, but from my position, I’ve been an outsider since I was too little to comprehend what the word meant.

“Why don’t you turn to the Lunar Pack Council form?”

“The Council?” I hesitate, losing some of my nerve.

“Yes, every mate pairing gets a write-up. Most of the time, their forms are blank, but in your case, Kinsey, they have concerns about the pairing as well.”

I tamp down a growl that threatens to burst free. I’ve never met anyone on the Pack Council, but I already know what this is going to be about. And if it is—

My stomach clenches.

Was everyone else right? All those times I fought against the lie, what if it was true?

I flip to the next page. The Lunar Pack quarter moon rests in the top center. This form is much like the one Jonah filled out, except for the letterhead, distinguishing the importance.

“Out loud,” Ms. Ebon demands again.

I push my shoulders back and trudge on. I won’t let anyone see me weak. When I scan the page for the box, it holds less information than Jonah’s. The single statement says everything, though.

“Concerns about Miss Walker’s lineage.”

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