Page 29 of In Your Eyes
Knowing I owed it to my pack to find someone to care for them and that I needed to ensure that whoever that was would set Korban free, I forced myself to stop being selfish, stop thinking about my failings, and start thinking about who I could contact for help. Within minutes, I thought of a name: Zev Hassick.
He was the Alpha of the Etzgadol pack and though he was one of the younger Alphas, in less than a decade, he’d grown his pack to be the largest in North America. My father had always spoken highly of him and said Zev shared his philosophies about leadership and how to treat nonshifters. And my mother’s close friends lived in his pack, which was why she had taken my siblings and run there when she needed to escape the tragedy that had befallen our home.
Yes. Zev Hassick was a good choice. He would know what to do about my pack. He would take care of Korban.
My need for organization and keeping up with modern times meant I had a spreadsheet with contact information for every pack and every Alpha. I took the stairs three at a time, raced to my room, and found Zev’s number.
“Hello,” a deep, rumbling voice answered after a couple of rings.
“Zev Hassick?”
“Yes.”
“This is Samuel Goodwin. We’ve never met, but you know… knew my father, Tom Goodwin. He is… was Alpha of the—”
“Your father was a good man,” Zev said. “I’m very sorry for your loss and the circumstances surrounding it.” He paused. “How are you holding up, Samuel?”
For years, I had lied when my father had asked if I was okay. I had minimized my shifting problem and intentionally misled him about my tying problem. Not anymore. I would no longer hide my weakness because of my pride.
“Not good,” I answered honestly. Licking my lips, I took a deep breath. “I need your help, Alpha. For my pack.”
“I’ll help in any way I can. Tell me what you need.”
Drawing in another deep breath, I tried to think clearly enough to choose the right words. “I’ve been raised to take over as Alpha since I was born. There’s nobody else with the training, and if… something happens to me, I’m worried harm will come to my pack.”
“What’s going to happen to you?” Zev asked, his voice changing timbre in a way that made me tense. My father had described him as a kind leader, but his tone screamed danger. “Has Dirk Keller healed? Is he a threat again?”
I was surprised Zev knew about Dirk, but then I realized what he had done, both the challenge and killing my father, were so out of the ordinary that any Alpha with connections to the interpack council was sure to have heard of it. Zev was powerful enough that his name had been whispered as a replacement the next time there was an opening on the council, which was rare for a man in his thirties.
“No, he hasn’t healed. At least I don’t think so.”
“Good.” Zev sighed in relief. “And how is Korban holding up?”
Yet another surprise. Why would Zev know Korban Keller? And why would he think I’d have any information about him? The only possible reason was if he knew I’d demanded the Miancarem Alpha as a tribute, but then he would surely think Korban was dead.
“You know Korban?” I said, trying to put the thoughts swimming in my head into some sort of logical order.
“Yes. My mate has family in Miancarem, and he likes to visit them from time to time. I’ve never thought much of Dirk Keller, but Jonah and I have always respected Korban, so we spend time with him when we’re there.” He sighed. “That apple fell in a different hemisphere from the tree.”
Helikes to visit his family.Jonah.
“You’re mated to a male?”
There was a pause before Zev answered, sounding confused. “Yes. He’s my true mate.”
“True mate?” I said disbelievingly.
True mates were exceedingly rare. Most shifters met another shifter and chose to take them as their mate. They tied together time and again, allowing the male to keep hold of his humanity and releasing the female’s wolf.
But if a shifter had a true mate, no other would do. True mates were connected completely—soul to heart, skin to bones. They could hold on to both halves only by tying with each other because they were in fact one, two halves of a whole needing to connect their bodies and their lives to be complete. Though I’d never met a pair of true mates, I’d read about them in the writings. Having a true mate was considered a blessing, the best gift a shifter could receive.
To hear a male had taken another male as a mate turned everything I’d learned about tying on its head. To hear a male had another male for atruemate contradicted the very essence of what I’d read about our people and how we were made.
“How?” I rasped, my voice rough with confusion, disbelief, and a nagging thought I couldn’t quite catch.
“I thought you knew. Didn’t he tell you?”
I didn’t realize my father spoke with Zev outside of meetings, and given how infrequently those happened and how busy they were focusing on pack business, it wasn’t likely he would have known anything about Zev’s mate based on conversations during the meetings.
