Page 20 of Banished From the Pack

“What is fuck?” I ask, unsure why he’s so angry, but knowing he’s dangerous, like Mama always said. He’s twice my size at least, and unlike last night, when his size felt protective and powerful and right as he loomed over me on his bed, now it’s terrifying.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” he says, his voice going from hot as the summer sun to colder than seawater in winter.

“What did I do?” I say, scanning my mind for something, anything I might have done.

“You went to the vampires,” he says, his voice still cold, but sad, too, like when I had to tell Mama I didn’t get anything for dinner and we’d have to sleep hungry again. “Now, tell me what happened from the moment you met that bloodsucker to the moment you left.”

I take a breath and haltingly walk him through every moment, every word we spoke. “Then he gave me something to drink,” I finish. “I thought it was water, but he asked me questions, and then I couldn’t stay awake and I…” I realize I’m blubbering, but the intensity rolling off Axel scares me.

When I stop speaking, Axel just stares at me.

“So, you don’t even know if he drank your blood,” he says. “You were drugged. You could have said or did things you don’t even remember.”

“I didn’t!”

“You gave away our secrets to a vampire!” His words blast through me like the bite of an alligator. “Do you understand how serious this is?”

I bite my lip and shake my head.

“This is a crime that carries a sentence of death for a werewolf,” he says quietly. “Since you didn’t know better, I will ask—hell, I’ll probably have to fucking beg—the pack for clemency. They will spare your life, since you are the True Mate of their Alpha. But you will no longer be allowed to join the pack, as this is the deepest betrayal a wolf can fathom. My packmates will never allow a traitor such as you to join, and I cannot in good conscience be your mate and put all of them in danger for my own selfish desires. I will go to our shaman and have her dissolve the bond.”

He reaches out, stroking my hair behind my ear with tenderness that somehow hurts, when combined with the crushing sadness in his eyes. I don’t know what “dissolve the bond” means any more than I know what it means to be bonded. But from the ache in his gaze, I know it can’t mean good things for me. As I slump back in the seat, I realize it can only mean one thing for my mother, too—without his protection, she’s going to die.

*

Loud footsteps sound on the steps of Axel’s home, making me jerk from my position in a huddled ball on the front-room floor. I’ve been hunched in the corner here for an hour or more, ever since Axel brought me home from the vampire’s and then went off to deal with a crisis at another pack member’s house.

A sense of elation swells in my chest, telling me he’s home. The moon symbol throbs on my arm before he even opens the door. But a far worse brand, the accusation of betraying the wolf pack, hurts even more.

Axel enters, along with Ama and an elder as frail as leaves when they’ve lost their color and begin the process of decay in warm swamp water.

The elder moves slowly, progressing toward me with an unmistakable elegance, like a deer. A large nut-brown satchel rests on her shoulder, swinging slightly as she moves. “Get up, child,” she says in a loud, clear voice that doesn’t match her wizened features.

I rise obediently as Axel and Ama stand back, eyeing me as the elder approaches.

My limbs begin to tremble. “What are you going to do to me?”

“I’m going to separate your soul from that of your True Mate,” the shaman says, setting her bag on the table in front of Axel’s sofa.

“I hear it hurts like a bitch,” Ama says, sidling closer to Axel and giving me a smug smile.

“Silence,” Axel growls through clenched teeth. “Don’t make it worse than it is.”

Ama drops her gaze to the floor.

Axel’s hands are squeezed into fists, but his eyes are soft as he stares at me with a look that says he regrets this more than I regret going to the vampires. I don’t know why, don’t understand what exactly it means, but the sadness in his eyes tells me that he does.

The elder retrieves a knife and a long, carved stick painted with symbols. Feathers dangle from the end of the carved wood. She retrieves another wooden wand with something like deer hooves affixed to the end. The dried hooves clatter and set my nerves on edge as she rests them on the table. Next, she pulls out two tiny jars of something that glows like the bioluminescence I’ve seen in the sea sometimes when I’ve been exploring with my mother.

When she’s laid out all her instruments, the shaman says, “Close all the curtains and lock the doors. We must seal the space.”

“Ama,” Axel snaps, and Ama rushes around the house, covering the windows and slamming the doors, turning a part of the knob that makes a snicking sound.

When Ama’s done, the elder turns to her and says, “You stand as a witness, Second. And you…” She points a bony finger at Axel. “Come and stand before your True Mate.”

Axel progresses toward me like he’s trudging through quicksand toward his death.

When he stands before me, I blurt out, “It doesn’t have to be this way. Whatever I did, I didn’t know. Maybe the vampire tricked me. Maybe he cast a spell in the water. Maybe he…”