“Shut up, Rachel. Both of you get the hell away from my house.” She stormed inside and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Rachel shrugged. “Sorry about that. Alpha Lyonis has been the one man she’s always wanted.” Willow snorted and followed Rachel away from the house. “So the Alpha kidnapped you, huh?” she said with a smile.
Willow didn’t smile back; it wasn’t funny to her. “Yeah, he did. I’m not staying with him either.”
“Why not?” Amy looked genuinely puzzled.
“Because I don’t want him. He wants to subdue me into some sexual submissive that pleases him all the time.” Rachel tossed her head back and laughed.
“Don’t all men? Hey, it’s not my place to really say anything, but since you’re not a shapeshifter I’ll go ahead and say it.”
Willow wasn’t so sure she wanted to hear this.
“Shapeshifters get one mate; one chance. Sometimes it takes hundreds of years before the other one can be found. In many cases, they die before ever finding their mate. Sometimes it’s much easier. I found my Jack while visiting in California.” Her soft smile was infectious.
“Is he a shapeshifter, too?”
Rachel nodded. “Yes, I met him while visiting a cousin in a different pack. He asked me out right away and after that first kiss,” she sighed blissfully. “We knew right then.”
Willow felt a pang of bitterness in her chest. She used to want that, to know what it was like to feel something on that kind of level. And she did get to experience it, in a tainted, disgusting way.
“I didn’t know shapeshifters can mate with other breeds,” Willow said.
“It’s a bit unusual that’s for sure, but not uncommon.” Rachel paused. “So I don’t want to make you awkward or anything but you can’t leave him.”
“What do you mean?” The baby fussed a bit and Rachel moved her to the other shoulder. The baby quieted.
“To have your mate not accept you is...geez I don’t even know how to say it. It’s considered shameful. Not to mention that the one who’s left can never be with anyone else. After they find their mate, that’s it. They are locked together forever.”
Willow’s head throbbed with a migraine. “Are you saying that if I leave him, he’ll want only me and can never just find some Suzy Homemaker to make him happy?”
Rachel gave her a sad look. “It’s sad I know but it’s true. We spend our lives looking for our other half, if we lose them after finding them, it breaks us.”
Willow sighed, of course it does. This couldn’t be easy. Nope. She had to either stay here and be with the dominating Alpha or hurt him for the rest of his life. She wasn’t so sure she was mean enough to do something like that.
“But I’m not a shapeshifter, how would that affect me?” Rachel frowned and shook her head.
“I’m not sure. You might be able to move on with your life and find another, but he’d be left the same. This is me,” she said as they neared a small white house. Willow walked with her to the door.
“Thanks for the info, Rachel.”
Rachel laughed. “Anytime you need anything just come by.” When she turned around her smile was gone. “Listen, I know you don’t know him very well, but you should try it. I’ve lived in this pack since I was a child and I’ve never seen him so happy. Is he really so bad?”
Willow swallowed the lump in her throat. How did she explain old fears without revealing herself? She couldn’t.
“Yes, he wants me to be someone I’m not.”
Rachel smiled as if she was remembering something. “Then maybe you need to push back.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes an Alpha needs to have control exerted on them. It might help to keep him in check.”
How did she control someone like him? The man was so physical it was in everything he did. She wouldn’t be able to do it without being physical.
Nodding, Willow said goodbye and walked back to Lyonis’ cabin, lost in her thoughts. Could she really leave him if that meant his suffering?
God dammit.
Could she stay and actually put up with him? She went into the cabin and fell onto the couch. Why did everything have to be so difficult? This was all Papa’s fault. Him and that stupid will.
She wasn’t so mean that she could do that to him, but she also wasn’t going to put herself in the same situation she’d done with David. Tucking her knees into her chest, Willow curled up on the couch.
She contemplated what Rachel had said. Pushing back against the Alpha. Wasn’t that what she’d been doing? Shit, she’d literally fought him, had outrun him, and outsmarted him through most of Europe. In fact, if it wasn’t for that stupid ice she slipped on, he might not have even caught her. If that wasn’t pushing back then she didn’t know what was.
Willow closed her eyes as she remembered this morning. Her mouth suddenly dried out and she swallowed hard. He did please her in that way, but even she knew that was no basis for a relationship.
“Ugh!” she said and slammed a pillow over her face. She didn’t want a relationship. Not with him. Did she want someone...yes. She wanted someone to talk to and share things with, to love. Lyonis Keelan wasn’t that man. Sure he was nice, but he’d break her so fast if she let her guard down.
Moisture dampened her cheek. Willow blinked and felt it again. Touching her cheek, she saw a tear. Quickly she dried her face on the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut.
She would figure something out. She always did. Her eyes drifted closed and she went to sleep.
Chapter 10
Lyonis’ smile widened as he spotted his mate sleeping on his couch. The sight made him feel lighter than air; something he wasn’t used to yet.
After three hundred years of searching, he finally found his mate. Crouching down beside her, Lyonis chuckled as he removed the pillow crammed against her face.
His breath caught as he looked at her. Beautiful as she was awake, she was even more so in sleep. Relaxed and calm with her light hair spilled around her, Willow was an enticing woman. His gaze caught on her cheek and narrowed.
A quick glance at the pillow in his hands proved him right—she’d been crying. His hands curled into fists as a red haze fogged his mind. Who or what had made her sad?
He gentled his hand to trail his fingertips over her wet cheek. A hard knot filled his gut like lead and slithered up to his heart. Did he make her cry? His heart nearly stopped at the thought.
She’d been with him for barely a day and already she was sad. Lyonis stood and rocked back on his feet, his hand running over the back of his neck. He could fix anything. He’d fix this. She will be happy; she will be his mate.
A knock sounded at the door. Lyonis quickly answered it before it woke her up. His two lieutenants, Jackie and Thane waited for him. Closing the door behind him, he stepped outside.
“What’s going on?”
“We have visitors,” Jackie said.
“Who?”
“Willow’s sisters, Tyrian en Kulev, and a demon.”
“What kind of demon?”
“Telal Demuzi.”
“Send them to my office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Sir,” Jackie asked, “is there any particular reason why these...individuals would be here, uninvited.” Lyonis grimaced as he considered his answer.
“Willow and her sisters summoned a demon from below the rift. Last I heard, Chloe and Tyrian defeated the beast but I witnessed something in Germany that shows there may be more to the story.”
Thane and Jackie exchanged glances before nodding and leaving. Lyonis quietly entered his house. He squatted down beside his mate and pushed the hair back from her face. She frowned and pushed his hand away with a grumble.
The corner of his mouth kicked up. Even in sleep, she was a fighter. The needs he felt around his mate were more amazing than anything he’d ever felt. Hunger, desire, generosity, protectiveness were all taken to degrees he’d never imagined. Yet, she was sad. The first day with him and already she was losing her spirit.