Caleb jerked forward in his seat. “You found a mate?”
“A true mate. Mine.”
“I thought that was just a myth,” Caleb stated, brows furrowed in puzzlement.
“I didn’t believe it either, not at first, but turns out they’re real enough. The Raven pack’s alpha and beta both found theirs,” Rory reminded him. The bear had found his, and even his sister, Shannon, had found hers if the bloodsucker she’d mated was to be believed. One thing was for certain, there was a bloody mating epidemic going on in these mountains.
Caleb shook his head, clearly not convinced. “You’re sure she’s your one? Things can get confusing during a blue moon.”
Rory didn’t question how Caleb knew the blue moon was involved. It was the only time in the last month that he’d been away long enough to meet and mate with a woman not of the pack.
“Very. She carries my mark.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in his voice as he made this declaration.
Caleb’s eyes bulged out. “You marked a human? Are you insane?”
Am I? There were days he wondered. “It was fate. I fought it but…” The blue moon, Shay’s heat, the fight—circumstances had all conspired against him. Made him a believer in destiny, however reluctantly.
Caleb continued, “If this woman is truly your mate, why the wait? She should be here with you now.”
“She ran,” he quietly admitted.
Caleb gaped. “After you marked her? What is she doing, trying to break the bond?”
“Aye.” Rory could understand Caleb’s surprise. The mate bond was almost impossible to break. He’d never heard of anyone accomplishing it, although no shifter would be crazy enough to try. Though they’d all been taught about true mates and how the process worked, none of them believed mating was possible with someone not of their species, not even the elders who’d taught them, so there was a lot he didn’t know.
“How long has she been gone?”
“A little over three weeks now.”
Rory could almost see Caleb’s mind working, examining this information from every angle and calculating what impact it would have on the pack. His intelligence was the primary reason Caleb was his second, not to mention he was a damn strong wolf. A good man to have at his back.
Finally Caleb whistled. “She’s strong.”
“Damned strong…and cunning,” Rory informed him, feeling the same sense of reluctant pride he’d felt since Shay’s escape. That she’d managed to fight off the mating fever long enough to sneak away from him without his knowledge, even with his enhanced senses, still astounded him.
“Wait a minute. If she ran, how’d you get her to agree to come here and take this job for you?” Caleb asked.
The same wicked smile from earlier crossed his face. “She doesn’t know it’s me. I used the pack’s lawyers to negotiate the contract.”
Caleb whistled again. “This ought to be interesting.”
They both fell silent.
“Again I ask, are you sure this is wise, bringing her here, with all that’s going on?” As the head of security, Caleb had every right to question him. The pack was a mess. He knew it. Caleb knew it. Hell, even the pack knew it. Not only were the women fighting, but there was an undercurrent of rumblings questioning his ability to lead. There were always dissidents in any pack, but lately their numbers seemed to be growing. Even as distracted as he’d been, he’d noticed.
He debated telling Caleb the whole of it but in the end settled for simply stating, “I’ve no choice.”
Caleb silently absorbed this. “You told Mac any of this?”
Michael MacDougal, his third in command. Not by choice but by pack hierarchy. “No.”
“Hmm, if she’s really your mate, he’ll know as soon as he gets a whiff of her. So will the rest of the pack.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I need you to keep this quiet, at least until I’m ready to make an announcement.”
Caleb’s lips quirked. “That will be difficult with the way everyone runs in and out of here.” As alpha Rory had to be accessible to the pack at all times, which frequently meant little to no privacy.
“All I’m requesting is a few days. Give me a chance to get my mate settled. As far as everyone else is concerned, Shay is the consultant I hired to streamline the pack’s computer systems, nothing more.”
“And how do you plan to explain her staying with you here, in the house?”
“Easy. She’s human. They’ll expect me to keep her close, to make sure she doesn’t discover what we are,” Rory answered.
Caleb sighed. “I’ll do what I can to keep everyone away. You know once the truth comes out, the council will want to vet her, make sure she’s suitable to be the pack’s alpha-fem.”
“Unnecessary. The true mate bond supersedes council authority,” Rory reminded him.
“They’ll still try.”
“Let them.” The smile on Rory’s face was lethal.
Urrpp. Urrpp. Shayla hung on to the sides of the toilet as the contents of her stomach forcibly ejected themselves. Urrpp. Urrpp.
“God, please let this be the flu. Bird flu, swine flu, any kind of flu, as long as it’s the flu.”
It had to be the flu. She’d picked up a bug somewhere, and it was just now making itself known. A bit of medicine, a lot of rest, and she’d be fine.
You’re never sick.
Okay, so normally she was disgustingly healthy, but there was a first time for everything.
You don’t have any flu symptoms.
Fatigue, nausea, and vomiting—they’re all flu symptoms, and these she had in abundance.
Where’s the cough, body aches, and fever?
So it was just a mild case of the flu. That meant she’d get over it that much sooner.
You’ve been throwing up for a week. Your breasts are tender, and you missed your period.
That didn’t mean anything. Lack of sleep combined with the stress she’d been under the last few weeks would be enough to make anyone miss a cycle or two. Besides, she’d never been regular.
Her conscience was quiet.
Shayla squirmed. Even she didn’t believe the lie. She’d always been as regular as clockwork, no matter what was going on in her life. Shit! Shit! Shit! I’m pregnant. If she could have, Shayla would have slammed her head on the porcelain rim of the toilet until she knocked herself unconscious. Unfortunately doing so wouldn’t change a thing.
She was so stupid. Damn her curiosity. People always warned her that one day it would get her in trouble. What the hell was she to do now? This was not supposed to happen. All she’d wanted to do was scratch an itch, satisfy her curiosity, and move on. Instead what she’d done was make a life-altering decision.
Abortion was not an option.
Shayla laid a hand over her stomach, fingers spread wide in an unconsciously protective gesture. Poor kid! What kind of life would it have with her for a mother? She was enough of a freak without throwing the kid’s father into the mix. A genius and a werewolf. God help it. The poor thing wouldn’t stand a chance.
Shayla flushed the toilet and pushed wearily to her feet, this afternoon’s bout of sickness over. Everyone was right. She was weird. She couldn’t even have morning sickness like a normal woman. Who ever heard of “morning sickness” that struck in the afternoon?
I need time to think, time to plan.
But time was something she didn’t have. She was due back in Refuge tomorrow. She’d hurt Kiesha enough by delaying her arrival until the day before the wedding. If she’d told her about the situation with Rory, Kiesha might have understood, but then she’d be furious.