Chapter Seven: Part Two

I shifted my backpack on my shoulders. My entire life and most of my mother's lived in the rough canvas bag. It wasn't much, a few pictures, my clothes and several books. My entire life in a single bag. Many might have thought it was sad but it was all I really knew. My mother and I had lived like that for so long that it was natural and the thought of someone having more than that seemed strange and wasteful.

I hadn't grown up like most people, like most shifters even. I had been born with less and I would probably die with as much as I had been born with. It was all about balance. The mundies would have foolishly called it karma but it worked differently than what goes around comes around. The world was on the scales between light and dark, they constantly tipped but would always return to balance evenly. Shifters lives were the same way. We were born balanced and we would die balanced. The scales of the Goddess weren't a pathetic strip of karma, they were the end all justice for everything. I had been born in rejection, I would die by it. It was just how the fates worked, how Mene functioned.

I caught sight of the flowers I needed and continued my jog, following the trail it made. The woods became darker and darker and it became almost difficult for me to see but I pushed forward, letting my nose tell me where the flowers were as I looked for the obstacles that littered the forest floor.

The feeling of passing through a territory made me freeze and I darted my eyes back and forth. Temples were supposed to stay on neutral ground, the fact this one hadn't made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. However, as a shifter, I had a right to use the temple, trespassing or not. I fought back the faint urge to turn away and run and pushed forward, a bit more cautiously this time. I didn't like it, I didn't like being on territories. It always made it feel like everything was pushing down on me but I had a right to use the temple.

I knew I could explain the situation if a patrol found me but I wouldn't appreciate being drug around. I lifted my nose and smelled the air. Blood tainted the usually comforting smell of earth and life that filled the forests and I pushed forward, following the flowers. There was a murmur of voices ahead and I froze, feeling my body urge to run the opposite direction but the heavy feeling of sadness and grief drew me in closer and closer, they was heavy enough that it pushed the claustrophobic feeling I got away for a moment. I knew those feelings well, it was the feeling of loss and the blood in the air spoke of death. Something had happened and they were using the temple, preparing their dead for burial.

"Burial rights." I felt the words come out in a breathless whisper and I hated the images that flashed through my mind. Preparing my mother for her burial, saying the prayers the head priestess had taught me, locked in a small room with my guilt, my hate, and my self-revulsion for twenty-four hours until heard the prayers and left her body to join Mene. The images made bile rise up and I forced it all away and I turned around. I wanted to leave, I didn't want to walk into the memories the scene would bring but bodiless whispers tugged at me.

It's your penance, your punishment, Shey Abigail Lazera. Take it. The words swirled around me and I hung my head in shame. I had wanted to run from my punishment. I had done the unthinkable and when Meme handed me a punishment I was going to run. It was a cowardly and my mother would have slapped me for even thinking it. I turned back around and swallowed thickly. I took tiny steps, timid steps, forward. I was a stranger, a trespasser in their territory and I knew how most shifters reacted to that.

The trees ended and I hung around the edge of it, taking the scene in. the temple was bigger than most I had been in. It was well kept and moonvines climbed up the stone walls, giving it a rather cottage-like feel. I rubbed at my arm as I took in the ten makeshift altars that had been created in front of the churches doors. Five on each side, leaving a small path to go inside. Each altar held a shifter that had died. The blood in the air let me know it hadn't been a very pleasant death. I wondered if there had been a fight, if another pack had tried to take wasn't theirs.

Each altar had moonvines slowly creeping up the sides of them. Mene reached out to cradle her children in death as she couldn't do in life. Memories once again flashed in my mind. The moon vines had only covered my mother when Mene had been satisfied my prayers had loosened my mother's soul. I had to bury her as Mene had left her. Her skin had been nearly as white as the flowers and the burden had been heavy. My hands still ached from digging her grave. I shook away the thoughts and took a step into the clearing, letting the moonlight bath me. Mene was watching.

Silence fell upon the people tending and praying to the dead and I lifted my head, clutching at the straps of my backpack as their eyes watched me intently. I felt no hostility from them but I could tell I was not exactly welcome as they did their burial rights. I took a deep breath and moved closer. My eyes were drawn to the altars once more. Mene's gaze pressed down hard upon me as I came closer to them.

I glanced up to the female tending to the closest altar, tears rolled down her cheeks as she continued her prayers. She looked at me, her eyebrows pulling together. I bit my lip, the urge to join the burial rituals was heavy on my chest. I couldn't ask her though. I couldn't form the words. She stared at me and as if sensing my urge, sensing my inherent and irrational need, she nodded and stepped back. I took her place and pressed my fingers to the cold skin of the male shifter's forehead. I bent down, bringing my mouth close to his ear. The prayers of the dead weren't meant for the living. It was what the priestesses had taught me.

"Mene accipiam vos. May her shining light guide your spirit home. May she cradle you in her arms and wash away the actions from your soul. May she balance your scales and send you home once again. Cyclus remanebit integra." The words were an unhurried whisper and I pulled away before sliding my fingers down his face. I held my fingers on his lips for a brief moment, a motion for silence. I pulled my hand away and watched carefully, a cloud of mist escaped his mouth as if in an exhale. He had heard my prayer and heeded it.

The female who had been tending to him walked forward and grasped my shoulder in her hand. "I have been trying to get him to hear for hours." Her voice was raspy, a testament of her frantic prayers. We watched as the moonvines slowly wrapped around his form. Mene was always stronger around death and moonlight. She approved of the prayer and accepted him back as her child.

"The prayers of the dead aren't meant for the living." I said it softly before kneeling in front of her, taking her hands in mine. "May the grief that holds you, release you gently in time. Sit vitorum vires tibi. May it bring you strength." I kissed her hands and pressed my forehead to them gently. The burden on her shoulders slid onto mine for a brief moment, letting me feel her crushing sorrow for a fleeting few seconds. I could feel her stiffening slightly at the strange ritual. My mother had taught me the formalities of her pack but I knew they weren't from Torvus. They were too stubborn in their ability to be fierce in battle to have the gentle ritual. I suspected they were from Altia but I had never known the truth, she hadn't told me.

"Are you a priestess?" Her question was soft and I shook my head, releasing her hand and standing up. The kneeling position wasn't a submission, just an acknowledgement of her pain, shouldering it for her for a brief moment. It was used to bring pack members closer together after a loss.

"No. Just passing through. I wanted to visit a temple." I said it quietly, trying to keep my tone even and non-confrontational. Everyone had gone back to their altars, tending their loved ones but I wasn't stupid enough to believe they were ignoring me.

"A follower of Mene then." She looked at me as if she was studying me carefully and I nodded.

"We all follow Mene. Some of us just realize that too late. I follow Mene's ways though. She guides us." I looked around and swallowed harshly. A feeling of unease was slowly filling my body but I needed to bathe in Mene's light for a few minutes. I didn't want to be stuck in this place filled with sorrow and death. I didn't want to be stuck standing in a pack territory but I longed for Mene's gaze.

"She does and now my nephew will rest with her." She looked at the male with longing but her face held a hard edge and I became aware of the underlying current of anger in the grief. It wasn't a good anger either. Their wolves were furious, their anger bouncing between them rapidly, enhancing the anger, feeding it.

"She will keep him safe." I nodded to her before looking towards the temple.

"You can go but some of the others may want your help." She said it carefully and I knew it wasn't exactly permission. I had to earn my right to use the temple. It rubbed me wrong but I didn't want to argue with her. I didn't want to rile up the anger further. I was as useless as a mundane in a fight without my wolf. I could throw a mean punch but it would do little against a group of shifters. Especially since this particular group had blood on their minds.

I nodded at her and moved to the next altar, waiting for the older male's permission to do the ritual. I proceeded as soon as he nodded at me. It took several repetitions of the prayer before I made it through to the warrior who lay on the altar. Once again the white mist formed above his mouth as I moved away. I grasped the older male's hands in mine and knelt before him. I preformed the second ritual and he helped me to my feet gently as soon as it was done. I knew I would be drained by the time I was done.

I moved between each altar growing more exhausted as I tried to complete the toll to enter the sanctuary. A trail of moonvines followed me, as if sensing I was doing as Mene required. People moved out of the way as I walked towards the altars. Despite the vines trailing along behind me, I wasn't a conduit of Mene, I wasn't special. The vines always followed those who could reach the dead the fastest. It had always been natural to me, like breathing. I should have been a priestess, it was what my mother had told me. I would have been happier but I had been born an Alpha to a powerful lineage. My fate had been laid out before me even before I had entered the world.

I was nearly shaking from exhaustion as I finished the last prayer. The vines curled around my legs as I gripped the male's rough hands and dropped to my knees. I didn't have to burden myself with their pain but this was my penance, my punishment for my sins.

"Brandy was my sister. She had done a lot of terrible things and always ignored what our parents and I told her but I am happy she listened to you. Mene can take care of her now." His words were gruff and I bowed my head, breathing heavily.

"May the grief that holds you, release you gently in time. Sit vitorum vires tibi. May it bring you strength." I pressed my forehead to his hands and felt the grief push down on me, it mixed with my own, mixed with the grief in the air and nearly forced me to the ground with the weight of it. I let my hands drop from his, the burden growing lighter as the seconds passed.

I was barely aware as he gently lifted me up to my feet. "You have pushed yourself too far, little rogue. Your wolf is too weak to help you." He was holding me to his side and I blinked lazily, the world around me swirled with black dots. He wasn't exactly wrong with that assumption. I had pushed myself too far in my penance but I knew Mene would approve of it. She liked supplication and punishment. She was a goddess of the light but she lingered in the dark, just as her brothers lived in it.

The moon was beautiful but there was always a sharpness to it. She was a loving goddess but there was a reason she was strongest near death. Our mortality fuelled their immortality, their strength. She was the only bright spot in the darkness, she was of the more dangerous gods, the more devilish and tricky. She was the brightest of them but she was still part of their darkness.

Our goddess was a double-edged sword. She took what she wanted, she tricked those she wished and punished those she deemed fit. She favoured us, her children born of the moon but our gifts came with a curse. We could shift, could live with the wolves but it came with the curse that we had to live with the wolves. We were of the same and so we had to fight with our natural instincts constantly to remain in balance. We couldn't choose when to deal with the animal because we were the animal. There was no escape from our blood thirsty, animal instincts.

We could push it away but it would simply build, push back harder and harder until it unleashed in a wave. Our wolves were our gift and curse in the exact same breath. I did not fault Mene for her gift to us. I was blessed as were all shifters, it just proved her nature. She was bright but there was a sharpness to her that could cut if one was not careful. She was inherently of the dark no matter how brightly she shined.

I shook my head, clearing the thoughts and looked up at the male. His hazel eyes were thoughtful as he watched me and I let out a tired sigh. I wished to bathe in Mene's glow, to let it remind me of the brightness one could always find in the dark. "May I enter the temple?" I asked it carefully and he slowly let me go with a nod. I wobbled but my legs held strong. I walked slowly towards the doors, trying to make my tired limbs move properly. I leaned against the solid wood and pushed gently, the hinges groaned but the door moved to allow me entrance. I had paid the toll to use the right of their temple.

It grated on me that I had to pay a toll at all. Temples were for all shifters, they were for us to speak to our mother goddess to be close to her. To bar a shifter from it, to make them earn the right to that space was not okay. I didn't appreciate it but I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was a rogue and with that came no bargaining power.

I stepped inside and frowned when I saw four more altars. They seemed to be the permanent ones of the temples but what got me were the four shifters that lay on them. Four shifters but only two living ones stood by them. Their form were intimidating in their size but the fact their scent was completely undistinguished from the forest made my heart lurch.

Wilds.

Their power radiated of of them, dripping out of their every pore. I wanted to turn and run as their gazes landed on me. Wilds were unpredictable, they followed their instincts, living within their wolves and following natural instincts. I watched them and growls filled their throats as they spotted me. I swallowed before pointing at the square patch of light that landed in the center of the four altars.

"I just wish to pray in the temple." I was too tired to pick a fight with the two of them. I was frightened by them I had never actually met anyone who had enough power to rival an Alpha but there were now two of them in front of me. I didn't like that at all.

"Vines." The word was rough and threaded with a faint growl and I realized one of them had spoken. I darted my gaze between the two of them and one stepped forward. Scars covered his bare chest and his black hair was ragged around his face. His brown eyes were hard as they stared at me. I wanted to cower under the intensity they held. My wolf protested the feeling but with her so far away I lacked her confidence, especially when tired. He pointed at my legs. "Vines. Pray." He jerked his hand between my legs and the altars and I slowly looked down. The vines were creeping through the open doors and they had crawled up my legs, lingering at my knees.

I swallowed and looked at the shifter, the second one lingered in the shadows. "Do you wish for me to speak their prayers?" I watched as he gave a short nod before falling back into the shadows. I could tell he was uncomfortable and one step away away from killing me because I was in his territory. Wilds were unpredictable and the fact both of them held such a potent power made me realize that the fact was probably quite true. It was strange seeing them in human form and around a pack. Wilds usually travelled alone and stayed away from other shifters and mundies.

I turned my thoughts back to the prayers and I gently kicked the vines away from my legs and moved towards the altars. Four more prayers to my penance. Four more before I could seek Mene's comfort. I stood over the pale form of a female shifter, no blood covered her but her neck looked awkward and I winced but bent down. I didn't speak out loud, the temple amplified the prayers I silently spoke. The prayers of the dead weren't meant for the living.

My voice reached her trapped spirit and as I touched her lips the white mist formed, it was icy against my fingertips. She had accepted her death, the transition was easy for her spirit. The next one was the same, his soul banging against the dead body that housed it. I could almost see it. It was easier when their death was accepted.

The next one was a bit harder but he too breathed out his last and Mene accepted him as one of hers. I looked at the last one. He looked like the other two. I wondered if they were siblings for a moment before pushing it away. I said the prayer silently into his ear and went to move my fingers down his face when a vine wrapped around my wrist and with a sharp movement wrenched it away from his head, leaving the action incomplete. I gasped as the dainty looking vine tightened to the point where my wrist bones nearly groaned.

I was pulled away roughly from the body as the shadows seemed to darken in the room, reaching for the male on the table. I felt my eyes widen. Mene did not want him. She refused to allow him to come into her arms. The vines wrapped around my legs, holding me tightly in place. She was mad at me for trying to send him back, my punishment would be to watch his soul tear from his body. The shadows wrapped around his body, coating him head to toe. His scales must have tipped too far for Mene. Nothing made Mene reject a spirit, leaving it to her brothers in darkness, not unless he committed something truly terrible.

"Reason his siblings dead. Mene love family. He forsake for greed. Cycle broken." The wild stood beside me and I would have jumped at the suddenness of his approach but the vines held me tightly in place. He shifted, almost as if protecting me from the shadows that were coating the body of the shifter on the altar. Mene's brothers would take his soul and he would not be reborn as the rest. The gods of the darkness would strip his scales bare and he would be indebted to them for eternity.

Only the gods and goddesses of the light could allow a soul to be reborn. Mene sat on the edge of the light and darkness. She could allow a soul to be reborn but only the souls of her children and those she rejected she let the gods of the darkness, her brothers, have. The shadows seemed to tear the soul from his body and I felt a phantom pain in my chest. It was painful and it felt wrong but Mene had rejected him, it was his punishment for his crimes against his family. I watched as the white mist that was torn from his body get completely covered in shadow before they raced away, falling back to their usual positions, their prize taken.

The vines slowly crept up my body, winding around my stomach and back. Their grip had loosened and the wild looked at me curiously, watching the vines crawl around me. I wondered if this was a punishment but then the whispers started.

You can't fight fate. The words seemed to fall from the lips of the three other dead shifters. I wanted to run, to bolt from the area because the words of the dead were not meant for the living. A change was coming and the fact Mene had the corpses deliver her message was alarming. I wanted to press my hands to my ears but Mene was telling me something and if one way didn't work she would try another and I knew it might not have been as nice. Fate is not a punishment. Accept it. The voices slid across my skin in a bone chilling caress and the wild shuddered, he had felt it too.

Do not forsake my gifts, pup. Accept your fate. It was a powerful warning and my muscles ached from the urge to run. The vines dropped in coils around me, their usual green vibrancy was grey with rot. Mene had sucked the life out of them with the use of her power. Nothing could survive her power when she used it as a vessel.

I looked at the wild and swallowed. "That was fucked up." I blinked at him and to my surprise he laughed although it sounded strained.

"Fucked up." he echoed the words as he shook his head. The air still felt tainted by the shadows and I no longer wanted to stay in the building.

I rubbed at my arms, ignoring the growing marks on my wrist. "Right fucked up. Corpses can't talk." I shook my head and he seemed to feel the same unease as I did.

"They did." He gestured to them and I shuddered.

"I know they did. She has it out for me I swear." It hadn't been the first time Mene had spoken to me but it was definitely the creepiest. It was why my mother said I would have done better at a priestess although I believed it was because my rejections were killing my wolf and the closer to death she got, the easier it was for Mene to speak to me. However, talking corpses were not something I particularly liked or wanted to see ever again. She usually used dreams to reach me, never when I was awake, so it was doubly creepy. "I should go." I nodded at him and he gave me a nod that seemed almost like he was giving me permission to go. My wolf faintly bristled and a few years ago I would have picked a fight with him but at that moment I was too tired, too creeped out, and too weak to do much but simply leave.

I held my backpack's straps tighter as I left the temple. The air was heavy with expectation and I looked at the people who had been tending to their dead. The first female I helped stared at me, her face pale. "Run." The word was quiet, so quiet I didn't think I would have heard it if the breeze hadn't carried it to me. I felt my eyes widen and the last male who had helped me to my feet jerked his head towards the forest, his hands tightening into fists.

"Run, little rogue, the patrols are coming." He said it softly but his tone was urgent. They were helping me, giving me a chance to escape in exchange for what I had done for them. For the guidance I had given their fallen family members. I gave a small nod of thanks before I forced my tired body to run. I was honestly too exhausted to run but I had to try. In my current state I wasn't sure what another rejection would do to me but I had a feeling it wouldn't be pleasant.

I pushed myself forward. My legs ached, this was the second time I had done the run to the border and I hoped it wouldn't be the second time I failed at said run. I didn't want to deal with another pompous Alpha who looked at me with derision. I didn't want to deal with having to hitch another ride far away from this territory. I dodged tree branches, hoping I had enough of a head start that they couldn't find me but howls filled the air and I knew they had caught my scent.

You can't fight fate. It was what Mene had said. A warning. I couldn't fight my fate but I had no clue what fate that was.

I felt my sides ache with a sharp pain as my breathing came in ragged gasps. "Are you shitting me right now?" I clutched at the side with the cramp and hissed before forcing my body to continue the sprint I had forced it into. My wolf was attempting to lend me her strength but the shifter had been right, my wolf was too weak to help me do anything. I could hear the crashing of underbrush as the patrols grew closer. I cursed and shifted to the right quickly. Sombro had warned me away from the mountains and I hoped for once that the others had the same beliefs as him.

The territory was unfamiliar to me and the forest was dark. I wasn't paying attention and became distracted as the patrol started shouting at me to stop. All of that played a very big part in why I found myself tumbling over the edge of a gorge and landing in a rather slow moving river with a small screech as I hit the cold water.

"What the fuck!?" The water was waist deep and I felt my teeth chatter as the ice cold water swirled around me. My mood went from slightly scared to full blown irritation as I looked around and pushed my wet hair from my face with a huff. That was not what I wanted to end my night with. Without a clothes dryer I would have had to deal with the freezing, soaking clothes for the next few days.

"Get out of the water." It was an exasperated voice and I looked up at the edge I had taken the tumble from. A short haired male looked at me, his chest bare. He looked borderline amused and irritated and that just served to piss me off more.

I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at him. "Come in and get me, jackass. Chasing people off cliffs, are you fucking stupid? I could have broken my neck!" I glared up at him. I knew I would make him come in and get me before I would let him have the small victory, regardless of how freezing the water was.

"The gorge is barely seven feet deep, you would have been fine regardless. Besides I was shouting at you to stop." He shrugged before giving me a pointed look. "You're going to get hypothermia. That's a glacier river, it's borderline freezing." Despite my current resolve I had started to lose feelings in my legs. I had a feeling my current stubbornness was going to give me frost bite.

"Yah, a trespassing rogue will just fucking stop when a patrol shouts to stop. I'm not stupid." I gave him a look of disgust and tried to hide the shivers. My teeth were chattering almost violently and I held my arms to my chest tighter to preserve some warmth from my freezing wet clothing.

"Stop being so stubborn." He huffed before looking over his shoulder. "Mark, can you go get a blanket. I'm pretty sure the temple has a stock there." He looked back at me before kneeling at the edge of the cliff and dangling his hand down.

"Come on, let's get you out of the water before you freeze to death. There has been too much death already." He said it softly and I looked at him and then his hand. I didn't trust him but with the river running through the small gorge, there was no way I was going to get out without help. I slipped off my backpack, thankful that I had invested in a waterproof one. As long as there was no open zippers the contents would be dry.

"Touch any of my shit, I will kill you." I tossed it up to him and he caught it quickly before setting it off to the side.

"I hear you, tiger. Now come on, just looking at you is making me feel cold." He let his hand drop once more. I trudged through the water, trying to ignore how shaky my legs were. I looked up at his hand and jumped. His grip was like steel around my wrist and I held onto him just as tightly as I scurried up the wall of the gorge to reach the edge. He grabbed my other arm and helped pull me onto dry land. "You're heavy with those waterlogged clothes." He looked at me as I sat up on my knees. He was right but I glowered at him.

"If that's a lame excuse to try and get me naked, I'm in no fucking mood." Sombro had already teased me about it. Blue Eyes turned out to be a thieving prick and I was going to be drug to another Alpha. My day was right shit. I didn't need another shifter trying to get into my pants.

"I have a mate." He looked me up and down and moved away slightly as I shuffled over to my backpack.

I threw him a cold glare. I didn't care about his precious little mate. I just wanted to curl up somewhere alone and sleep for a week. "Yah well I probably have frostbite on my ass." I reached into my shirt and made sure my mother's necklace was still in place before I grabbed my backpack and threw it over my shoulder.

"You can't be blaming me for that." He sounded incredulous and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You were the one chasing people through the forest at night." I spat the words at him as I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to ignore the extreme shaking my body was doing.

"You were trespassing!" He pointed at me as he stood up and I glared at him intently as I got to my shaking legs.

"I wanted to go to the temple but you fuckers took over the neutral territory it sits on!" I was seething mad. I was hoping if I got them pissed off enough they would just kick me off the territory instead of bringing me to that Alpha.

He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it to frown at me in confusion. "The temple is supposed to be on neutral territory?" He was serious, if the tone he used was anything to go by and I blinked at him rapidly.

"Are you mentally deficient?" I stared at him and the confusion turned to slight irritation. "No, seriously. Are you stupid? Temples are supposed to be on the neutral highways between territories. They are built for all shifters to use. Mene doesn't discriminate between her children." The fact he didn't know that was kind of alarming. To keep the temples away from rogues was a crime in itself.

"I didn't know that." He said it slowly and I sneered. My mood was complete shit. I was freezing, my clothes were heavy and I felt like everything below my waist was on fire as my nerves woke up.

"Obviously." I crossed my arm over my chest and rolled my eyes.

"Fuck you're mouthy." He glared at me. "Especially for someone who was caught trespassing."

"The people doing burial rights seemed to like me just fine." That made him mad and his look turned deadly. I looked at my nails, inspecting them, blatantly ignoring his look.

"Did you interrupt the rights of my fellow pack members?" His voice was a low hiss and I gave him a look of contempt.

"If by interrupt you mean sent their spirits into Mene's arms, then yes, I 'interrupted'." I used finger quotes before I let my hands drop. "I am unnaturally talented with talking to dead people." The words brought back Mene's use of the corpses and I felt my face drain of blood and the urge to throw up was high. Dead people talked to me. Literal dead people, not spirits or ghosts but fucking corpses. I was going to have nightmares for weeks because of it.

"I brought the blanke- oh, is she alright?" The other shifter appeared and I shook myself out of the thoughts of corpses.

I glanced at the new arrival. "I just had to spend time with jackass. I'm not alright with that." I spat the words out as I glared at the shifter in question and the other guy laughed loudly.

"Mark, don't encourage her mouthiness." Jackass crossed his arm over his chest and I rolled my eyes which just seemed to make Mark laugh harder. "I'm serious." There was a warning tone in his voice and Mark chuckled before moving closer and tossing me the scratchy wool blanket he had found. I wrapped it around my shoulders, covering my backpack with it as well. It wouldn't do anything as long as I wore the soaking wet clothes.

"So what do we do?" Mark looked at me before turning his attention to Jackass.

"Take her to Alpha Sterling." Jackass shrugged and Mark paled slightly.

"Seriously? In his mood he might snap her neck for the fun of it." That was no reassuring to hear and I grimaced. I didn't want to deal with any Alpha's, let alone a moody one.

"He's fine, Mark." Jackass sounded convinced but the look on his face made me question that. Great, two out of two thought their Alpha was slightly mental.

"He killed all of them. How is that fine?" The words were in a slightly hissed whisper that I still caught and the panic that had been forgotten rushed towards me all at once. All fourteen of the shifters had been killed by their Alpha. That was not good. That was never good.

"They were conspiring against him." Jackass was firm with that so it was most likely the truth and I looked at Mark. I usually wasn't allowed to hear dirty pack secrets, it was nearly entertaining for me. Nearly because the murderous Alpha was the one I would have to meet and I did not want to deal with that.

"I understand that but banishment was an option." Mark seemed to question his own statement and I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, banishment. Throw me out of the territory to run off into the sunset, never to be seen again." Both sets of eyes turned to look at me and I shrugged. "What? Like I want to meet your murderous rampaging Alpha. No thank you." I looked between the two of them and Mark frowned.

"He's not rampaging. He just handed out some rather brutal justice to those who sought to take his position. Ripped a male's heart out of his chest like nothing." He looked almost disgusted but excited. "You should have seen it, he had his arm in this dude's belly, like right up to the elbow. Dylan was in wolf form and was literally chewing on him but Alpha didn't even filch as he tore his heart out."

I looked at him, blinking slowly. "This is supposed to make me want to meet this male, how?" I watched as Mark's face fell slightly in thought. He didn't seem to be the brightest guy around. Must have been a common theme for pack warriors. Then again I didn't live in a pack so I didn't have a really good gauge for that.

"You don't get a choice in the matter." Jackass grabbed my arm and started pulling me away from the river. The panic ratcheted up a fraction, making my heart thump hard in my chest.

"Fuck off, Jackass." I hissed it at him and struggled against his grip.

He shook my arm. "If you don't co-operate, I will fling you over my shoulder and carry you kicking and screaming to the house." He glowered at me, his eyes daring me to fight him and narrowed my eyes at him, glancing around before I yanked hard against his grip.

"Let me go you son of a bitch!" I flung curses at him and grabbed at his hand and struggled violently until he shook me before picking me up in a fireman's hold. I huffed went limp, knowing I was stuck. I looked at Mark, anxiety gnawing at me. "Is your Alpha mated?" He frowned but shook his head. I let out a silent curse. I was going for my thirtieth rejection.

"Why do you ask?" He stepped around some trees and I shrugged the best I could being slung over someone's shoulders. We were moving at a rather fast pace. Jackass was stronger than he looked.

"No reason but after this shit is over, I want fucking cake." I stared at him and he shook his head slightly.

"You want cake?" Mark raised an eyebrow and I glowered. I deserved a cake after the shit day I had and the thought was the only thing I could do to keep he panic from creeping through me that much more.

"Did I stutter? I want cake. Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. Think of it as an apology for chasing me into a freezing river." I resisted the urge to punch Jackass in the back of the head. "I want a big piece too because this is going to be fun." I couldn't help the bitter scorn that entered my voice. Very fucking fun. The Alpha would be lucky I didn't launch across his big pompous desk and attempt to strangle the life out of him because I knew there was only one thing worse than dealing with an Alpha and that was being mated to one.