Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Doomed Pairs
Outskirts of the Bloodrose Camp
Shani’s gaze roamed Harkin’s body quickly before it sank beneath the water to his chest. Her heart gave an extra hard thud against her ribs. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was you.”
“I was gonna say, usually you’re nice to me.”
She laughed, all her worries suddenly seeming insignificant. “Wouldn’t want to scare away the only one who’s nice to me, would I?”
“Is that why you avoid me in public?” Harkin asked with a raised brow, slicking back his deep red hair and scrubbing his chiseled face.
“You look good with stubble,” she said by way of answer, another heartbeat throbbing against her breastbone. She convinced herself it wasn’t out of guilt.
Harkin stroked it, wearing a familiar sh!t-eating grin. “Better with a beard or no?”
“Hmm.” Shani liked imagining his face when he wasn’t around, but she never thought to conjure thicker facial hair. “Not yet. I like this.”
Harkin Rhoswen was her lifeline to a halfway decent existence as a pack outcast. He had been since he fended off a group of pups harassing her when they were ten years old. After he sent them running, Shani had been struck not only by his strength against bigger, older wolves—albeit still adolescents—but by the first act of kindness she had been shown so openly.
When she asked why he saved her, all he said was, “Because you’re pretty.” It had never satisfied her. She knew she was beautiful. She didn’t hate herself for being called otherwise—just…different.
Every year that he still proclaimed himself her friend, she asked, “Why did you save me, Harkin?”
It only took until this year that he finally admitted, “Because no one deserves to be treated like that when we’re all supposed to be family.”
Not every wolf was blood-related, but each wolf was meant to be treated with the respect that a bloodline would give.
They had been through their trials and Shani felt Harkin fall in love with her over the past decade. But she was never sure how exactly to feel about the young male, even when he made her believe she was worthy of friendship. Though she undoubtedly felt something.
He was just a few feet away, arms braced on the pool’s edge. The sun limned his hair in a halo, the trademark green eyes of the Bloodrose pack glittering with light and mischief. Harkin always knew how to make her feel better. She made it easy, though: banter, kiss, make love. His soft voice and soft touch were all she needed to feel like she belonged to any sort of family.
Her own eyes blatantly roamed over his rich chestnut skin. Those d*mn tendons, she thought as she took in his powerful arms. Seeing each other almost every day never lost its excitement, especially when it came to his good looks.
Smirking, Harkin noted, “You’re dreading today.”
Shani shook herself out of her daze, forcibly telling her sudden—but not unwarranted—lust to calm the f*ck down. But she still couldn’t look anywhere else but at him. “Yes.”
He huffed. It was obvious he was trying to focus on the topic and not what he really wanted to do. “You’re cutting it close if you’re supposed to be there by afternoon.”
“Yes.” The hot spring water was rich, light blue, and the curls of white steam sometimes concealed Harkin’s face briefly. She didn’t like that. She shimmied toward him, trying to be inconspicuous and flippant. “If I’m not, my dad might send someone to get me—or worse, show up himself.”
Harkin wasn’t shy in pursuing his desires. One of them happened to be her. He hauled his massive body down the length of the bench still separating them so his shoulder bumped into hers. Sometimes he forgot how much stronger an Alpha physique was than an Omega’s; she let out a surprised yip when the bump nearly shoved her off.
His laugh was a wolfish bark as he caught her and apologized, even while Shani punched his arm. “Sorry, sorry. I forgot your muscles aren’t as strong as your personality.”
Shani rolled her eyes and snorted, easily nestled in his arms locked loosely around her midsection.
Until his broad hand slid over her thigh and squeezed lightly. The other hand was not shy, cupping her breast, fingers flicking. She inhaled sharply at his tender touch, igniting the simmering fire in her core surely hotter than any hot spring.
Thank the Moon Goddess, not all Bloodrose was related, because if they were, Shani wouldn’t be able to spread her legs to allow him better access. Again Harkin did not hesitate to cover her center with his hand—and lift her whole body onto his lap. He pulled her back flush against his chest—and his c*ck against her backside. Shani groaned and lolled her head on his shoulder.
Harkin growled in satisfaction at her reaction of pleasure. His mouth brushed her ear, nibbling the lobe. “Stay with me,” he murmured.
“I—” she began, only to be cut short when he slipped a finger inside her.
This time he moaned with her. “Stay, Shani,” he mumbled into her neck. His teeth grazed against her skin alongside his tongue.
“I—I can’t,” she gasped, going limp with release creeping toward her. “It’s—it’s just the usual two weeks.”
“That’s a long time, she-wolf.” He said it with longing, with sadness—with an edge of anger.
Harkin was the only wolf who didn’t want her to leave for fourteen days each month—besides her mother, of course. Neither of them knew how even that made her feel worthy.
Choosing between the Bloodrose and the Blacktooth packs wasn’t any kind of good or bad decision; whether everyone hated her or not, she technically had a home in either. On the positive side: Bloodrose had Harkin and her mother while Blacktooth had her favorite brother, Adrean. On the negative side: Bloodrose had Sivard and Sarnai while Blacktooth housed her father, who she couldn’t find enough f*cks to give. So if she had to choose…she would still pick Bloodrose. For her mother and for Harkin.
“Don’t wanna think about it,” she dragged out, sick of thinking and ready for acting. She growled and he automatically retracted his fingers so she could twist around and climb into his lap, legs straddling, chest to chest—
Harkin’s face was inches from hers. Shani froze, every frenzied motion and thought eddying when she was caught in his expression. She even forgot to relish his hands squeezing her ass. He was looking at her as if she could answer every question he could ask—wonder. That’s what it was. Wonderment, as if she deserved to be gazed at with love.
Shani sighed. “Oh, Harkin.” She took his face gently between her hands. “You—”
“Don’t go on some speech about how I can’t be with you again,” he interrupted harshly but not unkindly, arms moving to wind around her torso as if he intended to never let her go. “To h*ll with the stupid judgments of our pack. I don’t give a d*mn what any of them say or think. I’m in love with you, Shani Vardan. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop me. Not even you,” he added with the smallest of smirks.
Shani’s heart ached at the confession. Her voice rasped when she whispered, “You love me?”
She both expected it and didn’t—knew that he loved her and would eventually proclaim it, but not so abruptly.
Harkin nodded once. “Yes. Moon Goddess forbid you deserve any less than anyone’s love—especially mine.” He flexed his arms in a reassuring embrace. His mouth quirked again as if hiding the nervousness that his pounding heartbeat couldn’t mask. “Here’s the plan: we finish making sweet love, you go to your sh!tty sire’s pack for two weeks, and when you come back, I’ll propose to you in front of the Bloodrose—right in front of Karro—and we’ll mate—”
Mate. The word blared in her mind. Followed quickly by Oh, Goddess, commitment, signaling her body to tense and her heart to pulse with a different kind of emotion.
Harkin was also good at recognizing her tells, even if they were obvious. He stopped speaking, but he didn’t let her out of his gentle but firm grip.
She gathered up her wits. Trying not to let her imagination run wild with possibilities good and bad, she sighed again. “Harkin… You know I care for you—so much—but…I’m not ready for a vow that sacred.”
“Yet?” he asked hopefully.
Shani’s thumbs stroked his bristly cheeks. Yes, she liked it—him—as he was. Searching his beautiful face, his wide eyes, staring at her stripped—emotionally and physically—in the hope she would feel the way he felt for her.
She murmured, “Maybe. Mates is a lot”—an understatement—“to consider, especially so abrupt.”
There was a spark of hurt in the green depths of his eyes. “You don’t think we can be—?”
That was an extremely loaded question Shani had no courage to address. She covered Harkin’s mouth with her hand and shook her head. “Shh. Let’s not go there today, Harkin.”
Wolves had marriage ceremonies, very different from humans’ according to the stories passed down the generations, but they were a simple exchange of promises. Becoming mates, on the other hand, was a sacred rite that sealed those promises with consummation. There were two kinds of mating bonds as well: the one that involved “marriage” and making love—and the other, soulmates–fated mates.
Their cherished Moon Goddess seemed to decide that no wolf should live by one soul. All packs had the same belief that they were born with half a soul; the other belonged to their soulmate, wherever they may be and whenever they may appear. It was a supernatural, undeniable bond that pack lines could not prevent.
Fated mates were a tricky thing. They were as common as all h*ll, but it was treated as a special miracle. It was often celebrated with day-long festivities when a mate bond was formed or announced—especially when the Alpha found his pair.
Shani and Harkin could be mated and called mates, but they couldn’t be mates unless they felt the soulmate bond their souls together.
She rested her forehead on his shoulder, brushing a kiss to his heated skin. They were both still and quiet for a few moments before she ventured, “I can follow through on the first thing, though.”
He must hate me, she thought when he didn’t react—but then he kissed her shoulder in return and murmured, “Anything for you, Shani.”
Shani closed her eyes, both of them panting from more than just the hot spring’s steam. His hands were still exploring her while hers were locked around his neck. She had a feeling he was trying to get as much of her as he could to last him the next two weeks. About to be deprived of happiness, Shani wanted to cherish this time, too.
As much as she could.
Sounds of multiple wolves approaching made the airy feeling in her chest shrivel. Her self-indulgent smile curved into a frown. And when she heard them laugh, anger tightened every muscle.
She felt Harkin lift his head. “You perverts must really love your sister to check up and see if she’s alright,” he said with dark humor.
Shani kept her eyes closed. She would rather fill her vision with a blissful void than with her brothers.
Sivard snorted. “Check up to see if she suffocated on the steam.”
“You’re so keen on f*cking a misbreed?” Sarnai asked with a savage edge to his voice. “Doesn’t her Blacktooth stench make you go limp?”
Harkin’s arms tightened around Shani’s torso. Hers cinched around his neck. “Don’t,” she whispered. If she let him, Harkin would not hesitate to defend her verbally as well as physically. But that would only cause a list of problems. Then she mumbled, “Not yet.”
“At least I have a female to f*ck, virgins,” Harkin purred. Their annoyance was palpable, but he continued, “I offer my condolences for your ugly jealousy. What a shame your high stature actually prevents you from getting what you really want. All those she-wolves…off-limits because your father won’t pair you. What a pity.”
Shani heard their teeth grating. “You’re on thin ice, Epsilon,” Sarnai warned.
Sarnai did not inherit his father’s composure or their mother’s stubborn quietness, instead picking up a rare chance for degrading humor with a lightning-flash-quick aggressiveness. They were as good as princes being the Alpha’s sons, but Karro wanted his family to be honorable, which involved not having sexual or even romantic relationships with any female wolf that he did not choose for them to mate with.
Wolf culture was very similar to true wolves but had the bare minimum human influence. Which meant more rules from a strong hierarchy.
And Sivard? He was the son to watch out for. He knew how to wait for what he wanted, going along with Sarnai’s antics to hide his cunning. If you weren’t watching him out of the corner of your eye, hopefully you were prepared to have your legs swept out from under you and teeth at your throat.
“You won’t always be invincible,” Sivard warned, no trace of laughter left. Shani surpassed a shiver. First he casually remarks about her death by drowning, and now he threatens Harkin with more than just a demotion from the hierarchy of guardians that protected the pack from outside forces.
“You can’t always be our father’s favorite when you’re f*cking her,” Sarnai added.
Shani felt his gaze burning the top of her head. But there was no doubt her anger was hotter. Or Harkin’s.
“Ever think that I’m his favorite because I protect her when no one else will? Not even her own family, who are supposed to protect and love without prejudice?” Harkin held her even tighter. His chest was heaving with breath, his heart pounding against her own. “Neither of you insufferable fur-brains are fit to be heirs if all you do is degrade your own packmates.”
There was a brief silence in which Shani dared to hope they would just walk off. No such luck.
Sivard’s voice was low and smooth. “We have a very different view of family, Rhoswen.”
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone