Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

B ay’s wolf ran through the forest bordering Sunbeam. They were looking for Karim, but the beast kept getting sidetracked by the smells of critters that didn’t live in the Marin Headlands. So far, they’d followed tracks of a wolverine, a pronghorn, a non-shifter wolf, and a fucking squirrel, which they had at home and shouldn’t have been distracting. The beast reveled in the snow and kept pouncing at imaginary things in the powder.

He’d tried his best to keep his animal brother focused, but finding Karim today, tomorrow, or next week had the same urgency for the wolf. It lived in the present and focused on whatever scents and sounds currently surrounded them. If it was thirsty, it looked for water. If it was hungry, it hunted for food. If it was tired, it searched for a safe place to rest.

Right now, it was focused only on tracking animals for fun.

And when it wasn’t running with its nose on the ground, the silly animal aimed its snout at the sky, delighted by the mingled scents of firs, pines, and spruces. As if it had never run in a forest before.

Impatient, Bay mentally sent his wolf an image of the sequoias north of the San Francisco Bay Area. The wolf ignored him.

Arek had led several full moon pack-runs in the giant redwood trees. Bay didn’t understand why the snow and average-sized trees of this forest enamored his wolf so much. They’d run through winter landscapes before. Although it had been a while since they’d run in animal shape. Maybe the beast’s senses were just overstimulated.

He could wrestle control of the body but risked pissing off brother wolf if he did. When the beast pouted, it sometimes didn’t fully share its senses with Bay. And he needed the two sides of his soul to work together right now.

Sending the beast an image of Karim, he tried to broadcast that they were running out of time. We need to find him. He needs help.

The wolf paused, one paw in the air, but then a rabbit dashed across its path. The beast put its snout to the ground and lost all thoughts but the one focused on catching the bunny. Fucking hell .

Bay made a vow to spend more time running as a wolf in the wild.

Luckily, these distractions happened only when no threats loomed. When they had to fight, man and beast operated in synchronous harmony no matter which shape they chose, human or wolf.

He cursed again. Chasing rabbits was not how he’d imagined spending his wedding day.

Actually, he’d never imagined a wedding day, but here they were. A twinge of a guilty conscience lingered when he thought about how he’d manipulated Sonya to agree to be his mate.

But being part of Arek’s pack must be better than having asshole Dale as alpha, even if it meant being married to Bay. Right?

As soon as they were back in the Bay Area, he’d ask Justice to send him on longer missions away from the pack house. Hopefully, his absence would soothe the misery being shackled to him caused Sonya.

The wolf stopped mindlessly pursuing the rabbit, slowed to a jog, and tuned in to Bay’s thoughts.

Mate , it growled.

Fucking hell and back again.

The beast had never communicated with him in words. It growled and sent mental images—lately, it also purred—but words were new.

Another sign that he couldn’t deny the truth any longer.

His instant attraction to Sonya. The weird shock when he touched her, skin to skin. Her feeling his wolf’s internal growls.

And now, the beast calling her mate—using the word, not an image.

She was his true mate, and his wolf had already claimed her.

The beast rumbled its agreement.

Bay mentally shook himself. Sonya deserved so much better than him, but he could only manage one problem at a time. Right now, they had to track down a small pup, convince it to change back into human form, and bring the little dude back to attend his sister’s mating ceremony.

Sonya refused to take vows without her brother’s presence.

He sent his beast an image of Karim’s all-black wolf form. Find pup. It needs help.

His animal brother shook itself, lifted its leg to mark a tree, and then sampled the surrounding air until the faint scent of a small shifter reached its nose.

They followed the trail through the woods. Eventually, the trees thinned out, and a lake nestled in a green meadow appeared. A sad-looking small black wolf lay on the muddy shore with its nose on top of its paws, its eyes closed.

Bay’s beast circled until they were downwind from the boy and then entered the meadow on silent paws. If he were the alpha of Karim’s pack, Bay could communicate with the pup while in fur. But since he wasn’t, he shifted to human shape when they got closer.

The young wolf’s head shot up, eyes open.

“It’s just me,” Bay said.

The pup whined.

“I can’t understand your wolf. Shift and use your words.” He’d never seen a wolf roll its eyes before and had to turn away to hide a grin.

Karim shifted into a mud-covered, naked boy. He shivered in the cold air. “Is Sonya okay?”

“She’s fine,” Bay assured him. “But she’s worried about you.” They needed to talk fast so the little guy could get back to being covered in warm fur.

The cold didn’t seem to bother him, though. The boy dragged his big toe through the snow, tracing some sort of shape on the ground. “I’m fine,” he muttered, but then looked up with eyes shiny from unshed tears. “Why won’t the pack let her be my parent?”

“They will.” Bay inwardly cursed his limited ability with words. How could he explain the intricacies of pack rules to a kid? He settled on, “It’s just complicated.”

“Why? She’s my sister. What’s complicated about that?”

Bay weighed what to say. Did Karim know Sonya was his stepsister? If not, it wasn’t Bay’s business to tell him. “Shifters have a lot of secrets, and they don’t want to share them with people who aren’t pack.”

“Why?”

The kid was stuck on that one word, not that Bay blamed him. The Sunbeam pack’s strict interpretation of shifter laws made little sense to him, either. “Mostly it’s to protect wolves. Regular humans scare easily. And when they’re afraid of something, they hunt and kill that something.”

Karim’s frown covered his entire face. “But wolves are much stronger than regular people.”

Bay didn’t want to scare the little dude, but Karim should be aware of the dangers in the world. “In unarmed combat, the wolf always wins. But regular humans like to hunt with guns.” He watched the boy’s reaction closely.

“That makes sense,” the kid finally said, and Bay exhaled. “But Sonya is great at keeping secrets. She never tells me anything important,” Karim muttered. “Even when I ask.”

“She’d be a great pack member, then.”

The boy nodded. “So, when will Dale let her into the pack?”

Bay rubbed the back of his neck. They were back to complicated things. “Sonya will not join the Sunbeam pack.”

“But you said?—”

“She’s joining my pack,” Bay interrupted. He waited anxiously for Karim’s reaction.

The boy studied him for several beats, emotions flitting through his dark eyes so quickly, Bay couldn’t decipher them. “You have a pack,” the kid finally said.

“I belong to a pack,” Bay corrected.

The boy turned his head, studying the frozen lake. When he faced Bay again, he wouldn’t meet his eyes. “When will she leave?”

Bay would prefer they left as soon as they’d completed the mating ceremony, but Sonya had insisted she needed time to organize things. They’d leave furniture and dishes behind, and someone in the pack had already asked to rent the house. “In a few days,” he told Karim.

Karim still wouldn’t look up, but Bay could see tears pouring down the boy’s cheeks. Shit. Karim didn’t want to leave the place he knew. That was understandable, but Bay had thought keeping his sister as guardian would be good news. The tiny dude snorted and wiped a dirty arm under his nose. “Can she still visit me?”

Fuck . Bay had screwed up yet another conversation. He couldn’t even talk to kids properly. Crouching down in front of Karim, he looked into the boy’s midnight eyes. “Your sister will never leave you. She’s joining my pack because my brothers and sisters will take care of you and protect both of you with their lives.”

Karim peered at him. “For real?” The hope in his eyes seared Bay’s heart. He had to swallow hard and managed only a nod as an answer. “Well, let’s go.” The boy ran toward the trees.

“Maybe you should roll in the snow to get clean,” Bay shouted after him.

Karim kept going, waving a hand behind his skinny, naked butt. “Nah, my wolf will get dirty on the way, anyhow.” Before he reached the end of the meadow, he shifted and ran even faster on four paws.

Bay called forward his own wolf and chased after the pup.

Fun , the beast yipped in his mind.

Great. Now that it knew how to use words, his wolf wouldn’t shut up.