The Promise

Oliver

Lya marked me.

I didn’t think she realized what she had done, but it made me ecstatic. You could only mark your fated mate, which only meant that at least some part of her knew I was made for her. I would deal with the repercussions of that tomorrow. For now, I got to hold her after I had mated her.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt, there was absolutely no going back from this for me. If she decided to leave, I would die a lonely man, unable to find someone to fill the void she left. But now that she had marked me, leaving would be nearly impossible for her. As much as I was proud to bear her mark, if I had known that might have happened, I wouldn’t have let her. She deserved that option. If she decided she didn’t want this - want us - I’d do everything in my power to fix it for her, even if it killed me.

Mate bonds sucked.

The morning came too soon, the buzzing of an alarm startling me out of a sleep I hadn’t realized I had fallen into. Lya’s back was pressed against my chest and I had an arm draped over her waist. I looked around, realizing I had taken us to my room instead of hers. Given Thom would be returning, I wondered if just maybe she’d decide to stay in here with me, instead of relocating to another room. Realistically, I could easily just put Thom in a different room, but I was going to try my luck at getting her in my - our - bed in our room.

I detangled myself from Lya and the sheets, leaving her to sleep while I went off to make coffee. I leaned against the counter, waiting for it to brew, and waved absently at
Anna as she walked through the kitchen. I quickly did a double take when I realized who I saw.

Anna scrunched her nose at me. “You should really wear a shirt. If I can’t walk around topless, neither should you.”

“You’re back! What brought you home early?” I asked.

Anna shrugged, walking over and snagging the pot of coffee to fill her own mug. “Dad called and said to get back sooner than later.” She turned and squinted her eyes at me. Specifically, at my mark. “Is that…”

I nodded, unable to keep the smile from my face. “You’ll like her. Lya will make an amazing Luna.”

Anna sighed. “I had really hoped to have met my mate by now.”

I chuckled, reaching past her to grab two mugs of coffee. I dropped a peck on her forehead before making my way out of the kitchen. “You’d be surprised by the curveballs the Goddess throws. Trevor might be back this weekend, by the way.”

“Great,” she spat sarcastically, adding an eye roll for extra emphasis.

Lya was sitting up, wearing my shirt from the night before, when I reentered the room. She reached out for a mug, sighing with her first sip. I settled back in bed beside her, doing my best to memorize the details of her face. I smiled softly when she looked up at me.

“Do you want to go for a run today?” I asked tentatively.

Lya furrowed her eyebrows. “In wolf form?”

“Yes, spending more time in wolf form is important.” And, it will give our wolves a chance to formally meet. “I have a meeting in a few minutes, but after that?”

She nodded slowly, nibbling on her lower lip. I leaned over, kissing the corner of her mouth delicately, then headed off to get a shower.

Lya was gone by the time I came out of the bathroom. I carefully chose a shirt that would hide my mark for the day, not wanting to show it off until she understood what it was. Cody and Gregory were already waiting in my office, Trevor on the monitor.

“No Luna today?” Trevor asked with a sly grin.

I shook my head. “Can we see if we can loop Thom in on this call?”

Cody gave me a puzzled look, but walked over to the computer and sent the meeting information to him. A couple minutes later, he had joined as well.

“Thom, could you share your justification as to why you think this hunter situation has nothing to do with the pack and everything to do with Lya?” I asked, forgoing a greeting.

“Well hello to you, too, brother,” he chuckled. “But yes. Ten years ago, our parents included me in a meeting with several other alphas and lunas. This would have been shortly after Gregory took over as Beta, just before you came to the pack, Cody, and Trevor, obviously you were still a kid. This meeting was regarding a half blood wolf pup who was intentionally being raised as if us werewolves were not a thing.”

Cody sat up a little straighter. “And you think that pup was Lya,” he clarified. “What would make you think that?”

“I can confirm they were discussing Lya,” I said darkly.

“And what makes you so sure?” Cody challenged.

“Because I saw her there.”

“Wait,” Trevor said slowly. “Was this when you came back from Maine freaking out that you thought you met your mate and she was some fourteen year old kid?”

I nodded slowly. Trevor was the only person I had told about her, absolutely convinced that I must have been wrong. I had tried desperately to put the memory out of my head, convinced that I couldn’t feel any semblance to a mate bond for a child. Even if at that time, it was just the need to protect her.

Trevor shrugged his shoulders. “The timing sounds right. Lya would have just gotten her wolf, still lived in Maine.”

Thom cleared his throat, wordlessly asking for everyone’s attention so he could continue. “The pup in discussion was such a high priority concern that required alphas and lunas from across the country to meet at her closest location because they were a Wulver, and the Wulver Pack has historically provided too much assistance that all concerns need to be handled carefully. We don’t exactly want to piss them off, especially when they have never asked for anything in return.”

“And we have confirmed that Lya is from the Wulver Pack, as well,” I added.

Cody and Trevor looked at me in confusion. Gregory just sat in the background with a knowing smile.

“But the Wulver Pack is dead,” Trevor stated.

“No,” Gregory said slowly. “They are not. The Wulver Pack is interesting, because they have no territory and live as nomads, usually amidst humans, ever since they fled from their territory in Scotland in the early 1900s. While we may also hold them responsible for the development of hunters because they lived so seamlessly among the local towns once upon a time, they are the pack that is most widely revered for clinging to a werewolf’s purpose on this earth. They protected locals from both supernatural and natural threats, taught hunting skills, and were looked to as healers.”

“Yes, we have all heard the legends,” Trevor huffed. “But then hunters decided to band together, take them out, and they were killed off.”

“Oh, no,” Gregory said. “The Goddess gifted them with the ability to evolve quickly because of their work to uphold goodness and protect this earth’s inhabitants. They are resistant to most things that would harm a werewolf, most famously silver. I had my suspicions when you told me Lya had been shot with silver bullets and she made such a quick recovery.”

“So then why didn’t they just integrate into another pack when they fled?” Trevor asked. “Wouldn’t that have been safest?”

“For them, yes, but the Wulvers were not going to turn their back on their morals and let the blessing of the Goddess go to waste. They dispersed, and they can now be found, if you look carefully, all over the globe, taking out hunters, keeping vampires in check, removing serial killers from the populace, hunting for areas going through famine. Much more, too.” Having said his peace, Gregory sat back, giving us a moment to digest the information. I had heard bits and pieces of the information, but having it all laid out linearly helped it make more sense.

Trevor shifted around, looking as if he was trying to find the words to phrase his question. “So then why not just go to the Wulver Pack Alpha and bring up the concern that someone was breaking werwolf law with how they were raising a pup?”

Thom shook his head. “That wasn’t an option. Because the child was the daughter of their Alpha.” Cody visibly stiffened, grinding his teeth.

“And that’s not to say Lya is of alpha blood,” Gregory jumped in. “The Wulver Pack chooses their alpha, it is not inherited.”

“Exactly,” Thom agreed. “The meeting was to try and figure out how to reach out to the rest of the Wulver Pack so we could convince them to name a new alpha. That way, we could just simply go to the new alpha and hedge our complaint, instead of doing something like kidnap and properly integrate her, which is also breaking werewolf law. But then they just disappeared.”

I sat back, debating whether or not nine in the morning was too early for scotch. “And why is this the first I am hearing of this pack being real?” I demanded. “Especially given how much mercenary work our pack does.”

“To be fair, most everyone was in the same boat until that pack in Maine called the meeting,” Thom said with a shrug.

“I assume, in order for them to remain as successful as they are, they must remain in the shadows,” Cody grumbled.

I whirled around, looking at Gregory. “How do you know so much about them, then?”

Gregory just gave a wan smile, but made no effort to explain himself.

Trevor cleared his throat, pulling my attention away from the daggers I was trying to shoot toward Gregory. “So we have enough background to assume they are only after Lya, and given the circumstances that she and Ted came to be together, they intentionally sought her out. But why her?”

The question ping-ponged around my brain, only settling on worst case scenarios.

“Regardless of the why, I believe this changes our approach to the whole situation,” I said slowly. “Trevor, take your time getting back here - make sure you aren’t followed.
The handful of scouts we have over there now should stay, just to keep us apprised of the situation. Warriors should be pulled out over the next couple weeks.”

Cody nodded in agreement. “We make no moves on the hunters until we have a better plan.”

“I think we need to find more folks from her pack.”