He Thought I'd Follow Him Into Her Pack

My mate was about to swear himself into another woman's pack, and he was sure I'd follow.

I found out on a Tuesday, standing outside Lab 4B at Halford University with two coffees going cold in my hands.

The door was open a crack. Dane's voice came through first, easy and pleased with itself, the way it always sounded once he'd made up his mind.

"I signed with Silvercrest last week. The research post, the housing, all of it."

"You did what?" That was Theo Barrett, our friend since our first year in Halford. "Dane, you promised Maren. You two were going home to Cedar Ridge after your defenses. She's already talked to the clinic there."

"Plans change."

"Does she know they've changed?"

A chair creaked. I could picture Dane leaning back, hands laced behind his head.

"She will. And she'll come. Maren's crazy about me, Theo. She always has been."

I should have walked in then. My feet wouldn't move.

"You can't just decide that for her," Theo said. "Something this big, you talk it through."

"And get two weeks of fighting and the silent treatment? No thanks." Dane let out a breath. "A wolf belongs to one pack. The moment I take Silvercrest's oath, Cedar Ridge is behind me. That's the law, and I'm fine with it. And pack law says mates belong to one pack too. Once I'm sworn in, she has until the next full moon to take the same oath. She'll take it. What's she going to do, stay mated to a wolf in another pack?"

Theo was quiet for a second. "Is this about Silvercrest, or is it about Sienna?"

Sienna Vale. Dane's high school girlfriend, who'd run off to Silvercrest at nineteen while the whole of Cedar Ridge told her not to. In eight years I'd heard her name maybe five times. Every time, Dane changed the subject.

"Sienna's out there on her own," Dane said. "I don't like it."

"And what about Maren?"

"Maren gave up Silvercrest Institute for me. A full scholarship, Theo. She let it go because I asked her to. Switching packs is nothing next to that." He gave a short laugh. "She won't mind."

I set one of the coffees on the windowsill. My hand had started to shake.

"Be straight with me," Theo said. "Do you still love her?"

The silence went on so long I thought he wouldn't answer.

"I wouldn't call it love. I just can't stand watching her struggle."

"Then what is Maren to you?" Theo's voice had gone hard.

"Maren's the right mate," Dane said. "Steady, smart, takes care of everything. Any wolf would be lucky to have her. I mean that."

The right mate. He said it the way you'd talk about a good fit for a job.

"You're married, man. You chose her. You owe her better than this."

"You don't get women, Theo. Let them think they might lose you, and they hold on tighter. They do what you want." Paper rustled. "Maren's great. She works hard, she looks after me, she never makes a fuss. But it gets dull. Sienna's different. She looks at me like I hung the moon. With her, I actually feel alive."

"We all used to talk about going home," Theo said. "You gave that speech, remember? Come back and build something."

"Pack loyalty doesn't pay rent, Theo. I'm building a life."

I put the second coffee down next to the first and walked out of the building.

On the bus home, I kept trying to find the moment he'd changed.

Eight years ago, at the Cedar Ridge students' mixer in Halford, he'd climbed onto a folding chair with a paper cup in his hand and told a room full of homesick young wolves to finish their degrees and come back. "Cedar Ridge is small now," he'd said. "It won't be small forever. Not if we go home and build it." I'd clapped until my palms stung. I'd fallen for him right there.

That Dane was gone. I had no idea when he'd left.

He came home after midnight. I kept my eyes shut and my breathing slow, and after a minute he slipped out onto the balcony. The glass door didn't close all the way.

"You're such a handful," he murmured. "Yes, it's all sorted. A few more days and I'm there. Go to sleep, Sienna."

His voice was soft in a way I had never heard, not once in eight years.

He came back in and lay down with his back to me. Sometime before dawn he mumbled into the pillow. "Wait for me, Sienna. I'm almost there."

I stared at the ceiling until the window went gray. So this was what it meant to share a bed with a stranger.

At breakfast, he buttered his toast like it was any other morning.

"So, Silvercrest made me an offer," he said. "Research post at the Institute. Better terms than anything I'd get here." He glanced up. "What do you think? Should I take it?"

My fingers tightened around my fork. He'd mentioned Halford and Silvercrest. Cedar Ridge hadn't even made the list.

"You always wanted Silvercrest, remember?" he went on. "Maybe it was meant to be."

"If you want to go, go."

He blinked, like I'd skipped a line in the script. Then he was out of his chair and hugging me. "I knew you'd say that, Mare. I knew it."

Nobody else called me Mare. He'd started the night we marked each other, and it had been ours ever since. My stomach turned over. He didn't notice.

He let go, dug through his bag, and slid a form across the table. SILVERCREST PACK — MEMBERSHIP PETITION. At the bottom was a line for a mate's signature.

"Just fill this out and sign it," Dane said. "I'll take care of everything else."