Chapter One Hundred and Nine
Catherine turned back into the cabin to find Lucas handing Juno the bottle of whiskey. “Don’t worry, he’s picked up on the scent. He’ll be back soon,” Lucas said. “Here, Sweetheart, you’ll want to drink as much as possible. This whole thing will be a lot easier if you’re passed out.”
“Another male’s mark on my neck and you’re still trying to get me drunk?” Juno joked.
Lucas smiled and winked. “It won’t be there come tomorrow. Call this foreplay. We’re going to take care of everything. All you have to do is drink up.”
Catherine watched with folded arms as Juno chugged the whiskey. She got a quarter way through before her eyelids drooped. Her dwindling adrenaline and the ordeal of the day helped her pass out rather quickly. The bottle slipped through her hands but Lucas caught it before it could hit the ground. He swiveled on his crouched feet and plopped onto the ground, his back against the sofa. He took a swig of the whiskey and held it out for Catherine. She sighed and joined him on the floor. She took a hefty chug and coughed.
“Lightweight,” Lucas teased.
“Why is it so important for Juno to pass out?”
Lucas shrugged. “Marty will put up a fight… or Graham will entice one. Sometimes in these situations, the marked mate may experience a lot of the same physical pain.”
“Oh…” Catherine thought about how angry Graham looked and shivered. Hopefully he could control himself. She took a swig and handed the bottle back. “He lied to me about what he was doing, didn’t he?” Catherine asked, her hurt resurfacing from the day before.
Lucas sighed and took another chug. “Yeah, he did. He wanted to protect you.”
“How mad is he?” she asked, fiddling with her fingers. He patted her knee.
“He wasn’t mad. He was…” He sighed and shook his head as if reliving a haunted memory. “Terrified.
“Terrified?”
Lucas glanced sideways. “He thought Dominic had grabbed you.”
“Oh.”
Behind them Juno began to shake. She whimpered and twisted as if to get away from something. Her breath caught and her chest lifted off the couch. Lucas took her hand and ran his thumb gently over the back. He brought her open palm to his lips and kissed it.
“Looks like he found the bastard.” Lucas grimaced as Juno groaned against an invisible force. “Fuck, Grey, take it easy,” Lucas whispered under his breath as he continued to watch Juno writhe on the cushions.
A moment later Juno lay still, even more so than before. Lucas let out a breath he’d been holding and took another swig of the whiskey. He handed it over to Catherine but she shook her head. He urged it against her.
“You’re going to need it,” he said. She sighed and took it back. Lucas continued to fiddle with Juno’s hand and then, as if it wasn’t enough, he turned and started to unknot her hair.
“You really like her,” Catherine observed.
A soft smile played on his lips. “Yeah.”
“I don’t know why she didn’t call me sooner,” Catherine whispered.
Lucas brushed his thumb over Juno’s forehead. “Finding your mate can be confusing. Maybe she knew you would be able to see through her. I’m sure she thought their bond could sort everything out.”
“I don’t know how to help her. When all this is done, I don’t know what she’ll need.”
Lucas sighed and leaned down to place a kiss where his thumb had been tracing. “It’ll hurt for a while,” he said. “She’ll feel like a piece of herself has been
1/4
ripped away and she’ll feel the irrational desire to try to find it again. She’ll look for it in any man who comes along, hoping they can give her something to fill the void. Then, one day, she’ll meet someone. It won’t be perfect, there will still be gaps in the edges when they try to fit the piece of their soul together but… it’ll feel sweeter than anything else before and slowly those little edges will smooth over and it’ll be like the hole was never there in the first place.”
“Lucas…”
Lucas glanced over and he gave her a gentle smile before nodding. “I waited for her, my mate. I waited eighty-two years for her. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a saint before I found her but I never gave my heart away.” He glanced down at Juno as he continued. “She was twenty-two when I saw her in a cafe drinking a cappuccino. Gold eyes, gold hair and her legs…” He whistled, trying to bring his normal humor back. He chuckled. “When I approached her I expected fireworks, electricity, to jump each other’s bones.” Lucas went quiet.
“What happened?” Catherine prodded.
“It turns out she hadn’t waited for me. She was mated to her high school sweetheart. They already had two kids, twins. I suppose because I had alpha blood, I was still able to recognize her as mine. I guess the Moon Goddess wanted to give me closure, or maybe give her a second chance to pick me over her chosen mate. Most women would have chosen to become luna. I guess it means she really was a special one though, when she stuck with the man she’d chosen.” Lucas shrugged. “Even still, her rejection… It tore me apart. Led me down some dark roads. It was the final straw and I left the pack a few weeks later. I happened to run into Grey while he was on a tracking mission. We hit it off, I joined Blackmoore and… the rest is history.”
Lucas turned and placed his arm behind Catherine’s shoulders. The clock on the wall ticked, the only sound around them. A few minutes later their heads turned to the door in unison. Another twig snapped and another. A low growl broke through the darkness. Lucas squeezed her shoulder.
“He’s just terrified of losing you. Cut him a break,” he whispered.
She wasn’t sure why he said that. Then as the large lycan stepped on the porch, she understood. The lycan glared into the cabin, his black gaze fixed on the pair sitting on the floor. His growl reverberated along the cabin. Lucas’ arm jerked off Catherine’s shoulder and he stood with both hands held up in surrender. The growling stopped.
The large lycan flung the werewolf male he was carrying over his shoulder down to the ground. Marty was unrecognizable. Blood pooled on the porch where he lay. His face was swollen and bruised. There were cuts by his eye and along his chest. She heard the sounds of bones breaking and watched as her mate shrunk slightly to his human form.
Graham grabbed Marty by the back of his shirt and hauled him through the door. He dropped him at Catherine’s feet with a smug smirk. She glared up at him, not wanting to forgive him for abandoning her just yet. He rolled his eyes and took a few steps back to watch with his arms folded.
“Is this Marty Caldwell? Alpha Nathan’s son?” Lucas asked. Graham grunted in affirmation. “I knew there was something wrong with this son of a bitch.”
Lucas trickled some of the whiskey over Marty’s face. He slowly came back to the surface, groaning. His eyes opened slightly and then all at once. He jerked up and hissed when the pain came back to him. Before he could sit up all the way Graham pressed his bare foot onto Marty’s back and pushed him back to the ground.
“What the fuck?” Marty yelled, thrashing. “Let me go, Dick!”
“Watch your language, Pup. Ladies are present,” Lucas warned.
Marty’s eyes went up to Lucas and he snarled. Then he sniffed the air and laughed. “Hello, Mutt,” he greeted. “I see my little mate went crying to you after all? I knew you would come.”
Graham, hearing the insult to his mate, drew his foot back and kicked him in the side. “Watch your fucking mouth. The only mutt I see here is you, fucker,” Graham bellowed.
Catherine squatted down so he could see her. “I wish I could say it is nice to see you again, Marty. Don’t worry. I won’t be here long. I just need you to do one little thing and we’ll be on our merry way. I’ll even convince my mate to keep you alive,” she whispered.
“Fuck. You,” he hissed. Graham applied more pressure to his back and she heard a snap. He screamed in pain and tried to get out from under Graham’s weight. After a minute of futile struggle, he finally stilled. “What do you want?!”
Catherine leaned forward. “You’re going to reject your fated mate. Right now.” Catherine stood again and walked to Juno to try to wake her up.
Marty laughed. “Yeah, sure thing.”
Catherine shook Juno carefully, holding up the smelling salts Lucas had given her earlier. Juno’s eyes fluttered. “Or, my mate here could kill you and break the bond that way. Whichever you’d prefer.”
211
Marty’s laughter cut off. “You kill me, you kill her.”
“I think we’ll take that chance,” Catherine said, knowing now that it wouldn’t. “Graham.”
Behind her she could tell Graham applied more pressure. Marty screamed and she heard another pop as Graham growled with satisfaction.
“Okay! Stop!” Marty whimpered and sobbed.
Catherine helped Juno sit up. “What’s happening?” Juno asked. She gasped when she noticed Marty on the floor.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon,” Catherine whispered.
“Let’s hear it then, pup,” Lucas commanded.
Marty groaned. “I, Martin Leopold Caldwell, reject Juno Natasha Travis as my mate.”
Both of them gasped and cried out in pain.
“You have to accept,” Catherine urged Juno.
“I, Juno Natasha Travis, accept your rejection as my mate.” Juno clutched her chest as the pain of the rejection tore through her.
She cried out but it was drowned out by the sharp howl of pain from Marty. Graham released his hold, allowing Marty to roll into a ball as he screamed. Catherine held Juno to her as she shook and sobbed. A few moments later, Juno drooped forward, passed out from the pain. Catherine placed her hand to her friend’s throat and sighed in relief, her heartbeat was strong. She then looked at the mark on her neck. Over the next few days it would slowly dissolve until it was nothing but a faded pink line.
“Lucas,” Graham barked.
“Right,” Lucas said. He walked by Marty and kicked him in the ribs until he too passed out. He then stretched his shoulders in relief and lifted Juno from Catherine’s arms.
“Where are you taking her?” Catherine asked.
“Home with me, of course,” Lucas answered, strutting toward the door.
“I don’t want her in the packhouse!” Catherine screeched as she followed.
“I’m not taking her to the packhouse. She’s going to my home,” he repeated.
“Your home? You have a house?”
“Just down the street from you actually,” Lucas said. “Bought it a few weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“I had to have some place to take her when she stopped being so stubborn,” Lucas said with a wink. He turned and walked toward the Mustang.
Catherine watched Lucas gently fold Juno’s unconscious body into the front seat. Rain began to fall and Lucas rushed around to the driver’s side before he could get soaked. She noticed for the first time Graham’s motorcycle propped up on its kickstand. She stiffened when she felt an enraged male close behind her. She turned and looked up into Graham’s black eyes. She sighed and tilted her chin up.
“Would you like to do this here or wait til we get home?”
Graham growled. He dipped, grabbed her waist and threw her over his shoulder.
“Home it is,” she grumbled as he strode toward his motorcycle, the rain already soaking through her shirt.
3/4
rendering to Destiny
