Sacrificed Soul

Chapter Twelve

"RICHARD WALLENS!" A female wolf hollers.

Dick goes pale, and I stuff my smile down my throat by sucking my mouth between my lips as the meanest looking she-wolf I have ever laid eyes on leaves her table and marches over to us.

"You are on getting on my last nerve, mate of mine. Get over here," She says, hanging off his collar like a rabid dog and dragging him away with her, hissing, "How many times do I have to tell you? I am not pusing you around in a wheel chair 'cause you had to get your legs amputated..."

What the actual—

"Life will never be boring again!" Lenora whisper shouts.

I look at her as we finally, FINALLY, approach the banquet table and pick up our plates, "And that's a good thing, why?" Gods, the food looks as good as it smells. I turn away, myfocus going to what spread out before me. I can't even look at her while I'm talking, so transfixed on the food as I am.

"Every male around here is either going try to fight you or fuck you. Maybe both. You like a dominant man, right Lee? David, how much you wanna bet Leanne'll have a challenge by the end of the week?"

I cringe. Ooh, mashed potatoes.

"I'm not taking that bet. Every time I take a bet with you, I lose," he says, keeping his voice low.

What he's saying is significant, and I don't like it. At all. Hm, beef or chicken?

"That's not true, and you know it."

"Name one time that I've won a bet against you. One time."

"Keep your prophetic gambling shit far away from me. Hell, Sweet-girl, I'll pay for your plane ticket," I say as I fork some greens onto my half-full plate, finally turning to them as we reach the end of the banquet table.

"He's lying—,"

"I'm not lying! Leanne, listen to me. I'm begging you..."

I'm not listening anymore. I scan the room without looking directly into other folks eyes. I catch sight of the Orion clan and begin the march towards it. With beautiful, wonderful, amazing food sitting on the plate in my hands, I don't have it in me to worry about what other's might think as I may pass a little too close to them. Lenora and David are still arguing over whether or not she's a seer, where she would go if I did buy her ticket out of the country, and why the size of a knot mattered anyway.

I chuckled at the last one. Knot size is more important than dick size, and it's something Lenora and I have in common. As I open my mouth to support her on that particular subject, a scent tickles my nose. An interesting scent. One that has my nose in the air and my eyes searching in a way that I am not supposed to search.

It's heavy enough to have my hind brain, as Mama Jud calls it, spinning in circles. I need to fuck whoever that scent belongs to and I need to fight off anyone who might be interested in it. Hell bent on looking for something you can't see with your eyes, I slam into a wolf passing in the opposite direction.

"Shit," is his reflex.

"Sorry," is mine.

Both of us are down. He'd been in a bigger hurry than I had, which is surprising considering how much I wanted that food. Honestly, I think I could cry seeing the mash potatoes and broccoli and dark red, juicy steak scattered along with the floor. In fact, my entire paper plate is lying there right in front of me, face down.

David is right. Lenora must be a seer, 'cause I'm ready to fight whoever just ran into me. Moving to my knees, I manage to look up... and up, into the eyes of a man that takes my breath away. He's not handsome by movie star standards. He's got a mop of floppy, curly hair that hangs past his ears. His beard is scraggly, and the mustache doesn't quite connect to his chin. His jaw is a little lopsided, one a little sharper than the other, but his lips are perfection. He's tall, extremely so, and scrawny with it. It's the fear that gets me, though. It's so acute in his sky blue eyes that I find myself scrambling away from him. Then I smell him, and the alarm bells are ringing in my head.

Mate.

His wolf sees it, too. Blue eyes flash amber, and I can taste the strength and dominance hidden beneath the soft human exterior. He is a second soul that only hides for the sake of his human's sanity. I see in him an alpha, a protector of the weak who can protect no one if he can't protect his human first. In him, I see myself, and that terrifies me. I know that Fenris have mates, I know how to read even if it's a bit slowly, and by all the written accounts of historians that are a lot smarter than me it's only when they are human. Fenryr, that is what I am. A myth, a legend turned truth from brutality that I can't remember.

I will not continue this lineage. I refuse.

"Don't," the human begs me, "I can't," he begs his wolf.

I wouldn't if the government put a gun to my head. His wolf acknowledges his human's pleas. I can see that he wants to ignore it. He wants me, though, and he's just about had it with his human that has been so traumatized for so many years.

Lenora scoffs as she clambers down to help us, "She's harmless, Three. Where are you off to that's so important anyway? You were practically running."David helps me from the ground, his hands going beneath my armpits, "Three, this is Leanne, my cousin. I think you got here not long after she joined the military."David is always as smooth as homemade butter.

"Yeah. I think we met. Very briefly," Three says as he finds his feet.

He's got to be at least six-four... I could slap myself. Fuck, me and just about every other woman in the world likes a tall man. I need to get a hold of myself. I move away from David to help clean my mess, still upset over the loss of food. Lenora slaps my hand away as a different wolf walks up with a towel. I take it from him before my sister can protest and once again go down to help. It's the only way I can think of that will keep me from crossing the two steps it would take and take a chunk out of his neck, claiming him as mine.

I remind myself of who and what I am. I think about my life, all twelve years of it, and what it would mean for my children and my children's children if that fate every occurred to them. I would have none of it. Managing to pull myself together, I nod absently at Three who is chatting with Lenora and take David's arm as we hop to the trash.

"What's that all about?" David asks.

"What are you talking about?" I'm very good at lying. I have to be.

"Fine," he says as we head to the table, "Keep your secrets."

I will, I promise him in my head. There is abso-fucking-lutely no way in sam hell I would let the Orions know this little, itty-bitty, monstrosity of a secret. In an hour, every wolf in and around the state of California would be aware that I, the only Fenryr in existence today, had found their mate.

I think the only people to notice how quiet I am throughout the rest of dinner are Lenora and David, but I, just like my Honey-girl, have always been closest to them. Making a wall on either side of me, it seems as though they have made it their duty to both keep me entertained and protected at the same time. Maureen picks up on it a little, sending a questioning look towards me when she catches me staring. I shake my head and smile a little, to which she returns it happily.

I am home, I tell myself. I have been accepted by pack. I have returned to the mountains that nurtured this human body. I will be a smart, strong, and brave wolf. I will be vicious in the best of ways, protector of those in need. I will do as I was trained to, and most of all, I will not. Fuck. Up.