Claimed by the Pack

I laughed at the word. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what it meant, but I could hazard a guess.

“What we do is our business, Karessa. Not yours.”

She was furious now. Either at the refusal or the laughter. Probably both.

“Now where is Broderick’s totem?”

She bounced from the bed, her beautiful ass not even jiggling the slightest bit from the impact. God… I could remember holding that ass in my hands as I entered her. How it felt. How it looked, riding slowly up and down the length of me, every time we—

“If Broderick wants his totem,” Karessa said, “he can come get it himself.”

I’d figured as much. Nothing could be that easy.

I looked up again, and she was waving at me dismissively. “Now go, Damien. Go, before my patience wears thin.”

I frowned at her. She looked back at me sadly.

“Go before I do something I might later regret.”

I stood and began gathering my clothes. Everything had been neatly pressed and laid out beside the bed, in the same place it always was.

By the time I reached the other side of the chamber, she was sitting on the bed, head down. Ringlets of soft red hair fell about either side of her pretty face, which rested in the palms of her hands.

“Karessa…” I said from the doorway. “I—”

“It was never you, Damien,” she sneered, looking up one final time. Her eyes were blood red. A single tear ran down her cheek. “Sure,” she went on, “you were certainly fun.” Her expression hardened. “But it was always, always Broderick.”

Silence reigned. At least for a little while.

“I know,” I said to her at last.

And I did.

32

KARESSA

The underhalls flew by as I stormed through, tunnel after darkened tunnel delving into the warm earth. For long centuries these corridors had been walked and worn smooth. For centuries beyond that they’d had been crumbling; dimly lit by torches and choked with dust.

Damn. I was beginning to hate this place.

It was time for change. I knew that now. Everything I’d had here — no, everything I’d built — had been torn down or thrown away. It meant little to me now. Even the fondest memories were tainted; recollections of running full-tilt through the fragrant forests, of wriggling through the cracks and crevasses of the ancient fortress to discover the splendor of the cathedral.

But all those times were in the distant past.

Key members of our pack were all gone now, disappearing insidiously one by one without me realizing the loss. Our numbers had dwindled to dangerous levels. But I’d always had them. I’d always had him…

Broderick. I could feel him now. Sense him as easily as if he were standing before me, in full splendid view.

He was close. He was coming.

And there wasn’t an ounce of reservation or fear in his heart.

Ah, my brave, always courageous Broderick. Your fearlessness is what I adore most about you…

I’d been a fool to think I could subvert Damien, even for a moment. Though there’d been sparks of love between us there had also been a distance; an unbridgeable gap that always kept the two of us from becoming too close. Physically he was dominant — the superior of any of the three fools I’d been forced to mate for the past year. Emotionally however…

Emotionally my heart had always belonged to Broderick.