Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87502 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87502 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry,” I offered, my words sounding hollow in my own ears. “I tried, Father—truly I did.”
“Yes, of course you did, lass. I never meant to imply otherwise,” he said, though I was pretty sure that was exactly what he had been implying. He shook his head, looking sorrowful. “Ah, if only the curse could be broken! This is the fifth generation where the Pack Leader has no son. Always before the Leader left behind an heir—a younger brother or a nephew or cousin to take his place. But alas, Alpha Carter had no one.”
“I thought he had a younger brother, though,” I offered hesitantly. I was sure I’d heard Carter speak of him before—though not in very good terms. They had been estranged for longer than I had been alive—Carter held onto a grudge like it was money, as my Nana would have said.
“Did he?” Father MacKaity shook his head. “Nay, lass—I don’t think so. I never heard him speak of such.”
“He only spoke of him two or three times when we were first married,” I told him. “He was a half-brother only—the two of them had the same father but different mothers, I believe.”
“Well now, I suppose if he could be located…but I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” He shook his head. “Even if an Alpha with the Jamison crest on his right bicep walked through the door right now, I doubt the Pack would accept him. The Alphas are already gearing up for the challenge and we have several that think they’d be the best new leader of the Pack.”
He nodded to the corner of the funeral parlor where a group of big, muscular men stood. The Alphas of our Pack were eyeing each other like they were ready to start the Alpha Challenge right then and there, though Carter wasn’t even cold in the ground yet. Harris Murdoch, especially, looked ready to commit murder to get to the seat of power. He was a tall man in his early forties—just a year or two older than me—but still in his prime. He was strong as a bull and enjoyed lifting seemingly un-liftable objects for fun or just to show off.
Personally, I thought he would make a terrible Pack Leader—he was too vain and too worried about his own pride to steer the Pack on a straight path. Carter, for all his faults, had kept the Pack strong—mostly by refusing to allow any kind of deviance from the Pack Laws at all.
Most notably, he refused to allow anyone of his Alphas to break the Unbreakable Laws. He’d had a young Alpha put to death for breeding his mate in Fur Form once—even though the girl had cried and begged and said she wanted it. After her husband was dead, she had been turned out into the forest, naked and alone to die as her own punishment.
It was a vivid memory for me because it was the one time Carter had struck me. I had begged and pleaded for the young wife’s life at her trial—Marcella had been one of my only friends in the Pack. Most of the other women shunned me, fearing my barrenness might be catching. It was whispered that I was cursed by the Moon Goddess and that was why I couldn’t bear any children.
“Stupid bitch! She broke the Unbreakable Laws—she must die! Don’t you ever question my decisions in front of the Pack again!” Carter had shouted and had backhanded me so hard, he’d split my lip with the heavy gold ring he always wore. It bore his family crest on it—a wolf’s head howling at a crescent moon with a single diamond star above it.
It was the same crest I had tattooed on my right upper arm to show his ownership of me. For though the males in our Pack show a Moon Mark—which appears naturally, like a birthmark from the day of their birth—the females do not. We must take our husband’s Moon Mark or crest as a tattoo or a brand when we get mated to them.
I eyed the ring now, my tongue exploring the inside of my lip, where the cut had been. It was easy to see because the mortician had folded Carter’s hands on his chest, and it gleamed in the chilly overhead light. If he’d had a son or an heir, the ring would have been passed to them. But since he had died without either, it would be buried with him and a new ring would be made for the new Pack Leader, when he emerged victorious from the Alpha Challenge in a few weeks’ time.
The memory of that ring hitting my mouth filled me with sudden rage and I sucked in a muffled breath. How dare Carter turn my only friend out to die? I didn’t understand why she and her husband had done what they had done, but I didn’t believe that he had forced her. She had loved Jack with all her heart—they’d had a warm and caring marriage—the exact opposite of my cold, dry joining with Carter. They should have been allowed to leave the Pack and go their own way instead of being killed.