Amazon (The Ushers 1) (16 page)

T
HE
W
OLVES’
C
OUNCIL
was comprised of a handful of representatives from each of the packs who shared border area with Mid-Atlantic and Amazon. Jack noticed that he knew many of the wolves present from past disputes and councils. They gathered in a natural amphitheater, automatically grouping themselves by pack. Jack watched as his brother Ted approached him warily.

“Teddy.” He reached for his brother.

His brother smiled, clapping him on both shoulders.

“Hey, Jackie. We’re going to start soon. Your boy, Angelo, he’s going to make the case for you guys, and then there will be an opportunity for objections. If there are no objections, the Alphas will vote to recognize you, and you’ll be a legitimate pack with legitimate territory.”

“Thanks, Ted,” Jack replied. “Fionn’s with us, you know.”

“Yeah. He seems to be keeping a lid on his talents, though. Is that wise?”

“Until he’s affiliated with Amazon, yeah. Technically, when the full moon rises, he can affiliate with any pack present.”

“He won’t. He’s with you.”

“I know. But they don’t know that.” Jack gestured around to some of the wolves gathered.

“Yeah. Gotcha. Hey, I had to bring Patrick and Shelly with me. I’m sorry. The two of them have been stirring up shit. I never thought I’d have to worry about turning my back to my brother, but there it is.”

“It’s fine. We figured that’s why they were here.”

“Listen, you guys should take your seats, I think they’re going to get started.” Ted grinned at Jack one more time and went to take his own seat.

Angelo was soft-spoken and concise as he described the operations of Amazon Pack, the businesses they held, the way the compound was run, self-sufficiently, with no threat to outsiders. When he described the size of population at Amazon Compound, several of the wolves snarled their disbelief, but as he started describing the business influences, they began nodding thoughtfully. Finally, he got to the crux of the argument: Amazon served the Ushers, who would be responsible for bringing a new era of prosperity and community to the wolves. He gestured to Bianca and Fionn, where they sat with their Guides in animal form.

When he completed his arguments, a graying wolf elder presiding over the council came forward to ask if anyone objected to the ratification of Amazon as a pack.

“I object.” Patrick came forward, raising whispers and murmurs throughout the crowd.

“Like hell you do. Sit down, Patrick,” Ted bellowed, his wolf flashing about his eyes.

“I object,” Patrick continued, ignoring his brother. “These rogue wolves share a border with Mid-Atlantic and through it have poached multiple wolves from under our noses. With the exception of Angelo and the Albina, all the wolves from their delegation were formerly Mid-Atlantic. They claim they do not wish to compete for resources with us, but they grow by taking wolves from other packs to follow an absurd religious cult surrounding that abomination over there.” He gestured toward Bianca.

Jack saw red, and he lunged for Patrick, snarling and snapping his teeth as Fionn and Ellen held him back.

“That is not actually true, my friends.” Angelo raised his hands to quiet the outraged wolves. “Amazon does indeed take in wolves from other packs. Wolves who became ghosts and were no longer cared for by their own packs. Wolves like myself, who lost a mate in a car accident. Wolves like Ellen here. And when a wolf like Jack, who was forbidden by his Alpha to claim his mate, affiliates with us for personal reasons, we don’t question their decisions. As for the Albina, she is no abomination. She is our Guardian and a very dangerous wolf.” He smiled at Bianca, whose eyes glowed in gratitude.

Jack still snarled at his brother.

The grayed elder spoke again. “The objection has been raised. Patrick Murphy, unranked wolf from Mid-Atlantic, how do you request your objection be settled?”

“By blood, sir. I would fight this so-called dangerous wolf. If Amazon’s Guardian can blood me, I’ll withdraw my objection.”

“You fucking bastard! Blood you? I’ll fucking kill you!” Jack shouted.

He could see Ted frowning, staring at their brother in disappointment and anger. One way or another, their oldest brother would not be leaving this amphitheater tonight.

“The terms have been laid. Patrick Murphy will fight the Guardian of Amazon to settle the objection.”

The grayed wolf stepped aside, and Patrick began stripping off his clothes.

Jack reached for Bianca. “Darling, I am so sorry,” he said. “I’ll kill him for this.”

“No, Jack, you won’t.” She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I am also Amazon’s Guardian, and this is my choice, my task. I won’t ask you to kill your brother. Hush—” She looked into his eyes, and a crash of pain worked through him.

Carefully, she shed her clothes, her tattoos shining in the twilight. The designs covered her entire torso. Though Jack had seen them many times, his heart filled with pride as he watched the other wolves chattering behind their hands at the proof of her strength and position within her pack. Patrick’s own tattoo of Alpha status had been burned off, a mark of shame.

Bianca sneered at the red burn mark, still healing from his disgrace.

Patrick snarled in response, showing his teeth.

Bianca shifted quickly, and the white wolf licked Jack’s hand.
“I love you, my mate. I’ve got this.”

Her velvet touch in his mind was confident, and he whispered a quick prayer.

Then the white wolf turned to face her challenger. Patrick shifted, and they began to circle each other. The Albina was quick and graceful and every bit as dangerous as Angelo had declared. However, by size and strength, Patrick and Bianca were well-matched, and they circled each other like a perverse yin and yang, made all the more perverse by the way they sought to unbalance each other. Jack watched as his mate feinted and lunged in a subtle pattern, trying to tire Patrick and draw out his weaknesses. His heart lurched into his throat as Patrick lunged for her hind leg, attempting to hamstring her. With a snarl, Bianca leaped away before snapping at his ear.

Many of the wolves around them had shifted during the excitement, so no one noticed the wolf that slipped around behind Jack, seemingly to get a better view. When a blur of fur rushed past him, he realized a third wolf was joining the fray.

“Bianca!” he shouted, recognizing Shelly as the wolf that lunged for her throat as she leaped back from Patrick’s snapping teeth.

With a yelp, she dove to the side.

What happened next happened so quickly, Jack couldn’t prevent it. He dropped to his knees to begin his shift and saw Shelly and Patrick lunge for Bianca again, Patrick pushing her hard toward Shelly. Suddenly, a blur of feathers flashed in front of his eyes as his wolf took over, and he saw Shelly stumble back. He snarled and turned to face his brother, but Bianca was there, seizing Patrick by the throat. With a vicious snarl, she shook her head, tearing his throat out. She spit the blood from her mouth and turned on Shelly, who was gasping, her mouth dripping feathers and blood. Bianca seized her throat between her teeth, snapped her neck, and then collapsed to the ground as she shifted, clutching the body of the raven in her arms.

Jack shifted back to his human form and wrapped his arms around his mate. He couldn’t mourn the loss of his brother, not this way. Instead, he clung to his mate as, together, they mourned the loss of their friend. They shook together with their sobs, Bianca clutching the lifeless bird to her breast, not caring at the blood that streaked her body. He felt her shock and her pain, and he understood suddenly the words Sara had cried in their arms the first night she came to their bed. “I know how it ends, and I am alone.” He understood that she’d blocked Bianca from her thoughts so that Bianca wouldn’t learn what would happen and try to stop it. Her loneliness, her fear over the last weeks had been the knowledge that she would intervene in a fight between wolves and lose her life, and she couldn’t risk Bianca stopping it. He hugged Bianca to his chest, kissing her hair and letting his tears rain down and mix with hers.

“She knew, lover. She knew it was going to happen,” he whispered. “She couldn’t let you stop her.” He felt Bianca nodding and sobbing.

Their pain was a tangible, heated thing there on the floor of the amphitheater, as wolves paced and howled around them. Ted came forward in wolf form, licking at Bianca’s face. He lay down and bared his neck to her. Sobbing harder, she caressed his face with one hand before turning back to Jack’s arms. Annie, as Panther, came and stood beside Jack and Bianca, a low moan of grief coming from her vast form. She hissed at the wolves who approached, and she touched her nose to the feathered mass in Bianca’s hands.

Finally, Ted and Fionn managed to get Jack and Bianca to their feet and into the arms of the other Amazon wolves, who embraced them in their grief. Ellen’s tears washed over all of them as she wrapped Bianca and Jack in a blanket, still holding each other around Sara’s body.

The grayed elder who had presided over the council stepped forward, his grief etched on his face. “Bianca Murphy, Guardian of Amazon, you have defended against your challenger. Amazon will be recognized by this Council. Patrick Murphy and Shelly Digby will be left in the woods in disgrace for what they have done. I am deeply sorry.” He came and bared his throat to Bianca, who caressed his gray face with a sob.

They could all feel the tug of the moon, urging them to shift and run. Jack growled his grief and frustration. He wasn’t ready. They weren’t ready.

“Jack. I love you brother. I have to go to work now.”

Fionn’s voice filled Jack’s mind, beautiful and powerful and terrible all at once. He whined his thanks, unable to let go of his mate.

Fionn stepped forward and murmured something to the elder, who stepped aside to let him speak. He raised his voice to be heard over the crowd, allowing his charisma to explode over the gathered wolves. “The sacrifice of the Raven has fulfilled a prophecy held sacred to our kind. Mid-Atlantic Pack has lost only two wolves today, though one was mated. The Usher Bianca’s Guide has led them into the spirit world, leaving the mate to the solace of Pack.” He bowed his head. “The weakness in our culture which allowed a pack like Amazon to exist and grow eighty-five hundred strong has ended. Because the Raven gave herself for the Usher. because the Usher gave her Guide for us. Her sacrifice strengthens all packs. All wolves. The Raven is now Guide to all wolves, and there will be no more ghosts among us. The rift in our culture is repaired.”

Fionn raised his arms toward the moon. “The Goddess, the moon spirit calls to all of us to accept her gifts and run as wolves. Will you run with me, brothers and sisters? Run with me, and thank the Goddess for the Raven who gave herself for us.”

With that, he shifted, and Jack felt his brother’s presence there, another drop in the tide of wolves he knew as Amazon, but separate. To his surprise, he felt other wolves joining the tide. Ted. The elder. Jack looked around and saw wolf after wolf take shape and run. Jack tried to withstand the call of the moon for as long as he could, but eventually, he succumbed to it, nudging Bianca with his muzzle. With one last kiss to Sara’s lifeless form, Bianca allowed her shift to overtake her, and she met Jack’s eyes with her own.

“Do you feel them all, my mate?”

“They’re all here. They’re all in me, like Amazon.”

“They are following Fionn, and so are we. The Unification is starting.”

“I’m not an Usher anymore.”
Bianca the wolf whined a note of sadness and relief.

“You fought a former Alpha and defeated him. You were attacked blind by another wolf during the challenge. You let your Guide take her place in the spirit world. I think the Goddess is ready to let you live your own life now.”

“Run with me, mate.”
Bianca nudged him with her muzzle.

Together, they took off at a run, following the sound of the wolves that had witnessed the first change, the wolves that had begun the second change. In their grief, they didn’t play and pounce as they often would have. They missed the feel of the Raven, icy cold and sharp in their minds. They longed to feel the wind soaring under her wings, but since that was not to be, they ran, hard and fast, feeling the wind whipping at their ears and tails. Jack felt his ears laying back flat against the wind as his tongue lolled out. He looked over to his mate and sent her a wave of his love, strong and fierce and full of everything they’d made together.

He felt her wave of love and gratitude wash over him, her reassurance that she would survive this pain, this loss. Through her grief, there was still so much love.

T
HEY
S
TOPPED
A
T
T
HE
S
AME
M
OTEL
as before on the way back. Bianca pushed her way into the room ahead of Jack, trying to get a grip on the whirlpool of emotions.

“She knew.” She turned to face him.

He nodded.

“She knew what would happen, what I would choose.”

Another nod. Jack’s eyes were solemn, the pain in his face a mirror of her own.

“She knew if I let you fight, she’d…”
She’d still be alive. And nothing, nothing at all, would be different.

“She knew, Bianca. She knew she wasn’t coming back with us. She couldn’t let you make a different choice.”

“Why?” She felt the frustration boiling up inside her, tears spilling as she reached for her mate. She felt his strength and took comfort in the rough way he embraced her.

“Because your choice was made already, love. Because there was no way, when my brother challenged us, that you were going to let me kill him. Because you love me, and you know what it would have cost me. Not in the heat of the moment, with my wolf riding me, but afterward.”

He tilted her head up, and she met his eyes.

“Could you have chosen differently?” he whispered.

She felt her head shaking from side to side.

“Bianca, no one, ever, has tried to protect
me.”

She felt it then, his wonder and awe, pouring through the bond they shared. Her big strong mate who tried to take care of everyone. The Guardian who protected his wolves, no matter the personal cost. The man who detested violence, yet dealt it with ruthless efficiency when necessary. Of course she had protected him. She was Guardian, too.

“I love you, Jack.”

“I know, love. And Sara knew. She knew you’d choose to spare me that. She couldn’t let you know the cost of that choice.”

He drew her down to the bed and kissed her, achingly sweet. She felt his love for her, and she let it sweep through her.

“Love me, Jack.”

“I do. Always,” he reassured her. “I love you.”

As the Amazons, Fionn, and Annie drove back to the compound, Fionn was strangely quiet. He occasionally reached for Bianca’s hand, or Jack’s, to comfort them. He could feel their loss, piercing and bittersweet. He’d barely known Sara, but he loved her sister and knew Annie was grieving in her own way. He could feel Angelo’s envy, his regret. He could feel Ellen’s quiet, steady strength and the way that she missed her mate. As far away as Maryland, he could feel his brother Ted, guiding their old pack. Wolf after wolf rolled through his mind. His wolves. Needing him. Not as they needed their local Alphas, but as something bigger, something more.

He met Annie’s eyes and felt the sweeping emotion that felt so much like love. He could see the connection between Jack and Bianca now, could feel the strength of it, and he realized his bond with Annie was powerful in a different way. His thoughts wandered to sweet Sara, so delicate and quiet, and how unflinchingly she’d thrown herself into the throat of a wolf, simply to buy Bianca more time. He reached again to squeeze Bianca’s hand. Her chilling pale eyes met his with a sad smile. She was the only one who could truly understand the weight of what he was now.

“It’s not easy,” she whispered, “being the chosen one.”

“No,” he agreed. His brother was asleep, his head on Bianca’s lap as her fingers curled in his hair.

“You’ll hate us sometimes.”

“No, I won’t.” He smiled at her, feeling the need to protect her riding him as it did with all his wolves.

“I did,” she confessed, her eyes sad. “I didn’t want the responsibility of being the Usher.”

“What did Sara have to say about that?” He smiled at her.

“She basically told me to suck it up.”

“She knew, Bianca.” His blue eyes met hers. She saw the knowledge and the sadness there.

She nodded. “I know that now. I wish I could say that I wouldn’t have tried to stop her. I’m too selfish; I know I would have. It’s in my soul to want to protect her.”

“You’re a wolf, sister. And a Guardian. Of course it is. There’s no shame in wanting to protect your family.”

“You understand.” Her voice grew wistful. “You’re the chosen one now.”

Jack stirred in her lap, sitting up. Fionn brushed a hand across his brother’s face, sweeping the hair out of his eyes like a father might.

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Fionn teased.

“Is it my turn to drive?” Jack asked, and they all laughed.

Bianca squeezed him tightly. “No, love. Angelo is fine.” She leaned in to kiss him.

His arms came around her, and he slid his tongue into her mouth.

Fionn let out a bark of laughter.

“If you don’t like it, don’t look,” Jack grumbled against Bianca’s lips.

Fionn turned away to give them a bit of privacy.

Fionn led his wolves to the library elevator, and together, they greeted Monica. He stood back and watched as she embraced Bianca and then Jack, kissing them and weeping with them over the loss of the Guide. She was a beautiful woman, over two hundred years old. Her dark hair had been pulled into a braid, and the silver streaks at her temples made her look wise rather than old. He watched as she reached and hugged Annie close and whispered something in her ear, still holding tightly to Bianca and Jack. He watched as Annie nodded and squeezed Monica’s arm. Then Monica, Alpha of Amazon, turned to him. She was lovely even in her grief over losing Sara. She emanated a quiet power. It rolled from her, and he felt his wolf responding to it.

“You didn’t affiliate?”

He shook his head. She swallowed hard and then leaned her head to one side, showing her throat in an offer of obeisance. He felt his teeth lengthen in recognition of his mate, but he placed them at her throat tenderly, careful not to break the skin. He felt her join him. She was one of his now. The rest of Amazon swooped into him in a rush.

“Then we must join with you,”
her voice murmured in his head.
“We serve the Ushers, after all.”
Her eyes met his, and she winked, her stern beautiful face transformed by the playful gesture.

He smiled back at her, forgetting to pull in his teeth, and he felt his brother laughing.

“Can’t fight fate, Finners.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to marry it, either,”
he lashed out at his brother and then turned on his heel and left. He stormed out of the library, hearing Annie following behind him. Torn by his attraction to the woman he knew was his mate and his affection for the one he had believed his mate for many years, he just stopped and howled.

“Fionn,” Annie sighed his name as his howl died on his lips.

“Why, Annie?” he demanded, suddenly angry.

Bianca’s words from the car crept into his mind.
“You’ll hate us sometimes.”
He felt a pang of understanding for what she’d been through. But he didn’t hate his wolves. He felt a vast, overwhelming paternal feeling toward them. He loved his wolves. He just wished it could be someone else in his shoes.

“Because the mother marked you, Fionn. She made you the most powerful wolf of a generation. She needs you to unite the packs, pave the way for the third Usher.” Annie came and took his hand. “You need her, you know.”

He nodded. “I don’t love her, Annie.”

“Oh, Fionn. You’re having what Sara always called a ‘why me?’ moment. Bianca used to have them all the time. She didn’t want Jack to be her mate, either. Look how happy they are together.”

“I want that with you,” he confessed.

She smiled. “I know. But you can’t have everything you want.” She looked down at their joined hands. “It’s not going to be easy, Fionn. It would be better if I had been with you those twenty years. I take responsibility for running away. I shirked my duty and let the wrong pussy make decisions. I’m sorry that I failed you.”

“You’ve never failed me, Annie. I’m glad you’re here now.” He grinned. “Even if the regime of cold showers is a little harsh.”

He heard a bark of laughter behind him. He turned and saw Jack and Bianca behind him. Bianca winked at him, taking Jack’s hand as they crossed the street to the residence halls. He saw Jack whisper something in her ear and saw the passion arc between them like a physical presence.

“Think they’ll make it to the elevators?” he asked Annie.

She shook her head, giggling. He felt his affection for her sweep through him. She was the best friend he’d ever had. Whatever they were up against, they were up against it together. And at least two of his wolves were happy.

He looked up and saw Monica standing at the library window, looking down at them.

His mate, if he would have her. If…