Amazon (The Ushers 1) (7 page)

Jack met Bianca’s eyes, stunned.

“Bianca…” His voice came out strangled. “How many wolves live on the compound?”

“Jack, did you go to college?” She chose her words with precision, needing him to reach these conclusions on his own, not to be slapped in the face with them.

“Naval Academy.” He nodded.

“And how many students matriculated at the Academy?”

His eyes widened as he took in his surroundings. He didn’t answer.

“And was the campus smaller, or larger than our compound?” she pressed, waiting for his reaction.

He glanced around, his mind shuttered.

“Stop the car.”

She pulled over.

“How many, Bianca? How many wolves are under your protection?” He seemed on the verge of hyperventilating.

“About eight thousand,” she whispered, wincing at the expression on his face. She knew Mid-Atlantic was considered one of the strongest packs in the country—at a little over five hundred members. Eight thousand would literally boggle his mind.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Bianca? What the hell is going on?” He looked pissed but kept his wolf under control. She could feel the heat surrounding him, the edges of his will fighting against those of the beast inside.

“I told you that you would be surprised. I told you there were secrets. Please, Jack. Please come meet Monica. Talk with her. You’re not under threat from us,” she pleaded.

“Eight thousand wolves living in a walled city, and your nearest pack neighbors didn’t have a fucking clue?” He exploded. “What are you trying to do? Take over the goddamned world?” he yelled, the words exploding from his mouth.

Bianca winced at the volume and the note of betrayal in his voice.

“Enough,” she snapped. “I’m taking you to my Alpha. You’ll understand a lot more when you speak to her.”

She started the car again and drove without speaking up to the library.

“She lives here.” She indicated the building with her chin. “Being around books has always made her happy, so she made her residence on the top floor of the library.”

“Where do they all work?” he growled.

“Some work in the school, because we do actually have one. Some work in the cafeteria. Some in security. And we have several internet-based businesses that are operated out of the compound. Angelo—you’ll meet him; he’s our Third—he oversees our business operations.”

Glancing over, she saw how close his wolf was to emerging. He was angry and clearly feeling threatened, both emotions pulling his wolf to the surface.

“Jack,” she whispered, taking his hand. “Be still. Relax. Even though it’s sudden and crazy and I just met you, my wolf knows you. And somehow, it’s happened that I actually like you, because you’re my mate. I know how startling this is, but understand that this is all I’ve known my whole life. And these are good people. Good wolves. They won’t hurt you.”

“You want me to trust this, mate?” he asked softly, his eyes closing. “I cannot believe you can ask such a thing after hiding something like this from me.”

“Oh for goddess’s sake, Jack. I’m the Usher.” She growled. “Did you think we’d have it easy? Grow up. I’m not hiding my people; I’m showing them to you. I’m exposing everything because I trust you, and yeah, you big prick, I’m asking you to do the decent thing and trust me back. This mate thing is a gift from the Goddess, and I can’t fight that. I was happy with Sara, but you are my fucking mate, so get a grip and act like it.”

She clambered out of the car, slamming the door and waiting for him. When he emerged from the car, stony-faced, she walked toward the building, knowing he’d follow.

J
ACK’S
J
AW
W
AS
T
ENSE
as they took the elevator up to the top floor of the library. Bianca’s ire rolled off her, and he was torn between walking away from her until he cooled off and dropping to his knees and begging her to forgive his harsh words. He was an alpha wolf, second-in-command to a large pack, and his whole world had just turned upside down. For the first time in many years, he knew terror. What exactly was the future the Ushers would bring to wolves? What role did Bianca have in it? He tried to remember the myths and only knew that there was a mention of sacrifice. The more he tried to remember, the more panicked his wolf became.

“Bianca,” he growled her name, pushing the stop button on the elevator.

She turned, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Oh, Jack.” She took him in her arms and kissed his cheek. “Darling, it’s going to be okay,” she whispered into his ear. “I swear it, what you and I have is a gift, and werewolf politics can’t touch it.”

His arms clenched around her waist. “Bianca, it’s been decades since I’ve felt this kind of uncertainty and fear. My wolf is uneasy, and I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out. I’m sorry.”

“What are you afraid of, Jack?” She bit at her lip, watching him as if his answer was the most important thing she’d ever hear.

“I’m afraid that loving you is making me vulnerable to losing you—that whatever this machine you’re a part of is, it’s more to you than I can be. I know that sacrifice is part of the mythology. I can’t lose this.” The words were mirrored by the stark fear in his eyes.

Relief slumped her shoulders.

“Jack. This is what mates feel. It’s not just biology.” She looked into his eyes. “Love and trust make mates what they are to each other. Not the claiming. Not the bite.” She shook her head. “Oh, Jack. You’ll see. This is going to be okay.” She hugged him tight. “Will you trust me? As I’m trusting you?”

“I don’t know that I have any choice left, White Wolf.” He released the stop button, and the elevator resumed. His uneasiness unabated, he watched the numbers climb.

When they emerged from the elevator, they appeared to be in a large apartment. A guard stood by the door. She bowed her head and offered obeisance to Bianca, who touched her face in affection.

“Big boy, you made it!”
He heard Kathy’s enthusiastic voice in his mind, and he felt himself relax a little.

“Little sister, what the hell?”
He sent the thought her way with a teasing murmur. Beside him, he felt Bianca relax a little. She clasped his hand with hers. He knew that she could hear Kathy also.

“Oh, Jack. Look at that fine female wolf next to you. Appreciate how amazing she is. Now shut the fuck up, and get in here.”

“Ha! Little one, you are something else.”

“Yes, I am, big boy. Don’t ever forget it.”
He felt the bubbly touch of her mind fade from his.

“Are you ready, Jack?” Bianca asked, taking his hand.

“Let’s do this,” he said with a firm nod.

She led him through a set of double doors into a large sitting room. There were several couches and chairs, and he saw Kathy, Ellen, and a stunning older wolf with dark hair, silver at the temples. That had to be Monica. Perched on Monica’s shoulder was a raven, who could only be Sara.

“Welcome, Jack Murphy, Second of Mid-Atlantic,” Monica said in a musical voice that imbued the ceremonious words with the power of an Alpha. “I am Monica, Alpha of Amazon Pack. You are welcome here and under my protection for parley.”

“Thank you, Alpha of Amazon Pack.” He crossed to her and bared his neck to her. She was every inch an Alpha, and his wolf recognized it. Offering her his obeisance was automatic. She leaned forward and took his throat between her teeth in a symbolic gesture of acceptance.

“Bee.” Monica turned to Bianca, enfolding her in a hug. “Welcome back. You’ve been gone a long time. I have to say, we’re glad to have you among us again.”

“Thanks, Mon.” Bianca smiled at her Alpha before baring her own neck. The two women were clearly close. “And you, Guide, will you not come to me?” She smiled at the bird on Monica’s shoulder, who eagerly hopped across to Bianca’s.

“Jack, I understand you and Bianca have determined you are compatible mates. You feel the blessing of the Goddess?”

Monica wasted no time.

Jack cleared his throat.

“Our wolves accept each other as such, yes,” he said, nodding to Bianca.

“I understand your Alpha has forbidden you to claim her.”

“That’s true.” He winced, knowing this next part would be hard for him to say and harder for Bianca to hear. “He believes albino genetics are inferior.”

Bianca clasped his hand. “It’s okay, Jack. You are not your brother,” she reassured him.

“Jack, Amazon Pack is not officially recognized, as you know. At the next full moon, we’ll be over eighty-five hundred wolves strong.” Monica sat down and gestured to a pair of chairs, indicating that he and Bianca do the same. “We don’t wish to compete for resources with other packs. We’re content here on our compound, and we are self-sufficient.”

“So you’ve said, but you must understand a pack of this size and strength appears as a threat,” Jack returned.

“Indeed.” She nodded. “It would be foolish for you to think otherwise, and clearly, you are not a foolish wolf. Amazon serves the Ushers. How much do you know of the mythology surrounding Bianca?”

“Not much, to be honest. I’m not a particularly religious man.” He ducked his head.

“The Mother, who we call the moon spirit or the Goddess, created wolves and gave us the blessing of the mate bond. She also created three other Were species, but they were incomplete at the time that she was trapped, so she tied them to us as Guides.” Monica nodded to the raven. “The Mother became trapped in between the spirit world and our own corporeal world. The only way she could bring us into the spirit world after death was through the metaphysical energy of the mate bond. That’s why we lose two wolves when one of a mated pair dies. That’s how ghosts came to be among us.

“Jack, I’m offering you a place in Amazon Pack. You’ll be free to claim your mate if you join us. Your rank with us would be the same as Bianca’s. As a mated pair, you could both be my Second, and you would be welcome, if Bianca agrees, of course, to serve at her side as Guardian.”

His jaw dropped. He was being offered a position of Second in a pack far larger than his own, and the freedom to seize the mate his wolf was howling to claim. It was a bold gesture of trust.

“Jack, in serving as my Second, your first job would be to convince your brother Patrick to convene a Wolves Council and petition for our acceptance. You understand that if this isn’t done, we will not have legitimacy as a pack. But legitimacy as a pack is of paramount importance to the Ushers, and Bianca’s task is somehow involved. I promised Sara we wouldn’t move forward until Bianca was mated. Now that you’re here, we need to move.”

“What exactly, is Bianca’s task, and why is a mate important?” he asked. He looked at Bianca, who held Sara on her lap, looking into the bird’s eyes. She frowned, nodded, and then set Sara on the floor. Before his eyes, the bird shifted into the beautiful woman he knew as his mate’s Guide, her skin a rich golden color and her waist-length black hair shining around her shoulders.

“Bianca’s task is to Usher in the first change,” Sara said, reaching for the robe that Kathy handed her.

“The first change?” Jack asked, looking to Bianca.

“I’m to make a sacrifice,” she recited. “And when the sacrifice is made, widowed wolves will no longer need to guide their mates to the spirit world. There will be no more ghost-wolves.”

“How?” he demanded. “This is the way of our people. It is part of the mate bond. Monica just explained how it’s the only way the Mother can guide us to the spirit world.” His mind reeled at the implications. All the packs would grow stronger—not just the one that took in every stray wolf that came to town.

“Hardly fair, brother,”
he heard Kathy chastise him.

“Amazon’s acceptance will not come easily. I’m the sacrifice, Jack. Rather than living as a Guide to one wolf, I will Guide all wolves to rest.” Sara’s quiet voice wrapped around them all.

Shocked, Jack looked to Bianca. Her head was bowed, and tears were flowing freely from her eyes, but she didn’t look surprised. She knew this already. His wolf paced and howled. He hated seeing Bianca in pain. And if she was going to…

“No, you can’t!” he exploded. He dropped to his knees in front of her, caressing her face. “You love her. I can’t let you do this.”

“Jack. Bianca’s task is to gain legitimacy for Amazon.” Sara’s voice was gentle. “The majority of Amazon’s wolves are still considered ghosts by their former packs. This is a rift that needs to end, and that is her task. Hers will not be fulfilled until mine is. I’m not wolf, but my fate has been tied to the fate of wolves for a long time.”

He turned to face her. Suddenly, he felt the weight of her age. She was far older than any of them had imagined. She opened herself to him just the tiniest bit. He couldn’t see into her mind the way Bianca could, but he saw enough. Knowing the presence of the Mother. Her sadness when the Mother was trapped. Many lifetimes of loneliness. Waiting.

Watching over each generation of wolves, waiting for the Albina to arrive.

Waiting for Monica.

Waiting to establish a refuge for ghost-wolves.

As each lonely generation stretched forth, he felt her hope and despair. Her joy when Bianca was born. He felt her gratitude to Monica, her love for Bianca, and even for him. And he saw just the tiniest bit of her future, still a Guide. Waiting and watching over wolves, joined one by one by the guides of the other Ushers as they finished their tasks. He saw her kneeling at the feet of a great white wolf, one who wasn’t Bianca. “
The Mother, as she should be, home in the Spirit world.”
Sara’s voice confirmed his wonder.

He saw her guiding wolves into the spirit world, wolves who in the past would have taken their mates along with them by the strength of their mate-bond, or at the very least, taken the wolf-half. He saw the strength of each pack growing and the unification of all packs into one. His mind kept returning to the image of the Mother, the creator, the moon spirit. He felt Sara’s yearning to be reunited with her.

“I am tied to Bianca. When our mutual destiny is fulfilled, I will go and take my true place. It’s convoluted, and we don’t know how exactly it will play out. We know a part of me will die, but all creatures die, and I have lived a long, long time. This has to happen, Jack.” Sara’s voice was firm, and when he looked into her eyes, he saw only joy.

“I need to speak with my brother,” he said, his wolf pacing angrily in his chest.

“Go.” Monica smiled at him. “My office is through there. You won’t be disturbed.” She gestured to another set of double doors.

Once out of the room, Jack exhaled in a rush. So much had happened in that small amount of time, he didn’t quite know how to accept it. Seeing Sara’s thoughts had made him understand just how important he would be to Bianca. One way or another, she’d have to set her Guide free. With him or without him. He couldn’t let her do that alone. And the only way for him to claim her would be to leave his pack. The pack he’d been born into. The pack where all of his brothers belonged. He pulled his phone from his pocket and started dialing.

“Ted Murphy.”

He heard his younger brother’s voice on the line, and warmth filled him.

“Teddy, it’s me.”

“Jackie, what’s up, man? Paddy is being Alpha Dickhead and won’t tell us what’s going on up there.”

“I met my mate.” He felt all the yearning he had for Bianca rush into his voice. “And Paddy has forbidden me to claim her.”

“Hey, that’s fantastic about the mate thing. Congratulations. Screw Paddy and his power trip. Claim her, and be done.”

“He would take it as a challenge. Teddy, I don’t want to kill him. And I don’t want to lead Mid-Atlantic.”

“But she’s your mate. You’d never be happy screwing around with human women the way Fionn does, one after the other in some shallow imitation of love.”

“I know. I have an alternative, and it’s looking mighty fucking sweet.”

“Okay, tell me.”

Ted had always been a good listener. Once again, Jack wished his younger brother was Alpha instead of the older brother.

“I can leave Mid-Atlantic. I can take Bianca’s—that’s her name—rank here. We’ll be Second together.”

“Second of what, a band of rogues?” Ted scoffed.

Here, Jack’s mind rebelled. More than anything, he wanted to tell his brother, his best friend, the truth.

He heard Kathy’s voice. “
Tell him.”

“Butt out, sis,”
he growled through their connection.

“Tell him,”
he heard her voice say one more time before she bubbled away.

“Ted, she’s not just the Guardian. She’s the Albina. And the pack is eighty-five hundred strong.” He tried to keep the words calm, fearing how his brother’s wolf would hear them.

“Holy hell, dude.” Ted’s voice came across amazed, but not angry. Jack waited for the explosion.

“That’s it?” Jack was a little surprised and perplexed by his brother’s easy-going attitude.

“Yeah, that’s it. What the hell are you waiting for? Paddy’s acceptance? ’Cause you are never—ever—going to have that. Paddy has been jealous of you since the day you first changed and everyone saw you were
the big bad
. And back then, you deferred to him. And everyone followed him because if you,
the big bad,
saw something in him worth bowing down to, everyone else wanted to see that, too.

“But dude, Paddy has nothing on you. You’re stronger, smarter, faster. You’re more alpha than our Alpha. And maybe someone should have said this to you before now, but everyone thought you saw something in him that we missed. I don’t think they were right. You could be our Alpha. You could come here, kill him, claim your woman, and be Alpha. Or you could stay there, claim your woman, and be Second of what could be the most powerful pack in the world, with your brother still in power here. What the fuck are you waiting for?”