My voice quavered. I could defeat Underworld beasties, but asking my brother to submit to me made me queasy. “How… do I do it?” I knew there was a ritual and once it was done it was binding—until the wolf swore a new one.
“It’s similar to a Blood Oath. Tyler will help you.”
“They have to take my blood?” Interference started in earnest on the line. I talked loudly over the buzzing. “Dad, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Listen, my blood is unpredictable. Remember the Blood Oath for us didn’t work and I think there might be a problem—”
“Jessica, I’ve made my decision,” he shouted thought the static. “This is the only way. It’s the only chance you have to succeed. Once it’s over I will know. My connection to Danny and Tyler will be severed. We will not speak until then.”
“But I still don’t think—”
The line went dead.
I had no idea if he’d hung up on me or if the phone had stopped working.
“Dad?”
There was nothing but dead air.
14
I threw the phone down in frustration right as Danny and Tyler trotted back into the area carrying more supplies. My father had known that if he’d stayed on the line he risked my complete cooperation. I’d somehow talk him out of it. So he’d left me no room for further discussion, which had been his sole intent. If I tried to call him back he wouldn’t answer.
Shit. My wolf growled and showed us as the Alpha. That’s not helping! We aren’t the Alpha. I don’t even feel like an Alpha. She flashed me the box and showed us glowing with power. I know. I get it. I felt it. She barked and showed me the picture again. I squinted in my mind’s eye, but what she showed me wasn’t the Alpha; it was something else. I could feel what she was projecting, but there were no words behind it. Before I had a chance to examine it better, Tyler rushed up to me.
He grasped me by the shoulders. “Glad to see you’re awake. That was crazy and awesome at the same time. But don’t scare me like that again. Seeing you in those situations is like watching someone murder a puppy. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”
I stared at him intently, unable to talk just yet. He wasn’t going to be happy and I didn’t want to ruin our relationship. I loved my brother.
“What?” He glanced at me, reading my face, and then noticed the phone lying in the dirt. “Did you talk to Dad?” He dropped his hands. When I didn’t answer, he asked in my mind. What is it? Are you hurt? Are there complications with the venom? Is it still in your body? They were all over you. I wasn’t sure you were going to make it even though you said you had it handled.
I’m fine. There’s no venom, but we have a situation. I couldn’t beat around the bush with this one. It was too big. I cleared my throat and addressed both Danny and Tyler out loud. “It seems, in order to move forward with the blessing of our father, in light of the added Underworld component, Dad has issued a new order for us.”
“What is it then?” Danny asked. “I’m all for scouting ahead without you. If we encounter any other beasts, as we surely will, we can have at them first. Even if we don’t make it, we will have cleared the road a little better for you.”
“No.” I shook my head. “That’s not it.”
“Spill it,” Tyler said, narrowing his gaze. He knew he wasn’t going to like it. “The anticipation isn’t necessary.”
“Um, apparently”—I cleared my throat again; it felt like I had a grapefruit lodged in there—“he wants you… to be able to shift and have your full powers back. He thinks it’s necessary if we’re going to try and win a combined battle with the Underworld and Selene.”
“That makes sense,” Tyler agreed. “But how do we do that? The oath we swore as Selectives is binding. We can’t shift.”
I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. “We’re… going to break it,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
Tyler peered at me hard, his face going from animated to drawn. “How exactly did he tell you we were going to achieve that? He’s not here to break our oath.” Tyler knew Pack Law to the letter. Only an Alpha could physically release you from your vow. There was likely blood exchanged.
“He wants you to swear a vow to me instead,” I said quickly, “and by doing so, the old vows you swore become void.”
“Swear a vow to you?” Danny asked with a puzzled expression. “What vow can supplant one given directly from the Alpha? Unless… unless you’re talking about an Alpha Troth?” He read my grimace clearly. “Gods, you are! Your dad wants us to swear a pledge of fealty to you, bonded by blood, and if we do that, you become our Alpha.” He smiled like a shrew. “I’m in then.”
“Danny,” I said, exhaling on a long sigh, “you could at least let this big news marinate for a half a second before you throw all in. This is a big deal! I have no idea what will happen. You saw what my blood is capable of doing.”
“There’s no need to marinate,” he said with a surety I didn’t share. “The way I see it, above all else I want to save my arse and protect yours in the process. This is the only logical way to achieve both goals. When we get home, your dear old Dad takes our Troth again and we just had a bloody grand adventure, didn’t we? No harm, no foul.”
“The vow will work only if your wolf is superior in status to ours,” Tyler ground out, clearly warring with an order he knew came from his Alpha and how badly this news sucked. Submitting to a female was a low he’d never experienced until now. And he was trying to handle it like a champ. “Your wolf is above Danny’s, but not mine. Wolves sense power. Status swirls around us all the time. Just like what we talked about before we left—even if you were more superior in status, you still don’t smell like an Alpha. This won’t work.”
That was exactly Dad’s point, I said to him privately. He doesn’t think it’s about status. He thinks it will work because of the Prophecy, my Lycan-ness, and our sibling connection. This vow is not about “my balls are bigger than yours.” It’s purely a survival tactic to make us stronger as a unit. He said you’d feel it and know what he was talking about. He said we have a unique connection. Can you please try to feel it? Or do something so we can move this forward? We lost another day because of me.
We didn’t lose a day. The vamps had to sleep and I don’t know how to feel what you’re talking about. You feel like my inferior-status sister. Your power doesn’t threaten me. If it did, I’d feel an urge to fight you or submit. I’d feel some kind of pull, but instead I feel nothing from you.
Maybe that’s what he’s talking about! The fact you don’t feel anything. Isn’t it strange you don’t get any signals from me? Maybe our sibling bond makes the status thing between us immaterial. Which would be such a blessed-ass relief.
He studied me for a moment, clearly upset. I don’t know. It’s a possibility. I never thought of it like that before. It is kind of strange I don’t feel like fighting you.
Can you at least try to smell me again? You’ve always said I smell funny. Maybe that funny has something to do with this entire thing.
He inhaled, pulling it across his tongue and tasting. He shook his head. You smell strange, as always, but I don’t know what it is or what it means. I’ve never smelled a female like you before. Your scent has a thin layer of ozone or something attached to it.
Ozone? Not what I was expecting. I tried a new tactic. You don’t have to stay, you know. Dad can’t force you to do this if you want to leave. I know Selectives can be excused of their duties at any time. I knew this was going to be a hard journey and I never wanted to put you or Danny in any jeopardy. It makes me sick thinking you could die here because of me.
He sputtered out loud and looked horrified. “I’m not leaving you!”
“Then we don’t have another choice,” I challenged. “Dad said if we all continue on—it’s this or nothing. He won’t support it any other way, and I agree with you needing your full power if you’re going to have a chance to survive.”
Danny clapped Tyler on the back. “It’s okay, mate. It’ll be like this for only a quick bit, and when we get back things will go back to normal in no time. No one can fault you for trying to protect your sister. She’s your blood-kin after all. If the Alpha orders you to swear to her, you do it.”
Tyler stared at me, his irises churning. “Fine. I’ll do it, but I’m sticking by my original theory. I don’t think it will work. Blood binding is not something tangible—it’s full of magic. When you choose your Alpha and make that pledge, the blood you swear to has to be stronger. The magic will know. It won’t bind unless it’s true.”
“Frankly, if we try and it doesn’t work, I’ll be relieved,” I said. “At least then we can move forward in good faith.” If my father ordered it done and it didn’t take, there was no risk of breaking the rules. “Okay, how do we do this?”
Tyler dropped the pack on his back and reached for his belt. “It’s a relatively easy oath—like I said, the blood does all the work. The words are spoken and they mix with the blood and it either takes or it doesn’t. That’s why you don’t see alpha wolves rounding up followers. You have to be Alpha. There are very few who qualify in a Pack.” Naomi and Ray moved forward but kept quiet. I wondered briefly what was going through their minds. For the first time I realized Naomi had come without Eamon. Maybe he had finally abandoned us after all his threatening.
Danny and Tyler formed a loose circle around me.
Tyler brought a knife up from its sheath on his waist. “Just repeat the words I say—”
“No. Stop!” I grabbed on to his wrist as a bolt of fear shot through me. My wolf howled. Something was about to change. I didn’t know what, but it felt major. “Tyler,” I said a little desperately. “You have to promise me you’re doing this of your own free will. If it doesn’t take, fine, but none of us knows for sure what my blood will do to either of you. We all have to swear to live with the consequences. I don’t want it to tear us apart.”
