Shoot for the Moon (Black River Pack Book 2) (8 page)

“Maybe you’re not afraid in here or here,” Spencer said as he pointed at my head first and then my heart. “But what about your wolf? The bond will strengthen between them during the claiming. Maybe the wolf part of you still holds some fear?”

The idea hadn’t crossed my mind before now, but it did have some merit. “I don’t know, but it could be that. She’s a part of me, so she sees the dreams the same as I do. Maybe she doesn’t understand and still worries.”

“Then how about we let our wolves get a little bonding in tonight to help ease her fears just in case that’s why the dream is still coming,” he offered.

“How would we do that?” I asked.

Spencer jumped out of bed and pulled me with him. “We run.”

Neither of us had dressed again before falling asleep, so we were naked as he led me to the front door. Then he flung it open and stepped onto my porch. It was still dark outside since there were a couple of hours before it was dawn. Drawing a deep breath through his nose, he scanned the area around my home before turning back to me.

“I don’t sense anyone in the area. C’mon. Let your wolf come out to play with mine before the sun comes up.”

“Yes,” I agreed happily.

Wanting to watch him, I waited for him to transform into his wolf first. One minute, he was the gorgeous man I loved, and the next, an impressive, black wolf was standing in front of me, looking at me with the same dark eyes Spencer gazed at me with every day. He came to me and rubbed along my legs, his soft fur tickling me lightly.

“My mate,” I whispered, running my hand through his dark fur.

He let me pet him for a moment and then turned to bark at me impatiently, letting me know that it was time for me to change into my wolf so we could run. I reached out for her, and in a flash, I was on all fours and closer to Spencer’s eye level. He yipped in approval and bumped my side playfully before leaping off my porch and running towards the forest that edged along my yard.

Chapter 7

Eliza

Heading into work the next day was strange when I knew I carried the mark of our pack enforcer, who was also beta to the alpha. I’d always done everything I could to stay under the radar, but that would no longer be possible—not with Spencer’s position in the pack. As his mate, I would have responsibilities that wouldn’t allow me to keep myself separate from the others.

I knew there had been talk about us before today. Wolves were nosy about each other, and when Spencer had taken me to his bed, I’d experienced more than my fair share of their curiosity. The guys had respected my need for distance, and my fellow she-wolves had backed off when they’d realized we hadn’t mated, that I was only the latest to grace his bed—even if it had been a while since he’d taken a lover.

Then word had spread about my dreams and how I’d helped save Grace. That’s when the stares and whispers had begun. It had seemed like everyone was confused about how to treat me. By the time the rumors reached me, I was surprised to learn that Spencer had been right. I found the members of our pack accepting of my gift. It wasn’t my ability to walk in dreams that had them confused—it was that I hadn’t been ready to accept Spencer’s mark.

It was almost unheard of in our culture for one mate to deny another. The pull was too strong to resist, even in cases when wolves were mated to someone their human side didn’t like very much. But there were rare occurrences when a wolf would refuse to mate or where a wolf was mistaken about someone being fated for them. In those instances, the ending was usually disastrous.

My refusal of Spencer’s mark after he’d mated me had made them wonder what would happen to their beta. It had also made them worry about the consequences if I walked away. But our pack members hadn’t pushed the issue with either of us because I’d continued to keep most of them at a distance and Spencer had glared and growled whenever anyone had tried to ask him about me.

Since I had grown accustomed to the stares and whispers over the last six months, I was stunned when all conversation stopped as I walked into the diner for my shift. Slowing my steps, I glanced around the room and realized everyone was staring at me. Parker was seated at the long counter, and he jumped up from his chair to greet me.

“Hot damn!” he crowed. “Never been happier to get stuck helping Hunter with work than I am today.”

He wrapped his arms around me as he lifted me off the ground and spun around. When he set me back on my feet, I looked up at his huge grin in shock.

“What?” I asked.

“Like I don’t have enough going on at the bar, but how could I say no when he wanted alone time to celebrate with Grace?” he prattled on. “But ha! The joke’s on him because this is the first time ever I found something out before my big brother. And a long fucking time coming, too.”

“Long time coming?” I repeated.

“It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to tell you this, Eliza,” he said, his grin slipping from his face as he looked at me seriously. “Welcome to the family.”

Tears welled in my eyes at his acceptance of me. “Thanks, baby brother.”

“Baby brother?” he protested. “I may be younger than you, but don’t ever forget that I’m bigger and stronger and faster.”

I couldn’t help but smile at his boastful tone and then blushed when I heard clapping and cheering all around us. Stepping away from Parker, I turned to find just about everyone on their feet with smiles on their faces and happiness shining from their eyes. Laughter bubbled up as I felt more welcome than I ever had in my entire life when members of the pack came forward to hug me and offer their congratulations. I was filled with the joy of the moment right up until a menacing growl filled the air.

When the crowd divided, I saw the only she-wolf who was still seated. She was looking at me with contempt in her eyes.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she hissed.

“Layla,” Parker said as he tried to shove me behind him. “Whatever the fuck it is that you’re thinking, trust me when I say you don’t want to do this. It’s over and done with. Eliza is Spencer’s mate.”

“Mate,” she spit out before jumping out of her chair. “I’ve kept my mouth shut for far too long, waiting for her to walk away and for Spencer to realize she isn’t his goddamn mate. He’s letting his dick do the thinking for him, and it’s about time someone put a stop to this fiasco.”

“Shit,” Parker muttered, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. “This mating shit can never be easy, can it?”

I squeezed around Parker to face the angry she-wolf, his hands wrapped around my arms to hold me back. “Fiasco? You dare to call my mating with Spencer a fiasco?”

Fated mates were a sacred thing amongst the wolves. To call our mating into question after the mating and the marking was an insult I couldn’t allow. The road Spencer and I had taken to get here had been hard enough without some bitch trying to cast a shadow on our mating. I totally understood that my hesitation had raised questions amongst our fellow pack members, but I had no idea that it had caused anyone to wonder if Spencer was wrong to have claimed me as his mate, let alone some she-wolf who had no business sticking her nose into our life.

“Hell yes, I called it a fiasco,” she snarled. “If you were his so-called fated mate, then it wouldn’t have taken Spencer a year to realize it. He’s not an idiot.”

Tearing free from Parker’s hold, I strode towards the other wolf. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you don’t have any right to question the pace of my relationship with Spencer. All you need to know about us is that he mated me and I bear his mark. Beyond that, we are none of your business.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she hissed. “I couldn’t give a fuck what you do with your life, but Spencer is my business.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me my mate is your business?” I demanded just as Parker lifted me off the ground to place me behind him again.

“I’m the she-wolf he should have chosen!” she yelled. “Spencer should have become my mate years ago, dammit!”

My blood froze in my veins as I heard a roaring sound in my ears. A red haze filled my vision as my wolf fought to break free so she could rip this woman’s throat out. Then I struggled against Parker’s hold, desperate to break free. But when I’d almost managed it, I felt
him
—my mate—and I calmed a little. Just enough that the haze receded before I locked eyes with Spencer.

“What the fuck did I hear you just say, Layla?” he demanded.

She whirled around to face him, and I was sickened by the way she smiled at him as her gaze roamed over his body.

“I’m sorry if it hurts you to hear the truth, Spencer,” she simpered. “But you have to know she isn’t the right woman for you.”

Spencer’s face tightened with anger as his eyes filled with disgust—and that’s when it hit me. All of these years, my dreams about him were never about his denouncing me as his mate, but about his confronting this woman about her claim. It suddenly all made sense, and I felt a little foolish even as a wave of relief filled me at this new knowledge. The tiniest shred of doubt that had stayed with me was now gone, and I could go through with the claiming without any fears remaining in my heart or my mind.

In the instant those thoughts crossed my mind, Spencer had moved into the room to stand in front of me. Everyone else had backed away and watched the confrontation with disapproval. Whoever this Layla was, she was going to be in for one hell of a surprise with the way today was going to go down.

“Spencer, please,” she begged. “Don’t go through with the claiming. Don’t lock yourself into a life with this…this imposter.”

“Shut the fuck up!” he roared. “Don’t you ever say anything about Eliza ever again. Not one single fucking word.”

“Fine,” she hissed. “I’ll leave your precious Eliza alone if you’ll admit to me and her and everyone here that she’s not your fated mate.”

“And why the fuck would I do that?”

“Because somewhere deep down inside, you know she isn’t,” Layla argued. “That’s why you didn’t mate her when she joined the pack. Why you used her as one of your fuck buddies for an entire year. And why she didn’t agree to the marking for six months after you mated her. Because you’re forcing this mating.”

I finally managed to pull free from Parker and stood next to Spencer. After grabbing his hand, I squeezed it to let him know I was okay.

“It might have taken this long for Spencer and me to become mates, but neither of us has any doubts about each other. I’ve dreamed of him for years, and I am the mate from his grandmother’s vision.”

“Dreams? Visions?” Layla scoffed. “What do I care about these things when I’ve known since we were children that Spencer was my mate? You might not have had faith in him, but I never have.”

“You think you’re my mate?” Spencer asked in shock.

“Yes,” she answered, reaching out to touch him.

I swiped at her hand with the claws that had appeared the moment she had come within touching distance of him. “No touching my mate,” I growled, more wolf than woman in that moment even though I hadn’t transformed yet.

“Then you’re fucking delusional, because there’s no way in hell you’re my mate,” Spencer said scathingly.

“Spencer,” she pleaded. “You had to have felt it when we were together.”

My teeth lengthened at the news that Spencer had slept with her, and the red haze clouded my vision again.

Spencer must have felt me tense as I was getting ready to spring at her, because he stepped in front of me. “I made lots of mistakes in my past. Just because I was stupid enough to think with my dick doesn’t make you my mate.”

“And it doesn’t make her your mate, either!” she yelled. “I say you could have been my fated mate if you just would have tried. If you had given me the same chance you gave her. You kept her in your bed for a whole year, but you never tried to mate her in all that time. Because you weren’t supposed to ever do it.”

“Even if I hadn’t mated Eliza, what we had for the year before I mated her is a thousand times more than I ever had with any other woman in my entire life,” Spencer told Layla quietly before raising his voice. “I was a stupid motherfucker and denied to Eliza and myself that she was my mate for a long damn time. That’s on me, and if anyone has a problem with it, they can come to me and leave her out of it.”

He swiveled his head to stare down everyone in the room until he returned his attention back to Layla. “I didn’t share this with anyone else because it was nobody else’s fucking business, but I guess you’re going to force my hand.”

I squeezed his hand again, and Spencer turned to look at me.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “You don’t have to do this. We don’t have anything to prove here.”

“I know we don’t, my dream girl. But the connection we have? It should be shouted from the mountaintops. That’s how lucky I am,” he reassured me with a gentle smile and a light kiss on the lips. His face turned harsh when he looked at Layla again. His eyes were iced over, and his utter disdain shone through loud and clear. “Years ago, after the death of our parents, my grandmother shared a vision with my brothers and me. One that told us each something very specific about our mates. As time passed and there was no sign of the woman from my grandmother’s vision, I played the field hard and clearly used poor judgment if today is any indication.”

Layla gasped in outrage and her face turned red. “Poor judgment?!”

“Shut the fuck up and let me finish my story, because then and only then will you realize how incredibly stupid it is for you to think for even one second that you could be my mate,” he ordered. “When my grandmother died, she urged me to have some patience because I wouldn’t have to wait much longer for my fated mate. I stopped sleeping around so much and closed myself off from women as much as possible while I waited to meet the one my grandmother had described.”

“Don’t you see? It can’t be her then,” Layla hissed.

“Except that she is. Eliza walks in dreams just as the vision said she would. Just as no other woman I’ve ever met has been able to do,” Spencer explained. “And if I hadn’t been so goddamn stubborn, then I would have known that way before I did. I wouldn’t have wasted time with my mate because I would have made sure she felt comfortable enough to share her gift with me. If I could go back in time, I would have listened to how my wolf had acted whenever she was near. I would have taken off the blinders I’d apparently put on in my search for my fated mate and questioned why her scent called to me so strongly. Why I felt the need to make sure she was okay when I didn’t even know her. And why, when I threw out my rule about no more flings to sleep with her, it felt like coming home. All I can hope now is that my mate forgives me for being so damn blind for so long.”