Chapter 1
Archer
I swear the goddess has a cruel sense of humor. I, Archer Landis, the half Lycan alpha of the Crimson Peak Pack, have reached the conclusion that the goddess seeks to use my existence as a form of personal entertainment. At twenty-eight years old, I’ve spent ten years looking for my mate and running my pack while fighting off the council’s demands that I consider taking a chosen mate because they insist my pack needs a luna. Let me tell you, it won’t happen. I get it, I’m harsh…abrasive even, but my pack is the strongest pack in the country and I’ve accomplished that without having a luna.
I’m fairly certain my lack of a mate is why they insist I attend the mating balls and gatherings of the other packs, all of them secretly hoping they can push me to find my mate since I refuse to cave to their suggestion of taking a chosen mate. With how my life has played out so far, my mate probably died or lives on the other side of the world because she sure the hell doesn’t live in any pack I’ve been to yet…and I’ve been to over two hundred here in the states and in Canada. Oh well, who needs a mate anyways, right?
“Hey, Archer. I got word from the Ember Claw Pack about the new luna. They’re holding her ceremony in two days, so I figured with how close it is, we can leave this evening and be there by morning.” My beta, Micca, has been the one saddled with the task of handling all ceremony invites, scheduling and organizing which we’ll attend and which we can skip without causing issues for ourselves.
“Jonah finally found his mate, eh? Good for him. His half-sister…is she still around, or has she moved on to finish her schooling?” Alpha Jonah has a very unique half-sister named Emery who is a wolf shifter-witch hybrid with an unmatched talent for healing. She’s always been a beautiful creature, but last time I saw her was at least four years ago. Man, how old is she now?
“She finished her training and has been working at their clinic for almost a year now. Last I heard, she’s still having some issues with the pack though.” It’s not surprising, really. Shifters don’t tend to be so accepting of mixed breed beings, I would know, but Emery was always a kind and spirited creature who earned the right to, at bare minimum, be shown respect from her pack.
“How old is she now? Seventeen? Eighteen?” Micca shakes his head while smiling in amusement.
“She’s twenty. I actually put in a request for her to come to our pack for three months to train with Doctor Jones.” I’ll admit, I’m surprised to hear this news.
“Oh? Is she coming then?” He nods and his playful smile turns into a genuine one.
“She is. She was planning on coming after the luna ceremony, so I thought we could just bring her back with us if she’s okay with it.” It’s a valid suggestion that would simplify things for her and would be no hardship to me.
“Run it by her. If she’s okay with it, I am.” He gives a slight bow of his head as he pulls out his phone and fires off a text.
“I’ll have Mary load your tux into the car and I already packed the essentials for a two-night stay at Ember Claw. Emery just messaged me back and said she’ll be ready to leave as soon as the ceremony is over and told me to thank you for offering for her to ride back with us.” She’s always been so polite and well-mannered, something I can definitely appreciate.
“Alright, let’s inform Nigel and I assume you selected our guards already?” He nods then leans back in his chair with his hands clasped in his lap.
“Nigel knows and is prepared to hold down the fort while we’re gone. I chose Nate and Drew to go with us and they’re already packed and ready to go.” No one can ever say that Micca isn’t efficient. Nigel, being one of the pack’s elders, is usually my go-to-guy for when I have short trips because he was once my father’s beta, so he definitely knows the ropes.
“Alright, then let’s get this show on the road. The sooner we leave, the sooner we come home.” And with that, we head out to the car where everything is packed and everyone is already waiting. While Drew and Nate take Drew’s truck, they follow Micca and I in my black Chevy Tahoe as we make the six hour drive to Ember Claw.
By the time we made it to the packhouse last night, it was already almost two in the morning, so we let Jonah show us to our rooms and crashed hard. As usual, I was the first awake this morning and after grabbing a bottle of water, I decided to go for a run in the woods to clear my head. I’ve run nearly three miles so far, but the scent of rosemary and vanilla stops me in my tracks. It’s an intoxicating scent that wraps around all my senses, pulling me along a path to the east where I find a clearing that’s bathed in the glow of the morning sun. As I step closer to the edge of the trees, I spot a woman kneeling in the center of the field, her red hair floating in the breeze.
I know immediately who she is, but when my wolf begins losing his shit in my head, I easily figure out what she is too. Ten years of searching and I find my mate as a result of being dragged to a ceremony I would’ve preferred to not even attend. I would never have imagined that my mate would be the hybrid healer, the half-sister of Alpha Jonah…Emery. I can’t stop myself from moving closer and once I’m only fifteen feet away from her, I hear her soft, melodic voice float into the air.
“Alpha Archer, I believe you’re lost.” She rises to her feet in a single fluid, graceful movement then turns to face me. Her eyes are glowing orbs of amethyst that draw me in and have my wolf howling with excitement.
“Actually, I believe I’m found. After all these years, I can’t believe I’ve found you.” Her eyes widen slightly then narrow at me, her head tilting slightly in confusion.
“You have been looking for…me?” She seems to be genuinely confused, but the way her body is reacting, I can tell she feels the pull…so why does she seem surprised that I’d be so happy to have found her?
“For ten long years, Emery. I had almost given up all hope of ever finding you.” She has to understand what this is, what she’s feeling…what I’m feeling.
“You…you’re not disappointed?” What?! What the hell?! How the hell could she think I’d be disappointed?!
“No, Emery, I’m not the least bit disappointed. Are you?” Her eyes soften and a soft smile pulls up the corners of her full pink lips.
“Not in the slightest. I just thought…never mind.” She shakes her head as if trying to dispel whatever thought was plaguing her, but now I need to know what she was going to say…why she would think I would ever be disappointed in finding out that she’s my mate and I need to reassure her that whatever caused her to think such a thing is wrong.
“No, Emery, what did you think? Tell me why you thought I would be disappointed in finding out that you’re my mate.” She takes a deep breath and I can tell that she’s struggling with whether or not she’ll tell me.
“I thought someone like you would want a more…suitable mate.” The way she says suitable, as if she’s some tainted creature that’s unworthy of being my mate, it instantly has my wolf on edge, begging to be set free so he can claim her here and now, show her how much we aren’t disappointed in the goddess’s choice to pair us with a creature as amazing as her.
“There is no creature better suited for me than you, Emery. You were chosen specifically by the goddess herself to be mine just as I was chosen specifically to be yours.” I move closer, quickly closing the distance between us in only a few strides. I smile down at her, suddenly taking notice of how small she seems beside me, but that detail only makes her seem that much more perfect to my wolf, Arrow, and I.
“Will your pack be okay with having someone like me as their…as your mate?” I know what she was going to say, she was going to say as their luna. Does she really think my pack would be against having my true mate as their luna?
“They’ll be thrilled to have you as their luna, just as I’m thrilled to have you as my mate. Will you accept me as your mate, Emery?” The last comes out as more of a plea than a question, but I don’t even care. After ten years of searching and waiting, I’ll drop to my knees in the middle of this field and beg her to accept me if that’s what it takes.
“Yes.” Her voice is barely more than a whisper, but that gentle breeze carries her voice to me, wraps it around me and settles it into my bones.
“Then it seems we may need to pack the rest of your things because now that I’ve found you, I’m never letting you go.” The smile that lights up her face is beautiful, absolutely breathtaking.
