Adversity (12 page)

“
Why? Where’s Nathan? What’s
going on?”

He glared at me, unrecognisable
emotions filling his eyes. “He decided he wants no part of this
pack anymore.”

I stared back, trying to translate.
“Wait. He’s… he’s gone to her. Is that it? He got around the
order?”

When he didn’t disagree, I laughed.
“That’s great! He’ll be okay now.”

He lurched to his feet, but I
gazed at him sullenly, determined not to cower before him ever
again. “Disobeying an alpha is not
great
,” he said. “Betraying family is not
great
.”

“
And yet that’s exactly what
you did.” I couldn’t stop the words. They popped out before I could
even think.

“
I did what was needed for
our family to survive,” he shouted. I felt his power roll over me,
but somewhere inside me, there was something clamoring to get out.
I shuddered with the sensation, feeling a familiar twitching at my
fingertips. Not possible. I was not like Kali. But the words were
coming again, vomiting out of me without control.

“
No!” I cried. “Not for us
to survive. You’re taking out your grief on everyone, and that
isn’t right! Just because you lost your heart doesn’t mean you have
a right to take Nathan’s from him. You can’t act like this and
expect everyone to sit down and obey.”

“
You
have no right, Amelia. No right to
speak to me this way.”

“
And you have no right to
put Nathan’s mate in danger. She was attacked again! For what?
Because you have some warped idea of what should happen next?
You’re being ridiculous, and people are getting hurt. This has to
stop!”

He flinched at the word “stop,” and a
crack of pain sliced through my temples. I left the room, eyes
streaming, and hid in the bathroom, struggling to breathe. He
knocked on the bathroom door gently, but I ignored it. I could
barely open my eyes from the pain and fear running through my
entire body.

I was terrified. Terrified of him and
of what was happening to me and to everyone I loved. I couldn’t see
a way out or a way to fix any of the hopeless situations. He was
doing everything in his power to make it worse for all of us. I
couldn’t tell if he had lost his mind or if he had turned into an
exaggerated version of Byron, but whatever it was, I couldn’t cope
with it. I wanted my Opa back. He was the one who loved me and who
loved his family, not this cold man who brought out the worst in
me. I had wanted to strike him and to hit back at the stupidity of
his orders, but I was just a girl in his eyes. Nothing I did
mattered to him.

I didn’t leave the bathroom until I
heard Nathan and Byron return, but that was only because I wanted
to know what was going on. I swallowed a couple of painkillers as I
entered the room where all of my family members had gathered. I
listened to the conversation.

“
Perdita reckons the other
wolf protected her. The male,” Nathan said, almost
hesitantly.

Other wolf?
Other
wolf? No freaking way.

“
It wasn’t only her,” he
continued defensively. “Her cousin Joey was there, too. He said one
wolf was about to attack, but another got in the way and chased her
off.”

I stopped listening. That didn’t make
sense, but Perdita wouldn’t lie. She had no reason to, so a wolf
had protected her, though it certainly wasn’t one from our family.
Opa had made it perfectly clear that we weren’t to help
her.

All of a sudden, Nathan’s finger was
pointing at me. “What about your own granddaughter? Look at her!
She hasn’t slept properly in weeks because of those dreams. I had
dreams before I turned. What if hers mean something? Why hasn’t
anyone done something about that yet?”

“
Dreams aren’t our priority
right now, boy,” Opa said. “I’ll think about worrying when it gets
closer to her birthday.”

I wanted to leave the room. I didn’t
need to hear anymore. He didn’t give a crap about me. Why should I
care what he said or thought? But suddenly Byron and Nathan seemed
to stand together. They pushed Opa against his will, persuading him
to reveal whatever was going on in his head.

He panicked, on the edge of giving in.
I saw it in the droop of his shoulders and heard it in the
passiveness of his protest. “There’s nothing wrong with
secrets.”

“
There is when people start
dying.” All eyes turned to me. That’s right. I didn’t have to be
the scared little girl in the corner. I deserved to play a part in
family business, too. To my surprise, Opa nodded. Had I gotten
through to him after all?

With a reluctant sigh, he revealed that
he knew the wolf in charge, the one who was sending his pack after
us. All along, he had known exactly what was after us. He expected
us to trust him when he still hadn’t shown all of his
cards.

“
When I was young I was
eager to run wild and find my mate,” Opa explained, “but the years
went by, and I still hadn’t found her. I would have the dreams. A
face would appear for a while, then poof, the dreams would end.
Later, they’d start back up, but this time it would be a different
face. A different girl.”

“
How is that possible?”
Jeremy voiced my own concern.

“
I couldn’t figure it out at
first,” Opa said. “Couldn’t understand what was going on. So I did
a lot of research and asked a lot of questions. I eventually found
out quite a bit. It took a lot of effort, but to make a long story
short, a certain group of wolves were headed by a particular alpha
who wanted to fix their pack. They had been unable to breed
properly for years. The werewolves were dying out, becoming weaker
with each new generation created. All except our family. We kept
getting stronger, and they wanted to break the line to make sure we
weren’t stronger than them.”

I glanced at Nathan who looked as
surprised as I felt. This was big news, yet we were only hearing it
now.

“
The wolves had a special…
tracker. She could find the mates, intuitively. I don’t know if
it’s anything like what we do. The werewolves planned to use their
tracker to find my potential mate and kill her before I found her.
Just like that. No guilt. I found the tracker, and…
persuaded
her to talk to me.
She told me where to find Lia and said Lia was my true mate, even
though the dreams of her had already stopped. So I found her, and I
made her mine.”

He swallowed hard, and I exchanged a
horrified glance with Nathan, unable to even begin processing what
he was telling us. I still didn’t trust him. From the way he spoke
and the agitation in his hands, I was sure he wasn’t giving us the
full story.

He cleared his throat, and I wondered
if he might be making up a story in his head.

“
Eventually, the alpha lost his
role. He was overtaken by another wolf named Vin. Vin wanted to
breed his own wolves, and he was convinced that the curse was
actively selecting women who were capable of breeding with
werewolves. He thought we were essentially stealing potential breed
mates for his wolves. But he lost his tracker, so he had no way of
taking the potentials away from us anymore.”

“
That’s sick.” I wanted to
vomit. How had he persuaded the tracker? How had this Vin wolf lost
his tracker? Because of Opa? Did he kill her? The whole thing was
sleazy and gross and overwhelmingly new.

“
Their werewolves will die
out. I can understand why he would take desperate
measures.”

It was official. My grandfather was a
complete stranger to me.

“
Well, I can’t.” Nathan
looked as repulsed as I felt. “And we could have used this info
ages ago. This is madness. If our mates die we’re assigned a new
one? What a load of crap!”

“
No, no.” Opa shook his head
fervently. “Only if you haven’t connected yet. Haven’t bonded. The
curse has to continue, one way or another. At least until it’s
broken.”

Ding-ding
. Amelia, get a move on. The
curse wasn’t the wonderful thing I had once imagined it to be
because it led to misery, broken families and death. It had to
go.

“
I still don’t get why they’re
doing this.” Jeremy’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Why not let
us have our mates and keep prolonging the curse if they’re worried
about extinction?”

“
If they take the mates,
they increase their chances of breeding themselves,” Opa said.
“Maybe it worked once. Maybe they’re simply desperate. That’s all.
We’re strong. They’re struggling to survive. It’s sad,
really.”

“
But they didn’t try to take
Perdita,” Nathan said, looking absolutely sickened.

Opa nodded. “True. I don’t know why.
Maybe you met her before they figured it out. Maybe they wanted you
to meet her so they could kill her and ruin your chances of
reproducing. Perhaps their coming here to attack the girls was a
cover-up for something else. Maybe it was some kind of cruel sadism
that sent them here. I’ve no way of knowing.”

It was so confusing, all of the
possibilities. Why did they hate us so much? Why not ally with us
instead of trying to destroy us. What kind of monsters were
they?

Byron spoke, and his words were tight
with anger, but it filled me with pride rather than fear and made
me feel secure in the fact that, ultimately, he would take care of
us. I hoped I was right.

“
So this is what, revenge?
Domination? A reminder that they can cut us down at any time if
they wish?”

Opa didn’t know, but Nathan had more
questions. The same ones I had. Why now? What had
changed?

“
I assume it’s something to
do with Amelia.”

I didn’t hear any more. Of course, it
was my fault. Everything came down to me. I wanted to leave, to
cry, to shout and scream, but Nathan’s anger drew me back in. “So
you let Perdita be exposed to danger? And Amelia?” He sounded so
incredulous, but I wasn’t surprised. I expected to be used. I
couldn’t listen to anymore drama. I was on my own, and I had to
start standing on my own feet. Nobody was going to swoop in and
rescue me. I had to save myself from whatever was
coming.

***

Kali

“
I’ve found you a husband,”
he said, as if merely announcing a change in the weather. Kali
stared at her father, waiting for more, hoping for some detail that
wouldn’t make her want to pull out her hair and scream in sorrow.
“He’s not too old, but he’s unsure of having a witch for a wife, so
you’ll need to—”

“
I am not a
witch.”

“—
be a little more
persuasive. Give him some attention and—”

“
I don’t want a
husband.”

“—
he’ll come around. He
prefers meek girls, so he probably won’t enjoy—”

“
I don’t care what he
likes.”

“—
being reminded of your
power. And if you don’t marry him, then we’ll move elsewhere.
You’ve no choice in this, girl. Forget that not.”

“
I’m not ready.”

“
You are. In a week, you’ll
no longer be a novice. It’s time. I’ve been carrying you for too
long now. You’re wasting precious time for little.”

“
Carrying me? You
soulless…”

His eyes found hers, and the threat
within them was obvious. She tried a different tack.

“
I’m not strong enough for
the power, papa.”

A mistake. His obvious disgust chilled
her to the bone. He didn’t see her as his daughter but as a
daughter of darkness and demons, bought to appease his greed and
paid for with his wife’s soul, no doubt.

“
You sicken me,” she said
quietly, so none other would hear. “You corrupted the magic, and
bred from my mother until her body gave out. You forced her to have
seven and made deals with the sort of devils that will come and
ravish you upon your death. You use me so you can sell me on to the
highest bidder. I hope your future is worth it. I hope the day your
soul is torn from your body, and eaten up by darkness, that you
will scream how worth it your life has been. Devil man to judge me.
When you…
you
are blackness itself. A shriveled heart and hands that make
the earth itself weep. May you know the folly of your sins. May
you—”

“
Do not attempt to sully
your mouth with curse-making in my presence. A novice threatening
the chovihano? I should end your life now.”

“
Do it. Do it now because it
would be worth your banishment. I would gladly be free of
you.”

A sneer lifted his lips. “And that is
exactly why you live. Because you wish for death.”

He stood, barely taller than her, but
more intimidating than the tallest man because of that hollow place
where his conscience should have been. “The ceremony is next week.
You will be chovihani in your own right. Your wedding will come
shortly afterward. Prepare yourself, for if you lose this husband,
there are worse ones who can be persuaded to take you from my
hands.”

The shadows closed in, and it took all
of her might to ignore them as she glared at her father’s back. The
worst of men, surely. If anyone deserved the words, he did. The
power he had over her was worse. If he said a ceremony and a
wedding were coming, she could do nothing to prevent
either.