David almost didn’t blame them. If he’d had a sister and she’d left without a word, he might have been upset too, wanting to understand why she felt she couldn’t come to him and talk before she just took off. But that was their fault, not Sheri’s. Kintail had created such a toxic pack dynamic that Sheri really had no other choice.
But it was the boyfriend David was trying to get a read on most of all. Did he really believe Sheri was meant to be his mate? Speaking from experience, David understood how powerful that feeling could be. It made some men do things they wouldn’t normally do. Desperate things. Kintail himself had been known to commit horrific acts of desperation—David knew that from experience too—just to hold on to power, so it wouldn’t surprise David one bit if members of his pack followed his lead.
The Yellowknife pack stood their ground, as if they were ready to strip off their clothes and fight to the death.
Finally Sheri said, “If I had wanted to mate you, Bentley, I would have stayed. I know all of you, know how you are, and none of you would have let me go, not easily anyway. And until now, I was still wondering if this place, these pack members, would truly be my new home. I love Yellowknife. It was…you were…my pack.” They could all see her fight back tears, but David smelled something new now. It wasn’t nerves or fear or regret. It was resolve. “But now I know what it means to be part of a pack that values me as more than a breeder. A pack who sees me for me, and not for what pups I can have. I’m sorry for the way I left, I am. But I’m staying here, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
***
Elizabeth knew why it took Sheri so long to speak up. It wasn’t because she wanted to leave; it was because she didn’t want to put the pack members here in danger, should Kintail take this further.
“You have her answer,” Elizabeth said, her voice strong. “She wants to stay here. And, Bentley, she broke up with you before she left. You need to let it go.”
“That’s the problem,” Bentley said, looking growly. “She has always been too spontaneous. Only this time when she changes her mind and wants to come home, like I know she will, she might not have a home to come back to.”
“She has a home with us,” Cameron said. He’d been letting it play out, but stepped into the fray now. “She doesn’t have to worry about that. Even if she left us to live somewhere else for a time, she would always be welcome back here.”
That was what Elizabeth loved about Cameron and Faith’s pack.
Hans’s stance shifted a bit, his shoulders dropping just a little. “You are sure you want to do this? Dad is ready to cut you off from the family permanently if you don’t return.”
Elizabeth rubbed Sheri’s arm with reassurance. She knew Sheri would feel bad about the rift with her family, but if she stayed with the Canadian Arctic pack, then what? She could be close to family and unhappy with the pack and not willing to mate Bentley, and possibly have no other potential mates up there. Or stay here, miss her family and enjoy her life, her new job, her new friends who felt no animosity toward her whatsoever.
“If that’s what they want to do, that’s their call. I would hope we could still see each other, even if they have to travel down here to do it, but this is where I want to live,” Sheri said with assurance.
The door opened, and Elizabeth figured they had a client, but instead Slade walked in through the door, wearing his leather jacket and boots and looking like a hotshot WWII aviator, all smiles. “Hey, Sheri, I was going to—” He saw the newcomers and abruptly stopped speaking, his nose elevating slightly as he took in the aggressive scent spread throughout the room. “Sorry,” he said, obviously guessing what was going on. Elizabeth knew, as did the rest of the pack, that Slade’s presence—as an unmated wolf—would only make things worse. “Looks like I’m interrupting a meeting. Should I go?” He deferred to Cameron. If a fight were inevitable, he would clearly be an asset.
A low snarl came from Bentley. No matter how much Slade had tried to appear unthreatening, wolves always knew. Sheri couldn’t help her reaction to him, and Bentley sensed it.
He took a step in the direction of Slade, and the entire room felt as if it were waiting for holy hell to be unleashed, but Kintail held up a hand, freezing the moment in time.
“We won’t make the offer again,” he said.
“You won’t need to,” Sheri said, her voice determined.
A potential client came into the office, breaking the tension, and Owen said, “I’ll take it.” He led the client into his office, shut the door, and that seemed to be the end of the discussion with the other wolves. Kintail bent his head in the direction of the door, and Bentley and Hans and the other two men left the building, Bentley’s shoulders stiff in anger. Kintail stayed back.
“They need you more than you need them,” Kintail said to both Elizabeth and Sheri. “They’re using you because they can’t control their shifting.”
“We’re happy here. And I’m mated to David. We have the freedom to do as we want, and the pack is much more democratic. No bullying people about what they have to do,” Elizabeth said.
“I expected it of you, Elizabeth, because of some misplaced loyalty to a newly turned wolf. But Sheri—” Kintail said.
“Because of my friendship with Elizabeth, I’ve been on the outs with the pack too. So don’t act like you didn’t know how I’ve been treated. I’m sure you were all for it. You’ve always punished those who don’t see things your way,” Sheri said.
Kintail shook his head. “Be forewarned, neither of you are welcome back. You’re dead to me, you’re dead to the pack”—he stared hard at Sheri—“and you will be dead to your parents.” Then he stalked out of the building.
It was quiet except for the low conversation coming from Owen’s office. Sheri took a deep breath, then another, and then dissolved into tears. Elizabeth quickly took her into David’s office and hugged her. “This is a choice you had to make, unfortunately. Even though you shouldn’t have had to make it. You should have been allowed to come here to live with us and return when you wanted to see your family. That’s the problem with Kintail’s rule.”
“I agree.” Sheri sniffled and wiped her tears with a tissue from a box on David’s desk.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Sheri hugged her back. “I’m sorry I put everyone in a bind like this. If my parents really feel that way about me, then I guess cutting ties would be the best thing for us anyway.” She sounded saddened by the prospect.
“Well, if the pack had different leadership, maybe things would change, and then you could see your family again. Especially if your family comes around to seeing this is what makes you happy.”