Promised to the Pride: A Shifter Romance Read online

  Promised to the Pride

  Candace Wondrak

  © 2019 Candace Wondrak

  All Rights Reserved.

  Book cover by Leah Rae at OA Book Covers!

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  Chapter One – Holly

  Chapter Two – Nikolas

  Chapter Three – Holly

  Chapter Four – Aster

  Chapter Five – Holly

  Chapter Six – Holly

  Chapter Seven – Jonas

  Chapter Eight – Holly

  Chapter Nine – Nikolas

  Chapter Ten – Holly

  Chapter Eleven – Aster

  Chapter Twelve – Holly

  Chapter Thirteen – Holly

  Chapter Fourteen – Jonas

  Chapter Fifteen – Nikolas

  Chapter Sixteen – Holly

  Chapter Seventeen – Aster

  Chapter Eighteen – Holly

  Chapter Nineteen – Jonas

  Chapter Twenty – Holly

  Chapter Twenty-One – Aster

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Jonas

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Holly

  Chapter Twenty-Four – Holly

  Chapter Twenty-Five – Jonas

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Aster

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Holly

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Nikolas

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Holly

  Epilogue

  Chapter One – Holly

  I had two options. The first was to run away like the princesses always did in the movies when they found out they were being forced to marry a prince they didn’t like. They always got into adventures and found love in the end—sometimes with that same prince. It was funny how things worked out in the movies, or in books, or even in TV shows.

  But my life wasn’t a movie, and I wasn’t some selfish princess who didn’t care about why my marriage to some foreign prince was necessary.

  My other option was accepting the truth and facing it head-on, and that’s precisely why I sat alone on an airplane. I couldn’t run from this. This was my fate, my destiny. This was what I was born to do: be married off to the most suitable mates.

  I didn’t blame my parents, not really. They did all they could, and they kept me in the human world for so long, a lot longer than most shifters were, nowadays. And, in the end, it was all for Lumi, my baby sister. Just twelve years old and so very sick. What kind of awful person would I be if I ran away from this match when my future mates had told my parents they’d pay for Lumi’s treatment?

  Healthcare in America was a racket, and I knew having Lumi’s hospital bills covered would take the pressure off my parents, Greg and Millie. My sister’s treatment might not save her life, but it would hopefully help her to live longer, and that wonderful girl deserved to hold the entire world in her hands.

  Lumi wasn’t a shifter, and neither was Dad. They were both human. I’d gotten my shifter genes from Mom. When a human and a shifter mated, the children were a toss-up. The only for sure way to get shifter kids was to have two shifters as the parents.

  The shifter population had been in decline for a while, now. I didn’t know if it had to do with their antiquated beliefs and traditions or the fact that technology had taken over human society. Shifters and technology didn’t often mix; shifters much preferred nature to the flat screens of phones and computers.

  Me? I…I grew up human, surrounded by other humans. I liked my TV, and I loved my phone, but I also loved going on hikes and breathing in the fresh, crisp air you could only taste in the early mornings away from the city.

  And besides, I hadn’t even shifted yet. I was nineteen, and I hadn’t shifted. Mom said she never brought my shifter out because she was waiting. Waiting to see if anyone from the Pride would want me.

  Yeah, the snow leopards around the world called themselves a pride. We weren’t that numerous, and we often lived in isolation. We weren’t a pride like lions were—lions spent all their time together. I think, in the end, the name was used ironically, since we were solitary creatures. Not at all like wolves, or so I’d heard. I’d never met a wolf shifter before.

  All of the snow leopard shifters had to register with the Pride, and anytime you moved, you had to notify them as well. They kept an eye on our population, and did their best to stop it from getting so low we were past the point of no return. Although, I had to say, I think we were already past it.

  Here’s the thing about shifters: the ratio of female to male isn’t as equal as it is for humans. Around fifty-one percent of the population of humans were female. About half. For shifters, it was much more skewed in the opposite direction. We had a lot more males than females, which often made us female shifters a type of rarity. A commodity. Not people in our own right but bellies and wombs to fill.

  Like I said, antiquated.

  I wasn’t a fan of how things worked in the shifter world, but I couldn’t change them. And if I ran away, Lumi would be screwed. I loved that girl too much to put her through that, and I owed it to my parents to do this.

  Ever since turning sixteen—the legal age where the Pride could officially mate you—I’d been waiting. Waiting and waiting for that piece of paper in the mail that had the names of my shifter mates. Because there would be multiple. There usually was. Mom only ended up with Dad alone because Dad was human. There hadn’t been any interested parties…mostly because Mom got knocked up with me right away. It was a lot of paperwork with the Pride, but in the end, they let her stay with him, provided she kept having children until one of them was a shifter.

  And, big surprise, her firstborn was a shifter, which made the Pride very happy. Plus, I was a girl, so I pretty much canceled out the fact that Mom had chosen a human as a mate.

  I knew I shouldn’t think about my parents too much, or Lumi. I didn’t know if I’d ever see them again, or even speak to them. Where I was going…might not have any sort of signal or WIFI.

  The plane I was on? Literally just me and my luggage, and the pilot. It wasn’t a huge plane, one that humans could take. There was no first-class, no economy seats. Only six seats lining the sides of the plane, one of which I occupied.

  The pilot was a human. He had no idea about me or why I was coming alone to a small town in the middle of nowhere. If my mates were in a city with other humans, they’d have to come up with a story to tell them. Maybe I was a visiting relative, a cousin they could only get friendly with behind closed doors?

  Hey, I wasn’t the creative one. The guys needed to be. I wasn’t going to worry about it, because I had a lot of other things on my mind.

  Were they going to be nice? Were they handsome? Shifters, as a whole, tended to be a step above most humans when it came to looks, but as for being nice…well, Mom had warned me. They might view me as nothing more than an object, something they owned fully and completely. They might treat me badly and hurt me as they mated me.

  I was very nervous about that. So nervous that I might’ve gotten sick last night…and again before getting in the car to go to the airport. And, uh, again before getting on the plane.

  Yeah, I was lucky the pilot had some minty gum to give
me, otherwise my first impression to my mates would’ve been a bad one. And I was going to try my hardest to not upset them. I didn’t want them to get rough with me or force me to do anything. In a perfect world, everything would be consensual.

  This wasn’t a perfect world, though. And I was a shifter, a female one at that. I’d drawn the short end of the stick in every way, but I had to make the most of it. For Lumi.

  What made this situation even worse for me was the fact that I hadn’t really dated. I’d grown up in the human world and was used to technology and going to a normal school, but when it came to boys, I…I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t find human boys attractive. I’d yet to lay eyes on a male shifter, so I prayed that would change. Not being attracted to my mates would make the rest of my life awful.

  It had to be something hardwired in me. Something instinctual. I didn’t know how Mom did it, being with Dad.

  For shifters, she’d told me, you’ll know. But when it comes to humans…sometimes your inner animal connects to them anyway. From what it sounded like, Mom’s inner leopard had connected with Dad in a way it should’ve only connected with another shifter. It was rare, but it happened, and when it did, it was hard to fight it. Mom gave in, and Dad, being a—in Mom’s disgusting words—horny teenager, was more than happy to be with her.

  The whole I’m a shifter thing was brought up at a later date, she assured me, but it was a conversation I didn’t have to worry about having. My mates were shifters. My three mates.

  Three.

  How the hell was I supposed to handle three mates when I hadn’t even had a boyfriend yet? I was sure they’d expect things of me, things which I didn’t know whether or not I’d be able to perform.

  Oh, but Mom had given me advice for that, too. Yeah, I had a lot of cringe-worthy moments with my mom before leaving my parents’ house for good. She’d said my inner leopard would know. As long as I listened to her, I’d be fine.

  I know. Yuck. Having already had the birds and the bees conversation when I was ten, I didn’t need to hear that.

  We flew high above the earth, and I had my gaze fixated on my lap. If I looked out of the window and saw how high up we were—and how rickety this tiny plane was—I’d get sick again. At this point I was throwing up nothing but stomach bile, but still. I wanted to avoid any more vomiting if it was possible.

  The pilot turned his head around. He was an older gentleman, maybe near sixty, with greying hair and a mustache that made me picture old movies with cowboys. “We’re almost there. Thirty minutes out.” He gave me a smile before facing the front.

  I shifted in my seat. Mom had said once I was fully awoken, once I shifted into my leopard, I’d be able to feel her inside of me. I bet she’d be throwing up right now, too—though she’d probably be prettier about it.

  Fairbanks, here I come.

  Chapter Two – Nikolas

  I sat, staring at the corded phone hanging on the wall. My back was hunched over the kitchen table. Lenny said he’d phone once they landed, and it was a short drive to the landing zone. Fairbanks didn’t have its own airport, so we had to make do with what we had, and what we had was Lenny. Lenny didn’t know about us, the shifter side of us, but he didn’t need to. He knew all he needed to. Once he saw her, though, he’d probably have questions.

  I’d already decided that she was our second cousin twice-removed who’d just lost her entire family in a car crash…but now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t sure if that was a plausible explanation for why she was suddenly here.

  I shared my house with my brother, Aster. He was the youngest of us, just twenty-two, and he was the most excited, too. He practically bounced through the house, fixing everything, cleaning, doing stuff he normally didn’t do, all because she was coming.

  Her name was Holly Wyland, and she was nineteen. That was all I knew about her. It felt like an arranged marriage, but I’d given all my savings as a dowry of sorts, and I’d also said I’d throw in money for as long as I lived for Holly’s little sister. She was sick, the Pride said. And because the Pride was right—it would be easier for everyone if Holly was willing—I said I’d pay for her sister’s medical bills.

  So…in other words, I used her sister’s sickness to buy her.

  Damn. That didn’t sound too good, did it? Maybe if I reworded it in my head, it would make me feel better.

  Because I was nervous. Yep, I was a twenty-five-year-old man who was ridiculously nervous about meeting his mate. His mate that he bought. Fuck. That sure as hell sounded wrong, didn’t it? Would Holly hate me for buying her like a piece of property?

  Aster walked into the kitchen, the wooden floorboards creaking beneath his weight. He wore a striped cardigan, clean jeans, and new snow boots. His light brown hair was combed to the side, his amber eyes wide in worry. Besides the frantic expression on his face, he looked good. He almost looked like he was trying too hard.

  “How do I look?” Aster asked, his tone laced with concern.

  I moved my eyes from the phone, landing it on my brother. “You look fine, Aster.”

  “Fine?” he echoed, sounding aghast. “I don’t want to look fine. I want to sweep our mate off her feet with my looks. Fine doesn’t cut it. I’m going to change again,” he muttered, turning around and marching back into his bedroom.

  Rolling my eyes, I let him go, knowing nothing I could say would stop him. He wanted everything to be perfect, which it wouldn’t be, because this was life. Life wasn’t perfect. Life was messy, uncontrollable, and chaotic. Life would hopefully be better once Holly was here.

  I’d saved up for years before contacting the Pride, and even then I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find us a mate. The human females in Fairbanks were alright, but they weren’t shifter females. They didn’t stir my inner leopard at all. I wanted someone that drove me mad with desire and the need to protect her. I wanted to love her inside and out. A bit old-fashioned, I guess. Shifters didn’t always get everything they wanted. We were in short supply these days, especially the females.

  Really, we were beyond fortunate I’d managed to get Holly for us.

  It wasn’t just Aster and me, either. Aster and I had come up with money and the idea to pay for the sister’s bills, but she needed a place, especially once she was pregnant. That’s when Jonas came into play. He was the other shifter in town, but he was much more of a loner. Granted, I think the only reason Aster and I were together was because we were family—we were the only family we had left, after what happened when we were young—but still.

  Jonas was…a bit of a loose cannon. He had acres of property that we could run in, along with a smaller cabin in addition to his own home. It was his part of the pact. That smaller cabin would become hers, and we would take turns visiting her and being with her. Jonas had made it clear he didn’t want to deal with us more than he had to, which I could respect. I guess. The man was a bit unreadable, and even after living in Fairbanks for seven years, I didn’t know how to handle him yet.

  Snow leopards weren’t like wolves. We didn’t live in packs. We weren’t all family to each other. There was no holding hands and singing kumbaya or going on runs with everyone who was of age. We preferred to be alone most of the time, and I honestly think it was our downfall. We were creatures of habit, and our habit was to be alone once we left the breast of our mothers.

  Of course, there was always the Pride. The Pride was like our, for lack of a better comparison, government. It made sure we were all doing what we were supposed to be doing—meaning, blending in with human society and procreating and creating more shifter babies.

  We were a dying breed, and I didn’t know whether we could be saved anymore.

  At this point, I didn’t care. I just wanted that phone to ring and Holly to get here.

  Desperate. I was desperate.

  Aster strolled out, wearing a button-up plaid shirt. He’d messed up his hair; it now stuck every which way. “How do I look now?” he asked. “Should I roll up the
sleeves? Don’t women like it when they see sleeves rolled up?”

  I stared at him. How the hell was I supposed to know if women like sleeves rolled up?

  He made a thoughtful sound. “Maybe I should—”

  “If you say you’re going to change again, I’m going to take your dresser and put it outside, so every time you change, you have to go out in the snow to do it.” All I wanted was for him to calm down, and I knew the snow didn’t bother him—it didn’t really bother any of us—but my words worked their charms.

  Aster’s tense shoulders relaxed, and he let out a sigh as he sat in the chair across from me. “You’re right. I need to calm down,” he said, setting his arms on the table. He wasn’t as muscular as I was, but then again, both Aster and I were nothing compared to Jonas. Jonas, I was ninety-nine percent sure, had gotten into a fight with a grizzly once, and he was covered in scars.

  The worst part of that story, beside the fact that he’d beaten the grizzly and survived when a normal human would’ve had no chance? He beat the grizzly while shifted. And if you’ve ever seen a grizzly, you know they’re huge. Snow leopards, not so much. We’re one of the smaller cat shifters. But our tails? Our tails were one of the longest.

  Not something to be super proud of, I was aware.

  “Do you think she’ll like us?” Aster asked, not for the first time.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, tapping my fingers on the table. The harsh reality of it was that it didn’t matter. She was ours regardless, and we would’ve heard by now if she was late to the flight. I didn’t want to lay claim to her like some steroid-ridden alpha wolf, but at the same time, I was twenty-five fucking years old, and I wanted to mate.

  Was that so wrong?

  Aster shifted his weight. “I hope she does. I don’t want her to hate us.” He bit his lower lip, lost in thought. “I don’t think I could…you know, if she hated me.”

  My brother was a good person, but I knew that sometimes the animal took over. It’d never happened to me before, but back when our parents were alive, we’d heard stories. Sometimes things just happened; we were much closer to our animal selves than humans were, and occasionally it was impossible to act rationally.