The Lunam Ceremony (Book One) (16 page)

Leah shakes her head and holds her hands up. “No, no. I just wanted to make sure you’re cool with this?” She says hesitantly. “You understand the position she is in, right?”

Cassie is in no position whatsoever. “She doesn’t want any trouble; she’s here because I asked her to come. And, we need her father to agree to let us brew.” Leah nods like she is considering what I’ve said to be true. But I can tell by the look on her face that she doesn’t believe me. I drop the mail on my desk and look at her. “What is it?”

“A girl like Cassie, an unmatched pureblood.” Leah rolls her eyes as she says this. Cassie’s lineage is under debate. “A female like her is a wild card.”

I stifle a laugh and ask her what she means.

“Have you ever heard of rule seventy-five?”

“No.” I shrug.

“This allows pureblood males to mate with multiple partners. This way we will get the maximum amount of pureblood births. It was put in place in eighteen seventy-five. It’s been used every Lunam since.”

“What does that have to do with Cassie?” I ask, but I already know where she’s going with this.

“Rule seventy-five is how Monte ended up with two kids at Lunam. It means any one of the males in this pack can mate with Cassie this season, and there is nothing we can do about it.”

“I get it; you’re worried about Drake.” I’m only partially joking. I know what she is getting at, but she’s wrong.

“No!” Leah exclaims. “Drake would never be with a Shasta.”

The look of disgust on Leah’s face angers me. “Then get to your point? We have work to do,” I spit back.

Leah stands and slams her hand on the desk; this small act of defiance causes my skin to grow warm. I lean on my desk and glare at her until she backs down.

“I guess I don’t have a point, sis,” Leah finally says. “I just want you to watch your back.”

“Isn’t that what I have you for?” I crack a smile, but Leah just walks out of the office.

Integrating Cassie into the pack is going to be harder than I thought. I have to show everyone she isn’t a threat and that I trust her.

The last four weeks have been hell on earth, hell on a frozen earth. I never knew how cold snow really was. When you see it on TV or atop the peak of a faraway mountain, you think,
Ah snow, how beautiful and soft you look
. You see kids in commercials making snow angels and tossing snowballs that disintegrate upon landing. I don’t know what kind of snow they have on TV, but it is nothing like the hard-packed, wet, sticky crap we have here. The snowballs Dillan and the rest of the males hurl at each other have broken several windows. I’ve fallen twice on something called black ice. The kids all have runny noses, and my hands are in a perpetual state of cold.

Having Cassie here has been comforting. She still doesn’t mingle with others as much as I’d like, but we spend a lot of time gossiping in my cabin. I think I finally convinced her to register for school. There’s a college in Folsom where she can take classes a few times a week once the weather is clear. I’ve wished, on more than one occasion, that we could switch places—in theory of course. My feelings for Dillan are growing stronger every day. Having his child is starting to feel less like a duty I need to fulfill, and more like an honor. I’ve stopped complaining about it to Cassie, since her only chance to keep her bloodline from diminishing is to conceive during this mating season. Her choices are slim. All the high alphas are paired up. The only alpha I would even consider matching her with is Rusty. But he is hell-bent on staying single and childless. He jokes about child support and dirty diapers, even though he knows those are human issues. Our children are raised together, their food, clothes, and education are paid for out of pack funds. Each branch gets an allowance for education. Dillan said all the Sierra branches allotted money for college. Cassie tells me it’s different in Shasta. The Dunsmuir branch controls the education funds for all branches. Almost all the kids are homeschooled because they’re afraid of comingling. Each branch has females that act as teachers. They use the education money to buy computers and workbooks. Any leftover money is redistributed to other areas, like housing. Shasta members live mostly in trailer parks owned by the pack. She moved into a house with Conall once the brewery and pub started to make money. According to Cassie, Shasta is just now coming into its own. They are working on building more housing, and they sent two boys to college last year. Now Sierra wants to compete for business. She says she doesn’t have any animosity towards the Sierras, but her facial expressions tell a different story.

If Cassie matched with a pureblood alpha from Shasta, that would’ve solidified her pack’s future. Without a clear heir to the Shasta pack, the Sierra’s will gain full control in a merge. The future of their pack was riding on Cassie and she failed. Cassie knew there were only two pureblood Shasta males in Lunam; she took a chance and lost. I feel bad for her, and that’s why I’m trying like hell to make sure her future isn’t one of servitude. She doesn’t need a partner or mate to determine her worth. I tell her that every day. Hopefully, she starts to believe me.

“Can you please remind me why they chose this camp for us?” I call to Leah, who is running beside me towards Hopi. Snow flurries pick up the fresh-laid powder, making visibility very poor. The children’s play structure has frozen over, as well as the water pipes to half the camp.

“Because they want us to stay indoors and screw like animals to produce heirs,” she yells loudly so I can hear her through my ear muffs. “And to torture us,” she adds as she loses her balance.

I grip her arm and hold her up, but it’s difficult with the wet snow and our hysterical laughing. We make it to Hopi in one piece and begin to strip off our top layer of clothing. I take off my snow-covered beanie and gloves then unzip my snow jacket, and hang them all on the wall. Leah does the same. I pull the inventory list from the wall and notice a strange entry from the night before. This can’t be right. Dillan’s name is listed beside a bottle of red wine from his family’s vineyard and a package of dark chocolates.

“Looks like someone had fun last night.” Leah reads the list from over my shoulder. “If you let me and Drake have a bottle of wine, I won’t rat you out to the others.”

Alcohol taken from Hopi can only be consumed in the lodge. We don’t allow anyone to sit around drinking alone, not even couples. Alcohol is for social occasions only. Last night, Dillan didn’t come home with a bottle of wine, and I helped Patsy close up the lodge. Dillan wasn’t there. In fact, he didn’t come in until late. I assumed he was with Tripp and Ray, working on the water pipes and the electrical issues.

“Well, can we have a bottle?” Leah asks from the pantry. “It is New Year’s Eve.”

“Yeah, sure,” I tell her, and she squeals with excitement. “I gotta go. I think I left the lights on in my cabin.” I grab my hat and coat from the wall and leave.

My breathing is labored as I drudge through the snow. We got six inches last night, so the path from Hopi to my cabin on the opposite side of the camp is thick and hard to walk in. I should radio Rusty and ask him to get someone out here to clear the path. It’s dangerous, and one of the children may fall and get stuck. But I don’t want to talk to anyone right now. Not until I figure out what is going on and where Dillan was last night with a bottle of wine. Why would Dillan pull wine from Hopi when we have a secret stash in our cabin? If he wanted a bottle, all he had to do was come to the cabin and get one. Unless he didn’t want me to know about it. My heart is in my throat as I burst into our cabin and head straight to the kitchen, tracking mud and snow all over the floor. Dillan’s key, the one he never uses, is gone. I begin to cry.

I don’t know how much time has passed when Clio finds me on the floor.

“Kalysia, are you hurt?” She searches my hands and face for injuries. The rest of my body is hidden by my snow jacket. Her radio buzzes, and hurries to reply, “I found her! She’s in—” I pull Clio’s radio from her hand and switch it off. She staggers back onto her knees like she’s afraid of me.

I take a deep breath to calm myself and try to think of a reasonable excuse for why I’m crying on my kitchen floor. I can’t tell her the truth; I don’t even know what that is. Clio stays silent beside me. The only sound in the house is my radio beeping in my pocket.

Clio finally stirs; she pulls her feet from under her and sits on the floor. She clears her throat to speak, but I stop her. “Tell them you found me sleeping in my cabin and that I must have caught a cold from one of the children. Make sure they know I don’t want to be bothered.”

“Ok,” Clio says quietly and starts to stand. “Can I get you anything? Tea?”

“No, thank you,” I say and give her walkie back. Clio steps over me to head out the back door and I grab her hand. “If Dillan asks…”

She shakes her head. “Don’t worry, he’s not here. They went on a run this morning to get some supplies for the brew house. They aren’t due back until this evening.”

I should feel shocked to be hearing about this now, but I feel nothing, as if my body is in energy-saving mode. “Who went on the run?”

Clio looks confused. “What do you mean?”

“You said
they
went on a run. Who went with Dillan?” I brace for her reply, knowing the answer could expose the person who has betrayed me.

Clio stares at the knobs on her walkie. “Um, you know, the usual.” She won’t meet my ice cold glare.

The next thing I know, I’m on my feet and in Clio’s face. “Who is it? Who is with him?” I hiss.

“It’s just, you said she was family,” she cries.

I’m in a full sprint to Cassie’s cabin. I leap up the stairs and turn the handle. It’s locked. I bang once on the door and it rattles the windows. We never lock our cabins when we’re not home. The betas don’t have master keys, they can get in and out to clean or drop off laundry so we leave the doors unlocked. The idea of someone stealing never even crossed my mind. Especially with Sid and Carrick’s hi-tech security system. There are cameras with facial recognition all over camp. Besides, nobody here has any reason to steal. Everyone has everything they need. Except Cassie.

I fish around my pocket for the master key and fumble with the lock, but it’s hard to get the key in with my trembling hands. “Here,” Clio says, “let me do it.”

I step aside and allow Clio to open the door. She walks into the warm room ahead of me. The sofa bed is unmade, the blankets askew. My mind plays dirty tricks on me as visions of Dillan and Cassie flood my brain. I start to see the things that Clio and Leah were warning me about.