Five
When he’d come home from his travels, Nathan had bought a
spacious, elegant home on the edge of town. Bounded by forest on two
sides, it was set well back from the road behind the crumbling remains of an old stone wall. For all that it wasn’t far from main thoroughfares, the property had a stately, secluded air to it when you turned into the driveway. In other circumstances, I imagined it must feel grand and welcoming.
It only ever made me feel queasy. The thought that I was there to attend a meeting with the Elders and, presumably, the Alpha, only heightened my discomfort.
You’re overreacting, I chided myself. It’s not like they’re going to bite. It’s literally their job to protect you if you need it.
Parking behind an old blue SUV that I recognized as Gideon’s, I took a deep breath, blew it out, and walked up the path to the front porch. I had just reached the top step when the door opened.
Phillip gestured me inside with a tight smile. “We’re meeting in the library.”
I followed him down the hall, marveling silently at the tremendous amount of work Nathan had clearly done on the home’s interior since I’d been there last. It had been fine, then. Now it was stunningly, if
understatedly, gorgeous. Dark hardwood lined the floors, and the walls were
all painted in warm, soothing shades. I caught a glimpse of an office on the left and what looked like a casual lounge on the right before Phillip led me into a well-appointed library halfway down the hall.
Daniel was sitting at a long, refectory-style table with a stack of papers in front of him. He nodded at me perfunctorily as I entered. Gideon turned away from the window he was standing beside, and I saw his eyes
widen. Ice formed in my gut. He hadn’t been expecting me. What was going on?
“Please come sit, Celeste.” Daniel pointed me toward the chair across from his.
Unsure what else to do, I crossed the room and took the seat. There were a few moments of deeply uncomfortable silence in which I felt like the Elders were having wordless conversations above my head, their gazes darting back and forth between one another. Then Nathan’s voice rang out in the hall.
“I heard the door. Who else did you invite to this—” He appeared in the doorway in a perfectly-cut navy suit that emphasized the trim lines of his body and set off his tanned skin and chestnut hair to their best
advantage. His forest-green eyes swept the room, almost instantly fixing on me. His entire body went rigid. “Oh, hell no.”
Taken aback, I blinked at him. Excuse me?
“I said, no!” He ripped his eyes off me and pinned the Elders in their places with a thunderous glower. “You have no right to drag her into this.”
“We are the Elders of this pack,” Daniel countered, his voice harder than I’d ever heard it. “We most certainly do have the right to summon
anyone we wish to a meeting.”
I clamped my mouth shut and only barely resisted rolling my eyes. Did they know nothing about Nathan? Or were they trying to provoke him?
“I was not involved in this decision,” Gideon spoke up, grimly. “But they have a point, Nathan. Celeste deserves to at least be made aware of the options on the table.”
Options? What?
“She isn’t going to agree,” Nathan shot back. He was furious now. I could see it in the way his muscles bunched under the expensive fabric,
smell it in the air. “She doesn’t want any more part in your lunacy than I do.”
Irritation made my skin flush. Since when did Nathan presume to speak for me? To know anything about me and what I wanted?
“Nathan,” Phillip said, deliberately. “Celeste is a grown woman—a full member of this pack. She has an excellent record of making decisions in the pack’s best interest. There’s no reason to think she’ll reject this out of hand just because you have.”
Reject what?
“You cannot dictate what we do,” Daniel added, his expression pinched with indignation. “Not until you are officially Alpha. Which you may never be if you don’t at least consider our proposal.”
What proposal? Impatience and resentment boiled over inside me. Why were they talking about me—and apparently plans that might include me—right in front of me, as if I wasn’t even there? They were treating me like a child.
“Excuse me,” I interrupted, abruptly. All four heads snapped in my direction, the men going silent in surprise. “I’m right here,” I reminded them. “If you are making decisions that involve me, I would like to know about them. Especially if they somehow affect the pack as a whole.” I pursed my lips, my gaze moving between them, weighted with my frustration. “So, I’d appreciate it if you could stop presuming you know
what I think or want and just tell me why I’m here.” For a split second,
Nathan’s lips quirked, and the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled like he was trying not to laugh. Butterflies flooded my stomach, and I was so distracted I almost missed it when Phillip started talking.
“Of course, Celeste. Forgive us. You are aware of the conundrum Nathan faces in his desire to be formally named Alpha of our pack?”
Nathan’s expression went neutral and carefully blank, and the butterflies in my gut turned to chips of ice. “Michael’s will,” I said,
dragging my gaze to the Elders. Everyone knew that. “It stipulated that he can’t officially be named Alpha until he takes a mate.”
“Technically,” Daniel corrected, lifting an imperious finger, “it requires that Nathan start a family.” He stopped, all of them looking at me.
“And?” I prompted impatiently.
Gideon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger. “As pack Elders,” he said, wearily, “it is our sworn duty to uphold Michael’s will. No matter how much we loathe the divisiveness and insecurity the current situation is bringing to the pack, we cannot simply
waive the requirements. That said,” he glanced at Nathan and then back at me, “we have been exploring possible … loopholes that may allow us to resolve the situation.”
“Loopholes,” I repeated dubiously, not following. “In the definition of family?” I shot a questioning look at Nathan, but he’d turned away. His arms were folded, every inch of him angry and dismissive. I fisted my hands in my lap, my entire body prickling with discomfort now.
“We want Nathan to consider having a child,” Phillip said, bluntly. “Even without a mate, we believe a child would constitute technical fulfillment of the terms of Michael’s will, enabling us to formally instate Nathan as Alpha, resolving all of our current issues in one fell swoop.”
A … child? They wanted Nathan to … my brain blanked at the thought.
“Nathan is resistant to any personal entanglements that might disrupt the pack,” Phillip continued, carefully.
Like his mother, I thought distantly.
“However, we have identified a surrogacy agency that specializes in shifter pregnancies,” he continued, plowing on as if he were afraid to stop now. “It’s called First Class Surrogacy. We believe it is in the best interests of the pack for one of our own to serve as the surrogate.”
The silence was back, thick and heavy. The words seeped in slowly, and my mouth was suddenly dry, my palms slick with sweat. I licked my lips, the idea rolling around inside me, surreal and unbelievable.
baby.”
“Me,” I managed finally, dumbfounded. “You want me to carry his
“Yes,” Daniel said simply.
“You can’t be serious.” My voice raised on the last word, a slightly
hysterical tinge to it that made me cringe. But really—what were they thinking?
“It is … unconventional,” Gideon allowed, gently. He looked at me with kind, tired eyes. “It is not something we ask lightly, Celeste, and
certainly something we wish we did not have to ask at all. But you are a smart woman, and you’re very active in the pack. You know what our
inability to formally name Nathan our Alpha is costing us.” He shot a look at the other two Elders. “And I’m sure you remember just as well as Nathan the mess we endured when his father took a mate solely for the purpose of getting an heir.” He rubbed his temple with his middle finger as if he could squeeze out the ache no doubt forming there. “You are the only person we
can trust to potentially bring stability to our pack.”
“We’ll pay for it, of course,” Daniel interjected, helpfully. “From pack funds. All of your medical care and associated expenses.”
He thought I was worried about money? For a moment, I just gaped at them all, speechless. Finally, when it became clear that they were going to be of no more help, I pulled myself together.
“Let me get this straight,” I clarified. “You want me to serve as a surrogate for Nathan’s baby.” I risked a glance at him, but he was still turned away, stiff as a board, so I focused my attention on the Elders. “A baby that he will raise, to fulfill Michael’s will. If we both agree, you’ll formally name him Alpha?” Formally name him and make all the pack’s troubles finally go away.
“Yes,” Daniel confirmed.
I had no idea what to do with that information. On the face of it, the idea was absurd. Nathan and I could barely say two words to one another.
He’d made his feelings perfectly clear years ago, and I’d sworn never to risk my heart again.
But the pack … the pack needed its Alpha, desperately. We needed to put the past behind us and to have our Elders and our Alpha be a united team, not fighting one another in the same futile circles for years.
My mother’s words echoed in my ears. The pack is our family. We take care of each other.
I’d been working so hard to hold the pack together, but no matter
what I did, it was all just like putting bandaids on a gaping wound, trying to stave off the inevitable. This plan could fix it, fix everything. Having
Nathan as a real Alpha would heal the pack, put us back on solid footing.
But a baby …
“I need—I need some time to think about it,” I said, hating the way my voice shook.
“Of course,” Gideon came over and rested a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Take as much time as you need, my dear.”