Saving Briar

Torin could hardly believe what he had just heard.

He’d known it was a possibility that Briar was from the pack that had killed his mate, but now Torin understood that the connection went far beyond her simply being from the same pack. Both Briar’s father and her mate’s father had been part of the group that had killed his mate, and he had killed both of the men, before the others that had been part of Aria’s murder had managed to flee into the forest.

“Fuck. Look man. I know I should probably feel some sort of way about you killing my father.” Torin didn’t say a word as the younger man next to him began to speak. He had nothing to say. If Torin had a regret about what had happened in the aftermath of his mate’s death, it was that he wasn’t able to track down and kill every man who had been involved in taking her from him that day, in such a horrific and brutal way.

“But if I was in your shoes and the woman that I was building a life with had just-” Theon’s voice trailed off and he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m just sorry. I would have done the same thing.” Torin didn’t say anything, but he relaxed slightly, because if Theon had lost control at the news everyone on the plane could have found themselves in a very dangerous situation. Torin didn’t need to be unleashing the Beast he’d been keeping tightly controlled inside his chest, to fight off a raging Alpha Wolf.

“My dad was a hard man, even towards his own family and pack. He hammered into me the idea that I needed to find the strongest mate, so that we could have the strongest pups. And that’s all I could think of when she showed up in front of me and my wolf started to go crazy, demanding I claim her as my own.”

Torin felt his jaw clench at the idea of anyone else claiming Briar. He tried to push the feelings aside, especially in light of what he’d just learned, but he found that the jealousy he felt towards this man, who had a claim over Briar that he could never hope to match, refused to be extinguished. The feeling, which was so foreign to Torin, settled in his stomach in a hard knot as he continued to listen to what the Wolf Alpha had to say.

“And I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t claim her. She just seemed so frail and weak.”

“She is frail. She’s half starved. You can tell by the way her ribs and collar bone jut out that she hasn’t had a decent meal in ages. I spent half the time she was with me trying to get calories into her, but her stomach was so small she could hardly eat all that much at a sitting.”

Torin noticed the way that Theon’s hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white at his words, and he was surprised to feel a wave of satisfaction.

“I should have paid more attention to what was going on with my pack. Maybe my uncle was right. I was too young for the job. I should have seen that people were suffering with the way my father had done things and I should have changed them. And when I get back home from making things right with Briar, that’s what I plan on doing.”

“Making things right with Briar?” Torin tried to keep his voice level and flat as he asked the question, but the small, sad smile that Theon gave him let him know that he’d failed just as badly as he thought he had.

“I want to apologize to her, although I know that that won’t make things right. And then we can complete the rejection process. I know that the bond must be weakened significantly already, because obviously you two have feelings for each other, and I think I’m experiencing the same thing.”

“You’ve been with your girlfriend for a long time, haven’t you? Do you think that you two will survive what happened with Briar? And what if she finds her mate? Or has she already rejected him?”

Really what Torin was wondering was whether the younger man could forgive what the woman had done. He couldn’t, in a thousand years, imagine being with someone capable of the sort of cruelty that Briar had described, someone who was willing to torment someone the way she had with Briar, because she wanted to be Luna of their pack. And despite Theon’s words in the last ten minutes, Torin still didn’t hold him in particularly high regard.

“We’re done. The last couple of weeks have changed me. I know that sounds cliche. I feel like I’m just beginning to wake up and see how much I fucked up before I let everything happen with Briar. I thought that my life was pretty good, but I was falling short in all sorts of ways that I didn’t even understand. I know I probably still am. But fuck. At least I’m trying now.”

Torin frowned at the back of the chair in front of him. If Theon didn’t plan on being with the girl he’d given up Briar for then Torin couldn’t help but worry that the man would try to get her back, even if he didn’t plan on doing that just yet. The mate bond was a powerful thing and now that Theon was rejecting his father’s old opinions and letting go of the relationship with the girl he’d been with when he’d met Briar, it was quite likely that when they saw each other their bond might snap back into place. At least that’s what the moody beast that wouldn’t settle down in the back of Torin’s mind kept insisting, as he tried to focus on what needed to be done when the plane they were in finally landed.

“But there’s this other girl. I thought that she was human, but I found out some things right before I left and there’s been some seriously fucked up shit going on in my pack for a long time. It needs to be stopped, just as soon as I get things straightened out with Briar.” Theon was leaning forward, staring down at the palms of his hands.

“I know I said that you killed her father. And I mean, that man who died that day was the man who raised her. Everyone said he was her father. And I just don’t understand why he was there, on that hunt. He was extremely strong for an Omega, but he was still an Omega. He wasn’t someone who should have been invited to go hunting with my father. It’s one of the things that I’ve been thinking about since I started to think about how strange some of the things that are going on in my pack are. When I piece it all together I’m starting to have questions about another high ranking member of my pack.”

“Do you not think that the man who raised her was her father? She didn’t say anything about-”

“She wouldn’t have any idea. And I don’t know for certain. It’s just a theory right now based on some observations back home and on something one of the doctors said when I was in the hospital. And it would explain the almost uncanny resemblance between Briar and another girl who lives back near our pack. I just want to make sure my hunch is right before I say anything else.”

Torin nodded and pressed his head back against the seat, trying to take stock of the bits of information he’d gotten from the young Alpha during the flight so far. A part of him wanted to entirely ignore what Theon had told him about Briar’s pack’s connection to his mate’s death. After all, Briar was a victim of her pack, just like his mate had been. But would Briar be able to forgive him, once she knew that he was the one who had ended her father’s life? Especially since he couldn’t bring himself to regret what he’d done?

Staring at the sky outside the window, Torin knew that he couldn’t keep something that huge from Briar, not if he wanted a chance at something real with her. That was the one thing he had realized since he’d let her leave with Brielle and get on that helicopter without even getting out of bed to stop her.

He’d tried to fight the feelings that he’d felt building up every time Briar was near him, or even when she wasn’t, thinking that it was just simple attraction, and that she’d be better off finding someone else. He had tried to force himself to believe that her best chance at happiness was with someone who didn’t have the past heartbreak that he had, someone who could take her far away from the world of her past so that she’d have a better chance of moving on and forgetting what had happened to her in the days before they’d met.

Once she was gone though, Torin realized that whatever it was that was forming between them was more than just a passing attraction. Could a second mate bond form before the first was severed? He had never heard of anything like that happening, but he couldn’t deny that what he felt for Briar was feeling more and more like a mate bond no matter how hard he tried to deny it.

He hadn’t heard his beast growl out the word, but he had felt the way the creature seemed to believe she belonged to them from the start, which was something he’d never really experienced with anyone other than Aria.

So Torin stayed silent as Theon talked about his half guesses about what might be going on with his pack, feeling as if all he knew at the moment were half guesses as well. He just hoped that when he got Briar back, and he was determined to do just that as soon as the plane landed, he could convince her to give one of those guesses about the future they might have together a try.