Her lips barely moved. “Yes. Jules is free.” She smiled and raised her voice. “I am well and prepared for the ceremony to come.”

  Rome’s whole being flooded with fire. He gripped Yolanda’s hand, and she squeezed back.

  The priest began a sonorous chant. Rome’s breathing came deep and fast, and his brain raced. Think. What’s the best move? I can’t go anywhere without Yolanda. There are at least a dozen enforcers here, along with my brothers and whatever pack members will support my father. We can take some of them but not all. What if we shift and run? Benedetto can shift at will also, but he’s heavier and slower—than me, at least.

  The priest frowned at them—him, really. Uh-oh, missed something. He looked at Yolanda, who pulled gently on his hand and led him around the burning candle on the altar. Oh right. He walked slowly, very slowly. As best he remembered from the weddings he’d been to, the vows followed pretty soon after this part of the ceremony. Think, idiot. Jules is free. Your father may not recognize your marriage, but you do. You can’t say “I do” to Yolanda, no matter how great she is.

  They stopped walking. Rome glanced to the side at the small wall of guards standing behind his father. There were enforcers behind Yolanda’s father too, but they were farther back and there were fewer of them. That’s the direction to shift and run.

  As they stepped back to their spot in front of the altar, he gave Yolanda another squeeze of her hand. She looked up into his eyes, and he flicked his glance to the side, once, twice.

  She took a deep, visible breath and gave a very slight nod.

  Whew. He swallowed. I’m not only messing with my life, but also with Yolanda’s—and Jules’s. Crap, the thought made him light-headed. He took a quick look toward the audience. It had shrunk by another 50 percent.

  The priest’s voice rose. “We abide by the law of the ancients and the will of our ancestors. Wolves mate for life, and we take our responsibilities with the seriousness of eternity.”

  Eternity with Jules. His heart felt too big for his chest.

  Focus.

  Ready, set—

  “Stop these proceedings! Now, under threat of death.” Anderson’s voice rang out from the back of the room. The priest practically swallowed his tongue, staring wide-eyed at the group of gangsters moving into the sparse crowd with guns drawn. Anderson strode forward with intent.

  Rome looked toward his father, who had fallen back among his own guards, but some of them were fighting hand-to-hand with Anderson’s gangsters.

  “Let’s get out of here.” He pulled on Yolanda’s hand and turned toward the door he’d come in.

  “Not unless you want to die.” Anderson’s gun pressed against his head.

  Well, shit. Stand in line, asshole. Rome stopped, angling his body between the gun and Yolanda. Fights between Siracusa enforcers and Anderson’s followers were going on all around the room, but Benedetto froze when he saw the gun at Rome’s head. Right, he didn’t want to lose his wolf sacrifice.

  Rome didn’t move but said, “What the hell are you doing, Anderson? Everyone knows what you’re up to now, so what do you hope to achieve?”

  “Nothing’s changed, dimwit, except the groom.” He hauled Rome toward him and dragged him a few steps to the altar. “Priest, get to work. You’re marrying us. Get on it.”

  Rome pulled his arm back. “Wait just a fucking minute. You don’t want to marry me, because I’ll rip your throat out in bed.”

  “I’m happy to kill you right after we’re married and I’ve established my right to the Siracusa lineage.”

  “You don’t really think any Siracusa will go along with that.”

  Anderson raised a lip. “Actually, I do. All you thugs understand is force. Your father commands no loyalty because he gives none. I’ll be a better leader, and your pack will follow me gladly.”

  Sadly, he might be right about the loyalty. His father was feared, not loved.

  Rome snarled, “You can’t marry me. I’m already married.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t think I care about your sham marriage.”

  “And your marriage to me would be less of a sham?”

  He bared his teeth. “Does that really matter? I’m the one with the gun.”

  A howl rose and echoed down the halls of the mansion like Cerberus from the gates of hell, loud, wailing, and mournful. The gangsters paused in their struggles and stared around uneasily. Anderson looked toward the sound, but he didn’t drop the gun.

  A second howl went up. Who is it?

  Suddenly next to them, Yolanda shifted, ripping her robes to shreds, and the wolf she was ran in a zigzag pattern toward the entrance, barking and howling as she went. Good job, Yolanda.

  Though Anderson’s gun never wavered, the shift totally freaked Anderson’s wolves. A couple fired after the wolf, but no one hit her. Few pack members had ever seen an alpha shift at will except in times of war, and there hadn’t been a battle in decades. Anderson’s males were the dregs of wolf society, and such things would be pretty much the stuff of legend.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  A WEIRD, eerie chorus of howls started from every angle of the hall. Most of the sounds were made by those in human form rather than wolves—but there were lots of them.

  Both Anderson and Benedetto glanced around, like some monster was going to emerge from the fireplace—kind of funny for werewolves. Still, what the hell’s going on?

  Suddenly an enforcer near Anderson gasped and fell to the ground, bleeding.

  Other guards leaped back, and Anderson startled. Rome pulled against his grasp, but the cool metal of the gun pressed harder against his temple.

  Even stranger than the howls, a wailing voice seared through the big hall. “Donald Anderson, you offend the gods. Lay down your arms and leave our sight or suffer the consequences.” The vibrating howls started up again, seeming to bounce off the walls.

  Two guards yelled, threw their guns on the floor, and ran toward the rear doors. Other Anderson gangsters let them go, looking ready to join them any second.

  The strange voice rose up again. “Benedetto Siracusa, you have made yourself an enemy of the wolfgods. Align yourself with truth or suffer loss of all that has been given.”

  A couple more enforcers mutinied, and the gun against Rome’s head began to shake as Anderson looked around, probably to see if he still had any supporters.

  The side door, from which the priest had entered, opened slowly—inch by inch until every eye in the hall was glued to it. A tall figure walked in dressed in robes—but above the robes was a wolf head. At first Rome thought it was a mask, but then the mouth moved. “Who defies the will of the gods?”

  One enforcer screamed and ran.

  The other three doors of the hall opened next, and more wolf-headed creatures stepped into them. They walked three steps into the room, and a mass of pack members marched behind them.

  Two females screamed, and Anderson flashed the gun toward the wolf-head figure in front and fired.

  Rome slammed an elbow into Anderson’s solar plexus and followed with a left to the jaw. He swiped the gun from his hand, sending it clattering across the slick floor, then threw Anderson to the marble and landed on top of him, forearm pressing on his windpipe. “Don’t move, asshole, or I’ll snap your neck.”

  Sounds of movement came from behind him, plus whispers and exclamations.

  Rome looked over his shoulder to see the wolf head on the figure closest to Rome shifting to the head of Grandfather Lawrence. Wow. Who knew he was so powerful?

  “We’ll take charge of him, Rome. We have the human police waiting at the gates to Dark Harbor to take custody of him. We didn’t even need to produce much evidence, since they recently found a couple of his thugs willing to testify against him.” Lawrence waved to two Siracusa pack members. “Maria, Theodore, please escort Mr. Anderson to the gates. Tell them I’ll be there in a moment.”

  A huge female wolf and a pretty good-sized male whom Rome knew from his own pack meetings stepped forward.

  Rome glanced up with a frown. “Excuse me, Grandfather, but what’s going on?” More and more pack members, both Siracusa and Havilland, pressed into the room. Rome searched their faces for Jules.

  Lawrence held up his hand. “It’s all right, Rome. You can trust them. Let them take him.”

  Maria picked up the gun Rome had knocked from Anderson’s hand and pointed it toward Anderson. No one seeing her could doubt she knew what she was doing. She inclined her head toward Rome. “I’ll take care of this, Alpha. Please don’t worry.”

  What? No one had ever called him alpha.

  She grabbed Anderson by the arms and dragged him toward the exit.

  Rome stood, but his heart hammered. “Where’s Jules? Is he okay?”

  Footsteps sounded behind him. Pack members looked toward the sound and gasped. Rome turned in time to see the tall wolf-head figure shifting back into the male he loved. But then he saw the blood. One arm of the robe Jules wore dripped with red.

  “Jules!” Rome raced to Jules, who gave him a sweet smile, but his arm hung at his side. “Dear gods, you’re hurt.”

  “Donald was a better shot than I gave him credit for.” He stumbled a little, and Rome wrapped his arms around him and lowered Jules to the floor, cradling his head against his own chest. Jules grinned. “I’ll be fine—now that you’re here.”

  Rome yelled, “We need a medic.”

  An older Havilland male pressed through the crowd surrounding them. “I’m a doctor and I’d be honored to treat him, Alpha.”

  Rome glanced up, startled. “Uh, okay. Thank you.”

  The male gestured to a young female in the crowd, and she ran off. “My daughter will get my bag.” He knelt down next to Rome and Jules and tore the sleeve of the white robe, revealing Jules’s beautifully muscled arm streaked with blood.

  Rome felt tears seep from his eyes, and he dropped his head against Jules.

  Jules made a whimpering sound.

  Rome gasped, “Where does it hurt? Please help him.”

  The doctor had a hand over his mouth as he stared at Jules’s arm.

  Rome looked. Jules wriggled in Rome’s arms as the bloody hole above his elbow opened and the edge of a silver object poked through. Inch by inch, the bullet squeezed out of his flesh and popped to the ground with a ping.

  One female whispered, “Gods, did you see that? No doubt he’s chosen.”

  The girl ran in with the doctor’s bag, and he grabbed some antiseptic and gauze from it, wiping the blood and debris from the wound as it closed in front of their eyes.

  Rome pressed his face against Jules’s beautiful hair. “Oh my powerful baby. I love you so much.”

  “Enough of this.” Benedetto’s voice cut through the murmurs and whispers of the crowd. “We have a wedding to perform. Get that female back here or I’ll have this wedding performed with a surrogate. Let’s get on with it.”

  Silence fell over the crowd.

  Gods, can he do that? Are you kidding? He’s Benedetto. Rome sighed—loud. “Go fuck yourself. I’m not marrying anyone. I’m already married, and you’ll have to kill me to change that.”

  His father looked stunned. “You’ll do as I say.”

  “No, and I promise you, I’ll do serious injury to you or anyone else who tries to force me.”

  Yolanda, dressed in white robes that suggested she’d been one of the wolf heads, walked out of the crowd. “And I have no intention of marrying Rome, so you’re going to have a tough job making your plans stick. Go find some other idiots to suck into your sick agenda.”

  Amazingly, Merrick walked up beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Yeah, we’re outie.” He grinned, flashing the classic Merrick dimples.

  Rome smiled at his friend, then looked down at Jules. “Can you walk, or do you need me to carry you?”

  Jules gazed in his eyes. “That might be fun, but I can walk.” He looked at Benedetto. “And I second what Rome said. We are married, and every member of the Dark Harbor packs now knows that to be true.” He sat up and let Rome help him to his feet. “Someone tell Alpha Siracusa and anyone else with doubts the truth.”

  Rome circled Jules’s shoulders tightly and took his weight. “I’d like to hear the truth too.”

  Jules faced Benedetto. “In the caves beneath this mansion, my family’s home since near the beginning of time”—his voice rang with the power of the alpha and the majesty of his ancient blood—“we have found evidence by the hands of the old ones that mates of the same sex have been recognized and honored by the ancestors of all Dark Harbor wolves since time immemorial. Each pack member present has witnessed and verified this evidence. No longer will the prejudices of modern packs be allowed to berate, belittle, and disenfranchise the true claims of wolves who love those of their own gender.” He pointed his finger toward Benedetto. “And if any pack clings to their illegal practices, then I, as an alpha of the old blood, declare that pack apostate and outside the law.” He took a deep breath and kissed Rome gently on the lips. “Besides that, like Rome, I don’t give a shit what any of you think. Rome and I are married. Take your politics and shove it up your asses.” He gently pulled on Rome’s hand, and they turned toward the door.

  Lawrence stepped into their pathway. “Please come with me. I think you both should finally inherit your birthright.”

  “What’s that?” Rome frowned at his grandfather. “I love you, sir, but the tradition of Dark Harbor hasn’t treated Jules and me very well up until now.”

  “I ask you to follow.”

  The look in his grandfather’s eyes spoke only of love. Rome gazed at Jules. “Shall we?”

  “Yes, dear. Lawrence helped me gather the community and show them the evidence of truth. We need to go.”

  “Do you feel up to it?”

  “Hey, alpha blood has to be good for something.”

  Slowly they walked out the door. Possibly Benedetto didn’t follow, but every other pack member in Dark Harbor appeared to.

  Lawrence led them out of the mansion and down the hill toward the temple, a huge parade that would have attracted attention if there’d been anyone left to see. As they approached the temple grounds, Lawrence turned off the road toward the trees where Rome knew his grandfather’s own small house was located.

  Rome gripped Jules’s hand tightly and didn’t give a shit who saw. The feeling liberated deep recesses of his soul and filled him with joy. No matter what else happened, this was life as it was meant to be.

  Lawrence passed his cottage and kept walking. Pack members behind them chatted and commented as they walked. The whole thing had an interesting celebratory feel. Hell, he had Jules and didn’t care what else happened. He’d never be a lone wolf if he had Jules. Maybe they’d go find Oscar and look for a place to live near him.

  As Lawrence rounded a copse of trees, a small house came into view—not as tiny as Lawrence’s cottage, but far smaller than most of the homes in Dark Harbor. Lawrence strode to the door with a bounce in his step, then turned. “As you may know, I am an alpha with the right to form my own pack. I’ve always preferred the company of the gods, but I believe the gods have chosen these males as their own, and I offer them this house on my property as shelter and the freedom to live their own lives as they wish, unencumbered by the proscriptions and expectations of anyone else in Dark Harbor—including myself.” He made a waving motion toward the door. “This is my wedding gift to you both. I know there are many places that would welcome you, but I sincerely hope you’ll choose to stay in Dark Harbor, because I believe we need you. You may be your own pack of two.”

  Yolanda stepped forward and raised her hand. “Three, please.”

  Merrick laughed, “Four. I’m no alpha, but I know who I want to follow.”

  Rome couldn’t catch his breath. His friend, who so valued the good opinion of Benedetto, was offering to be an outcast with him. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around both Yolanda’s and Merrick’s necks. “Thank you, but I don’t really know that we want to be a pack.”

  One of the oldest members of the Havilland pack stepped forward and dropped to one knee. “I’m no lover of prejudice. I pledge myself to be a faithful member of your pack. My family may decide for themselves.” He stood.

  His wife took his arm. “I’m with you.”

  A young Siracusa stuck up his hand. “Me. I want a pack that knows what’s going on.”

  Rome shook his head. “But I don’t know—”

  Jules squeezed his arm. “We can form a pack in which every person’s ideas and opinions matter. We don’t want to tell anyone what they have to do.”

  At least a dozen hands went up in the crowd.

  “I want in.”

  “Choose me, please.”

  “I’ll follow you, Alpha.”

  Jules held up a hand. “Thank you for your confidence. Please give us a chance to decide how we want to live our lives.”

  The old wolf said, “But, Alpha, you’ve been chosen by the gods. Alpha Lawrence has told us so.”

  “We’re nothing special. We’ve suffered oppression far more than the average wolf and know the dangers of too much power.”

  “But that’s why we want you, Jules.” The old wolf grinned.

  Jules laughed and hugged Rome. “We need time to think. Only a few hours ago, we believed we’d be spending our lives in forced marriages.”

  Rome tightened his arm on Jules. “We appreciate your confidence in us.” He tugged on Jules’s hand. “Let’s look inside.” He opened the door and stepped back to allow Jules to walk through. With one glance back at the crowd, Rome followed him and closed the door behind them.

  Inside the silence almost hurt his ears.

  Jules turned and, like salt in water, they dissolved in each other’s arms.

  Rome fit his mouth over Jules’s and kissed until every nerve ending finally felt fed. He pulled back with a smile and said, “I want to crawl in bed with you and sleep for a week, with only occasional breaks for fucking our brains out.”