Chapter 1
2057 Words
Chapter 1
“Hey, babe,” Poseidon called out.
“Yeah?” Candy poked her head out from the bathroom. She was freshly showered, already thinking ahead to her shift at the pack’s daycare center.
“Do you have a second to talk?”
The sheer dread in his voice caught her attention. “Oh boy, I don’t like the sound of that,” she said, stepping into the bedroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around her.
Seeing her like that sent a jolt through him. Poseidon had to fight like hell to keep his wolf, Hudson, from taking over and ravaging her on the spot. He needed her sharp and focused for this conversation, not utterly breathless and distracted right before she had to head to work.
“How bad is it?” Candy asked, sitting on the edge of their mattress.
They had just spent their first official night in their new home within the pack territory, a quiet recovery after an evening spent hosting their friends.
“I honestly don’t know yet,” Poseidon replied, looking down at his hands. “But it’s something we need to talk about.”
Candy watched him, a knot forming in her stomach. “And I’m guessing it can’t wait until after we’re both off work?”
“No, it really can’t. I’ve been fighting with myself all night about whether to bring it up or not, but Carter cornered me at morning training and told me I had to.”
“What’s going on?” Candy asked. She shifted closer, placing her hand gently over his.
Poseidon took a breath. “That call I took yesterday... while Carter and I were breaking down the boxes.”
Candy’s eyes narrowed slightly as the pieces started clicking together. “It wasn’t a coworker, was it?”
“No,” he said quietly. “It was my mother.”
“Your mom?” Candy’s brow furrowed, her eyes widening. “But you said you haven’t spoken to her in over five years.”
“I haven’t,” Poseidon confirmed, his voice tightening. “Not since the day I left my old pack.”
“Why did she call you out of the blue?”
“Candy, there’s something I haven’t been completely honest about…”
“What?”
“Why I chose to leave my old pack.”
“You told me you left because your first mate rejected you,” Candy said, her confusion clear as she tried to track the direction of the conversation.
“That part is true. But I never told you who she was—or rather, who she is.” Poseidon looked down at his feet, the shame of omitting such a massive detail from his true mate weighing heavily on him. “She’s the Alpha’s daughter.”
“Oh.”
“That’s it?” Poseidon looked up, staring at her in shock. “That’s all you’ve got for me?”
“What else am I supposed to say to that? She’s the Alpha’s daughter. Whoop-dee-f*cking-do.”
“Um… okay. I expected a bit more of a reaction, but maybe that’s just me.”
“Percy, get to the point, would you? I’m going to be late for work, and so are you.”
“Right, sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She rejected me because she wanted an arranged marriage with a neighboring Alpha.”
“Sounds familiar. I know plenty of packs that still operate like that,” Candy said, her tone sharpening as her frustration grew. He was beating around the bush when she just needed him to be upfront. “But what does any of this have to do with you? Or us?”
“My mom called yesterday to tell me that she changed her mind, and that—”
“Tell her to f**k off.” Candy cut him off flatly, already sensing exactly where this was going. It wasn’t the first time a high-ranking wolf tried to rewrite history when it suited them, and it wouldn't be the last. “You’re my mate, my man, and my wolf. She doesn’t get to take back a five-year-old rejection. That’s not how the world works.”
“I did,” Poseidon said quickly. “I told my mom the entire pack could f**k off, told her never to call me again, and then I blocked her.”
Candy’s eyes widened, a different kind of surprise hitting her. “You blocked your own mother?”
“My parents sided with the Alpha and his daughter back then. Honestly, it didn't surprise me all that much.”
“Why?”
“Because my parents are chosen mates, not fated. In my old pack, they don’t really value fated matches when it comes to the lower ranks.”
Candy’s brow furrowed, catching the slip of his tongue. “Lower ranks?”
Poseidon swallowed hard, looking everywhere but at her. “That’s the other secret I’ve been keeping…”
“You—you’re ranked?”
“Yeah.” Poseidon nodded miserably.
Candy blinked rapidly, the pieces of his past shifting into a completely different, terrifying picture. “What rank, Percy?”
“Gamma.”
Her breath caught. She shook her head in utter disbelief, staring at the man she thought she knew.
“Wh—why didn’t you ever tell me this?”
“It wasn't important,” Poseidon said, offering a careless shrug that didn't quite reach his eyes. “I pretty much gave up my rank when I became a bounty hunter.”
“Babe, you know as well as I do that’s not how it works. You can’t just walk away from what’s written in your DNA.”
“Maybe not physically. But I can in my mind, and in my heart,” he insisted, his voice dropped to a fierce whisper. “I don’t want to be ranked. Especially not in a pack as toxic as my old one.”
Candy watched him closely, her instincts on high alert. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
“That’s pretty much it. I think.”
“You think?” Candy stared at him, incredulous. When he only offered another helpless shrug, she rubbed her temples, trying to process the sheer weight of it. “Okay, hold on a second. Fury is an Alpha by blood. Aries is a Delta. And now you’re telling me you’re a Gamma?”
“Yeah.”
“What in the world…” Candy shook her head, the reality of their friend group spinning entirely out of scope. “Do the guys know?”
“That I’m ranked by blood?” Poseidon asked. When Candy nodded, he sighed. “No. Not that I know of.”
“But they know you came from another pack and were rejected?”
“Yeah. I came clean to them right after Margot rejected Fury. I was only trying to help him through it, to sympathize with what he was feeling.”
“I can understand that,” Candy said softly, though the frustration still simmered underneath. “But Percy, you’ve had so many chances to be honest about your pedigree since then. Why keep it a secret?”
“Because it doesn’t matter! What good would it do?” He looked at her, desperate for her to understand. “It’s not like I want to go head-to-head against Mikey for control. Just like Fury would never dare assert his Alpha dominance over our Alpha.”
“No one expects either of you to do that,” Candy said, her tone softening as she reached out to ground him. “There are plenty of packs with multiple blood-ranked members. At the end of the day, it’s about who is stronger and who is actually capable of leading. Accepting who you are doesn’t mean you’re going to commit treason.”
Poseidon sighed and nodded, finally letting his shoulders drop. He understood exactly where she was coming from.
“Yeah, I get that. Either way, that’s not the only reason I’m coming clean to you now. With everything my mom said... I just wanted to be completely honest with you.”
“I appreciate your honesty, babe. I really do,” Candy said, squeezing his hand. “I respect you for telling me, even if it was hard. I want you to know that you never have to hide anything from me. No matter how bad something feels or how messy it seems, we handle it together, as a team. I’d always rather have these uncomfortable, honest conversations from the get-go than have you sugarcoat things.”
“I just don’t want you to feel burdened by my past.”
“That’s not your decision to make,” Candy replied, her tone firm but gentle. “I understand where you're coming from, but I’m not a child, Percy, so please don’t treat me like one. I might be young, but I can handle the truth. I work with children every day, and they’re some of the most brutally honest creatures on the planet, regardless of their species. I’ve always believed that adults should be just as brave with the truth as kids are.”
Poseidon nodded, the tension finally leaving his chest as he looked at his mate. She was right, and he knew it. Even when the truth was uncomfortable, even when it stung, brutal honesty was the only way they were to survive any storms that graced their doorstep.
“Is there anything else I need to know?” Candy asked, keeping her eyes locked on his.
“Nope. That’s everything.”
“And are we worried this Alpha’s daughter will actually make good on her word?”
Poseidon blinked, thrown off by the question. “What do you mean?”
“Is she going to cause drama? Is she going to show up here in our territory to try and stake a claim on you?”
“No! Goddess, no,” Poseidon insisted, the horror of the idea flashing across his face. “She doesn’t even know where I am.”
“You’re sure about that?” Candy pressed, needing to hear the absolute certainty in his voice.
“I’m positive,” he reassured her, his tone steady. “My number isn’t even local to Vegas. It’s a Vermont area code. There's no way for her to track me here.”
“Okay.” Candy nodded, letting out a long, slow sigh as a fraction of the tension left her shoulders. “Because the last thing we need right now is more drama. We just got settled.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. She won’t be a problem,” Poseidon replied with absolute confidence.
“Alright. Is there anything else? Anything at all, Percy?”
“No. That’s everything, I promise.”
“Okay. I’m going to go finish getting ready for work, and you need to get dressed, too.”
“Yeah, go ahead.” Poseidon reached out, catching her hand for a brief second. “I’m sorry for springing this on you so suddenly, baby.”
“It’s okay. Just… don’t do it again,” Candy said, her gaze turning serious one last time. “I prefer the ugly truth over anything else. As I said, I can handle a lot, but I won’t forgive lying—even if it’s just by omission.”
“I understand. I won’t let it happen again.”
“Good.” Candy smiled, the heavy cloud between them finally lifting. She stepped closer, cupping his cheeks in her hands, and kissed him tenderly. Releasing him, she slipped into their walk-in closet to get dressed for work while Poseidon headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
As the hot water cascaded over his face, the confidence he had displayed to Candy began to fracture. He leaned his forehead against the cool tile, closed his eyes, and prayed to the Moon Goddess that the call from his mother was nothing more than an empty warning. He desperately needed it to just be a phone call, not the opening salvo of a new nightmare.
Raelynn had made her bed five years ago. As far as he was concerned, she could die in it.
- Writer
