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After Amber left, Mum called me into the house, her face like stone. I immediately knew it had something to do with Wanda, and I was soon proven right.
"Your brother's having a party tomorrow," she told me, her voice clipped. "Wanda wishes for you to be there as the Golden Shore's 'representative', ostensibly so you can be witness to his official mating with Sienna of the White Downs pack."
I groaned. The White Downs pack were the richest, most well-connected, and snobbiest of packs the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Not even Amber's pack had half the resources the White Downs had, and Sienna was outrageously spoilt. Wanda would get her wish, or so she thought; mixing "mutt" blood with purebred blood would result in some "mutt" blood entering the gene-pool. I wondered what Wanda had promised to get Sienna's father to agree to the match, but I decided I didn't want to know.
Mum clarified in any case. "Wanda knows she's 'sullying' the White Downs bloodline," she said, "but she doesn't care. She doesn't want you and Zach getting together because you're still her granddaughter, and she wants better for you. I suspect she'll have a mate lined up for you when you go there, but I wouldn't be keen on giving her more great-grandcubs to manipulate; it's bad enough she's going to seize any cubs Zach and Sienna produce. Sienna's so dazzled by the match she's likely to agree to anything in order to get Zach into her bed."
I didn't like Sienna, and for good reason. She and I had clashed as cubs, and Sienna's father had gone to Dad to demand reparations. Dad had told him to shove it where the sun doesn't shine, and Sienna and I had been at loggerheads ever since. It had all started when Sienna had bragged she'd take Zach from me one day, and I'd about decked her. I was a strong cub even at five, and Sienna had stood no chance against me. I'd had no idea how Sienna knew about the closeness between Zach and I, but I suspected Wanda had promised him to Sienna from the moment he was born, and Sienna had lapped it up.
And now it had come to pass. "I can't go," I said desperately.
"I told Wanda as such," Mum said unhappily. "She told me it was her right as your grandmother to demand your attendance. I said she had no rights where either of my children were concerned, and she laughed at me. She said if you didn't attend, she'd take it as an insult, and threatened to use her connections to bring war to us. We're no slouches when it comes to war, mind you, and I told her as such."
"But she's threatened Caleb," I guessed. Caleb was my youngest brother, and while I wasn't as close to him as I had been with Zach, I still loved him fiercely. "Why?"
"Because Wanda is obsessed with the idea of a pure bloodline, and she'll do anything to protect it," Dad said grimly from the doorway, his face like thunder. "Zach and Sienna are just the start of her experiment, and she's threatened Caleb, Cory, and Joanna if we don't send you to Blackpool."
I shivered. I didn't want harm to come to my siblings, but neither did I want to watch my beloved Zach in the arms of another woman. And Sienna would force me to watch when she and Zach had sex for the first time. I clenched my fists. It seemed I had no choice; my siblings stood at risk of being kidnapped if I didn't attend the shindig in Blackpool, and if anyone had to be the sacrifical lamb, that someone would have to be me. "Then I need to go," I said. "That doesn't mean I have to enjoy it."202Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKx7sqCqPfi
Dad hugged me close. "I know," he said softly. "But remember this; Wanda tried to break Candy and I up, and she very nearly succeeded. But your mum believed in us, and she helped me remember that I loved Candy too much to give her up, even when it felt like she didn't love me the way I loved her. Candy's got a stubborn streak a mile wide, and that's what saved us in the end. You and Zach are the same; you're meant to be together. Wanda and Sienna can try their best to break you two up, and they'll throw all they have in their arsenal." He kissed my head before letting me go. "You're going to go through ten million doubts, but if you're as stubborn as your stepmother, you'll find a way to get through to Zach."
"I was born stubborn," I reminded him with an arch smile. "Remember how I decided I didn't want to leave Mum's womb when she was ready to give birth? That's how stubborn I am."
But as I left to get ready, I wondered if my natural stubbornness would be enough. Being rock-headed was a good trait, but Sienna flirted as naturally as breathing. And if she had Zach wrapped around her little finger, I'd lose before the contest even started.
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