Titus Parr?  That was a blast from the past that she didn't want to hear. She'd tried to bury everything having to do with her stepfather when she'd left East Brook fifteen years ago. Titus had been a feature of her nightmares for years, and here he was again, rearing his ugly head. Hearing his name sent all the terror he'd been able to produce in her years ago spiraling through her, and if Logan hadn't said that he was in jail, she thought she would have fled and never looked back.

She shoved Titus from her mind, since he was not the real crux of her problem right now. She glanced over at Mason as he stared straight ahead and the muscle worked in his jaw. She was going to have to bind herself to him for the sake of her pack, and there was going to be no escaping the past if she did that. But what choice did she have? If she walked away, if she did what she'd been planning this morning, washing her hands of the pack and moving on, East Brook would cease to exist and so would Cold Bay.

"I'll let you two discuss it. I want you to make the choice that is best for you, so understand that I will abide by whatever you decide." Logan pushed his chair back and stood. He came around the desk and put his hand on Grace's shoulder for a second before he walked out the door, closing it behind him. 

"Well I don't know about you, but this wasn't what I was expecting to talk to him about." Mason turned in his chair and she tried to read what he was thinking on his face. She couldn't tell what was on his mind, since his expression was neutral. Or it could be that the only emotion she could identify from him was anger or resentment, since those were the ones she saw most on his face.

"I should have expected this. It seemed much too easy to get both packs to follow Logan." When Logan had broached the topic with her a few days ago, when he'd realized that he couldn't give Faith up, she'd gone along with him. But there had been a nagging doubt in her head, one that told her that life wasn't that neat, that just because you wanted something so bad didn't mean that you would get it. She hadn't said as much to Logan, because she wanted him to be happy and she knew that Faith was the woman who would do that.  

"So what is this binding going to involve?" Mason's voice shook her from her thoughts and made her focus on the matter at hand. They needed to make a choice, although it seemed to be a lessor of two evils type thing. She knew, just based on the few interactions she'd had with him since she'd been back, that there was nothing left between them. They couldn't be in the same room together without fighting. What kind of binding would that be if they tore each other apart every second they were together? The alternative was destroying both their packs.

"We will have to bind ourselves together, and live together as a couple. Fortunately it won't have to be forever." She hoped that would make him feel better about doing this if he knew that he wouldn't have to be bound to her for the rest of his life. They didn't need to be legally married, since for centuries wolves had bound themselves together in a binding ceremony that held more meaning for them than a conventional wedding. Fortunately a binding was easier to dissolve than a marriage, and there was no stigma attached to doing it.

"How long are we stuck with each other?"

Stuck with each other?  She almost told him in a sarcastic tone that there was no need for him to dress it up in so much romance. But she refrained. If they were going to do this, she needed to exercise some self-control and not give in to the urge to get her back up over everything he said. 

"The binding needs to be a minimum of a year. If we choose to be together longer, that is certainly not an obstacle." She looked down at her hands in her lap and wondered how she was going to tell him the rest. Mason wasn't stupid, so she supposed that he would have most likely already figured it out for himself. A simple binding wasn't enough. Who was to say that they didn't just live together platonically and declare at the end of the year that they weren't compatible? If only it was that easy. "We have to join the bloodlines, which means we have to have a child together."

Damn the council for doing this. There was a time when she wanted nothing more than to be able to bring Mason's child into the world, but that time had long since passed. 

"So that's how they prevent us from pretending? This is going to be a true binding then?” He swore softly under his breath and she could see that he wasn't any happier about this than she was. Was she that abhorrent to him now that he didn't want to contemplate sharing a bed with her? The jealousy he'd displayed last night had shown otherwise, but it was one thing to have lingering feelings based on a shared past, and another to not want to be with someone who'd hurt you in the worst way possible.

"It's going to be a true binding. If we conceive within the allotted year we can go our separate ways." At least there was a light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that they wouldn't have to make each other miserable forever, that it would only be for a year. Of course if they did conceive a child they would be bound together in an entirely different way, but she didn't want to think about that. The baby hadn't been conceived yet, and she still had to go through sleeping with him again in order to do it. 

"And if there is no baby after the year is up?" 

"Then the merging of the two packs is void, since the bloodlines will not be merged." And they would have gone through all this for nothing. 

"Fucking council." A growl rumbled inside him, and she resisted the urge to put a soothing hand on him. There would be plenty of time to touch him if they decided to go through with this. And she needed time to shore up her defenses if she did. "So this all might be for nothing. We will have wasted a year of our lives and we'll still lose."

She fought to keep the flinch off her face at his words. So he considered spending a year living with her and trying to make a baby with her a waste?

"Yes, that is the risk of doing this. I know this is a lot to take all at once, so I'm sure that Logan isn't expecting an answer this second. You have only had about ten minutes to think about this. We have some time before Logan needs to give the council his answer." Grace clutched her purse to her and stood up. There wasn't really much more to say to him. This was a shitty situation and while there really was no choice for her, she knew that he should have a little time before he was forced to come up with his answer.

"And what about you? Don't you need time to think about this?" He stood up and she had to tip her neck back to look up at him. She squeezed her hands around her purse at the feelings his close proximity stirred within her. When she'd been prepared to mate with Logan, she known that sleeping with him would be like sleeping with her brother. The same could not be said for sleeping with Mason. The sex between them had been good fifteen years ago, and she had no reason to doubt that it would not be the same now. Which would only make keeping her defenses up that much more difficult. "Grace? Did you hear what I asked?"

She was jolted from her thoughts. She really needed to pull herself together if all he needed to do was stand beside her and she was sent off into a fantasy land, imagining making love with him.

"I was prepared to make this sacrifice once before. I was prepared to bind myself with Logan to ensure my pack survived in some form. I don't need time to think about this." There was no other answer than yes for her. She'd come home to help keep her pack together. It seemed stupid to back out now when what she needed to do was going to be so much harder now than it would have been if she'd mated with Logan. There was a silver lining, one that made this whole thing more palatable. When she passed age thirty, needs had arisen inside her, a yearning that she'd pushed down for years. She wanted to have a family, a child to call her own. This binding with him would give her the opportunity to fulfill that wish. "Can you take me home now? If you'd rather not, I can ask Logan."

"No, I'll take you." He turned to the door and walked out ahead of her. As she followed behind him, she looked at his broad back and imagined what it would look like without the shirt covering it. It could be worse, she supposed. At least sleeping with him would not be like sleeping with a total stranger. At least with Mason she knew what to expect. 

The physical side of the relationship they would embark on with their binding would not be the problem. It was the emotional one where the danger lie. She was taking a great risk, because a part of her had never gotten over Mason. She'd not left him because it was a choice she'd made for herself. Circumstances beyond her control had forced her hand. How was she going to keep her heart safely tucked away from him when they had to try to make a child together? 

She didn't know the answer to that as she followed him out to the parking lot to his truck. All she knew was that no matter what happened, he would walk away from her once the year was up. And she needed to keep her heart safe, so it wouldn't devastate her when that happened. She'd had more than enough devastation in her life already to be able to handle any more.

* * *

If he'd thought the silence in the truck on the way to Logan's bar had been bad, the silence as they drove away from it was ten times worse. What did she want from him? Did she want him to jump for joy at the prospect of binding himself to her for the next year, at the notion of making a baby with her? The prospect of it had anger shooting through him. How the fuck was he ever going to put the past behind him when he had to wake up beside her every day?

There really wasn't any answer he could give Logan other than yes, that he would bind himself to her for the next year. The pack was more important than his personal feelings, and he was the only one who could do it. He'd have to suck it up, and be a man about it. He'd just have to spend the next year making sure that she didn't worm herself under his defenses. 

At least sleeping with her wouldn't be a hardship, since the desire he'd felt for her years ago hadn't been dampened by her betrayal. Apparently his body didn't give a shit what she'd done, it wanted to have her any way it could get her. 

He finally pulled up to her house, and she was out of the truck as soon as it had come to a complete stop. She raced to the house as if her butt was on fire, and he sighed as he turned off the truck. Should he go after her, or leave it alone for today? He didn't like leaving things this way, with her not speaking to him. He didn't know what he was going to say, but if they were going to try to get through this year without completely ripping each other apart, he needed to try to be a reasonable man with her.

He got out of the truck and walked up the porch. He didn't bother to knock on the door as he walked in. She was back to sorting out the boxes, as if she'd never left and they hadn't been given the explosive bombshell in Logan's office. 

"Why don't you leave that for the moment so we can talk?" He came over to her, stood behind her and she gave a shake of her head.

"I don't know what else there is to talk about? I've told you that I'm prepared to go through with this, and so what happens next is up to you. I have a lot of things to do. This house is not going to pack up itself." She wouldn't look at him, and she took the box over to the bookshelf and started throwing things into it.

"You're still going to sell this place?" 

She sighed and dropped the box on the floor with a thud. She turned and folded her arms across her chest.

"Yes, I'm still going to sell this place. We need to live together for the next year and I’m going to assume that you don't want to pack up your things and move in here."

That wasn't going to happen. He was the lieutenant for Cold Bay and he was going to be living in Cold Bay. But that didn't mean that she had to sell this place. She was going to need somewhere to live once their year was up.

"Of course we will be living at my place, but what about after the year is over? You'll need somewhere to live once it's done." 

Her mouth tightened and he couldn't for the life of him figure out what he'd said. 

"I have no intention of living in this house once it's over. I don't know if I'm going to stay in East Brook once everything is done." She picked up the box again and turned back to the bookshelf.

Not stay in East Brook? The thought was like a kick in the gut. Why the hell wouldn't she want to stay here once their year together was over? What if they conceived a child, which was the whole point of this? 

"And what if there is a child? What then? Are you going to give birth and run out on it?" He never would have pegged her for the type of woman who would leave her child to grow up without her. But then when they'd first gotten together he'd never thought she was the kind of woman who would run off with another man. How well did he really know her?

She dropped the box again and spun around, with fire in her eyes. "There is no way in hell I'd ever abandon my child. What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"Do you really want me to answer that after the stunt you pulled fifteen years ago?" He could feel heat rise inside him, and it only got hotter when the implications of what she was saying hit him. She wasn't going to abandon their child but she wasn't going to stay either. "There is no way in hell you are taking my child from me. My baby needs a father, and while this isn't exactly the most ideal way to start a family and certainly not the way I wanted it to happen, I am going to be there for my kid."

The thought of her leaving, of her taking his kid with her and perhaps have him or her raised by someone else did nothing to calm him down. If he thought her running off fifteen years ago had hurt, the notion that she would do it again sent a chill through him. It would be so much worse, since if there was a child it would feel like his heart had been torn from him. He'd always known that he wanted kids, and it had been reinforced when he'd spent time with Logan's son. 

She sighed and dropped her head forward for a second, shaking it.

"How is this going to work between us? Maybe we should got to Logan and tell him that we can't do it. He said that he would respect any decision we made." She kicked the box out of the way and walked past him toward the kitchen. He heard the sound of water running, and thought about agreeing with her. 

He knew that he couldn't let his pack or his alpha down. They had to do this. He followed her to the kitchen and watched her tip back a glass of water as she drank the whole thing. 

"How can you say this isn't going to work? You want to give up without even giving it a shot? What do you think is going to happen to East Brook if Batesburg gets a hold of it?"

"I know exactly what will happen, I've seen it. The alpha of Batesburg makes my stepfather's term as alpha look like heaven. I know that this pack can't take any more, that it's dying already. A part of me wants to let it die, to move on and try to build something new." She turned around to face him and there was a look of intense sadness on her face that he hated seeing. But he was at a loss to know what to do or say to take that look away. It seemed like all he ever did was say the wrong thing. "I don't know what to do."

"We'll find a way to make it work." He walked closer to her and took the glass of water from her hand and put it on the counter. He thought about taking her hands in his but didn't. Things were already so tense and complicated between them that he knew touching her would only make things worse.

"How can we Mason, when we are already fighting over a child who doesn't exist yet? Do you really want to spend the next year in battle?"

"No, I don't. If there is a child when the year is over, we'll address it once it happens. We just have to make the best of the coming year, and go our separate ways once it's over. East Brook may be dying, but Cold Bay isn't. I can't let my pack be swallowed by Batesburg if there is anything I can do to stop it."

She looked up at him, and talking to her like this, with a calm a rational tone made him forget for a moment all the garbage that was between them. It felt like old times, when he couldn't get enough of her. Her allure pulled him toward her like a magnet and he found his head lowering toward hers.

Her eyes flared wide, and she quickly shifted to the side so that she was no longer in front of him. He stiffened for a moment. Had he actually been about to kiss her? It was obviously not what she wanted at the moment, and he couldn't really blame her. They'd only spent most of the time they'd been in this house yelling at each other. 

"I have a lot to do, because no matter what happens next year there is no way I want to live in this house. It holds too many bad memories for me, and if I'm going to get it sorted I need to do a lot of work." There was a closed look on her face and he knew that any further discussion would not be happening now. 

"I'll tell Logan that we are going to go through with this. I'm sure he'll be in touch with you about what will happen next." He walked past her toward the front of the house. Once he got outside he felt like he could breathe again. The tension in that house had been oppressive and if that was what it was going to be like for the next year, he didn't know how they were going to get through it. 

He got in his truck and turned over the engine. For his part, he certainly could have handled that a lot better than he had. He needed to get a grip on the resentment that had festered inside him for the past fifteen years. They'd never survive if they spent all their time fighting. And if there was a baby, they had to learn to find a way to get along because there was no way he was going to subject his child to two fighting parents. 

He glanced in the rearview mirror, and saw her standing on the porch watching him. Even at this distance he could see the look of profound pain on her face, and there was nothing he could do about it. She wouldn't welcome any comfort from him, especially not since he was sure he was the one who put it there.