Had my agreement been just words, or had it started some process in the pack magic? Consent, I knew, was necessary for a lot of magic to take place.
I am immune to some magic.
Maybe mating would turn out to be one of those things.
I also knew pack magic worked subtly differently for the Alpha than it did for the rest of the pack.
Adam had bound himself to me by declaring me his mate before his pack--and it had had an effect on the pack's magic, and on Adam.
I was pretty sure it didn't work quite that way for most wolves, that both had to agree, and that their mating was a more private matter.
I frowned.
There was a ceremony.
I was almost certain of it.
Something happened to make a couple into a mated pair--and then there was some sort of werewolf-only ceremony.
Maybe Adam had done it backward? Maybe mating an Alpha was no different than mating with any other wolf.
Maybe I was going to drive myself crazy.
I needed real information, and I had no idea who to ask.
It couldn't be any of Adam's pack--it would undermine his authority.
Besides, they'd just go tell him I was asking.
Samuel didn't seem like a good choice either, not after we'd only just agreed not to try it as a couple.
Or Bran, for the same reason.
I knew he had sent Samuel to the Tri-Cities in a misguided attempt at matchmaking.
I wasn't sure Samuel had told him it hadn't worked.
I wished, not for the first time, that my foster father, Bryan, was still around.
But he'd killed himself a good long time ago.
I turned my face in to the hot spray of my shower.
Okay.
So assume the mating thing wasn't permanent.
How would I make Adam hate me? Well, I certainly wasn't sleeping with Samuel.
Or hurting Jesse.
Water hit the healing wound on my chin, and I tipped my head down.
Making him leave me had seemed logical, but Adam wasn't the kind of person to leave when things got rough.
And even if I managed it, wouldn't he still care if Marsilia killed me? Maybe if I had a few months or a year to work on it, I might manage.
Could I run? With my bank balance, I might make it as far as Seattle.