Happy Saturday! Back-to-back updates! Hope you all are enjoying the book so far- please let me know by leaving comments and gems. Thank you for reading! -JNS <3
DAYA POV After our embarrassing, pseudo-sex talk, the three of us prepared ourselves for the day. Saph was on her way to check on Mara’s status at the clinic. Emmy and I were meeting Darius, Tobias and Lucas for a strategy plan. Even if Darius is telling the truth about us being mates, I cannot afford to think about it now. There is too much going on here that requires my attention. The mate bond isn’t going anywhere. Emmy and I arrive at the packhouse, and walking there, I could sense the energy amongst the pack was tense. It’s clear the members of this pack have been through a lot, and now, danger is looming in the air again. These may not be my pack members, but in this brief time of being here, I’ve come to care about them. My presence here is no longer about reclaiming this territory. Technically, this territory was my family’s, but we have been far-removed from here, and nobody even seems to remember our father, Alpha Bronson. So why put these people, this pack, through mor
DARIUS POV I’m going to kill Mara. First, she behaves like a clingy ex-girlfriend, who is hell-bent on being my chosen mate and Luna. Then she’s attacked by Justin and his crew. Now she’s somehow missing. Where the fuck could she have gone? Is she involved with Justin somehow? To top it all off, me and Daya were finally getting closer, and we had to stop because of Mara. I’m going to rip her heart out. Daya may be in denial about the mate bond with me, but I know she feels it. She feels those sparks and tingles. I can tell her wolf likes being around me. She just needs time. Hopefully, all this craziness can be dealt with before the next full moon. Daya and I arrive at the medical clinic, and I can sense the unruliness in the air. I see Tobias rushing down a hallway, shouting orders to a few warriors. “Comb sections 20-30. That’s where we last tracked Justin and his crew. She can’t have gone far. Send a couple people to scout her home and check for anything that can lead
DAYA POV Okay, I lied. I told Darius and the others that Sage would get here the day after I called her. It took her three days to get here. Amy and Pearl also needed a few days to get their lives in order and make their way here. But they should all be arriving today! It is difficult for me to contain my excitement. This is much needed good news after this week. We have had no leads, or signs, of Mara or Justin. I haven’t seen much of Darius. He has been securing all the pack’s resources and helping with border patrol every day too. I still haven’t joined the pack. Since that day in the medical clinic, I’ve been second-guessing things. Darius told me I cannot join border patrol until I join the pack. That is what sparked the idea of running multiple training sessions each day. We decided to do two different training sessions each day, to ensure the borders always have people on patrol. This also makes the group sizes easier for me to manage by myself. I clap my hands toge
DARIUS POV Tobias wouldn’t shut up about Sage. He’s used to hooking up with the occasional pack member. They are drawn to his position and title and enjoy being submissive for him. He’s never complained about that before. “I’m telling you, Dare, I’ve never been put on my ass like that. And the fact that it was done by that little vixen. Fuck dude. I had to stay on the ground for a minute just to give my dick time to calm down. I don’t know what that girl has done to me, but I like it.” He kept talking about her like this for the entire morning. He wanted to go back to the afternoon training session in hopes that Sage would ask him to help demonstrate more maneuvers. I had to burst his bubble though. I needed him to help me conduct perimeter checks. There have been no leads in a few days and the quiet makes me nervous. We checked in with the warriors on patrol. We ran by Logan and Carlo; they were our most senior warriors now. They help out extra at their training sessions a
DARIUS POV The three of us spent the rest of the night coming up with a plan and trying to figure out who this Stone-person could be. I didn’t have anyone in my pack that went by that name. Justin’s last name is Toller and Mara’s is Blakenship. I could barely sleep. It was early the next morning and I figured I’d check out the morning training session. Of course, once I said that, Tobias perked up from his spot on my couch and said he’d come with me. Lucas rolled over in his spot on my living room floor. He was covered in a couple of throw blankets, and he used his hoodie as a makeshift pillow. He wasn’t much of a morning person. He usually trained on his own, and now that there were two training sessions, he started joining in the afternoon session with the warriors the last few days. Tobias was practically sprinting over to the training field. It was still early- 5:15 AM. I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh at him. I’ve never seen him this smitten. If he’s not c
DAYA POV “You want me to pledge to your pack?” I ask him. Suddenly feeling my throat dry up and my stomach twist into knots. There have been a couple of reasons why I decided not to join Darius’ pack. One, with all this fated mate stuff, I just don’t want to take the risk of either of us being hurt or falling victim to the plague. I may not show it well, but I do care about Darius, even if he hurt me. I know he didn’t know he was hurting me. Second, I can’t stay here knowing I was planning on challenging him. If I stay, whether we accept the bond, or not, he will find out and hate me. And who knows what he would do to me and my sisters if he found out. Third, in order to join his pack, he has to learn my full name- my real name. He still thinks my last name is Tannerman. When he realized me, Emmy, and Saph were sisters, he didn’t ask us what our real names are. If he learns my last name, it won’t take him long to put the pieces together that my father was the original Alpha of this
DARIUS POV Confusion. Betrayal. Rage. That only begins to describe how I’m feeling in this moment. I have been walking around like an idiot. I have been giving her space, when I should have been getting to know more about her. I can’t believe I never asked her what her real last name was. I just assumed that since she and her sisters were separated so young, they all changed their names. I guess, technically, they did change their names. Stone. She is a Stone. And an Alpha! Everything makes so much sense now. I’ve never heard of her father, Alpha Bronson Stone. At least I don’t think so. I know he wasn’t in this territory when we moved here. I wonder if Calvin kept any records of who owned this territory before we moved here. I’ll have to check our archives. This still doesn’t explain why I shouldn’t trust her. That note said not to trust a Stone. That means somebody from outside my pack knew about Daya. Is there more about her she still hasn’t told me? Like I told her, she is cl
DAYA POV Darius and I run into the woods, and I can already here the sounds of wolves fighting, tearing into each other’s bodies. I notice a lot of our warriors begin to separate and take on the rogues individually. We have been training for them to fight together. I feel for my newly established connection to the pack and mindlink all the warriors. ‘Warriors, do your best to stay with your teams. Strength in numbers!’ I shout out. I hear many confirmations, and they all begin to shift closer to each other, forcing the rogues to rethink their strategies and fighting styles. Of course, Tobias calls out through the link, even in the heat of battle, he manages to get a quick jab in. ‘Welcome to Running River, Daya! Now help us tear this group of shitheads apart.’ Even if he is a giant goofball, he is clearly a fierce fighter. He is fending off two rogues. I notice Sage is close to him and she is easily handling a gross grey wolf with matted fur. I continue to scan the field; I h