Chase's POV“Shouldn’t the letter have come sealed?” Gen asked, glancing incredulously at the glaringly obvious broken seal.Ron shrugged while I smirked.“I took the liberty of reading it for him.”“Like he always does.” I added. This was another insufferable bad habit of Ron’s beside the maddening pacing. I was used to it and didn’t mind but Gen gave him a nasty side-eye that had me chuckling despite the serious situation.Ron rolled his eyes. “I’m saving him from reading spam. Do you want the news or not?”“Bad news first.” I said massaging my temple. I had not signed up for this this morning.“Bad news is in the letter.” He grinned. “Go ahead and read it.”Shaking my head at his theatrics which was undoubtedly a result of spending too much time with Henry, I slid out the letter and scanned the jargon it contained.“This is a joke.” I scoffed. I couldn’t even get angry because of how outrageous the request was. Maybe I should have been livid but I had already made up my mind from t
Chase's POV“What is it?” I asked at last.Ron had been casting not-so-discreet side glances my way since we left Gen at the office.“Are you really not going to attend the party.”“Is there any real reason why I should?” Annoyance radiated from my tone.“Well, it's tradition.”“To hell with fucking traditions!” I spat out with venom. “I was ready to keep those bloody traditions until that psychotic bastard had his spy shot in broad daylight and then announced the stupidest reason he could think of to have the blasted party postponed. What I am not going to do is waltz into Lunagrove with Maya and act all civil with that monster after what happened to Theo. If I can help it, she won’t ever be in the same room with that bastard. So to answer your question, yes, I'm really not going to attend that funeral disguised as a party.”Ron blinked at my spiel in shock.“No party, then.”I huffed in frustration. Whatever. There was no use getting worked up, I had other things to focus on for now
Chase’s POVThe woman glowered at me much to my amusement.“Do not call me that.”Humans never seemed to like that term. You would think that I had insulted her instead of simply addressing her as what she was.“Would you tell me your name then?” I drawled.“What. Do. You. Want?” She bit out through gritted teeth, ignoring my request for her name.No cutting corners then.“Do you live alone?”My direct question took her by surprise. I watched as she struggled to keep her composure. Her gaze fleeted from me to Ron and when she caught my eyes straying above her head to the interior of the house, her grip on the door tightened.“That's none of your business.” She snarled and moved to slam the door shut but Ron caught hold of the knob on our side, successfully halting her attempt.I hadn't expected her to answer my question but it did help me to gauge her reaction. My gut told me she lived alone. It would explain why she was so furtive but she was also hiding something.Could she know Ori
Chase's POVThis time, I didn’t waste my time knocking. Raising my leg, I brought down the door with one kick.I guess she’ll need that door replacement after all.“You are getting way too good at that.” Ron commented as he stared at the fallen structure with wood particles surrounding it.I shrugged and stepped inside.“It hardly my fault that the people we've been after are keen on keeping us out.”“For good reason.”We paused to observe the house. The interior was in a slightly better state than the exterior— emphasis on slightly— and it was very still. If not for the lingering scent of the woman that I now knew was Orion, I would have thought it empty.“She's still in here. Hiding.” Ron’s nose flared. “I thought she would make a run for it since she knows we are searching for her.”“And leave her workshop? I doubt it.” My eyebrows dipped as I glanced around before a dark smile crept onto my lips. “She has spent a long time among werewolves. She knew to distribute her scent.”It wa
Chase’s POV“Could this day get any more bizarre?” Ron muttered behind me and took a step towards Orion. Immediately she jerked her aim to his chest making him her new target.“Do not come any closer.” She commanded ferociously, like a cornered animal. The steeliness in her voice made me study her more closely. The creature before me wasn’t the scrawny woman that had answered the door earlier. This was Orion.Orion had a blonde buzzcut and hard features set in a frown. Her strong shoulders held the crossbow with ease and her stance was better than that of some great warriors had seen.The woman from earlier was a fidgeting actress but this woman aiming at us was a smith who knew very well how to wield the weapons which she created.But then—I watched for a microsecond as her calloused hand trembled before clasping the crossbow tighter.“We aren’t here to hurt you.” I said as gently as I could manage given the situation.At this, she snorted and returned her aim to my chest. “Coming f
Chase’s POV“What do you want to know?” Orion asked with her hands folded on the table which we all sat around. Her face held disinterest while Ron’s was passively aggressive. I observed this with a blank expression while hoping that she would refrain from saying something to rile Ron. After the incident with the axe, my Beta wasn’t Orion’s biggest fan.Giving myself a mental shake to focus, I asked;“Why eagle feathers?”Orion’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Come one, Alpha, I doubt you came all this way to ask about my craft.”She was right. I didn’t come all this way for that but choosing to use eagle feathers rather than goose or vulture feathers for the fletching of her arrows was a daringly risky choice. That choice intrigued me and I wanted to know why she did it.“Humour me. Yours is the first I’ve seen with such good craftsmanship so it already left an impression. Using eagle feathers on top of that seemed like you wanted to make a statement. A brag.”She watched me silently
Chase’s POV“What?”She got up and began to pace. A distant, less worried part of my brain thought of Ron's pacing habit. The more worried part wanted to find who had lied to us and strangle them.“The owner of this arrow is whoever I sold it to—whoever shot it, not me.”“Ah, I see.” That's what she meant.“Yes. So it will probably serve you better to tender your questions to the one you got this from.”“Believe me, I would not have gone through the hassle of finding you if it was that easy. We were unable to catch the shooter of this arrow, it was as though they disappeared into thin air.”I had a feeling that the shooter was the Shadow from the café. It would explain how he was able to vanish so quickly. All I needed Orion to do was confirm this suspicion of mine and point us towards him.“Look Alpha, you aren't the first to come to me with such enquiries but in my line of work, clients expect their identity to remain confidential.”The muscle in my jaw popped as I stared meaningful
Maya’s POV“Rise and shine!”The sound of my curtains being drawn open followed Genny’s voice breaking through my pitiable sleep.“Good morning.”“There’s nothing good about this morning.” I grumbled and dug deeper into my duvet. She was too loud, the sun was too bright and worse, Chase had not come home last night. I knew because I laid on my side of the bed till sunrise, waiting for the door to open and his weight to dip next to me but it never did.Maybe that was why I was in such a sour mood. Despite the friction between us, he had always come home. Last night changed that.“Come on, Maya, you promised to come with us to the pet shop.”“I've changed my mind, I don’t feel like interacting with any living thing today.” So that if my mate returned, I could unalive him for making me such an overthinking mess.Clinging on to my anger was all I could do to keep from breaking down and I didn’t want to do that first thing in the morning in front of Genny again.The spot next to me dipped