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
Maya's POV“Mum, what of her? Isn't he cute?”Genny sniffed and looked away. “No. The shade of his fur looks too much like your dad's hair.”Faith's shoulders drooped and she returned the adorable ginger kitten to the attendant who gave Genny a sting eye and led Faith away to meet other furry friends.We've been at this for half an hour now. Dami and Ashton had escaped after a few minutes of watching Genny rain on Faith's parade but if chosen to stay. Save to say my left I is now twitching and I'm wishing I left with those lucky bastards.Any cat Faith picked wasn't okay by Genny. They were either too fat, too small, too loud, not furry enough or like the last one, had too much of a resemblance with her mate? You can understand why my eye keeps twitching now, right?“The shade of his fur looks too much like Christian's hair? Really Genny? You aren’t even bothering to come up with reasonable excuses now?” I asked incredulously with my arms on my hips.The female had the guts to look i
Maya’s POV“Chase is going to kill me,” Henry wailed. “And you. Chase is going to kill us both! Didn’t you know pets aren’t allowed in the house?!”I rolled my eyes at his hysterics.“You’re being dramatic. And no, no one told me pets that weren’t allowed in the pack house.”That was a bald-faced lie. Faith and Genny had told me about the not-pet rule yesterday— “Imagine if everyone got to keep any pet they wanted in the house, the whole place would be chaos.” Genny had said while trying to persuade me to return Cocoa. Needless to say, I had not been persuaded.Now, however, as I glared around at the wreckage before me, I inwardly grimaced. I could see why there was a no-pet rule. We stood together in the living room— or rather what was left of the living room.The couch and throw pillows had been bitten into and white fluff lay strewn everywhere. The lamps and flower vases were knocked over and the curtain had a suspicious smiley bite at the corner. I grimaced outwardly at the sight
Maya's POVI was angrily shoving on my sneakers when my room door was pushed open to reveal none other than my mate.“Hey.” Chase greeted as he hesitantly stepped into the room.“Hi.” I breathed. I had no idea what emotions were displayed on my face but he remained standing on the other side of the room, studying me with as much caution as I did him.In my head, my wolf urged me to go to him. We missed his touch, his scent, everything about him. I missed him so much that I wanted to bury myself in his very essence and not come back up.I remained where I was though. Thoughts of his absence and the party warred with my desire to be held.Still, my mouth went ahead of my brain and spilt words before I could call them back.“I missed you last night.”The smile that slowly broke across his face was wide and breathtaking. Ethereal. Was it possible that he got more handsome from when I saw him last?My heart beat loudly in my ears as he made his way towards me with a glint in his eyes, only