(Xander POV)When I get to the Wildwood Pack and change back into my clothes, I am shocked by the number of other wolves that are here. I silently pray to the Moon Goddess that there has been some sort of misunderstanding. Surely Piper was not stupid enough to risk coming to an event like this.“You were pretty stupid yourself when you were 19,” my wolf reminds me.“Yes, but Piper is better than me. She always has been,” I link back. I take my time scanning the massive crowd. Finding Piper will be more difficult than it should be, mainly because everyone is wearing masks. My heart stops every time I see a blond she-wolf about Piper’s height. However, after about thirty minutes and a dozen close calls, I start to relax. Piper isn’t here. The omega at Moon Shadow must have been mistaken.Or so I thought.I am about to leave when my eyes are drawn to a beautiful blond in a short black dress. Unlike the other she-wolves that I have spotted, I am unable to spot any obvious featur
(Xander POV)Remember how I started my story about what happened on the one-year anniversary by saying that I was a broken-hearted idiot? Yeah, well here comes the reason that I said that.Obviously, seeing Piper kissing another male explains why I felt broken-hearted, but I truly believe that walking away from her was a smart thing to do. Getting wasted drunk at Drunken Dragon Bar just outside Wildwood Pack grounds, on the other hand, easily makes my top-10 list of stupid decisions.At the time, going to that particular bar seemed to make a lot of sense. It was close by; it was open 24-hours; and it had wolfsbane cocktails advertised on its signage, meaning that it was werewolf friendly. Inside, the bar was full of wolves and a handful of humans. The music was loud and the liquor was flowing. Nothing in the bar screamed, “Turn around and go home.” Instead, Drunken Dragon Bar seemed like the perfect place to drink my problems away. To be fair, I had only anticipated being the
(Xander POV) “Well, well, well. Who do we have here?” I stumbled a few times as I forced myself to stand up. I knew getting caught here was a mistake that I was going to pay for, but the last thing I would ever do is admit it to this a&&hole. “Well, hello there Leo,” I slurred, pretending not to care that he was here. “You are supposed to be at the conference,” he said coldly. I rolled my eyes and glanced behind him at the three goons standing with him. “Yeah, well.” “I did not give you permission to leave, Boy.” Anger and adrenaline were quickly sobering me up. Maybe not as fast as I needed them to, but it was something. I looked at Leo as defiantly as I could. “Boy??!?” I spit back. “I am just three years younger than you. And the last time I checked, you were neither my father nor my alpha.” I am pretty sure half of those words were slurred and only somewhat understandable, but in my head, they sounded crystal clear. “Why is it that every time Piper disappears on me
(Piper POV) I was in the kitchen working on meal prep when Warrior Asher came to find me. It had been a couple of days since that disaster of a party. “Piper, the alpha wants to see you.” I turned and looked at Asher in surprise. “Alpha Aiden is back? I thought that the conference was supposed to last a few more days.” “He came back early,” Asher responded solemnly. “Why?” Asher looked at me sympathetically. “He received a complaint that he thought warranted immediate attention.” I wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion. “A complaint? About what?” Asher looked down. “It… was a complaint about you.” “What?!?! What did I do?” My brain quickly began running a million miles a minute as I tried to figure out what I possibly could have done that would warrant Alpha Aiden leaving the conference early. Yes, I had been distracted and upset, and so my cooking and cleaning skills had been even worse than normal the past couple of days. But surely, burning some potatoes and missin
(Alpha Aiden POV) As Piper walks into my office and sits down in a guest chair, I run my hand through my long curly red hair in both anger and frustration. I don’t know if it is Piper’s fault that I am so upset, or if it is Jonas’s fault… or if it is my own. I have been the alpha of Moon Shadow Pack for four years. I was only 19 years old when I took over. Most alpha heirs do not take over until their mid to late 20s, after they have met their mates/ lunas, but I had to take over earlier because my father died unexpectedly. As a younger alpha, I am hyper-sensitive to criticism from others. I know that I lack the experience that other alphas have, and I would even admit that I lack some of the maturity too. However, my pack members still depend on me for stability, leadership, and security. That means that I cannot afford to make mistakes. Every mistake that I make represents weakness, and every weakness I have represents risk to my pack. That is why I got so upset when Xande
(Piper POV)“The safety of this pack and its members is my highest priority, and anyone —ANYONE— who jeopardizes that safety is subject to severe punishment.”“Yes, of course, Alpha.” I was feeling completely confused, and Alpha Aiden was starting to scare me a little bit. What was he talking about? What did he think that I did? And why was he talking about punishment? Meanwhile, as confused as I was, I could feel Penelope becoming angry. She had always had a fondness for Alpha Aiden, but she did not like it when anyone talked to me the way that Alpha Aiden was talking to me right now.“So why don’t you tell me why you were making a public scene at Leo Bloodstone’s cousin’s birthday party two nights ago, and why you chose to whore yourself out while you were there?”That was… Leo’s cousin’s party?Oh, my Goddess.No wonder Leo was there. And no wonder he had a room at the packhouse.“Piper, I asked you a question.”“I-I am
(Alpha Aiden POV) I do not know why I let the conversation with Piper spiral so far out of control. I had a plan. Confront Piper; punish Piper; move on with my day. Maybe even go back to the conference. I thought I had thought through all of the possibilities. I had even talked about everything with Beta Jonas. Admittedly, when I talked to Jonas, he had been uncomfortable. He said the allegations seemed out of character for Piper, which I could not disagree with him about. However, after I told Jonas that it was Xander Ross who called me —and after I told him about the corroborative evidence I had obtained— , he agreed that we needed to take action. Jonas thought the proposed punishment was too harsh, but he ultimately agreed with it anyway. The idea for the punishment came from Xander, who said it was what he would do if one of his omegas acted the way that Piper had acted. He said that a strong alpha does not let this kind of behavior go unchecked. Executing the punis
(Alpha Aiden POV) “You want to leave Moon Shadow?” I repeated back in shock. Piper’s request caught me completely off guard. In a million years, I had not considered the possibility that Piper would want to leave the pack. Worse, for reasons that I could not explain, the idea of her leaving my pack hurt me. It felt like, if Piper left, a piece of me would be leaving too. It was a bizarre feeling that I had never felt before. “You cannot let her go, Aiden,” my wolf August linked me. “Who is she to us?” I asked him. “Is she our mate?” “I don’t know, Aiden. She isn’t 20 yet. We won’t know for sure until her birthday. I just know that we have to protect her. I think you should re-think the punishment. It doesn’t feel right.” “I can’t!” I protested in our link. “I have to execute the plan. We have to protect her and our pack. We can’t risk the Bloodstones finding her.” “You don’t even know why she ran. If you punish her like you planned, I think you will regret it,” Au