Chapter 3

ETHAN

I quickly made my way back to the car as I thought over what the hell just happened.

Emma had been a pleasant encounter. She was certainly unique. The mix between her quick wit and brilliant mind was enough to keep me entertained. She also happened to be hot, so that was another plus.

I still had not figured out the pull to her, but it would become clear in time. I just needed to be patient and keep my eyes and ears open. Without a doubt, I knew that I was supposed to meet her. Now, I just had to figure out what my intuition was telling me. Unfortunately, it was a confusing thing at times.

My phone rang through the Bluetooth the moment I slid into the driver’s seat of my black Camaro. Xander’s name flashed across the console. My money was on him being hangry like usual.

“Where’s the food?” he asked.

He obviously did not like that I had not responded to his earlier text. Too bad. I became a tad busy. Leave it to Xander to always get straight to the point. For someone with such an extensive vocabulary, and such a literary geek, he definitely did not waste his time on too many words with me.

“Hello to you too, brother. I’m doing well. How are you?” I deadpanned.

“Any particular reason why you sound like you ran patrol?” he deadpanned back.

I laughed at his insinuation. It was not that I would had been against it, but for the first time, it had not been on my mind around an attractive she-wolf that caught my interest. However, if she made a move towards that, I was not against it at all.

“I don’t think you want those details. Put your big girl panties on and have an ounce of damn patience. I had an interesting evening. I’ll be there in forty-five minutes,” I said before hanging up on him.

I pulled my car out from its parking spot and hightailed it back to our territory. There was certainly a difference between Blacktree and Blood Moon. Their pack was situated in a small town that had little nature. Our pack was nestled against the mountains and was surrounded by lush forest. It was the perfect place for shifters. We also had a bustling city within our territory. Anything you could want was within driving distance.

I hit the burger joint to grab some food once inside the border before I headed back to the packhouse. Part of me wanted to show up empty handed just to see Xander get pissy, but I was also starving.

My thoughts drifted to my encounter with Emma on the drive home. She was definitely different than anyone I had met before. I had a feeling about her, but I could not quite place it yet. Like she claimed about herself, my feelings also were never wrong.

‘She’s unique,’ Blaze, my wolf spoke up. He was just as curious about her as I was.

‘Yeah, she really fucking is,’ I agreed, walking into the packhouse.

Our packhouse was quite large because it always housed many families over the generations. The Alpha family once consisted of Xander’s parents, his little sister, and him. The Beta family once consisted of my parents, my sister, and me. There once had also been the Gamma and Delta families. A few staff members also lived in the packhouse growing up, so it had always stayed fairly busy.

Now, it permanently housed just Xander and me by design. We were never able to get back into the feel of it being home without our families to make it that way.

In the far end of the packhouse sat our war room and Tech Hub. There was always a team in the Tech Hub, but they did not live here.

“Delivery,” I sang out, sitting the food on desk.

I flopped down in a chair in front of his large mahogany desk. It was one of the few things he had moved in from his father’s old office after he died. Xander was definitely not the sentimental type, but he had a lot of fond memories associated with it.

I cracked my neck and tried to relax. It had been a long day, and I was ready to hop under the stream of a hot shower. Just a little bit more to do before I can do just that. My comfortable bed was calling out to me seductively, and I was more than ready to answer that call.

He finished typing up whatever he was working on before closing his laptop and greedily grabbing one of the bags. Xander was the King of hangry. Two things you did not deprive the man of was coffee and food. He would eviscerate you for that.

“Finally. What took you so long?” he asked, taking a big bite of his triple layer bacon burger with all the fixings.

I grabbed my own and took a bite. The food from the burger joint never disappointed, so we had it often. Thankfully we had shifter healing, or else our arteries would be clogged by now. Imagine if the Alpha and Beta died of heart attacks by the age of twenty-one. That would leave our pack in quite the predicament while going down in history for the wrong thing.

I took a long sip of my drink, gathering my thoughts together. So much had occurred over the course of the day.

“First off, Dr. Fineman wasn’t quite as brilliant as we were led to believe. I would wager that I could do his job better than he. He didn’t have much information to provide on the autopsy of the rouges they killed. So, either he is incompetent or is hiding something.”

Xander looked thoughtful as I said that. We both realized it was definitely a possibility. It would not be the first time that a pack got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

We did not have much faith in the Blacktree pack to begin with. Their Alpha was an egotistical bastard. If we did not need answers, we never would had engaged him in the first place. He agreed to consult with us because he feared saying no to our pack. The fear was what kept us able to get what we wanted mostly.

Emma was right when she said that we were the most protected pack. People knew not to cross us. It was something we unabashedly used to our own advantage.

“I’m heading back there on Wednesday.”

He raised his eyebrow, looking at me curiously. Xander knew me better than anyone, so he knew how strongly I refused to deal with stupidity. I had a severe allergy to it and would rather rip someone’s head off than listen to them spewing like the nincompoops they were.

“Why waste your time if he’s an idiot? There are plenty of other packs to consult with.”

He was absolutely correct. We maintained healthy relationships with many packs around the country. We also had trade agreements with various ones in the states, one in Canada, and two in South America. Our alliances were numerous because people wanted our support in case of war and loved opening trade negotiations with us.

Our main trade was the coal from the mines near the mountains. We also provided a variety of souped-up tech and some medicinal advancements. Trade was an important industry for our pack because it provided a healthy stream of revenue and gave us a leg up on other packs.

Being a trade leader decreased the chances of a successful attack. Sure, some packs attempted to take over our territory, but we destroyed them each and every time. It only served to expand our pack’s resources.

“Not for him. I sort of ran into a girl, literally. She knocked me on my flat on my ass and everything. Quite the first impression and all. So, I’m going to see Dr. Fineman just as an excuse to enter Ezekiel’s territory. He was delusional, thinking we’re seriously seeking his aide. He’s a pompous asshat who believes that he’s the Goddess’s gift to wolfkind.”

Ezekiel was far too eager to get our request for consultation on the rogue attacks. It made me think back to the thought I had earlier. Being too eager could be him trying to deflect suspicion that his pack had anything to do with it. Unfortunately, our pack learned over the years that anything and anyone could be a threat. It was not always the most obvious of choices which were threats. Sometimes it was the least likely instead.

“True, but let’s backtrack. A girl. Your mate perhaps?” he asked sarcastically.

Xander’s view on mates was that they could easily become a weakness. If there was one thing that Xander did not accept then it was weakness. He believed that the pack would be at risk if the Alpha was weak. The sentiment was true, of course. If an Alpha was weak, his pack was at risk. Alphas were the strongest part of the pack – the glue that held it all together. However, mates were meant to provide us strength. They were supposed to complete us, not weaken us.

I honestly thought his true reasoning was that he was afraid to love someone so completely if they could be taken away at any moment. Our world was a dangerous one. Our pack had plenty of enemies, and any mate of his would have that bullseye on their back as well.

After the war, it was our job to inform pack members if their mates or loved ones were killed. Sadly, many never recovered from those losses. The death of a mate always had a drastic effect on the living mate. There was always a chance that they and their wolf would mourn their mate so much that they became feral or even die.

If they did survive, it was possible they would find a second chance mate, but that was a rare occurrence. They could always decide to take a chosen mate, but that typically only worked if they had never felt the unyielding strength of the mate-bond. Since not everyone found a fated mate, chosen mates were a good option. If they remained alone, they would have to live with only half of themselves – half of their soul.

My thoughts aligned more with the fact that they were created to complete us and be exactly what we needed. If a strong mate was needed, the mate would be strong. The Goddess blessed the unions and chose them specifically for a reason and purpose. I truly believed that Xander’s mate or my mate would make our pack stronger instead of weaker. Plus, they would have to be strong and fucking stubborn women to keep up with us and keep us in line.

I rolled my eyes at him but smirked, nonetheless. Xander was predictable when it came to things if nothing else.

“Dunno. She’s finishing up her senior year, so she probably isn’t quite eighteen yet. Although, I wouldn’t mind one bit if she was. She’s hot as hell and just as brilliant, like seriously brilliant. There’s something familiar about her, but trust me, I would remember her – brains, beauty, and everything in between.”

He leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head while studying me for a moment. “Thought you had a thing going with Callie?”

“I’m calling it quits with her tomorrow. She’s getting possessive, so fuck that. She actually asked if I wanted her to come to the packhouse tonight,” I told him about her text.

He understood where I was coming from. It happened frequently because many of our casual hookups would kill for the chance at becoming our Luna or Beta-female even if it was as a chosen mate.

We both agreed that possessiveness was not attractive on the she-wolves we had been with. If it was a mate, hell yes, possessiveness would be hot. Well, at least I thought that. Xander was the type to only deal with she-wolves simply for sexual release. He never offered or wanted more. It did not stop them from trying, but his icy demeanor helped to ward them off after the deed was done. They knew full well what they were signing up for because we always laid it out clearly.

Yeah, Callie was certainly not mate material for me. She had this voice that would get whiny. Plus, she made the weirdest fucking face when she came. Which was typically why I took her from behind. It hid her face. The worst part, though, was that she could not carry on a tenth of the conversation that Emma and I did.

“Does this have to do with the hot and brilliant she-wolf?”

Mentally, I compared Callie to Emma. Funny enough, Callie came up missing in every way. Callie was submissive while Emma was not afraid to call me out. Callie was attractive, but Emma was gorgeous. Most importantly though was the fact that Emma blew Callie’s intelligence out of the water. I was not a genius myself, but I hated simple minded people. Callie released frustration but did nothing to entice me.

“Nah, I came to that conclusion right before Emma knocked me on my ass,” I chuckled.

I was trying to figure out how to explain the hand thing without sounding ridiculous. It sounded ridiculous even to me, and I witnessed and felt it occur. There was no doubt that it happened, but there was no explanation for it. That, in and of itself, drove me even crazier.

“This is going to sound insane, but just listen. When she touched my hand, it felt like a warm static wave washed over it. The static wave happened each time she touched me.”

“You sure it wasn’t static electricity?” he asked.

I tossed my crumpled wrapper at him, which he easily deflected. I knew that would be his response. Typical Xander. He was so quick to disregard the interesting for the realistic. They were not separate entities or anything. You could have realistic and interesting which was what Emma was.

“Yes, I’m sure. I know I sound crazy, but there is just something about her. I can’t really explain it. I just feel pulled to her for some reason. She’s about to graduate, and I’m going to help her with a project on the Red River War. I figured my expertise could work in my favor for once.” I waggled my eyebrows.

“If you want to waste your time babysitting, so be it,” he shrugged.

Xander really needed that stick removed from his ass. There was more to life than paperwork, trade negotiations, and running the pack. There was no doubt that he was a great Alpha. I just worried about him as a person. He needed happiness in his life. I just was not sure how to help him with that.

“Oh, trust me brother, there is nothing baby about her.” If he had met her, I was sure he would agree with me on that.

We moved on to talk about the squad’s findings concerning the rogues. They were targeting the Northern, Eastern, and Southern borders. We were still unable to find their motivation for those three specific areas. Our territory was expansive, yet no other parts of the border were targeted. There was nothing at those borders either. The Western border was where our mines and food reserves were located. Our farming systems and ranches were also out that way. Those would had been the logical areas for the rogues to target because it provided resources they could use.

None of the rogues had been able to break through our border as of yet, but that did not mean that it would never happen. That was a frustrating part of all this though.

“Any of the squad have thoughts on this?” I asked.

Squad One, or the squad, was the group of us leadership who oversaw the various parts of the territory. There were eight in total for the seven sectors of our territory. There was one squad member per territory except ours. We all worked together to protect our pack and kept it running smoothly.

Xander had the ultimate authority as the Alpha. Next in line came me. The rest of the squad had equal authority after us. We trusted them to make the right decisions for their sector, but we stepped in whenever it was necessary. The squad was also comprised of our strongest fighters. We pushed ourselves harder than we pushed anyone else in the pack. It was up to us to ensure the protection of everyone else, so we took that task very seriously.

A few of our larger alliance packs asked to consult with us on implementing their own squads of sorts. Many Alphas were against giving up control to others, but there were a few, especially with larger territories, that saw the benefit of it.

We parted for the night, and I went to grab that hot shower. I relaxed under the spray, and my muscles began to loosen up. It was only about 10 P.M., but I was exhausted.

I laid down on the bed and scrolled through my phone. There were a few messages from the squad regarding some things they wanted to discuss at the meeting in the morning. It was nothing important, just generic updates. They knew I was out of mindlink range today, so they just kept me in the loop this way.

There was an offer for a date from some she-wolf that was friends with Callie. The lack of female camaraderie between those two was sad, so I decided to ignore it. I did not have time for catty drama.

The one that did catch my eye was a request to lead a seminar at the local university. They wanted me to talk on pack security, so I was immediately interested. I visited the university at least twice a year to give lectures or classes. The university often had guest lectures from the squad. Everyone on the squad had their own specialties. Mine was the tech that I helped design and the tech program which aided in border security and tactical equipment.

Besides being the Alpha, Xander taught defense training. He was the best fighter we had and had always been innately good at it. His parents used to joke that it came naturally from the moment he could walk. He even helped train some of the pups at the beginning of each summer. Training began around age five, so he always took a special interest in being the first one to teach them.

We always tried to take opportunities to be a present focal for the pack because it could be dangerous just to step into the shadows. Trust me, we had plenty on our plates without needing to do that as well. It helped the pack keep up their morale, but it also helped remind others that we were present in case they thought about creating havoc. There were four different times when it happened after the war, and lives were lost each time. We had strict rules in place for a reason. Everything ran smoothly as long as they were followed. However, punishment was swift if they were broken.

The seminar sounded fun, so I RSVP’d for the Spring semester. The local university offered anything and everything, so it was always fun to sit in on a few classes when my schedule permitted. Mom had been a science professor at the university, and she loved it before she died in the war. Had the war never happened, and my father was still the Beta, I would have gone onto university and majored in Security and Intelligence.

Once again, my thoughts wandered on back to Emma. I opened up the message sent from Emma’s phone earlier. I sent her a quick message.

Ethan - “Why haven’t you taken over Dr. Dipshit’s practice yet? We both know that you far exceed his understanding.”

After a few minutes of no response, I wondered if I overstepped. Perhaps she was just being nice earlier. Thankfully, three little dots showed me otherwise.

Emma – “I don’t know what your pack is like, but mine isn’t very open to specific people having authority. Ezekiel hand selects whom he wants in power.”

Of course, we knew the basics of how Blacktree was ran. It was our obligation to know the strengths and weaknesses of other packs. Blacktree’s Alpha was a dickhead and definitely arrogant. Xander and I met with him and his Beta over the rogue situation when he gave us permission to enter the territory. It took every ounce of restraint we had to hold our wolves back. Blaze and Kai both internally roared with the disrespect.

Hand selecting who was in leadership was a stupid idea because his doctor was an idiot. It would be safe to assume the rest of leadership was the same exact way as well.

Ethan – “Our pack prides itself on merit. If you deserve to try for it, you’re allowed to. Skill is all that matters.”

That truly was how our pack behaved. It was what drove success here. Not everyone was created equal, so merit was the only way to figure out if someone had what it took for a particular role. Stereotypes and stigmas had no place to determine the best placement.

Emma – “That’s how it should be everywhere. Sadly, many people are stuck in in the past fifty centuries.”

I could almost tell she was smirking. Not all packs thought the way that ours did. Usually, there were rigid structures put into place by generations of traditions and customs.

Thankfully, Blood Moon was never that way though, even before we took over from our parents. Our pack had always prided itself on being a diversified pack. It was founded just over a hundred years ago. Our first Alpha had left his own pack because of the atrocities his father partook in. Over the decades, traditions and practices changed, but merit had always been a propelling factor.

Every pack member had strengths and weaknesses that were unique to them alone. Following merit instead of rigid qualifying factors, allowed for a stronger pack. This was what kept our pack growing stronger each day. Everyone had a place in it.

Sometimes it was simple to find someone’s place, but sometimes it just took thinking outside of the box. Our pack was one of the first to encourage female warriors. There was a lot of criticism from other packs whenever our pack would be sought out to aid in wars and conflicts. They did not see the worth of a good warrior if they were female. They still were ignorant even when the females decimated the enemies while these other traditional packs struggled.

Ethan – “Well, we are always looking for new recruits.”

Why the fuck did I say that? No, we were not. Poaching members from another pack was a serious issue that could easily result in conflict. We purposefully stayed out of the business of other packs, and they stayed out of ours.

Emma – “Tempting, tempting. You should wait to see if I can actually cook first. You have a good night, Ethan the Magnificent.”

Ethan – “Goodnight, Emma”