Chewing his way through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, Henrik heard someone call out his name from across the packhouse dining room. He turned to see Cara, a bundle of energy, rushing towards him.
“I’m so glad I ran into you alone,” she said, taking a seat at the table with him.
“Carrrr... Luna! How lovely to see you.”
“Oh, Henrik please. Screw the formalities,” she said with a wave of her hand as he laughed.
“So, what’s up?”
“I have a favour to ask. After all the vandalism in the packhouse and the graffiti on my car… well, I’m a bit nervous.”
Lucas put his hands behind his head, leaned back in his chair, and exhaled loudly in frustration.“I mean, genocide... seriously? Are these people mad or what?”Despite his address to the pack recently, the anti-unity group was still active. Lucas had called a strategy meeting with Thomas and Dane to work out how they were going to make this little distraction go away, without actually following through on his threat to deal with them severely.He wasn’t even sure what he’d meant by that. Wiping them all out would just fuel their claims in other people’s minds.“Of course they’re mad, they’re from the Cape. We’re all mad as cut snakes,” chuckled Dane.
Thomas opened his eyes, blinking slowly as his surroundings came into focus. His head pounded and he could smell the stale stench of whiskey wafting from his own breath. His back and neck ached, and he stretched, cracking them into place.Another night spent sleeping in his office chair, lulled to sleep by the amber liquid sitting on the desk in front of him. He picked up the empty bottle and hurled it across the room, watching it shatter to pieces against the wall.He’d had everything going for him, and in a matter of weeks his life had crumbled, turning to rubble around him. His mate was gone. Her body left to burn to ash as an enemy of the pack. No headstone or marker left for him to visit – not that there would be anything to put on a headstone, he didn’t even know her.
Thomas was growing frustrated. He had spoken to enough people to know that Dane was either spotless, which he doubted, or they were very loyal to him. That seemed more likely. Given most of the people he’d spoken to were from the Cape, he figured they were wary of him and guarded in what they said.Dane was the last person to see Sam alive, according to Kelly, but he had a tight alibi. He realised he only had one avenue left, and that was Dane’s former partner and the current Luna of the pack.He’d need to be careful though. Lucas had changed recently in regards to Cara. If he thought Thomas was undermining his mate, he wasn’t sure how he’d react.He remembered the pain Lucas went through early on with Cara. Lucas knew at the time she was
While everybody’s focus was on the stunning and radiant Luna making a speech on the stage, Dane’s attention was on the slimy looking former rogue standing at the back of the crowd. He needed to know why he’d come and what he wanted.He used Cara’s distraction to slip through the crowd and sneak up behind him. Forcefully gripping his arm, he yanked him backwards, away from the crowd. The rogue was ready for a fight but relaxed when he saw Dane’s face, giving a sly smile.Dane continued dragging him until they were in a secluded section of the garden and had some privacy.“What the fuck are you doing here?” asked Dane coldly.The rogue wolf held up his hands in mock surr
Dane was woken the following morning by a patrol warrior giving him a few gentle shoves. He blinked several times, groaning as he felt the hard surface beneath him, and attempted to recall what happened the previous night.He stared at the bright blue sky above him. He was on the packhouse lawn and Jack was standing above him.Must have been a damn good night after all, he thought, slowly turning his head and spotting the bodies of his fellow late night revellers, also lying passed out among the discarded cups, bottles and general rubbish left behind.Jack nudged his shoulder again.“What do you fucking want?” he barked at him as he stumbled to
Thomas darted a quick look around the hallway before silently slipping into Cara’s office. His aim was to get in and out as quickly as possible. He didn’t have the time or energy to deal with the questions that would be asked of him if he was found.He had no clue what it was he was looking for, he just knew there was no logical explanation for Cara’s heightened security. She had to be up to something and he needed the proof.He started with the bookshelves, looking for anything out of the ordinary, then moved on to the storage cupboard that seemed to be filled with nothing but stationery and a change of clothes.He sat down at her desk, opening the drawers and rifling through their contents. Pens, sticky notes, a stapler. He leaned back in the chair,
Lucas froze, his anger and fury diminishing as quickly as it came. It had now morphed into worry and concern.“Where are you?” he demanded, already running out the door.“Room five on the second floor. Thomas has gone crazy. Hurry!”Lucas raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He broke through the locked door to find Cara splayed on the bed frightened and crying, her shirt ripped and torn, and Thomas naked, staring at him in disbelief.“Lucas, no! It’s not what it looks like. I can explain,” said Thomas, his hands raised in surrender, pleading with his eyes.Cara sobbed loudly and scurried off the bed onto
Cara had been buzzing with anticipation all day at the thought of finally being with Dane again. Lina had been trying to talk her out of it, insistent, but Cara had pushed her wolf from her mind and blocked her.She’d tried to give up Dane, but he was just as much a part of her as Lucas was now. She couldn’t be without either of them, except she didn’t need a mate-bond to tell her how important Dane was to her. The Moon Goddess got it wrong.She’d been searching for a sign that she should stop what she was about to do, but the desire that ran through her veins like an electric current blocked all thoughts other than Dane.As she entered their old home in Cape Point, she seductively let a few drops of the mate-bond potion fall onto her tongue. Sh
Cara broke free from Dane’s grip and stood in front of the pack. She ran through everything in her mind one last time. She wanted to be able to forgive Dane, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t live her life knowing what he’d done. She knew she was no better. She’d taken his mate’s life and he’d returned the favour. But she’d changed, she’d moved on, she wanted to be a better person. She couldn’t forgive him for trying to drag her back into the life she’d made a conscious choice to leave behind. “Thank you for the outpouring of love I’ve received from each and every one of you since Lucas’ passing. I appreciate the way you’ve kept me in your thoughts. Lucas isn’t gone, though. He lives on, through his pup – our pup – that is growing each day.” Murmurs spread through the cro
“Bring them to the packhouse. My office,” ordered Dane.“Yes, Alpha,” replied Wei.Dane stood and clenched his fists nervously. He wondered who the captive was and how much he knew. Cara rolled over, woken by his sudden movement, and saw the look on his face. He masked it quickly, but she knew something was amiss.“What is it?” she asked.“Nothing, it’s fine. I’ll handle it. Go back to sleep.”“Dane, I know when you’re hiding things.”He let out a sigh.“Ka
Dane stood on the front lawn of the packhouse, his bereaved packmates assembling to listen to his address as the acting Alpha of the Green Cape Pack. This should be an auspicious moment for him, but all he could think of was Cara’s distress. He’d done that to her.He quickly pushed it from his mind. This was how it had to happen. It would be painful for Cara in the short term, but long term, she would have the life she’d always dreamed of. With him.She would keep her place as Luna, and their child would still be the future Alpha. In his mind, he knew that he would treat them better than Lucas ever would have.“Green Cape Pack, it is with tremendous sadness that I confirm the passing of Alpha Lucas. Early this morning, a small group of for
Dane received Lucas’ SOS mind-link and waited patiently, biding his time. He wanted to give Matt and his men enough time to get the job done.When he was happy he’d given them a sufficient head start, he mind-linked Kasper and a group of his own warriors, and led them out to the running track where Lucas had said he was.They picked up his scent quickly when they reached the track and followed it, gaining speed.“I can’t scent anything or anyone other than the Alpha,” Kasper mind-linked to the group. “Anyone else getting anything?”“No,” came a chorus of replies.They kept running, Lucas’ sce
After shifting back and getting dressed in the forest, Dane didn’t want to waste a minute and jogged back to the packhouse with purpose. He found the contact details of the other packs and sent a message to Alpha Aiden, explaining that he had something important he needed to discuss with him and wanted to do it over video call. They arranged a time later that evening, and Dane and Stig spent the rest of the day on edge. Dane rapped his knuckles impatiently on the table as he joined the video chat. The wait seemed endless before the blank square finally came to life and Alpha Aiden’s face filled it. His backdrop was nondescript except for the ornate chair he was sitting on, which looked hard carved, and the top was intertwined with thorns from a rosebush.
Today was the day. Dane had a spring in his step, and not an ounce of nervousness over what was to take place.The price he had agreed with Ivan was expensive, but worth it in Dane’s eyes. Ivan had to be good, because he couldn’t have survived as a hitman for as long as he had if he wasn’t good at what he did.He’d paid a deposit out of his own funds, but would need to take out his share of the profits being held in the business account to pay for the rest once the job was done. It was a lot of money, but when he thought about what he was buying, it seemed like the best deal he’d ever made.Lucas would be gone, he would become Alpha and reign with Cara and their pup. Money well spent, indeed.
Lando hit the floor, covered in blood. He scrambled to his feet, panting and in pain, ready to take his last stand. Turning, he was shocked to see the wolf that attacked him lying in a pool of its own blood, with its head almost removed from its neck.Stig still had his paws gripped around the wolf, and his face was covered in the blood of Jannik’s wolf.“We’re fucking idiots,” Stig said to Dane. “That could have been it! We want Lucas dead, he could have been taken out without us needing to do anything… and we stopped it.”“Fuck! You didn’t even hesitate in going to save him, and neither did I.”“Instinct. It’s how we’re wired.&rdq
Dane tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Lucas inside the warrior training hall. He yawned, thinking it was way too early on a Sunday morning to be doing this. Lucas had sent him a message the previous night saying he needed to meet with him. The hall would be undergoing renovations soon, but surely it didn’t warrant having to meet at this hour. With no training scheduled for the day, the place was deserted and the eerie silence in the hall was adding to the boredom. The loud click of the door echoed around the building as Lucas entered and made his way over. “About time,” grumbled Dane. “I didn’t know I had to be here right on the exact second,” snapped Lucas, glancing at his watch. Like Dane, he w
Cara knew it was going to be the hardest phone call that she’d ever had to make, but she thought it would be easier than telling him in person and having to look at those pleading eyes while doing it.“Dane, I’ve made my mind up. Regardless of who the father is, I’m going to raise it with Lucas.”She had known this from the moment she’d found out she was pregnant, but Dane had asked her to take her time and think about it. She hadn’t given it any more thought, but she took some time to make it appear that way.“But you can’t, that could be my kid, Cara!”“Lucas is good to me and he loves me–”