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Chapter 4 : Is She a Threat?

Author: Claire Wilkins
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

Gabriel’s POV

Her eyes were green. That’s what I noticed about her.

It was bordering on hazel but no, they were closer to green than anything else.

When I went to the library it was with the intention of getting some books on business to get a head start on my courses. Micro and Macroeconomics were unfortunately a required course and not something I was looking forward to either.

After university father would be shifting a lot of responsibilities onto me so I could get used to leading the pack as the future alpha. That also meant managing the businesses we had that kept us funded.

I had just been there for books, then I saw her. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one trying to get a head start.

Seeing the person that had caught Missael’s attention had me making the decision to confront her myself. I knew that Missael wanted to drop the whole thing and forget about it, but I couldn’t, not when he acted so odd afterwards.

Normally, Missael was the most levelheaded out of all of us and while his abilities left him with less patience for social interaction than most, his reaction to her left Gael and I worried. His eyes went gold, and I didn’t like the implications of what that meant if his instincts were reacting to her.

It was suspicious, especially if she was fully human like he claimed. I couldn’t see Missael getting something like that wrong, but that also just made her more suspect. And—it was my brother she ran into, not anyone else’s.

It was almost laughable how easily I caught her and cornered her against one of the bookcases. Unprepared and unaware. However, it was definitely the girl he’d described.

Those eyes.

Something was going on, and I’d get to the bottom of it. For my brothers’ sakes.

“So, you’re the one my brother’s curious about. What did you do to him…tch.” She didn’t dare look at me but I couldn’t tell if her silence was an admission of guilt or an act of submission, so I reached up, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at me—and then I understood why Missael had been so confused as my skin buzzed and the grip I had on my control loosened at my wolf’s insistence.

Her eyes were green, not quite hazel, and it showed when I saw my eyes reflected in hers, glowing gold.

My moment of shock was enough for her to duck out under my arm and literally sprint for the stairs, disappearing before I could chase after her or say anything in reply.

That was…

No… what… was that? SOMETHING happened, but nothing fit for what that feeling was. Not a jolt, not nearly enough to be one but it wasn’t… not a jolt?

Goddess, no wonder Missael had been unable to describe what happened between the two of them. I didn’t even know what happened between us.

Green eyes, soft skin, her lips parted slightly when I grabbed her chin, a brilliant blush spreading across her cheeks, and I… I had never focused on things like that before. Something about her was… captivating.

Could she really be… but if she reacted to Missael…

Inwardly, I cursed. I needed to talk to my brothers, and they were NOT going to be impressed by what I just did. Hell, I wasn’t, but that was my own fault. I’d always been protective of them and everyone else.

And they weren’t impressed. Well, they were, but not in a positive manner, more that they were impressed I could screw up that badly.

Gael laughed as Missael chewed me out for my actions, much to my ire, because usually it was me berating them and I did not appreciate the exchange of roles.

“I cannot believe you. I mean, I expected this from Gael, but you?”

“Yeah!... Hey!”

“Oh, get off my tail, you know you would’ve.”

“…Yeah, alright, fair, but I didn’t, Gabby did,” Gael snickered, and I held back a growl.

“Enough, we have other things to worry about. Missael, I felt something, and I suspect you did too.”

“Wait—the jolt?! Both of you? Seriously?” Gael’s laughter immediately cut out and was replaced by disbelief, not that I blamed him.

A fated mate was one thing, most people had one and it was rare if you didn’t, though it wasn’t necessary to have one to live a happy life, but the matebond did feel like a blessing from the Moon Goddess to have a partner that you were meant for and vice versa.

Sharing a fated mate was what was rare, extremely so. There were very few records of it happening and it was more fable than fact in this day and age but it existed. We just didn’t expect it to happen to us.

“No—yes, I told you I didn’t know WHAT I felt.” Missael grimaced before looking at me. “But you felt something too?”

“When I touched her, there was a… buzz, like static.”

“Yes, but that can’t be the jolt, can it? Other fated mates have told us it’s much stronger than that.”

“I don’t know, there are too many variables to be certain, and now I’ve made a mistake and made it harder for us to figure out what’s really going on.”

“I warned you for a reason but nooo, why ever listen to me, the future alpha knows better,” Missael said sarcastically.

“Enough, I’ll admit I was wrong, but you didn’t exactly sound okay after what happened, and you’ve hidden worse. Do I have to remind you about your migraines?”

“Well forgive me for lacking the words to describe what happened when you don’t have the words for it either.”

“Geez, both of you need to back off and take a breath instead of going for the throat. You both screwed up.”

“Wha—what did I do?” Missael demanded.

“You didn’t tell anyone your suspicions and worries so Gabriel got worried and took matters into his own hands because he’s a worrywart and stupid, which we know, so yeah, both your faults. And now you have to rely on your smartest and strongest brother to fix this.”

“We don’t have a fourth brother,” I deadpanned, and Gael playfully mimed being attacked.

“Ow, that hurt, right here,” he patted his heart. “But seriously, you and Missy BOTH felt something from her, so I’m not liking where this is going or what it could mean for you two. Either way, something is up with her, and I don’t want it being some attempt to take us out. Are you guys sure she’s not, you know, trying something with us? We’ve been attacked before.”

“Positive,” Missael waved off. “She was more interested in getting away from me than doing anything, if she was going to attempt to do something to us she’d have to be a bit more interested in actually getting close to us.”

“Agreed, she left as fast as she could after I cornered her, and ran at the first opportunity.”

“Geez, and Dad wonders why women don’t flirt with you,” Gael rolled his eyes, and I was very tempted to hit him for being such a brat. “Guess we’ve got a little investigation underway here. That’ll be fun.”

“She knows I’m Missael’s brother and that we’re both werewolves, she’s going to keep her distance.”

“You blew your cover that easily? Daaaaamn, now I really want to meet her—and may I remind you that I’m still in the clear? There’s no way she’s gonna guess that we’re related, let alone triplets when I’m rocking these dreamy blond curls.” He flipped his nonexistent long locks over his shoulder.

“The hell are you calling dreamy,” Missael snorted. “More like a nightmare.”

“Hey, your bro’s doing you this big favor out of the kindness of his heart, stop giving me sh*t for it.”

“Are you sure? We’re still missing a lot of information.”

“Yeah, I can do this, besides, there’s no way I can fail at this when the bar’s just that low.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeuuup. Because you don’t even know her name~!”

…I really hated the times Gael was right, but he was right.

We had next to no information on the girl who was affecting us this much and I had rushed in without gathering any information, an oversight on my part that was a tad embarrassing. I was supposed to be the future alpha, I needed to be better than this.

It wasn’t just my safety I had to worry about, I had the pack to look after, my brothers too. I took a breath, then another.

“Alright, we’ll leave it to you then, Gael, tell us what you find out.” I had to trust him, Gael wasn’t incompetent, as much as he liked to mess around. He was good with people and could get anyone to talk. He would’ve made a good alpha for the pack if he could put the effort into the training, but I was born first, and our father declared me the next head.

Though, Gael didn’t seem too torn up about it.

“Well, I already found out something,” he said, picking up his phone. “Got a friend in Missael’s class, the one he has with her. Her name’s Eleonore Everwood.”

“How. It’s been like, three days.”

“I actually talk to people, Missy. You should try it some time.”

“Uh-huh, yeah, sure.”

“You’re not going to do it, are you?”

“What do you think?”

Eleonore Everwood, huh?

“I’ll ask one of our packmates to look into her,” I broke in before the two could start fighting but it just made them start fighting me, immediately protesting.

“No way, if dad catches wind of us doing that he’s going to wonder what we’re up to. If I’m doing this then you’re not snitching.”

“Gael.”

“He’s got a point.” Missael grimaced. “What would we even tell him? ‘Oh, we found our maybe sort of human mate who could actually be no one or a threat?’ Yeah, that would go over well. We need more information before we tell him anything, Gabriel. Otherwise, he’s just going to worry for no reason and I’m not doing that to him.”

The only thing worse than Gael being right was Missael agreeing with him.

“Fine, but if she is a threat we inform him and get this taken care of.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Then we continue our campus life like we wanted and put her out of our minds. If she’s not a threat and if she’s not our mate then she’s not important. Besides, I don’t think she’d mind being left alone.”

“Yeah… when we touched she was scared—but not of me. Something else left her afraid and had her running, not the whole werewolf thing.” Missael frowned.

“Geez, we’re just left with every question huh?”

“Focus on one at a time. We know who she is, now find out if she’s supposed to be someone to us.”

If she was a fated mate, mine and Missael’s then I… I didn’t know what we’d do, honestly. Having more than one fated mate was a rarity and we had never discussed what sharing a partner would mean.

We had already decided on positions, on jobs, how we’d split it up and deal with leading the pack but a mate? That was new territory I wasn’t sure we could navigate, and now we were sending in Gael to do it for us.

When we came to university this certainly wasn’t what I was expecting to deal with.

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