“Excuse me?”He nodded. “Someone murdered our luna, my mother.”“Fuck. I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”“Me too. I’m trying to work out who I would stand to gain from this, and I’m not liking the answer so far.”Oh no. I could see where this was going.“I have reason to believe it was my father.”Well that was justification for me to take over right there. No one can murder the luna and expect to get away with it in times of peace. Even in the case of a challenge against the alpha, their mate, whether male or female, can not be touched until the challenge had been settled.“I wouldn’t have hurt her, Nathaniel, I hope you know that. I would have had to take her title, but I would never have hurt her.”“I know,” he replied, his voice low.“What evidence have you got that this could have been your father?”“Maximillian has been talking about knowing someone who could help consolidate my father’s power. He mentioned a few times that in a lot of cases where the alpha is struggling to maintain power,
I was going to need all hands on deck to keep this tidy and limit the amount of civilian casualties. As much as I trusted my own team, I don’t trust Maximillian and Edward, or anyone they might be controlling.Using the radios we’d all started carrying full time, I reached out to the rest of the team. “Beta One, Charlie One, Delta One. Meet us at HQ as soon as possible. Teams need to be on alert, but they don’t need to join us yet. One problem at a time.”The three of them were already there when Nathaniel and I arrived.Luke’s face still was covered in betrayal and anguish. This was really too soon for him to be this close to me, but we didn’t have a choice. We needed to move, and quickly.I sighed. “I don’t know how fast news travels, but things have headed south very suddenly with the pack, to the point that I need to intervene, with the intention to take over the pack to serve as alpha. Nathaniel will become my beta. Before we continue, does anyone here have a problem with this?”
“Effie, please. I just need to know if you’re going to choose me or him.”“You could have both, they’d agree,” my wolf whispered. Erm, what?“What do you mean I could have both?” I asked my wolf.“They both want you, they both want us.”“Effie, please don’t ignore me,” Luke’s voice cut through my conversation.“I told you Luke, this is not something we are discussing right now.”“But…”“Luke, do not push me on this, you will not like how it goes.”He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, alpha.” His hand ran through his hair, stress evident on his face. “I always imagined that if you ever took over the pack, I’d be your beta. Why did you choose him?”“Because he was supposed to be alpha. I need to strengthen my platform, not fill it with cracks before I’ve even taken over. However, I would be honoured if you would take the position of my enforcer.”He looked up, eyes bright. “I’d be honoured, alpha.”“Good, we can worry about swearing you in later. Can you please call and check in with Nathanie
I was pacing. Constantly. I felt like all I did was pace. Of course the moon goddess would pick this moment to start making me very aware of the mate bond between Nathaniel and I, which is simply spiffing. The last thing I needed whilst trying to organise a hostile takeover was my body and my wolf to be distracted.I had hardly come to terms with the fact Nathaniel and I were fated mates, let alone worked out what I was going to do, especially with Luke. My wolf was absolutely adamant that I could have both of them, but I was just not convinced by that.It was less than an hour between my speaking to Lyla and when everyone got here. I felt my body relax, my blood pressure and heart rate settle when I saw Nathaniel come back through the door. The tense look on his face when he met my eyes said he felt the same way. His wolf was close, he was trying to work out what was going on too. The look in his eyes though, the swirling dark that was nearly black told me that his wolf wanted us, r
“What do we do, Nathaniel?” I asked, voice quiet, my hands running up his chest, coming to settle on the back of his neck. I looked up, my eyes meeting his; I could see his wolf staring back at me, and I’m sure he could see mine staring back at him. “I don’t know what to do.”“We don’t have to do anything yet, Effie. Nothing permanent, anyway.” His hands slid around my waist, meeting behind my back. “We can just let this develop, see what happens, and revisit once the situation with my father is over.”I was conflicted. Really conflicted. I wanted him, goddess knows I did. But was it fair? I didn’t want to lead him on if we then decided actually not to go ahead with whatever this was. The bond would keep getting stronger if we spent time together, but it wouldn’t be permanent until we marked each other. If we marked each other. We could still reject the bond. It would hurt both of us, but we could reject it.“Effie. Do you want me?”My eyes closed and my head fell forwards, leaning on
That was something else.He rolled off me, and we lay on the table together, trying to catch our breath. “That was amazing,” he whispered, voice low.I turned to face him so I could watch his eyes. “It really was something else, Nathaniel.”His smile was annoyingly smug.I scowled at him, but that scowl turned into a groan as his fingers trailed back up the inside of my thigh. I opened my legs wider, encouraging his hand closer to my core. He complied, his fingertips rubbing small circles around my clit.The door slammed open. “Alpha, I… oh fuck.” Lyla. Lyla was back.“Give us a moment, Lyla.”She nodded, spinning to give us a little privacy. In hindsight, HQ wasn’t a good place. We should have moved downstairs to my own quarters. That was my bad.I pulled my trousers and blouse back on, not worrying about my bra, and of course Nathaniel had ripped my thong, which was currently in the middle of the floor for everyone to see. I slipped my shoes back on, waiting for Nathaniel to do the
I’d hardly sat down when Luke burst back through the door of HQ. “Is Dr Bauer ready to go, Luke?”“Yes, alpha. She has everything to start working on something to counteract the psychoactive components and even the cyanide, but she really needs the samples to fully get up and running.”“Thanks, Luke.”“Just doing my job, alpha,” he gave me a small smile. “I know it’s not my place… but I can smell him all over you.”I sighed, closing my eyes. “If he’d had his way, it’d be stronger.”“Wait, what?”“He wanted me to mark him, Luke.”“But you didn’t?”“I said no. One problem at a time. I can’t start working out what to do about Nathaniel whilst we’re in the middle of orchestrating a hostile takeover and dealing with a biological threat.”“I understand that, Effie. But what did he say?”“He said he understands, but I know he’s hurt.”“That explains the look he gave me. He thinks you rejected him because of me.”I sighed. “I told him it was too soon and I needed to work out what I was going
I woke up to an empty bed about four hours later. I stretched, letting my toes curl into the cotton sheets. Nathaniel’s side was still warm, he couldn’t have been gone long. I rolled out of bed, shrugging on a nightie and heading for the coffee machine in my living room.And there, sitting on the sofa drinking coffee, was Nathaniel. My mate. I never thought I’d be saying that one.“Good afternoon, sleepyhead. I made you coffee.”“Music to my ears,” I smiled. I sank down into the chair next to him, sipping that beautiful cup of brown happiness. “Let me take you for lunch, Effie. Before you head over to the club.”“It’s a date. I just need to have a shower, get dressed, and then we can head out whenever.”“Shower quickly, Effie, can’t promise I won’t join you otherwise.”I giggled… giggled. Nearly 300 years old, and somehow this delicious wolf in front of me has me giggling like a schoolgirl.“You could just join me, Nathaniel,” I teased as I walked into the bathroom.“You don’t have t