James returned to his office in the study. It was small and cramped, there wasn’t any privacy for him or Keith. So it didn’t take long for Keith to mention something. “So, having a bad day?” “You can say that.” “And it’s barely past breakfast time.” “You had to go there.” “You chose to mate with her. Want to talk about it? I heard something about you putting one of our new members in the healing centre. What happened?” Keith knew exactly what had happened soon after it had happened. He wanted James to vent on something other than himself because that’s when he did his best problem solving. “He got handsy with Trisha. How screwed up is that? He’s barely a member, and he put his paws on his Luna, my mate. I have to make sure everyone knows she’s mine, and she’s, their Luna. This is ridiculous and I feel we missed something in his background check.” “I’ll get someone on it. What are they looking for?” “I feel he’s done this before. He t
James listened to Trisha’s call to one of her friends. If what Kiera was saying and what he knew about what they found there. That body may have been a man who claimed to be a father to both himself and Dean. True or not, that complicates a lot of things. The girls discussed it so thoroughly that he and Keith only needed a look to be on the same page. The black market ring for shifter blood and now they assumed Lycan was in the wind. As was the local Lycan appeared to be. “I can’t sit on this, can’t I?” “Hey, you could have if you hadn’t mated with his sister. Now you can have her angry for listening in on her call, angry at you for not telling her what you found up there, and now you want to tell her brother where his potential mate has fled to. Honestly, you made your bed and now you have to sleep with the wrinkles.” “That’s the weirdest twisted screw up on a saying I have ever heard. But I get it. I’m stuck in a catch-22. If I don’t say anything an
“You don’t say…” Oli was chattering on the phone as Dean finished up with the mess. Someone forged the signature of their Alpha on the order or scavenger hunt document. He’d sent a copy of his signature and the two weren’t anything alike. Now Dean finished arranging a trip for the twelve fool pups to his border, where their Alpha’s people would pick them up and take them home for punishment. “Dean. Dean.” Oli put his hands over his phone. “What? I need to finish this.” “Go make sure Kiera is in her apartment. I think this is important.” “What? Now? Of course she’s there. Where would she be?” “Uh… Don’t shoot the messenger. The Jasper Spring’s Beta, Keith, is on the line. He says you both have trouble. Kiera and two other packs are in a vehicle right now and they aren’t in our territory. Trisha’s been talking to them.” “What? That can’t be true. I just left her upstairs.” “Dean, that was five hours ago.” “Really? Crap, she’s not had
James found her staring out of the window into the bright morning sunshine. The day was slowly inching toward noon. Trisha was still on the phone talking to her friends. When Trisha saw him, she said her farewells to them. But James raised his hands, and she stopped. “I need to speak to your friends right now. It’s urgent. Put it on speaker.” “Geez. Would saying please hurt you in someway?” James was getting some seriously mixed emotions from Trisha. “Next time. Right now, we have some very serious problems to discuss.” “Fine. But next time you forget the niceties, I will hang up instead. I’ll hold you to it. Girls, you’re on speaker phone and my mate here wants to tell you something. Go for it.” “I will admit Trisha was correct. Most of the time, I was listening. I’d like to thank you for the information as it’s answered a few questions. The issue I have is with which one of you thought it was smart to take a walking targ
Dean watched the second last group of enforcers head out looking for the vehicle. He’d have to thank the Gamma who headed the territory and general pack security. He’d insisted on putting GPS tracking into all their vehicles. From ATV to SUV, they were all tagged. He didn’t trust her not to be smart enough to ditch the tracking device, but right now, he’d make use of it all. He’d hoped not to need to rely on it. But James called again with the outcome and it included Kiera ditching her friends and disappearing alone. He’d be in the last group. Oli would hold down the fort while he dealt with this. Why she thought she was better off alone, he didn’t understand. This was her home, and it always was. Dean knew enough to lay the blame on the feet of Elder Evans. He’d done most of this damage. The rest was Dean’s fault for blindly believing that an elder would be honourable and loyal to him and the pack. That the elder would not use his position to further a twist a
Dean’s vehicle rolled up to the diner’s parking lot and saw the standoff. His enforcers cornered her as she left the diner. He clearly saw her gauging her odds of escape from so many. His vehicle barely stopped before Dean was out of it and walking determinedly toward her. “Kiera, we need to talk. Now.” This wasn’t a tone she’d ever heard from him in all the years she knew him. His tone made it clear he wasn’t asking or pleading, he was stating a fact and there was no way out of it. Dean could see her flight response was in full swing and he needed to lower that without triggering her fight response. This wasn’t a place which would welcome or accept a ‘furry’ incident. Those too often ended in fighting, blood, and property damage. “You resisted understanding, then when you did, you pretended it was all in my head. Now, you want to slap a bandaid here and there. It doesn’t work that way, and you can’t understand because no matter what, it doesn’t aff
Kiera felt weak and cornered by Dean and his enforcers. She felt thwarted by him while feeling relief and a sliver of hope. Hope, she feared, would end up being misplaced. She thought he’d lose patience and cut his losses by ending whatever game he was playing by now. He hadn’t; he doubled down on his beliefs and his story. Kiera tried to ignore and later resist his presence. But she felt an attraction she’d failed to pick up on before and she couldn’t understand why. To Kiera, this was as confusing as tasting chocolate and bacon for the first time. Disturbing described her feelings. While her thoughts took her full attention, Dean eased closer and closer to her. “Were you really running away to search for answers?” Dean thought this was something he least expected. He’d assumed she was running away from him out of fear, or maybe hatred. He thought James made that up to mess with his head. “Clearly something is going on and if I want some peace o
Kiera wasn’t sure what he said, or did that made her feel like she’d been lulled into a trance where she did as he wanted her to do. It felt like she could only give up at this point. Dean proved he could and would hunt her down when she left. His story never changed, and he’d been repeating it along with his assurances that it wasn’t changing. They were mates and he no longer schemed to use her as the butt of his jokes. That there’d be no more games where he competed with James to be the bigger, badder, and best alpha. What James told her in front of witnesses is the exact things Dean repeated to her face. His enforcers were there to witness it. He may not have bitten her like James did Trisha. Dean announced his intentions for her before them, and Kiera practically watched the enforcers’ faces take note and their attitudes change as Dean spoke. But she wasn’t a wolf shifter anymore. She was now a Lycan. A twisted mockery of a wolf shifter. Kiera wondered