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“D ov.”

"Chanin, " the big man clasped his forearm in greeting. "I hope this moment brings an end to your people's stress."

At the place they stood on the land, there was a heavy vibration beneath their feet from the sewage plant that continued to work to churn and process the waste that came through the tunnels.

A network of tunnels his cousin had used to avoid detection and capture.

Now, knowing this, Chanin figured it had been how Farkas and his crew had traveled between the territories all along.

Standing at the borderline that divided the two territories, Chanin nodded at the bear of a man, the Alpha of his Sleuth.

He respected the bear-shifter greatly. Like him, Dov had to fight to claim his position among his people and work hard to ensure they had food, safety, and protection—no easy feat for either of them.

However, just like Lupine, the Ursine thrived for several years.

"My hope, too." Chanin shoved both his hands through his unruly hair.

After a shift, he could easily appear wild and untamed.

Thank goodness, along with Bleddyn, the Fang Warriors were behind him.

The warrior who carried the pack had joggers in his satchel and gave a pair to him and their Pack's Beta.

Chanin doubted that the bear-shifters would find offense at his nakedness.

Still, respectfully, it wasn't considerate to traipse through another’s territory in such an unclothed appearance unless it was during a time of conflict.

"My cousin has been a scourge on not only my people but other territories, too, I'm embarrassed to say. "

“I think I can state for the other preternatural council members when I say the rogue wolf’s actions were not a reflection on you or your leadership.” The wide man pounded him on his shoulder blade.

Chanin’s body absorbed the friendly strike. When Dov stepped away, he asked, “I’d like to collect my cousin.”

A bitter taste painted his tongue as he spoke. Chanin hated to claim a connection to the vile man.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to delay his transfer long. Right this way.”

"Permission to bring my warriors along to seize the prisoner?" Even though it had been Dov who called him about Farkas, Chanin would not flout the procedure of the council treaty by marching onto another shifter's land with a small force without requesting authorization.

"Yes. The asshole is a bit pissed and tries to fight at every opportunity, and you'll need the other men." Dov chuckled as he took the measure of Chanin's height and size. "Not that I've got a doubt you have the might to take him on your own.”

“I didn’t figure Farkas would be anything but aggressive and conniving. It’s how he has been for months since he lost the Alpha position he coveted.” Chanin held his fellow council member’s gaze.

Dov nodded then tipped his chin toward Turi, the Second of the bear-shifters, who stepped in line with him as they led them across a grassy field toward a cluster of small buildings with a wider one in the center.

The Ursine, who was just as tall and almost as wide as his leader, was the only person who stood with Dov at the border, proof they were not in dispute and no conflict troubled the North American region—besides the ass they held.

But Chanin would take care of that issue once they were among his people.

"We use this small place as one of our security outposts. We kept the rogue in the middle one, the chow hall. In the cooler." Dov mischievously grinned toward Chanin just before the bear-shifter Alpha pulled open the reclaimed wood door and entered.

"A bit of cooling off probably did him some good . ” I'd have shoved him in the freezer until frostbite took every digit for each wolf-shifter Farkas had intimidated, hurt, or maimed in anger because he was furious that he didn't get away . Chanin kept those thoughts to himself.

When they entered, Chanin noticed about five or six Ursine sitting at tables in groups of two or three while they ate and chatted. As Chanin and his team entered with Dov, the conversation turned to a low murmur, but none of the bear-shifters got up; they just tracked them with their eyes.

Chanin was sure that the bear males’ focuses had more to do with the Fang Warriors than them as outsiders.

Those who didn’t live around the half-shifted wolves were both curious and uneasy with the males who had the uncanny ability to display their wolf ears, tails, claws, and canine eye-teeth that winked when they smiled.

And all five Fangs purposely wore proud toothy grins—not to intimidate, but for the sheer hell of it.

The bear-shifters were calm at the moment.

However, Chanin also didn't believe for an instant that if Farkas caused a ruckus when they brought him out or even if Chanin and his men made an unfriendly move, these bears would be up and out of their seats in a flash.

The preternatural council had made them all cordial, but in the end, every one of them held their beasts on leashes, waiting for an opportunity to come out and fight.

It was that respect for each other and the not-too-distant memories of what life had been like right after the walls around the human compound were drawn shut and sealed, leaving them all to a lawless land.

"Alright. Here we are." Dov led them through the kitchen and approached a single male leaning against a gray door to a walk-in cooler. "Arturo, thanks for the guard." Dov gave the big man, who had shockingly-deep-brown skin and a bald-head, a firm pat on his shoulders.

The muscular man stepped aside with a cocky grin on his face. The large bear male knew what all wolves knew: to take down a bear, they would need at least a pack of three or four. So, bear-shifters weren't even concerned that there was only one guard on Farkas.

Chanin noted the unlocked door when Dov grabbed the thick handle and easily pulled the metal door open.

Broken containers spilled sauces and pickled items over the floor, while other fresh vegetables lay scattered. It appeared as if Farkas had taken perverse pleasure in stomping and grinding the food into the floor, ensuring it was no longer fit for consumption.

"Grr." Farkas sat along the back wall, his dusty-blond hair in wild snarls around his head and face. The oily, clumped strands shaded his eyes but did nothing to minimize the hot glare aimed right at Chanin.

"Hello, cousin." Chanin didn't hesitate to take a step into the space. "No more running. It's time you answered for your crimes."

“Fuck. You,” Farkas snarled.

Chanin chuckled as he squatted down to place himself at eye level with his cousin. "No thanks. I don't do inbreeding. Besides, I have a mate to carry on my family line. Maybe another Alpha is in the making."

Morlie wasn't pregnant yet, but as often as he desired her, Chanin believed it would only be a matter of time before she carried his pup.

Farkas launched himself at him. When Chanin heard the shuffle of boots behind him, not sure if they were bears or wolves, he still raised a hand, halting the intervention.

Grinding and snapping his teeth as Farkas scrambled on his knees until he'd placed his face inches from his. Farkas’s biceps flexed as he tried to loosen his bindings or break them while his putrid, rancid breath filled the space between them as he bit out, "Bastard.

You don't deserve to be Alpha. I hope your son is born mangle—"

Chanin struck. His sharp headbutt brought the center of his forehead in contact with his cousin's nose and silenced the vile words.

He felt the crunch as the bones in his cousin's nose shattered on impact.

Farkas was a wolf born like him, and the broken nose that accompanied the other bruises and claw marks on the rogue's face would heal soon enough.

Chanin figured the gashes on his cousin's face, neck, and hands had to have been deep if they hadn't fully healed in the time they had called the Lupine territory.

He fought back a smile. Farkas deserved no less.

“Shiiit!" Farkas whined as he toppled to the side onto one of the empty racks, unable to staunch the blood running thick from his nose and over his mouth. "Oo phucker.”

"Don't think for a moment that I believe your words have the power to command curses from the Great Spirit.

No." Chanin grabbed a fistful of his cousin's matted, filthy hair and yanked the other man's head up.

He could see crusted food around Farkas's mouth and crumbles littered his overgrown beard.

Chanin could see that his cousin wasn't stupid enough not to eat some of the food he kicked off the shelf.

Even cold, Chanin was sure the items tasted better than sewer rat fare.

He locked eyes with the wild wolf-shifter. "You just don't have the right to speak about any of my unborn children. Nor will you be alive long enough to see them."

He knew what was coming when he saw the tight pinch of Farkas's mouth. With his arms locked behind his back, he only had a few weapons available.

Chanin warned him, "If you spit at me, Farkas, I promise you, you’ll swallow every tooth in your mouth this day."

Chanin’s core quaked and his wolf roared, he wanted his cousin to act.

Wanted the male to do something to shred the last nerve inside him so that Chanin could shift and allow his wolf to eat Farkas’s heart out of his chest and use his claws to scratch out every inch of his cousin’s entrails and shove them down Farkas’s throat until he choked on them.

Farkas must have thought wisely for once and shifted his head as best he could in Chanin's hold to spit at the cooler floor.

Releasing him, Chanin stood. “Get him and let’s go.”

Strutting out of the space as Faolan and Duko, two of the Fang Warriors, passed him with a bundle of thick, coarse sisal rope to handle Farkas, he met Dov's gaze. "My pack will replace all the damaged food."

"There's no need. His sins aren’t yours,” Dov declared.

Chanin knew what the bear-shifter leader stated was true.

Even though money held little power since the catastrophes, provisions were everything.

As an Alpha responsible for those in his territory, Chanin would disrespect Dov by not ensuring his people didn't lack because of their assistance in capturing the rogue wolf.

"I'll have it ready during the next council meeting when you and Turi come through.

You have permission to bring extra men to take the haul back. "

Dov gave him a sharp nod. Enough said.

Finally, after Farkas put up a losing fight with his mouth and feet that didn't even slow down the Warriors, who soon had him bound around his chest and arms, quick and efficient.

Just like the three zip ties the bears had placed on Farkas's wrists, the ropes would keep Farkas from shifting.

With his arms locked at his back tight and the binds holding him, if Chanin's cousin even thought about shifting, Farkas would snap his wolf's shoulders in such a position.

When they had left the meal building, Bleddyn turned to him. “I think the Fang Warriors can get Farkas back to our territory.”

Chanin met his Beta’s gaze. “Don’t you think the Pack wants to see me bringing him back into our territory?”

"Our Pack just wants this nightmare Farkas had them in over.

" Bleddyn assessed him. "I think it is more important for you to take some time to get your mind right.

As much as we both want to see you bash your cousin's head in.

.. you need to be clear-headed to ensure you don't fuck up and kill his ass before you get the answers we need. "

Chanin shoved a hand through his hair and growled. He thought he was hiding how charged his body was with the need to extinguish Farkas. Evidently, his perceptive Beta had picked up on it.

“You’re probably right.”

“I’m always right.” Bleddyn grinned and gave him a solid pat on the shoulder. “That’s why I’m your Beta.”

The chuckle from Chanin helped ease the tension that earlier had fused his spine together.

"Faolan, send word once you all have him secured in interrogation," Bleddyn instructed the leader of the Warriors.

“Will do.”

The other three warriors fell in line behind Duko and Faolan as they walked out of the building and out of the Ursine territory, their ears flicking and tails wagging from their half-shifted forms.

"Thanks again, Dov. Farkas's capture may lead us to answers to more than a few questions. I'll pass whatever we get that pertains to the other territories at the meeting." Chanin held a hand out to the other council member.

“Good enough for me.” Dov shook his hand.

Chanin and his Beta headed along the same path the Fang took.

It wasn't long before they came up on the others; at the front two were sentries in wolf form while the other three surrounded Farkas.

He and Bleddyn returned the borrowed joggers and headed off on a course, leading them home instead of going to the town center where the group headed.

His Beta had been correct. He needed to give himself space before interrogating Farkas after chasing his cousin for so long.

It was why they waited a few miles before Chanin allowed his wolf out, so his beast wouldn’t automatically reverse course and go for Farkas's throat. His wolf still recalled the hateful words his cousin was about to utter about his and Morlie’s future pup and the beast wanted to make sure Farkas didn't speak anything again.

So, Chanin drove his paws deep into the earth as he ran toward the place where he found solace. Rather, the person—Morlie.

~YH~

I’m hungry.

The cavernous well in my soul cries out for satisfaction.

Can anyone hear me? My veins weep for the injustice of hunger so rich my teeth gnash and drive knife-like points into the fleshy meat of my bottom lip in search of substance, solace—something to suck.

But I find none, and the gnawing aches in my stomach, a haunting serenade of need, accompanied by the melody of my dry, emaciated muscles of a malnourished vagrant. I am a fiend seeking liquid life to revive parched veins that desire nutrients.

Answer me. Feed me.

Feed us .

We are hungry. The marrow of our bones is dust within, and we cry out for the daunting thirst to be quenched—now.

Prying herself out of the madness of her thoughts, she peeled open her lids, stiff from lack of use, and saw the world had become a red haze.