Page 16

“W hat’s your plan now ?”

Chanin stalked through the woods behind his dwelling, where he had been for hours.

Once he and Bleddyn had returned from the council, he couldn’t seem to calm the agitation roaring inside him.

Chanin purposely kept out of the central area of his Pack’s area to minimize running into too many of his people.

He knew Rudie would soon come looking for him.

His assistant had a sixth sense about his whereabouts.

Strangely, Rudie wasn’t his mate, but her wolf had bonded with his as a pup to a sire—familial.

Chanin figured it had a lot to do with the fact he had rescued her when she was little.

She’d lost everything during the Great Catastrophe, and from the moment he’d scooped her up and helped her heal, she’d united with him.

It didn’t bother him; she had grown into an intelligent young woman dedicated to the Pack. As his assistant, she was invaluable.

However, what did make him want to snap his teeth was his Beta yapping the entire way back from the council meeting, and now Bleddyn stood leaning casually against a tree with the same fucking questions he’d been asking.

“I don’t know,” Chanin growled.

“Well, you can’t allow this slight to stand,” Bleddyn growled, using a small blade to whittle at a stick in his hand.

His Beta was an artist and had been the proprietor of several galleries before the humans caused the world to go to hell.

Even now, with the tree protection laws, Bleddyn frequently picked up fallen pieces of wood and created something miraculous. His carvings dotted their area.

Chanin didn’t hate everything that had occurred since those dark events, especially since the world had seemed to right itself by placing all preternatural entities in the forefront and at the top of the food chain where they should have been all along.

Their shifter forefathers had thought they could reason with humans.

Still, in Chanin’s lifetime, he had seen repeatedly that humans, or rather their governments, were deceitful liars who let their greed cause their people to suffer on multiple levels.

Even though Chanin had always been a part of a Pack who lived within the human world and, like others, kept their abilities hidden and took monthly ‘camping trips’ when drawn by the full moon.

His kind stayed as separate as possible and kept mixing with humans to a minimum.

With the lunar pull weakened, the moon hidden behind the purplish chemical haze still filling the atmosphere was detrimental to his kind on multiple levels.

“She’s your mate, for fuck’s sake.” Bleddyn went on. His Beta’s gaze may have been on the object in his hand, but Chanin knew his Beta. The man had powerful senses and a lightning response.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Chanin barked and halted his pacing. He had never been a wolf who showed his emotions. And right now, the fact that he could not drop a facade in place and exude the calm strength he had mastered in his youth annoyed him.

It was her. Chanin couldn’t admit that shit to anyone, but since the moment she was hauled into the council meeting, everything inside of him had come to attention.

He hadn’t needed to scent her mark to know she was his.

That had just been fucking entertaining and more about satisfying his curiosity.

However, the little human’s response had done more than that.

And that was the part that roused his wolf.

Bleddyn stopped carving and folded his arms over his chest, no longer covered in the business apparel they wore for the meeting. Bleddyn had gone to his home and checked in with his mates, and he had found Chanin over an hour ago in the same state he’d been in when they returned.

“Then answer me this, Alpha. When do you plan to claim what is yours? No others would have stood for what happened at the council meeting.”

Chanin shoved a hand through his long hair.

“It seems this is an unprecedented situation. There’s her sister to consider.

” He thought about the sword-wielding, curvy woman who’d charged in, ready to battle for his mate.

The charging woman hadn’t evoked fear in him but respect at her boldness.

It was evident the woman hadn’t truly understood what she’d walked into and whom she had faced off with.

Any one of those in the circle could have ripped her limbs off or drained her dry without breaking a sweat.

Since their agreement with the human government began, they’d never had anyone brought beyond the wall with someone else, unmarked. It just didn’t happen. Chanin wasn’t sure what the story was behind it happening this time.

“A woman claimed herself. You could smell the dragon all over her.” Bleddyn turned up his nose as if the smokey residue that seemed to accompany everything the dragons touched even now permeated the air around them. The smell wasn’t necessarily offensive, just cloying and bothersome.

“True. However, this situation calls for delicacy. I want my mate, but not the war it would cause if I charged into Drahk territory to claim her.”

“A claim you have a right to.” Bleddyn angled the thick stick in his direction. “We don’t have time to waste.”

Chanin exhaled. “Be that as it may, I must consider all the options before proceeding and the best way to petition Aodh for her release. Especially if she is not of age.”

Even though every instinct told him, the words of the sword woman weren’t valid.

He knew the sweet, gentle smell of youth, the scent that clung to infants and children.

Morlie, as the woman had called his mate, had a floral innocence scent.

However, as he’d buried his nose close, the urbane, gingery musk of her sex welcomed him—it dared him to move closer, to taste.

It had been ripe and pungent, forcing his canines to stretch, and he couldn’t resist placing his true mark.

It had been barely a scrape, the tiniest of punctures, but enough to allow the bonding properties of his saliva in.

Even now, his cock rose and hardened at the remembrance of the slight taste he had of her.

He was waiting, but geography would only separate his mate from him. If she attempted to flee, if the weapon woman tried to take her farther away, Chanin could track his scent on Morlie.

Morlie . Even mentally, her name tasted like a promise.

Grr. His wolf wasn’t one for diplomacy. His beast just wanted to tear through everything until he got to her.

“There was a time when an issue such as that would not have been considered an obstacle.”

Chanin stared at his second, his gaze hard.

“As you know, I do not run this Pack as my uncle and other leaders once did. We operated at a level barely above savage. Our packs had grown, but at the cost of the little humanity we have in our blood.” Chanin squatted and dug a hand into the rich soil.

Felt the moist earth of the forest clump in his palm.

The soil had taken too many years to restore itself, and the final recovery had blessed his Pack.

It allowed them to plant and grow food, enough though they preferred large quantities of meat, they had learned to adapt to the harsh times and survive until their livestock had mated and reproduced in large enough numbers he could offer the hearty sustenance to his people, which made Farkas’s actions even more offensive to Chanin.

He needed to go for a run. It would help clear his mind.

Bleddyn shook his head but wisely held his tongue on the matter of Chanin’s mate.

It had worked out well that Bleddyn, his childhood best friend, ended up being his second.

It wasn’t always that simple. Like the Alpha position, the Beta spot also had to be fought for.

If an Alpha and a Beta could not get along, if the Beta could not fall in line behind the leader, it could cause issues in the Pack and possible destruction for them.

“What I need to deal with now is the rogue wolves.” Chanin took his full height and dropped the dirt back to the ground.

“Those bastards.” Bleddyn shoved his artwork into the back pocket of his jeans as his eyes darkened. “Do you think it was Farkas’s crew?”

“Fuck, yes.” Chanin gritted his teeth, the pressure in his molars growing.

“After the last warning you executed, I’m surprised they attempted to pull some shit again.” Bleddyn’s fist clenched, and his chest swelled high above his folded arms.

Chanin knew Bleddyn referred to six months ago when Farkas attempted to abduct the Beta’s mate. Since Farkas, who had lost the Alpha position many years ago to Chanin, continued to be a curse on Chanin’s Pack, he knew he’d have to deal with Farkas decisively now.

“I can’t comprehend how your cousin can’t seem to get it through his thick damn head that the selfish actions of him and those who follow him could have dire consequences for the Pack. Bring war.”

“Bad breeding. Like our whole generation, we are descendants of the sickness that the last Alpha perpetuated throughout. Most of us were eager to change our ways and not only be prideful but have the honor to go with it. Then there were those like Farkas who looked forward to becoming leaders among the Pack and continuing the same regime.”

“True. And now they’ve done the unthinkable.”

“Shown our Pack in a bad light to outsiders.” A sour taste filled Chanin’s mouth as he thought about the embarrassment of having Aodh accuse his wolves of thievery before the council and questioning if Chanin could provide for his people.”