When I returned from the delivery—a massive load of guns—I was immediately on edge that Whitney wasn't at the cabins. I'd had my wolves reporting back to me about her location, what she was doing, and anything else that might be important while I was gone. But after looking into her cabin and seeing that all of her and Laura's things were still there I relaxed and decided to use the time she was away to convene with my pack.
We hadn't gotten a chance to really talk since Whitney arrived, especially with half of the pack gone on the Silverfang Creek patrols. I didn’t look forward to having to have the meeting a second time when the patrols switched out, but I supposed that was one of the downsides of being an Alpha—doing things over and over again.
I needed to discuss the future of the pack with them now that I had a mate. A no-name she-wolf from any other pack wouldn’t change things much, but the Silverfang’s head demon hunter? Whitney’s presence was going to shake things up, so I had to get ahead of things and control it all.
I gathered the members of the pack that weren’t on the patrols—Claudio, Ethan, Tanner, and Rick—in the largest cabin, where we normally had our meetings. The air was tense when they arrived, and I watched them file into the room without a word. I leaned against the wall beside the door, letting them take their seats around the large, round table in the middle of the room.
When everyone was seated, I let out a slow breath. “As you all know, things are changing,” I said, looking around at them. “My mating with a Silverfang has changed everything for us. Before I tell you how it’s going to go, I want to hear your concerns.”
I braced myself for the questions and anger that was sure to follow, but I was surprised when everyone looked around at each other and then looked down at the table.
I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well? Come on. No one has anything to say?”
“No, Alpha,” Ethan spoke up. “We just want to know what this means for the pack.”
“Nothing has changed, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Except your mate is from a rival pack,” Tanner pointed out, leaning forward so his eyes were oddly in shadow. “And this is looking a hell of a lot like what happened with the Canines. A Silverfang mate making the Alpha go soft. Not that you’ve gone soft yet, Alpha, but—"
“I am not soft, and I never will be.” I clenched my jaw. “I know how to run a pack. Whitney is going to be a positive thing for us, not a negative.”
“I hear you,” Tanner continued, “But I just can’t believe that a Silverfang, especially one like Whitney, would be okay living in a place like this and taking part in all of our under-the-table dealings, if you catch my drift. They are all goody-two-shoes. Naomi fucked up Danny completely, and she was a lamb compared to Whitney.”
I bristled, my wolf growling within me. I’d been holding onto a tight leash since I came back to find my mate missing, and I was getting tired of playing nice. If these wolves didn’t fall into line soon, I was going to have to make some examples.
“Let me make myself clear,” I said, pushing off of the wall and stalking toward the table. “Whitney will become a member of this pack and live here because that’s what we do with our mates. We’ll figure out her position in the pack later, but it’s important that she stays.”
“Why?” Ethan asked, frowning at me. “You could have any number of mates from any number of packs. What makes her so special? Why are you so insistent that it’s her? I get that there was the mate match ceremony, but we’ve all heard her say she wants to go back to her old pack.”
Even the idea of taking a different mate made me want to throw the table across the room. There was no one for me but Whitney. No one. But they’d never understand. “Because she’s strong, and respected, and her reputation will make us more powerful,” I said, looking around at them. “That’s what this pack is about, right? Getting respect and power? I don’t want us to be this small, scraggly pack forever. Other packs will take us more seriously if I have Whitney at my side, and wolves that might have been interested in joining before will be more likely to, especially women.”
Tanner smirked. “Are you telling us that you’re trying to fuck your way to the top of the Alpha wolf hierarchy?”
I snarled, leaning forward and gripping the edge of the table. “Careful. I’m your fucking Alpha, Tanner, don’t make me remind you of it.”
“I’m just saying…” he trailed off, shrugging.
“And I’m just saying that we need to start thinking about how we’re going to change this pack into something bigger and better.” I straightened up, crossing my arms over my chest again. “Nothing is going to change immediately, but gun and drug running can only get us so far. We have to scrape out a place among the East Coast packs. Whitney is the first step in that direction.”
Claudio, who had been quiet thus far, finally spoke up. “You’re sounding more and more like Danny, Man. I know you don’t want to hear that but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t speak up.”
I growled, gritting my teeth together. “I am nothing like Danny. Don’t you dare say that again.”
“All I’m saying is his mate came along and everything changed.” Claudio shrugged, leaning back in his chair. “I get where you’re coming from, I really do. We need more wolves to make us stronger, and female wolves in particular. And there’s no denying that a mate from a big-name pack is going to make us seem more powerful than we actually are, but you have to understand that they’re going to have an expectation of what you’re going to be like as an Alpha.”
“I know, that’s why I’m telling you all that things are going to change,” I snapped, irritated with the entire situation. Fed up, I stood quickly, my chair flying backward. “Look, if any of you have an issue with this, challenge me. Right now. Show that you’ve got what it takes to lead.”
None of them moved, and I laughed harshly. “That’s what I thought.” I shook my head, staring down at them. “We’re not the Red Canines, we’re the Reckless Stalkers, and I am not Danny. We are going to become something better than the Canines ever were.”
“What’s your plan for that then?” Tanner asked. “You can’t just tell us that and then not give us any details.”
I looked around at them, letting out a slow breath. “I’m going to convince Whitney to stay here with us permanently, and then I’m going to force the other packs to acknowledge our legitimacy—through violence, if I have to. Once they know not to mess with us, we can expand and build a better pack than we have now.”
Ethan looked thoughtful. “Good. That sounds good to me.”
“It’s a good plan,” Claudio agreed. “Whitney is a good person to start with, given her reputation. But what if she says no? What if you can’t convince her to stay?”
I’d been trying not to think about that since we had the mating ritual. “Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t have a choice. She belongs here, and she needs to understand that. Now…get the hell out of here. I need some time to think.”
I watched the wolves all stand and file out of the room, and then let out a slow breath, running my fingers through my hair. Things were going to work out. They had to. If Whitney wasn’t going to be with me, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.
She was the first person that made me feel…complete. And our mating…it was something I’d never experienced before.
I closed my eyes, recalling the feeling of her soft, plump lips against mine. She’d tasted like sunshine and honey, and I wanted nothing more than to spend all night exploring every inch of her body. But I’d barely gotten the chance to touch her before it was over, and she’d made it clear that she didn’t want me touching her once the ritual was done. It was killing me to see my bite on her neck and know that I couldn’t touch her without it being a fight.
I shook my head. I had to get control of myself. I couldn’t let her see how much she was affecting me. The last thing I needed was for her to think that I was weak. Weak wolves were the reason why packs fell apart, and I wasn’t going to let that happen to mine.
I left the cabin, heading down the porch steps. I didn’t mention it to the pack, because I didn’t want to give them another reason to doubt my decisions, but there was still the underlying worry that Whitney would try to leave when the demon threat was taken care of. I could force her to stay, but it would bring the wrath of her old pack down on us. And just letting her leave would make me look so weak that there would be no recovering from it.
Fuck. I wish I could call…anyone, really. Peter. Danny. Even fucking Hector. Just another Alpha that could tell me what to do. But I’d burnt all of my bridges and I was well and truly on my own.
But it was worth it to stay true to myself and my roots. It had to be.
I paced the length of the cabins, hands shoved in my pockets, thinking. Why did Naomi stay with Danny even though he kidnapped her? At first, it was because of the demons, but she fell for him pretty quickly after that. She stayed because she loved him.
Whitney kept saying she’d never love me, but during the mating ritual, when I was moving inside of her, she’d wanted me. It wasn’t love, but she’d felt something besides hate. She’d wanted me to touch her, to kiss her, to make her come, and she’d softened toward me at least a little since then. I needed to get her back to that place.
That’s when an idea came to me. I stopped, rubbing absentmindedly at my neck as I mulled it over. It might not help my reputation with my own wolves, but if I could get Whitney to return the mating bite, binding us together even more, she’d be well on her way to falling in love with me. It would give me time to figure out the rest.
A small voice in the back of my mind said that I didn’t want to bind her to me that way unless she actually loved me, but I pushed it away. It didn’t matter. This was just about power, about strength, and about keeping my mate.
I’d never been in love before, and I didn’t think I was capable of it, but I still wanted Whitney in my life. That was enough, wasn’t it?