Page 19

CAELAN

When we arrived home, the pack was worse than I thought it would be. Several of my pack members had been killed overnight by paid rogues and the Whispering Pines Pack, even some at the border, which allowed others to sneak in and kill more.

I ran my tongue across my canines and balled my hands into tight fists, trying to keep my cool at my desk. Highly ranked wolves and some of the elders, who had told me before I left that I would find somebody there that I would have to mate, filled my office.

My fingers tapped the desk, my rage burning inside me. I fucking loathed talking to them. They were all set in the old ways, and that’s not how the world worked anymore. But it didn’t matter. We had a problem. A big fucking problem.

My gaze found Livia, sitting opposite me on the couch in my office. Marcus stood at my desk, along with a couple of other wolves, debating back and forth and back and forth about what we should do. Livia looked at me, and I glanced back at her, my nostrils flaring.

If she had just gone to the fucking wedding with me, none of this would’ve happened. Why did she have to consistently try to get herself into trouble? Put herself into fucking danger? Everything I did, I did to protect her.

I didn’t want her to get hurt. I wanted to protect her.

If anyone knew that she was my mate—and that she couldn’t shift, that she couldn’t protect herself—they’d hurt her. They’d hunt her down to hurt me, and in turn, obliterate this entire pack.

And somehow, she had gotten herself into even deeper shit than that.

She finally broke my gaze and looked at Chase, one of my warriors. The night before we left for the wedding, I had heard whispers that he and she had gotten together, and I hadn’t been able to stop myself from calling her into my office to clear the air .

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to look away. Had something been going on between them? We had barely been home for an hour, and he was already looking her way too. Why was it that everywhere we went, somebody was obsessed with her?

First Chase, then that fucker Elijah.

“We must find a solution,” Marcus said beside me. “Alpha, what do you think?”

“The solution is to punish Livia for this,” an elder said.

My gaze drifted from Livia to him, the back of my throat burning.

I had to do something. If I let Livia get away with this… something was going to happen. I didn’t know what… but I couldn’t deal with it right now. We had enemies attacking our borders, an entire pack after us now.

A war had fucking started because of her.

Livia stood up and crossed her arms. “I didn’t do anything wrong! All I did was enroll in the games. He wouldn’t surrender to me, so I killed him. I don’t know why everyone has made such a big deal out of this!”

“You shouldn’t have been in the games,” Chase said.

I growled to silence him. He wasn’t going to speak to her like that; only I could.

“Why not?” she exclaimed. “Anyone could join them.”

“As soon as you saw that it was him, you should’ve left,” another elder chimed in, shaking his head in disappointment. “There’s no reason for you, someone who can’t even shift, to fight against Elijah, the only successor for the Whispering Pines Pack.”

Livia growled and stepped forward, meeting him eye to eye.

“Well, I did. And I killed him. So what do you have to say about that? I’m sick and tired of everyone here thinking that I’m weak because I can’t shift.

” She looked at me and flared her nostrils, her eyes glossy, and I knew she was trying to keep it all in.

“Why do you all constantly think that I’m weak?

Even after I’ve proved myself, it’s not enough. It’s never fucking enough.”

“Livia,” I growled because I didn’t want her breaking down here in front of everyone.

If she cried, they’d think their point had been proven.

She bared her teeth at me, then stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. I listened to her stomping all the way down the hallway until her footsteps disappeared somewhere in the packhouse.

“I will handle her,” I said to the wolves, heading to the door to lead the charge. “But we must first deal with the enemy at our borders.”