Page 5 of The Pack

CHAPTER 5

K illian O’Connor

The moment I scented her, I knew. And not just me; we all knew.

We’d found our mate.

When I’d first caught it, it had hit me like a lightning strike—sharp, hot, and impossible to ignore. Zara’s scent wasn’t like anything I’d ever encountered before. Sweet and earthy, with a wild edge that spoke straight to my wolf. It wasn’t just the fire of her heat, though that alone had been enough to drive us all to the brink. No, it was her. Something deeper, something that curled around me and refused to let go.

I looked around to my pack mates. They were all drawn to her, just like I was, but none of them felt it the way I did.

My instincts had always been sharper, wilder, less inclined to listen to reason. It was both my gift and my curse.

I didn’t want to just claim her. I wanted to mark her. To sink my teeth into her soft skin and make it clear to every feral, every wolf, every living thing that Zara belonged to us—to me.

She was ours.

When her heat hit, it had been a struggle just to hold back. My wolf had clawed at the surface, demanding I take what was mine. But there had been a moment—when her scent wrapped around me, when her body had arched against mine—that I’d almost lost control.

Almost .

Now Zara’s heat was cooling, but I still felt the same draw to her that I’d felt before.

The weight of her in my arms was almost nothing. Her head lolled against my chest, her body slack and limp as I carried her. Even now, I could feel the slow cooling of the fire inside her, a strange, potent energy that set my own nerves on edge.

I wasn’t used to carrying someone like this. Never had a reason to, really. Most of my life had been spent looking out for myself, or fighting for survival on the rough streets of Dublin. Back then, there was no room for being soft or sentimental. You either hardened yourself, or you didn’t make it. That was it.

But now, here I was, carrying a girl I barely knew, a girl I’d just thoroughly fucked, surrounded by the only family I had left in the world. Tobias stalked ahead, his broad shoulders tense and his black-gray hair wild. Magnus walked beside me, his gaze always scanning ahead. Callum stayed closer to Zara’s side, his worry plain as day, while Thorne brought up the rear, silent and brooding as always.

We were a unit. A pack. And now, she was part of it. She didn’t know it yet, but she wasn’t going anywhere. Not without us.

The trees began to thin as we approached the stream where we’d stopped earlier, the sunlight breaking through the canopy and dappling the ground in shifting patterns. The water trickled softly, a calming contrast to the storm still raging in my head.

I glanced down at Zara. She looked peaceful now, her face slack in unconsciousness, her breath coming in slow, even rhythms. Her hair, damp with sweat, clung to her face and neck.

I’d seen all of her. Touched all of her.

Christ.

A part of me felt like an arsehole for what we’d done. She hadn’t wanted to give in. Not at first. But the heat had left her no choice, and we’d been the only ones who could save her. We had to breed her. It was the only way to slack her heat.

I tightened my grip on her, my jaw clenching.

We’d saved her.

And I wouldn’t feel guilty about that.

Zara shifted in my arms again, her brow furrowing as she started to wake. I felt her pulse quicken against my chest, and her scent—faint now, but still unmistakable—lingered in the air between us.

“Easy, lass,” I murmured, more roughly than I intended. “You’re safe now.”

Her eyes fluttered open, hazy and unfocused. She blinked up at me, confusion flickering across her face.

“What…” Her voice was hoarse, barely audible. “What happened?”

I met her gaze, holding it for a moment. “We broke your heat. That’s all you need to worry about for now.”

She looked away and frowned, her body tensing slightly in my arms. “Put me down.”

“Not until we’re somewhere safer.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, though her voice betrayed her exhaustion.

I let out a low chuckle. “Sure you are. That’s why you can barely keep your eyes open.”

Her cheeks flushed, and for a moment, the fire I’d seen in her earlier sparked to life.

“I can walk,” she said, her tone sharp despite the rasp in her throat.

“Not a chance,” I said, adjusting my hold on her as I stepped over a fallen branch. “You’d fall flat on your arse before you made it two steps.”

Her glare was fierce, but I didn’t miss the way her body relaxed against mine, as if she knew she couldn’t fight me on this.

I glanced at Magnus as we reached the edge of the clearing.

“Where to now, fearless leader?” I said with a smirk.

Magnus wasn’t officially our alpha, but I kind of thought of him as one, although I would never tell it to his face. It might go to his head.

He didn’t answer right away, looking off into the distance instead. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet but firm. “We’ll head west. There’s an old castle near the cliffs. It’ll give us some cover.”

I nodded, shifting Zara’s weight slightly as I followed him. The others fell in line behind us. As we moved, I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was about to change.

For better or worse, Zara had just become ours. Our mate, part of our pack, the mother of our future children.

The path westward was rough and winding, the terrain growing more treacherous as we neared the cliffs. The moonlight cast eerie shadows through the dense canopy, and the distant sound of crashing waves grew louder with each step.

Zara had fallen asleep along the walk and stirred slightly in my arms, a faint murmur escaping her lips. I tightened my grip around her, ensuring she wouldn’t slip. Right now, her vulnerability was a stark contrast to the fierce determination I’d seen in her eyes earlier, and it only made me more protective of the little bundle in my arms.

I squeezed her a bit tighter.

I wasn’t going to let her go.

Not now.

Not ever.

A few hours later, Zara was still dead to the world, her body slack in my arms as I carried her through the forest. Her head lolled against my chest, her breath warm and steady, the remnants of her earlier struggle fading with every step. She looked so small like this, fragile even, though I knew better. Anyone who could survive what she’d been through out here wasn’t fragile.

“Still out cold?” Magnus’s voice broke the quiet, his silver eyes flicking over his shoulder at me.

“Aye,” I replied, adjusting my grip on her. “She’s still got some fight in her, though. Give her time, and she’ll probably be swingin’ at us again before sunrise.”

Magnus let out a soft huff of amusement. “Can’t blame her for that, considering whatever she probably went through out there.”

“Or what we just put her through,” Callum added, his tone carrying that hint of softness he always had when he was feeling guilty.

“Careful there, Callum,” Tobias said dryly, his brooding tone laced with sarcasm. “Don’t drown us in your bleeding heart.”

“Bleeding heart, is it?” Callum shot back, his gray eyes narrowing as he turned to his older brother. “Maybe if you had one, you’d understand why she ran from us in the first place.”

“She ran because she’s smart,” Thorne cut in, his English accent sharp and clipped. His pale eyes fixed on the horizon, his posture as rigid as ever. “She doesn’t trust us. Why would she?”

“Probably because we saved her from becoming feral wolf chow,” I said, grinning despite myself. “Or maybe because we’re not the ones dumpin’ poor sods like her into the wilds to die.”

Thorne’s jaw tightened, and he shot me a warning look. “Watch it, Killian.”

“Or what?” I said, the grin widening. “You’ll bore me to death with one of your monologues about honor and duty?”

“That’s enough,” Magnus said firmly, his tone cutting through our bickering like a knife. “Save it for later. We’ve got enough problems without tearing into each other.”

“Aye, fearless leader,” I said, mock-saluting him.

Magnus ignored me, his attention shifting back to the trail ahead.

We walked in relative silence for a while, the rustle of leaves and the soft trickle of a nearby stream the only sounds that I could hear. The forest was quiet—too quiet, if you asked me—but I wasn’t going to bring it up. Magnus already had enough on his plate without me throwing in my two cents about the eerie lack of wildlife.

The truth was being with this lot always made me think about how we got here, about how none of us should have survived as long as we had.

About what life was like before the Collapse.

I met Callum and Tobias first, stumbling across them while I was half-feral myself, hungry and desperate and angry at the world. I’d bitten them both before I even knew their names, and it wasn’t until later—when the guilt set in—that I’d decided to stick around and make sure they didn’t go mad like so many others.

Then there was Magnus. The level-headed cousin they’d run to when things got bad, trusting him to keep them safe even though it meant dragging him into the madness. He could have turned them in. Hell, he probably should have, but he didn’t. Then, when Tobias made the mistake of trusting a townsperson, Magnus ended up bitten, too.

He never blamed us for it. At least, not out loud.

And then there was Thorne. The soldier sent to hunt wolves like me—wolves who’d escaped into the countryside after the outbreak. He’d tracked me for days, cornering me like I was some kind of animal. In the fight when he tried to capture me, I bit him. He’d been the last one to join our pack.

We’d been through hell together, each of us with our own scars, our own regrets, yet somehow, we’d survived.

And right now, it felt like all of that had been in preparation for finding her.

Zara stirred slightly, her head pressing against my chest. I glanced down at her, the guilt I tried so hard to ignore creeping back in.

“We’re all bastards, aren’t we?” I said quietly, breaking the silence.

Tobias grunted, his dark gaze cutting toward me. “Speak for yourself.”

“Speak for all of us,” Callum said, his tone soft. “But maybe… maybe we’re not as bad as we think we are.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s your optimistic side talkin’, Callum. Don’t let Tobias hear it; he might combust.”

Callum laughed, the sound light despite the tension in the air. “If he combusts, it’s because you keep pushing his buttons.”

“Someone has to.” I grinned.

Magnus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m surrounded by children.”

“You love us,” I countered.

“God help me, I do,” he muttered.

Thorne, ever the stoic one, didn’t join in, but his silence wasn’t unusual. He carried his own weight, his own demons, and he didn’t feel the need to share them.

As we continued walking, I tightened my hold on Zara, feeling the slow, rhythmic beat of her heart against mine. Whatever was ahead, we’d face it together. We always did.

And now, like it or not, she was a part of us too.

As our mate.