Page 6 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)
~Troy~
I only intended to rest my eyes for a few seconds after the long, sleepless night, but when Devon gave me a playful shove, I realized the barracks had come to life around me and I must have fallen asleep.
“Just saw on the duty board that you’re expected for a meeting in the Alpha’s office in fifteen minutes,” he informed me as I sat up, giving my head a shake as I tried to clear the sleep from my foggy mind. “Did you know about that?”
Shit. The call must have come in while I was dead to the world. “Not exactly, but it must be to discuss what happened last night. I’ll head over now.”
I hauled myself to my feet, intending to head to the pack house immediately, but Devon pushed me back down with a smirk. “Clothes first, Troy.”
Hunter snickered in my head as I glanced down to see I’d been sleeping in nothing but my underwear.
I would have realized it when I got outside, I grumbled back to him.
Would you? Amanda gets you so turned around, I wouldn’t put it past you to walk into her office naked.
Since he might have a point, I didn’t say anything in response.
Devon helpfully pulled open my locker and tossed me a pair of combat pants and a black t-shirt, my standard uniform for a work day, and I pulled them on while also shoving one of our standard ration breakfast bars into my mouth. “What time is it, anyway?”
“Quarter to nine. Well, ten to, now. You’re going to have to hustle.”
I did, brushing my teeth and running a comb through my hair before jogging over to the pack house. The guard at the door tried to ask me about the overnight alert, but I brushed off the question in my hurry. “There’ll be a briefing later today. I’m sorry, the Alpha’s expecting me.”
Even with my rushing, it was still past nine o’clock by the time I got to Amanda’s door, which stood slightly open. My hand raised to knock, I froze when I heard voices coming from inside.
“You didn’t know he was there?”
The speaker was male but I didn’t recognize the voice immediately. The person who replied to him, however, couldn’t be anyone but my mate.
“No, that part I knew. With his scent and the way he scowled at me every time we were in the same room, he would have been hard to miss. But I thought he was as unhappy to be in that situation as I was. I thought my father arranged it as some kind of test. I didn’t know he requested it.”
With each word, my heart rate kicked up a little more.
Was she talking about me? It almost felt like too much to hope that I would be on her mind, that she would take the time to speak to someone else about me.
It suggested her feelings for me weren’t quite as cut-and-dried as she pretended they were.
Any doubt about whether I was the topic of conversation died as soon as another voice joined the conversation, one I also recognized.
“Well, until he convinces me otherwise, I still think Troy can go fuck himself.”
That broad, blunt tone couldn’t belong to anyone but our pack’s new Beta, a woman I hadn’t interacted with directly but had been around enough to be able to pick her out of a crowd.
Apparently, she wasn’t my biggest fan, though I couldn’t think of a thing I’d done to her personally to earn her contempt.
Knowing my presence could be noticed at any time, I decided to step in before anything else was said, pushing the door fully open.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Three heads swivelled towards me: Amanda, Savannah, and Savannah’s mate, Jasper, one of the men unfairly exiled from the pack in the rogue situation we dealt with a couple of weeks earlier.
Jasper gave the only friendly acknowledgement of my arrival, nodding his head in greeting, while Savannah, rather than looking embarrassed at the possibility that I might have overheard her last statement, simply looked me up and down, sizing me up in a way that made me very aware of my haphazard preparation for this meeting.
Amanda got straight down to business with no mention of the conversation I’d just interrupted. “Close the door behind you, Troy, and take a seat. There’s coffee and some food here if you haven’t eaten.”
“Thank you, Alpha.” I kept my tone polite and neutral as I followed her instructions, grabbing a cup of coffee before taking a seat at the oval table across from Amanda and next to Jasper.
Sitting perfectly straight in her chair, Amanda appeared the picture of propriety and control. “I’ve asked you here to talk about an incident that happened on the border last night and the wider implications of it. Troy, can you fill Savannah and Jasper in on the first part?”
“Of course.” As thoroughly as possible, I relayed the skirmish at the border and what the wolf said once we drove them back.
“Is this kind of thing common?” Jasper asked once I’d finished. “I mean, aside from the rogue stuff, do we often have other wolves coming into the territory?”
“I wouldn’t say common, but it happens. There are packs nearby who aren’t allies or enemies, and wolves will occasionally cross over just to cause trouble with no bigger purpose.
Sometimes, they’re drunk; other times, it’s young kids with new wolves looking for a thrill.
In this case, there were only three of them and they gave up pretty easily.
I wouldn’t be all that worried about it if it weren’t for the wolf’s threat afterwards.
That’s what makes this especially unusual. ”
“How do they even know about you?” Savannah asked Amanda, mirroring the question Amanda herself had voiced during our earlier meeting.
“Someone must have told them, but who and why are the questions we need answered.”
Her hand drifted absent-mindedly to a pendant she wore around her neck, her fingers closing around it almost as if seeking some comfort there.
“Where did you get that necklace?”
The words were out of my mouth before I could think better of them, and everyone’s attention immediately went to the pendant in question. Amanda lowered her hand, her lips pressing together. “Let’s stick to the topic at hand, shall we?”
The rebuke was clear, but Savannah leaned a little closer, examining the necklace curiously. “It’s pretty. Is it new? How do you know it’s new?”
She directed the last question at me, and I answered honestly. “I’m familiar with all of the Alpha’s jewellery and I haven’t seen that one before.”
It didn’t resemble any of the sleek, professional pieces she usually favoured. A burnished gold colour with an oval gemstone pendant, it looked like an antique; pretty, as Savannah said, but not Amanda’s style at all.
Still not looking pleased about the change of subject, Amanda responded tightly. “Several of my mother’s accessories, those that belong to the pack, were added to my own collection when I moved to my new room. This is one of them. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Again, the final statement was meant for me, and I bowed my head in acknowledgement. It wasn’t my business, but something about her wearing that necklace didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t explain it but gut feelings rarely had any basis in logic.
When I raised my eyes again, Amanda’s hand had returned to the pendant, which also struck me as odd. She didn’t play with her jewellery. She was always too much in control for that.
“I just wish I knew who in the pack I could trust, who I need to win over, and who would sell me out.”
“Well, we’ll do our best to figure that out,” Jasper promised. “If we can find out what pack the wolves came from last night, we can start…”
A knock at the door interrupted him before he could finish his sentence, and Amanda frowned. Her staff would have instructions not to interrupt her unless it really couldn’t wait, so something else must have happened.
“Yes?” she called out.
The door opened to reveal the guard I’d spoken to briefly at the back door that morning. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Alpha, but there’s someone here to see you. He says it’s important.”
“Someone?” she repeated sharply. “Who?”
“That’s the thing,” the man explained apologetically. “We have no idea. He just turned up at the front door and will only speak to you.”
It was my turn to repeat his words, unsure I understood what he was saying. “Turned up at the front door? Someone from outside the pack? Without us knowing about it?”
“Yes, Captain,” he confirmed with a grave nod of his head. “He didn’t set off any alarms and he has no scent at all.”
The four of us at the table exchanged confused glances but Amanda quickly regained her composure. “If he can move around the territory at will but came here to talk, it’s worth hearing what he has to say. Let him in.”
The guard bowed and turned back to the hall while Amanda stood from the table to take her seat at her desk instead.
Without a word between us, Jasper and I positioned ourselves on either side of her desk, just in front of it, putting ourselves between our Alpha and any potential danger.
Savannah stayed at the table, reaching for another muffin from the tray as the guard returned, accompanied by the strangest-looking man I’d ever seen.