11. Ronyn

11

RONYN

“Gonna go check on the kids,” she murmured as she excused herself from our little pow wow and headed for the front door, “they shouldn’t be out wandering around.”

“They’re fine,” Voss said.

“I won’t be long,” Bexley said as she slipped out the front door.

And the second she closed the door behind her…

“She’s lying through her teeth,” I spat.

Voss snarled at me. “Keep your words about my mate to yourself.”

Dom leapt to his feet. “ Your mate? You mean, my mate.”

My eyes volleyed between them as Voss unfolded his arms. “You, too, Dom?”

“Us three, apparently,” I grumbled beneath my breath.

Dom and Voss’s heads whipped toward me, and I knew that we were fucked. I stared out the window, watching as Bexley made her way over to three sneaky little children who made their way out of the safety of their beds. She flopped down into the grass, smiling and laughing with them as the three little pups turned their attention to a woman I wasn’t convinced was an Alpha.

Or even a shifter, for that matter.

Yet as I watched her play little hand games with the kids while they fell apart laughing, I couldn’t help but wonder how happy my mother would be if she knew I stumbled upon my mate. My mate that was good with children. It was a scene that would have made my mother’s heart soar. It was a scene that would have sent her into a frenzied state, wondering about how many little grandpups we’d give her so she could chase them around with us.

So, of fucking course, I had to share her with two others.

Dom migrated closer to the window as he watched her as well. “Where the hell did she come from anyway?”

Voss sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know, but I’m still trying to figure out if she’s even a shifter.”

I felt the two of them turn to me as I stood in my Alpha’s kitchen, pouring my third mug of coffee.

“Penny for your thoughts, Ronyn,” Voss murmured.

I shook my head. “If she’s human? She’s very capable. If she’s human? She’s convinced an entire makeshift pack that she’s an Alpha. Anyone like that, we need to be careful around.”

Dom puffed out his cheeks with a sigh. “Well, it would explain why she hasn’t locked in with us yet like we have with her.”

Voss simply shrugged, though. “Hey, that bond didn’t hit my mom when it hit my dad. She just wasn’t ready for that kind of bond to emerge. Could be that.”

I wasn’t that stupid, though. I wasn’t that weak. Women didn’t make me that weak. Not even my mate. “Can we even trust that Bexley is her name?”

And when neither of them responded, I knew that I touched onto something both of them were thinking.

Still, their stares lingered out the window, so I moved. With a heavy sigh and a fresh mug of coffee, I meandered over to another window and watched as Bexley leapt up from the grass. She chased those two little pups back off to the house they were supposed to be sleeping in, but it wasn’t long before another child came up to her. I recognized the child. He was one from our pack.

“What’s Jackson doing up so late?” I muttered.

I watched as she placed her hands on her knees and bent forward. I watched as she tended to the child of our pack, and one by one, the children continued to approach her. They played with her hair and tagged her in for a game of late-night tag. She ran around with them, keeping up with even the most agile of tag players. Some of the children even shifted, rushing about all around her as she laughed and tried to figure out who to go after first. And even in the children’s shifted state, she still tagged them.

She still caught up with them.

She still kept up with them.

“She’s very capable if she’s not a shifter,” Dom said mindlessly.

Everyone gravitated to her. Like an invisible force orbiting her, it drew others nearer. Like the way my soul wanted to wrench out of my body and invade hers.

I shook my head and rolled my shoulders back. I bent my head side to side, cracking my neck as well. I had to keep my head screwed on straight.

So, I reached out into groupthink. Soldiers, put up a perimeter around the compound and run an Alpha Red formation.

A 24-hour round-the-clock shift? one of the new initiates asked.

I nodded as I headed toward Voss’s front door. That’s the one. I still smell the stench of death leaking into our homes. I want us on guard until it’s gone. Team B and C can take the first shift, then Teams A and D relieve them in four hours. Then, we can split up into all four teams and reduce shifts once the sun rises.

Aye, aye, general.

Loud and clear, general.

We got you, general.

Then, I slipped out the front door, leaving my two best friends behind me. I had to keep an eye on Bexley. To what purpose, I wasn’t sure. But, I wasn’t letting that woman out of my sight.

Not until my questions were answered.