Chapter 9

Talon

When I found her, immense relief warred with a torrent of rage inside me.

My wolf had run to the other side of the pack, circled the perimeter, and when he detected her scent, charged into this bar. It took two excruciating hours.

Every public building in my pack had a mandatory clothes basket outside for shifters. Many of us were ravenous after a good run, and so we would arrive in wolf form and shift before entering.

I grabbed a pair of jeans outside Megan’s bar, hastily slipped them on, and stormed into the restaurant. My muscles tensed with every stride, because the place was charged with the heavy scent of testosterone—and her.

It didn’t ease the storm brewing inside me to see Blaze’s hand resting on her forearm. And when he said he wanted to invite her to the Moonlit Choosing Ritual, it was like pouring fuel on the fire.

It took all my strength to resist the urge to tear his arm off. Instead, my anger turned toward her.

Unaware, Kimble was like a radiant flame drawing moths closer, each wolf fluttering nearer and surrounding her. I knew these predators and their advances pretty well. It wasn’t anger that spread like wildfire, but jealousy searing through me, uncontainable. Through my Alpha bond for the pack, I searched for the slightest spark that would blaze me out of control. None dared to speak.

I pulled her to me with the leash, and when she was only an inch away, the tension between us was like a taut wire, stretched to its limit.

I stared down past my nose at her. “Come back now,” I said in a lethally calm voice.

She was shaking with rage and trying her best not to cry.

“Let me go,” she snarled.

I froze for a moment, and so did everyone else in the room. No one dared to meet my eyes, let alone snarl at me. She was so feisty it turned me on.

Usually, my wolf would take this as a challenge and snarl back, but this time he damn well purred. I tamped down his reckless reaction. Reaching the back of her thighs, I picked her up and hauled her over my shoulder. She screamed and yelled at me. I slapped her hard on her butt, making her squeak. Then I glared at Megan, picked up the half-eaten sandwich, and walked out, swallowing it all down in one bite.

I knew I’d made quite a show, and the pack would be abuzz with gossip by tomorrow morning. But, at least, my wolf was calm. And that was important. Not for me, for my pack’s health.

When I was out in the open, I put her on her feet. Immediately, she pushed my chest with her hands, which felt like the flicker of a butterfly’s wings. “What’s your problem?” she shouted. “I’m not yours!”

I grabbed her leash and leaned over her. “Don’t forget that I bought you for three million fucking dollars. Until that debt’s paid, you are mine!”

We both stood with our eyes locked under the moonlight that wasn’t helping keep my anger alive. Neither of us was ready to back down from our staring contest. Her baby blue eyes with my dark ones.

“So instead of arguing, you better come with me,” I said in a low voice.

“You’re an asshole!” she hissed.

“Because I saved you from those monsters?” I shot back.

“You’re no better than them!”

Anger bubbled in my chest all over again. I turned and dragged her behind me with her leash. She had to know that I owned her body and soul. She might not surrender her soul, but I had complete control over the body that housed it.

Since I had mind linked Kenzie to come and get us, his car was in the parking lot. I dragged her to the car and we sat on the passenger seat together, her leash still in my hand. She should get the message that I controlled everything in this pack, including her.

We drove in silence for the rest of the journey with Kenzie shooting nervous glances at her. I didn’t like my Beta looking at her at all. In the end, I found myself glaring at him through the rearview mirror, and he fixed his eyes back on the road.

Kimble turned her face away from me for the entire journey. Not that I was bothered, but I wanted to see if she was crying or not. So I tugged her leash a little toward my side. She stumbled back with a cry. I balanced her with my hands as she tipped her head up, enough for me to see that she wasn’t crying. I straightened her up, my hands craving the contact. But I pulled them away immediately, her touch searing me.

When we arrived at the Alpha compound and stopped in front of my manor, she pulled her leash from me, opened the car and ran to her room. I stared at her until she disappeared into the darkness, leaving me coated in her scent, and only then did I sag in relief. My wolf wanted her secure. Not me.

“Man, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Kenzie’s voice broke my thoughts. Only my Beta could speak to me like that, and only when no one else was around.

Kenzie was my best friend, almost like a brother who had stayed with me since before I crawled my way to power. He helped me overthrow my father after my mother died.

There was no one to soothe my father, and he became so cruel that he killed people mindlessly for small crimes. I couldn’t take it anymore and Kenzie and I plotted his death. It wasn’t easy to challenge an Alpha when you were just eighteen, but I challenged my father. And won.

“What?” I growled at him.

“She’s a human. Weakest in the hierarchy,” he snapped, turning his head toward me. “You can’t go running around after her. Since when have you become so interested in what your servants do? You made a terrible decision in buying her, and now you’re trying to assert your control over someone who doesn’t understand us or even know that werewolves exist?”

I closed my eyes and sagged into the seat behind. He was right. Humans are the lowest in our society. And Kimble was the lowest of the low. She was feeble, timid, and delicate, like porcelain, but feisty as hell. She was everything I wasn’t. The need to protect her was overwhelming, something I had to control. I didn’t know why it was affecting me so much.

Kenzie continued, “Forget she exists. Aria is the one for you. She’s a strong she-wolf who you’ve chosen to be with after seeing and testing so many. If you have needs, go to her. Focus on her. Don’t you fucking think about that human. You’re so close to your goal. Why don’t you leave here for a bit and go gather intel about the Viking pack? That would be useful.”

I stabbed my fingers in my hair. “You’re right!” I said, recalling my main mission to defeat Alpha Frode Asgeir. That wolf had to return to where he belonged, and only I was going to make that possible.

“Great. Also, your cousin Liam is making more noise on our pack’s north border. I’ve heard he’s going to the Elder Council to frame charges against you.”

I jerked my head back. “What charges?” I asked. Going to the Elder Council was something we all avoided. The Elder Council were responsible for implementing laws in our community. They were extremely strict about it, and if they saw a pack violating the law, they could imprison the Alpha and rule the pack directly until a new one was found. No one dared to complain to the Elder Council and we settled our matters amongst ourselves. But obviously Liam was taking matters too far.

“You’ve endangered the packs by revealing your existence to humans,” Kenzie said through gritted teeth.

“The fuck!” It was absolute bullshit because all werewolves went to human towns once in a while. I’d witnessed Liam and others going there on several occasions.

Kenzie shrugged. “Liam’s gone berserk. He’ll go to any lengths to steal a part of our lands. Why don’t you just challenge him? If it comes to war, I’m sure we’ll take him in less than a day.”

“Next time anyone goes to the human town, make sure our spies have photo or video evidence.”

There were many reasons I didn’t want to challenge him, but the most important was that he and I used to play when we were just pups, when my mother would go to visit her sister, Liam’s mother, in the Eclipse pack. I had taken over every pack that surrounded his and mine, but I spared him just because of that connection. Lately, however, he had been a pain in the ass.

“No, I won’t challenge him, but we’ll talk to him,” I suggested.

“Damn it, Talon! That’s what you’ve been doing all this time. Just challenge him.”

I took a ragged breath in. “Some other time, Kenzie.” I was tired and I needed to wrap myself around Kimble’s soft body.

What? No. Fuck. Correction. Aria. I needed Aria.

But one thing was for sure. I had to get away from Kimble as soon as possible. That’s what I had been telling myself for the last twenty-four hours.

“Make sure that Kimble doesn’t leave the Alpha compound,” I instructed him and dragged myself to my bedroom. Aria was already asleep, naked. On a normal day I would have pulled her to me and gone off to sleep. This was a normal day and I was going to behave normally. So I took a bath and slipped beside her, drifting off to sleep. The issue was that I remained on my side of the bed, my back turned to her. In her sleep, she caught my scent and rolled toward me.

Normal. Normal. Normal.