9. A Threat to Flor

9

A Threat to Flor

GLEN

M y true mate ran ahead of me with my best friend, ignoring me, as usual.

It didn't surprise me. I hadn't done a damned thing right since the moment I met her. Why would she want to be near me?

It didn't help that Mom had been more and more overtly manufacturing ways to throw us together, going so far as to try and assign seating at our casual lunches with the other Heirs and pack leadership.

Flor had not responded well. She'd bared her teeth when our butler had tried to escort her away from Brand's side. Brand had calmly torn his and her paper name cards into pieces, poured gravy over them, and eaten them with his steak while she smirked.

If it wasn't for the Regency romances that I left for her, which she read and returned to the library every day, the pages rich with her jasmine and cinnamon scent, I would have felt totally cut off from her. No one knew I took those borrowed books to my room, just to smell them.

Well, I hoped no one knew.

"Stop mooning over the girl," Finn muttered from beside me, where he panted slightly. I wasn't sure when he'd gotten so out of shape. He'd always been at least as fit as me, and we both knew he was a better fighter. But I had a feeling right now I could take him on one-handed and not embarrass myself.

"Stop wheezing , asshole," I shot back.

He punched me lightly in the side. "If you don't go faster, the hyenas will catch up."

I groaned, knowing what he meant. The unmated women had never been as keen on running laps of the training yard as when Finn and I were on the track. A group of them had been trying, and failing, to catch up with us for the past few minutes. I picked up the pace, but then almost tripped, as I heard Flor say my name.

And the word sex .

"Did I hear the words Glen and sex?" I left Finn behind, sprinting ahead to take in Flor's face. I jogged backward, showing off my speed. Brand might have bulk and fighting skills, but I was one of the fastest runners in either form. "You called, Princess?"

Her cheeks went an even rosier shade of pink at the nickname. Her tongue darted out, and she fired back with her usual sass, a quick eye roll thrown in, "Watch out, Glenda, your magic sparkles have attracted some nasty fairies. If one catches you, she gets to kiss you."

Fairies? What was she talking abou— Oh shit. I'd stopped paying attention to the gaggle of females, but Flor wiggled her eyebrows at them and giggled.

I sputtered something at her, my heart flipping that she was talking to me, paying attention to me. Maybe if I could make her laugh, she'd laugh again, and she would remember I was here. See that I was waiting for her to notice me. But before I could come up with a witty reply, she'd stuck out one small foot and tripped me.

A split second after I hit the ground, the other women were gathered around me, cooing and acting like I needed medical attention. "I'm not hurt," I protested. I tried to get up, to get back to Flor, but they kept crowding me.

Not just crowding. Touching. Reaching for the few parts of me that didn't show in my sweats.

I didn't want to hurt them—most of them were just googly-eyed and giggling for the chance to get the attention of the Northern Heir—but if I felt one more soft hand slip under my waistband, I didn't know what I'd do.

"How would you like it if some shifter touched you without your permission?" Finn barked at the group. "How can you treat your own Heir this way? As if he were a toy, something to be haggled over like a steak at the grocery store? You may not be decent shifters, but you could at least act like it."

As one, they gasped and backed away, apologizing, though a few muttered uncomplimentary things at Finn as well. Slightly unnerved by the vitriol in his tone, I took the hand he held out. "Thanks, Finn."

He let go of my hand as soon as I was standing. "Don't mention it," he replied, walking by my side.

But I had to. His words had been filled with more than just censure. There had been pain in his tone. As if he'd lived through something like that, maybe even worse… Could it be that? Had he been touched without permission? Or maybe someone he loved.

I felt sick. Finn had fostered here, and we'd become good friends over the years, though not quite like Brand. He'd never shared much about his own pack. But he had a younger sister, Tana, who would be around seventeen now. I'd met her a few times, and she'd seemed sweet and shy. Could something have happened to her that had made Finn react that way to the ones groping me?

I waited a few minutes, until we were completely alone. "Finn, what you just said?—"

"Don't mention it, I told you. I just can't stand to see anyone treated that way."

"They're just girls," I said, but went quiet when he shuddered. I changed the subject. "I'm surprised your family let you come to our packlands." He hadn't mentioned the dispensation he'd obviously been given. "Your dad…"

Finn let out a short bark of laughter. "When I mentioned that I'd noticed his convenient disappearance during the fight at Southern, and suggested that public questions as to where he'd gone during the fighting might be awkward, he couldn't see the back of me fast enough."

Rage filled me. "I'd assumed he was fighting somewhere else, out of sight. You mean to tell me?—"

He dropped his head, obviously ashamed. "Yes. Whatever he was doing, it wasn't fighting. He didn't have a drop of blood on him, though someone had ripped at his clothing, it looked like. And judging by the bright lipstick on his collar, it may not have been him who ripped it."

"He was fucking a woman while we fought?" I took a few deep breaths. If his dad had been in the battle, my own might not still be fighting for his life. "He doesn't deserve to be the Interim Council Alpha."

"Truer words have never been spoken." Finn sighed. "I always wished I'd been born here, or even at Mountain."

"If they let Alpha Heirs change packs, you know you would've been welcome to move to Northern." The rules about us staying on our own packlands, with very rare dispensation given for Council duties, the Conclaves and Enforcer Games, and a few foster seasons before we took on the mantle of Alpha, were one of the only truly awful parts about being an Heir. We were princes of our kind, but we were confined in ways no one besides us ever thought about.

"If only. I'm still slightly shocked they let me come here without a return date specified. I'll pay for this trip, though. That's for certain,"he muttered.

I didn't ask what he meant. Finn had more than a few secrets. Both he and Luke had kept a lot to themselves, apparently.

Somehow, I'd gotten the feeling Finn and Luke had been close, even though the Southern Heir had only ever gone to Eastern for a very short while. It had only been a few days before Luke had become ill and had to go back to his packlands. Finn had spent at least two of those days locked in his room with him, talking while the doctors tried to figure out what could make a young, strong shifter so sick.

A thought hit me that would have seemed ridiculous a few short days ago. Luke may have had mate sickness.

I needed to call him soon. If it had been mate sickness, it had only taken days for him to fall ill back then. It might be even worse now, with Flor older and connected to her own wolf. Though she hadn't shown any signs of shifting again. Maybe she didn't feel safe yet.

I had just opened my mouth to ask Finn what he thought, when he held up a hand, his eyes on the trees. I scented the breeze, quickly realizing what was wrong.

Someone else was here, or had been very recently. My eyes met Finn's, and I mouthed the word. Stranger?

He gave a curt shake of his head and tapped his nose slightly. I took in the hint of cold water and ozone. He was right. I knew that scent.

It was the black wolf we'd met at Southern. What in the hell was he doing here? The last I'd heard, he'd opened the armory at Southern to the Mountain shifters, showing them all the weapons Alpha Callaway had been stockpiling. He'd helped us then, but if he was here now, without declaring his presence, he might not be our ally.

He could be a threat. A threat to her. My wolf howled to be released, to find him, and make sure he could never hurt her.

Now, Finn mouthed. He tilted his head to the left, and I knew what that meant. We would run fast, try to flank the shifter, and drive him out of the trees and back toward the training ground.

Finn and I had hunted together before, many times. But there was no time to shift, with the scent already fading. So we'd need to run in human form. When he tensed, I did the same, ready for answers. At his signal, we sprinted into the woods together, intent on eliminating any threat to Flor.