Chapter Eighteen Bastian

"Bastian, you're with Sinclair for the first watch."

Lynter was trying to punish me. I was pretty sure that was what was going on. Maybe I had been too attentive to the beta girl, but it wasn't like I was going to act on it.

I always knew my charm would be my downfall.

"I'm happy to take mid-watch with Cantor…"

"Haven't you spent enough time with Cantor today?" He all but barked it, making me start in surprise.

The sternest of my packmates might seem like he had no emotions if you didn't know him very well, but I recognized the strain that was creasing his eyes.

I itched to smooth those lines away with my fingers, but I wasn't entirely sure what was causing it. My spending time with Cantor? Ridiculous.

Lynter and I might have been each other's dirty little secret, but we didn't exactly hang out as friends during the day. I knew he took great pleasure in putting me through the torture he called training, and I took equal glee in introducing him to random people and watching him fumble through conversation. But he'd never been jealous .

Certainly not of Cantor.

I'd been half joking to myself when I thought of the beta girl, but could that actually be what was going on? I pretended to glare at my lover, as if he were just my packmate and second in command, but I studied him at the same time. Was he jealous of the girl over me? Or… of me over the girl? His eyes met mine, flinty, cold, and then there was the faintest involuntary flicker towards her tent.

"Fine," I snapped. "First watch is the best one anyway."

"I'm glad you think so," Sinclair murmured at my side and I almost smacked the oily bastard as I whirled. Where the hell had he come from? Lynter took advantage of my surprise to walk off, leaving me with an uncomfortable feeling, like we'd had a fight, even though I'd barely done more than grouse.

What was it about this beta? She was very pretty, and seemed to become more so every time I looked at her, but there were thousands of attractive betas in the world. How had this one twined us all around her little finger?

"We don't even need to stand guard," I muttered rebelliously as I followed Sinclair around the perimeter of the camp. "Your wards will keep everything out. And our soldiers have to earn their keep somehow."

Sinclair shrugged. "My wards aren't infallible. And neither are the soldiers, as we were shown two nights ago."

My heart beat a little bit faster at that reminder. Lynter had almost been killed while I slept.

It should make me resentful, shouldn't it? I should want nothing more than to get rid of the omega and his sister, the way we planned to do once we got them safely back on our lands.

Yet the idea didn't comfort me. It only made my heart trip faster.

We took up at the eastern edge of camp, where it was most likely trouble would attack, if anywhere, following us on from the inn. Sinclair sat silently next to me on a fallen tree, reminding me in the most superficial way of our pale, gangly packmate.

I was almost always put with Cantor for watch. We got along fine together. Not that I don't appreciate my other packmates, but there's something especially comfortable about Cantor. He's thoughtful in a way that I struggle with and I'm sociable in a way that seems to help him.

Sinclair, on the other hand, doesn't really get on with any of us. Sometimes I wonder if he's only pack because Davos thinks he's useful. I can barely remember how close we used to be as kids, when he was a baby conman and I was the bastard son of a palace omega. There had to be trust between two people to pull the pranks we'd managed, and it had been between us once, strong and steady, long before we were bonded.

Not that I even remember that we're bonded most of the time. Aside from Cantor, we all kept that connection locked down, apart from an occasional tweak when we needed someone's attention.

Sinclair had been a good kid. Well… maybe not good in the traditional sense of the word, but loyal. Scrawny and way too smart, but his heart was true.

I just don't know if that's the case any longer.

We stand up every half candle or so to patrol the wards and I spend the time counting down the moments until our shift is over. It's late enough that the camp is mostly silent, but I can hear murmurs from where the omega and his sister were put for the night. It sounded like they were having a quiet fight again, which made me grin. Siblings are the same no matter where you come from, I guess.

She's a feisty little thing. Suddenly I wonder if she'll stay in the fort with us. Her brother will have to wait for a while until we can get him sorted. Female alphas were rare and we wouldn't just shove him at the first one that showed interest. Maybe, once everyone calms down, I'll be able to… to what? Get to know her better?

I'd like to know her a lot better.

Which is maybe why Lynter is mad at me right now.

Unfortunately she seemed quite innocent, despite the tart comments that began dropping from her mouth once she gave up the meek act. I'd have to be careful with her heart… Not that I'd be pursuing her romantically. I shook my head at myself, not sure what exactly I was hoping would happen. It would cleave Lynter in two if I started seeing someone else.

That's not to mention that Davos would never allow me or anyone else in his pack to fall in love with a beta. He was still waiting for the perfect omega to fall out of the sky and land in his lap.

As if that omega hadn't already been sold off to another pack, or was trapped somewhere inside The Nest. I hadn't been allowed back inside there since I presented as an alpha, so our scent match could have been any one of the dozens of sweet girls I'd grown up with as a teenager. She might have been under my nose and I wouldn't recognize her. Not until I became an alpha and she, or he, became an omega. Not until I was bonded into our pack.

And, even if I had, the last thing the king would allow Davos to do was to claim a scent-matched omega. Not even his favorite monstrosity had been given that privilege, let alone our mongrel pack.

I shuddered, thinking of Pack Gorgon's omega. Maybe we were destined to be without our center, but our fate could always be worse.

Still, that beta girl… her sweet lips and the tart words that fell from them… I wondered how far I could push without causing either of us pain.

A little bit of pain was the spice of life wasn't it? And she liked me. I could tell.

I could always tell.

I'd all but forgotten Sinclair in my musings, until he snaked out an arm and stopped me, just as we reached the eastern border of his wards, several paces from the closest tents.

Irritated, I schooled my face to stillness, then cocked a brow. "Yes?"

"Tomorrow the beta will try to escape." Sinclair said it with his usual unaffected tone as if we were talking about the weather.

I snorted. "No she won't."

Staring at him, I waited for him to explain his bizarre comment, but his face remained stone-like. I hated the uncertainty in my own voice when I finally added, "she won't leave her brother."

"She will. I overheard them discussing it. And you are to go after her."

Sinclair spoke so quietly I leaned in to hear him, as if I was already complying with his orders. As if he could command me.

The notion made me grit my teeth, but I didn't lean back.

"How did you overhear it? You haven't been near her all day."

This time he raised a brow. "I have my ways."

I rolled my eyes and waited to hear the rest.

"Her brother will cause a disturbance. I imagine he will damage the carriage or perhaps startle the horses." Sinclair shrugged, as if the details didn't matter. "She will flee on her horse at first, but will eventually let her horse go free in another direction and take off on foot. We're on the edge of Gallen forest so my best guess is that she'll loose the horse when she reaches the trees." He paused and locked eyes with me, injecting an insulting amount of bark into his voice. Even more insulting was how compelling it was, my muscles locking at his tone. "Do not let her know you're following her at first, especially once she's on foot. Then… run her down."

"What?" The word comes out as a choked whisper. "What the hell does that mean? Is she… Do you think she's working with someone? I'm to find out who she meets?"

He shook his head, impatiently. "No. She's not working with anyone. She will run blindly, and I want you to make her run harder. Exhaust her. Scare her." He paused and cocked his head as though considering. "Though try not to wound her."

"God's knot, I'm not going to hurt her," I said, every inch of me horrified by the thought. Too horrified, in fact. I hadn't realized my alpha instincts had latched onto this beta so strongly. Even the suggestion of doing her harm was making me want to beat the hell out of my packmate, and while he probably deserved it, it didn't seem like the smartest idea right now.

"I just told you not to hurt her," Sinclair said and peered at me as if I were a dumb bug.

"Run her down," he continued, "until she's terrified and exhausted and then… grab her hand."

I stared at him and wondered if his sanity, always in question, had finally slipped.

"Why the fuck would I want to do that?"

"Because I asked you to, Bastian" Sinclair all but hissed. "There's something strange about that woman and I'm trying to figure out what it is." His eyes, already dark in the moonlight, darkened further. "Either you do it or I'll go to Carlile."

I stiffened as he said that. Carlile had been placed with our pack by the king, but honestly, I hated the little shit. I didn't want him anywhere near Rosemary.

The thought further inflamed my need to rearrange Sinclair's face. I know I'm supposed to be the charmer of my pack but I'm still an alpha. And what he was asking me to do went against all… well, most of my instincts.

Still, being the charmer meant I had a pretty good leash on those instincts. I forced my body to relax, at least visibly, and tried to objectively examine what Sinclair was asking me to do. He had obviously come to me because Cantor was incapable of doing something this cruel to anyone, let alone Rosemary, while Lynter wouldn't do anything that skirted so close to dishonor. Davos might even be behind this tactic, and if he didn't exactly know about it, he'd just say that he trusted Sinclair to do what was best for the pack.

Both Sinclair and I appreciated that sometimes you needed to get answers in a roundabout way. However, I did not appreciate the fact that he didn't seem inclined to share whatever urgent question he had that could only be answered by mildly traumatizing the sweet girl with whom I'd spent all day flirting.

"It's important," Sinclair finally said, when I hadn't spoken in a few moments. To my surprise, he opened the bond between us wider than it had been in years. Certainty flooded in. Certainty and… trust. Trust in me . "We need this information for the pack…" He paused and studied me for a moment. "And for her."

I could tell he was holding back, bracing himself against my curious mind… just as I could tell he truly meant what he said. His need for this information was urgent. Far more urgent than he was conveying with his tone alone. Something about this girl could make or break our pack.

I tamped down a sudden rush of fury, this time at the impossible position he had placed me in.

Except choosing between my pack and one measly beta should be easy, shouldn't it?

Somehow it wasn't. Somehow, the only thing that swayed me in his favor was his shining conviction that whatever the fuck he expected to learn was for her benefit too.

"Fine," I growled. "But I expect you to share with the class when you learn whatever it is you need to know."

He hesitated and then shrugged. Just like that, the bond was snapped closed again.

"If I can," he said and then smoothly dodged my hand before I could get a grip on his arm.

"Our shift is over," he announced, already on his way to his tent as I glowered at him. "Time to wake the next one."