Chapter 2 #2
I could feel Bastian staring a hole into the side of my face, but I kept my eyes forward, focusing on Cade’s broad back.
“Is there something we need to know about you and the Dragomir pack?” Bastian prodded. “You seem unsettled despite knowing this meeting was going to happen.”
“Just would have liked to be more prepared is all,” I hedged. “We were supposed to have another two weeks.”
Bastian hummed but left me alone, speeding up to walk beside Cade again as the three of us reached the end of the hallway, where the only option was to go right or left.
We went left, and the large double doors of the castle entry came into view. Just before them on the right was a wide archway that led to the room where the Alpha’s hosted visitors.
Where we host visitors, I corrected myself, because I was a member of the Alpha pack too.
Drawing in a deep breath, I did my best to channel my inner Samara and put my polite, no-nonsense face on.
If Cali were here, she’d probably say I looked constipated. I missed my blunt and fiery-spirited friend.
Cade slowed before reaching the room, allowing Bastian to enter first.
“Gavril,” I heard him greet the leader of the Fervis pack. “The Alpha pack welcomes you and yours into our home . . .”
I tuned him out as my breath started to quicken.
Dealing with delicate pack politics was so not my thing.
At least not in person; I was much better behind the scenes.
Plus, Alexis was in there. I could smell him, which meant he could do the same.
He might even be able to hear my rapidly beating heart and no doubt was pleased that he could still draw such a reaction from me.
A phantom pain raised up my side: the memory of six broken ribs and multiple punctured organs.
I wished I were more confident like Samara, or that I had Cali’s don’t-give-a-fuck attitude.
But I wasn’t like my friends. I couldn’t do this.
Cade looked at me with concern, a frown tugging at his mouth. Fuck. After promising I wouldn’t mess up, I was doing exactly that, but I’d make it worse if I went in there.
This had been a mistake.
I took a small step back. If Bastian hadn’t already gone into the room, he would have politely stopped me from leaving, but Cade never touched me if he could help it.
Bastian was clever. He would come up with some type of explanation for why I had to leave. I took another step back. This was for the best.
Then I spun away and made it a few steps before strong fingers closed around my wrist and jerked me back.
A growl slipped from my throat as I spun towards the asshole who would absolutely dare to grab me like this. Light blue eyes that always seemed a little wild glared at me.
“Ryker,” Cade warned from behind the lycanthrope.
The wolf wrapped in human ignored him and pulled me forward. If the situation were different, I would have tackled him and beat the ever-loving shit out of him, but despite my panic over the impending conversation, I wouldn’t fuck up that badly. So I let myself be dragged into the room.
He would pay for this later.
Four pairs of eyes latched on to me before dropping to where Ryker’s fingers still had a death grip on my wrist as we stopped only a few feet into the room.
“I see the Narchis tribute is fitting in well enough,” Gavril commented mildly with a smirking Remy next to him.
I’d met the leader of the Dragomir pack and Fervis Order Alpha several times in my life.
His dark hair and green eyes made him striking and memorable.
Like Bastian, he was an ailuranthrope and absolutely ruthless in a fight.
Remy was almost a mirror image of his uncle, but where Gavril was cold and calculating, Remy was all playful grins and jokes .
. . until he sank his claws into your back and ripped out your spine.
I’d seen him do it, so I wasn’t fooled by his charmful exterior.
“Rynn has been a lovely addition to our pack,” Bastian said smoothly as he held out a hand, inviting me to join him, though something flashed in his eyes. A warning maybe? It would be just like Bastian to blame me for Ryker’s inability to keep his hands to himself.
Keeping what I hoped was a serene smile on my face, I tried to step away from Ryker, only to freeze as a low growl rumbled from him.
I felt the second his nails shifted to claws and bit into my skin, stopping just this side of drawing blood.
I knew if I pulled away again that he would cross that line.
Ryker had . . . control issues.
“Regretting your decision yet, Rynn?” a raspy voice drawled.
My jaw clenched as I finally really looked at the man I’d been avoiding since stepping foot into this room.
Alexis stood on Gavril’s other side and looked exactly as I’d remembered.
Like me and Ryker, he was also a lycanthrope.
Built hard and lean with golden-brown eyes and a face that most considered handsome.
But I also remembered the way he’d smiled after breaking my arm in three places and shattering the right side of my body. He’d never be handsome to me.
“Not at all,” I answered, proud of myself for not letting a hint of a tremble slip into my voice despite the mixture of fear and rage battling for supremacy in my mind. “Your voice sounds much better. You can barely hear the difference anymore.”
The gold of his eyes sharpened at the reminder.
Alexis may have hurt me in the past, but I had given as good as I’d gotten.
The last time we’d met, I’d ripped out his vocal cords when he’d demanded I submit to him.
They’d healed, but prior to the injury, his voice had been smooth like honey.
Now, there was a roughness to it that, personally, I thought fit his monstrous personality better.
Tension filled the room. Gavril stared at me with outright hatred, Remy’s usual amused expression was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a careful blankness that I envied, and the Alphas were silent as they tried to figure out what in the hells was going on.
At least Bastian and Ryker were; Cade was still in the hallway, likely thinking about strangling me for fucking everything up.
Alexis turned his attention to Ryker, still talking to me. “Keep spending time with that rabid dog and perhaps you’ll sound like me one day, love.”
A growl bubbled up my throat before I could stop it. He did not just call me love and Ryker a rabid dog. Regardless of my issues with Ryker, he didn’t deserve Alexis’ vitriol.
“Enough.” Cade strode into the room with a thunderous expression.
He gave Ryker a pointed look, and the hand immediately dropped from my wrist, then Cade’s gaze lingered on me for half a second before going to Bastian.
Taking the hint, I promptly walked away from Ryker to Bastian, who held out his hand again.
I didn’t like being this much closer to Alexis and Gavril, who were standing in front of Bastian, but I’d just have to manage.
Things had already gone sideways and I needed to not make them worse.
I slid my hand into Bastian’s, and he immediately tugged me into his side and then dropped my hand so he could slide his arm around my waist.
Alexis’ jaw hardened as Bastian’s fingers lingered on my hip, like this was the norm for us.
It wasn’t. My entire body felt tighter than a bowstring.
I wasn’t used to people casually touching me and definitely not in the proprietary way Bastian was slowly running his fingertips across the fabric of my pants.
Barely a moment passed before I felt Ryker’s chest pressed against my back, pinning Batsian’s arm between us while Ryker rested a hand on my shoulder.
A whirlwind of emotions hit me. Nervousness. Indignation. Lust.
I tried not to think about the latter.
“You will speak to the members of my pack in a respectful manner or not at all,” Cade said in a tone that brooked no argument. He was standing close to me, but unlike the other two, he maintained just enough distance to not touch me.
Part of me really didn’t like that, and I did my best to smother that part.
“Of course,” Gavril said smoothly. “Forgive our manners. It was a long trip here and we barely made it to the outpost before sunset last night.”
I didn’t miss that neither he nor Alexis apologized for their behavior, but I wasn’t all that surprised. None of the Alphas called them on it, and the tension in the room dropped a little.
“The wraiths were particularly bad once we got into Avala territory,” Remy added with a grimace.
“They’ve always been more abundant up here.” Bastian shrugged. “The mountains are full of them. Closer you get, the more wraiths you’ll see.”
Another thing I’d gotten used to since moving in with the Alphas.
Wraiths were all over Lunaria, but in both the Moroi and Furie realms, they were sparse enough that it was feasible to avoid them at night.
Since the Narchis and Fervis territories were in the southern part of the Velesian realm, they only saw a slight uptick in wraith activity.
Cade had made it very clear when I’d moved here that going out at night in Avala territory was more or less a death sentence.
When I’d pointed out that Warrick was regularly out at night, Bastian had stormed out of the room and Cade hadn’t responded. I’d never brought it up again. It wasn’t like any of them would have given me a straight answer when it came to Warrick.
I had no idea why there was such bad blood between him and Bastian or what exactly Warrick was so obsessed with finding in the mountains. Maybe someday they’d trust me with at least some of that information, but I doubted it would be anytime soon.
“Why don’t we take a seat?” Bastian waved a hand at the chairs set around a low table in the corner of the room. “We still have some cider left from this year’s harvest.”
Gavril didn’t so much as glance at me before striding towards the chairs. Alexis’ gaze lingered on me for a moment before he followed after his packleader.