Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
N oah
“Was this part of your plan?” I spit at Ronan from the middle of the kitchen. My wolf paces inside of me as I glance out of the window again to see the sun getting lower.
In the distance, dark gray clouds move in. A sniff of the air tells me it’ll be another thirty minutes before the storm passes over us.
“It’s been thirty minutes and she’s still not back,” I remind him.
In typical Ronan fashion he merely blinks. However, his finger tapping on the granite countertop shows a chink in his usual armor.
“It was you who said she’d return on her own, right? How did you put it?” I ask, as I pace the kitchen, mimicking my wolf’s movements.
“She’ll realize she’s still in a dress and has nowhere to go and she’ll come back in no time.”
“You don’t have to remind me of what I said.”
“Apparently, I do since you haven’t realized that your plan isn’t working.”
“Unlike your plan which was … what exactly?”
“Screw you,” I counter in a growl.
Ronan folds his arms over his chest, leveling me that condescending look when he’s about to lay some knowledge he believes I don’t know on me.
“It only worked because I’d gotten her to see some reason,” he replies. “She didn’t shoot you in your chest with that arrow because I reminded her of her weakness.”
Serafina’s weakness. The supposed threat she poses to her pack—to anyone she gets close with.
The secret she confided in us years ago, but one my grandfather found out about from a seer. The same reason we were forced to deny her as our mate years ago.
“ It’s my biggest fear,” she once told me. “ Hurting or bringing harm to the people I love. It happened once.”
She never told me what took place to make her believe this.
A muscle in my jaw ticks.
I point my finger at my brother. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
I’m the hothead but Ronan can be cold and downright vindictive in his scheming if he wants. Most of the time it’s one of the traits I love about my brother.
This time, though, it feels he pushed a little too far.
“It worked, did it not?” he asks. “It got her off balance enough that I got the bow and arrow out of her hands.”
“Yeah? And what about now? Where is she now ?”
“She could be hurt,” Montgomery says out of the blue from the corner of the kitchen.
Up until now, he’s been quiet as a damn house mouse.
The telltale strain in Montgomery’s voice remains. He’s fighting his wolf again.
I grunt but tell Ronan, “He’s right.”
Ronan’s lips tighten. “Fine.”
Without another word, I’m following my brother out of the sliding glass door onto the wooden porch and staring down the trail that leads past the stone driveway to the woods that surround and conceal much of the Blackclaw pack’s territory.
I sniff the air at the same time Ronan does the same.
“She’s not alone out there,” he confirms.
The sentence barely makes it out of his mouth before I’m shifting into my wolf. Clothes be damned.
I leap off of the porch, landing onto the gravel of the driveway on my four paws, barely skidding as I do. A beat later, I’m racing into the woods in the last direction I saw Serafina walk off.
My brothers are in their wolves beside me. I search the air for Serafina’s scent. It’s more discreet than that of a typical wolf’s.
Or even that of a human.
Among the trees, bushes, birds, and other animals that make these woods their homes, her smell lingers beneath them all, pulling me closer to wherever she is.
I let the scent lead me around trees, deeper into the forest where the scent of other wolves grows closer. They belong to a few members of our Blackclaw pack.
Although, they’re members I wouldn’t want my dissatisfied mate to meet alone in the woods, given the circumstances surrounding our pack’s leadership at the moment.
“She is not alone,” Ronan tells me through our bond.
I nod, acknowledging him before picking up my pace to get to her.
A minute later, we come out to a small clearing, bordered by one of the many streams that cuts through these woods.
My top lip peels away from my upper teeth, a deep growl emerging from my throat.
Serafina spins toward us, her eyes widening.
My wolf immediately snaps his jaw shut. He doesn’t like her being afraid of him.
Though her eyes remain wide, Serafina’s features relax into one of almost relief. She must realize who we are.
She lowers the stick in her hands but only by an inch or two.
Not that it would’ve helped much against Peter, if he was truly crazy enough to attack her.
Speaking of …
I take my eyes off of Serafina and look around her at Peter, the once head beta of the Blackclaw pack.
His large gray wolf glares at Serafina with narrowed eyes. A fact my wolf doesn’t take a liking to.
I lift my head toward the sky and let out a howl at the same time Ronan and Montgomery do the same.
Peter’s wolf lowers his head in deference to his alphas. Though my human knows he doesn’t fully accept his place in the pecking order of our pack.
The three of us move in front of Serafina, shielding her from Peter.
I’m the first to shift back to my human form.
“Shift now,” I command.
Peter shifts within seconds, followed by Ronan and Montgomery.
“What the hell is this about?” I growl.
“There was an unfamiliar woman in these woods, so we came to investigate,” Peter explains. His dark gaze moves over my shoulder, looking at Serafina. “I found a stranger lurking around our pack’s territory.”
He growls, still looking at her as if he’s contemplating going after her.
I start for the son of a bitch, but Ronan’s faster when he throws his thick arm over my chest.
“No,” he warns me. “ He’s still pack.”
A reminder that has me twitching with pent-up tension and anger.
“She’s not a stranger,” I tell him in a low, dark voice. “She’s ours,” I finish.
“The hell I am,” comes Serafina’s quick reply from behind us.
Ronan, Montgomery, and I spin to glare at her. Now is not the time for her fucking rebellion.
Does she care about that, though?
Of course not.
Instead of playing it cool, she points at Peter. “Last I checked, there weren’t any signs around here that said this was private territory. I have a right to?—”
“This is Blackclaw pack territory,” Peter challenges.
“Do not speak to her,” Ronan’s voice silences Peter.
Hell, his tone surprises me. Ronan isn’t one to raise his voice often.
“As Noah just told you, she is ours.”
Serafina makes a disapproving sound at the back of her throat. I throw her a look so scathing, I know it could peel the skin off of a rattlesnake. She merely rolls her eyes at me.
“I think you need to recall that you have been stripped of your beta privileges,” Ronan continues. “It is no longer your responsibility to monitor Blackclaw territory. From now on, if you see something suspicious you report it to the beta team or one of us. Is that understood?”
Ronan’s voice brokers no argument.
“Yes, Alpha Ronan,” Peter replies. “Just trying to earn my spot back.”
“Earn it another way,” Ronan tells him. “Instead of scaring helpless women.”
“Who are you calling helpless?”
“I swear to Mother Moon,” I growl at Serafina.
“As you can see,” Ronan continues, “she is not a stranger and she is no danger to our pack.”
“I might be to the three of you,” Serafina murmurs, but given our sensitive hearing, everyone hears her clear as day.
I want to tell her she isn’t fucking helping this situation, but I refuse to bicker with her in front of anyone from our pack.
“Your mate, huh?” he questions.
“Watch your tone,” I tell him, my alpha voice emerging.
He visibly takes a step back, but the accusatory expression on his face remains.
“You’ve suddenly found your mate.”
“She was never lost,” Ronan answers.
“But you might be, soon,” Montgomery states, surprising all of us, pulling our attention to him.
Fuck.
His eyes are glowing. His wolf lies just beneath the surface. Noticing this, my wolf responds to back up his brother wolf.
I barely tamp down on the growl that threatens to spill out of my lips.
Peter, obviously deciding he’s okay with taking his life in his hands, sniffs at the air.
“She’s not marked with your scent.”
“Did he just sniff me from over?—”
“That does not mean anything.” Ronan steps in front of all of us, cutting Serafina off.
“How convenient that you three suddenly have a mate before the next Supermoon Ceremony.”
“Mother Moon works in our favor that way,” Ronan, the technical eldest of the three of us, says.
Peter nods. “The rest of the pack must be thrilled to have our new Alpha Queen here. You do plan on introducing her at the next pack assembly, correct?”
He pauses
“That’s in two days, if I’m not mistaken.”
“You should head home to your mate,” I growl, making his eyebrows spike.
Without explaining, I pivot on my heels, hoist our pain in the ass mate over my shoulder, and start back for the house.
This damn woman has caused us enough trouble for one day.
“Don’t say a fucking word, Little Hellraiser,” I growl underneath my breath, barely able to contain myself from putting her over my knee to give her the spanking she deserves.