Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
R onan
The room goes silent as soon as the four of us enter Margareet’s Coffee Shop, which doubles as a meeting space for our entire pack. It’s large enough to house all sixty or so members of our pack.
My grandfather constructed the building years ago. There are a variety of stores inside that various members of our pack own and operate. The bottom floor is the coffee shop that Annie and her husband, Charles, operate.
The entire building, however, is owned by my family. The first Blackclaws. This, along with multiple other real estate investments over the years, have garnered our family extreme wealth.
Whoever is the alpha or alphas of the Blackclaw gets to claim the money as well. We Blackclaws are not unused to multiples as a family or mate unit. My great-grandfathers all had one mate.
There are multiple mates in our pack with two or three male mates and one female as their mate. Or all female or all male mate units.
The construction of the mate family doesn’t matter much to the pack members. What does matter is knowing that the alpha earned their position either by birth or by winning a challenge.
All of the members murmur, “Alphas,” as a form of deference and acknowledgment of our position within the pack.
“Who is she?”
My head whips around only for my eyes to land on four-year-old Neil. His mother smiles before she takes him onto her lap.
The boy quiets down but his curious gaze remains on Serafina.
I peer over my shoulder, and something inside of my chest shifts when Serafina waves and then pushes out her cheeks, making him giggle as he watches her.
The four of us reach the front of the shop, where there’s a stage off to the right of the raster and bakery station. Some nights there are performances here. There are already three chairs waiting for us.
“Alpha Montgomery, we apologize,” Margareet says.
“Yes, we didn’t know you were bringing someone,” Charles, her mate, says as he comes up beside her.
“I’ll bring another chair,” Joseph, her other mate, tells us.
I silently watch as he brings another one of the wooden chairs to the front of the room.
“Thank you,” Serafina says softly, as he places it beside her and holds out his arm, indicating that she take a seat.
I glare at Joseph.
In the two minutes we have been here, she’s shown more kindness to our pack than she has to any of us in the past two days.
Why the hell is he getting such a warm reception from the woman that is my damn mate?
With a quick closing and opening of my eyes, I push that thought process all of the way down. We are here for a purpose.
“Now that our alphas are present, it’s time we get this meeting started. Shall we?”
Montgomery, Noah, and my head’s shift to glare at Peter. He’s on the opposite side of the room as the beta table where he once sat. Now he’s at a table by himself. His mate, Linda, rarely attends pack meetings since she’s home taking care of their sick pup.
“Are you in a fucking rush?” Noah growls.
Peter’s eyes widen slightly before he looks my way.
“Are we keeping you from something?” Now all eyes turn to me. Usually, I am the one who pulls Noah back when his temper rises, but not right now.
“Of course not,” Ben, one of our betas, answers from the other side of the room.
“Blackclaw pack,” I say, standing before the pack, and ignoring Peter. “This month’s pack meeting is unique,” I explain, looking over at Serafina.
I do not miss the way she glares at me. My fingers twitch to wrap around her throat.
“We would like to be the first to share that we have found our mate.”
Gasps and ‘that’s great’ or ‘good news’ sound around the room.
“Alphas, if I may?” a timid voice questions from the back of the room.
“Yes, Marshall,” Noah answers, giving Marshall, one of our younger, unmated members, a chance to speak.
“Are you telling us this woman that you’ve brought here tonight is your mate?”
“Yes,” I say at the same time Serafina mumbles under her breath, “Absolutely not.”
I glare at her, which she returns before looking back toward our pack.
“We’re figuring that out,” she says with another phony smile of hers.
Noah’s growling calls my attention.
“Calm down, brother.”
“She’s testing me,” he replies back through our bond.
Yes. She does that.
“She is our mate,” I tell Marshall.
He nods and retakes his seat.
“Alphas.” John, one of our betas, raises a hand.
I nod at him.
“When did you find her? At the last pack meeting, we were all told that it was possible you would be the first alphas of the Blackclaw pack without a mate.”
Serafina snorts.
For the first time in a long time, it’s a struggle to keep a neutral expression on my face. It’s not John or his question that’s making me want to throttle something.
Or someone.
One of the corners of Serafina’s mouth rises as if she’s satisfied with herself.
“Circumstances changed,” I say. “Mother Moon revealed to us our mate and so it is.” There’s no need to go into the long, complicated history between the four of us.
“This is interesting, I must say.” Peter rises to his feet.
An obvious tension blankets the room. It’s not a secret that for months, Peter has been testing the boundaries of our limits, since he was removed from the beta team.
He’s only still here because his father served as head beta directly under my grandfather for generations.
“Isn’t it convenient that only once the law that every Blackclaw pack alpha or alphas must be mate bonded in order to hold their position was announced, you three suddenly find a mate?”
He shakes his head.
“Is there something you’re intending to imply?” Noah’s voice rises. He’s not even attempting to disguise his irritation.
The tension in the room thickens as the other pack members look amongst themselves.
“A pack without a true alpha is a dead pack.”
Our grandfather’s warning from right before he died comes back to mind. His message was clear. It’s up to the three of us to keep the Blackclaw pack strong for generations to come.
Within a pack, the biggest threats often come from within. Many times, a weak alpha or a power-hungry member brings destruction to the pack.
I’ll drag my wolf across hot coals before I let that happen.
“Absolutely not, Alpha Noah.” He holds his hands up in a placating manner.
I don’t buy it.
“But I do believe our pack has a right to know where this … woman came from.” He sniffs the air. “Especially since I can’t even scent her wolf.”
Multiple gasps sound around the room. The voices that were once murmurs grow louder with concern and disbelief.
“First of all, there’s no need to speak about me like I’m not even in the room.”
The entire room goes silent at Serafina’s declaration.
“Here we fucking go,” Noah says in my head as she rises to her feet.
Noah and Montgomery, who were seated, stand as well.
“If you have questions about me, you can address me,” our stubborn mate continues.
Peter’s eyes widen as if he didn’t expect her to say anything.
No one did.
It’s not the way of the Blackclaw pack for the mate of the alphas to make waves or speak much during these pack meetings.
“Excuse me?” Peter asks, looking between Montgomery, Noah, and me, but not looking us directly in the eye as we all know that would be a direct challenge. One, in and of himself, he’s not equipped to survive.
“You heard?—”
“She’s our mate in every way that’s relevant.” Noah moves lightning quick toward Peter’s table. “Is that clear enough?”
Peter’s lips tighten before he speaks again. “She doesn’t wear any of your scents. Nor does she have your marks. Have you mated her at all?”
Montgomery growls, drawing a series of frightened looks his way. Peter even flinches.
“Did you just ask if we’ve had sex?”
My eyelids float closed as I run my hand across the back of my neck. This woman is absolutely going to be the death of me.
“No he fucking didn’t because he knows better than to ever question an alpha.” Noah grabs Peter by the throat, sending the entire room into frightened silence.
“Oh shit,” Serafina gasps. Multiple women turn their heads her way, more alarmed by her cursing than Noah’s actions.
One of the mated females even cups her young child’s ears.
How did Mother Moon give us such a rebellious mate? I question before stepping in front of Serafina. Despite her rebellion, I do not like too many eyes on her, for some strange reason.
I will blame it on my wolf’s newly discovered possessive streak.
“Brother, if you kill him, we will have to justify it in front of the Alliance,” I remind Noah, who still has his hand clamped around Peter’s neck.
“He is still pack. Release him.”
I sense Noah’s reluctance. He wants to throttle Peter. Montgomery’s only a hair away from being set off himself. Though I can’t communicate with him the way I can with Noah, I feel his wolf pacing, ready to pounce.
It is up to me to be the levelheaded one in this situation. Our pack needs to see a strong, united alpha team with our new mate.
“Release him.”
Noah slowly loosens his grip on Peter’s throat. The former beta flops back in his chair, hands around his throat, coughing to catch his breath.
Satisfaction rolls through me at the sight of Peter’s discomfort. I loosen my hands from fists, not even realizing I curled them to begin with.
A glance over my shoulder leaves me face to face with my mate. Serafina narrows her eyes on me, obvious condescension in her glare. Heat scorches through every fiber of my being.
My wolf and my human suddenly become hyper aware of her scent. We can smell her anger, and it draws us both in.
“Don’t ever question our mate again,” I hear Noah growl out, assuming he is speaking to Peter.
A smile I cannot control creases my lips at the same time my gaze drops to Serafina’s mouth.
“Our pack wants to know if this is truly our mate,” I say slowly.
My gaze briefly sweeps the crowd of curious onlookers. Suddenly, without thinking, I take Serafina in my arms, and kiss those plump lips I have not been able to stop staring at whenever I am in her presence.
In the distance, I hear gasps of shock. Yet, all I concentrate on is the little hitch in Serafina’s breath, followed by the softness of her lips against mine.
My wolf growls with a deep hunger that only one person could ever satisfy. And she is in my arms right now, surprisingly not giving me any push back.
Instead, she parts her lips, allowing me to deepen the kiss.
She tastes sweet. A blend of honey, strawberries, and a unique flavor that is all hers.
I tend to not like sweets.
Her taste, though?
I cannot get enough.
Not even as I force myself to part from her mouth. My wolf chomps at the bit to get at her again. But he wants more. My wolf, who is not the greedy type, just found something that makes him crave like he never has before.
I take another moment to hold Serafina, watching her as she blinks up at me. Curiosity and intrigue swim around in those coffee pools of hers. More than that there’s … fire?
Not her typical rebellious fire, but actual flickering flames in her irises.
Mine! Mate! Now!
My wolf’s incessant declaration in my head causes my heartbeat to race. Or perhaps, it was the kiss, the fact that I have her in my arms, still. Or all of it.
Either way, I do not want to let her go.
I did not plan this. The level of the want that races through me. This is an unaccounted for complication.
“Is she our Alpha Queen?” a tiny voice from the back of the shop asks, breaking my concentration.
With regret, I pull my attention from Serafina to stare at the rest of our pack. “The next Supermoon Ceremony is in nine weeks. By then our mate will bear all three of our marks and will be declared the rightful Alpha Queen of the Blackclaw pack. Is that clear?”
A few murmurs followed by head nods answers my question.
No one else dares to question our authority, but I know this is far from over.
Especially when Serafina leans over in my ear and says, “Like hell I’ll wear any of your marks. Not nine weeks from now or nine eternities from now, you son of a bitch!” she hisses before striding toward the exit.