Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
R onan
I have to work to force the anger pulsing through me to not erupt. Not yet.
More than a week away has me itching to get home. Work was not the only matter that kept me away for almost eight full days.
Serafina. All I want is to see my mate, but now, there’s something else I need to take care of first.
The issue with Peter needs to get resolved now. The incident at school was the first thing Montgomery told me when I got home from my trip. He was waiting for me at the cabin.
That will not stand.
Though Montgomery advised him he is no longer a part of the pack, Peter has been taking his time getting off of Blackclaw property, claiming his mate and son belong with him.
“He’s still there,” Noah says as we turn onto the street of our pack’s town where Peter lives. “Linda and Raymond aren’t home,” he continues.
I nod, knowing we had two members from our beta team collect Linda and Raymond–Peter’s mate and son. The last thing we want is for either of them to witness this. It will be painful enough for Linda since she has decided to sever the mate bond between her and Peter.
A painful and arduous process that, in some cases, leads to death.
I run my hand across my chest just thinking about it. It was painful enough when we were forced to push Serafina away, and we were not bond mated with her at the time.
Still not! my wolf reminds me, causing another wave of pain and grief to race across my chest. I suppress the emotion in order to focus on getting rid of Peter for good.
“Not for much longer,” I reply, gripping the steering wheel.
I park in front of Peter’s house and get out of the car.
The scent of Peter’s wolf lingers in the air. Wordlessly, I shift into my wolf, knowing that Noah and Montgomery will take my lead as I race around toward the back of his home.
I was prepared to do this in my human form. I tried to talk myself into being rational and approaching Peter with respect given his father’s service to our pack.
But forget all of the niceties.
I spot Peter in his wolf emerging from the woods behind what used to be his home. My wolf takes over as I race toward Peter and tackle him.
His wolf yelps in surprise before he goes on the defensive.
I growl and snap at him with my teeth, biting his belly. It is not a deep wound but Peter’s wolf whimpers. I do not give him time to recover before I pounce on him again.
His wolf is no match for mine. I know it and he knows it.
Less than two minutes after the initial encounter, Peter’s wolf rolls over to his back, showing me his belly, surrendering.
I have to fight with my wolf not to take the final, lethal bite. It is weak to attack a wolf that has surrendered.
It takes effort, but finally, I force my wolf into his place before I shift back into my human.
“Shift,” I command Peter’s wolf.
His wolf whines, but eventually, he lays in a human pile before me. His injuries are not life threatening. A fact that pisses me off enough that I growl at him even in my human form.
“Wh-What the …” Peter trails off and shrinks back from his crouched position at my feet. “Alpha R-Ronan?”
“The fact that you are still here means you must want to die,” I say through clenched teeth. “Montgomery told you to get off of Blackclaw territory, correct?
I sense Montgomery and Noah on either side of me. Both of their wolves are as close to the surface as mine. All three of us want to tear into him.
“You are lucky to still be alive,” I declare. “Attacking your Alpha Queen is an offense worthy of death.”
“I-I never attacked her.”
“You came awfully fucking close,” Montgomery seethes. “If I hadn’t come up …” He trails off as he starts growling.
Peter holds up his hands in a surrendering fashion, as he rises to his feet
“That was a misunderstanding,” he defends his abhorrent behavior. “B-Besides, my only concern is for the safety of the Blackclaw pack. My father stood side-by-side with your grandfather?—”
“They’re both dead,” Noah says through clenched teeth.
Peter flinches when Noah gets in his face. Ordinarily, I’m the one who would hold my middle brother back, but a piece of me wants to watch him rip Peter’s head off.
I’m barely able to contain myself.
“Your father would be ashamed of how you’ve undermined your alphas at every turn,” I say.
Peter’s eyes widen, displaying the pain that lances through him. I have hit him where it hurts. The piece of garbage was always searching for his father’s approval.
“Get the fuck off Blackclaw territory within the next hour,” Noah tells him.
“I have nowhere else to go,” Peter complains. “My family. You cannot kick my family?—”
“Like you give a shit about your family,” Noah growls in his face. “You think we didn’t see the bruises on Raymond?” he shouts before punching Peter in his stomach.
I watch without a shred of empathy as he collapses to his knees in pain from Noah’s hit.
Coward! my wolf yells.
Peter was not just a drunken mess when it came to his beta responsibilities. He was also a toxic, abusive partner and father. Somehow, we missed it. Noah, Montgomery, and I missed the signs.
Linda’s frequent absences from the pack meetings should have been the sign we needed. But it was Serafina who put the pieces together.
Our mate picked up on Raymond asking questions and finally came to Montgomery and Noah about her suspicions. Linda came clean to my brothers when they told her about kicking him out of the pack.
“Enough, brother.” I grab Noah’s arm before he can strike Peter again.
“A shifter who dares to hurt his own mate cannot be trusted around anyone else’s mate.” I get in Peter’s face, squeezing it between my hand. “And you sure as fuck will never be allowed to ever get close enough to my mate to breathe on her let alone harm her.”
Because the thought of Peter harming Serafina sends me and my wolf into a frenzy, I strike Peter across the face with my free hand.
He falls to the ground, mouth bloody. It takes all of my restraint not to finish the job.
Peter’s wheezes and coughs as he clutches his face. “I didn’t–—”
“Unless you want your throat ripped out right now, stop talking. You have twenty minutes to get as much of your belongings as can fit in your truck. I don’t care where you go, but if I see you around here again, you will no longer have a throat to spew your words. Do I make myself clear?”
Peter slowly rises to his feet, looking between the three of us. “I-I-I’ll be a lone wolf.”
Montgomery growls, making Peter stumble backwards.
“Nineteen minutes now,” Noah says.
“The clock is ticking,” I say.
When he hesitates, both Montgomery and Noah start growling. That spurs Peter into action.
“Okay, okay,” he pleads, holding his hands up. “I-I’ll go.”
“Johnson and Brad are at the front door to help you,” I tell him, having already planned for two of our lower betas to watch over Peter’s departure.
“No one will touch him,” Montgomery says, watching him disappear behind the door.
“Do you feel sorry for him?” My wolf rises, angrily.
Montgomery shakes his head. “I should’ve taken out his throat as soon as I heard the way he spoke to her.”
“There is a chance you would have been thrown into shifter jail, if you had.” I clench my jaw and look over at Montgomery. “Work isn’t the only thing that kept me away for the past two days. I had to go up North to meet with the Alliance. Someone put in a phony complaint with the Alliance that you had a feral wolf.”
I glare at the back door Peter just entered. “Care to guess who?”
“What?” Noah blurts out. “That son of a bitch did what?”
Montgomery’s expression falls.
I run my hand across the back of my neck while pushing out a heavy breath.
“A week ago, during a routine call with an Alliance representative, it was brought to my attention that someone reported there was a feral wolf among us. They named you.” I look at Montgomery.
“I went to their headquarters to address their concerns.”
“Why are you just now telling us?” Noah demands to know,
“I handled it.” A muscle in my jaw ticks again. “I should have seen this coming,” I tell them. “He has been jealous of us for years.”
“Claiming an alpha’s wolf is feral is equal to banishment,” Noah says.
Feral wolves aren’t allowed in a pack per Alliance rules. They can bring about all types of destruction and are considered a step worse than lone wolves.
I place my hand on Montgomery’s shoulder. Surprise catches a hold of me when he does not immediately move away from my touch, even as I squeeze his shoulder.
“You appear calmer,” I say, just realizing this. Even after recently confronting Peter, the look in Montgomery’s eyes is not as crazed as it once was.
An actual smile touches his lips.
“She … calms him,” he replies. “My wolf wasn’t feral. In his own way, he was trying to tell me he needed to be close to her. To his mate. Her wolf.”
I blink. “What did you just say?”
Montgomery nods. “Our mate has a wolf,” he repeats. “She’s playing shy for some reason. She’s … different.”
“Different, how?” Noah asks before I can.
Montgomery shakes his head. “I can’t put my finger on it. I sense her in there, hesitant to come out for some reason, but there’s something different about her wolf. Have you ever known a wolf that stays hidden for this long?” he asks.
Noah and I look at one another.
Most shifters can’t go years without shifting, not without some sort of unnatural cause blocking their wolf.
“Serafina is not taking anything to stop her from shifting,” I say out loud. “She truly believes she lacks a wolf. Which means she cannot even sense her wolf.”
“What would cause something like that?” Noah asks.
I shake my head.
“No idea,” Montgomery replies.
“I need to speak with our Nightwolf pack contact,” I tell them. “Maybe they will know something more about what could be blocking Serafina’s wolf.”
I look toward Peter’s home.
“In the meantime, we need to keep an eye on that son of a bitch,” Noah says, also staring at Peter’s house.
“Our betas are already on it,” I tell them. “They will escort him off Blackclaw territory, and I have someone keeping an eye on him once he leaves.”
Noah nods. “Always prepared.”
I press my lips together. “If I were always prepared, it would not have gotten this far. Linda and Raymond …” I trail off.
Another failure of mine.
“She hid what was happening from us,” Noah says as if he heard my thoughts, even though I did not share them through our bond.
“She’s safe now,” Montgomery reassures. “And so is our mate.”
My jaw tightens with the awareness that I almost failed my mate and my brothers yet again. I should have been more aware of Peter’s machinations and abuse. I knew how envious he was but did not think he was much of an issue. I believed removing him from the beta team would be his wake-up call.
This time it’s Montgomery who places a hand on my shoulder. I look at him in shock.
“You’re not the only one looking after her. We’re in this together.”
Words refuse to make it past my throat as I look at the brother I once lost.
He squeezes my shoulder, as if he knows my thoughts.
“Thank you,” he says in an almost whisper.
“For what?” I ask, with some effort.
“Serafina told me …” He trails off. “For searching for me.” He looks at Noah and then back to me. “For never forgetting me.”
“Never,” Noah says, his voice sounding slightly strangled. “Forgetting you was never an option. Ever.”
Montgomery nods, lowering his eyes to the ground.
“We—”
“Alpha Ronan,” Johnson calls out, interrupting the moment.
He informs us that Peter has finished packing up his belongings and is heading to his truck.
“Follow him,” all three of us say in unison.
Once Johnson leaves, I turn to my brothers. “I’m going to pick up Serafina from the school. You two are not to come home for the next few hours.”
Noah and Montgomery snicker behind me while I head toward my truck.
It is selfish of me to declare alone time with her, and to leave my two brothers to find something to do for the next few hours, but I do not regret it.
I am going to go see my mate for the first time in days.