Chapter 3- Jealous Wolves
Emily barely slept.
Even long after she returned to the guest cabin Moonfall's wolves had been given for the night, her body still felt strange, as if the bond had rewired something deep inside her and left her too alert to rest. Every sound felt sharper.
Every scent stronger. Even the rough blanket pulled over her legs seemed more noticeable against her skin.
But none of that compared to the feeling in her chest.
The bond.
It was there now-real, warm, impossible to ignore.
A quiet thread of awareness stretched between her and Jay, subtle but constant.
She could not hear his thoughts or feel every emotion, not the way old stories sometimes described, but she was aware of him in a way that made no sense.
She knew he was somewhere beyond the walls of the cabin, awake longer than most of the camp.
She knew, somehow, that he had not gone far.
And every time she let herself focus on that warmth, her pulse skipped.
It should have comforted her.
Instead, it terrified her too.
Because if the bond was real-and it was-then everything had changed.
Emily stared up at the wooden ceiling, hands folded tightly over her stomach.
Mate.
The word still felt too large for her life.
She had grown up hearing pack women talk about finding theirs one day, some dreamy and romantic, others practical, as if a mate was merely another part of wolf life-important, sacred, but expected.
Emily had never really imagined it for herself.
Not properly. The idea had always felt like something meant for stronger girls.
Braver girls. Girls who knew how to be seen without flinching from it.
Not girls like her.
She turned onto her side and shut her eyes.
That was when her wolf stirred again.
Not just a flicker this time.
A low, almost thoughtful presence rolled through her, making her breathing catch. It felt like curiosity. Like anticipation. Like something inside her had woken up after a long sleep and was slowly stretching its limbs.
Emily pressed a hand to her chest.
"What are you doing?" she whispered into the darkness.
Her wolf gave no answer in words. It never did. But Emily felt the impression anyway: watching.
Waiting.
For what, she did not know.
A floorboard creaked from the other side of the small cabin. Liam.
"You awake?" her brother muttered, voice rough with exhaustion.
Emily hesitated before answering. "Yes."
There was a pause, then the sound of him sitting up on the cot across from hers.
"This is a mess," he said.
That was one way to put it.
Owen groaned from somewhere near the window. "Can it wait until morning?"
"No," Liam said flatly. "Our sister got claimed by the most dangerous Alpha in the region in front of half the territory."
Emily squeezed her eyes shut.
When he said it like that, it sounded even more unreal.
Owen sat up too, rubbing a hand over his face. "He didn't claim her the way you're making it sound. He recognized the bond."
"He looked one insult away from tearing someone's throat out."
"That part is true," Owen admitted.
Emily pushed herself upright, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Can we not talk about me like I'm not here?"
Both brothers looked over.
Liam softened first. He always did, eventually. "Em, we are talking about you because you're here."
"I know." She drew her knees up slightly and wrapped her arms around them. "I just... don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Neither of them answered right away.
That silence said more than words could.
Because they did not know either.
Finally Owen exhaled. "What do you want to do?"
Emily opened her mouth, then closed it again.
What did she want?
To run? A little.
To stay near Jay? More than a little, which was the truly alarming part.
To stop feeling like every decision from this point on would change the rest of her life? Definitely.
"I don't know," she whispered.
Liam looked grim. "Then until you do, you stay close to us."
Something in Emily bristled at that. She did not know if it was her own irritation or her wolf's, but it surprised her all the same.
"I'm not a child."
"No," Liam said. "You're the mate of an Alpha whose pack now knows exactly how vulnerable you are."
The words landed hard.
Not because they were cruel.
Because they were true.
Emily looked down at her hands. "You think they'll hate me."
Owen answered this time, his voice gentler. "Some of them will resent you. There's a difference."
That did not make her feel better.
Liam stood, walked to the small table in the corner, and poured water from a clay pitcher into a cup before handing it to her. "Get some rest if you can. We'll figure things out in the morning."
Emily took the cup with a quiet thanks, but she knew sleep was not coming.
Not after the way Serena had looked at her.
Not after the way the entire clearing had gone silent when Jay called her my mate.
Not after the warmth in her chest kept reminding her, over and over, that somewhere out there in the dark, the most powerful wolf she had ever met now belonged to her as much as she belonged to him.
That thought should not have made her cheeks warm.
It did anyway.
By morning, Blackridge Territory looked different.
Or maybe Emily did.
The early sunlight filtered gold through the pines, melting the silver mystery of the night into something harsher and clearer.
Wolves were already moving through camp by the time she stepped outside with her brothers-warriors on patrol rotation, pack women carrying baskets, younger wolves jogging toward the training grounds.
The scent of breakfast drifted from the main hall, mixed with smoke and fresh bread and coffee strong enough to make even Liam slightly less severe.
But the moment Emily appeared, conversations shifted.
Not stopped.
Shifted.
Heads turned. Voices dropped. Eyes lingered.
She felt each stare like a physical touch.
Her instinct was immediate and humiliatingly familiar: look down, walk faster, make yourself smaller.
She hated that instinct. Hated it more now that she knew every wolf watching her was doing so because of something sacred and rare and not because she had done anything wrong.
Still, it followed her like a shadow.
"There she is."
The whisper came from two young she-wolves standing near a water barrel. They were not subtle enough to avoid being heard, and not kind enough to care.
"She doesn't look like his type."
"As if anyone knows his type."
"Well, it definitely wasn't supposed to be her."
Emily kept walking.
Liam's jaw flexed. Owen shot the girls a warning look that made one of them straighten, but neither brother started a fight. Not here. Not yet.
The closer they got to the main hall, the heavier the tension became.
By the time Emily stepped through the wide doorway, she could practically feel curiosity gathering like storm clouds.
Blackridge's main hall was larger than Moonfall's, built of dark timber and stone, with thick beams crossing the ceiling and long tables running the length of the room.
Pelts and old weapons lined the walls. Sunlight spilled through high windows, glancing off polished wood and catching on the metal rings of warriors' belts. It smelled like food, heat, and wolves.
And in the center of it all, seated at the head of the nearest table, was Jay.
He looked up the second she entered.
The noise in the room dropped half a breath.
Emily stopped walking.
It happened again-that impossible narrowing of the world, as if everyone else in the room had blurred at the edges.
Even in daylight, with no firelight or moonlight to sharpen him into myth, Jay had a presence that commanded attention.
He wore dark clothing, simple but well-fitted, his forearms bare where his sleeves were pushed back.
One of his warriors was saying something to him, but Jay's focus had already shifted completely.
To her.
The bond warmed.
Her wolf stirred at once.
Emily hated how aware that made her of everything-his eyes on her, the broad line of his shoulders, the faint scar near his wrist she had not noticed last night, the way he seemed to go still in the same way she did whenever their attention locked.
Then he stood.
Just like that, every other wolf in the room mattered even less.
"Emily," he said.
Her name was not loud, but it carried.
Liam and Owen exchanged a glance behind her. Emily forced her feet to move.
She crossed the hall feeling every stare, every shift of air, every heartbeat.
Jay met her halfway.
"You should have sent word before walking through camp alone," he said quietly once he was close enough that only she and her brothers could hear him.
Emily blinked. "I wasn't alone."
His eyes flicked to Liam and Owen, then back to her. "Not the point."
There was no real anger in his voice. More like restrained concern. Possessive concern, if the low tension in his shoulders meant anything.
Emily should have found that overwhelming.
Instead, warmth bloomed in her chest so suddenly it almost embarrassed her.
"I made it here alive," she said softly.
One corner of his mouth moved, not quite a smile. "Barely. Three wolves stared so hard on your way in I was considering violence."
Owen snorted. Liam looked deeply unimpressed.
To Emily's horror, a small laugh escaped her.
Jay's eyes flashed with something that looked dangerously close to satisfaction.
"Sit with me," he said.
It was clearly an invitation, but it sounded like an order all the same.
Emily's gaze darted toward the long table, where several Blackridge wolves-men and women alike-were pretending not to watch. Serena sat halfway down on the right, stiff-backed and silent, though the look she gave Emily could have cut skin.
A cold knot formed in Emily's stomach.
"I don't think that would help," she murmured.
Jay's expression changed instantly. "Help what?"
"The staring. The whispering."
He looked around the hall as if only just noticing the tension. His jaw tightened.
"Let them stare."
That was easy for him to say.
He had spent his whole life being the strongest person in any room.
Emily had spent hers trying not to be noticed at all.
Jay seemed to realize that a second later. His voice lowered. "Or sit somewhere else, and I'll bring you food."
The simple offer hit her harder than it should have.
He would do that. He would leave the head table, the pack politics, the obligations of an Alpha, and carry her breakfast himself if she looked uncomfortable enough.
That tenderness scared her almost as much as his temper.
Before she could answer, a voice cut across the hall.
"Are mates always this dramatic, or is ours a special case?"
Serena.
The room went still again.
Emily's shoulders tightened.
Jay turned his head slowly.
"Do you want to test my patience twice in twelve hours?" he asked.
Serena lifted a brow. "I'm speaking for the pack."
"No," Jay said coldly. "You're speaking because you mistake bitterness for importance."
A few wolves glanced down at their plates. Someone at the far end coughed to cover what might have been a laugh.
Serena's face sharpened. "You expect everyone to fall in line because fate handed you a mate from another pack? A girl no one here knows?"
Emily felt heat crawl up her neck.
That was the part that hurt, because it was the part she already feared.
No one here knew her.
All they saw was a quiet outsider standing where they thought someone else should be.
Jay's voice dropped to a dangerous calm. "They don't need to know her yet. They need to respect her now."
The words struck the room like a command.
Not one wolf challenged him.
Serena's gaze slid back to Emily, full of venomous disbelief. "And what exactly has she done to deserve that?"
Emily's fingers curled at her sides.
There it was.
The question beneath every stare.
What had she done to deserve any of this?
Jay looked like he might answer for her.
For the first time, Emily did not want him to.
Before she could think herself out of it, she lifted her chin and said, "Nothing."
The hall fell completely silent.
Even Serena looked startled.
Emily's pulse roared in her ears, but she kept going.
"I didn't do anything to deserve it," she said, voice thinner than Jay's, quieter than Serena's, but steady enough to carry.
"I didn't ask for the bond. I didn't ask to be looked at like I'm a problem.
" Her throat tightened, but she forced the words out anyway.
"And I don't need anyone's permission for something the Moon Goddess decided. "
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Emily could feel Liam staring. Owen too. Jay most of all.
The silence stretched.
Then one of the older warriors near the end of the table gave a single, slow nod.
It was small, but it changed something in the room.
Not everything.
But something.
Serena's mouth thinned. "Pretty speech."
Emily looked at her directly. "Thank you."
That time, the laugh that broke from one of the younger wolves was impossible to hide.
Serena shot him a glare sharp enough to wound.
Jay's hand brushed the small of Emily's back-light, brief, undeniably approving.
"Sit," he murmured near her ear.
She did.
And when Jay took the seat beside her instead of returning to the head of the table, the room shifted all over again.
Because this was not an Alpha humoring a fragile girl.
This was an Alpha choosing exactly where he wanted to be seen.
Next to his mate.
Breakfast passed in a haze of tension and strange new awareness.
Food appeared in front of Emily-eggs, bread, fruit, tea she had not asked for but was grateful to have.
Jay spoke occasionally to the warriors who approached him, discussing patrol routes and border reports, but even while doing so he seemed half-focused on her.
Every time her cup emptied, it was refilled.
Every time someone lingered too long nearby, his gaze sharpened until they moved along.
It was absurd.
And a little overwhelming.
And, if she was honest, more comforting than anything had a right to be.
At one point, when Liam and Owen were distracted by a Blackridge Beta asking questions about Moonfall scouts, Jay leaned slightly closer.
"That was brave."
Emily kept her eyes on her tea. "It was mostly panic."
His voice held the hint of a smile. "Still brave."
She glanced at him then, intending to deflect the compliment, but the look in his eyes stole the words from her mouth.
Pride.
Actual pride.
As if her speaking up had mattered to him in a way that reached deeper than pack politics.
Emily looked away first.
Her wolf, traitorous thing that it was, seemed pleased.
By the time breakfast ended, Emily was exhausted in the strange way emotional strain exhausted her-heavy and hollow at once. She stood when Liam did, fully intending to retreat to the guest cabin and hide until sunset if possible.
Jay stood too.
"Come with me," he said.
Emily blinked. "Again?"
This time his mouth definitely curved. "There are things you need to know."
Liam folded his arms. "About?"
"About what happens next," Jay said evenly. "For her. For the pack. For Moonfall."
That was reasonable enough that even Liam could not object immediately.
Owen, of course, ruined it by grinning faintly. "Try not to terrify her, Alpha."
Jay didn't look away from Emily when he answered. "That isn't my intention."
The problem was, Emily believed him.
And that somehow made it worse.
Because if Jay was not trying to affect her this much-if this was just what he was like near her-then she had no idea how she was meant to survive the rest of the day.
She followed him out of the hall.
The sunlight felt warmer now, the air quieter away from the crowded room.
They took a narrow path along the edge of the training grounds.
Wolves sparred in the distance, their movements sharp and fast against the packed dirt, but Jay led her beyond them toward a more secluded rise overlooking the river.
When they were finally alone, Emily exhaled.
"I think your pack hates me."
Jay stopped walking and turned to face her fully.
"No."
Emily gave him a look.
He amended, "Some of them resent change. Some of them resent not being chosen. A few are fools. None of that is the same as hatred."
"That's comforting," she said dryly.
A flash of amusement lit his eyes, gone almost as quickly as it came.
"You don't have to win them over today."
Emily crossed her arms lightly. "How about never?"
Jay stepped closer.
Not enough to crowd her.
Enough to remind her how impossible it was to ignore him.
"Emily."
Her name was gentler now.
"You're going to hear a lot in the next few days. Some of it from my pack. Some of it from yours. Questions. Judgments. Advice no one was asked to give." His gaze held hers. "Do not mistake noise for truth."
She swallowed.
"That sounds wise."
"It's survival."
Something in the way he said it made her pause. There was history there. Hard-earned control. The kind that came from being watched and challenged too young.
Emily studied him more carefully.
Last night he had felt almost unreal-too intense, too powerful, too much like a story told by firelight. This morning he seemed more tangible. Still dangerous. Still commanding. But also tired around the edges. Focused in that rigid way people became when they were used to carrying too much.
Maybe she was not the only one suddenly standing in a life she had not expected.
"What happens next?" she asked quietly.
Jay looked out over the river for a moment before answering.
"That depends on what you want."
Emily stared at him.
He turned back. "I mean it."
"You're an Alpha."
"Yes."
"You told the whole territory I was yours."
His eyes darkened slightly. "Because you are."
Her pulse stumbled.
"But," he continued, voice lower, "the bond is sacred. Not a cage. If you need time, you get time. If you need space, you get space. No one decides this for you. Not me. Not your brothers. Not either pack."
For several seconds, Emily could not speak.
No one had ever handed her choice that carefully before.
It should not have felt so extraordinary.
It did.
"I don't know what I need yet," she admitted.
"That's fine."
"You say that very calmly for someone whose wolf nearly tore Serena apart last night."
Jay's expression shifted into something that might actually have been humor. "My wolf is not calm. I am."
Emily's lips twitched despite herself.
The warmth between them deepened.
And then, before she could settle into it, a sharp cry rose from the training grounds below.
Both of them turned.
One of the younger wolves had been knocked hard to the dirt during a spar, but that was not what drew Emily's attention.
It was the smell.
Blood.
The copper tang hit the air and her whole body went tense.
Her wolf surged so suddenly it almost hurt.
Images flashed at the edge of Emily's mind-too fast to understand, too instinctive to grasp. Movement. Teeth. A strange pulse of silver-white heat under her skin. Her breath snagged. The world seemed to sharpen to painful clarity.
Jay looked at her instantly.
"Emily?"
She did not answer.
She could not.
Something inside her had just awakened a little more.
And for the first time in her life, being quiet did not feel like safety.
It felt like the last fragile thing standing between her and whatever power had just opened its eyes.