4. Rafe
CHAPTER FOUR
RAFE
M y thoughts spun as fast and destructive as a tornado as I stalked away from the pack house, screen door banging closed behind me. Madison’s scent lingered in my nose, on my skin and clothes. Night blooming flowers and sea spray, earthy and intoxicating and seemingly made specifically to tease. I was drunk on her, my wolf snarling to go back and claim her, mark her as mine.
Desire and disgust warred in my chest. How could I lose control like that? Over a woman I’d just met.
Mate.
Possessive growls grew louder with every step I took away from the house.
From Madison.
My inner beast wanted out, wanted me to act no better than an animal. The vise around my chest constricted tighter as I imagined her breathy moans, head kicking back as I eased into her for the first time. She’d never know the touch of another male. Only me.
Only the fucker who got handsy as hell the moment she bared some ankle. Real class act.
I was the alpha. I needed stability, order. Not the instinctual chaos clawing at my control.
“That was fast.”
Elise’s snarky tone pulled me up short. I slowed to a halt, hands clenching tight as I turned to face her. “Don’t test me.”
Tara, seated next to her, flinched and dropped her eyes. That usually begged my wolf for calm and understanding, but his focus rested entirely on Elise and whatever bullshit she’d spew next.
She arched a perfect brow, lips curled in that infuriating smirk. “Or what? You’ll go feral on me like you did with your little mate? I can stand whatever you throw at me, Quickdraw.”
“Don’t.” The word tore from my throat, the growl echoing in my chest. My control already hung by a fraying thread, and if Elise pushed me much further, I’d snap. “You forget yourself.”
“Do I?” She stood, hands on her hips. “You’re the one thinking with your cock instead of your head.”
“Elise...” Tara’s soft plea went unheeded.
My nostrils flared as I caught two new scents mingling with the mountain air. The first grounded me, pulling me back from the snarling in my head.
The second set me back on edge with the swirling questions that remained after Madison booted him from her room.
Orion sauntered back from the garage, with Kai right on his heels. Kai’s eyes flitted over our tense stand-off, his expression carefully neutral, but anyone who knew to look could see the tidbit of gossip already forming behind his guarded look.
“No, Rafe needs to hear this,” Elise said. Loudly, and with a look to make sure the new arrivals heard. “Bringing in some random woman, making her your mate? Have you lost your mind?”
My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. “I’m doing what needs to be done for this pack.”
“Bullshit.” Elise stepped closer, eyes flashing. “You’re doing what you want with some walking, talking toy , consequences be damned.”
Red clouded my vision. The world narrowed to Elise’s smug face, her poisonous words echoing in my skull. My wolf wanted her blood.
“I don’t care what you say about me or to me, Elise,” I warned in a low voice that had even Orion shifting where he stood, “but you will not talk about her like that.”
“Or what?” she asked equally quietly. A sly flick of her gaze landed on Kai before she returned a feral smirk to me. “Shouldn’t your new allies know you’re only standing here because another pack allows it?”
Patience. She’d never outright disliked the Hollow wolves. Hell, Jude and Asher had dinner with her regularly since we’d averted an outright war and Jude chose to stay with her mate on the other side of the territory lines.
“Shouldn’t they know you’ve lost the numbers we once commanded and sliced off part of our territory for some fucking bears? How honest were you, really, when typing up your sales pitch?”
This was pain talking. Shame and embarrassment and regret. This was Elise spiraling.
“But don’t worry,” she added with a shrug, “I’m sure she’s dumb as rocks if she signed up to come here.”
“Enough.” The word blasted from my lips, word already thick with my inner wolf. “Shift.”
Elise’s jaw tightened, defiance blazing in her eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
“Do not make me repeat myself.” Every muscle in my body tensed, my wolf prowling just beneath the surface.
For a tense heartbeat, she held my gaze. I didn’t give her the chance to refuse again.
My voice dropped to a menacing rumble. “Shift. Now.”
I threw every ounce of alpha power into the command. The order hit hard, and Elise glared murder at me as her wolf leaked through. Her nails sharpened. Fur sprouted in tufts along her arms.
She could have let the change take over, not fought it. That she let it carry on slowly was a show of strength in front of the others and another ‘fuck you’ for me.
Elise held my gaze as the first snapped bone carried her to the ground.
I snarled as her human shape melted into the sleek brown of her wolf. I hauled my shirt over my head and kicked off my jeans, rough fingers and palms at odds with Madison’s soft touch just on the other side of the pack house door.
The day needed to fucking end.
My wolf ripped out of me with none of Elise’s delay. Teeth bared, fur standing on end, my paws hit the packed dirt of the yard.
Her muzzle wrinkled, a low growl vibrating in her chest. Stubborn till the end.
With a flick of my tail, I sprang forward.
We crashed together in a violent tangle of fangs and claws. I was stronger, my wolf larger and more powerful. But Elise fought with the desperate ferocity of the cornered and angry.
She threw herself against me with vicious intensity. Snarls slipped free between the savage snap of her jaws. She rammed my side with her head, trying to use her smaller frame to throw me off balance.
We whirled and whipped around, yanking out tufts of fur where bites didn’t connect. I sidestepped a snap of her jaws and lunged, my teeth nipping at her flank.
Hot, coppery blood filled my mouth as furious howls rent the night air. Elise thrashed against my hold until she twisted free, raking her back claws along my shoulder. She didn’t waste a single movement; bending her head and closing her jaws around my foreleg.
Rage lent me strength, let me shake off the white-hot pain of fangs sinking deep. I was the alpha, and I would have her submission.
We crashed together again, our snarls intermingling into a feral chorus. Elise’s muzzle grazed my throat, teeth bared to tear it out. With a vicious shove, I knocked her off-balance and surged on top, my jaws clamping around the back of her neck.
She thrashed once, twice, then went limp beneath me with a whine of submission.
I held her there a moment longer before releasing my grip and stepping back. The fight drained from me in a rush, leaving a bone-deep weariness. I shouldn’t have had to do this. Not with my own pack. Not with Elise, who I would have pledged to in any other timeline.
But I was alpha, and that burden meant making the hardest calls. Shouldering that weight no matter how much it crushed me inside. I couldn’t afford an out-of-control Elise riling up what was left of the pack. Couldn’t allow another challenge to my position when there was so much else to worry about.
A faint rustle from the pack house caught my ear. I glanced up to see curtains fluttering closed, the flutter of movement suggesting someone—Madison—had been watching.
Fuck.
Shame joined the residual anger and heaviness of my limbs. I’d already messed up in that guest room. Now she’d watched the dysfunction of her new pack in our most feral, monstrous of displays.
Just one more stain on my tattered honor.
With a low, mournful howl, I turned and bounded into the woods.
I pounded through the forest, paws flying over fallen leaves and damp earth, every breath burning in my lungs. The scents of pine and fresh rain filled my nose, but they couldn’t wash away Madison’s meadow and sea spray scent still clinging to my fur.
Every fiber of my being wanted to turn back. To explain.
To claim what was mine.
The need gnawed at my insides, a visceral hunger I’d never experienced before. It terrified me. Infuriated me. I couldn’t open myself to that weakness when everything—the pack, my alliances, even Elise—was ready to shatter like glass on the floor.
I ran faster, muscles straining, heart thundering. Pushing myself until there was only the forest blurring past and the steady rhythm of my strides.
My path took me along our borders, skirting the stream that edged Crescent Hollow land before veering along the border we now shared with the bears. I noted a few places where the border markings needed refreshing. With our numbers so depleted, the task kept slipping.
A familiar scent reached my nose, pulling me up short.
“About time you showed up.”
I whirled, fur ridging along my back at the gruff voice. Wyatt, alpha of the growing bear clan, leaned against a tree with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
But the surprise came from Willow perched on a low branch above him. One leg dangled as she watched the scene with unsettling eyes. She felt wrong. Off, somehow. As if whatever those dark witches had done to her in service of Barrett Simmons or his hunter friends had drained a little of the life from her.
The irritation I’d tried to outrun settled over me with my shift back to human form. “The fuck are you doing out here?”
“Keeping an eye on things. Someone has to.” Wyatt pushed off the tree, scowling. “You planning on telling me why I caught a strange wolf scent in my territory?”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb.” Wyatt’s eyes narrowed. “You think I wouldn’t notice a wolf traipsing through land that’s mine? If you’re starting shit, Rutherford, I want to know. Now.”
“I didn’t send anyone into bear territory.” Though I had half a mind to, just to piss him off. Orion would be down. I probably should send Elise, let her fight out her problems more often. “You sure it wasn’t one of mine patrolling the borders?”
“You calling me a liar?”
“I’m calling you paranoid.”
Willow dropped from the tree, landing lightly on her feet. “Boys, please. Let’s use our words like civilized beings, hmm?” She glided to Wyatt’s side, laying a hand on his arm. “Rafe, the scent was near the eastern border, close to where your land meets Wyatt’s. Wyatt didn’t recognize it as Crescent Hollow or Dusk Valley.”
Wyatt grunted, mollified by her touch. I didn’t want to think too hard about that.
“Guess you’d better go check it out, then. And remember,” he jabbed a finger at me, “you keep your wolves on your side of the line.”
With that, he turned and stalked into the trees, Willow trailing after him with an exasperated shake of her head.
I glared after them for a long moment before shifting back to my wolf. My skin prickled with unease as I loped toward the eastern line, senses on high alert.
We’d had enough shit lobbed at our heads over the years. Marcus. Balancing relations with Declan and Crescent Hollow. Bears setting up shop and hunters trying to take our pelts.
Strange scents were not welcome when all I wanted was a normal, pleasant conversation with the she-wolf in my pack house.
The closer I drew to the spot Willow mentioned, the stronger the foreign scent became. It was faint, a trace clinging to bark and leaves, but undeniably wolf. Not one of mine. Not anyone I recognized from Crescent Hollow, either.
I paced the area, sniffing for fresher trails, but found nothing. Whoever this stranger was, they were long gone. But they’d been bold enough to venture deep into the mountains, bypassing any of the human-made routes and roads.
A rogue, maybe. Our best fucking hope for a peaceful resolution, honestly. Rogues tended to move on from too many eyes and ears if they weren’t cracked in the head. Otherwise, one feral rogue against a pack could be dealt with easily.
Human scents were more problematic, and we’d had shit luck in that department. But this wasn’t human, and it didn’t carry the strangeness of witch magic designed to hide their traces.
I cast one last glance around the surrounding woods. The night air carried only the usual sounds of nature and the scent of pines and damp earth. Whatever I smelled, whoever I tracked, they were gone.
So why couldn’t I shake the feeling that trouble wasn’t finished with us yet?