8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Darius
I’d planned on talking to Milo yesterday, but then Paul had found me and asked for my help getting the word around about Jeremy and Cass’ claiming ceremony.
It wasn’t as though I could refuse that, I wanted to help Jeremy.
So instead of talking things out with Milo, I’d been running from house to house in my wolf form, telling everyone to be at the packhouse around lunch.
This morning, I thought I could squeeze in some Milo time, but once again, Paul had intercepted me into helping out, informing me that Jeremy and Cass would help out, too. So, here I was, wiping tables and sweeping the floors.
When Cass and Jeremy showed up, they split and did their own thing like the rest of us, but even with so many of my packmates here helping, I could feel the absence of Milo keenly.
Why wasn’t he here yet? Was he okay? Did today bring forth bitter feelings inside him, like they did me?
A claiming ceremony was something Milo and I could’ve gone through had I not basically told him to grow up.
Shaking my head of those depressing thoughts, I focused instead on being there for Jeremy, my brother by choice. This would be the best day in his life and I was honored to be a part of it. But so should Milo, his true brother.
Checking the big clock on the wall, I frowned and gazed around the room. We should be eating right now?
“Where’re Jeremy and Cass?” I asked the room, making the others glance at the clock, too.
“I’ll find them,” Oric announced, walking into the hallway.
I knew Cass had helped Mary—our pack grandmother—collecting the leaves outside, so I went there, hoping to find both of them but only found Mary muttering angry curses at the rake.
“Mary!” I called out. “Have you seen Cass and Jeremy?”
“Cass just left!” she called back. “Said he’d be back soon!”
“Oh. Thanks!” I waved at her and went back inside. Why would Cass leave? Had he gotten cold feet?
I found Paul on the stairs leading to the upper floors where we had toilets and empty bedrooms if our packmates needed somewhere to crash.
They were mostly there for emergencies, like that one time where Ria and her mate had returned after a weekend away to find their ground floor flooded with water.
“Hey, Paul. Do you know where Cass went?” I asked, stopping him on the stairs.
“No,” he answered with a confused expression. “He left?”
Nodding, I explained, “Mary told me he had to leave but would be back soon.”
Paul groaned. “This has better not be Milo’s doing.”
The fact he immediately blamed Milo had me bristling with anger at my former Alpha. “What has Milo got to do with it?”
He exhaled like he was praying for patience. “I don’t know that yet, but it’s just typical Milo to cause issues like this. He might have said something to Cass to make him doubt Jeremy. Why else would he leave just before he was to be claimed by Jeremy?”
“Maybe we should find Jeremy and ask him?” I suggested. And not just blame Milo for everything that went wrong. Not that I said that last part, wouldn’t want to end up in an argument with my future father-in-law.
“Last I heard, he was fixing a clogged toilet in the basement,” Paul agreed, leading the way downstairs. “Maybe this is the reason I’ve yet to see Milo here,” he muttered under his breath.
I held my tongue, for now, and followed.
We found Jeremy making gagging noises in one of the stalls. “Jeremy?” I asked, trying not to laugh at my poor best friend.
“Yeah? More clogged toilets?” he replied with a snarky yet exasperated tone.
Just how many clogged toilets had he dealt with already? It seemed being alpha wasn’t as glorious as it seemed.
“No,” I replied, biting my lip. “We actually hoped you knew where Cass had gone?”
Jeremy flew around. “He’s not here?”
Paul and I both shook our heads.
“Shit,” he muttered and hurried to stand and rush out of the room.
We spent the next ten minutes searching for him, with Mary growing more agitated by the second. Jeremy had already asked her to repeat her words three times, so I understood her anger.
We were gathered in the biggest room where the food stood ready and was losing heat by the seconds.
I’d pushed Jeremy into one of the rooms where we had some clothes stored for when we showed up in our shifted form, since his clothes had gotten some water on it, and he was now stomping next to me in joggers and a T-shirt, looking like he contemplated murder.
“Hey!”
That voice….
We all spun and looked at a confused Milo.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, eyeing the room.
“Have you seen Cass?” Jeremy asked, rushing over to where Milo was slowly approaching us.
“No? Shouldn’t he be here?” Milo asked, looking genuinely confused.
“He should be, yes,” Paul replied. “But he suddenly had to leave out of nowhere. Would that be something you know about?”
Milo frowned. “Why would I know about it?”
Before Paul could say something hurtful, I interjected. “We should wait outside for when he shows up.”
Jeremy was the first one out, pacing in front of our packhouse. I felt sorry for him. This was his claiming ceremony, but he had no idea what had happened to Cass.
No one spoke as we waited for another thirty minutes.
But then, we all heard it. The faint sound of car tires.
Jeremy’s head snapped up, locking in place at the direction the sound came from. We all did. Waiting with bated breath for Cass to show up.
I didn’t know enough about Cass to guess where he’d gone, so my guess was either family issues, or a last-minute gift.
It turned out that Cass’ father had showed up asking for him in the neighboring town.
The Brown Pack owned an animal shelter there and somehow Cass’ father had found Cass’ location because he’d adopted a cat from them.
Cass seemed friendly with the other pack and they had called him, causing him to drive there.
Silas, the Brown Pack Alpha, and his packmate, had escorted Cass back to our pack. Silas had hit Cass’ father to knock him out and another male shifter from their pack was currently dumping Cass’ father somewhere.
Jeremy was thanking Silas for protecting Cass and led them inside to eat with us. I followed close behind, still not fully trusting the other pack. They had, after all, kidnapped Cass according to Oric.
I sat down with Jeremy, Cass, Paul, Milo, Silas, and Silas’ packmate, with the latter pointing excitedly to some muffins on the table.
“Is this my recipe?” he asked Cass with a beaming smile.
“It is!” Cass confirmed. “I added some rainbow sprinkles to the batter, you know, to make it more festive.”
What was happening?
“I love that!” he gushed, taking a careful nibble of his muffin.
“Um,” Milo said, eying the man with a confusion I felt myself.
“Oh,” he said, blushing. “I’m Greg.”
“Milo,” Milo replied, smiling kindly at him.
I wanted to growl at this Greg and all of his beefy muscles.
“Milo,” Silas said, pronouncing the name like they were in a freaking porno. “I like that name.”
Yeah, I bet you do, you fucking chihuahua.
Milo was blushing as he stared back at this Silas guy, forcing a growl out of me. Silas then winked at my Milo, but before I could intensify my growling, Milo winked back…
I was shocked to be honest. He was being downright cruel to me, flirting right in front of me. Was he truly planning on seeing Silas? Or was this just to mess with me?
“So,” Jeremy said, chuckling awkwardly. “Is Cass’ father going to be a problem?”
We continued to eat with them, Jeremy even offered a truce between our packs, making us allies. It seemed Cass had made true friends for something that had seemed impossible to happen.
Then Paul had announced that their new claiming ceremony would happen in a week from now, which both men grumbled angrily about.
I watched Milo walk off with Silas, silently stewing in anger as they left the packhouse and went outside.
Alone! My wolf wouldn’t just let this Silas guy take my mate right in front of me, so I followed, keeping my distance.
They reached the start of the forested area, but that was where Milo stopped.
Silas reached his hand up to caress Milo’s cheek, then said something so quietly I couldn’t pick up on it, not even with my enhanced hearing.
Milo smiled back, looking relieved and happy.
It broke me to see it. I hid behind a tree, not wanting them to spot me out there watching them like a creep.
Milo laughed making my heart speed up from the beautiful sound. The backdoor opened and Greg got out, looking around for where his alpha had gone.
“Silas?” he called, making Silas rush back towards Greg, waving a goodbye to Milo as he went.
Greg and Silas then went inside together, leaving Milo standing alone by the trees and me still hiding away. I couldn’t stop myself. I was in front of Milo in seconds, caging him in against the tree. The scent of Silas was all over him.
“He scent-marked you?!” I snarled, sniffing his body.
Milo was frozen against the tree, his body shaking slightly as I continued to sniff him. When he didn’t answer, it only made me more furious.
“Milo!” I snapped. Making him flinch out of his silence.
“So what if he did?!” he snapped back, his eyes blazing with fury. “You didn’t want me, remember?”
“I asked you to wait! Not to go around whoring yourself to other shifters just days after kissing me!”
Now, whoring wasn’t the word I’d normally use, but I was too angry to censor myself at the moment.
“You called me immature and basically told me to grow up, and now you’re calling me a whore?!”
“You are immature!” I growled.
He just glared at me before calmly stating, “Silas doesn’t seem to think so, now does he?”
Fuck, he knew just what to say to make me absolutely lose control. My eyes were burning into his, the embers between us set to ignite at any second.
“You are mine,” I growled, then crashed my lips against his, pushing him further against the tree.
A needy whimper escaped him as he returned the kiss, just as starved for me as I was for him. Neither of us could ignore it. The pull. The want. I was burning for him.
I reluctantly pulled back as Jeremy called out after me.
Before I could ask Milo to please wait for me, to somehow apologize for losing my shit, he slipped free from where I’d been caging him against the tree. His gaze not meeting mine as he shifted, his ruined clothes the only sign he’d been there as his wolf dashed into the woods, away from me.
I truly needed to apologize to him.
Three days had passed since Jeremy and Cass’ interrupted ceremony and I was losing my shit.
Three days since I’d tasted my sweet mate on my tongue.
Now that Silas and his pack were free to visit whenever they pleased, Silas did.
And to my horror, he visited Milo. How I knew?
Because I’d tried to visit him twice now in my wolf form to try to talk to him, to figure things out.
Each time Silas had been there. If I went inside Milo’s house and found them together, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
So I’d pushed my wolf to run pass his house, forcing my paws to keep moving until I was far enough away that I couldn’t scent them anymore.
My anger was too much for me to deal with alone, so I’d gotten dressed and was now barging into Jeremy and Cass’ home, needing their help on this before I did something stupid like killing the Alpha of our now allied pack.
I walked into their living room, spotting a bleary-eyed Cass who had likely just woken up from a nap and a scowling Jeremy. I ignored Jeremy’s glare and slumped down on the couch next to Cass.
“I’m this close to spanking your brother!” I declared.
Jeremy groaned and sat on his arm chair next to me. “What did Milo do now?”
“He’s flirting with that Alpha Silas!”
And spending time with him alone, but I didn’t say that. That information would mean that I had to admit to stalking Milo’s house and I wasn’t about to admit to anything.
“Have you told him to stop it?” Cass asked, rubbing his eyes.
“No,” I muttered. “I don’t want him to know how much it bothers me.”
“You’re not hiding your emotions as well as you seem to think,” Cass stated. “So, trust me, Milo already knows how much you hate his flirting.”
“I’m fucked either way,” I groaned. I never should’ve told Milo to wait. But damn we were talking days since our first kiss, it hadn’t even been weeks yet!
“Why don’t you try talking to him?” Jeremy suggested. “Maybe try to work on your relationship?”
“I fear talking to Milo will be a waste of my time. He isn’t taking this thing serious at all,” I said. “His flirting is proof of that.”
And I meant that. I’d wanted to talk to him, but he was knowingly pursuing another shifter, in front of me. If that didn’t say ‘fuck you’ I didn’t know what would.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cass said, patting my shoulder. “Silas knows Milo is your fated mate, and he isn’t interested in him like that anymore.”
“What? Really?” Jeremy asked.
“How did he find out?” I asked at the same time, feeling my heart flutter with hope. They weren’t fucking in Milo’s house? Or doing other things I would kill Silas for?
Cass shrugged. “I told him. I didn’t want Silas to be led on by Milo and it felt wrong not saying anything. Silas is my friend and he protected me, so in return, I wanted to protect him.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling so grateful that Jeremy had found him.
“Now,” Cass said, standing up. “Let’s cook some dinner. I’m starving.”
It seemed I was staying a while longer.