CHAPTER ONE
Mark glanced in the rear-view mirror as he indicated to turn right, unsuccessful in trying to avoid his alpha’s gaze. Newell’s cold, grey eyes stared back at him—the disappointment and anger almost palpable. The last thing Mark wanted was to get out of that car and face whatever punishment Newell had in store for him, but one more right turn and they’d be back at their building. Quickly glancing forwards again, he focused on the road and told himself it wouldn’t be that bad. He’d done nothing wrong.
The journey from the Regent’s Park pack building had been filled with a tense silence. Even with the size of the SUV, it was a tight squeeze with Alpha Newell and two of his betas in the back. Maybe that was the cause of his discomfort?
Fuck, who am I kidding?
The meeting with the Regent’s Park pack had been a shit-show, and Mark had inadvertently made things worse. All because of that bloody jacket. Newell had been furious when Mark came back to the car without it, but since that moment, his alpha had been silent.
Wes, Newell’s other beta, sat in the front next to Mark. Every now and again, Mark sensed his gaze, but so far he’d managed not to look over and engage him.
The silence was getting to him. Nervous tension filled his body, making it an effort not to grip the steering wheel hard enough to crack it. And everyone else in the car would sense it: alphas and betas were far better at teasing out the subtleties of scent than Mark was. Dread settled in his belly like a stone as he made the turn into the underground car park for their building. They only had two pack buildings as their main base, and even those two weren’t as big as the Regent’s Park pack equivalent.
Mark switched off the engine, and the ensuing silence was deafening.
From experience, everyone in the car knew not to speak until they could properly gauge Newell’s mood. As an alpha, he had excellent control over his emotions. Pissing him off could easily result in some shitty job rotation for a month or a backhand across the face. Mark had avoided both so far. Being a lowly unit member, he had minimal contact with his alpha, and that was just the way he liked it.
Newell cleared his throat and Mark flinched. “Meeting room, now.” Before Mark had a chance to wonder if that included him, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Five claw-tips pressed through the light cotton of his shirt. “You too, Appleton.”
Fuck.
Newell’s flat took up most of the top floor now—two of the original flats knocked together to give him a huge place that Mark had never seen, only heard about. As a result, the pack meeting room had been moved to the floor below.
They trooped up the stairs, Mark bringing up the rear with his beta, Jason, in front of him. When they reached the room, Jason nodded for him to enter first. They’d had no chance to talk since everything went to shit at the R-pack building. Mark didn’t want to believe that Jason had anything to do with Alpha Harley’s accusations—he didn’t want to believe it of any of his pack—but Jason was hisbeta.His first point of contact for any issues he might have. The idea that Jason might have willingly sent him into that meeting, knowing it would put him in danger, left a nasty taste in his mouth and an ache in his chest.
The sound of a chair skittering across the floor grabbed Mark’s attention and his head snapped up in time to see Newell kick another chair across the room. It hit the far wall with a crack, splintered into pieces, and scattered all over the floor. The loud roar that accompanied it set Mark’s teeth on edge.
This was bad.
So very bad.
The urge to turn and run pulled at him, and only Jason’s firm hand on his shoulder kept him in place. A quick squeeze of his fingers sent a flood of reassurance through Mark and calmed him enough to stay his ground.
“That lying piece of shit alpha.” Newell stalked around the room. “Who the fuck does he think he is? Reporting me to the fucking alpha council when half his pack has been illegally changed. And what the fuck was Nathan Kohl doing there? If he’d been one of mine, he wouldn’t have lasted five seconds after giving an illegal bite. But no, his alpha rewarded him with fake papers and a fucking mate.”
Jason pulled Mark back out of Newell’s way while the other two betas kept to the rear of the room. They didn’t seem unusually bothered or surprised by their alpha’s behaviour.
Newell’s gaze landed on Mark, and he abruptly stopped.
The bond between an alpha and their pack was forged with a bite, strengthened and maintained with respect and trust.
Not the fear that seeped into Mark’s body when his alpha stalked forward two steps to stand directly in front of him. He tried to push it down, but everyone in that room would have sensed it. From the corner of his eye, he caught Wes’s smirk.
Newell put his hand at the base of Mark’s neck, his grip firm but not threatening.For now. “I hope I don’t have to tell you that Harley was lying. I’ve never tried to kill any of his pack or put them in danger.” Mark immediately thought about Nathan. Newell had been all too keen on using him as bait in the fight with the rogue pack. Mark kept that thought to himself as Newell continued to rant. “The fact that he chooses to take the word of a fucking rogue—one who attacked and killed members of both our packs—over that of his fellow alpha, is an insult that won’t go unchallenged.” He waited, expression expectant, and Mark struggled to think of the right answer to that statement.
“Yes, Alpha.”
A slight nod was all the response he got.
“And I will forgive your indiscretion regarding the jacket.This time.But in the future, do not discuss pack business with anyone outside our pack. Is that understood?”
Mark hadn’t realised telling Seb, R-pack’s newest member, about his new jacket was classed asdiscussingpack business. “Yes, Alpha. Thank you.”
Newell smiled, but it didn’t seem especially friendly. “I gave you and Will those jackets as a token of our gratitude as a pack. Whatever scents they had on them prior to that is nothing we could have foreseen or prevented. The fact that they triggered one of Harley’s pack to attack you is his problem, not mine. As the alpha council will see.” He paused, sparing a glance over at Wes. A look passed between them, and then Newell smiled again. “Who else have you told about them?”
“The jackets?”
Newell nodded.
