I reached out to help Damon up from the sofa, but the image of him entwined with my mate in bed assaulted my thoughts. An involuntary growl escaped my lips, causing Damon's face to pale even further.
“Whoa!” Damon said, pulling his hand back. He glared at me, and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn’t helping. I was on edge. Not only seeing them together infuriated me. But now my mate was running around the goddess damn city unprotected.
"Sorry," I mumbled, shaking my head to dispel the unwanted image.
“Listen Liam, I didn’t know. You know that…” He trailed off as I growled at him. He needed to drop the subject until I could think clearly. He might be my best friend, but I still couldn’t get that image of them together out of my head, and I wouldn’t hesitate to rip him apart right now. He pulled himself to his feet and then backed away, his hands in the air.
“Jus put some fucking clothes on,” I growled at him, my alpha tone accidentally coming through. He nodded and grabbed some jeans from the floor, wincing in pain, before limping into the bathroom.
“And hurry, because we need to get back home,” I called through the door.
“Yes, Alpha,” I heard through the door. That hurt for a moment. I had never pulled rank on him, but I guess I had just kicked the shit out of him.
I waited impatiently for Damon to return from the bathroom. He finally did, and although the black shirt and jeans covered the majority of the body wounds, it was obvious by the way he walked and the display of purple bruises decorating his face, exactly how far I actually went. With a deep breath, I decided to address the more pressing matter at hand.
"We need to find my mate and bring her back to the pack. And soon because my father needs us both."
“Sure, just one thing, well, two actually,” he said, and I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue.
“First off, how do you plan to find her? And should you find her, I highly doubt she will come back willingly.”
“What do you mean, how am I going to find her? You know her address, right?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“Nope, she never told me,” he said. Dammit! What the hell was I going to do? I gritted my teeth, frustration boiling within me. The thought of Erica out there alone, possibly in danger, sent a sharp pain through my chest. My wolf paced restlessly inside me as I fought to suppress the urge to go charging back into the streets in search of her.
"Damn it," I muttered under my breath, running a hand through my hair. "Then we're back to square one."
A faint buzzing sound caught my attention. I followed the noise, stepping into the bedroom where Erica's scent still lingered, intoxicating and electric. On the nightstand, a phone vibrated with an incoming call, the screen displaying someone called Marshall. Who was Marshall? Was he another boyfriend? I growled at the thought of yet another man’s hand on my mate.
"Got something?" Damon called from the doorway, snapping me out of the endless possessive urges that were cycling through my brain. I looked down to see the call had ended and there was a picture of my mate with some blond girl on the screen. I held the mobile up so Damon could see it.
"Erica's phone," I replied, pocketing the device. "Maybe Kaitlyn can dig up some information on her whereabouts." My sister Kaitlyn was barely eighteen but there wasn’t much she didn’t know about computers. If anyone could get into the phone, then she could.
"Let's hope so," Damon murmured, and we made our way out of the apartment, our footsteps heavy with the weight of our mutual frustration and concern.
The drive back to Silver Stone pack territory was spent in uncomfortable silence, the air thick with tension as we navigated through the winding roads of the English countryside. The lush green fields rolled by like waves, broken only by the occasional stand of trees or stone walls that marked property boundaries. It was a stark contrast to the city we had just left behind, but it was a landscape that spoke to the wildness within us, the part of us that longed to run free under the moonlit sky. As we continued our journey, I couldn't help but let my mind wander to Erica. What was she doing right now? Was she safe? My wolf growled deep inside me, a constant reminder of my responsibility to protect my fated mate.
Finally, we reached the pack grounds, and we waited in silence as security opened the gates and then I drove down the long drive into the territory. We were lucky to have such a big pack territory. There were even some commercial businesses here. Most packs had to attach to a town of sorts so that they could get daily supplies, but we were one of the few packs that were self-sufficient. I turned at the waterfall and headed towards the pack house. The pack house and the two boarding houses were separated from the rest of the territory by a river that ran through our land. A lot of the pack activity happened there, but the family homes and the commercial side were in the main part of the territory or the next valley. And we were lucky that our whole ground was nestled within a couple of valleys, making it a lot easier to protect our borders.
I crossed the river at the main bridge and turned past the main park and up to the pack house. The two boarding houses were for single pack members, one for civilian members, and one for the pack warriors. There was a third boarding house off territory, which was for when we held special events like the mating balls. My father encouraged socialisation, and we had our fair share of events, mostly with the intent of me finding my mate in time, but also so our pack members met other packs and potentially find their mates too.
I smiled at myself as I pulled up to the pack house that stood at the head of the park. Now that I have found my mate, I wouldn't need to attend these events. I jumped out of the car and looked around at all the activity, pack members going about their business, happy that I could soon introduce them to their future Luna. I knew my dad was keen to retire from his position as Alpha and pass on the title to me. And I was keen to take the position and be the best Alpha that I could for my people. But I couldn't help but feel a pang of apprehension. Would Erica ever see it as her home?
"Welcome back," Damon said with a forced smile as we walked slowly up the pack house steps, the gravel crunching beneath our feet. The moment we set foot inside the pack house, I tried to offer my assistance to Damon. His injuries were a painful reminder of my own inability to control my emotions when it came to my mate. But he just shrugged me off, his eyes dark with a mixture of pain and anger.
"Leave it, Liam," he snapped. "I'm going to my room. I’ll be back down soon."
The pack house housed the ranked families. I shared the top floor with my parents and my sister Kaitlyn and then the second floor split between Beta Gregg, his mate Astra and Damon, and our Gamma Gideon and his family. Then the first floor housed the main offices and the ground floor was where the grand hall was, as well as a few common rooms for pack members to hang out in.
I watched as Damon limped his way up the stairs and sighed. The guilt gnawed at me as I turned in the opposite direction, making my way towards my father's office. I couldn’t believe how much of a mess this was. I had heard so much about the girl that Damon had been seeing at the bar in the city. About how much he liked her and how he even wanted her to be his chosen mate. If I had just gone with him once, then this could have been a lot less messy. I sighed. There was nothing I could do about it now.
I headed into the house and nodded at a few of the pack members that I passed and headed upstairs to the first floor. I walked down to my father’s office and knocked before walking in. The heavy wooden door creaked open, revealing the familiar sight of high bookshelves and the new desk. Everything was back in place if my father hadn’t lost it a few hours ago.
"Finally, you're back," my father, Declan, said, his piercing gaze fixed on me. To his side stood Gregg, Damon's father, along with Gideon, our pack's Gamma, and his son Jacob. Grayson, the pack's Warrior Commander, leaned against one of the bookshelves, his arms folded across his chest.
"Is everything alright?" I asked, feeling the weight of their stares and the tension in the room.
"First things first," Declan replied, his voice firm yet laced with concern. "Why did it take so long for you to bring Damon home?" My heart raced as the truth clawed its way to the surface, demanding to be shared.
