“I need to go for a run.” My wolf was desperate to get out.
He stood and smiled. “I’ll join you. I need it.”
We sprinted through the woods behind the house. The wind and the smells of the forest were calming balm to my mind. Though, as we ran, I couldn’t get the feeling that something wasoffout of my mind. Like a thought or feeling was brewing just beneath the surface. My body was warmer than usual. Not a fever or sickness, but a deeper warmth. It seemed to radiate from within my belly. It was strange, but I was able to put it out of my mind. It had to be my nerves. With everything going on, it wasn’t surprising. It would probably go away in a day or two.
122
NICO
Training took top priority over the next few days. It was all we could do to keep our minds off what was happening in the outside world. The only thing we could do was stay ready and hope. If we were ready for whatever came our way, perhaps everyone would feel a little calmer about the situation. Sinthy kept increasing the difficulty each time, adding more enemies, better weapons, and even barriers and buildings to the battlefield. Maddy worked alongside everyone else, even though I was always quick to remind her that she’d be at the rear of any fight.
When we weren’t training with the packs, I took Maddy to the woods behind the house for target practice. Between the one-on-one sessions with me and the pretend battles, she was getting better at handling weapons. Her aim had already improved tenfold since starting, and she continued to improve.
Even with the planning, training, and organizing, tension and anxiety ran high across the pack lands. Everyone was on edge—my pack, my friends, and Tiago’s pack. There was so much going on that I failed to notice the change in Maddy’s scent. Again.
We were sitting at the table, having a big family dinner, when my brother Mateo walked in, looking shell-shocked and confused.
“Hey, jackass, you’re late. Mom spent like two hours on the roast,” Gabriel said.
Mateo slumped into the seat next to Maddy and me. Something had happened. Gabriel kept on joking, but I silenced him with a look.
“Spill it, Mateo. What happened?”
The chatter around the table ceased, and every eye turned to him. He looked at me and shook his head sadly.
“Just got word from one of your guys at the auto shop.”
My auto shop was still in operation but running solely on human workers. It wasn’t safe for us to go to town for work, but business had slumped as everyone knew the place was shifter-owned, run, and staffed.
“What is it? Did something go down at the shop? Vandalism or something?”
“Worse than that. A girl from town got attacked right across the street from the shop. She’s lived here her whole life. Dates a bear shifter who moved here from Georgia. He’s part of a pack about three towns over. They jumped them right in broad fucking daylight. Beat the hell out of her pretty bad, but her boyfriend came running out of the restaurant and beat the shit out of them for it. She’s alive but in the hospital. Her boyfriend’s clan is fucking furious.”
I furrowed my brow. “Wait, what? Why did they jump her? What set these assholes off?”
Mateo glanced past me to Maddy before his eyes locked on mine. “The girl’s name is Madeline. She goes by Maddie. These due’s heard someone say her name, saw her with a shifter, and that was it.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis.
My God. They weren’t even trying to match last names now. Before long, they’d be going after any woman with an ‘M’ in their name. Megan, Mary, Michelle? These sons of bitches were off their rockers.
I understood why the bear clan was enraged. I would be, too. Not every pack or clan had battened down the hatches. Some refused to hide and revolted against the thought of living in fear. It was valiant but obviously dangerous. Things like this were going to happen, but that didn’t make it right. Viola wanted things like this to happen. She knew the paranoia would spiral out of control, and it was following the plan she’d laid out.
We ate mostly in silence. What could be said? My alpha aura, fed by my anger at what had happened to that girl, pulsed out of me. Ever since I’d connected with the ancient power in my land, my alpha power had been growing stronger. Each time I went for a run, it seemed to get more powerful, almost like the old magic in the land was feeding my inner wolf. I had to be careful with it, though. Sometimes my own friends hit their knees in subservience, pushed to submit by the power of my will. I didn’t enjoy it, nor did I want it. Viola might have liked that kind of power, but I didn’t desire it.
Maddy whimpered beside me. I clenched my fist, worried I’d done the exact thing I’d been worried about. Had I forced my will on her? If so, it was the first time she’d ever reacted to me that way.
“Are you okay?” I asked, putting an arm around her. “Was it me?”
She shook her head. Her jaw was clenched tight, the muscles rippling beneath her skin. “I’m okay,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m an alpha too. You shouldn’t affect me like that.”
That was only partially correct. Lower-level alphas could still be brought to submission by a stronger alpha. But with her bloodline and the wolf living inside her, she was right. Even withmy newfound connection to the land, I shouldn’t have been able to exert my will on her. Ever since we’d bound ourselves together by mating, we fed on each other’s energy. We were symbiotic now. I should have sensed whatever caused her pain or worried her.
“Does anyone else… smell that?” Sebastian said, glancing around the room.
I looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but then a foreign scent I didn’t recognize hit me. Before I tried to place the scent, I looked down the table at Sinthy.
“Did someone get through your spells? Do we have an intruder?”
She almost spat her water out as she choked. After coughing and wiping her mouth, she shook her head. “No way. I would have known the moment it happened. Nobody’s on your land.”
