“Thanks, buddy,” I whisper as Noah clutches the last flower to his chest, reflecting the protectiveness I feel over him,like it's his most prized possession. He gives me a broad grin in return, and just as he opens his mouth to respond, the sharp siren to warn of danger slices through the air.
My first instinct is to grip Noah's hand tighter, one arm winding across his chest as we turn toward Arianna.
“Take Noah home and hide,” I instruct her, only letting Noah go when Arianna is close enough. “There's a bunker beneath the house. You'll find the trapdoor under the bed in my room.”
Arianna frowns, her eyes wildly disbelieving of my instructions as if there isn't a siren going off to signal a warning.
“We're not hiding there,” she argues. “If there's something out there, it's gonna come for you first. It's gonna come toyourhouse.”
“Arianna…” I warn, straightening up and towering over her. “We don't knowwhat'sout there. But border patrol doesn't just signal the alarm for no reason,” I say sternly, my voice turning deeper as I tap into my alpha authority because of my need to protect both her and her child. “Take Noah home, now. And hide. Now isnotthe time to be arguing about this. I am your alpha, and I command you to return to the house.”
My stern tone makes Arianna recoil, and it's almost as if I can feel her pushing herself further behind the walls she keeps up, as if my voice just reminded her of the way I spoke when I rejected her in the past. Her eyes become icy jets of disdain, her lips pressed into a firm line as she makes no further protest and gathers Noah into her arms.
Despite my remorse for speaking to her that way, I need to ensure that they're safe. Once I see Arianna carrying Noah out of the graveyard toward my house, I shift into wolf form and race toward the border where the siren was rung.
“What's going on?”I ask my men as I close in on the group of wolves huddled around a bush.
“Alpha Tyler,”the beta nods as he steps aside to reveal the drained carcass of a wild deer lying on the ground. “It wasn't any of us.”
None of the Moonshine Pack members is allowed to hunt outside of the schedule I've implemented, except for me. Apart from that, there's a stench that fills the air, which doesn't belong to the mountain animal.
I shift into human form to inspect the animal closer, swiping my hand across its bloodied, ripped neck and bringing the blood to my nose. The fresh, metallic smell is filled with something unappetizing, a foul stench of weathered saliva and aged trash coming through.
“Rogues…” I mutter, narrowing my eyes as I scan the area for tracks. I find them just behind the bush, and recognize the oddly-shaped paw print in the ground, the talons longer than the claws of an ordinary wolf. The tracks go down toward the west side of the forest, in pairs of two instead of four like an ordinary wolf's paws.
Recognizing the strange, disfigured tracks, I straighten up and turn to my men as they stand behind me in wolf form.
“I've seen these tracks before, while I was in black ops,” I inform them as a chill runs down my spine. Our squad once encountered a group of mutated rogues, disfigured from years spent packless, homeless, in marshes that left them sick and barely scraping by through life. They'd gravitate toward each other in small groups of between ten and twenty members, their mutated states turning them into monstrous creatures that roamed the mountains on their hind legs while the rest of their bodies were skeletal and discolored.
Horrid, rabid creatures that were stronger than they should be, and a danger to their own kind, even if they could no longer be identified as werewolves. ‘Mutts,’ we called them, and it was suspected that Tyson lost his life to a villainous beast like this one while he was in black ops five years ago. My own encounter with the ghastly creatures was nearly fatal, and it served to cement my decision to never take a mate.
Even now, with my true mate back in Portland, my only concern is to keep her and her son safe, along with all the other members of the pack.
“Brutus…” I address my beta, who instantly shifts into human form. “Call for an emergency meeting with everyone in the pack hall. We'll need to put out an alert and stay vigilant. The rogue shouldn't have crossed our borders.”
Brutus nods. “Yes, Alpha Tyler. I'm on it.”
As soon as Brutus turns to the other wolves to hand down instructions, I shift into wolf form and go back through the forest, needing to check if Arianna and Noah are safe where I told them to hide. Though I have no idea why a rogue entered Moonshine territory, there's a sinking feeling in my chest that danger looms close by. We can't take any chances.
Chapter 11 - Arianna
The effects of Tyler’s authoritative command using the prowess of his strict alpha tone linger in the simmering heat pooling between my thighs. It’s a natural result of our mate bond, and I can’t stop my body’s reaction to him despite what logic demands.
Right now, there’s no time to question how I feel after being spoken to in that tone—oozing command and prompting me to follow his instructions.
It's not like I should be questioning his authority when there’s a threat out there, the warning blasting through the hidden speakers around Portland. He only has good intentions, like protecting me and my son from the danger that threatens the Moonshine border.
I should be grateful, but I have a plethora of mixed feelings to deal with when his protectiveness shone through, and I thought it was the hottest thing he's ever done. I shouldn't be feeling this way, thinking this way about him.
All that matters is that he's keeping us safe, and it's what propels me forward, carrying Noah to Tyler's house and following Tyler's instructions.
“Where going, Mama?” Noah asks softly, clutching the white lily he'd kept from Tyler's bouquet.
A pang of longing grips my heart through the urgency of my task as we enter the house and I bolt down the hallway for Tyler’s bedroom.
White lilies…
Those flowers resurfaced every memory I thought I'd buried, even the ones that extended beyond that fateful nightwhen he claimed my body outside the pack den, only to deny the mate bond with me.
