Chapter Seven
It was the same. For weeks.
Someone said something he didn’t like in regard to Fabiana.
Punch.
It took two days for his men to stop cracking what they thought were jokes about Fabiana.
A week for women to run scared when they saw her coming.
And a third week where she ran to their lab—because the Moonstone lab apparently was the site of scientific exploration matched with magic—in order to hide away and be alone.
Adonis was a fiend, one who ensured everyone was too afraid to breathe in her direction. Quite frankly, Fabiana had reached her limit. She’d always wanted to be a true member of a pack, a wanted wolf who laughed with those she could and joked with others.
And yes, maybe she could see things differently in how Adonis moved with his people than Primo. Okay, so he was a little punchy. But his men respected him, and most who were on the receiving end of one of his hits got up an hour or so later with a direct apology to her and Adonis before they good-naturedly clapped him on the shoulder and told him he was getting soft.
He was getting soft because they woke up in an hour instead of two.
It was like the wolves here had lived in violence all their lives and answered to it. They recognized Adonis was stronger than them all, and he cared for them with a single-minded focus she could appreciate.
They nearly worshipped him, this wolf who took in strays and made them into something.
This man who didn’t look to blood ties to create his closest advisors.
Raphael—or Raph as only Adonis called him—had been with Adonis since they were children and had never left his side. He bled with him as they created the pack they now led together, and Raph was more a second leader of the Moonstone instead of purely a beta.
Like Adonis, he had his own second-in-command, he looked over all security details, and his suite of rooms was on the opposite end of the hall from theirs.
The Moonstone Pack was unlike any other Fabiana had ever known.
And she was on the outside looking to get in because people were too afraid of upsetting Adonis and upsetting her.
Fabiana sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and glancing back down her microscope. The nanos she’d put into her suit were operating well, but she found Adonis could still smell her at times with more accuracy. Something was stopping her suit from functioning properly, and she needed to know why.
It was fine with the other wolves, she found, but not with him. She had no way of testing the mate-bond. It wasn’t a cell in the body to be targeted; it was more magical in nature, linking the soul animals of two people together.
With a frustrated sigh, she yanked her suit from the view plate and stuffed it into the carrying pouch at her side. She’d have to figure it out later.
“Here you are, Alpha mate.”
Fabiana spun a Raph’s voice, her hand reaching for her throat. “You took two years of my life.”
“Well, it is good that we wolves live a long time, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “What do you want?”
“I wondered where my Alpha mate was hiding as her mate is working with visiting leaders from different cities.”
“Why would I need to be there?”
Raph stood from the doorjamb and entered the lab fully. “Perhaps because it’s your place?”
“My … place.”
“Yes, you are the second leader of this pack, and it would make sense to be seen as such. The people coming in were called by the Portal City Protectors to agree to work together against Skuld.”
“I’m not on the team. It would make more sense, however, for you to be there. You are second here. Besides, everyone here is too afraid to come near me.”
