I glanced back as Roderick, Trixie, and the others left the safety of the van.
“Let’s get this over with.” I stepped around Hairy to lead the way.
The communal building had considerably less Luthers in it this time around. Huh, I’d been in here twice, actually. I didn’t see the kitchen at the back during my thong visit, but I woke here after drowning.
The building was more of a hall—made of hand-cut logs. Thick rugs covered the floor.
At the far end, two rows of chairs faced each other. Those farthest from me were occupied by werewolves. I locked eyes with Sascha in his huge antler-decorated throne. Leroy, Mandy, and Lisa were in attendance too.
As I took the seat facing Sascha, Hairy filed past to sit in one of the two empty chairs.
Wade sat on my right, and the others took their usual seats, Stanley occupying the seat on my left.
“Thank you for agreeing to hold our meetings face to face, Head Steward,” he said.
Why did his voice make everything better?
Scrap that, I knew why. But why did it have to?
What had I fucking done that I couldn’t just hate him in peace? Why had the world tied us together in such a way when nothing could ever come of it? When I despised him?
It was torture.
I rested my hands on the armrests of the tall-backed chair. Only my chair and Sascha’s were different from the rest.
His honey eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Why doesn’t my chair have antlers?” I enjoyed Wade’s muffled snort.
The werewolf tilted his head ever so slightly. “I’ll rectify that at the next meeting, Head Steward.”
“We’re here for the grid announcement.” I shifted my eyes to his company in the hopes he’d do the same. The head team was made up of the most capable minds the Ni Tiaki had to offer. If Sascha wasn’t careful, he’d fuck things up.
Again.
He stood, extending to his full height. “I’d like to officially welcome all representatives of the Ni Tiaki to pack lands. This is a momentous occasion, and—I hope—a step in the right direction. For myself, with my recent actions in Sandstone, I appreciate your willingness to accept change between our two teams.”
A pretty speech. And a casual murder mention. I didn’t need to look at Nathan and Valerie to know how they’d take it. Valerie nursed a serious sweet spot for Herc before his death. She took things extra hard. Nathan was Herc’s best friend from what I’d pieced together.
I tilted my chin. “Our reasons for agreeing to meet are our own. Don’t take our presence to mean your actions in Sandstone are forgotten.”
Mandy snarled, her fangs lengthening. “Oh, none of us have forgotten what happened, Andie. Don’t worry about that.”
Sascha didn’t look at her, but his low growl filled the room.
Mandy lost her glare.
“I apologise,” he said. “As you know, it’s harder for us to control our wolves at this time.”
“An interesting time to invite the opposite team to your territory then,” Stanley said.
“The game goes on. We are well accustomed to doing the same, no matter what our wolves may prefer.”
Sascha sat—still the largest being in the room. “Let it be known that the Luthers select Iron for the next round of Victratum.”
Knew it. This was ideal for us. We’d win, and I’d reclaim Timber after to get our full revenue back. That would help fund my ideas for Water and Clay.
“We’ll see you there,” I said, standing.
“A moment.” Sascha’s order boomed through the room, belying his quiet tone. “I wish to confer with you about the incident in Water.”
My heart beat faster, and no one from the other side missed it. “Don’t worry, Luther, we can’t prove anything. You got away with this one.”
His gaze was solemn. “I don’t wish to get away with anything. What I would like is to find which of my wolves was responsible. With your help.”
Sure he did. This guy wanted me for my breeding hips and my breeding hips alone. “Ask your questions then.”
“Would you do me the honour of discussing the matter in private? Leader to leader.”
No. “Whatever you say to me can be said in front of my team.”
“I thought they could take the chance to look around pack lands.”
Oh, you clever son of a bitch.
I felt the immediate tension in my team. This is what we came for. “How thoughtful of you.”
Roderick cleared his throat. “Given both side’s willingness for change, I think we can entertain this additional small request.”
Yeah, yeah. They wanted to nose around. Sascha wouldn’t have left a damn Luther manual lying around.
“Very well,” I said. “Wade will remain with me.”
Suck on that.
I resumed my chair, exchanging a leaden look with Wade as everyone filed out of the bungalow.
Sascha picked up his throne and placed it before me. When he sat, our knees were just a whisper apart.
Wade eyed the proximity. “You know she doesn’t want this. You could at least respect her wishes and maintain your distance.”
If he was surprised that Wade knew, Sascha made no comment. “It’s physically painful to be apart from her at this stage of the meets. Being close when I can allows me to resist the next meet for as long as possible to respect her wishes.”
“Touché,” my friend said after a beat.
I brushed my hair back. “Did you really want to discuss what happened at the tower or was this another ploy?”
Sascha drawled a smile that called to a heat simmering deep within me. One I hated. “Why not both?” His face grew serious. “You lied to your sister on the pier. You told her you didn’t see who the wolf was. You did.”
Not the only lie I told that day. “He wasn’t wearing an oxygen mask, so I can surmise that he was a Luther. Why?”
“He acted outside pack orders. He attacked my potential mate. That is a grave offence. You are my vulnerability, Andie. My life was tied to yours from the moment we first met. Through you, a wolf could kill me.”
I never thought of it that way. Sascha’s hold on the pack seemed so infallible. “They want the top job? Surely the pack wouldn’t follow someone who did that to you.”
“Likely not. There’s no honour in such backhand tactics, and a pack must respect its leader first and foremost. It doesn’t change that my death would be catastrophic for our pack and our position in Victratum.”
It must be so strange to talk like this knowing your entire pack could listen in. The wolf who bit me could be listening too.
I leaned forward. “Then why would someone do it?”
“Because my mate is human.”
“Ouchies,” Wade said.
“Our kind has long been persecuted by humans,” Sascha answered. “Some think Andie is unfit to be my mate. Others believe the match means I am unfit to lead.”
I said, “Luthers talk too damn much. But let me try to remember the guy’s face.”
There were bubbles everywhere that evening. And light was low. Everything happened so fast. I could only recall that damn smirk, really. The flash of his teeth. “He had black hair.”
“Nothing else?”
“A smirk I wanted to slap off his face. White teeth.”
Sascha rubbed his forehead.
“I know what you’re thinking. It would be a lot easier if his teeth were blue.”
Wade tossed me a grin, but Sascha just sighed. “We’re a dark-furred pack. Aside from a few here and there, most of us have black and brown hair.”
Crap.
“Was this a one off? Sascha, is my life in danger?”
Darkness edged into the honey shade. “Until the wolf fulfils his agenda, yes, your life is in danger.”
I settled back. If the Luther’s agenda was to change me into a werewolf, he’d failed. Did that mean he’d try again soon?
In no version of hell, did I wa
nt to become a monster.
“I’d like to station five of my most trusted wolves around the manor.”
“Impossible,” I quipped without delay.
“You’re in danger,” Sascha said, jaw clenching.
I didn’t look away. “I can’t risk the confidentiality of tribe operations just to protect myself. If your life is in danger, I suggest you protect it on this end.”
His throat worked. “I’m trying to work with you on a solution. If I cannot do that, my wolf will take matters into his own hands.”
“Tell Greyson to fuck off.”
Sascha cocked a brow. “Greyson? You’ve named my wolf?”
“Yeah…” Wade turned to me. “You named his wolf?”
My cheeks burned. “Let’s not get distracted.”
Dammit, I did believe Sascha was attempting to figure this out. I just didn’t want to accept anything from him.
If I didn’t take this offer, Greyson would lose the plot and take matters into his own hands—stupid sigma fucker. My options were thin.
“Give me time to figure out another way,” I said eventually.
“How long?”
“However long I need.” I glared at the huge Luther, trying not to linger on the broad expanse of his chest. Mating voodoo.
Wade grabbed my hand. “The remaining meets. Care to fill us in on what to expect?”
But Sascha’s gaze fixed on where Wade touched me. His nostrils flared.
Wade stilled—perhaps without realising he’d reacted to the silent charge in the air.
“You’re very lucky that your smell doesn’t change when you touch her, boy,” Sascha said, darkness nearly blotting out the honey. “Or hers.”
Wade took a few seconds to answer. “She doesn’t give me a boner, if that’s what you mean, and I don’t make her nipples hard. Just chimp tits. We’ve checked. It’s a friendship miracle.”
Sascha’s growl exploded from his chest.
“Wade,” I whispered.
He didn’t stop. “If you really care for her, you’ll be happy Andie has someone to talk to about this bullshit. You have no idea the state I found her in before learning all this. Back off.”
I tensed in readiness to become a human shield. Sascha surprised me by blinking and leaning back, honey returning to his vision.
“For that, I thank you,” he said stiffly. “The thought of her in pain keeps me up at night.”
I wrinkled my nose. Ugh. “The meets. What are they?”
“You’ve changed your mind.”
“It doesn’t seem like we can get through the meets, Sascha. Part of me doesn’t think we should bother. You said this far through the process, distance between us causes you physical pain. Will that get worse?”
“For the record, I wanted to tell you everything after you nearly drowned the first time,” he said.
“I wasn’t ready to hear it then.”
Sascha searched my face, voice lowering, “I know, little bird.”
My eyes misted at the aching in his smooth tones. Fucking bond shit. Wade would give me crap over the little bird comment later too.
I dragged a hand over my face. “Tell me now.”
Sascha’s eyes narrowed at the command, but he pulled his throne closer. His knees bordered mine, and I sucked in a breath as we touched.
“What was that?” Wade demanded. “You both relaxed.”
Sascha’s voice held a floating quality. “At first, scenting each other, eye contact, and touching carries the ability to heal your potential mate.”
He blinked several times, fixing on me. “The effect is less in you, Andie, but you can feel some degree of what’s happening. After the capture meet, usually a bond would be forged on both ends. We’d always know where the other was.”
I stilled. “You don’t, do you?”
He pressed his lips together. “I do.”
That’s how he knew I was at the apartment! “For fuck’s sake.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t receive this gift?”
“Gift is a massive stretch.”
“All supernatural creatures refer to powers developed through the mating process as gifts.”
Vampires, demons, and witches included? “I knew you were in this building. But it only works at close quarters.”
Sascha’s chest rose sharply, but his expression didn’t alter.
He liked that I could feel where he was. “You said at first about the healing stuff. What does that mean?”
“As the meets progress, the individual gifts knit together. Each gift begins to interact with the others. Our senses would become one over time. We could exchange physical strength and call to each other from great distances. If you choose to mate with me, the gifts are greater still. We would be able to see through each other’s eyes and mind-speak outside of wolf form.”
Mind-speak. I struggled to contain my excitement. “It’s not normal for mind-speak to happen outside of wolf form?”
“Not in human form,” Sascha said after a beat.
He’d said too much and knew it. Got ya. That’s how wolves communicated in Water. They were partially shifting. Some of them anyway. Our heat detectors didn’t pick that up.
“Is mating a senses thing then?” Wade ticked off his fingers, saying, “Touch, sight, and scent.”
Sascha darted him a look before returning his focus to me. “Senses are crucial to our way of life, so those dictate the initial meets, yes. My wolf then controls two of the meets—the capture meet and the biting meet.”
My eyes widened. “Biting meet? No way.”
“It won’t turn you into a werewolf,” Sascha added.
I almost melted into a puddle on the floor in relief. Their bites didn’t do anything. Thank fuck.
“It’s a marking thing?” Wade asked. “The Luther version of Andie tattooing your name on her butt?”
The werewolf tightened his grip on the armrests.
“You doing okay there, furry?” I asked, ready to throw myself out of danger’s way.
Sascha inhaled. “It’s not easy to discuss this while keeping the mating urge at bay.”
Oh, brother. I leaned forward, resting my hands on his knees. His exhale of relief was unmissable.
“Is the biting next?” I muttered.
“It’s hard to say,” he answered. “With the scent meet incomplete, I can’t guess the order of the last three.”
I stared, and he solemnly gazed back.
Dang, that wasn’t a hilarious joke.
“If no one else is gonna ask, I will,” Wade said, peering between us. “What’s the seventh meet?”
I silently dared Sascha to answer.
“Sex,” he said, smirking at me.
Yep, I called it.
Scowling, I snatched my hands back. “I’m not okay with either biting or sex. While we’re on the subject, how am I meant to deny you if you’re literally inside me?”
His throne skidded back. In a blur and snarl, Sascha was across the room, body shaking, his face contorted.
“Maybe the wrong thing to say, baby girl,” Wade whispered.
No kidding. But logistically, how was that possible? I had to assume the cleopatra position thing and say the magic words. Not to mention keep my distance. The closer I was to Sascha after a meet, the stronger my reaction.
I circled my temples. “I don’t see how this will work. Without the scent meet happening, we continue on at the risk of merely strengthening the bonding crap between us. If we can’t complete the meets, our position will then be worse off. Or at least for you. Is there any way for us to get around the scent thing?”
His heaving back was to me. Gravel rode his voice. “Only one way is certain. You become a werewolf.”
“Werewolves can be made?” I squeaked.
Mothershitter.
He turned, blinking away the black. “Yes, but assuming that’s a hard no for you, our other path would be to continue through the meets and hope a strengthening bond will give yo
u whatever’s needed to finish the process.”
There were a whole lot of maybes and what ifs in that. “Then what? What if we get all the way through?”
“Then you officially accept or deny me in a ceremony held after the seventh meet.”
Deny. All the way.
“I need to process this. How long have I got until Greyson makes a move?”
Sascha dragged his gaze over my thighs, lingering on my breasts, before his burning gaze swept over my lips, reaching my eyes.
He looked at my face? Such a gentleman.
“I want to claim you. My wolf wants to claim you. We want you for our own.”
My chest tightened. “I thought you didn’t want this mating stuff either.”
Sascha studied me. “Forgive me the lie. You have a habit of running when people get too close. You should never make the mistake of thinking I don’t want you in all ways, Andie Booker. If it were up to me, you’d be chained to my side already.”
7
“If it were up to me, you’d be chained to my side already,” Wade said in a deep voice.
I waved to Cameron at the manor gate. “Shut up.”
His eyes slid to me. “What’s running through your head right meow?”
I gritted my teeth. “It’s just impossible, Wade. I want to not be squished between two boulders for a change. I can’t recall the last time I didn’t feel stuck, and it’s always other people doing it to me.”
Wade opened his mouth, then squeaked as I parked. “Incoming angry Rhona. Three o’clock. You’re on your own.”
He was out the door in a flash.
I sighed. The guy would face werewolves but not my sister.
Turning to three o’clock, I blanched at the sight of Rhona charging down the manor steps.
Maybe I’d take Sascha over her too…
I got out of the car. “Rhona. What happened?”
“You happened,” she snarled.
My stomach hit the floor. She knew. She’d figured it out. She—
“You took the head team to pack lands and fucking left me behind. What the hell, Andie?”
The head team trickled to join us.
Rhona’s cheeks were flushed, and auburn hair flew about her face. “I deserved to be there. I deserve to stare down the piece of shit who killed my father. I can’t believe you’d do that without me.”
Moon Claimed: Supernatural Battle (Werewolf Dens Book 2) Page 6