Casey froze at the sight of a handful of men and women who dotted the common room. Some with paper plates piled with pizza, and others with red plastic cups all chatting with each other. None of them looked anything but human, but she could feel the buzzing energy drawing over her skin, raising the hair there, calling the wolf in her mind to the surface again. She took a deep breath trying to push it back. Her head pounded as she felt the wolf move in her. A fine bead of sweat dotted her hairline. The wolf receded, and she was able to seek out the pizza without meeting anyone’s gaze. She didn’t want to see judgment in anyone’s eyes. This was going to be a long night.
Ares looked at Julia, who put her hands on her hips. “What?”
“The new girl? Out of all the women in this pack and you swearing you wouldn’t fuck any of them, you about nail her on her first night here.”
“As she so graciously pointed out, she’s not pack,” he muttered and started to take the tape off his hands. Casey’s almost-shift had interrupted his sparring match, distracting him long enough that the pup got a good shot at his cheek. “What does it matter to you?” He should never have made that rule for himself. Of course, he didn’t have to follow it, but not sleeping with pack members made things less complicated. It meant that there weren’t any women barking up his tree to be his mate.
He wasn’t entirely sure what came over him when he kissed Casey. The look of sheer panic in her eyes made him want to do whatever he could to push her wolf back, and in return, she had coaxed his wolf to the calmest state he’d ever been in. To the point where he could think clearly without the haze of blood and violence tinting everything. Especially after a sparring session.
“She was bitten by one of our wolves, which means she’s our responsibility as a pack.”
“Assuming she chooses to stay and not be a lone wolf.” He walked past her. Casey struck him as someone who could live alone, hunt once a month with a group, and return to a solitary life until the next full moon.
Julia followed him. “I don’t think she’ll be able to live on her own for a while. So maybe you should take some time and reconsider breaking your rule.”
“You may be my second-in-command here, Julia, but I’m the one who gets to decide on what rules I break and which ones I don’t.” She’d managed to fight her way up the pack line to work directly under him. She was fierce and determined, but sometimes her concern for nothing but pack ate at him. The woman needed a hobby.
She bowed her head, but the smirk on her face was clear. “Of course, as a god, you’re perfectly capable of understanding how meddling in the affairs of mortals can totally fuck things up.”
He shook his head. “You always get mouthy when it’s the full moon.” He walked down the hall. When he got to the common room, he looked around for Casey and didn’t find her sitting on any of the couches or chairs. A small moment of panic crawled through him, where would she have gone?
“Yo, she’s outside,” one of the other men called, and he bowed his head in thanks.
He made his way through the crowd to the front porch and found her sitting on the steps looking out at the woods. “Crowds not your thing?”
“Nope.” She sat her plate down next to her. “Much quieter out here and it doesn’t smell like adrenaline and sweat.” She snorted. “Out here it smells like pine, dirt, with a hint of rain. Nothing like the city.”
“It’s very calming to know that there’s nothing out there but woods.” He smiled and looked out at his land. “Something about the mountain air soothes the soul and the wolf.”
“How did you end up here Kylian, as the alpha of a wolf pack?” she asked, leaning back on her hands. “When were you bitten?”
He shook his head; the past wasn’t something he wanted to discuss right now. “Not the time to talk about my past. What I want to know is how you ended up with Anthony and had no idea that he was a wolf.”
“We started dating in college; he was great back then. A year after we graduated, he began to change. We both had just started high-stress jobs, so I chalked it up to that. Though now…looking back I’m wondering if that’s not when he was bitten.”
Ares raised a brow. “How long ago was it?”
“Four years ago.”
Right around the time when the Muddy Creek pack had started to become hostile. Interesting. “And now here you are, a wolf as well, in a rival pack.”
“Rival, right. Why?” She rubbed her head before looking back at the forest. “I mean, why not just join packs.”
He debated on how much he wanted to tell her. “Muddy Creek broke off from my pack about ten years ago. We keep our pack grounds human free, whereas Muddy Creek tends to flaunt the size of their pack and their abilities by allowing humans on their lands. They can be very dangerous and have serious consequences for their choices.”
“Ten years ago? You don’t look old enough to have been running a pack that long ago.”
He snorted. As a god, he wouldn’t age, but luckily there was another reason he could give her. “The Lycanthrope virus slows down the aging process, normally around thirty in human years. We can live a long time. Julia beat out my second-in-command, and he got pissed and split off.”
“Some alpha if you let them break off.” She glanced at him with a small smile. “I’m sure you had your reasons.
It was either let them break off or watch a slaughter of wolves, and though he enjoyed a good battle or two, he didn’t want to see most of the population killed over stupid reasons. Though…he’d caused wars for less in ancient Greece, but those weren’t his people. Not like the wolves were. “Sometimes the path to peace is just to let people and things go.”
“I suppose so.” She stiffened suddenly and tilted her head to the side.
“Casey?” he asked, and she shot to her feet and took off for the forest. She jumped through the treeline, changing mid-jump in one fluid motion to her wolf form. The black fur of her wolf made her disappear into the dark pre-dusk forest. He snarled and ran after her. He called on his wolf, pulling him out of whatever deep crevasse he happened to be pouting in. The animal burst out of him, his back bowed, forcing him down on all fours as his hands and feet turned to massive paws, his gray and silver fur covered his body before he even hit the ground to chase after his wayward wolf pup.
5
Casey felt a tug through her as she sat with Kylian on the balcony. Something called for her wolf, instantly the animal responded without her. She didn’t even have a chance to fight it. The next thing she knew she was running through the forest as a wolf, her human mind being dragged along for the ride. She tried to take back over, but she couldn’t; the beast wouldn’t let her. There was some call running through her blood, drawing her into the forest and away from Kylian, which was where she wanted to be.
She broke through a line of trees, bringing her to a cleared circle in the forest, and she froze when she saw Anthony and another man standing there. The bald man stepped towards her, a sinister smirk on his face, making the scar on his lip stretch. The scar ran up to just under his eye. She snarled and started to back up, but the man held his hand up.
“Casey, stop.”
Her wolf mind listened even though her human mind said to run. What the hell was going on?
“Shift back,” the man said again, stepping forward.
To her surprise, the wolf listened, and she found herself lying naked on the ground. Shaking. She tried to lift herself up, but her arms gave out, and she fell back into the dirt. Anthony knelt by her. “Lie still.”
“Get the fuck away from me,” she snapped and lifted herself off the ground. She wrapped her arms around her breasts and stared at the other man. His honey-colored eyes sat sunken in his drawn out face. He grinned at her and showed pointed teeth.
“Hello Casey, I’m Lex, the alpha of the Muddy Creek pack. Your alpha.”
Anthony dropped his jacket over her, and she wrapped it around so that it covered most of her body. “You’re not my alpha, Kylian is.
”
“No, he’s not. Anthony is the one who bit you, so you belong to my pack.”
She looked at Anthony in horror. “You bit me? This whole time I thought it was the injured wolf.”
“We were in the middle of a fight. I hid when you first walked in on it. He approached you, hurt, looking for help, and trying to warn you, but you didn’t know what he was. You had no idea that I was hiding…then I had an idea and bit you. The blood drove the wolf into madness, and well, he about tore you apart.”
She stepped away from him, stumbling on her shaking legs. “What the hell were you trying to accomplish? And this whole time you tried to lead me to believe that I was crazy.”
He reached out to her. “I wouldn’t have let you die.”
She stepped back and fell on her ass, leaving her to stare up at him in horror. “But you would have let me go on thinking I was crazy?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Lex snapped. “Grab her, let’s go before Kylian realizes we’re out here.”
Kylian should have known already. He’d been sitting right next to her, but there was no telling if he would come after her or not. She tried to push Anthony away when he went to sweep her off her feet.
He held tight to her. “You belong with our pack.” Anthony laughed as he carried her further into the forest.
She opened her mouth to scream, but Lex turned and met her gaze. “Don’t.”
Her mouth snapped shut as her wolf demanded they listen to his command. The power he had as an alpha was terrifying. Never had someone had such commanding control over her. Her fear turned to panic as her mind whirled on the best way to handle this new situation. Nothing came to mind on how she could save herself or alert the pack.
“Why do I feel so weak?”
“Forced shifts and shifts done outside the full moon take their toll on the body, especially as a new wolf,” Anthony explained. “Hasn’t Kylian explained that to you?”
“We haven’t talked much about shifting yet,” she muttered. There was no way she was going to explain why either.
“Close your eyes and sleep. If you don’t, you’re going to be a mess tomorrow after you shift with the moon for the first time,” Lex called over his shoulder. “And trust me, you’ll want all your energy.”
She didn’t like the ominous tone to his voice. There was something terrifying about the man other than the way he could control her. Something much more wild about him than Kylian, and yet they were both alphas.
“Close your eyes,” he demanded again, and this time, she and her wolf agreed it might be a good idea to listen.
Ares caught up to Casey but stopped short of the clearing. He shifted and hid behind a tree to listen. He hadn’t expected to see Anthony and Lex on his land and wondered why no one had smelt the visitors. Of course, they were far enough from the house and downwind, so maybe that was it. He couldn’t by right claim Casey at the moment since Lex revealed that Anthony had bitten her, but still, he didn’t want to leave Casey in their hands. Their care of new wolves wasn’t known for being friendly or helpful.
Like Helen of Troy, Casey would launch a war, because Ares wasn’t willing to let the other wolf pack have the woman. She could run with them tonight, but tomorrow he’d be demanding a meeting to negotiate her coming back. There was always a way, and if they weren’t willing, then he’d slaughter them all. His wolf demanded it.
He put a hand against his chest as he felt the animal trying to shift again. The wolf wanted to go after them now, forget all logic and go take the woman back. But war and battle were about strategy, not rushing in blind. She’d stand a better chance of returning to him if he were smart about this. He turned around and went back to the house.
The energy of the full moon and the impending hunt crackled around as he walked through the people crowding the house. He should have been drinking in that energy, letting it excite his wolf, and he should have been rallying his people up and keeping the energy going, but all he could think about was how scared Casey would be on her first full moon shift without proper guidance and help. Fucking Lex would take what was supposed to be a wonderful new experience and make it horrifying.
Julia found him as he stormed into the quiet back common room. “Where’s Casey? Someone mentioned that she ran off and didn’t return with you.”
He locked his jaw and studied the images in front of him. Sketches and pictures of statues in his former glory as a god. “The alpha of the Muddy Creek pack called her. Turns out, it wasn’t our guy who bit her.”
“Oh shit. Do you want me to take lead tonight so you can go after her?”
He shook his head. “No. Tonight, I hunt with the pack; tomorrow, I’ll confront Lex. Let them think they are winning tonight. Casey…” he hesitated just slightly and closed his eyes. “Casey will be fine.”
“You must believe that if you didn’t go after them right away. I’ll watch after our newer members tomorrow so you can deal with it. She doesn’t belong there.”
“You’re right; she belongs with us.” With him. Their wolves liked each other, and as selfish as it sounded, he wanted to feel that sense of calm that she’d brought to him once again. “We’ll get her back.”
“You’re going to cause a war over this. Tell me, bigger or smaller than the Trojan war?”
He smirked. “That all depends on Lex now, doesn’t it?” And he’d make sure to wring Anthony’s neck the moment he got a chance during the battle. “Let’s go hunt, the sun’s just about down, and I’m sure everyone is getting antsy.”
Julia bowed her head. “Sounds good. I think you’ll feel better after a good run.”
He’d probably think a little bit more clearly after it, but he’d still be thinking about going after Casey. And that’s all that mattered to him.
Casey looked over the blackened forest. A fire had taken most of the trees a few years ago in this part of the mountains. Small pieces of green stuck out of the charred ground attempting to start new life. Anthony put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s almost time.”
She shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “Don’t touch me.”
“I don’t think you understand what’s going on here. I brought you into this world; that makes you my mate.”
She jerked as if he hit her. “I’m sorry, what?”
“My mate. You’re stuck with me now.” He grinned at her, and her stomach dropped.
What was it that Kylian had said about mates? They were supposed to calm your wolf. Her wolf hated Anthony. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“It is in this pack,” he shot back and looked up at the sky.
The moon peeked over the dead trees that remained in the area, giving an eerie feel to the night. She shivered as the wind kicked up, and she pulled Anthony’s jacket tighter around her. Both Lex and Anthony refused to give her clothes just to ruin when she shifted tonight. She closed her eyes and saw her wolf pacing in her mind. It wasn’t tucked away in the forest, it was waiting right on the edge, ready to come to the surface, to bring Casey down to her knees in pain and sorrow, except Casey didn’t want to fight this time. She wanted the wolf to take over and give her exhausted human mind a break.
The wolf trotted up to the surface, and Casey smiled, she opened her arms welcoming the wolf. It pounced, and she cried out as her body started to twist and mold into the shape of the wolf, her spine cracked and creaked as it became bowed, and her muscles snapped as they let go and reattached in newly formed shapes. The pain made her human mind fight against it. Trying to force it away. She looked up at Anthony as he and Lex just stood and watched her.
The pads of her new paws pressed and sunk into the mud below, grounding both her and her wolf to the earth. Instinct told her exactly what she needed to do. Hunt. She shot across the forest, occasionally stopping to sniff the air and forest floor, to try and catch the scent of her prey. Something jumped across her path, a fluffy tail catching the light of the moon. She licked her muzzle and dove after the rabbit.
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Her human mind sank back, letting the wolf take over completely.
Casey’s human mind came back in a rush as the sun rose above the horizon. Her body collapsed on the ground much like it had the night before, but this time her entire body ached too much to shake. Around her, others, still naked, rose from the ground and walked around. A few of them glanced at her as they passed, but no one offered to help her up. She finally found the strength to stand up and dust the dirt off her body. The cool wind whipped up around her, and she hugged herself. She had hoped Kylian would have come after her, fought for her like the god he worshiped would have wanted.
“You’re a no one to them,” Anthony’s voice came from behind her. She turned around to find him standing in a soft white robe. He tossed her a similar one, and she put it on, welcoming the warmth of the fleece.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She tied the robe and turned away from him.
Anthony came up and wrapped his arms around her, and she stepped away. “You’re thinking about that other pack, how they aren’t here to claim you. Kylian doesn’t care for you. You’re just an easy fuck for him. When he comes to get you, it’ll be because he feels obligated and only when it’s convenient for him.”
“Kylian doesn’t screw wolves in his pack,” she shot back without thinking. She turned to face Anthony. “And unlike you, he doesn’t think forcing himself on a woman is mating.”
“You two will be mated tonight, in front of the pack, because Anthony will be taking my place soon, and he’ll need a queen by his side.”
“What the hell constitutes mating in front of the pack?” Her mind filled with terrifying thoughts. There would be no way she’d let Anthony fuck her in front of all the wolves.
Lex stepped up to her and stroked her cheek. “Don’t worry; we aren’t that animalistic. There’s a ceremony that is simply tradition, think of it like a hand-fasting ceremony.”
The Fall of War (Gods of Olympus Book 4) Page 5