There was a knock at the door, which distracted me from letting that wave drown me. I opened the door, and Vaughn poked his head in. “You guys doing anything fun in here?”
Dare set Mav on the ground. Mav waved at the guard. “Hey, Vaughn.”
“Hey, little man.”
“What do you need?” Dare asked.
“Hate to interrupt, but Bay asked me to fetch you. He has some things he wanted to go over with you.”
Dare ruffled Mav’s hair. “You okay here with Reese while I’m gone?”
Wait, what? “Um…” I began.
“Sure.” Mav turned a big smile on me.
Oh goddamn. What was I going to do with this kid? I’d never really been alone with him for more than five minutes or so. “Uh…”
Dare didn’t catch on to my anxiety. “Be back soon.” He grabbed my chin, kissed me hard on the lips, then disappeared out the door. Vaughn followed, closing and locking the door behind him.
I stared at the closed door, then at Mav, who was bouncing on his toes, looking at me expectantly like I had plans.
I had zero plans.
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked, my gaze searching the room.
Mav hopped over to the corner where Dare kept his bookcase. He ran his fingers over the spines, and I walked over to stand behind him, squinting at the words. I still hadn’t studied Dare’s entire library, mainly because I wasn’t into reading a whole lot, and also because most of the time I was in this room, I was eating, sleeping, or getting fucked.
“This one!” Mav snatched a gray book off the shelf and shoved it at me, then gently guided me to the chair near the window. He sat on the floor and peered up at me, waiting.
Oh, he wanted me to read to him. Right, he probably couldn’t read yet. “Uh, you want me to start somewhere in particular?”
He shook his head. “Dad said we could read that next, so I haven’t heard any of it yet.”
I ran my hands over the cover. In relief were the words, “A Silver Tip History.” The book was bound in leather with real paper pages. I couldn’t stop touching them, running my hands over their smooth edges.
“That was made before the virus,” Mav said, pride in his voice. “Dad has the only pre-Nowere books in the whole pack.”
Yeah, and Dare had made it clear these books were to be treated like precious babies. I was scared to touch it for fear of breaking the spine or ripping the page. Mav must have sensed my hesitation. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “Dad said books are made to be read and worn edges and tears are okay as long as it’s because you learned from the words inside.”
Mav was watching me expectantly, so I opened the first page and began to read. At first, I thought it was kind of tedious, but then I began to get into it. The Silver Tip pack was one of the oldest, descended from the Gauls. They had a history of strong alphas who formed solid alliances with nearby packs. They were also fierce fighters, which led to frequent challenges.
That made me gulp.
I paused after the first chapter and glanced up. Mav was asleep, curled up on his side on the carpet at my feet. He was sleeping so deeply that small snores escaped his lips. I closed the book and leaned back in the chair.
My eyes strayed to the bookcase, to the books that appeared to be post-virus. The bindings weren’t as tight, the edges of the pages uneven. I tilted my head to the side to read the spines.
One word stuck out to me, and after standing slowly so as not to wake Mav, I crept over to the bookcase. After slipping the Silver Tip pack history back in its spot, I slid out the book labeled Astria, the word written on the spine in crude etching.
On the front was a picture of a wolf with a white throat. I lifted my hand to my own throat self-consciously, then crept back over to the chair and placed the book on my lap.
For a while, I did nothing but stare at the cover, remembering the way Astria used to be, before the breach and the screams and the blood.
In the Whitethroat pack, there’d been no central building like the Hive. We’d lived as a village within the walls we’d taken for granted. We worked and farmed and learned and loved. Every year, we’d celebrate Feast, which was our way of thanking our Whitethroat Alpha for protecting us.
The last Feast I remembered had been right before the Nowere attack. Selene had sung songs, Jude had painted a landscape for the alpha’s daughter, and I’d gotten in trouble for trying to look up a female novus’s skirt. Oops. In my defense, she was my first crush. I hadn’t let myself think of Piper in a long time. Had she survived the Nowere attack?
I steeled myself by clenching my jaw and opened the front cover of the book. I began to read, all the words on the page in front of me taking me back to another time. Another place. One that no longer existed. As a child, the threat of Noweres was nonexistent. Thinking back on it, I wondered if that was intentional on the alpha’s part to reduce panic. She led us to believe the virus was a thing of the past. I had no idea it would affect my entire future.
After the confusion of the attack, my parents felt as though they didn’t have any option but to leave Astria. But not a day went by that I didn’t question whether any of my pack had lived. Whether they’d rebuilt. The constant gnawing in my gut had lessened now that I was away from Xan and mated into the Silver Tip pack. But it was still there, and I hadn’t forgotten.
When the words on the page began to blur, whether from tears or fatigue, I knew I’d had enough reminiscing. I placed the book back on the shelf and walked to the window, where I had a view of the front gate. Tan was outside the walls now. I’d missed my chance when he left, and kicked myself for it. I’d eavesdropped on some conversations and learned another scout planned to leave in a couple of days. That was my chance, because time was running out.
I turned away from the window and carefully picked up Mav. He didn’t wake up as I transferred him into the bed, just immediately curled around a pillow I pressed to his chest. Then I crawled in next to him, falling asleep myself to the rhythm of his snores.
Dare
* * *
Vaughn was being a pain in my ass. “Don’t get pissed off. I don’t need details. I just want to know what it’s like to fuck a werewolf.”
I glared at him, and held it until he dropped his gaze submissively.
“He’s my mate. So of course fucking him is amazing,” I explained. “It has nothing to do with him being a werewolf.”
Vaughn thought about that for a minute. “Oh, that’s a good point.”
I rolled my eyes.
Bay strolled into the meeting room, shirtless and covered in dirt. He grinned at me, white teeth in a mud-streaked face. “Hey, bro.”
“Couldn’t you hose off?”
Bay glanced down at himself. “Oh shit, I forgot.”
“You forgot you’re completely covered in filth?”
“Oh, how dare I see the alpha in this state, right?”
I shoved him, laughing. “I don’t care about that. I don’t want you getting everything dirty.”
He sank down on a chair in a cloud of dust. “Too late.”
I leaned on the table as he plucked a carrot from the center bowl with dirt-caked fingernails. “What do you need? I left Mav alone with Reese, so I’d appreciate making this quick.”
There was a slight noise behind me, and I glanced back to see G waiting by the door. I turned back to face my brother just as he swallowed a bit of carrot. “So Dal is back.”
Dal was one of Rua’s scouts. She’d been gone for weeks on a mission to report on the Nowere packs to the south of us. “Great, she okay?”
“Oh yeah, she’s fine. But she had some interesting news.”
“You going to tell me or draw this shit out for dramatic effect?”
“She made it the whole way down to Astria.” Bay’s gaze slowly lifted to meet mine. His next words were spoken slower and with great care. “She didn’t get close, but she saw activity there. Particularly around the Whitethroat pack compound.”
<
br /> I slowly dropped into the empty chair next to me. Astria. Reese’s home. His pack. I closed my eyes, remembering how my mate looked when he talked about his home. How his face grew soft, his voice wistful. I shouldn’t keep this from him, but I also didn’t want to get his hopes up.
I swallowed. “Could she confirm it was members of the Whitethroat pack?”
Bay shook his head. “She smelled werewolves and that was it.”
“We should confirm,” I heard myself say, my voice sounding distant. “For Reese’s and Jude’s sake. We should confirm.”
Bay nodded. “I can talk to Rua about getting together a team. It’ll probably be a couple of weeks before they leave.”
“That’s fine.”
Bay was silent for a moment. “You going to tell Reese?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I think I’ll wait until after the team leaves. I can picture Reese wanting to go, and I can’t let him make that journey.”
“Right, of course.”
“Any other news?”
Bay launched into a detailed update on our supplies, and I leaned back in my chair, happy to have my mind off of my mate problems.
* * *
By the time our meeting concluded, I was sure I’d been gone too long. I sped my way back to my quarters, and when I opened the door, silence greeted me.
After I closed the door, my gaze fell on the bed, and tension leached from my muscles. Reese lay on the bed on his side, fast asleep, with Mav cuddled up next to him. They were both snoring.
I ran my hands through my hair and glanced over at my bookcase. The history of the Silver Tip was out of place, and I smiled because I was sure Mav convinced Reese to read to him. I plucked it off the wrong shelf and placed it where it was supposed to go. Another misplaced book caught my eye, and all the lightness I’d felt a minute ago was now replaced by a heavy weight on my shoulders.
Reese had taken a look at the book on Astria. I imagined him sitting in the chair, biting his lip, blue eyes filling as he remembered what his life was like once upon a time. His hometown would always be in the forefront of his mind.
What if Dal was right and the Whitethroat pack was revived? I could take Reese to visit, but he wouldn’t be able to stay.
If he had the choice, would he stay or go?
I didn’t want to think about that. Whether fate had chosen him for me or not, the fact of the matter was that he was mine. I wanted him. I liked him. I craved him.
The sudden urge to hold him surged up through me, and I crossed the room in several strides before sliding into bed behind Reese. I wrapped an arm around his waist and tugged him back to me, burying my face in his neck to inhale his scent.
He murmured something, and I lifted my head to see him blinking at me groggily. “Oh hey, you’re back,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Wow, I fell asleep.”
He turned his head to see a still-sleeping Mav, then flashed me a bright smile. “He’s cute when he sleeps.”
I cupped Reese’s cheek and pressed a kiss to his lips, wishing I could take him now.
When I pulled back, his brow was furrowed. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
“What was the meeting about?”
I couldn’t tell him yet, especially not with a sleeping Mav beside us. “Boring pack stuff.”
He yawned. “Glad I got to nap instead. Nap beats boring pack stuff any day.”
I laughed. “I would have rather stayed here and napped with you two.”
He grinned. “Next time.”
I didn’t answer, and his eyes drifted shut.
In a couple of minutes, he was asleep again. But I didn’t sleep. I stared at the ceiling and I clutched my mate to my chest and I wished I could see into the future.
Chapter Twelve
Dare
* * *
Nowere packs were unpredictable. They were mindless, and changed direction based on the thinnest hint of a scent. Receiving these reports from the scouts on the location of Nowere packs was my least favorite part of being alpha.
Tan had shifted to his human form and his shoulders heaved while sweat dripped down his chest. “Something’s got them sticking close,” he said breathlessly. “They were also dormant, moving really slow and sluggish.”
“How big?” Bay’s dark brows were drawn in, his expression tight.
“Maybe fifty?” Tan squinted. “I’m sorry I don’t have an accurate number. I had to take off—”
“You’re a worthless scout if you die,” I said. “You did the right thing. Good job.”
Tan’s shoulder sagged in relief. “Thanks, Alpha.”
“The rest of the day is your own.” I clapped him on the back.
He nodded at me, then trotted off, probably eager to clean the stench of Nowere off his skin.
Bay blew out a breath and rapped his knuckles against the stone wall of the compound where we stood on the south side. “Glad we got these.”
I frowned. “Still makes me uneasy.”
“Mom said sometimes there was no reason for what the Nowere packs did.”
“Yeah, but sometimes there is a reason. She also said they seemed to have some sort of weird intuition.”
Bay was quiet for a moment. “Where’s Reese?”
“Farm. With his brother and G.”
“You didn’t tell him the scout report yet, did you?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. He finally seems settled here. Jude too. I want to give him some time before springing that on him.”
Bay raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Your reason isn’t selfish at all? Wondering how he’ll react?”
I didn’t answer, and Bay’s gaze bored into the side of my head before he turned away with a sigh. “I get it, brother,” he said quietly. “I understand what it’s like when things are good and you don’t want to wreck them. And I also know what it’s like when they are wrecked.”
Bay’s voice was low and a little raspy, the way it always got when he thought about Nash. His childhood best friend—and I suspected more—disappeared outside the walls one day when they were novuses. We assumed he either ran away to find his home pack—he wasn’t born a Silver Tip—or he’d been the victim of Noweres. Either way, Bay certainly hadn’t forgotten about him.
“I’m sorry about N—”
“Whatever,” Bay cut me off. His cheeks flushed, like he knew it’d been rude to cut me off, but I let it slide.
I had a sudden desire to see Reese. To hold him. To prove to myself he was real, and he was whole, and what we had was better than I could have ever hoped for with a mate. “I’m going to go check on Reese. Want to come?”
“Sure.”
I began to walk, Bay at my heels. When I turned the corner of the Hive to reach the Farm, a low growl immediately raised the hair on my shoulders.
Bay stiffened at my back as G held a Were by the throat, pressed up against the wall, his lips pulled back and teeth bared. I recognized the Were as one of Gage’s cohorts, Kin.
Jude was standing next to Reese, whose face was twisted into one of fury. “Fuck you, man,” Reese spat from behind G, rising up on his toes. “Gage would run this pack into the ground. Dare is the best alpha, and everyone knows it except your little band of assholes.”
I saw the moment Reese sensed me. His nostrils flared, and his head whipped to the side. Blue eyes blazed as his fists clenched at his sides. Then he fell silent, waiting on his mate, his alpha.
He was such a good wolf.
“G,” was all I had to stay for my guard to release Kin’s throat. He stepped back, and I waited while Kin gasped for breath. “What happened?”
“Reese said he had to take a piss. While he was out of my sight, Kin approached him.”
Reese whined low in his throat. I turned to my mate. “And?”
My mate opened his mouth, but I was beyond listening.
Because I smelled blood.
My body tensed, and he noticed the change in my behavior, because he fell silent.
The iron tang was like waving a red flag in front of my face. My canines punched through my gums, and my claws elongated, fur sprouting on the backs of my hands. “Where?”
Reese went pale for a moment before he held up his arm. Five deep grooves were etched into his arm, blood dripping to color the grass at his feet. “Kin?” I asked.
Reese nodded.
The act took two seconds. One second, Kin was standing against the wall, the next he lay at my feet, throat pulsing with blood, life leaving his brown eyes. The scent of his blood mixed with Reese’s was making my head spin, the rage I felt swirled with the protectiveness over him. Aggression toward my mate was the same as aggression toward me, and the consequence was death. Every time.
I stared at Kin’s body at my feet, gulping deep breaths as I willed myself to return to human.
When I turned, G was standing with a shell-shocked Jude, while Reese stared at Kin impassively. Bay rubbed his temples like he had a headache.
“What?” I asked my brother.
“Just…how stupid was that for him to attack Reese?” He kicked at Kin’s body. “Idiot.”
Reese was picking at his wounds, dark head bent. Gripping his chin, I forced him to look at me. “Tell me what he wanted.”
Reese’s expression was clear, and his voice was firm. “He was asking questions in a way devised to trick me to reveal things about you. He wanted to know your habits. Your favorite foods. Things like that.”
Favorite foods? The only reason that would be relevant was if Gage thought to poison me. Coward. “What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Well, actually I told him you eat novus brains for breakfast, and that you have a nasty habit of wrestling with Noweres before bedtime. He didn’t enjoy my sense of humor.”
“That was when he slashed you?”
“Yeah.”
I glanced up at G. “When did you come over?”
“When Kin was questioning him. I thought Reese could handle it, and he did, until Kin slashed him. Then I stepped in.”
I slid my hand to the back of Reese’s neck and tugged him to my chest. He was breathing hard, inhaling my scent, and I needed to get him alone, let him shift, then fuck him.
Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series Page 13