by G. Bailey
I glance around the room. “Thank you for still keeping me here when I’m clearly a big danger to you all and your pack.”
“No, this wasn’t your fault. We took you into our pack, and that means you are pack. End of discussion. If you’re in danger, then we all are,” Henderson firmly tells me, and how none of them disagrees tells me they have all decided the same thing. My chest warms as I relax back in my seat.
“Our discussion is currently debating on how we’re going to move forward, because it’s clearly not a hundred percent safe here like it should have been. I would have sensed the wolf usually, and I did, but he must have been hiding there all that time. Something is amiss,” Ragnar states, placing his hand on the back of my chair, his finger brushing across the back of my neck. The little touch soothes me in a way I never thought a man’s touch could.
“I agree. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Henderson rubs his chin as he replies. “Valentine, when you were in the house, did you hear anything?”
“No, of course he didn’t, because he was drunk...as usual,” Silas bites out. I feel bad for Valentine as everyone’s eyes fall on him.
He looks directly at me.
“I should have been awake,” is all he simply says before walking to the door, opening it and walking straight out with it slamming shut behind him. All of them sigh in annoyance.
“Well, at least he said some words for a change that were different from ‘Fuck, where’s my drink,’” Silas says, crossing his arms.
“Is Valentine always quiet?” I ask, because in all the time that I’ve been here, I haven’t really heard much from him, except for that first day where I thought I saw the brief kindness of a man. But now there doesn’t seem to be much, that it’s just him, how he is.
Henderson is the one who answers me. “Something happened, and he’s been like this ever since. He prefers the bottle to any of us.”
I know that many people in my old pack prefer the bottle; they lived in and out of the pubs and bars. And Mike himself wasn’t a stranger to a nice bottle of whiskey and drinking it until he passed out in his chair occasionally. I never really understood the addiction to the stuff.
“So, what are we going to do next?” Ragnar asks a pointed question towards Henderson.
Silas is the one who answers. “We get the betas to come and move in here for protection. They can live in the basement rooms, and then they can take turns patrolling. With that many eyes around, it appears unlikely that the wolf would get in here once again. And I think someone should always be around Trey and Mai just for the time being.”
“What do you think?” Henderson asks me.
“I think I’m putting all of your lives at risk by being here. I never should have thought I could escape him. I’m not like all the other rejected here in this pack. I’m the alpha’s rejected, and he wanted me dead. He just couldn’t do it because his wolf wouldn’t allow him to, so he let the sea kill me, but it didn’t work. But he warned me, if I somehow survived, that he would hunt me.” I pause, not able to look at any of them. “I’m being hunted, and I don’t want to take anyone else to the grave with me when he finally gets to me.”
“He will find his grave years before you do, Mai,” Ragnar warns.
“If that’s true, I need to learn how to be better and quicker in my human form. I need to learn how to fight well and fast. If you won’t let me shift into a wolf to fight, which I don’t think would work against him anyway as he is an alpha, I need to learn how to fight with weapons.”
“We will begin the first thing in the morning with an alternative plan of training,” Silas responds. I nod at him, respecting him for changing his mind.
“That’s sorted, then. Perhaps we should go downstairs and have a relaxed evening? Don’t know about you, but I’m a bit stressed from yesterday’s events,” Ragnar suggests.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Henderson agrees, stretching his arms above his head, and I watch the movement for way too long.
“How about pool?” Silas asks, cracking his fingers.
“We should ask Val to play. He usually comes out for a game,” Ragnar replies.
“How do you play this pool?” I ask as I get up with them and follow Henderson to the door with Silas and Ragnar following. Ragnar moves quickly to my side, placing his hand on the back of my waist, and Henderson gives him a strange look, but all I can focus on is that Ragnar is touching me. That he is this close to me.
I wonder if it’s because he feels that need to touch me, to have that connection that I’m searching for with them as well, or he is just being kind. I am quite happy for his constant contact when we are close as we head down the corridor together.
Henderson answers my question I’d almost forgotten I asked. “Pool is a game where you have a table and a certain set of balls on top, and you have to hit them into the holes until you can hit the black and win.”
“Yeah, that was the worst explanation of pool I’ve ever heard,” Silas sarcastically quips as we head downstairs. Trey appears at the bottom of the stairs with a big smile and a bowl of food.
“I brought snacks for pool night,” he says.
“Someone’s been using their wolf hearing,” Henderson jokes, messing up Trey’s hair before he escapes, and I can hear his laugh as he runs into the living room. This almost feels like a completely normal thing, even as Valentine stomps into the living room from the kitchen, holding a piece of paper in the air.
“Who solved the riddle that has been on the fridge for over a year?” he demands.
All of us go still, and all of them turn towards me. Once again, I have all the alphas’ eyes on me. And what should be extremely intimidating just doesn’t feel like it. It feels normal, relaxing, and that on its own is just terrifying to me. I shouldn’t be this relaxed around alphas I’ve only known for a week. The alphas rule our packs; they are the most powerful wolves that can rip enemies to pieces in seconds. But here I am completely relaxed, wanting to be closer to them, staring at them constantly. I just need to get my desires under control. I need to get my heart to stop beating so fast around them, so fast they must be able to hear it. But right now I’m just nervous about the riddle and interested to find out it’s Valentine’s riddle, though.
I look down at the floor for a second. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t want it answered. I just saw it and had to answer it.”
“I wondered who’d done it,” Ragnar says with a long laugh. “I saw it a few days ago.”
“No. That’s brilliant. No one else seems to love my interest in riddles,” Valentine says with a smile. “I might put a new one up.”
“That’ll be nice. I like riddles. I used to read loads of books on them I had, so I find them interesting to answer,” I reply.
“Wanna play pool?” Ragnar asks Valentine, patting his shoulder. He looks down at me, and I feel the pressure of his beautiful eyes on me.
“Yeah, go on then. Only if new girl’s playing,” he answers.
“Sure, I’d like to learn,” I say, making him smile. He really has a sexy smile. We all head into the living room and straight to the pool table. Silas and Trey sit on the sofa, right before Trey throws a little popcorn at Silas’s face. It’s just hilarious, and Silas laughs, surprising me. Trey is in a fit of giggles at this point, and Silas picks some more popcorn up and throws it at him. I am truly interested to see a playful side of Silas that I’ve never experienced or expected. A light side to him that clearly comes out around children.
Henderson grabs two sticks from the wall where they are clipped in, and he brings one to me. His is a lot longer and taller, but mine is about the right height for me. I watch them as they set the balls up in a triangle shape in the centre of the table. The black ball is at the front, and all the others are one of two different patterns.
“Okay, this is really a game for two, but I’ll be sort of your trainer for today,” Valentine playfully suggests. “We can team up on Hens as he always wins.”
/> “Can’t blame me for being brilliant,” Henderson replies, making me grin.
Valentine instructs me on what to do as Henderson removes the triangle shaped frame, leaving the balls in the perfect triangle shape, and he places a white ball a distance away on the table.
“Ok, you need to lean over the table like this.” Valentine shows me how to hold the stick, and he steps back.
I copy his position, and then I freeze when he comes up behind me, moving my hips a little with his large hands. Every single touch of his makes me shiver in a good way. I’ve never had a man close to me like this, standing behind me, having a hard body pushed against mine in a good way. He covers my hands with his and moves me into place. Even over the smell of whiskey that flows off of him, I can smell how he has a warm undertone, a masculine side, a scent that you just can’t hide, and it’s nice. He steps back once he’s got me in the right position, and I still feel everywhere his body touched me.
“Okay, now just hit the white ball,” Valentine instructs. The room goes still as I hit the white ball and it rolls, barely touches the triangle balls, shaking them a little bit out of shape, but they don’t really go anywhere.
“I’ll be honest, that was a bit weak handed, but don’t worry, you can only get better,” Valentine says with a playful chuckle.
Henderson smiles. “You’re just making it easy for me, aren’t you, Mai?”
I laugh. “So you’re not going to give me an easy win on the first time?”
He shakes his head. “No, no, no. You’re beautiful, but I can’t lose.”
I laugh again at his competitive nature, kind of liking it in some sense as he lines up and hits the balls a lot harder than I did. Two of the solid-coloured ones go straight into the holes in expert speed that could only come from playing this game repeatedly.
I’m so going to lose. I go next and get myself in the right position and try to hit one of the balls into the corner, but it just bounces off and hits the side.
“Maybe this is going to be a long night,” I say.
“Luckily, we kind of have a lot of time. We’re not going anywhere,” Henderson replies with a smile. We keep playing, with Silas, Ragnar and Trey watching and talking between them, almost watching TV at the same time. Henderson and Valentine soon realise I’m terrible at pool, and I don’t think I will get better at this game any time soon. Henderson looks happy until Valentine takes over and somehow expertly beats him in three moves. For more than a second, it’s completely normal between all of us. A normal, slightly weird pack relationship going on, and I can pretend that the outside world really isn’t there. It was exactly what I needed to forget the attack, because starting tomorrow, I’m going to train until I can go back to Ravensword and kill the alpha hunting me.
There is no other way.
Rubbing oil off my hands onto my jeans, I stand up and stretch my neck before staring down at the car I can’t get to work. Every wire is in place, everything broken cleaned up and replaced, but it’s still not working. It’s fucking frustrating. Truth be told, nothing has been right since Mai turned up, and none of it is her fault or something we can fix. The alpha bastard of Ravensword let pure gold fall through his fingers, and in a way, I’m thankful he did. We have searched for so long for her, but the fear of losing her is real now. The wolf intruder nearly killed her. He nearly got away with taking her from this world, and then we would never be able to find her again.
“Ragnar!” Trey calls, sounding near the entrance of the garage, and I pop my head around the car to see him walking into the room. His top is covered in mud but still very clearly purple, and his jeans look a shade close to pink, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Can you tell Mai to stop washing our clothes? All my tops are pink,” he complains, just making me laugh more. I ruffle his hair and rest my hand on his shoulder.
“We all have strange shades of clothing since Mai started washing the clothes,” I remind him. “But she will learn, and it would be rude to say anything.”
He groans. “Can’t you give her some tips? Please? The boys at school were—” He pauses mid-sentence, and I turn him to face me. Trey is like a son to me, and both my wolf and I see him as such. He has never called me anything other than my name, but I accept that he has a hard time with his past. We all do, but ours is more hidden in secrets.
“What happened at school?”
He looks away, a very un-Trey-like move. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Trey walks off, and I let him go, rubbing the back of my neck. I don’t have a clue what to do other than going and scaring the shit out of his classmates at school with simply a look. Maybe I should ask Mai. She seems to have a connection to Trey, and it would come with the added bonus I get to spend more time with her. With my brilliant plan, I head out of the garage and round the back of the house to the training room where she spends most of the day with Silas. Lucky bastard.
Not that he acts like it, but I know Silas has an issue revealing his inner feelings and opening up to anyone. Mai, even though she is our past, is a stranger in some sense, and I understand his hesitation to trust her. Something changed after the wolf attack. I don’t know if it was him nearly seeing her die or that she risked her life to save Trey or the fact she is in danger now. He has lowered the guard surrounding him an inch, and I see Mai is relieved about it.
Maybe not about the intense training that wipes her out, which she has been doing for the last two weeks. Beta George passes me on the way to the training room, and he bows once as I go past and nod at him. Having the betas around has been a new struggle, something I’m not used to as I’ve always liked my own space, but I’d have the whole fucking pack in here if it meant keeping Mai safe.
The back door is slightly ajar when I get to it, and I carefully open it fully, hearing grunting and shoes sliding across the floor.
Then I see her, and it’s like nothing else in the world even exists. A layer of sweat covers her beautifully pale skin, making the freckles on her nose and defined cheeks stand out more. Her silky blonde hair is in a braid that hangs over her one shoulder, and she is in much tighter clothes than I’ve seen her in before as she fights Silas. The material looks soft and clings to her thin waist, her curvy hips and strong, long legs. The top is small, just holding her breasts and showing off a thin line of skin around her ribs. Her ass looks spectacular as well.
The sight of her makes me as hard as a fucking tree, and I struggle to hide my reaction to her, especially when she is dressed like this.
Mai is faster than I expected to see her as she dodges Silas’s sword and spins around to block his other one. She moves in perfectly planned out steps, one after the other, the training we all had a long time ago that makes you a damn good fighter. Silas isn’t moving half as fast as he could, and he is definitely making it easy for her as he attacks, but she can only defend and avoid.
It’s still better than nothing, and I’m proud of her.
Silas kicks her arm, smacking one of the swords out of her hand, and then his sword is under her neck. She breathlessly glares at him, and I chuckle. They both turn to me as Silas lowers his sword.
“Hello,” Mai says, waving at me as I walk over. Silas nods in my direction but looks generally pissed off with my interruption.
“I was—” I get cut off as the clicking of heels makes me look to the door to the house as Eleline walks in, followed by Phim.
“I can’t stop her from being stupid. Why did you have to sleep with her stupid ass?” Phim asks, and I see Mai flinch a little. Fuck.
Every woman before she came back feels like a massive mistake. We used them. Pure and simple. They were a way to relieve tension and forget about the world for a night, but it never meant anything. Eleline was just one of the women who were clingy and stayed around for much longer than they were welcome.
I see what she is going to do way before the words leave her mouth. “I challenge you, Mairin Fall, to a weapon challenge. I will be waiting on top
of the mountain for you at midnight. May the forbidden god judge us and choose a winner.”
Mai stands still, but her hands shake at her sides as she nods once. Eleline gives me and Silas what I think is meant to be a sexy smile before walking out. I have a personal rule not to kill females unless they are trying to kill me, but I want to rip Eleline to pieces.
I let out a low growl.
“Fuck!” Silas shouts, throwing his sword across the room where it slams into the brick wall.
“Follow her and make sure she leaves. Then lock the gates,” I snap at Phim before running my hands through my hair. It isn’t her fault, and I know that, but fuck we are in trouble.
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Mai asks, her lost and frightened voice cutting through me harder than that sword in the wall.
Silas and I look at each other before I meet Mai’s eyes. Her hauntingly green eyes seem to find my soul and pull it out of my chest for her to decide what to do with. “Eleline is a skilled fighter, but I watched her train. I know what her weaknesses are, and I will help you. Don’t give up yet, Mai. Not yet. Not ever.”
Mai gives me a shaky nod. Not an inch of her is full of any confidence as she looks to Silas. He wordlessly picks the sword up off the floor and holds it out to her. “We have training to do. Don’t we?”
“O-okay,” she replies, wrapping her hand around the sword. I pull my shirt off and throw it across the room, grabbing one of the swords on the floor and twisting it in my hand. I look up to see Mai’s eyes on my chest, her cheeks flushed and her breathing a lot faster than it was a moment ago. Red hot desire burns throughout my body, and my wolf all but demands for me to kiss her, claim her, make her mine.
In time, wolf. In time.
I couldn’t be more nervous if I tried, but if I thought I was nervous to go to the mating ceremony, this is nothing compared to the nerves I am currently experiencing right now. Simply knowing I’m going into my first challenge has me shaken down to my core. One way or another, someone is going to die tonight, and I am directly the cause. I shake out my hands, hoping to calm myself down a little as I walk to the mirror. I’m dressed in tight black clothes that are made of soft material. The top is all lace on my back but holds my body tight and my back straight. Dark black paint streaks are marked against my cheeks and hands. As Phim explained it, the marks are meant to be warrior markings to protect you, but I don’t feel like any kind of warrior or protected in any sense. I’ve had two weeks of training, two weeks compared to no doubt Eleline’s had her entire life to get this right. I just don’t see how I’m going to be able to get out of this without getting myself killed. Phim comes up behind me and looks at my eyes, clearly seeing the fear there.