Then froze as five razor sharp claws grabbed my throat.
“If you just listen, you will live.” A low voice growled.
I snarled and threw myself away, feeling the razor sharp scrape from that hand dig into my neck drawing blood.
“Who the fuck are you?” I should have howled for backup, but my brain wasn’t moving that quick. This intruder was in my territory, but what he had said was sinking in.
“I’ll listen. Speak.”
The figure who had grabbed me stepped into the moonlight. I could tell from his build that he was a powerfull built Alpha, but I didn’t recognize his scent at all.
“I have a business proposition for you, friend.”
“Most friends don’t start conversations with violence.” I pointed out. The man gave an expansive shrug.
“Most don’t have me as their friend.”
“What’s the business?” I asked, curious.
“There was a girl in your pack. About 19. She left some short while ago, and I need to find her.”
“People come and go all the time.” I said nonchalantly. “What do you want with her?”
“Have you heard of the Moon Goddess Heir?” The man asked.
“The old legends? What of them?”
“She’s real. She has incredible healing powers she can unlock, with the right training. And more than that, she can bear an extremely powerful heir. Far superior to any fated mate.”
“I’ve heard the fairytales, but why are you telling me this?” I asked, curiously.
“The girl you let go bears the Moon Goddess bloodline. I have been tracking her down. So I’ll ask again, what happened to her?”
Avery. He was talking about Avery. The thought hit me with a shock.
“I see you know who I’m talking about.” The man nodded with satisfaction. “Good. Tell me where she is.”
“Why should I tell you?” I snapped. “She’s gone now.”
He laughed. “Well, we’re going to get her back, of course.”
“We?” I said skeptically.
“Oh yes. You’re going to help me.”
“And why exactly would I do that?” I crossed my arms.
“Because, friend, I am going to help you conquer Nightwolf.”
I froze at what he said. “You? I don’t even know who you are.”
He stepped closer, at this distance now I could tell he had an eyepatch over one eye. There was something strange about his scent as well. He looked and moved like an Alpha, but his scent shifted in waves, sometimes intense and other times less so.
“I’m the Rogue King.”
Zara’s POV
From where I lurked on the second floor of our house, I could hear the voices from out back clearly.
So Ryan was going to try and get Avery back. That bastard. I knew he had some scene with her at the Alph Ceremony, but I had hoped he had moved on.
My hatred for Avery intensified. She’d always acted so smugly superior. She’d been the one dating the A and pretending like she was so obsessed with doing the right thing.
Everyone knew she was a freak. She couldn’t manifest her wolf. She wasn’t any Moon Goddess Heir, just a broken and flawed mutant.
I wasn’t going to let her steal Ryan away from me. He would learn his mistake when I revealed her for the weak, pathetic human she truly was.
I imagined Avery kneeling before me, sobbing, and smirked.
Avery’s POV
The next few days I spent learning Gideon’s schedule.
The first day, I showed up at 9am to find he’d already been in the office for hours.
The next day I came at 8am and still didn’t beat him in.
The day after that, I showed up at 6am and managed to look busy when he walked in at 7:30am. Secretly I was grateful, I was starting to miss sleeping in.
I also learned how he liked his coffee (black), what he ate for breakfast (a bagel), and what the first thing he did in the office was (check his mail).
I tried to lean into the secretary role. I showed up in a pencil skirt with my glasses on. I wrote down notes on yellow pads of legal paper. On the fourth day, I showed up with coffee for both of us.
Gideon took it from me gratefully, and I started to feel like maybe I was becoming useful.
It wasn’t all boring office duties, though he did have me organizing some old files for a while. He started having me set up our meetings with other pack leaders, and the primary tradesfolk that worked with Nightwolf.
There were a lot of laws that governed what the packs were able to do within the kingdom. Here in the north, most of the civilized towns were werewolf packs, but to the south there were human settlements as well.
The humans had their own kings and treaties with the wolfpacks that mandated who could be where, and why. Nightwolf had control over the forests and game in our territory, for example, but outside of Nightwolf lands, it was illegal to hunt livestock without a written permit.
Each pack had to keep a census of members, and the werewolf council used this to determine votes when it came to inter-pack business. The more members, the more votes.
The packs themselves were often shifting, as Alphas rose and fell. About once a week there would be news of So- and-so elevated to Alpha, or of members of pack hierarchies that had stepped down, been deposed, or died.
Working with the pack records reminded me that I wanted to continue to work on my herbalism skills. There was a coven of witches that traded with the packs that would provide reagents and supplies, so I put in an order for materials to set up a still room.
In the afternoons, I was excused to work in the garden with Madelyn while Gideon met with his Beta, Tegar talk military strategy.
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