“That makes sense. Your father was murdered, and you took the helm as a college student. Naturally, your council would be your best friends, cousin, and brother-in-law. You needed support from people you didn’t have to pretend with.”
I gather Madi up in my arms, shocked at how freeing it is to be understood so well. To have someone else I can now be wholly myself with.
She laughs softly, lifting her face to mine.
I brush my nose along hers. “You’re everything.”
“You’re more.”
“Let’s go,” I say before I change my mind and undress her again. I take her hand and lead her out to the living room.
Ruby is there, along with the guys, who have showered and changed. Everyone’s face shows the weight of what just happened. The needless death. The near destruction of our pack.
The moment I arrive, Liz appears with a cart of steaming food that she somehow whipped together with no warning. There’s smoked ham, roast chicken, three dozen dinner rolls, a giant Greek salad, wild rice, and corn on the cob.
We serve ourselves buffet style and settle in the living room with plates piled high with food.
In another wing, I hear April’s shriek of laughter and the quieter tones of my mom. For the first time in years, her presence in the same building doesn’t rattle me-it feels right.
“You burned the place down?” I ask.
Billy nods. “There was an unfortunate explosion.”
“What now, Alpha?” Jake asks.
I shovel a huge forkful of ham in my mouth and chew. All that fighting has me craving protein. When I swallow, I say, “We took care of the problem within our pack. Now we need to deal with the Adalwulfs.”
“Well, there’s one person on this earth who knows how to beat the Adalwulfs,” Madi says.
I tense, ready to defend her if my council shows any objection to her joining the conversation, but there’s none. Everyone looks at her expectantly.
“She’s right here in this building.” Madi nods toward the door leading to the other wing.
“Mom. Yes, that’s brilliant.” Ruby nods her agreement. “I never wanted to put her in a position of having to choose between us, but Odin made the choice for her when his henchmen tried to murder her.”
“He sealed his own fate,” I growl.
Ruby stands. “Shall I get her?”
I sense Billy shift in his chair. He doesn’t trust easily, and he knows the pain my mom caused me.
“Bring her in.”
Billy nods at me. He will be suspicious as always, and that’s his job. But he has my back.
My mom returns with Ruby, and Liz takes my niece and nephew to visit the dogs.
I stand. My mom still doesn’t look well. Despite the glow of love in her face, she moves stiffly, as if her broken ribs still hurt. “Mom. I have a question for you. It’s important that you answer truthfully, and I’ll respect your answer, no matter what it is. Are you a Blackthroat now?”
There’s no hesitation from my mom, but her eyes fill with tears as she nods. “Yes. If you’ll have me. It’s all I’ve wanted since the day I met your father.”
Ruby covers her mouth to cover her tears, and Eagle pulls her onto his lap.
“Have you been bespelled by the witch? Is there anything we need to do to release you from the Adalwulf pack?”
My mom lifts her shoulders helplessly. “It’s hard to know what’s real and what is smoke and mirrors with the old witch, but she isn’t long for this world.”
“Catherine, I was just saying that you’re the one person who knows the Adalwulf’s weaknesses. I thought you could join the council while we discuss next steps.” Madi’s luna power radiates through her words. I don’t think she even knows how much authority she wields with her voice.
My mom’s eyes widen and a look of wonder comes over her. “She’s taken on alpha powers. A true luna,” she says in amazement. “I didn’t know if that lore was real.”
“Same,” Vance agrees.
“Have a seat.” I wave a hand toward a chair and settle back on the sofa beside Madi.
My mom sits down. “I think an all-out war can be avoided, if that’s what you want. Now doesn’t seem like the time to strike when your pack just took an internal hit.”
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
“The Adalwulfs are in turmoil right now. My brother is about to die from the magic poisoning, and his own son can’t wait. Aiden has been amassing strength and support of his own within the pack.”
“Yes. Remember how Aiden reacted when you said he was on his father’s leash?” Madi catches my eye.
Mostly what I remember was feeling my mate was being threatened and the need to protect her, but I try to recall the conversation before I shifted.
“Right. The attack on the island was Odin’s doing. It was reckless-he sent all his best wolves, and you decimated them. That means Odin’s power base is gone.”
Billy nods in approval. “That’s good.”
“If you somehow force a showdown now between father and son-between Odin’s supporters and Aiden’s-you can fracture the pack,” Eagle fills in.
“Exactly.” My mom accepts a plate of food that Vance filled for her.
An idea begins to form in my mind. “All right.” I catch the gaze of my mate. “I know just how to play this.”
Brick
The full moon peeks over the tips of the towering pine trees. The silver light limns the hardened top crust of the snow, making the white drifts glow.
I stand barefoot, ankle deep in the snow, with my pack at my back. Madi’s beside me, bundled in a winter coat.
“Which way is the Adalwulf land?” she asks. We’re on Blackthroat land, the plot of land Madi found for us, and we purchased. She’s seen it on a map, but this is her first time visiting it.
I don’t like having her out here, so exposed, but she insisted on coming to see us off, and I no longer argue with her instincts.
“That way.” I point into the thick forest. “Down the hill, through a ravine.”
“Okay.” It occurs to me that she might not like leaving me out here, exposed, facing danger without her.
My beautiful, courageous mate. Our luna.
I face her and cup her cold-reddened cheeks. “This won’t take long. I’ll be back before midnight.”
“All right.” Her breath puffs out, and I can’t resist dipping my head to claim her mouth.
The kiss warms me to my toes. Someone in the pack starts howling in appreciation. Probably Vance, the jokester.
She shivers, and I break the kiss. I can’t keep making out with her right in the snow.
She’s smiling as she steps back to let me shift into a wolf.
I unbutton my shirt with one hand and strip it off. The wolf crawls under my skin, seconds away from taking over. My voice is barely human when I call to the pack. “Tonight we claim this land as ours. Let’s mark our territory and let the Adalwulfs know we are stronger than ever.”
Wolves don’t howl before a hunt, but werewolves do. An eerie chorus rises.
Behind me, to the left, Billy lets his wolf tear out of him, shredding his clothes. Nickel is more fastidious, stripping and rolling up his clothes neatly to leave on a stump.
I keep my eyes locked with Madi as I undress. She takes in my every move, staring at my bare chest as if fascinated.
I brush her cheek. “I’ll be back by midnight.”
Her voice is husky as she replies, “I’ll be waiting.”
I grip a strand of her hair in my fist and growl for her ears alone. “Be naked.”
She licks her swollen lips. “We’ll see. Alpha.”
I don’t kiss her again. If I do, I’ll take her right here in the snow.
I step back and call my wolf. The change grips me. I land on all fours, shaking off the lingering tingles.
The first thing my wolf wants to do is rub against Madi. She runs her hands down my sides and strokes my face, laughing when I lick her.
“Have a good run,” she says. I accept a few last pets, and nudge her towards the waiting car. I wait until she is safely inside and on her way home before turning back and racing to catch up with the rest of the pack. I’ll do this run with the scent of my mate clinging to my fur.
The howls die away as the rest of the pack finishes shifting and starts to run. The cold has a razor edge, but it can’t penetrate our thick coats. The snow makes running a challenge, but there’s nothing like a hunt on a winter’s eve. I let my wolf play, finding the scent of a squirrel and ducking under hemlock boughs to follow it.
Nickel does the same, bending a branch back only to let it snap in Billy’s face. Billy’s big white and gray wolf snarls and pounces. The two land in a snowbank, sounding like they’re going to kill each other. A minute later, they right themselves and shake off the snow before trotting along together, best friends again.
At least until Billy pushes Nickel into another snowbank.
The wind picks up, carrying our enemies’ scent. I snap the air, tasting the cold and the Adalwulf’s stench. I trot to a rock overlooking the expanse of land. Below, my pack mates are romping, running everywhere as they please. From time to time, each wolf finds a tree, cocks a leg, and marks the trunk. Spreading their scent around, marking our territory wolf-style. Marking this land as ours.
I sit back on my haunches and howl.
The sound echoes through the valley, bouncing off the mountains. My pack members join in, amplifying the call. Billy and Nickel burst from the forest, running neck and neck. I bound in front of them, and we all race flat out, straight up the side of the ravine.
I put on a burst of speed, and the world blurs around me. The snow and shadow of the hillside turns into a haze. I reach the top of the tallest hill with my inner circle just behind me. We’re on flat land now, in an old pine forest thick with darkness. The moonlight streams through a broken patch in the canopy, illuminating the figure waiting for us.
Aiden fucking Adalwulf. He’s right next to the white flag marking the end of our land and the beginning of Adalwulf territory.
He brought back-up, too. About a hundred and fifty wolves from his pack, standing in a precise military formation. They look like something out of a Nazi propaganda film. Odin’s a dictator who rules with an iron paw. It wouldn’t surprise me if he mined the Third Reich for leadership ideas.
But Odin isn’t here. And according to my mother, Aiden is eager for his father to die, so he can ascend as alpha.
“That’s their weakness,”
Madi told us.
“That’s the fracture in their pack we can exploit.”
For a human, my mate is brilliant at wolf politics.
I pad on all four paws up to the line and drop to my haunches. Billy and Nickel are right at my back. Jake, Vance, and Sully on either side of them, in an arrow formation. Eagle crowds in front of Ruby to protect her, even though she could stand her own with any wolf, even Aiden.
My Adalwulf cousin stands with his hands in the pockets of his black tactical pants. “
I’ll be met by moonlight, proud Titania,” he quotes
A Midsummer’s Night Dream, like a fucking tool.
There’s nothing to stop me from leaping over the line and attacking Aiden. He’s shirtless and barefoot, but it’d take a second for his wolf to kick out of the torn pants. I could use those seconds to go for his throat.
He would be fun to fight. We might be evenly matched.
But that will come another day. Tonight, I follow the plan. The one concocted by my mother and my mate.
I suck in a breath and let the change sweep over me. I rise, naked, and face my cousin.
“So nice of you to visit, cousin. Do you like our land?” I spread my arms.
A muscle twitches in Aiden’s cheek. His eyes flash a brilliant silver, showing me the monster lurking under his civilized skin.
“We’ve enjoyed hunting on it,” I say. “Hopefully there’ll be some game left for you.”
Aiden shrugs. “My wolves enjoy hunting bigger game. Other predators.”
At Aiden’s right hand, a big bruiser of a brown and black wolf snarls softly at Billy. Billy ignores the wolf, which enrages it even more.
I smile, letting my canines flash. “Interesting.”
“You seemed to be on the hunt for a different quarry yourself. Last time I saw you in the boardroom, you were completely out of control.”
Great, we’re going to talk about this. “That hunt is over. I have claimed my mate.”
“A human,” Aiden sneers.
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