Chapter 116

Cara’s POV

I’m in my pajamas, nearly ready to climb under the covers, when I hear the knocking.

I freeze, relaxing only marginally when I hear my two protectors go to the door.

One last loud thud against the door makes me jump.

Moving out of my bedroom, I step into the hallway as the front door is opened.

“What the hell is that?” Noel asks.

“It’s a note,” Alaric says.

“Macabre, isn’t it? Is that blood?” Noel asks.

A moment passes, where my heart thunders so loudly that I hear it in my ears. I inch closer to the stairs. From here, I can see down into the foyer, where Alaric stands near the open door. There’s a red-stained note in his hands. A dagger is buried in the face of the door.

Alaric touches one of the red splotches on the note and then brings it to his nose. “It’s paint,” he says. “They are just trying to scare us.”

“They’re doing an okay job of it,” Noel says. “What’s the note actually say?”

Alaric looks at it. He must be reading it, but he doesn’t say aloud what he’s reading.

“Well?” Noel prompts, but he still doesn’t say.

With his Alpha senses, he can probably detect me where I’m standing in the hallway. There’s probably no use staying hidden any longer.

I start to come down the stairs. Noel glances, but Alaric doesn’t, telling me I was right. He likely knew the minute I stepped out of my bedroom.

“What does it say, Alaric?” I say.

“Cara, I don’t know if –”

“I should know,” I insist. “This is my home and my life. I’d like to know exactly what is being threatened.”

Alaric hesitates a moment more, but then, finally complies, “It says, ‘False Beta Cara Auburn and her children are not welcome in BloodyMoon. Get out or face the dagger again.’”

Alaric lowers the letter then and looks up at me. There’s a fire of protectiveness in his eyes. I find comfort in it, and use it to help alight my own flame.

It’s one thing for the attacker to threaten me, but to threaten my children as well? That is something I can never forgive.

Noel starts to take a step towards me on the stair. “Cara.”

I hold up my hand, stopping him. “I’m going to call Eamon.”

“Good,” Alaric says. “I have a few words for him myself about the security he hired.”

I immediately turn to go make my call.

Later, after arriving and seeing the later for himself, he set out to search the perimeter and find the hole in security for himself. He returns ten minutes later with the arm of one of the security guards strewn over his shoulder. There’s blood trailing down from the guard’s hairline.

Alaric opens the door for them. I scramble to recover the first aid kit and return to the living room where Eamon is lowering the guard down onto the couch.

As I approach, I see a nasty split in the guard’s skull. For a human, this would have been a fatal blow. Fortunately, for the werewolf security guard, his skin was working on mending.

“He was struck from behind,” Eamon says. “I found him in the bushes.”

Alaric crosses his arms. “How did someone catch you off-guard?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the guard says. “I genuinely don’t remember what happened.”

With a head wound like this, I’m not terribly surprised, even if that is disappointing.

Eamon’s expression grows tight. Looking at me, he says, “I don’t think you can stay here in this house anymore for now, Cara.”

“Where will I go?” I ask, lost.

“You can stay with me,” Noel says.

“At your hotel room?” Eamon asks.

Noel seems a bit embarrassed.

“It’s me she should stay with,” Alaric chimes in.

Eamon gives him an even flatter look than he gave Noel. “At your hotel room?”

“Maybe I should have a say,” I tell them. All eyes look to me.

Eamon, sighing slightly, nods. “Yes. You should.”

Alaric’s POV

Cara has chosen to stay at Colin’s house, where her children are. Her twin brothers are also staying there for additional protection.

I was annoyed at first, because I want to be the one to protect her. But, when I used my head and not just my Alpha instincts, I could recognize that she would be more protected around her brothers in their family home than she would be in a hotel room with me.

As her children would be there, reuniting the family, I definitely couldn’t argue against it.

Now, I understand she made the best choice. Even though the wall of her brothers makes it more difficult for me to pursue her, it also gives her a level of protection that I cannot argue with.

It also gives Noel the same difficulties. All of the brothers except Landon seem just as suspicious of Noel as I am.

So, though my efforts to pursue Cara have somewhat stagnated in the recent crisis, so too have Noel’s.

For Cara’s safety, I don’t mind putting my romantic pursuits on hold.

The elders, however, are not so pleased, especially when a week from the attempt of Cara’s life, I have made no great strides forward in my courting.

They’ve called me in a group call. In my makeshift office in one of the hotel rooms, I sit my phone on speaker down on the table and rub my forehead in annoyance.

“No progress?” one of the elders says, outraged. “We’ve trusted you with this process so far, Alpha Alaric, but this pace is unbearably slow. The pack needs a Luna and an heir sooner rather than later. What could possibly be taking so long?”

“These things cannot be rushed,” I tell them. I will not risk losing Cara’s heart again because I cannot be patient. I’ve risked the very same far too much in the past. No longer. Never again.

“They must be rushed,” one of the elders say. “You were stabbed with a silver blade, Alaric. If something were to happen to you, and without an heir…”

“It was only a small scratch,” I assure them.

“It’s the principal of the thing,” another elder says. “A scratch today could be your life tomorrow…”

It doesn’t matter what they think or how much they try to convince me, I will not be swayed.

I will not rush things. Nor will I give up my pursuit of Cara for anyone else.

One of the Elders POV

After hanging up the phone, each of us lean back in our chairs. No one at the meeting room table has an expression of satisfaction.

We are all upset.

Alaric refuses to listen to reason. For an Alpha, he seems like he has placed his personal interests above the pack.

Undoubtedly, Cara Auburn as a Luna would be a benefit to the pack, but she is not the only candidate. In fact, she is quickly becoming more trouble than she’s worth.

“Please. Leave this to me,” says Melinda Bedford, a guest at our table. “I’ve volunteered before but I do so again now.”

Each of us consider her.

“Give me permission,” Melinda says, “And I will seduce Alaric and carry his child. I will give you the heir you so desperately want.”