The Unraveling
I wasn’t surprised by the pack’s rejection of Paige as their Luna. Had I been Alpha, I would have prepared to step down when she was ready to accept me as her mate. If anything, this made things less complicated on my end. I also wasn’t surprised that Alpha Alexander didn’t force me out of the packhouse. Instead, he brought me in for a meeting.
“Another pack has gone missing,” he said as the door closed behind me.
My back stiffened at the news. “Which one?”
“The Ocean Beach pack.”
“Shit,” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “They were under our protection until they found a strong Alpha. How the hell did they go missing under our watch?”
Alexander shook his head. “They disappeared overnight; from the look of it, there was barely even a struggle. I don’t know how or who is doing this, but we must get to the bottom of it. The Ocean Beach Pack may not have had an Alpha, but they were nearly as big as us. And they are closer to our territory than the last pack taken had been.”
“Does the La Jolla Pack know anything?” I asked, my mind racing with possibilities.
“No, they are just as concerned as we are. They’ve reported many of their smaller pack branches disappearing in the same manner around their territory.”
Alexander stood behind his desk with a map of San Diego open in front of him. He pointed to each spot on the map where a small pack had vanished.
“National City, Imperial Beach, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and now Ocean Beach. The packs in each area went without so much as a scent trail to follow. The only signs of their existence are the few claw marks left during struggles.” He leveled me with his gaze. “You couldn’t have picked a worse time to choose a damn witch as your mate, Nyte. We must keep the pack together; you’re the only one strong enough to protect them. Whatever the hell this is, I don’t stand a chance against it without you.”
“Odd thing for an Alpha to admit,” I commented, letting my eyes drop to the map on his desk.
He pointed again, his finger hovering over Imperial Beach. “Alpha Morales may have had a small pack, but he could kick my ass with both hands tied behind his back. He’s gone along with the rest of the missing packs. So, yeah, I will admit full-heartedly that I can’t take on whatever is coming our way. And now you won’t be able to either… not unless you have the pack willing to follow you.”
He scrubbed his face with his hands, turning away from his desk with a frustrated groan. “Why now? Why did you have to bring her here now?”
I let out a sigh. I had told him back when he first mentioned expecting me to take over that I had found my mate and who she was. I wanted to be clear that when the time came, I would choose her if the pack forced me to make a decision. He understood, and he respected my choice to wait until she was ready. He even encouraged it for the sake of my future as Alpha. And now I had gone and messed it all up for him.
“Sometimes fate gets in the way of our plans,” I said, shaking my head.
I didn’t wait for him to dismiss me. Our meeting was over; without any clues as to who was taking the packs, there wasn’t much else to discuss. I wanted to get to Paige as quickly as possible.
Madilyn was a strong wolf, and I trusted her with my life. Had the pack accepted Paige as my Luna, it would have been part of Madilyn’s duties as a Beta to guard my mate. But my wolf was on edge from being separated from Paige before we sealed the bond completely. Even with her only downstairs, it felt like I was miles away from her.
As I hit the bottom step of the stairs, I was stopped by one of the last people I wanted to see right now.
“This is a joke, right?” Katya demanded.
The she-wolf had been pursuing me for just over a year now, ever since it became clear to the pack that I was meant to be the next Alpha. Most of the men in the pack wanted her. They didn’t care if she was their fated mate or not, often joking they would reject their mates just for a night with her. I didn’t see the appeal. There was no denying she was beautiful, but she wasn’t Paige. Any man who claimed they would choose her over their true mate clearly didn’t understand the depth of that bond.
Katya tossed her long chestnut hair over her shoulder; the scent of sea salt and suntan lotion filled my nostrils. She was the classic California beauty—beach waves in her hair, sun-kissed skin from hours spent on the beach. Tall and slim, I had been out in public with her and others in the pack. Humans would always do a double take when she walked by, questioning whether she was a celebrity they should recognize.
“Is what a joke?” I asked, my tone flat.
“This whole fiasco with that witch. You can’t be serious about taking her as your mate. No one in their right mind would turn down being Alpha for a witch!”
“Whoever said I was in my right mind never really knew me,” I told her, pushing past. “No man who knows the pull of a mate bond is in their right mind, Katya. At least not until the bond is sealed. And even then, I wouldn’t regret my decision.”
I reached Madilyn’s door, pushing it open and closing it behind me before Katya could respond. Inside, I found my mate and Madilyn sitting on the bed, an array of cards strewn before them.
“Looks like you do have a mate out there,” Paige said, running her fingers over the hand-painted pictures. “But he isn’t exactly close.”
“When will I meet him?” Madilyn asked, looking anxiously at the cards as if she could read them herself.
Paige smiled at her. “Soon. You will know him by the fire in his hair and the earthly depths of his eyes.”
“Fire in his hair? What is he, a matchstick?” I chuckled, walking over to look down at the cards. Three cards lay out, their labels visible: The Fool, The Lover, and The Knight of Swords. I had never thought much about how Paige could tell the future from these cards. I often wondered why they hadn’t told her I was her mate yet. But I could feel the confidence in her reading for Madilyn, and although I didn’t understand the cards, I believed what they told her would come true.
Paige smirked at me. “The cards like to speak poetically, you smartass.” She glanced back at Madilyn. “He could have a mark from being burned somewhere along his hairline or simply have really red hair. You’ll know him when you see him; that much is clear.”
Madilyn smiled. “Thank you, Paige. I believe you’re right. I’m supposed to take a trip this spring. Maybe I’ll find him then.”
“Maybe so,” Paige agreed, collecting her cards to put them back in the bag she kept with her. She turned her gaze to me, smiling. “I assume you came to get me.”
I felt myself swallow nervously, my eyes locked on the perfect curve of her lips—images of everything I wanted to do to that mouth flooding my mind. “Yeah,” I forced out. “I figured you’d like to get unpacked in our room now.”
“Yeah.” She stood up, looking around my legs. “Where are my other bags?”
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “They’re already in our room. I slipped them in before going into Alexander’s office.”
“Oh good.” She glanced back at Madilyn, who smiled at her. “It was nice to meet you, Madi.”
“You too, Paige.” Madilyn waved as I led Paige from her room. I caught her flopping back, squealing into her pillow before I fully closed the door, smirking at how excited she was about the prospect of meeting her mate.
“So, my room is upstairs?” Paige asked, pointing to the staircase that Madilyn’s room sat beneath.
I nodded, pressing my hand to her back to lead her to our shared room. I smiled at how she phrased her question—her room. As if I would allow her to be alone in a house full of werewolves willing to kill her just to have her out of the way of what they wanted.
Entering our room, I watched as she picked up her bags and set them on the bed, pulling out stacks of clothes to put away in the drawers. I did my best to hide my smile as I watched her pick up a pile of jean shorts first, walking over to my dresser to open the largest drawer at the bottom.
She paused, staring at the filled drawer, her expression shifting through confusion and embarrassment as her face twisted from a frown to a bright blush. She stood up quickly, looking back at me with wide eyes. “I thought you were bringing me to my room.”
I nodded. “I did.” I walked over to her at the dresser, bending down to reorganize the drawer to make room for her clothes. “Put those here. I’ll make room for your shirts next, and you’ll have your own underwear drawer.”
She stood straighter, scanning the room, landing on the bed and searching again before returning her gaze to me. A small part of me felt terrible for her as she realized the obvious.
There was only one bed.
“So…” she drew out the word, still clutching the jean shorts in her arms. “This room is going to be for the both of us?”
I reached up, taking the shorts from her arms and placing them in the drawer. “That’s right. I told you at your house we would do this the right way. That includes sharing my room at the packhouse.”
“You didn’t say we’d have to share a room,” she argued. “You only said I would have to come live with you here.”
“And you said you would agree to anything for this arrangement,” I reminded her. “Did you really think there would just be open rooms for you to settle into while pretending to be my mate?”
“Don’t you have guest rooms for visiting Alphas?”
I let out a dark chuckle, returning my stormy grey eyes to hers. I could hear her breath catch in her lungs. Her heartbeat quickened, thankfully not from fear. I didn’t want my mate to fear me. Respect me, sure, but fear? No, another emotion was causing her heart to race, driven by the look in my eyes. I could smell the excitement wafting in the air.
“How would I explain to the pack why my mate, whom I gave up my station for, wasn’t sleeping in my room?” I asked, standing to my full height and looking down into her dark chocolate gaze. She swallowed hard, reflexively taking a step back.
“I don’t know.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she fought to breathe.
I had always known she had a slight crush on me, but she had never seemed as affected by our bond as I was. Now, with my mark coursing through her veins, she began to feel the same kind of torture I had endured since the day the bond had sparked inside me.
“They would be suspicious, Paige,” I answered for her. “And packs talk to each other.”
“Shit,” she whispered, understanding my hint.
It wasn’t that I was worried about the wolf who chased her last night finding out. I knew he wasn’t her mate and would never be able to track her like a mate could, but she didn’t know that.
“Yeah,” I said, smirking. “Shit. Now go get your next stack of clothes while I make more room in the dresser for you.”
She frowned but complied, returning to the bed to retrieve the stacks of shirts she had unpacked. I placed them in the drawer with my shirts and began clearing out one of the smaller drawers for her socks and underwear.
“When we finish the drawers, you can take any of your bathroom supplies through those doors to the en suite,” I told her, pointing to the double doors that led to my private bathroom. “Oh, and Paige,” she paused, looking at me while reaching inside her suitcase for the remaining clothes.
“Yeah?”
I let myself grin, the expression deepening her frown as she looked back at me. “I sleep on the right side of the bed. So, you can take the left side and put whatever you need near you at night on that nightstand.”
Her eyes widened at the reminder of the single bed in the room, looking back at it and then at me again. I didn’t say much else to her, tapping the drawer I had cleaned out. I walked over to my chair next to the bookshelf and sat down, pretending to read while she finished unpacking.
I watched her move around the room, smelling her nervousness and excitement battling for control. When she disappeared into the bathroom, I finally let my act drop at the sound of the shower turning on. I walked over to the hope bag her mom had given her, opening it to see what her mother had hoped for her daughter. A smile spread across my face at what I found.