As it was, we still didn't arrive at the All-Pack field until well after dawn. The hum of confused shifter voices hit us as soon as we stepped out of the trees, and I could smell strong odors of anxiety and speculation joining the frost on the ground. The other attendees would have known something was up as soon as Chief Wilder failed to return at daybreak, and they'd since enjoyed over an hour to make up stories explaining both his and our absence.
I scanned the area, noticing members of the other eight teams resting sore feet in their own campsites. In contrast, our own patch of earth lay empty, fire burnt out and no bustle of pack mates to greet us.
And I was glad of that fact. It would have been nice to return to a warm meal, but I was relieved to find that Chase hadn't been so shaken up by my stupidity that he'd hopped in a car to join us. No, I needed my beta at home guarding our territory...and guarding the ace in the hole we had secreted therein.
Because Chief Wilder's grandson was a good kid, and I'd hate to see him snatched up in a werewolf power play. Plus, I needed the leverage point if I wanted to get Crazy Wilder off my back.
Well, at least I can literally get him off my back. I allowed my opponent to slide to the ground more roughly than I might have had the other pack leaders not been watching. Yep, I'll admit it. At All-Pack I toed the line and pretended to be a typical testosterone-enhanced macho male.
"Is that...?" one voice whispered. As if in response, a heaping handful of Wilder's lackeys came out of the woodwork and stepped forward menacingly, drawing all eyes toward the impending altercation. The large males were obvious enforcers, dressed in black leather with handguns belted to their waists like Old West cowboys.
Due to their threatened firepower, I only allowed myself one smug moment of triumph before raising empty hands into the air and backing away from their chief slowly. "He's all yours," I said. Then, reminding them: "It's just a game."
The youngest enforcer bared his teeth, forgetting he was two-legged, and I could feel Wade tense beside me. I placed a calming hand on the teenager's shoulder. No need to let this get out of hand.
"He should wake up shortly," I offered as another Wilder shifter dropped to his knees and felt the older man's pulse.
"He seems fine," the enforcer confirmed. Tension dropped away from his compatriots at the words, and it was as if a dam had broken within the surrounding crowd. Whispers turned into excited chatter and soon excited speculation filled the air in one solid roar.
"Guess it's time to clean up and get some breakfast," I told my own little pack, turning away from the interested onlookers. "We've got a busy day ahead."
Chapter 9
CHIEF WILDER DIDN’T support our bid for territorial rights after all, but we won by a hair in the end. My brother had been too busy consolidating his own leadership to attend this year's gathering, and Justin's usual allies had largely drifted in my direction as a result. But even with that windfall, I still wouldn't have had enough votes without Gavin's help.
To my surprise, when push came to shove the kid grew a spine and spoke in my favor. In the process, Crazy Wilder glared so hard at the young alpha that I thought the teenager might topple over, but Gavin held firm. His faint smile in my direction after all was said and done suggested that the youngster thought his action was equal repayment for the fact I'd resisted the urge to snap his neck when I had the chance.
But I'd never felt any such urge. So I figured I now owed Gavin a favor in return.
An issue that would have to be dealt with at a later date since Wilder was even more unhappy with me than he was with my new friend. "A word," the older alpha growled as he walked past, effectively ending All-Pack's business meeting for the night. My win at the Winter Hunt aside, no one would dream of continuing our annual conference without our resident big, bad wolf present.
As I padded along at the older alpha's heels, I couldn't prevent myself from reliving the experience of being taken aside by this same shifter two years prior to atone for my sins. Then, I'd allowed arrogance to put my pack in harm's way and Wilder had come through to save my skin...but had exacted a promise in the process that I would repay that debt at a future date. At the time, I'd felt chagrined by my own stupidity and cowed by the unfamiliar sensation of being taken down a notch by a shifter stronger than myself. But I'd also been jubilant that I was managing to escape my sticky wicket alive.
Now, my weaknesses had once again put my pack in danger. But Wilder was the one who'd lost face in the end, and I wasn't so sure his waning alpha dominance was still stronger than my ever-increasing power. In fact, I had a sneaking suspicion that if we stood toe to toe and gazed into one another's eyes, Crazy Wilder would now be the one to blink first.
Which meant I was in even more danger than two years prior. Because dominant alphas like Chief Wilder hated nothing more than being taken down a peg. So the other pack leader would likely exact vengeance by calling in his debt in such a manner that I'd be forced to fall on my sword to prevent doing even more harm to my little clan.
Images of the worst possible requests the other alpha could make swam through my mind. What would I do if he demanded Fen be turned over to his pack? The halfie would drown in the morass of prejudice here in Wilder territory, her youthful spark snuffed out by his manipulative impatience. Or perhaps the old wolf would insert a few of his shifters into my little clan and use us to shore up his waning power.
Not possible, I reminded myself. I'd offered Wilder my word to do his bidding, but had made it perfectly clear that only myself, not my pack, would suffer for my sins.
Plus, Keith was still shielded by my clan's growing influence. Surely Wilder would back down once he saw we were in the position to harm his own flesh and blood.
"You think you're so clever," my opponent said at last, when we'd walked far enough into the trees that no one else could hear. "But what you don't realize is that Alexis was a test. A test that you failed."
"I thought...." The words were out of my mouth before I could call them back. And the smirk on the other alpha's lips proved that he'd gotten the exact rise out of me that he'd hoped for.
Let him gloat. My opponent's tension eased a bit more with each minute he made me wait, and I forced my shoulders to hunch inward in supposed cowardice. If Wilder needed a show of submission after being dragged back to his own camp unconscious, then I wasn't too proud to give it to him.
He seemed to be waiting for me to speak, though. So I offered up a comment at last. "If I failed the test, does that mean you don't want to call in my debt?"
Wilder rubbed the back of one hand across the stubble that coated his chin, and his eyes narrowed into dark slits as his lips spread into a humorless grin. "Oh, no. I'll still take that favor. But I think I'll let you sweat a little longer first. Triumph is always so much sweeter when your adversary falls shaking at your feet before you even bother to strike the first blow."
The old cuss turned away from me while his words were still ringing in the air, and I thought the meeting was over. But then the wily alpha looked back over one shoulder and added, "In the meantime, I wish you luck training your second young halfie to heel. A mixed-blood raised by humans. He's of no value to me."
And then, having proven that in this game of cards aces were low, Wilder walked away muttering and chuckling to himself. The older alpha seemed to be drifting into madness...and my honor was clutched in his decompensating fist.
Hair Apparent
Episode 5
Chapter 1
THE STRANGER SMELLED like oily, black smoke so foul it overwhelmed any underlying personal aroma.
Oathbreaker.
I growled and rose to four paws, placing myself between the infant I'd been babysitting and the newcomer walking through the door at my milk brother's side. Usually, I made it a policy to welcome all drifters on a probationary basis at least. Many who took advantage of our hospitality moved on after a few days while others became permanent members of our pack. Either way, I didn't mind opening my do
or to the outpack shifters.
But none had smelled as putrid as this forty-something werewolf, whose human face looked charming and whose scent made me want to retch. I took another menacing step forward, preparing to take down the drifter if he moved an inch closer to Lantana.
"Wolfie, I found...." Chase's voice trailed off as he took in my aggressive stance. "Ah, perhaps we should just step back outside for a moment," he concluded, clearly undecided between joining me in defense of our pack's weakest member or protecting the stranger from my teeth and claws. As he wavered, my beta raised his eyebrows and shot me a what-the-fuck look, which I answered by curling up my top lip to reveal my fangs. Shrugging, Chase turned and began ushering the stranger back out the door.
"But the child...." The man's voice hit all the right notes of concern in the face of leaving a halfie not yet old enough to crawl alone with an alpha werewolf who appeared to be in the throes of some sort of psychotic fit.
I didn't buy it for an instant.
But Chase was a more trusting sort—he had to be to put up with me. My beta shot me one last chiding glance over his shoulder as he guided the stranger back out the open door. "I'll send Lantana's mother over," he said, ostensibly to the oathbreaker but really to me. "Then Wolfie and you can sit down in human form and hash this out."
Sure, I told my friend with a quick upwards jerk of my chin. I'd listen to the drifter's story. I'd let Tia fill his belly.
And then I'd send him on his way and out of our lives as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.
* * *
"IT WAS A youthful indiscretion. Stupid really," the oathbreaker murmured, then paused as he blew into the cup of steaming tea that Chase's mother had slipped into his hands.
He appeared so harmless, sitting there slack shouldered and unsure of himself. And, from the expressions on everyone else's faces, I gathered I was the only one who could smell the aroma rising off the stranger so strongly that I almost expected visible smoke to clog the air between us. I forced myself not to growl, but Chase shot me a warning glance anyway.
My milk brother, like the rest of our pack, clearly thought the purpose of this gathering was to get to know a potential new pack member. Based on the smiles and good cheer filling the room, everyone was ready and willing to welcome the oathbreaker into the clan with the usual pomp and circumstance.
This time, though, my goal was a little different. I wanted every wolf I could trust at my back when I led the stranger to the edge of our property and chivvied him on his way. There could be no chance that he'd circle back around and harm one of the shifters beneath my care.
I hadn't actually put my plan into words, though. And I could tell that most of my companions were being swayed by Fred's self-deprecating manner, making them think this intervention was instead a welcome-home celebration for a new pack member.
Of course, my companions didn't have the same bloodling nose that allowed me to smell the depth of Fred's character. Or, rather, the lack thereof.
While my mind wandered, the oathbreaker had been busy charming our pack mother. Now, Tia soothed his supposed woes with a plate of cookies along with the quiet words: "We all grow and change."
And in reply the oathbreaker glanced up with such gentle good humor that I almost thought I'd imagined the quick flash of assessment when Chase's mother first walked into the room.
But I didn't doubt myself. And I did doubt the oathbreaker.
Despite my best intentions to toe the line and let my pack come to their own conclusions about Fred, I rose and crossed the room in three long strides. I didn't want the soiled shifter anywhere near the woman who had raised me like a second son. She'd dealt with enough pain and suffering in her life already without letting a stranger wiggle his way into her affections and then pull the rug out from under her feet.
"Here, you've done enough," I told Tia gruffly, removing the dish towel from her hands and pointing her toward the chair I'd vacated. "He's far from starving."
Tia pursed her lips, as unimpressed by my lack of manners as my milk brother had been. But it wasn't as if I was pointing out something our pack mother couldn't see with her own eyes. Fred had a potbelly to go along with his jovial, Santa Claus demeanor. He wasn't an emaciated kid in need of fattening up.
In response to that thought, my gaze slid across the yahoos arrayed along the other side of the dining-room table. Three of the four teenagers and twenty-somethings had entered our pack as supplicants just like the stranger who currently held our attention. And all of them had since turned into the sort of shifters I'd want at my back in a battle to the death.
On the other hand, the yahoos had been starving and desperate when they arrived on our doorstep. Fred was anything but. I couldn't see why my pack mates found it so hard to distinguish the two states.
"Please, tell us the story." My uncle Oscar was the oldest shifter present and he often acted as unofficial spokesman for our clan when my age would have worked against us. Now, I suspected he was just trying to gloss over my complete lack of social graces. But my uncle's authority paid off anyway because it forced Fred to stop offering platitudes and start offering facts.
Or should I say lies? Because the tale the stranger spun was anything but factual. Or so his subtle facial twitches and body language revealed.
"I hadn't even realized what I was promising when I swore that oath," Fred concluded at the end of a long, convoluted story that made him out to be a wounded hero struggling to do right in a dangerous world full of evil. "But I knew I couldn't kill an innocent man, even if it meant foregoing my honor. So I broke my word, and the scent has clung to me ever since."
He gestured at his chest with one hand, as if apologizing for unfortunate body odor, and I could see my tender-hearted pack mates lapping up his words like rich, yellow cream. The oathbreaker had succeeded admirably at his goal of evoking pity despite not deserving any shifter's good regard.
Now I did growl, a lupine sound that nonetheless emerged successfully from my human lips. And in response, Fred eyed me consideringly.
Then he stood, hands loosely open at his sides. "I understand." His head was bowed, but I saw the tension of pride in his shoulders. He was still play-acting, working to sway us to his point of view. "You're the alpha and you don't want anything to threaten your authority. You have no way of knowing you can trust me. I'll go."
Yes, get out of here, I wanted to say. I was the alpha. And authority be damned, it was my job to protect my pack from interlopers like this one, even if the pack members in question didn't know enough to want to be protected.
But the look on Chase's face moved me where the oathbreaker's manipulations had failed. My milk brother was disappointed by my tough point of view. Can't you give him one last chance? the slant of Chase's eyebrows asked.
Beside my best friend, the yahoos appeared equally surprised by my combative posture. Why should Fred be forced out of the pack when they'd been allowed to stay, they wondered. I could see the oathbreaker's words trickling into their subconscious, their sudden concern about whether I'd only allowed each of them to join our clan because their youth posed no threat to my leadership.
If I could so easily toss Fred to the curb, would I someday do the same to them?
Yes, the stranger was good at what he did. But I could have shored up my pack after he left. Fred's manipulations needn't have driven a wedge into our little clan.
So why did I let him stay? Because I'd sworn an oath of my own. And someday, I had a sinking suspicion, I might just have to break it.
Chapter 2
THE DEBT THAT had once hung so heavily upon my thoughts had escaped my mind in recent years. After all, I'd been busy growing from an addle-pated pup into an alpha leading a cohesive band of eleven shifters and one human during that time period. And ever since failing Crazy Wilder's test five All-Pack's ago, I seemed to have fallen off the older shifter's radar entirely.
Or so I allowed myself to believe. It just felt better that way.
<
br /> Until, that is, a big black limousine cruised up to our door the day after Fred arrived. The oathbreaker had spent the night bunking in our common area, and now Bernt, Oscar, and the yahoos were showing him the boundaries of our territory. With most of our females enjoying a much-deserved girl's day out, only Chase, Quetzalli, and I were present to babysit Lantana and witness Chief Wilder's arrival.
The crunch of tires on gravel drew us to the door, and I knew as soon as I caught sight of the vehicle that this was it, the day I'd been pretending would never come. The question was, would I be able to do as the Chief requested without losing my honor? Or would I turn into an oathbreaker like the one who I should have had the balls to send on his way the night before?
At a glance from me, Chase handed off the baby he'd been amusing to Quetzalli and the latter loped off toward the woods double-time. No, I wasn't being a male chauvinist pig. All three of us knew that Quetzalli was ten times tougher than the gentle-hearted Chase in a fight. Lantana would be safer in her arms than in anyone's except my own.
And I had a sinking suspicion I wasn't going to be able to protect the child myself. Instead, I watched as the passenger side front door of the vehicle opened and a huge suited shifter unfolded out of the seat to loom menacingly over my head.
Behind him, Chief Wilder's scent wafted around the corner of the open aperture and into my human nose. It smelled like his high craziness was present in the flesh, hiding behind the tinted windows but likely judging my reaction with that characteristic smirk on his lips. Yep, this was it.
"Chief Wilder requests a meeting," the spokesman rumbled. His voice was as deep as the ringing of a gong, but it was my upcoming decision that made a long shiver run down my spine.
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