by Abigail Owen
Dammit.
Why the hell was this so damn hard at every single turn? Another predator shifter in their territory wouldn’t help things with the members of their packs at all. This land was protected…by the alphas.
It swung its head, feral eyes glaring directly at her. Before she could yell out, silence settled over the area like someone hit a mute button, muffling any noise. Not a creature dared move or even breathe.
Anger seared her insides. Whatever this shifter had done to one of her people, he’d answer to Tala. Now.
She sprinted across the clearing, her wolf pushing her to superhuman speeds.
The mountain lion crouched, ready to pounce, and waited for her to come closer. Tala hesitated only a fraction at the fact that he didn’t run—normally cougars didn’t take on more than one wolf, especially not two alphas, because the odds were against them and they were smart. But not this shifter.
Tail whipping behind him, he prepared to fight. Only she had no intention of fighting that way.
Still running, Tala pulled one of the sticks out of her hair. From one of the many secret compartments on her vest, she produced a tiny blow dart and slipped it in the end of her weapon.
“Tala, no!”
Although she hadn’t heard him behind or beside her, Marrok suddenly jumped between her and the cougar. She didn’t stop fast enough and slammed into his outstretched hand. Her momentum flipped her sideways, and her face connected with the trunk of a tree with a sickening crack, the wood splintering under the impact. Nausea flooded her gut and crept up her throat as stars danced in her vision, competing with a blackness determined to consume her.
She dropped to the ground, shut her eyes, and sucked in a long slow breath, fighting the wave of unconsciousness. Finally, her head stopped buzzing. Forcing her eyes to open, she found Marrok kneeling over her, his face creased in concern.
“The cougar?” she asked, her head clearing quickly. Accelerated healing was one of the best bonuses of being a wolf shifter. She levered up and got her feet under her.
“He ran off.”
“Dammit, Marrok. Why didn’t you stop him?” Her wolf growled inside her head.
“I decided my mate, who I slammed against a tree, was too important.” Real concern filled the words, but she was too focused on his actions.
She leveled a glare on him that would’ve had anyone in her own pack running for cover. “Speaking of which, why the hell did you get in my way?”
She could’ve leveled the cougar with one dart. The poison wouldn’t kill a shifter but knock him out for hours. That’s all they needed. Her wolf snarled and pushed against Tala’s control, furious they’d been thwarted.
“My mate, still in human form, was going up against an already shifted mountain lion.”
She shoved him in the chest, and irritation rose more as he didn’t budge. “Your alpha mate.”
An itching sensation in her eyes told her they’d changed as her wolf pushed harder. The metallic taste of blood dripped on her tongue as her canine teeth elongated in her mouth, and pricked lips shut tight around a multitude of expletives she held back. Pissed didn’t begin to cover it.
Marrok scowled, but before he could comment, she stalked off into the woods. It was either that or snap his neck. Instead, she focused on making sure the child who’d screamed was safe.
Her mate followed in silence. Smart man. For once.
Chapter Three
Marrok was right behind Tala as she burst into a wider clearing beside the river to find a child of not more than seven crying, her dark hair hanging in her face. Despite confronting the cougar and stopping to argue about it, they were the first to get to her.
Where the fuck was the security on patrol in this area of his territory?
Tala slowed as she approached, obviously not wanting to scare the child. Deliberately Marrok hung back. Kids tended to be wary of him because of his size. That, and most alpha males weren’t exactly approachable.
“Are you hurt?” Tala asked softly.
The child, one of his pack, stared back, tears slowing, and shook her head.
“Can I make sure?”
When the girl said nothing, Tala moved closer, crouching down, and gently checked her over. “Did he touch you?”
“No,” came the whispered response.
Tala tossed Marrok a glance he easily interpreted as “thank the gods.” “Did he scare you?” she asked next.
That caused the tears to well back up in the girl’s eyes.
“Oh sweetie,” Tala gathered her close. “You’re safe.”
“Mira!” A frantic woman—Seela, who was a hunter for the pack—sprinted into the clearing and went straight for her daughter only to yank her from Tala’s grasp, tossing a glare at his mate in a way that clearly said she wanted to singe the hairs off her head.
“What happened?” Seela asked her daughter. “Did this woman hurt you?”
Tala stepped back, her face going blank, but he didn’t miss the way she paled.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Marrok snarled, the need to protect his mate overriding every other instinct and thought.
“Marrok,” Tala muttered. A warning.
Seela turned her glare on him. “She’s a Canis,” she hissed.
“I’m your alpha,” Tala snapped.
“You’ll never—”
Marrok yanked Seela up by the arms, getting right in her face. “Because I respect you and your mate, I’ll say this just once. Finish that sentence and you’re out of the pack.”
“Dammit, Marrok,” Tala snapped. “Let her go.”
With a growled warning at a now trembling Seela, he forced himself to do just that. Mira tugged on her mother’s arm. After a moment of hesitation, she turned her head to the child.
“She saved me,” Mira whispered. “From the mountain lion.”
Seela’s frown morphed and she flicked a glance brimming with confusion in Tala’s direction, then knelt down to her daughter. “There was a cougar? On this land?”
Before Mira could do more than nod, more wolf shifters burst into the clearing, and the space turned into a circus for a hot minute.
“I don’t give a shit if their union is blessed by the gods or not. Another shifter wouldn’t have dared before the Canis pack came here,” someone muttered, but soft enough that he couldn’t pinpoint who. By the stiffening of her shoulders, Tala heard, too.
“Aaron,” Marrok snapped at one of the guards posted nearest this spot. “Take three men and go after the cougar to make sure he’s out of our territory.”
“Sir.” Aaron ran off to execute the order.
Tala stepped slightly ahead of Marrok, a subtle show of dominance. “Until we know if this is an isolated incident, we will step up security protocols. Go back to your homes until we communicate things are in place.”
That mountain lion might be only the beginning. What if other shifters who wanted their territory viewed the pack—still divided, both physically and because of dissent over their mating—as weak?
“What about tonight?” someone called out.
Full moon tonight. Fuck. “The moon must be honored,” Marrok assured them.
Only to receive a flat-lipped glare from Tala. Through their connection, all he got was anger. What had he done now?
With a barely concealed roll of her eyes, she stalked away.
Irritation scraping over his skin, setting the hairs on end, Marrok followed. “What did I say?” he asked as he drew abreast of her. “You think we should cancel the celebration?”
She flicked him a glance. “It’s not what you said. It’s that you didn’t even glance at me for a confirmation first.”
Okay. Fair point. He was having trouble correcting years of habit and being the only one in charge. She’d already pointed this out several times. Still,
that hadn’t exactly been a big thing to make a decision over.
“And do not threaten your people over me,” Tala snarled next.
That’s how she’d seen that? “I was protecting my—”
“I can fucking speak for myself. Thanks.”
Marrok blew out a sharp breath. “I’m not going to apologize for instinct. You’re my mate, alpha or not. I can’t not defend you.”
“You won’t even try, you mean.”
That was not what he meant. “Tala—”
She snapped up a hand. “We’ll discuss this later.” They’d reached the main building that housed the room where they’d be meeting with the fighters.
A low chuff of frustration came from his wolf. Marrok echoed the sentiment. He couldn’t change who he essentially was, and neither of them had figured her out yet. “For someone who doesn’t like being overridden, you sure like to give orders.”
On that note, he held the glass door open for her, giving a sarcastic wave for her to precede him into the slick black granite foyer, which no doubt he’d pay for later.
This wasn’t exactly easy for him, either.
The meeting with their fighters only continued the shitshow, a reflection of the frustration both alphas and both packs were feeling. All were worried that this one cougar represented a greater threat. A sign that other supernaturals considered the combined pack to be weaker. An early warning shot of things to come.
Finally, hours into it, Marrok leaned over to Tala. “I feel we should all go get ready for the full moon. Do you agree?”
She stiffened in her seat. “Yes.”
Together they stood. “You know what to do for tonight,” Marrok said. They’d already agreed on increased patrols on a rotating basis. “We’ll resume the unfinished topics tomorrow.”
Not looking at him, Tala muttered, “Astra should be here by now. I promised her I’d get ready with her and take her to the celebration.”
That’s right. Her sister, who had remained on Canis land any time Tala was here, acting as alpha in her stead, had come to visit for his and Tala’s first full moon since their mating night.
“Fine,” he said.
Tala nodded, still not looking at him, then walked away.
Marrok held his own annoyance behind a dam he’d built up over years, trained from childhood as the obvious next in line for alpha. An emotional alpha was a weak alpha. But damned if his mate didn’t have his emotions dangling on a rope.
There had to be some way through for two alphas leading a combined pack of enemies.
Chapter Four
The full moon celebrations lasted all night, and this was the last damn place she wanted to be. Tala’s cheeks ached from holding her smile in place. She resisted the urge to rub her tired eyes, made worse by the smoke rising from the massive crackling bonfire. Her pretty blue sundress, the color of Marrok’s eyes, was now saturated with the scent of campfire.
At least the mark on her face from when Marrok essentially shoved her into that tree was gone. What had been a baseball-sized bruise on her cheek had been smaller and reduced to green rather than black and purple by the time she’d gone to Astra’s room to dress. Thank the gods for accelerated healing. Likely even that was gone by now.
Right in time for the party she didn’t want to attend.
Wolf shifters celebrated every full moon—or more accurately, their ancient history, through the lineage of werewolf ancestors, of being held in its thrall, though they could now shift at will—with a night of revelry held deep in the wilderness. Wisely, she and Marrok hadn’t allowed anyone to shift, deeming it too dangerous yet for both packs to shift together. Relations needed to improve before that happened. Instead they’d hunted in separate groups earlier and come together to cook their prizes over open fires. Astra had also brought beer and fixings for s’mores. A small gesture of friendship Tala appreciated.
Exhaustion hung heavy over Tala’s body. Gods, she was dragging like a swimmer caught in a riptide.
Marrok stood across the clearing from her. Usually glued to her side, he seemed to have read the giant Give Me Space sign practically written in neon across her forehead.
Tala turned her attention away, gazing around the meadow, beautiful in the full moonlight. Such a setting was idyllic, as wolf shifters preferred to surround themselves with nature. The full moon, the rhythms their ancestors used to be tied to, radiated a cool, calming glow over everything. A night for celebration.
That was, if they didn’t all kill one another first.
“No bloodshed.” She whispered the prayer to any gods listening. She lifted her gaze to the moon with a particular plea for those goddesses.
“What’d you say?” Her sister’s voice broke into her plea.
Tala winced. Damn wolf shifter hearing. “Nothing.”
“Yeah, right.” Though Tala had moved apart from the others, needing a minute to herself, her sly sister had snuck close and now stood beside Tala, peering at the wolf shifters around them. “Do you think it would help if I slept with one of the Banes? As a gesture of goodwill, of course? They do have a tasty selection of male wolves.”
“Astra,” she hissed.
In response, Astra wiggled her provocative backside, covered in a pale turquoise dress that barely covered her ass, and continued as though she hadn’t been warned. “Marrok looks particularly fuck-worthy tonight. You lucky girl.”
“Gods save me.” Tala dropped to sit on a felled tree, using it as a bench of sorts.
Astra sat beside her. “Tala Canis Banes, you can’t tell me you don’t want your mate. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
Terrific. Tala lifted a shoulder in a shrug.
Astra shook her head, returning to her perusal of the gathered shifters. “I’d be all over that tall hunk of man-cake if I were you,” she muttered. “I’m surprised your wolf isn’t dry humping him every second of the day.”
“Lower your voice.”
Astra hooted. “If a man looked at me the way he looks at you, I’d spontaneously multiple-orgasm.”
“Orgasms aren’t the problem,” Tala snapped, making sure to whisper, not wanting to be overheard.
A wicked smile graced her sister’s features. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Her wolf, meanwhile, snarled in her head.
Dammit.
Sandalio walked by where they sat, nodding at them both, but with a face like he’d smelled something rotten.
Astra flipped him off behind his back as he moved away. “He’s going to cause problems,” she warned.
“Welcome to a show already in progress,” Tala muttered.
Marrok glanced over, gaze glittering in a way she now recognized, and her traitorous body leaped in response.
Tala uncrossed and recrossed her legs, trying to ease the ache of desire, then scowled at the action. She didn’t fidget. Alphas couldn’t afford to fidget—it made them appear nervous. A nervous alpha was a dead alpha.
Apparently, she didn’t do a great job hiding it, because Astra sent her a smirk. “Got an itch you can’t scratch?”
Unamused, Tala let loose a soft snarl of warning. Astra held up her hands. “Sorry. Too soon?”
“Maybe I should find you a mate so you can enjoy it and tell me what you think.”
“Hell no. A mate is the last thing I’m interested in.” Astra shuddered.
Me, too. Only the thought didn’t hold the conviction it once had. Which made no sense. This mating was arranged, for the benefit of the packs. She didn’t love Marrok. She respected him. Needed him to make this truce work. She could even admit that her desire for the man had turned into a heady, uncontrollable urge, a need only he could assuage. That was just physical.
Nothing more.
Her wolf turned up her nose, taunting. Calling Tala all kinds of liar.
She could
n’t help glancing in her mate’s direction again. As she watched, a child, no older than five or six, approached him.
Tala tensed. Most wolf shifter males, especially alphas, couldn’t be bothered with children. She’d seen kids get snapped at, growled at, even cuffed or shoved, for approaching their alpha. Look at how, earlier today, he’d stood back and let her deal with the child frightened by the cougar shifter.
This child wasn’t part of the Canis pack, but Tala wouldn’t let anything happen. Intending to intercept, she started to her feet, only to stumble to a halt. Instead of scaring her, Marrok knelt down to the little girl’s level and listened to her with all the focus he afforded any adult wolf shifter.
Unable to turn away, Tala observed how the girl, obviously one of his pack, had no fear of her alpha. After several long minutes of earnest conversation, the girl giggled. Shock sizzled through Tala, and her mouth went dry as Marrok chuckled and tapped his cheek. The child gave him a sweet kiss before she ran off into the night.
Astra appeared at her side. “Those pheromones must be set on boil.”
Tala peeled her eyes from her mate with difficulty. “What?” Then she shook her head. “That’s only during the mating. It’s been weeks.”
Astra gave her a pointed look, one she recognized from playing tricks on the elders as kids. One that meant her next words were a ruse. “That’s the word. But it makes sense that they’d last longer after your mating, because you’re both alphas. Your heart could start its own drumline about now. I’m turned on just standing next to you.”
Holy hellhounds! Astra was right. Her heart beat a strong tattoo against her ribs.
She never allowed herself to show inner turmoil in public. Never. With more effort than the ability typically took, she forced her heart to calm. What a chump. Here she was all worked up over her mate treating a child with kindness. Granted, she’d never seen anything like that with other alphas. Didn’t mean she needed to go all gushy on him.
What was wrong with her?
Thank heaven for Astra, who’d covered brilliantly. She’d mock-whispered the words, but loud enough that those around them could hear perfectly. Attributing Tala’s reaction to the mating call was quick thinking.
