by CJ Cooke
“She does have an endearing quality to her grumpiness,” he laughed, swiping at his tear stained cheeks.
“She loves me. She just doesn’t realise it yet,” Calli grinned.
I could see it. I didn’t know how anyone could get to know Calli and not love her. Her selfless personality and the way she fiercely loved and protected everyone who came into her orbit was a hard thing to say no to. I didn’t doubt that Cassia would relent to her charm soon.
“We’re going to have to wait to bring you into the pack until we get back from the Council,” Grey told him, bringing him back up to his feet.
“What if we get there and they don’t want Hunter to leave with us again?” Calli said, suddenly worried. She was right. If they had any hint he wasn’t truthful with them, they’d replace him.
“We don’t have time now.” Grey looked troubled as he spoke, but he was right. The Council were going to be pissed enough that we’d delayed leaving even this long. Anyway, we needed the whole pack, and River wouldn’t be able to leave work.
“It’s fine. We need to do this, but… I would just ask that if something did happen, Cassia…”
“She will always have a home here with us,” Grey told him, helping Hunter back up to his feet. “We will protect her.”
Pulling into the Council compound, Grey parked our truck in the same spot as before, and like last time a pit of dread formed in my stomach. Nothing good would ever come from this place. The fact that they were calling us back so soon was suspicious, and I was worried about what it could mean for Calli.
Before we left the packhouse, she pushed as much healing as she could into Cassia to drain her magic. We decided it would be better for her to go in without giving the Council any way of telling how strong she really was. If they had a means of measuring that from her blood, it was better for them to think her magic was weak. We couldn’t afford for them to even consider what they could gain from breeding someone as strong as she was. Just the thought of it made my wolf want to rage out of control. The only pup Calli would be having was one with me or my brothers. I’d tear the Council apart if they tried to take her from us, starting with that piss poor excuse of a father of mine.
Like last time, a guard was immediately at the door to make sure we followed. As we exited the vehicle and started to move towards the building, two further guards closed in at our backs. This didn’t seem any different from before, and I was probably just fucking nervous because of how terribly that went, but I found myself watching their every move for any sign of trouble.
We walked the same path through to the same conference room, but when the door closed behind us, sealing us inside, we were completely alone. Even the guards had stayed outside. Perhaps, they assumed Hunter would keep an eye on us.
The door at the other end of the room opened, and my father, Councillor Stone, strode inside. The shit-eating grin on his face immediately made my hackles rise. I fucking hated him so much. The worst part about this whole situation, though, was the glaring absence of the rest of the Council.
Nothing good could come from my father summoning us here alone. He was nothing short of a psychopath. He didn’t have the capacity to feel. All he cared about was his own gain for whatever he was fixated on that week. Unfortunately for us, it was Calli that had caught his eye this time.
“Tanner, so good to see you, son,” he grinned, taking a seat at the table.
This was bad, so fucking bad. If he was acting like this, it was because he wanted to twist the knife about something fucking awful he had planned.
“We were under the impression the Council had summoned us,” Grey cut in, drawing his attention away from me.
“I am the Council,” my father snapped.
The door to the room flew open, and Councillor Wells strode inside, “That’s quite a statement to make, Johnny. I’ll make sure to let the rest of the Council know they won’t be needed anymore.”
He dropped down in the chair he sat in last time, propping his feet up on the table in front of him. Wells was dressed in the same beat-up leather jacket. I couldn’t decide if he was purposefully trying to piss my father off, or if it was just a side effect of his usual attitude. Whichever it was, my father was practically steaming at the intrusion.
“Wells, this is a family matter. Your presence is not required,” he seethed.
Wells just grinned his cocky smirk, he loved getting a rise so easily out of my father. Running a hand through his salt and pepper hair, Wells delayed his response on purpose as he pretended to think about what my father had said.
“Now, that’s not entirely true. A summons came from the Council. Surely you don’t need to go about making a formal summons just to get your own son to come and see you?”
My father was fuming, and it was interesting to watch his murderous intent aimed at someone else for a change. He would never admit he had to get me here with a formal summons, to him that would be the same as admitting weakness, and if there was one thing he hated more than me, it was weakness.
“Now, shall we get this meeting underway,” Wells gloated, obviously loving every minute.
“Very well,” my father leaned back in his seat, ignoring Wells to the best of his ability. “Calli, I’ve had an update from Crane on your blood work, and he’s very pleased with the preliminary results. He needs more plasma, though. The doctor is preparing the clinic for you.”
The boiling ball of rage forming in the pit of my stomach felt like it was going to explode out of me. Calli wasn’t some fucking well they could tap whenever they felt like it. She wasn’t a thing, she was a person, and she was my fucking mate!
“In the meantime, I have a gift for you. A way to thank you for everything you’re giving to the cause.” The grin on his face was enough to let me know that whatever this gift was, it was going to be a big fuck you to me.
Calli froze beside me. I could feel an echo of her fear run through the pack bond. I didn’t know if it was just because she was my mate or if the bond was still changing since Calli had been added to it, but I’d never been able to feel things like this through the bond before. Grey could, but he was the alpha. That was how it was supposed to be.
Not giving a shit what my father was going to draw from it, I stepped closer to Calli and drew her into my side, wrapping my arm around her. She relaxed against me, and it soothed my wolf a fraction to feel her there.
The door to the conference room opened again, and I felt myself pull Calli tighter into me. If we had to fight our way out of here, we would. I wasn’t going to let them take her again.
“Now, now, Tanner. There’s no need to be so greedy, hoarding your mate like the delicious morsel she is for yourself. You should share her with her other mates… all of them.” The way he laughed so gleefully should’ve been the first sign something was wrong. But it wasn’t until Calli stiffened at my side as another man stepped into the room that I even knew what was happening.
I’d never seen him before. The way he looked at us like we were nothing but stray dogs told me more than enough about him. This was one of those types of wolves that fed into my father’s rhetoric and ate up every single word he spoke.
His eyes immediately fixed on Calli, and his eyebrows rose in surprise before he took a step forward. Shaking his head, he stepped back, almost like he hadn’t been able to help himself.
My father sat there crowing away at his victory. The rest of us looking confused, having no idea what was going on. Wells looked just as in the dark as the rest of us, and from the look on his face, it wasn’t a place he liked to be.
“I knew it!” my father laughed. “When I saw the other two brothers, I knew you would be her mate as well.”
My brain seemed to slow my thoughts down to a crawl as I looked at the unknown man in front of me. His eyes flickered between Calli and me before his brow drew down in a scowl. His long brown hair nearly touched his shoulders and was left to hang free. It was the only thing that didn’t match his impeccable facade. The three-piece
suit fitted him like it had been made for him, and he held himself like he owned the room. My father’s influence was all over him.
But it was his eyes that caught my attention. Soft brown and full of every emotion that ran through him. I’d seen those eyes before. Every night when she tucked me into bed, kissing me on the forehead. When she’d sat at my bedside singing me a lullaby whenever I woke from a nightmare. They were always full of love whenever they looked at me—he had my mother’s eyes.
“Tanner, aren’t you even going to say hello to your brother.” My father was full-on laughing now. Even Wells looked shocked by this revelation. I clearly hadn’t been the only one in the dark.
When my mother had died in childbirth, it was the worst day of my life. Even as a child, I’d known my father hated me. So to lose her, the only person that had ever cared about me, was enough to shatter my tiny heart. When he cast me out of the pack a few days later, it didn’t even hurt. I’d lain in that basement, starving and alone and didn’t even care. My little five-year-old self had decided that at least in death, I would be with her again. It wasn’t until Grey found me and he took me in, sharing his world and love with me that I learned I wanted to live. That I had something to live for. He was the one to pull me out of the bottomless pit of darkness I fell into at her loss.
It didn’t even occur to my child self to think about the baby she had died trying to birth. As I got older, I always assumed he’d died with her. I never saw or heard of him. Why would I believe him to be alive? But all of this time, my father kept him from me. A piece of my mother. And he hid him away. All these years, he’d grown up under his influence. He didn’t even have her to hold him at night. To tell him that he was loved. At first, my heart broke for him. For the life he must have lived, and my wolf howled in grief. But then, all of a sudden, my brain kicked into gear as the shock started to wear off, I started to think it through. All these years, with no one but my father. Just how much of his poison had he endured? This wasn’t a wolf we could trust. He was nothing but my father’s creation. He would have moulded him into the perfect little soldier, just like he’d always tried with me.
Stepping in front of Calli, I shielded her with my own body. Grey was pissed. I could feel it through the bond. How he was keeping his alpha power contained right now, I had no idea. But as much as I knew he had it under control, I also knew he was a boiling volcano on the brink of exploding. We needed to get him out of here, and we needed to do it now.
“Maverick, aren’t you going to say hello to your mate.”
Maverick. I had a brother, and he was called Maverick.
I could see just how much fucking enjoyment my father was getting out of this, and that was when I knew. One day, I didn't know when and I didn’t know how, but, I was going to kill him. If it was the last thing I ever did, I was going to stand over him and watch the light leave his eyes.
16
Maverick
Stepping into that room and being revealed like some prize bull at the county fair just so my father could lord it over some collection of ragged wolves was frankly, beneath me. But a brother? I fucking hated it when he kept me in the dark like this.
Staring down this ‘Tanner’ he’d called my brother left a sour taste in my mouth. He’d been called before the Council, and he came wearing jeans and a fucking plaid shirt. He looked like some kind of fucking hobo. They all did.
The female with them, though. She smelt fucking delicious. My wolf was pushing along the edges of my mind, pacing the length of the mental cage I kept him locked in. He wanted to burst free and run with this female. He wanted to roll through the leaves and cover her with his scent. There was one word screaming through my mind that he chanted over and over again as he slammed against that mental cage… mate.
I could admit the female this ragged pack of wolves seemed to think they could protect, was beautiful. Her hair fell in golden waves around her shoulders, and her emerald eyes peered at me with just as much intrigue as I felt. Bundled up in a massive coat, it was impossible to see what she really looked like, but my mind filled in the gaps with luscious curves.
“Maverick, aren't you going to say hello to your mate?” His voice echoed through the room quickly, followed by a low growl from the alpha of this sorry excuse of a pack.
I knew what my father wanted. I knew my mission.
Striding across the room towards her, I told myself I was just doing my job, even if my heart was racing at the thought of getting closer to her.
I stopped in front of the pack, annoyed that this female was still being hidden from me. She knew who my father was. She should be on her knees in front of me already.
“Female,” I growled, “present yourself!”
“You fucking what!” the most melodic voice seethed from somewhere in the back. “I’ll show you present myself.”
She must have taken my ‘apparent brother’ by surprise because suddenly she darted around the side of him. Before I even had time to smirk at him being outwitted by this tiny female, her fist was connecting with my throat, and I was already falling.
I heard my father bark out his laughter behind me, and my face flushed with embarrassment. Someone clearly hadn’t taught this female her proper place in the pack, and part of me was ecstatically happy to be the one to do it.
Scrambling back to my feet, I was just about to reach for her when the alpha stepped into my path. He didn’t seem like much of an alpha to me. I knew my father’s plans, but maybe I should institute some of my own. This weak-ass excuse for an alpha was just asking for someone to take this ragtag pack away from him. I could whip them into shape, make them something to be proud of and finally be out from under the thumb of my father. With a pack of my own at my back, he’d have no sway over me anymore.
“Stand down alpha, this female is to be my mate, and she needs to learn her place,” I seethed, annoyed I even had to tell him this. He should know the protocol for these situations.
“This female has a name,” she shouted from behind him, and I could tell she was pissed from the tone of her voice.
She would be so much fun to break in. The fiery ones took more effort, but the satisfaction when they finally submitted was glorious.
“I’m going to chew his fucking face off,” I heard her grumble as one of the other pack tried to calm her down.
“Now, now, Calli, my dear. That’s no way to talk to your mate.” Father had unfortunately come to join us. He would never let me live it down if I couldn’t bring my mate to heel.
My wolf was growling a low angry growl, not at everyone else, but at me. He was pissed I wasn’t showing his mate the respect she deserved. He wanted her so much he might actually be able to break through his cage. That just wouldn’t do. Perhaps a short lesson in manners was needed right now.
“I wouldn’t, kid,” I heard that waste of space Wells laugh at me. “You have no idea what you’d be getting into.”
Interesting. Maybe there was more to this alpha than met the eye. A formulated attack was always the best approach. That was what my father had taught me.
I took a step back and gritted my teeth as I nodded in deference to this alpha. “Apparently, your pack has different ways to what I am used to.” Urgh, I could vomit at having to say those words.
“Hunter, why don’t you accompany the beautiful Calli to the clinic while we try and sort this out. And before that tiny powerful fist swings my way, I’m just going to add that I’m only suggesting this, so you get on your way as quickly as possible, my dear.”
Wells came to join us in the middle of the room, where we all stood in some kind of stand-off. Amusement twinkled in his eyes like always. My father hated him, and I could see why. He came across as not giving a shit, but I’d bet my life on it that he had a plan under all that swagger, and we wouldn’t see it coming until he’d already cut the legs out from under us.
Interestingly, Hunter, who I’d already been informed was Well’s man in the pack, looked to the alpha, who
nodded in agreement. Something was going on there, and the glint in my father’s eye meant he’d caught it too.
17
Grey
Tanner had a brother, and Calli had another mate! Worse, he was a fucking dick!
Shit! This wasn’t good. It took years for Tanner to confide in me about what his father used to put him through. If this Maverick had been under his care his entire life, there was no way we could trust him.
“Why don’t we all sit down and take the tension down a notch?” Wells suggested.
My eyes moved off Maverick to Wells, before switching back. My wolf wasn’t sensing Maverick as a threat, but I sure as fuck was. Yet, there was something about Wells. I didn’t trust him, but I needed to find a way to speak to him alone, away from this place. He would be a powerful ally for us. I just wasn’t sure if it would be worth the cost.
The pack stayed at my side as we reluctantly took seats at the bottom of the table. The two Councilmen returned to their usual seats, and Maverick dropped into the seat next to his father, his allegiance broadcasted loudly to the room.
Wells was right; the tension in the room was simmering at the point where it was likely to explode with just the slightest provocation. Tanner hadn’t said a word, and I was worried about what he was going to do. He was warily eying Maverick. What must be going through his head right now? I could feel a sense of confusion from him simmering in the background of my mind. It wasn’t distracting. I could easily set it aside if I needed to. It was just unusual. I normally only got strong emotions through the link, like fear and anger.
“Maverick, I take it you packed your things as I instructed,” Councillor Stone said, breaking the silence.
“What the fuck?” Tanner suddenly exploded, and I grabbed his arm to keep him in his seat.
“Pack law would dictate that Maverick should bring his mate into my pack. Given that she is already mated to your pack’s alpha, it seems the only solution is to send Maverick to you. Unless you wish for me to absorb your pack into my own?” Stone smirked.
