***[POV: Hotheaded Former Mate]***
"Then we get up at dawn and do your search."
Chad starts while prodding the campfire with a stick. His gaze grows a little distant as he stares into the fire.
"When we find nothing, then we convince the Alpha to organize a proper hunting party before this gets *really* out of hand…"
"She's not some deer."
Kyle mutters in defense.
However, the image of running her down like prey holds my interest. After leaving me in this state.
"No, she's not."
Chad agrees, yet his voice takes on a harder edge.
"She's an unmarked female who just rejected the pack's authority. She's a problem that needs to be solved. Before she makes things worse for everyone."
Fingers tap nervously on the knife in his hands. He really treats that thing like his favorite toy.
"Come on. She was just upset. She just ran. Does that really make her as dangerous as you two keep saying?"
Firelight flickered across my face. For a second I could almost see his point.
But then I'm reminded of what happened. The pull toward nothing tugs in my chest. What I was left with.
"Think about what happens if she actually crosses into another pack's territory."
Chad continues to convince him. I don't know why he bothers, the man will follow us even if he wants to cry about it.
"Best case, they force her into their pack. Someone decides to mate with her. Worst case..."
He trails off, letting our imagination fill in the blanks. My jaw clenches.
The closest pack to us is the Rimecoat. Wolves with their fancy corporate bullshit.
Their arrogant female Alpha who thinks she's better than the rest of us because she has money. The thought of Helene being claimed by one of her people makes my blood boil.
I'd rather they killed her.
"And what does it say about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"That your old mate would rather risk death than come back with you? How will that look to your father? To the rest of the pack, now that our Alpha is getting up in years?"
"That's not helping…"
Kyle tries to break in but his voice lacks conviction. A sign that even he thinks sugarcoating it is impossible.
"I'm just pointing out what everyone will be thinking. The longer she's out there, the worse this looks for all of us. Especially you, Jace."
His voice is all false concern. I know Chad talks a lot of shit, but sometimes what he says gets right under my skin.
Makes me see red. Makes me want to prove him wrong by whatever means necessary.
"We'll probably be forced to coordinate with neighboring territories. The sooner we get organized, the sooner we find her."
Something in his tone makes me look up sharply, but his expression has already smoothed into a more… neutral concern.
Like he thinks I don't know. That he would miss the she-wolf he stalked behind my back.
I grunt, agreeing with finding her soon. Then I stand to walk away and cool off.
My father told me not to do anything to him over it, so I won't.
He also told me to take Helene all the way out here if I was going to break our bond… so maybe he's not as smart as I've always thought.
I rub at my chest, irritation building. At both of my friends, all of my family. At myself and at the woman who scorned me.
The bitch who couldn't just accept and move on. Had to leave a wound and fuck up my life plan.
I should never have looked her way twice.
Helene's face when we first mated was so goddamn happy before and after it was almost annoying.
Then the way she'd touch my arm when she wanted attention. The slightly sad eyed smile accusing me.
Always so needy and wanting more care than I wanted to give her.
She just wanted to get pregnant and raise a kid. Didn't care what I wanted to become.
Like she would have been happy if I was just another Gamma like my old man.
I can't be tied down to someone so... ordinary. Someone who would hold me back from what I could become in the pack.
That's what I'd thought.
Alpha potential - everyone has said so. My father, Kyle's mother, everyone but her.
Now… I'm starting to wonder. Who put her up to it. Why else would she pretend for so long?
There must be someone inside the pack trying to sabotage me. I'll have to question her parents when we get back.
Make them tell me what they know.
"Shit."
I breathe out while pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes.
Need sleep. I'm starting to think crazy thoughts. Besides…
If she cared about what happened to those wolfless suck-ups, she wouldn't have ran.
⧖ ☾ ❄ ☽ ⧖
Dawn broke with a drizzle of cold rain. At least my head won't overheat in this weather.
"Get up."
I kick at Kyle, still asleep in his tent, and Chad emerges from his. Already dressed and somehow looking fresher from sleep than he has any right to.
Asshole probably halfheartedly looked around yesterday.
"Look properly today."
"Whatever you say, fearless leader."
We spread out along the riverbank one last time and I pulled off my clothes. After the change, I leap to the other side and prowl in my werewolf form.
Looking through the forest brush at the edge of the river for anything.
The rain that started is going to make tracking hard. Washing away what little scent might have remained.
But a smell is not the only thing to find. Twenty minutes of moving upstream, something finally catches my eye.
A little flash of color.
Hooked against a gnarled branch near the shoreline is a tattered piece of fabric. From the clothes Helene was wearing when she fled.
I crouch down, and lift it carefully. Her familiar smell clings to it faintly, but there's something strange... something that makes my wolf bristle with confusion.
Chad leapt across a fallen tree in the water and moved with unusual speed. His eyes fix on what sits in my hands.
"Well, well. Looks like she did cross the river."
He steps closer and reaches for the evidence, but I pull it back instinctively. Something about his eagerness sets me on edge.
Makes me want to sock him in the face.
"What'd you find?"
Kyle yells from the other side and the Beta's son who I can't attack answers… for me.
"Mystery solved. She crossed this way. Let's get back to the village."
He holds out his hand expectantly with a smirk.
"I'll take that for the Alpha. He'll want to see it."
Something in me resists the request. Possessiveness. The bond still holding strong?
My furred fist clenches around the fabric and he backs off.
"Why? Sentimental value?"
The man's tone is light as he treats my beast form no different than speaking to a human… but his eyes hardened. Chad stares at me for a beat too long before shrugging.
"Whatever. Not like it matters who takes it there anyway."
He turns away, but not before I catch him muttering something under his breath. While pulling out and staring hard at his phone screen again.
"I already know it doesn't have to be me that finishes a Task."