WESLEY
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Nolan shouted as soon as we heard Haven start the car. “‘Don’t freak out?’ Seriously? You just told her not to freak out, and then you shifted?”
I rubbed my hand over my face and slipped my sweatpants back on. “I wasn’t thinking, I just acted. I knew I needed to tell her, and shifting seemed like a good idea.”
“We were literally right here. You could have waited like two more minutes,” he yelled. “We talked through how this should go the other day when you asked me to be here for this. But no. Future alpha had to do things his own way. Had to show off and—”
My fist connected with his jaw before he could finish his sentence. His head snapped back, and he grunted, but he turned to face me again as I readied myself for another hit.
“Nolan!” Rachel cried, but Nolan put his hand out to stop her from interfering.
“You didn’t even think about how she would feel or react when she watched you shift into a monster. You only care about you and what you want and how you think things should be,” he continued, undeterred by my punch.
He was goading me, and I knew it. Egging me on to get me to let out my anger at myself.
I launched myself at him and took him down to the damp grass beneath us, laying him out flat on his back. Haven’s scent lingered on him lightly from when he’d grabbed her, fueling my ire towards him.
I pulled back to punch him again, but he flipped us so he was on top, his knee about to aim for my groin. I growled and pushed him off of me, and we both scrambled to our feet, getting into position and assessing each other again.
But Rachel jumped between us, her arms held out to stop us from attacking again. “You’re both being ridiculous,” she growled, her eyes flashing. “This isn’t how you fix things with Haven!” she yelled, pointing at me. “Beating up your gamma? The one who is supposed to protect her?”
I dropped my hands, and Nolan did the same, even having the wherewithal to look contrite as he did. “Sorry, Wesley,” he said to me. “And sorry, Sunshine,” he muttered to Rachel.
She nodded with satisfaction, then looked at me expectantly. “Sorry, Nolan,” I grunted. “And thank you,” I added.
I cracked my neck, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, my eyes landing on the place Haven had stood in only minutes before. “Follow her,” I ordered Nolan. “Make sure she gets home safely. But try not to let her see you. Unless you have to.”
My eyes never left the spot she’d stood in as I commanded my future gamma to ensure the safety of my Sugar Plum. They stayed there even as he shifted into his red wolf and took off into the trees. I didn’t withdraw them even as Rachel picked up Nolan’s clothes and left the yard.
I knew she’d freak out, knew she’d probably be frightened, but it didn’t make it hurt less. The look of sheer terror in her eyes as she stared at my lycan was more painful than I’d imagined it would be. And that she thought we might be capable of hurting her? That was even worse.
“Fuck!” I muttered to myself and finally moved out of the backyard and into my house.
I stormed through my house to my bedroom and straight into my bathroom, where I turned the shower on. Her scent lingered everywhere in my house. Sweet and strong, it called to me and my lycan, urging me to go after her, to explain better and make her understand that while I had an animal, a beast, inside me, I would never cause her harm. We could never do that to her.
But she had asked for space and time, and I would give her space and time. Even if it hurt like hell. Even if it went against every primal instinct of my kind when it came to our mates. Even if it killed me.
I deserved it anyway. It was my own damn fault it happened the way it did. If I had kept better control of myself, if I hadn’t been thinking with my fucking dick, then it would be different.
But I’d had a taste of her. I’d spent the night giving her little body pleasure in every way I could imagine, and it would be too hard to let her go if that’s what she wanted.
“So fucking stupid,” I grunted, my fist slamming into the bathroom counter. “So fucking selfish!”
I turned to enter the shower but then stopped. I didn’t want to wash her scent off me. I wanted to wear it around the pack like a badge of honor. Wanted everyone to know just what I had been doing all night with Haven.
So instead, I turned the shower off and got changed into jeans and a T- shirt so I could go to the packhouse.
As much as I didn’t want to, I needed to tell my dad what had happened. He’d be pissed I’d told Haven about us since I hadn’t gotten permission first, but I hoped he would understand why I did. I tried mindlinking him, but he had his barrier up, so I guessed I would have to surprise him.
I rushed out of my house and over to the packhouse, bursting into my dad’s office without knocking.
But instead of finding him in there like I usually did on Fridays, I only saw my mom and Gamma Felix.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked.
“In a meeting,” she murmured, gesturing towards the door at the back of the room that led into the conference room on the other side.
The main entrance to it was in a different hallway, but Dad had specifically put a door in between the conference room and his office to have easier access to his office for private discussions when he met with other alphas.
I pushed through the door, not caring to find out what the meeting was about or who it was with. I needed to talk with him as soon as possible to get his advice on what to do next.
“Dad, I—”
“Oh, perfect. Just the future alpha I was hoping to see.”
I stopped on the threshold, looking around the room and taking in the occupants.
On one side of the table, my dad sat with Reid and Sebastian, their heads turned to look at me. On the other side of the table, Alpha Timothy Pierce of the Amber Forest Pack sat with his two oldest children, his twins Benjamin and Nicole.
Timothy smiled at me, his sharp light blue eyes locked on me after finishing his statement. His blonde hair and beard had more flecks of gray in it since the last time I’d seen him, but it did nothing to soften the ever- hostile look he wore on his face.
“Alpha Pierce,” I said, closing the door behind me. “To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?” I asked, taking a seat next to my father.
“A proposal,” he said, his smile unwavering. “Your father has been asking for an alliance for a while now. I finally thought of a way to guarantee positive cooperation from both sides and ensure a prosperous collaboration.”
I nodded, glancing at my dad out of the corner of my eye. He tapped the papers in front of him, the contract proposal I assumed Timothy had brought with him.
“I told him I needed to think about it and discuss it with everyone,” Dad said to me.
“Let me see it?” I asked.
He pursed his lips, and Reid and Sebastian exchanged a look. “We’ll discuss it later. In my office,” he replied, picking it up and sliding it back into the manila folder.
“Let the boy see it, Alpha Stone,” Timothy said. “He’ll be taking over your pack soon, after all.”
Dad stared at him over the top of the folder, unblinking. Benjamin and Nicole stayed stoney-faced, as they had been since I walked through the
door.
It had been several years since I had seen them, when I was a senior in high school, and they were juniors. I did not know if either of them went to college or if they stayed in their pack all these years. We’d never been close, but Benjamin had always been cordial to me. Their younger brother, Oliver, was nowhere in sight, but it was the middle of the week, so he was likely at school since he was a senior this year.
“What’s going on?” I linked Sebastian, but he just shook his head at me.
“Here,” Dad said, handing me the folder without breaking his eye contact with Timothy. “Just remember, nothing needs to be decided now.”
I nodded as I took it from him and started reading through the alliance proposal.
I read each page slowly and carefully, making sure to not skip any section, making sure I understood all the phrasing and the nuances of the proposal. I kept my face stoic and indecipherable as I read, not letting anyone in the room get even a hint of what went through my head.
I finished the last page, then turned it back over and lifted my hand to rest my chin on my fist. The wheels in my brain turned and spun as I thought about what Timothy was asking and how we could use it to our advantage. How, if we agreed, we would gain access to what we needed to take him down.
We’d had our suspicions for years, had ideas of how they became one of the wealthiest packs in the region after being almost bankrupt for over a decade. But we’d found no proof. However, this contract would give us an in, give us access to their accounts as we prepared our packs for the alliance and the combining of assets, as long as we all played our parts. As long as we were all believable.
And then, once we had our proof, we could hand it all over to the king and his council. They would remove Timothy from his position. The contract would be void since Benjamin wasn’t the one who signed it, and it would be as if none of it ever happened.
“Wesley, you don’t have to agree to it,” Dad mindlinked, including the other two in our conversation.
“But it will give us the in we need,” I replied.
“We can find another way. One that doesn’t involve you.” “What about Haven?” Seb asked.
I frowned and clenched my jaw. “We… had a fight. She asked me to give her some space to sort everything out, and I’m going to respect her wishes, so right now is the perfect time to move forward with this agreement. With my plan.”
“But her birthday is on Tuesday,” Seb reminded me.
“And we’ll likely have this wrapped up and taken care of by the end of the weekend. Monday at the latest,” I said, and Dad gave a half nod, half shrug. “I don’t imagine it taking longer than that,” he confirmed. “But it could.” “It won’t,” I declared. “I’ll make sure of it. I won’t let it take longer than
necessary.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Reid asked. I paused and closed my eyes. Was I sure? No. I wasn’t.
But the reward of taking the risk was substantial, and I needed to start thinking like a leader. Like an alpha. And that meant sometimes putting the pack’s needs above my own needs and wants.
“It’s not like he’ll have to go through with it,” Sebastian said.
“Wanna bet?” Reid asked, his lips twitching.
“Seriously, I need you all to trust me. I have a plan, but your dicking around isn’t helping!”
“We trust you, Wesley,” Reid said.
“I accept your offer,” I told Alpha Pierce out loud. “As long as Nicole isn’t being forced into this. I need confirmation from her that she agrees to the union of her own volition.”
Benjamin’s thick brows raised for a split second, and Nicole’s big, blue eyes widened. She looked at her father and then at Benjamin, staring at him for much longer than Timothy.
Then she turned to me, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears and nodding. “He’s not forcing me, Wesley. I agreed to the idea willingly. I actually was the one to suggest it.”
She held my gaze, and a flash of understanding passed between us before her face went back to that cold, unreadable expression. Almost as though I’d imagined it.
“All right then,” I stated, looking back at Alpha Pierce. “I will take Nicole as my chosen luna, and our packs will form both a personal and a business alliance, as outlined in this contract.”
“Very well,” Alpha Pierce said.
“You can step out, Dad,” I said, giving him a cursory glance.
He frowned but stood and left through the back door. Not that it would matter. He had the room wire-tapped, and he’d hear every word spoken.
I held my hand out for a pen, and Alpha Pierce laughed.
“While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I do have one minor concern before I agree to sign and before I let my daughter sign,” he said, breathing in through his nose. “The human whose scent is all over you. She won’t be a problem, will she? You won’t be continuing to see her? Because Goddess
forbid if I let my daughter be mated to a man who will have her as his luna in name only. She will be treated like a queen. She will be your only female, starting from the moment you sign that contract.”
My lycan growled in my head, and it took everything in me to keep him under control, to not let that growl spill from my lips, to not react at all to Timothy’s words. That’s what he was looking for, after all. For me to crack and to show him my weakness. For him to have something to hold over us. Over me.
“Of course, she won’t be a problem,” I told him, faking my best disinterested voice. “She was just a fling. She’s no one important to me,” I said with a laugh. “You know humans. They find us so irresistibly attractive. They’re an easy lay,” I added with a shrug.
One side of his mouth lifted into a lazy, cocky smile, and he leaned back in his seat, his eyes taking me in, assessing me.
“I’m glad to see I wasn’t wrong about you,” Timothy said. “I was banking on the notion that you would be a different type of alpha than your father.”
“I’m trying to be,” I said.
In my mind, I could hear Reid and Sebastian snickering, and feel my dad’s pride and amusement at the little show I was putting on for Timothy. Every word out of my mouth felt wrong; every syllable sounded like nails on a chalkboard and tasted of bitter herbs, but as long as Timothy believed my words were sincere, that was all that mattered at the moment.
Timothy smiled wider and reached across the table, shaking my hand.
We passed the contract around, Nicole, Timothy, and I all signing it, as well as Reid and Benjamin as the witnesses.
Once everyone had added their signature, Timothy excused himself and his children and left through the main entrance of the conference room, a
warrior escorting them to their car, and we went into my dad’s office through the other door.
“I can’t believe you agreed to that,” Dad said as soon as the door shut behind us. “I was serious when I said we could find another way.”
“But you told me yourself you had tried other options to form an alliance, and he’d refused you every time,” I pointed out. “Like I said, I have a plan. I need you to trust me, and—”
“You agreed?” Mom asked. “What about Haven? Harrison, why would you make him—”
“I didn’t force him to do it, Em,” Dad said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “He decided on his own. He knows this could very well be our only chance to get the insider information we need to get Timothy removed as alpha and hopefully put into prison.”
“But Reid could have done it,” she argued.
“No, Luna. I don’t want a mate,” he said, shaking his head like a wet dog. “Sebastian then,” she said. “He’s an alpha, too, even though he doesn’t
lead his own pack.”
“The proposal specifically said ‘the alpha heir of Crescent Lake,’” I told her. “He made sure it could be me and only me. And there’s no way he would have agreed to a beta or a lowly second-born alpha heir. No offense,” I added, looking at Sebastian.
“None taken,” he shrugged. “I know my place. I am but a lowly second- born lycan,” he said, sighing dramatically and pretending to pout. “If only my older brother would have some tragedy befall him so I could take over the pack instead of he, then maybe someone would actually listen to me or love me.”
Reid snorted, and my dad rolled his eyes, rubbing his forehead with a groan.
“Well, if the proposal specifically asked for Wesley, then why did you have Reid and Sebastian in the meeting with you?” my mom asked.
“Yes, why did you ask us to come?” Reid chimed in.
“I called you both in for something unrelated, but then Alpha Pierce showed up, and I needed to deal with him first,” Dad replied. “I called you in for the same reason I called all pack members living off-territory back to the pack.”
“And that is…?” I asked, waiting for whatever bomb he was about to drop on us.
He sighed, then said, “There have been rogues sighted in the area.”
