Page 11 of Forbidden Moon
He shook his head. “I’ll keep it quiet and no names mentioned. I’ve had enough assignments that it could be related to one of them. And Caleb will have our backs here, too.” He stood and walked over to her, pulling her back into his arms and rubbing soothing circles on her back. “Let’s use the next month to gather information, then figure out where we want to go.”
“Including if we want to mate or not,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
While his chest clenched, and his wolf howled inside, he restrained himself. “That is another option. That we walk away from this.”
He wasn’t sure he could walk away from Maya. Not after finding her again after all these years.
They stood there for a long time, just holding each other, not saying anything.
CHAPTER SIX
ONE MONTH LATER
* * *
Maya glided silently through the forest, as quietly as her human half could move, and expanded her wolf's senses as far as she could while keeping a firm grip on her other half. She couldn’t risk letting out her wolf, not with her emotions running as high as they were. As a human, she could maintain control, not let the rage, pain, and grief explode into the night. There was only one way that could go, and it would be bad for anyone around. As a result, she locked her emotions down tightly into a vault, muting everything she could to reduce the pain to a numbness. It also numbed the mating bond that had been a raw wound for the past few weeks since she left Garrett at the Council Headquarters, but she’d better get used to that pain since it was highly unlikely that she’d ever be able to complete that bond now that the situation between their packs had turned to shit.
No, she relied on the strict control her Alpha demanded, what had been ingrained in her, in their entire pack, since the day she began training to shift. That control was only reinforced and built upon during her years of enforcer training when her true strength as a powerful, dominant member of the pack had revealed itself.
Where was that strength when the most vulnerable members of her pack, the pups and caretakers who relied on her for protection, needed it? Where was she when they were slaughtered and the survivors kidnapped by unknown assailants, leaving behind a blood-soaked ground and broken bodies?
A growl erupted from her throat and she paused, her hands fisted at her side as she fought against the overwhelming tide of grief coming from inside of her and through the pack bonds. A wave of soothing energy flowed through, a power smoothing out the rough edges, and she felt the band around her chest loosen. Her Alpha, checking on the pack and letting them all know he was with them.
Maya bent over at the waist, her hands braced on her knees as she gulped air, feeling like she could breathe for the first time since that awful moment earlier that day. The band around her chest easing just enough to let her think clearly for a moment. It was in that split second that her wolf caught the scent of something. She pushed at the restrictions that Maya had placed on her, almost breaking free, but Maya wrestled her back to let the human surface and consider the information.
The scent was something that was familiar, something that made her wolf perk up inside, yet it didn’t belong on Dirigo Pack land. She suppressed a growl and moved quietly, yet swiftly, in the direction of the scent on the wind. She slowed as she approached the clearing, crouching behind the brush to spy on the source of the smell.
A male dressed quickly in the clearing, as if he had just shifted, shrugging into a flannel shirt to ward off the chill in the spring evening air. He already wore a pair of jeans and shoes and, as she watched, balled up a soft bag to stuff in his pocket, a bag some shifters carried a change of clothes in while shifted. His posture was awfully comfortable and relaxed, considering he wasn’t Dirigo and could be killed for trespassing. In fact, if any other enforcer had found him, they already would have killed him, considering the heightened emotions and state of emergency they were operating under. Yet he acted as if it was a normal day.
Could he be one of the Council Enforcers, sent to investigate the situation? If so, he got here rather quickly since her pack leadership had only put the call in a few hours previously. That was the only reason she hesitated to act. Well, that and the fact that her Alpha ordered her and all enforcers not to react violently no matter what, in an effort to avoid further bloodshed.
She eased into the meadow and shifted her hand, placing her claws against his throat, even as a familiar scent teased at her memory.
“Why are you on Dirigo land? Speak quickly before you can’t say anything.”
* * *
Garrett stretched and settled back into his human skin after the pleasure of running in wolf form for the better part of the afternoon. He’d just returned to this part of the Saranac Pack lands and his uncle, Linc, the beta of the entire pack, directed him to get accustomed to their boundaries and any gaps they had in the line. To his dismay, there were a considerable number of gaps based on his memory of the map his uncle showed him. In fact, he’d barely seen any of his pack mates along the line and instead had to avoid several members of their rivals, the Dirigo Pack, which was alarming.
The fact that the Dirigo wolves appeared to be out in force and, based on his wolf’s senses, had heightened emotions for some reason, concerned him. He had considered remaining in the wolf form, but needed to let the human take the lead for a while and evaluate the situation. While the human and wolf were linked, when one was ascendant, the other wasn’t always in control, so it was easier to switch when needed.
He had just shrugged into his shirt and started to button it when a scent wafted on the breeze, teasing him with the familiar scent. He had just been about to turn with a smile, pleased that she had found him first. He hadn’t even had a chance to call her yet, when claws pricked the skin at his throat and he froze.
“Why are you on Dirigo land? Speak quickly before you can’t say anything.”
A husky female voice spoke from behind and to the right of him. Maya was a bit shorter than him, as he well knew from their week together a month ago, but he also knew that she was a strong and fierce fighter. Since she didn’t appear to recognize him, which was strange, and was on edge, judging by the tone in her voice, so he wasn’t going to assume he could take her. He’d fought against enough wolves of all shapes and sizes to assume size equated strength. He also wasn’t his uncle, who assumed all females were weak. She was Dirigo, and they trained all of their pack members in lethal force, males and females. His wolf howled at being so close to his mate, finally happy and eager to complete the mating, though her side of the bond was closed off.
He stared straight ahead, barely breathing. The throb of his pulse pressed against the sharp claw and he hoped Maya wasn’t feeling twitchy. “I’m not on Dirigo land. I’m on Saranac.”
“You lie,” she hissed, the venom in her tone catching him off guard.
She wrenched away from him, pushing him, her claw slicing a shallow cut across his skin. He whirled around and moved out of reach, maintaining a loose-limbed stance to not escalate the situation but prepared in case she attacked.
The auburn-haired she-wolf glared at him from a few paces away, her green eyes snapping with a hidden fire that he remembered from a month ago, but the anger, the pain rolling off of her was new. “Maya?”
She grew still, her eyes widening. “Garrett? What are doing here?”
The fact that she didn’t run to him or appear to be at all welcoming was concerning and his wolf sat back, watchful, also confused by her reaction. Maybe she was pissed that he didn’t call her first, give her a heads up he was back. But he hadn’t expected to be back so quickly. The Council hadn’t had any investigations for him to work on, so they sent him back, after a request from his pack. He was only told that morning to head out.