Page 14 of Forbidden Moon
Uncle Linc raised an eyebrow. “Really? Which one?” He looked at Brandon. “Didn’t I give you an order? Why are you still here?”
Brandon gave a sullen look and slunk from the room. Uncle Linc waited until the door closed. “That boy. I need to stay on him all the time. Did you find anything?”
“There’s clearly some confusion about the border,” Garrett started, shifting into soldier mode, glad to avoid the topic of Maya.
His uncle and father exchanged amused glances. Uncle Linc leaned back in the leather chair. “Dirigo owes us more land. We’re … discussing it.”
Garrett didn’t show his confusion but, in his time with the Council Enforcer ranks, he had experienced many border disputes and it was always the Council who handled them. He also remembered the border dispute during the last Council meeting but didn’t know if a ruling had been made. Either way, he knew better than to argue with his uncle or father. “Understood. Is that why there is so much tension on the Dirigo side tonight?”
Uncle Linc grew very still for a moment, then he stood and walked around the desk, leaning on the edge. “Tension? Elaborate.”
“I came across multiple patrols and the wolves were tense, on edge. The wolf I ended up confronting mentioned an attack.”
Uncle Linc smirked at that, and his father outright grinned. “Did they give any details about this alleged attack?”
Garrett felt like he was walking through a minefield, though he wasn’t sure why. “They said that their pups and caregivers were on a picnic well within their territory and were attacked. The adults were killed, and the pups taken.” He took a deep breath. “Tell me you didn’t know anything about it.”
His uncle moved faster than he expected. His hand shifted into claws and around his throat before he could avoid it. He was slammed into the wall in the next moment, pinned with his feet off the ground. His breath left him and he gasped around the pressure at his throat, the prick of claws terrifying.
“You’re not disrespecting your Beta, are you, pup? I’d hate to think that you got ideas while you were away at the fancy Council Enforcers training.”
“I told you it was a bad idea to send him there. A bunch of pussies at the Council. Sticking their noses where they don’t belong,” his father drawled from his position over by the desk, not making any move to help his son.
Then again, no one would move against the Beta of the pack, not if they wanted to live. Uncle Linc had a volatile temper and the only one who could override him was their Alpha, but he was in the pack headquarters near Albany, New York.
Garrett couldn’t speak, and could barely move, but he angled his head the best he could to bare his throat further, showing his submission. It was the only thing he could do. A stream of blood ran down his neck, hot and wet, from his uncle’s claws. His pulse pounded. It wouldn’t take much for his uncle to kill him and no one would mourn him. No one would care. Though maybe Maya would wonder what had happened to him. Would she feel the other end of the mate bond die? Would it affect her at all? Maybe.
After what felt like an eternity, the grip eased, and the claws retracted. Garrett’s feet touched the ground, and he sucked in air like a drowning man. But his uncle didn’t move away. Instead, he crowded closer, his nose sniffing the other side of Garrett’s neck.
“Is that the Wessex bitch you encountered on your patrol?”
His heart stuttered in his chest. He hadn’t thought they had gotten that close for her scent to be on him, but he forgot she had her claws at his throat. He nodded. “It was.”
His uncle stepped back and straightened his shirt, smoothing it down. “Is she your mate?”
He was so grateful that his partner with the Council was a strong wolf, Caleb North, and he had shown Garrett how to lock his emotions in a vault and hide other things deep inside. On his run back to the pack, he’d practiced hiding the emotions, not reacting to anything, and burying the beginning of the mate bond deep inside. It appeared to have worked because the strength of a Beta in a pack could recognize the bond forming, could force Garrett to reveal the truth.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so.”
“Pity. She’s a strong bitch, would make strong pups. We have nothing but weak pups spawning now. Could use some fresh blood.” He turned and headed back to the desk. “If that changes, let us know.”
“I doubt she’ll leave Dirigo if she is my mate,” Garrett said.
His father snorted. “It wouldn’t matter. The mate bond supersedes all. She’d be forced by the Council to join her mate. And if she won’t, we have the authority to… retrieve her.”
Judging by the grins both men sported, they wanted that to happen. Garrett would make sure that day never came. Even if he gave up his mate for it, he’d never force Maya into a situation she didn’t want. He would only bring her over with assurances of protection and a place she was comfortable with. Back less than a day and he despaired of finding those options.
He gave a casual shrug. “So, what’s happens next? I hear the Council is coming?”
His uncle settled back in the chair. “We’ll be waiting. Dirigo wants to blame us for this attack, but they have no proof. You’ll come with me. We can use your connections with the Council and, maybe the more you meet with the Wessex bitch, a bond might form.”
That was his greatest and worst fear, all rolled into one.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Maya stood behind her Alpha, Duncan MacKinnon, where he sat at the table waiting for the other wolves to arrive. The Supreme Alpha, Simon Henry, and his chief enforcer and Beta, Charles Hollings, were at the head of the table. When they walked in, a wave of power swept over her, almost bringing her to her knees. When she was at the Council last month, she had seen the Supreme Alpha but had not felt his power unleashed. It was formidable. Her den leader, Isaac Hawkins, had warned her about this, but she hadn’t been prepared. He had remained standing next to her, but she noted the lines of tension around his mouth and jaw.
All the males in the room were of a similar age. Mid-forties, fit and muscular. Simon was dressed more elegantly than her own Alpha, in an expensive, charcoal suit that was probably tailored to him and showed off his dark hair and a hint of silver at the temples. Her own Alpha was more casually dressed, having been out in the field until recently. He wore a pair of jeans and a button-down flannel shirt, fitted to his body. He was an Alpha who worked alongside his wolves, not handed down directives. In fact, he had spent most of the previous day and today, in the field, first where the incident had occurred, then visiting the families to reassure them.