“The Starlight Pack is stronger than most people think.”
“I knew you were strong. Why do you think I came alone and didn’t try to make my way in with another enforcer?”
“Because it would have been a sign of aggression. Maybe one day our Packs will be friendly enough that it won’t be an issue. But not now.”
“Maybe one day.”
“I mean, not all of us can inter-mate with another Pack so much that you and the Talons seem like you’re kissing cousins at this point.”
I scowled. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?”
“Just saying.” He let a small smile escape before scowling again as he pulled in.
“This won’t take long. You meet with Riaz, and then we’ll help you find your Packmate. Our Packmate.”
My wolf bristled. “He’s not Starlight anymore. He hasn’t been for a while.”
“He’s family. You understand that.”
“I do. Let’s go find him.”
“But first, Riaz.”
Meeting a new Alpha wasn’t my favorite thing to do. Going through the dominance games with Brendan had been enough for the day, and I was going to have to deal with it again meeting the Alpha of the Starlight Pack.
I didn’t have time for this, and I couldn’t feel the pull towards Spencer, and that worried me.
I held onto whatever feeling I could and rolled my shoulders back, aware that others were watching me, but it didn’t feel hostile. More like curious.
I figured that was a good thing, and I made my way through, not meeting anyone’s gaze, mostly because I didn’t want to have to deal with the dominance challenge. We wouldn’t be able to help ourselves. We were wolves. It was in our nature.
We made our way around to a new development within the den, and I realized that no, we weren’t actually in the den itself. I hadn’t gone through any wards. We were on the outside of the den still, and I understood that. They didn’t want me within their den walls, at least not before I met the Alpha, and I was grateful that they had that kind of security. But they were building something outside of it, which was interesting. I looked at the shirtless man in front of me as he helped put up the side of a building, the others around him equally shirtless in the Texas heat, as they worked on the framing of what looked to be a small home.
The man with dark eyes and dark hair looked at me and raised a brow. “Kaylee then?” the man asked.
I didn’t meet his gaze. He was the Alpha, and he was far more dominant than me. I could feel it, but he also didn’t growl or show his wolf. He just set his tools down and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat off his body.
He was hot as hell, built, and any woman’s dream, but my wolf wanted nothing to do with him.
And considering my wolf wanted a mate and didn’t want to just scratch an itch, I listened to my wolf.
He was an attractive Alpha with strength in numbers and a cunning intelligence, from what I had heard, and my wolf didn’t want him.
Well, that would make my mother happy because she didn’t want me to move down away from her.
“Alpha Riaz.”
“Well met. Thank you for coming here to help find your lost Packmate, one of ours. You have our resources, anything that you need. If you need to stay for more than a few nights, we have guest quarters outside of the den. They’re guarded by our lieutenants, as well as other dominant wolves. You will be housed, fed, anything that you need. You name it.”
I looked at his face, my gaze slightly below his. “That’s generous of you. Thank you.”
“Thank you for coming here to help find Spencer. We’ve been looking, but we can’t catch his scent.” His jaw tightened. “I’m afraid it’s because he’s turned rogue,” he said, and you could’ve heard a pin drop.
I swallowed hard and nodded. “That’s my fear too. Although he was a lone wolf for a long time; I don’t picture him ever going rogue, and that’s what worries me.”
“It worries us too. I have a call coming in with your Alpha and Gideon, the Alpha of the Talon Pack, to discuss the rogue situation. We’re having similar interactions with rogues as you are up there.”
“You might want to loop in the Alphas of the Centrals and the Aspens,” I added.
Riaz raised a brow. “I was unaware that you had full allyship with them.”
“Those two Alphas are newer in power than you or any of the Alphas that I answer to, but they still have knowledge.”
I wasn’t about to discuss the law and history of the Aspens and the Centrals with us, but most people knew a lot of it anyway.
“I’ll reach out to them.”
“Kade would reach out to them nonetheless, but it would show goodwill for you to do so.”
“You sounded like your cousin just then,” Riaz said, a smirk on his face.
This time I rolled my eyes, the tension leaking out of me. “Parker is training me to be diplomatic. I’m better than my twin, but not the greatest.”
“Good to know. Do you want to begin, or do you want to rest after traveling?”
My wolf stood on attention, and I rolled my shoulders back. “I need to begin. I think I have something.”
And with that, the hunt began.
Chapter 5
Kaylee
My wolf clawed at me, wanting out, but I wasn’t about to shift and make myself vulnerable in front of people I didn’t know. I would have to soon if I wanted to get the scent later, but for now, I let my wolf rise to the surface, so my eyes were glowing gold and lighting up the area around me, but I was still in control.
The two wolves from the Starlight Pack behind me were lieutenants for the Pack enforcer. They weren’t anyone I had met on the airfield or even in the Pack circle with their Alpha. However, they were dominant, intelligent, and had a purpose. They wanted to find Spencer as much as I did.
Maybe more because both of them had said they had been childhood friends of the man.
My heart twisted at the thought, the idea that Spencer had left his Pack behind because his wolf had needed to roam, and when he had settled in the Redwood den, Spencer had begun to create roots, paths, and connections.
He wasn’t a wolf that was supposed to go rogue, but then the war with the humans, and then the Aspens, have created battle and war after war, and Spencer had lost the woman that was supposed to be his mate.
They hadn’t forged a bond but had instead taken their time doing their own courting.
Not all wolves mated the same, and thanks to the Moon Goddess’s intervention a few years ago, things were dramatically different than they had been even when my parents had mated.
Now, there was more of a choice in the matter, and it took longer for others to find their mate. As if there was a cloud or a shadow over the bond that could be created between two or more souls.
It had taken my cousin years to figure out what the bond between them could be, and another cousin had mated at first sight.
It depended on the wolves, but I knew matings were harder to come by because of the fact that our connections to the Moon Goddess had changed. She had made a sacrifice for us, at least according to the Supreme Alphas. I wasn’t sure what that was, nor did I know if they knew, but how wolves reacted with the rest of the world had changed.