Page 18 of Alpha's Runaway Mate

“Gee, thanks for the advice.” I turned to flash him a fake smile. “But I don’t care about you or what you think.”

In an instant, Kaine was in front of me, causing me to stumble back and nearly fall, but he caught me by my waist, steadying me. Memories of the other night flooded my mind, and once again, my body reacted to his touch, my breathing became strained.

We were barely inches apart now, the tension between us palpable. My heart was racing, and not just from the bickering. There was something else, something I couldn’t quite push down no matter how I tried.

But before either of us could say another word, a shadow moved in the trees. The growl came first, low and menacing, before a massive black jaguar lunged out of the underbush, charging straight for me.

In a flash, Kaine threw me to the ground, and the jaguar collided with him instead, striking him with his claws.

“Kaine!” I shouted in panic, watching in horror as the jaguar’s claws connected with Kaine’s torso, ripping his shirt. He fell to the ground, and the jaguar shifted its attention back to me.

My heart stopped. The world slowed. But before I could react, Kaine leaped from the ground with a snarl, his sharp claws piercing into the jaguar’s throat from behind. With one swift motion, he flung the creature aside. The jaguar whimpered as it crashed into a tree, defeated.

Wounded, Kaine fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding torso. He was breathing heavily, blood gushing from where the jaguar’s claws had ripped into him. With my heart in my throat, I rushed to him.

“Kaine…are you–are you okay?” My voice trembled with fear as I knelt beside him, my hands hovering over his wound.

When I looked up at him, I saw his eyes sparkling with amusement, and his lips curled into a smirk. “You don’t care, huh?”

Chapter Seven — Kaine’s POV

The image of Lyra’s perfectly shaped ass snug in those tight jeans stuck to my mind like glue. Even as the healer nursed my wounds, a smirk crept onto my face as I replayed the events of our hunting trip. It had been successful, not just because we brought back the biggest Jaguar of the year, but also because I got to spend time with Lyra under unusual circumstances.

I’d seen the panic in her eyes when the Jaguar lunged at me. She still cared for me, whether she admitted it or not. It wasn’t a full victory, but it was something—proof that her feelings hadn’t completely vanished. Winning back her trust would take time, but it wasn’t a lost cause, and today proved that. I’d have to show I wasn’t all talk. Words did hold meaning to me, especially the ones I’d said to her the night before I betrayed her.

“Kaine?” Elder Ronan’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I blinked myself back into the present, now aware of the presence of the elders sitting around me at the old wooden table—one that had been used by past Alphas for council meetings like this one. Council meetings were typically held once a month, at the end of every month. If it happened earlier than that, it was always because of an emergency. I guess ditching Juniper at the altar was something they’d consider an emergency, given what it meant for the alliance between my pack and that of Juniper’s. They were going to call me out on breaking the alliance, dredge up the promise I made to my father, and hint that I was unfit to lead because I let my emotions get the best of me.

Leaning forward, I rested my hands on the table, my knuckles locked together. And with utmost seriousness, I said, “You have my attention now.”

Elder Ronan didn’t hesitate to speak whenever he was given the chance to, so it came as no surprise that he was the first to make a comment. “You’re not taking this seriously, Kaine. Rumors like this shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is a serious threat to the security of the pack, and if you do not act on them…I don’t even want to begin to imagine what could happen.”

“You’re dancing in circles, Ronan. What rumors are you talking about?”

“If you’d been listening to a word I’ve said, you’d know that the first topic of discourse today is the obvious reappearance of Lyra: what it means to you, and what it means for the pack.”

“Lyra’s presence in Crescent Valley and what it means to me is not something I wish to discuss with the council. As for what it means for the pack? She’s one of us.”

“She’s not,” Elder Martha interjected, her voice sharp. “There are laws that bind the Ironclaw pack. She stopped being part of this pack the day she ran away. You know that as well as we do. There are laws, Kaine. Or have you forgotten the fourteenth law?”

I averted my gaze. Of course I hadn’t forgotten. How could I—my father had made me memorize every word of the Ironpack laws since I could speak. I knew every law like the back of my hand. The fourteenth law stated: any member who abandons the pack and returns must undergo retribution to earn their place back. Retribution involved several steps. First, they must face the entire pack to confess their abandonment and submitto the judgment of the Alpha. Then they’d be demoted to the position of an Omega, an outcast amongst the pack, and would have to undertake a period of servitude for a time. Finally, they’d undergo a redemption ritual, a blood-binding ritual where they’d be required to swear an oath of loyalty, pledging themselves to the Alpha and to the pack.

“I know the fourteenth law, Martha,” I said quietly.

“And yet you allow the girl to walk freely among the pack and even take a job.”

“She has a child. She has to survive somehow,” I shot back, my voice hardening.

Ronan shook his head, disbelief etched across his face. “Our laws are sacred, Kaine.”

“I know. But Lyra doesn’t need to go through all that. I was the reason she left the pack in the first place. I abandoned her first.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened,” Martha cut in. “The fact remains—Lyra Winters abandoned the pack for six years. She has to face the consequences of her actions under the law. Otherwise, she’ll be exiled.”

“And I fully support her exile,” Ronan jumped in before any of us could even take a breath. “Her presence has already compromised the pack’s security. There are rumors that the Blackwoods are after her.”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. I hadn’t told anyone about that, except…the witch, Salome. My eyes narrowed to slits, realization dawning on me. She was the one spreading the rumors about the Blackwood pack being after Lyra.

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