Page 38 of Wolf Bound

“Will do, boss.”

“We do need to circle back to the discourse going on in the pack. While it’s not on the same danger levels as an all out war between shifters and humans, it is still a problem that needs addressing and a much more immediate threat.”

Penn pulls me down on the couch with him, tucking my hand inside of his with a sweet smile. Wes takes the other spot on the couch while Alaric stays standing beside Drayton. Forrester sits away from us on the small loveseat, an uncomfortable grimace on his face.

I squeeze Penn’s hand tightly in my own, the anxiety surrounding Forrester still weighing heavily in my chest. He’s going to struggle with whatever Drayton has to say, but I don’t know how to help him right now. His pain is far too complex for me to help ease it at the moment.

“Marcus has been going behind our backs to other packs just outside our normal alliance area to try to sow a story of an unstable alpha who is using and abusing his pack to take over the surrounding packs. He’s calling for the alphas to lend him wolves to help overthrow me,” Drayton explains, his voice deepening with anger with every word. “He has sowed discord among our own pack, but not enough to have a clear advantage against me. We have allies in at least one of the packs he reached out to who have been sending us any information they can. They turned him down, but at least two packs have agreed to send him reinforcements.”

“When is he planning to challenge you?” Wes asks, looking between Dray, Penn, and Alaric.

Penn speaks up beside me at Dray’s nod. “We believe it will be very soon, maybe within the next two weeks. Marcus has beenmuch better at covering his tracks than we expected him to be so we don’t have a definitive date.”

“That’s going to make things harder,” Forrester mumbles out, rubbing the stubble along his jaw. “Maybe I can talk to him and see if he’ll confide in me. If we know when it’s going to happen, we can be prepared with allies of our own.”

The whole room falls silent, each of us looking at Forrester in differing levels of confusion. He sighs and rolls his eyes, the sarcastic gesture normal enough for Forr to shock at least some of us out of our surprise.

“I get it. I deserve your shock and confusion, but can we please get back to the discussion?” Forrester grumbles. “I’m doing my best to keep my shit together so that Talia thinks better of me. It has nothing to do with the rest of you assholes.”

I smile at his reasoning, then attempt to hide it by pulling my lips between my teeth. It shouldn’t make me so happy that his effort is mostly for my benefit, but it does. Having your mate go against their very traumatic instincts to do better for you is far better than any grand romantic gesture he could have done.

Penn nudges me with a knowing look on his handsome face. He chuckles under his breath and shakes his head, bringing a giggle out of me. The room breathes again at my giggle and Drayton smiles lovingly at me before talking again.

“You could try to speak to him,” Drayton answers, hesitancy clear in his voice. “I just don’t know how much he’ll actually tell you. It’s not a secret that you’re Talia’s mate just like the rest of us are. I think that’s why he hasn’t attempted to bring you in on his plan at all since you’ve been back. Not to mention, with me out of the way, you are much closer to alpha status than Marcus is which still makes you a threat.”

“Fuck. I didn’t think about that.”

Alaric clears his throat and steps up closer to Drayton. “You are right, though. We do need to be prepared for this attack.We’ve already reached out to our closest allies and they’re prepared to back us up if this becomes bigger than we’ve anticipated. That said, we need to figure out our best approach to having a pack advantage. That means cracking down on the insubordination in some of the heavily influenced wolves and preparing to exile the wolves that are fully committed to Marcus.”

“How are you going to crack down on the in-sub-oooord-in-nation?” I ask, stumbling over the word a little bit. Unease twists in my gut as the idea of anyone within the pack getting hurt makes me extremely uncomfortable.

“There’s punishments already in place for certain types of insubordination. They vary from cleaning duties for a month to exile depending on the type of incident and the number of incidents.” Alaric rubs the back of his neck in thought. “We’ve been lenient since Drayton became alpha to try and give the pack time to acclimate from the change.”

“Which has been a mistake,” Drayton adds with a sigh. “I thought I was doing what was best for the pack since my father was cruel and the challenge was far more violent than ones in the past have been. All I’ve done is weaken the pack, though.”

Penn shakes his head at Drayton. “You didn’t weaken the pack, man. The pack was weakened by the previous leaders and now by Marcus. Showing lenience and empathy after a drastic and traumatic change of leadership is not what put this bullshit into motion. I know the wolves that aren’t being influenced by that dickhead actually respect you far more for the kindness you’ve shown the entirety of the pack, including those that don’t deserve it.”

Drayton smirks at Penn and runs a hand through his hair. “You did tell me that this would be the way I gained the pack’s respect and loyalty.”

“Damn fucking right I did. I saw the outcome of those actions in a vision and I still stand by them,” he responds with a serious expression. “Though I do think with the more serious threat Marcus is posing now, it’s time to shut it down completely. Just remember that showing mercy and benevolence are still better than ruthlessness and cruelty. Don’t rule through fear like your father did.”

“Never.”

I glance at Forrester a few times during the exchange, watching his expression move through various difficult emotions before settling into a look of begrudging respect for his brother. Wes is watching him as well, a shadow of a smile on his face. The pride he has for his pack brother at this moment is beyond touching.

If only Forrester could have seen how much these four men care for him this whole time. How he could look at any of them, especially Drayton, and not see the love and concern they hold for him is a mystery to me. They wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to each other, and now me.

A loud bang sounds outside the house, causing me to jump in surprise. All the men aside from Wes are on their feet in an instant and moving towards the door. Wes pulls me up once the others have moved to check the entrances, then tucks me under his arm.

“Was that a fucking explosion?!” Forrester yells out from the front of the house. “What the fuck is going on?”

“The packlands are being invaded!” Drayton yells out, a deep menacing growl following after.

The men are a flurry of movement around me as Drayton yells out commands to them while speaking to someone on the phone.

“Penn, I want you to shift and go check the explosion at the gates. Alaric, I want you to get everyone willing and able to fightready to defend the rest of the pack and drive the intruders out. We don’t know who is attacking yet, so use caution. Wes and Forrester, evacuate the rest of the wolves from their homes and bring them to the pack house. I want them kept together so we can do a head count and make sure everyone is accounted for.”

I stand behind them all, in a daze of fear and confusion. Is it the humans coming back to take me? Is it Marcus burning down the packlands instead of trying to take them? Is it another threat that we’re unaware of? None of us know the answers, but I refuse to sit on the sidelines in fear for any of them. Our packmates are in danger and that means I need to push past my fear and do something.

---