Page 19 of Wolf Desired
Maddox tossed his bag onto the bed to the left of the window. Tiernan had already plopped down on the bed to the right. He didn’t exactly want to bunk with a shifter who was going feral—that meant sleeping with one eye open, essentially—but he had little choice. His team leader, the alpha-asshole, had ordered him to bunk with Tiernan.
He’d follow Rafe’s orders, for now. At least until he figured out his next step. His alpha, Drake, had given him strict orders. Maddox couldn’t return to his pack until he completed his mission. Though he could abandon this mission and his pack and become a lone wolf.
Maddox shuddered at the idea. As tempting as being alone sounded, being a lone wolf was dangerous. And lonely. Even the company of his miserable pack was better than being alone. And running wasn’t a guarantee of freedom, not with how his alpha would send guards to track and kill him if he fled. Wolf shifters didn’t defy alphas, especially not in the Novak pack. Completing the mission was the only real option.
A familiar honey scent, coated in bitterness, wafted into his room. Fear.
The female. Tiernan bolted from his bed just as Maddox caught her raised voice down the hall. Kingsley’s voice boomed. Now Rafe’s. Whatever trouble the female had stirred up wasn’t going to end well, especially if Tiernan couldn’t keep his wolf in line.
Maddox slammed a hand against Tiernan’s chest. “Rafe’s handling it.”
A growl ripped from Tiernan’s throat.
Maddox shoved Tiernan back onto the bed. “Are you looking for a reason to be put down, Tiernan?” The shifter was only a scout. In excellent shape, but built to run, not fight, especially a guard. “I don’t know you, but you seem decent enough, so I’ll give you some friendly advice.”
“Friendly advice coming from a white wolf? No thanks.”
“Suit yourself. But you’re staying away from whatever’s happening out there. Because if you lose control again, there are nineteen other shifters on this floor, all capable of putting you down. Where will that leave the female you want to claim? Think of her, if that helps you control your wolf.”
Think of her. Words Maddox should have taken to heart a year ago andnotreturned home. Maybe then Isabella and the others would still be alive.
Tiernan paced, clearly unsettled, but he didn’t try to race out of the room now. Maddox had never been in Tiernan’s position, battling his own wolf, but the shifter still had a chance. All he needed was to blood-bond a female. That’s what Tiernan planned for Artemis.
A twinge of jealousy moved through Maddox as he rubbed his palm where he’d cut it for his blood-bonding ritual three years ago. His wolf had repaired the skin, but sometimes it still felt like his blood-bonding scar was there, beneath the surface. A remnant of the broken bond, perhaps.
At last, the hallway quieted. Rafe clearly had a presence about him, enough to gain control of the situation. He’d soon have all the shifters here answering to him. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. Even if Maddox didn’t personally care for the alpha heir, the shifter was reasonable. For an alpha.
The DSA didn’t know the danger they’d put the humans in by taking shifters from different packs. Expecting all these shifters to remain on their best behavior because of a treaty that most of them didn’t have much faith in to begin with was just asking for trouble. The shifters needed an alpha to take charge.
As Maddox opened the door, the distinct absence of Artemis’s scent struck him. She’d left the floor.
“Where are you going?” Tiernan asked as he turned over on his bed and faced Maddox.
“None of your business. I don’t answer to you or anyone else.”
“Except Rafe.”
“Hardly,” Maddox said out of reflex. He’d listen to Rafe—for now—but he certainly would never bow to another alpha, not after Drake Novak and his uncle Logan before him. At times, Maddox still toyed with the idea of running just to get away from asshole alphas, but being a lone wolf meant a life of utter isolation. He wasn’t sure he could survive that, especially after the loss of Isabella had emptied his soul.
“Rafe’s not so bad. Comes from a pack in Montana. They got hit pretty hard by the virus, not like our packs, Maddox.”
“You know me?” Maddox asked. He was sure no one here had known his name.
“I’m a scout. Liam Greyson’s pack.”
That explained it. Greyson’s pack bordered Maddox’s. While their alphas didn’t exactly get along, they had a loose alliance. But alliance didn’t mean they trusted one another.
“Scout is a euphemism for spy,” Maddox said. “Rather daring of you to cross into Drake’s territory.”
“Necessity. My alpha doesn’t trust him.”
No surprise there. Drake wasn’t trusted or liked by anyone, especially his own pack. Few in Maddox’s pack deserved any trust. They were as disjointed and lawless as a group of shifters could be. Drake ruled with iron claws, not literally, but close enough.
Drake’s older brother Hayden was one of the few shifters Maddox respected in his pack. To everyone’s surprise, he’d returned recently. Mated, confident, an alpha in his own right, though he technically belonged to Damien Black’s pack now. Hayden was probably the only shifter who could rein Drake in and mend the pack.
“How many died in your pack?” Maddox asked, changing the subject. “We lost over thirty. Males and females, but no children.” Because they didn’t have many children. They had so few females because of the asshole alphas in their pack had terrorized many of the females over time and they’d run off. Except for his Isabella.
She would have been better off if she’d run.
