Page 20 of Rogue If You Want To
And as Creven turned his head, I caught a glimpse of his marks, of which he had multiple layered on top of each other. His mating mark. His mark from being marked rogue. And his mark from becoming pack.
I wondered if one day I too could have a pack. I tried to hint around about it, but just like the questions about my father, they avoided them.
Please, goddess, have them open up to me, because right now, I feel very alone.
11
TORIN
“I’ll be back soon. Just need to check in with Auden and Creven.”
The pair tag-teamed making decisions, though Creven had the final say, with Creven being more thoughtful, whereas Auden was a take-no-prisoners kinda guy.
“You’re hatching something, aren’t you?” My mate was on the sofa, a book balanced on his chest. The day he’d spent with Oak had worn him out.
I made a face. “For that I’d need a nest.”
Otto stared at me, and the seconds dragged on until laughter bubbled out of him. “Very funny. For me to build a nest, I’d have to be pregnant.”
Now it was my turn to stare, open-mouthed. How had we gone from me going to check in with Alpha to Otto talking about babies?
“You lost me.”
“I said hatching, you said nest, and I said pregnancy.” He held up a hand. “I’m not. But otters do build nests or dens before birth.”
My knowledge of shifter lifestyle had huge holes. When all of this was over, I’d need to study.
I reached up and mimed catching a ball. “I got it, finally.”
After blowing my mate a kiss and noting his eyes were already drooping, I headed to Alpha’s office. Creven wasn’t at his desk but talking on the phone in the corner, while Auden was tapping away on the pack laptop.
Though my mate was experiencing fewer nightmares and shifting for short periods, his experience had marked him—not physically, as these scars had healed, but emotionally, he was very fragile.
“Alpha.” I nodded, after witnessing some other pack members, though not all, do the same. “Auden.”
I should’ve been doing something, not letting them use their contacts and authority to find information to use against Lutris. But what good was I, a newbie, who’d never had to fight another beast or go under cover? Not that a wolf shifter could pretend to be an otter.
Creven ended the call. “We have an update.”
Unlike me, my wolf assumed he could battle large and small animals.I can easily take on a bunch of otters.
That’d be a bevy. I was trying to keep the moment light but suspected it was going to get dark pretty darn quick.
“Good or bad?” Neither of them was giving away anything in their expression.
“Something that might help us.” Creven put the phone on the desk but didn’t sit.
Auden took over, saying Lutris, Otto’s brother, wasn't as smart as he thought he was. Most people weren’t, I’d learned.
“Some members of the bevy are beginning to question his version of the stories regarding his father’s death and Otto’s disappearance.”
That was the first positive thing I’d heard since Creven said the pack would protect Otto.
“I spoke to the Alpha of a bear den that borders the bevy territory.”
Not having grown up with shifters, the word “territory” made me think of the Wild West.
The den did business with the bevy, so they were in constant contact, and some of the bevy Betas had hinted at trouble at home. Lower-ranking bevy members had been asking questions because Lutris had just provided a blanket statement about his father and brother.
