Caine

“What?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Theo said.

I leaned against the cells bars heavily, and closed my eyes for a second. I hadn’t expected for Theo to say that. Tristan was bringing my parents to Locus Pack. Nothing good could come from that decision.

“He wants for Caine to agree to something?” I asked.

“He knows that if you ask your mate for anything, he will give it to you. They have your parents. My guess is they will try to bargain with Alpha Caine for your parents.”

I had assumed that much myself, and the idea of it made me go stone cold.

“I’m so sorry, Charlotte. I really am,” Theo said, stretching his arms out of the cell to wrap them around me.

We stood for a minute or two in silence, with Theo holding me awkwardly through the cells. I imagined the position was uncomfortable for him, but he didn’t complain.

“They shouldn’t be doing this. I never thought they would bring your parents into this fight. It is wrong, and it goes against pack law.”

“This is Tristan and his greedy ways,” I spat out, bitterly.

Theo nodded. “It has his name written all over it.”

“I’m going to talk to Caine again, you know,” I said, my voice very quiet.

The Wolves that Caine had put to watch over me were distracted talking amongst themselves. They were practically ignoring me. Since they were blocking the only path out of the lower level, they weren’t really worried about me running away.

“Talk to him about what?” Theo asked, finally releasing me. He still held my hand in his, a soft look in his eyes. He felt bad for me. He didn’t have to say it, but it was clear in the way he was looking at me.

“I want him to let you go. I should have fought with him about it when he captured you. You don’t deserve this, Theo.”

“Don’t do that,” Theo told me, frowning all of a sudden.

“I’m still going to do it. I don’t need your pride getting in the way.”

“I’m not allowed to have any pride left?” Theo asked, smiling

“Not when it comes to this.”

“Your mate has had me locked up for months. He isn’t going to let me go all of a sudden. I don’t want you fighting for me, Charlotte.”

“Maybe I want you by my side, free.”

Theo smiled sadly at me, and he squeezed my hand. “The day Alpha Derek told us you were dead, I was furious. I went on a dark streak, trying to find any Rogue that neared Knight Territory. It was awful to find out that the Wolf I blamed for killing you had really been the one who rescued you after Alpha Derek kicked you out of the pack.”

“Liam saved me. But I’m here now, Theo. I would like if you’d stayed here, with me.”

Theo shook his head, and he let go of my hand. “I kind of imagined you were going to say something like that at some point. No offense to you or Locus Pack, but when your mate lets me go, I want to go back home.”

I couldn’t even begin to describe how much it hurt to hear him say that, although I should’ve expected it. Theo was loyal, not just to me but to Knight Pack.

“Even though they are trying to hurt my pack?” I asked.

“I would never do anything to harm you, and you know that, Char. But Knight Pack is my home. I’m not going to help your mate or your pack, but I won’t do anything to bring you harm. You have my word.”

I left Theo after a quick goodbye. He had left me thinking. I still couldn’t get over the fact that Theo wanted to continue being part of Knight Pack. I understood his loyalty, but I couldn’t hide how I felt about it.

I was distracted on my way up the stairs, so much that I almost tripped on the last step up and one of the babysitters had to steady me. Alpha Dylan had a good point about how uncoordinated I was.

“Where is Caine?”

“He is with the Macon, Luna,” the Wolf who had helped me, replied.

“When will he be back, do you know?”

He shook his head. They all followed closer to me, now that I seemed to be in bad shape. They were looking at me with worried eyes. I imagined that I was looking like crap, and they were concerned.

“Are you okay, Luna?”

The Wolf, his name was Samuel, seemed to be in charge of the rest. I had seen him around the pack before. We had never talked, but he had been present plenty of times when I was around Caine or during gatherings.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

They left me alone when I walked into the office Caine had in the pack building. It was spacey and comfortable looking. I smiled when I saw a picture of Caine and me on his desk. That was weird. I remembered it being taken during a pack gathering, weeks before. I never thought Caine would be the type of person to have a picture of us on his desk.

In spite of the number of times I had been at the pack building, I’d rarely ever stepped foot in his office. It had never been necessary. He spent so little time in there when I was around. Every time I had needed to visit the pack building, I ended up in one of the large conference rooms or in the cells downstairs.

I took a seat on the black, comfortable looking futon, which had a blanket thrown over it. It smelled heavily of Caine. I figured that was where he crashed when he was mad at me, not that he did much sleeping. I believed him when he said he couldn’t sleep without me. The tired look in his eyes was enough prove of that.

I was distracted with thoughts about Caine and what had been happening with us lately; the phone on his desk ringing loudly startled me.

Samuel ran into Caine’s office without knocking after he heard my shriek. I laughed, although I couldn’t keep the blush from creeping onto my face.

“Luna…” Samuel said, questioningly.

“I’m fine. It’s the phone, it… scared me…” I said, embarrassingly. I felt jumpy, and there was no way in hell I was going to admit to that, especially to Samuel.

“Oh, uh, you should get that,” Samuel awkwardly said. He nodded at me once, asked me again if I was okay, and quickly walked out of the room.

The phone started ringing a second time when I finally answered it.

“Caine,” Alpha Dylan said on the other side of the line.

“He’s not here right now,” I told him, sighing and trying to catch my breath.

“Charlotte?” I could picture him frowning when he said my name.

“Yup, it’s me. What do you need?”

“Where is Caine? I tried his cell phone but he didn’t pick up,” Alpha Dylan said, sounding worried.

“I don’t really know if Caine even has his phone. It’s been a crazy day.”

I took a seat on Caine’s chair, and got comfortable. His desk was really neat. I didn’t really picture him sitting behind his desk, doing work. It was too neat, and he didn’t have any papers all over the place. That was how he usually worked in the conference room, with Victor or Macon. Even his office at our house looked more lived in than that room.

“Where is he?”

“Who knows,” I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me. “What exactly did you tell him about Tristan?”

“I told him that one of my trackers had spotted a Knight Wolf nearing your area.”

“That’s a good excuse.”

“I know,” he said.

“Yeah, you know,” I said, sarcastically.

Alpha Dylan sighed, and then he laughed. “What are you doing in Caine’s office?”

“Oh, by any chance, you didn’t happen to hear about a possible attack from some psychos in Knight Pack?”

“Was that supposed to be funny?” he asked, dryly.

“Not to you. You don’t have a sense of humor.” Alpha Dylan just grunted in reply. “Derek is trying to annoy Caine so he’s been asking him about me. Now Caine’s paranoid and he wants me to be surrounded by as many pack Wolves as he can,” I said.

“That makes sense,” Alpha Dylan said, agreeing.

“Sure it does.”

“Do you know when Caine will be back? I have news,” Alpha Dylan said.

“News about… Derek?”

“In case you missed the memo, Caine and I discuss other things, not just Derek.”

“Things like…”

“Like none of your business. When Caine arrives, tell him to call me back. It’s important.”

Alpha Dylan had his usual no-nonsense-I-can-kick-your-ass tone, which hardly worked on me. In the past, I had thought of his as intimidating. Although that imagine still remained, I wasn’t scared of him anymore.

“Important, hmm, like the business call from last night that kept you from accompanying Blake?” I asked, teasingly.

“Charlotte,” Alpha Dylan snapped, but it wasn’t as harsh as he usually did.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell him you called. Thanks again for earlier, you know, telling Caine about Tristan’s arrival and all that.”

“I already told you that you don’t have to thank me,” he said, his tone definitely softening up from his usual harshness.

“Well, whatever, thanks. I’ll tell Caine.”

I had just placed the phone back on Caine’s desk when he walked into the room. He was still wearing the same clothes he had on before he left. I assumed he hadn’t shifted into his Wolf.

“Who were you on the phone with?” Caine asked, seriously.

He looked so suspicious of me. I figured that had something to do with the two times I’d seen Valco, since I had refused to share anything about him.

“Alpha Dylan called. He’s been trying to reach you on your phone but he said you didn’t answer.”

“Dylan?” Caine asked, like if he didn’t believe me.

“You can call him back and ask him. I’m not lying to you.” I deserved that, probably—the way he was looking at me with distrustful eyes. “We need to talk.”

“I know,” Caine said.

I shook my head about him. “This isn’t about last night or about yesterday. I just talked to Theo. He has some theories.”

“Theo,” Caine repeated, not sounding amused. “What about him?”

“I don’t know if you know this, but Tristan has my parents,” I said, closing my eyes for a few seconds and taking a deep breath.

“That is common knowledge. What about it?” Caine asked, cocking an eyebrow and crossing his arms over his chest. He made it seem like if I was about to invent a story or something. I could already see the judgment in his eyes.

“No, I mean, he is bringing them. Tristan has them, and he’s going to use them to get what he wants.”

My words finally got his attention. Now he was frowning at me, creases forming on his forehead. In just seconds his eyes were as dark as night.

“Do you know what that means? I can’t believe he’s doing this!”

“They belong to Knight Pack, Charlotte,” Caine said. I expected him to continue talking, to explain more of his thoughts. He didn’t really have any.

“I know that!”

“We’re not going to mess with Knight Pack for this,” he said, with finality in his tone that made me want to slap him so hard.

“You’re joking, right? This is you making a sick joke because you’re still mad at me.” I knew as I said the words that Caine was being serious, but for a moment I allowed myself to think that he was kidding.

“We can try to get them to join Locus Pack,” Caine suggested, but he didn’t even sound convincing. “But there is no point in getting into a fight with Tristan. He won’t hurt them. They are Knight Wolves.”

“They are my parents!” I snapped, walking up to him. The way he was casually speaking bothered the hell out of me.

“They are members of Knight Pack. I am telling you right now that he will not hurt them.”

“But you will risk it?”

His silence was all the confirmation I needed. I went from being worried about my parents to being royally pissed off at Caine. Things between us seemed to be going from worse to whatever followed.

“We can’t talk about that here,” Caine said. “We’re going home.” The moment he tried to take my hand, I snatched it out of his reach.

I walked back home, not bothering to wait around for him. Caine seemed to want the distance I put between us. He followed behind me, giving me my space. I wasn’t sure whether that made me angrier or not.

Adam was at the house when we got there. One look at Caine and me, and he quickly shot out an excuse, claiming that Victor was calling him. I could see through his lie, but it was better that he wasn’t there to see Caine and I argue.

“I want my parents,” I stated, deciding that Caine had to know I wasn’t going to back down. I couldn’t even believe that he was thinking about ignoring Tristan’s request.

“Tristan hasn’t mentioned your parents to me, and neither has Derek,” Caine calmly said, taking a seat on the chair behind his desk. I was standing across from him.

“Alright, what happens if they do?”

Caine looked away from me. He didn’t exactly get a guilty look on his face, because I doubted he felt guilty about it. But just from how his posture stiffened, I assumed he wasn’t going to do anything about it.

“So you’re just going to let it happen?” I asked, quietly, more to myself than to him.

“The reason they brought your parents was to get a rise of out you, thinking that would get a rise out of me.”

“But that is clearly not the case because you don’t care about my parents,” I finished for him, flatly.

I shook my head, and took a few steps back. Suddenly, the distance between us felt like it wasn’t enough. I needed to get away from him and quickly. “Liam wanted me to call him today,” I lied, and tried to walk out of the room.

Caine was out of his chair, blocking my path, before I’d even made it to the door. “I didn’t necessarily say I wasn’t going to do anything.”

“You implied it, and I accept that. They are my parents, not yours.”

Caine cringed at my words. I didn’t realize he would even care about it, since he was basically condemning my parents by deciding not to do anything. Despite what he said, I could clearly tell that he wasn’t about to start a fight with Tristan for my family.

“What does Liam want?”

“He wanted to make sure I was doing fine. I just have to check in,” I replied. “I have to go.” It was all a lie, obviously. I hadn’t heard anything from Liam yet. I had still been debating on getting in touch with him. Caine’s reluctance to get involved with Tristan over my parents was what finally made me decide I had to call Liam. If Caine didn’t want to help me, I knew Liam would.

“You’re lying,” Caine stated.

“I have to go,” I repeated.

“You’re mad at me.”

“I have a right to feel however I want. It’s my parents that are kidnapped, not yours.”

“Kidnapped?” Caine asked, and he chuckled humorlessly. “Now your parents are kidnapped? We still don’t know their position in all this. What guarantees do I have that your parents aren’t in on it?” The harshness of his tone and words hit me harder than I’d thought possible.

Caine and I had been at it since the day before. I shouldn’t have been surprised by his attitude, yet I still found his bluntness too cruel.

“Then we have nothing else to talk about,” I quietly said.

Caine wrapped his arms around my waist. The strength he was using was enough to keep me still, but I didn’t dare look up at him. I was disappointed. It was horrible. The feeling of dread and loneliness was slowly creeping through every part of my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking that Caine was forcing me to ask other people for help because he wouldn’t, yet he had enough power to get my parents back.

“This isn’t about us,” he said, placing his hand under my chin to make me look up at him.

“If that’s what you really think, than you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

“Can you guarantee that your parents aren’t going to betray me—that this isn’t all a trap and they’re in on it?”

The first answer that came to my mind was ‘yes’, I could definitely guarantee that it wasn’t a trick. My parents needed me and I needed him. But then I thought about my mother, and how devoted she was to the pack.

My silence made him get a confident look that I wanted to wipe off with a slap.

“You can’t, can you?”

“If you aren’t going to help me, fine, whatever,” I shrugged.

“I will if I see that they are in danger. I won’t intervene beforehand. I’ve met your parents. Your mother…” he said.

“Fine,” I snapped.

Caine reluctantly let go of me. I walked to the kitchen, not because I was hungry or going to eat. That was just the first place that I trailed off to after Caine opened the door to his study.

‘Luna?’

I couldn’t really believe I’d let my guard down enough to have someone snooping into my thoughts. It was weirder because Brandon had been the one that slipped through.

‘It’s me, Brandon, from last night. Do you remember?’

He sounded shy and nervous in my mind. It was strange to hear from him, but not surprising. I knew that when Caine realized I was gone, he had gotten everyone in the pack up to go look for me. Brandon had been doing rounds, since he was the one who had basically given me the chance to leave. I almost expected him to start accusing me of distracting him.

‘I remember. Did you need something?’

‘I was wondering if I could see you later, possibly.’ The nerves kicked into his voice again, and I fully heard it.

‘Sure, just drop by the house when you’re free.’ I didn’t give Brandon a chance to start scolding me, if that was what he intended to do. I blocked him from my mind, while wondering what he could possibly want. He sounded too nervous, not at all like if he was mad at me for the night before.

“Charlotte?” Caine called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

He was standing at the entrance of the kitchen, looking at me weirdly. “Is something wrong?”

“I was talking to a Wolf from the pack. What did you need?” I wanted Caine to take off, to leave and take care of his stuff. I didn’t want to be around him any longer than I had to. My Wolf felt like snapping at him just because he was in the same room.

My Wolf and I, we were the same person—that was a given. That didn’t stop me from disagreeing with the part of me that my Wolf controlled. She always picked what was in Caine’s best interest, which had actually brought me trouble, because I disagreed with my Wolf a lot. Lately, I found myself agreeing a whole lot more with my Wolf, and it was starting to worry me. I felt a wedge between Caine and I—which grew bigger thanks to the resentment my Wolf and I carried, and the decisions Caine had been making lately.

“Victor and Macon are overseeing some things for me. We can go out for a run.”

I looked at him through narrowed eyes. Caine was just standing there, waiting for me to answer him. He was trying to appear calm, but I could tell he was far from. His eyes were really focused on me, and they were swirling between green, gray, and black.

“Do you think now is the moment to be doing that?” I laughed. I just couldn’t help it. He made it seem like if we hadn’t been arguing for the past two days. It wasn’t like our problems started in the last few days, though. Caine and I had had problems since the moment we laid eyes on each other. I had naively assumed that we were past that. His actions had proved that I was utterly mistaken.

“Now is as good time as any. My Wolf could use the run,” he replied, taking a few steps deeper inside the kitchen.

I smiled at him, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. I was ready to tease the hell out of him. He had been shifting into his Wolf a lot lately. If anything, I was the one who needed to let my Wolf out. But I realized that if I was playful with him, Caine would wrongfully assume that all was fine and dandy between us.

“We can go for a run,” I said.

“I was hoping we could talk,” Caine added.

“We are talking.”

“We have been arguing.” His voice grew stern, but he was still talking to me softly and in a low voice. “You are keeping things from me, Charlotte. I don’t like that.”

“Why? You think you’re the only one who has a right to keep secrets?” The taunt in my voice was unintentional, not that Caine cared with how loudly he growled at me.

“What secrets am I keeping?” Caine asked, defensively and rather aggressively.

I sighed at him, and shook my head. “I guess you aren’t keeping any secrets. We can go for a run. I feel like chasing something fast.”

Being outside with Caine, in the woods, was a nice change from the last few days. It wasn’t that I’d been locked up the entire time, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to enjoy the woods as much. I had a thousand things running through my mind, but I set it all aside.

It was easier to ignore my human problems when I was running through the woods in my Wolf form. Caine was running ahead of me, what with me wanting to chase something. I had easily caught up to him several times. Caine would start running faster—I would catch up to him each and every time. If anything, at least I was really fast.

Caine had dragged us to the other side of pack, the territory that Brandon had suggested I run in. He was right. It was quiet and deserted. Locus Territory ran miles and miles of isolated space that our Wolves didn’t use. I had been in that area, at least the outskirts part of it, before. I had never had a chance to actually run inside it. Caine was a good guide. He explained everything about the piece of land we were in, and he knew the area really well.

He shifted back into his human form a little over an hour after we started running. We were alone, in the middle of the woods. I couldn’t even hear anyone else from the pack with how far away we’d ran. The good thing was that we were still in Locus Territory.

“Shift back,” Caine said.

He was standing in front of my Wolf, a few feet away. His gaze was on me. I could tell his Wolf was at bay—his eyes were a deep green, mixing with black. They looked beautiful. He looked absolutely breathtaking. He must’ve known it. Caine never had a problem parading himself in front of me naked, and that day wasn’t the exception.

Both of us had shredded our clothes before shifting. We had both jumped in the air, and given in to our instincts of shifting. I was in it for the chase. Just before shifting, Caine said, “Show me how angry you are”. I wasn’t sure if that was meant to push me to catch him or if he was just provoking me. Whatever it was—it worked. I had known that in my Wolf form, I was faster than him. I still couldn’t understand why, but I knew it was true. Nothing compared to how easy I caught up to him now that I was angry. I could feel that Caine was pushing himself to outrun me, but he hadn’t been able to. That experience had been both amusing and thrilling.

“Shift back, Charlotte. We need to talk.” The seriousness in his voice made me roll my eyes.

“Our talks never get us anywhere,” I told him once I shifted back.

“Your Wolf is angry with me,” Caine said.

“We both are. Hey, you made my Wolf and I agree on something for once. You should be proud of yourself,” I shrugged, and laughed when Caine frowned at me.

“Tell me who the Wolf you have been seeing is, and I will release Theo.” I had been expecting Caine to say so many crazy things to get back on my good side, but nothing could have shocked me as much as his offer.

“Why are you saying that?”

“One of your guards overheard you talking with Theo. I will let him go. Just give me the name of the Rogue.”

“Wow… you, Caine, are unbelievable, and not in a good way.”

Nudity, as it happened, was the last thing on my mind after Caine’s offer. I was aware that I was naked, and that Caine was too. But I couldn’t even admire him while he was saying things that only ticked me off more.

“Why did you even bring me out here? You could have told me that back home, I would’ve said no, and I wouldn’t be stuck with you.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you. I just thought about it right now. I didn’t think your Wolf would agree with you on this. We are Pack Wolves. She should be pressuring you to tell me who the Rogue is, especially if he is dangerous.”

“He isn’t!”

I could practically feel the waves of anger rolling off of Caine. I wasn’t used to them. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen him angry at me before. He just looked really mad or jealous, one of the two. He was glaring at me. “You’re defending him?”

“He would help me get my parents back if I asked him.”

Caine was in my face in seconds, wrapping his arms around my waist painfully tight. He had picked me up from the ground, easily, as always. I was small compared to him. “We don’t know the situation your parents are in,” Caine practically snarled.

“But you won’t even try to get them back,” I said, accusingly.

“I will, if I know that they are in danger, but not before that. I will not attack Tristan blindly. It would be foolish of me, and that is exactly what he expects. You claim to be really smart—I am surprised you’re falling for their little stunt.” He was speaking so low, but it all sounded threatening. Caine was seriously pissed off. His eyes were completely black now, and I could feel his heart pounding fast in his chest.

His claws had extracted and were digging into my skin. I couldn’t even get a word out even though there was a lot I wanted to say. He had basically called me dumb, and he didn’t seem to feel bad about it.

“What are you going to do about my parents? Forget about the Rogue and what you did to me-”

“I mated with you, and you liked it,” Caine stated, his hard eyes staring deeply into mine, “didn’t you? That is why you’re mad at me. You hate that you liked it.”

“You left.”

“I was angry.”

“That’s your excuse? You were mad, and that gives you the right to treat me the way you did?”

Caine crashed his lips against mine, his arms somehow crushing me even more against his chest. He felt so warm, and I wanted to fight him off, but I couldn’t. Just one kiss, I kept telling myself. But his hands started roaming everywhere.

“We can’t do this,” I mumbled, my lips brushing against his when I spoke.

Caine continued to kiss me, ignoring my words. Unlike the past two days, he was being gentle. The way he held me, kissed me, and spoke to me were significantly different.

When I finally pulled away from him, I was feeling both guilty and proud of myself. Caine had tried to start something up, right there in the middle of the woods. It was mainly what snapped me out of the self-indulgent moment I was having with Caine.

I shifted into my Wolf before Caine had any more opportunities to convince me that there was nothing wrong with mating with him.

‘Charlotte,’ Caine called after me, his Wolf following closely behind mine.

‘You just don’t see things, Caine.’ I replied, and sped up.

By the time I made it home, I was on my own. Victor had called Caine—something about Tristan. Caine seemed rather calm when he was leaving, so I imagined it wasn’t anything important. He tried to kiss me, but I pushed him away before he got the chance.

He wanted me to give in to him without even talking things out. Caine didn’t see a problem with what had happened after we’d mated. He felt a little guilty, I could see that. But Caine didn’t dare apologize. He had too much pride for that.

I’d been at the house for only five minutes when someone knocked on the door. I finished changing into comfortable clothes, and quickly made my way downstairs. I could already feel Brandon on the other side.

He looked nervous. That was the first thing I noticed when I opened the front door.

“What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something, you know, Wolf to Wolf…” he said, letting his sentence trail off.

“Wolf to Wolf,” I repeated.

“Can I come in?”

I stepped away from the door and led him into the living room. Brandon was fully dressed, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, unlike the last time I’d seen him. I still smiled because even though he was younger than me, he looked older. Not by much—it was mainly his height and muscular build that made him slightly intimidating.

“What exactly do you need?”

“Uh…”

“Is this about last night?” I asked him, because it was the only thing that came to mind. Brandon had never approached me before. He’d known who I was, of course, but he had only ever said ‘hello’ or bowed at me. I’d barely even recognized him the first time I saw him. I still didn’t know every Wolf in Locus Pack, and that was embarrassing.

“Elijah was hounding all of us. The Alpha knows that you had to sneak out through somewhere. I didn’t know you didn’t have permission to leave,” Brandon quietly said.

“I didn’t need permission…” I said, shaking my head. “Who exactly am I supposed to ask permission?”

Brandon went quiet. He looked surprised but also freaked out. “Elijah said-”

“I know what Elijah said,” but I didn’t. I just had a good idea of the things Elijah told the trackers and what their job description included. “Caine has his own agenda. I get it. I needed to go into town, and you could say that I tricked you. Did that get you into trouble?”

Brandon shook his head, but he was looking down at the ground.

“What happened, Brandon?”

“The Beta was talking the other day. He said that you can be difficult with your guards, but you don’t have any official guards right now,” he started to say.

“I do, actually. I have three,” I said, remembering Macon, Lesley, and Adam.

“How come they’re not here right now?” Brandon asked, looking up at me.

When I cocked an eyebrow, Brandon blushed and looked away. I wanted to laugh, but I was scared that would make him feel bad.

“What do you want?”

He hesitated. I could see the indecision in his eyes, or maybe it was fear. I couldn’t decide. I had to ask again before Brandon gave me an answer.

“I could be your guard.”

I looked at him weirdly for a full minute, wondering if he’d really just asked me that question. “You want to be my guard?”

“With what’s happening, the Alpha needs the third in command by his side. Lesley is one of the main Wolves in our fighters. And I don’t know much about Adam, but he spends a lot of time at the pack building… and not by your side.”

“I still can’t believe that you want to be my guard.”

“It’s an honor,” he said, sounding amazed just by the words.

I snorted and shook my head. “No, it’s not, trust me.”

“Yeah it is. A lot of Wolves want the position. The Alpha already told the Beta to start working on it,” Brandon added.

“Working on getting me guards? What a waste of time. I already have guards!” Brandon took a step back when I snapped. It really wasn’t my intention to freak him out. “You can’t cower away from me, Brandon.”

“I’m not,” he defended, but even that sounded weak.

“Have you heard that for a Wolf, I’m kind of wimpy? You can’t be scared of a wimpy Wolf,” I told him, flatly.

“I can be scared of your position. But this isn’t fear, Luna, it is respect.”

His words left me silent. Brandon smiled at me kindly, which was something I wasn’t used to. It wasn’t that people were mean to me, because no one was mean. I was used to people either being annoyed, tired of babysitting me, scared of me because of Caine, or for them to simply not care. It was very few people who genuinely wanted to be friendly with me, and I didn’t count pack members in that bunch. They were nice, but they also feared my title.

“Caine is going to want a girl. I’m not sure why you guys are even talking about this behind my back, but I can already tell you that he will want a girl.”

“Not anymore,” Brandon said, shaking his head.

“You know about that?” I asked, half surprised that he knew about Caine’s paranoia with leaving me alone with guys.

“I saw what he did to the Wolves that captured you when he first found you. It wasn’t pretty. The threats he made to every Wolf in the pack after that were clear enough,” Brandon said, and I didn’t miss the second when his eyes went completely black.

“You weren’t part of them,” I told him, frowning. I remembered the Wolves that had taken me, the day that Lesley had been stalking me all over town.

They had been suspicious of me because I’d been with Rogue Wolves—it had mainly been Adam who I was with. Lesley and her group had stupidly thought I was a Wolf and somehow, I’d been masking my scent. That was the dumbest things I’d ever heard.

When Caine arrived at the Locus Pack cells, where I’d been held prisoner, his Wolf had immediately recognized me as his mate. I knew that he had punished every Wolf involved in hurting and capturing me, but he had never told me what exactly he’d done.

“My brother Steven was part of the group—I don’t know if you know him,” Brandon said, somberly.

“I’ve seen Steven,” I told him, because he’d been around. I knew his name, but I had never personally spoken to him. He usually kept his distance. But he and Lesley were friends, and Steven had been around when Caine or Victor were handing out orders.

“He’s with the fighters.”

“What did Caine do to the Wolves that took me that day?”

Brandon stayed quiet, but he was looking at me intently, like if he was deciding whether to tell me or not. “My brother Steven used to be the leader of the fighters,” he started to say.

“Not anymore?”

Brandon shook his head. “Alpha Caine hates Rogues.”

“I know,” I nodded. I was well aware of Caine’s disdain for Rogues.

“After Andrew, the Alpha’s brother, betrayed him, he got a lot worse. I’d barely shifted into my Wolf when it happened. I was still a pup. Andrew took everyone in the pack by surprise. Since my brother was the leader of the fighters, we had a lot of privileges. The day my brother, Lesley, and all those other Wolves took you, Alpha Caine punished them.”

“How?”

“With a decima,” he said, speaking so low, I barely heard him.

“A what?” I asked, frowning at the sad look on Brandon’s face.

“He punished them with a decima—the ten Wolves that were responsible, the ones that hurt you and captured you.”

“What is that—a decima?”

“The Alpha picks a group of Wolves that cause the offense, throws them in an area, and makes them fight each other.”

“They fight each other…” I whispered. I couldn’t even begin explaining the haunted look in Brandon’s eyes.

“They rip each other apart until only one Wolf is left,” Brandon said.

He continued talking, giving me details and explaining other rules, but I was barely even listening. His words were graphic. I could picture what he was telling me, and it was making my stomach twist in disgust. What Caine did to them was bloody and brutal. Brandon said that the only reason three out of the ten Wolves had survived—Lesley and Steven had been two of the three Wolves—was because I had woken up and Caine decided to call the decima off.

The respect I had for Lesley suddenly multiplied. She had been the only She-Wolf in the decima, and she had survived. Everyone talked about how She-Wolves were always weaker. Few shifters mentioned She-Wolves like Lesley, who were more capable than male Wolves.

“Where is your brother right now? I mean, is he okay?”

“He’s fine. The leaders are chosen because of their abilities,” Brandon explained.

“Yes, I know. I mean, I don’t know all the technicalities, but in my other pack, they chose leaders like that. We had two for each position.”

“Locus Pack also has two, but one of them is the main one. Steven was the main leader of the fighters. He lost the position after what happened with you and Lesley. Lesley was his second in charge. She also lost her position. Alpha Caine always thought that Steven allowed Lesley too many liberties. She was the one who called all the shots when you were captured. Steven took the bigger fall, though. At least Lesley was able to redeem herself by becoming your guard. Steven wasn’t.”

“I can’t believe all this.”

“You’re the Luna,” Brandon shrugged, weakly. “It was a fair punishment. It still sucked.”

“I’m sorry, Brandon. I had no clue any of this had happened.”

I felt bad. I wasn’t sure what to tell Brandon. I still remembered the day that Lesley had taken me to Locus Pack. I had hated her and the rest of the Wolves. Although I’d asked Caine to tell me what he had done to them, he had never shared it with me. I never really pushed him anymore after that. My curiosity faded and I forgot about it.

“You won’t get anything out of being my guard, Brandon. I’m boring, I honestly doubt that being my guard will raise your status in the pack, and now I feel bad for what happened to your brother because of me.”

“I didn’t mean to bring it up, Luna. I’m not even here because of that. I’m part of the trackers, but I don’t have a leadership position. The Luna of Midnight Moon has a guard just like me—he’s a tracker and he doesn’t have a position. I thought it would be a good idea,” he shrugged.

I smiled at his deduction. He was right about Leila and Eric, except the only reason they’d gotten paired up was because Alpha Dylan had shoved Leila with Eric. I really doubted that Caine was just going to let me pick my guard, for him to be a guy, and for my guard to be so young. Lesley was two years older than me, and Macon was Caine’s age. They were young, but they were experienced.

Brandon was still learning the rules of the pack. He had practically already let me walk all over him, and Caine wouldn’t appreciate that.

“I still don’t know why you want to be my guard. Trust me, it’s nothing special.”

“I think it is. Besides that, Elijah is still trying to figure out who was the one that let you slip through. In case you forgot, it was me. I’m going to be in trouble for it. But if I’m your guard, he’ll forget about it. I’m sort of protected from all of them. I will only take orders from you or the Alpha.”

Brandon sounded excited as he said that, like if taking orders from Caine or me was the coolest thing in the world. I didn’t understand his enthusiasm, but it made me smile.

‘We’re all headed your way, Charlotte. Just a heads up,’ Lesley said. I felt like it was the day to mind link with Charlotte. I’d only had Lesley in my mind a handful of times. It was weird each and every time. She wasn’t much for mind linking, or talking. I thanked her for the warning, although I wasn’t sure why she’d called me.

Five minutes later, Caine arrived at the house with Victor, Macon, Lesley, Elijah, a Wolf named Parker, and Brett—the leader of the fighters.

Brandon and I had been in the living room. I was sitting on the couch, and Brandon was standing directly in front of me. When Caine walked into the room, we both looked up at him, and at the group that followed behind.

His eyes landed on Brandon first. Caine was frowning, looking suspiciously at Brandon, until his eyes drifted to me.

“Brandon?” Elijah asked, sounding surprised to find him there.

“What’s up?” I asked, getting up from my seat, and standing beside Brandon. He was looking nervous. His eyes had drifted to the ground, as if he was waiting to be punished or something.

“We are going to have a meeting. I want you present,” Caine told me, but he was still glaring at Brandon.

“Great,” I said. They were all trying to pretend like they didn’t notice the tension in the room

“I should go,” Brandon mumbled.

“What are you doing here anyways?” Elijah asked, at the same time that Caine told Brandon he shouldn’t have been there.

“You don’t have to leave, Brandon.” I looked around the room. They all looked between shocked or uncomfortable after I spoke. Caine was just mad. “As my new guard, you should start getting used to being around here.”

Caine growled at my words. That must’ve been what made Lesley stifle her laugh, although she was going red and grinning like crazy. Apparently, she found the situation hilarious. When Brett turned to scolded her, Lesley straightened up, but she was still smiling.

“Charlotte, a minute,” Caine said. He grabbed my elbow in a strong grip and dragged me out of the room.

As we were leaving, I could hear Elijah and Parker both question Brandon on what he was doing there and why he was causing problems. Their tones made me angry. It wasn’t his fault.

“What are you doing?” Caine asked me through gritted teeth. “Why is that pup in the living room? He isn’t going to be your new guard,” he said, definitively.

“I enjoyed it.”

My reply caught him off guard. Caine released the strong grip he had on my hand and took a few steps back. “What are you talking about?”

“When we mated—I enjoyed it. I only think it sucked real bad that you took off like you did. The way you’re treating this thing with my parents is only making things worse.”

“Are you trying to distract me?”

“No,” I shook my head.

“What is Brandon doing here? He’s still in high school, Charlotte. Am I supposed to have him guard you whenever school lets out?”

“We can work things out.”

“No we can’t. He is too young, and he is still in school. If you were in school, it would be a different story.”

“It’s summer, Caine. He’s not in school right now. Why are you even worrying about that? Who knows, maybe by the time school rolls around, I’ll also join the trackers and not need a babysitter,” I told him, smiling cheekily. It was the first time in a while that I was actually smiling genuinely at Caine.

Caine was frowning at me. “You’re not joining the trackers.”

“We’ll talk about that later, when summer ends. Right now, I’m asking you to allow Brandon to be my guard. I’ll let go of the whole mating thing,” I said, uncomfortably. I still felt it hanging over our heads, though, and it was bothering me.

“Have you thought about what I said?” he asked, closing the distance between us.

He didn’t try to hold me, but he was standing less than a foot away. He was so close to me, I felt the electricity firing up between us even though we weren’t touching. It made a shiver run through my body.

“Theo will only go once every Wolf is free. He is loyal to Knight Pack.”

“That should be a red flag that you shouldn’t trust him, Charlotte,” Caine said, sternly.

“I don’t share things with him. I mean, I’ve hardly seen him these last couple of weeks.”

“I still want the name of that Rogue. I will get it one way or another, but I would like for you to make it easier for me.”

“I have nothing else to say. Yes or no to Brandon?” I asked, changing the subject.

Caine stared at me for a long time. I felt self-conscious with the way his eyes roamed everywhere in my face, and the he started openly checking me out. When I began squirming where I was standing, because Caine still hadn’t said anything, he started chuckling.

“I love that I can still make you nervous,” he said, in his usual cool, low voice. “Brandon can stay, but I have rules. Macon will talk to him.”

He took my hand before I could object, and tugged on it. I followed him out of the room and back to where the rest of the Wolves were waiting for us. Caine was smiling, which was strange. He didn’t have any reason, exactly, to be happy. It was good that we’d talked and hadn’t fought. It was progress from how things had been since Valco had appeared in our lives.

The meeting lasted two hours. I had been in a pack meeting before, but only a few times. Macon had once told me—although I had pretty much deduced it on my own—that Caine always held back when I was around. He didn’t want to freak me out and he didn’t think I could handle hearing the whole truth. That was a load of crap.

So hearing Caine openly discuss the situation was a nice surprise. I was still thinking that the only reason he was doing that was to get on my good side. Sure, we’d kissed in the woods. He had allowed Brandon to stay as my guard, temporarily. Now he was letting me attend a pack meeting where he wasn’t holding back. But things between us—they still needed work.

What I got from the meeting was pretty much stuff that I already knew—things that Liam, Caine, Adam, Macon, or Lesley had shared with me. I learned some new information, and I made a note to ask Caine about it after the meeting was over. I didn’t want to appear clueless in front of the other shifters, especially high ranking Wolves.

What struck me the most though, was that Valco was completely right. Caine underestimated Tristan and Derek, by a lot. That, for some reason, made me nervous.

In the end, Caine decided that he was going to wait until Tristan brought up my parents. Tristan had called Caine. Caine had asked him about them, but Tristan had denied that they were with him. Caine told me that Tristan sounded surprised that Caine had even mentioned them. I believed Caine, but I knew that Tristan was a tricky Wolf. He was smart, too smart for his own good.

“I have to go again,” Caine told me once every Wolf except for Brandon had left.

Caine had dragged me upstairs. He wasn’t exactly happy with my decision to have Brandon stay. If anything, it made me happy that he hadn’t fought too much with me about it. It was funny to see how annoyed he got because Brandon and I were going to stay together. He had been close to asking Lesley to stay with me. One glare from me was all it took for Caine to dismiss Lesley. Yes, he definitely wanted to keep the peace between us.

“It’s late,” I told him, annoyed that he had been busy all day—but only because things really did feel good between us.

“As long as Tristan is around, this is how our days will be.” I didn’t miss the hint of satisfaction in his voice. ‘I like that you miss me,’ he said through our mind link, even though he was standing inches away from me.

I smiled at him, and shook my head. “I’m still mad at you.”

“I can work on ways to have you forgive me when I get back,” Caine said, grinning. He dug his fingers into my waist playfully, slightly pushing me more against his chest. I burst out laughing because I knew he was tickling me on purpose.

“We’ll see,” I said, grinning back at him.

Being with Brandon was probably the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. Brandon was the kind of Wolf that was around to hear secrets. He said that it was easy to go around from group to group—trackers, fighters, and members—when they didn’t notice you. According to him, he was that Wolf. He wasn’t influential enough to attend important pack meetings, but he was popular enough to have friends that were willing to share information.

He knew stuff, about everyone. Brandon said that even though he was young, Elijah and Parker—the two leading trackers—had taken a liking to him. He’d been to other packs—Midnight Moon, Mountain Peak, Staten, Blue Bloods, and even Knight Pack.

The things he told me about other Alphas and their packs were interesting.

He said that he’d met a future Alpha who was a girl—Emilia, the Alpha from Mountain Peak. We had all heard of her, not that anyone thought she stood a chance. Even I had heard Caine discussing the outcome, and probably future downfall of Mountain Peak. Alpha Dylan had already told the world his interest in having Mountain Peak Wolves join his pack.

Brandon told me that he thought Staten Pack was really cool, and then he apologized for it. He thought I would get offended. Apparently, Brandon really liked the Alpha of Staten Pack—his name was Jake. I’d heard about him, but only briefly. In the past, Staten had been really close to Knight Pack. Back then, the Alpha of Staten Pack was Jackson, Jake’s father.

Considering the feud going on between Alpha Dylan and Alpha Layton, it was no surprise that Brandon hated Blue Bloods. He did share some rumors about the Blue Bloods Luna, Cassidy, but they were too outrageous to even consider. All of my knowledge about Cassidy came from Liam, and now, I only felt resentment towards her. In the war between Midnight Moon and Blue Bloods, everyone kept pointing the finger at each other. No one wanted to take the blame for starting it. Me? I blamed Cassidy for everything. When Brandon wanted to share more of the things he had heard about her—all of it sounding too crazy to be true—I changed the subject.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Brandon gushed happily about Midnight Moon. Other than the people Alpha Dylan went to war with—and the list grew very often—everybody seemed to love Midnight Moon. It was like the popular pack amongst every single Wolf, probably even Rogues—the perfect Midnight Moon.

It was already dark outside when Brandon finished sharing things about other packs. We had ended up in the kitchen, finally eating after what felt like a long day.

“I want to go out right now,” I told him.

I waited to see how he’d react, or if he would get mad or try to stop me. Brandon only shrugged and nodded his head. He really needed to talk to Macon. I would end up getting him in trouble. I liked that he thought I had more liberties than I really did. He still didn’t know the tight leash Caine liked to keep.

It was easier to slip away with Caine gone and distracted.

Brandon and I walked in silence. Neither of us had a worry about getting caught. I didn’t think Caine would go too hard on me, what with him trying to play nice for once. Brandon didn’t know we were breaking the rules.

Before reaching the edge of Locus Territory, just beside the road, we stumbled into three trackers doing rounds. I was lucky to have Brandon by my side—so lucky. He chatted them up and they barely even noticed me. They acknowledged me, all three with a nod and a smile, but they didn’t question why I was there. We’d seen the three Wolves at different intervals. I assumed that Caine was going heavy on guarding the pack.

I ended up in the same diner where Valco had found me that first time. Brandon was following along, looking alert and a lot more threatening that I expected. For once, he looked serious and ready to attack if anyone approached me. I was only there in the hopes that Valco would show up. He had been right about Tristan arriving near our territory. I wanted to know if he had any other information—mainly concerning my parents.

I waited for Valco, but he never showed up. I was looking at Brandon, who was sitting across from me, curiously, wondering if he was the reason Valco had stayed away.

She got Brandon’s attention first. I thought he would shift in the middle of the diner. He looked so fierce and aggressive. I’d have to tell Caine that Brandon would definitely make a good guard. He knew when it was play time and when he had to get serious.

“Luna,” Brandon said, and he was in front of me, blocking her from me in just seconds.

I was almost delaying looking up. I had smelled her scent, and I knew what I would find.

“Charlotte…” Her voice made my skin crawl.

“Martha.” I spoke through gritted teeth, barely able to get the name out without trying to attack her. When I looked up, I found my dear cousin Martha, smirking at me smugly.