Page 54 of Claimed

Sure, the second guy seems willing to let it go, but I have a feeling there will be far too many who think like the first, even if they don’t admit it aloud. And even if people want to let it go, this is the underlying impression of me.

I know howI’dfeel about someone trying to harm my pack. In fact, I do know how I feel about that. Because Wyatt harms our pack continuously and I loathe him for it. I despise my own brother. I can only imagine how much I’d hate some girl who came in, destined to be the mate of one of our beloved pack members, one of our esteemed leaders, and harmed us but yet got to have him anyway.

Grey told me the story today of Tyson’s cruel uncle who stole him as a baby. Grey told me how much it meant to the pack to have him come back as an adult. I put him in danger after all that. I spilled his blood. I made his mate worry about him being shot!

A tear trickles down my cheek as I climb into Greyson’s bed and curl up under the blankets as more of them fall.

There’s no way I deserve to have this, this pack and home, let alone the man whose scent surrounds me, whose touch meltsme. It’s got to be just a matter of time before it’s ripped away and given to someone who actually deserves to have this.

The voices come closer; they must have come around to this side of the house because I hear, “After this bullshit tonight?” It’s Finnegan again. “Grey might rethink after all.”

“Shut the fuck up, dumb ass,” the other voice says.

But I’m thinking… what bullshit?

What has Wyatt done?

14

Grey

I wave goodnight to the men who watched Stacy for me. Quite a night. I began the night leaving two and once we knew who had taken Riley’s (still unclaimed) mate from the four corners of the village, we decided to ramp up security.

I’ve told the team guarding the four corners that if anyone else shows, they should lock them down, keep them alive. We’re monitoring the perimeter not to destroy, instead to question.

The run I took as wolf tonight was good for me, for my wolf, being able to run at full speed not worrying about my mate keeping up. I could swear I’ve run faster, that all my senses have been more acute, but it could also be that I needed to expend energy.

Even still, I’m glad to be back. As much as I was needed tonight, by Riley as well as by Erica who seemed relieved to meet me and feel like she has more than a few of the girls as allies in the pack, this is where I’m supposed to be, at home protecting my mate – particularly since there’s a threat and because there’s now a dead shifter who spoke of my mateandwho smells like he’s vaguely related to her.

Though my mating scent still lingers in the air, there’s a new scent flooding in. A familiar one, a strong one.

“Riley,” I say to Mase who is getting ready to pull out of my driveway.

“See?” he quips.

We both grin. He waves and backs out of my driveway.

He estimated it’d take an hour for Riley to seal the deal and finally mate with Erica once they were alone in Ty’s cabin. It probably hasn’t even been half that long.

We voted to lock them down for a week there, so they’ll work out their issues. So Riley can get his head right. During my brief time with Erica tonight, my instincts tell me she’s the one for him.

Other than Rye doing what he’s meant to do with claiming his woman, it’s been an absolute clusterfuck of a night. And I’m not looking forward to the conversation I need to have with my mate now that I’m home. But Iamrelieved to be in her orbit. Whether it was four pack members watching her or forty, I’m the one who needs to protect her.

Jase and Linc will take turns keeping watch outside the house tonight with three betas while I crash in case the other shifter shows back up. We’re sure the dead one wouldn’t have given up Erica for the ‘female we took’ based on Erica’s report that he toldWyatton the phone he had our witch and that it was abonus.

Stacy telling me her brother was holding a witch who escaped makes it obvious they want not only to dismantle our council by taking out Tyson and debilitating alphas, rendering us unable to shift, unable to fight for what’s ours… they’re also hungry for access to more witchcraft, more potions to help them do it.

That the now dead shifter spoke to Wyatt on the phone tonight has me thinking Stacy’s brother isn’t too close. Then again, he might also not be too far away to cause problems tonight. I don’t have a sense of his scent, but I do have surveillance to show my mate so she can identify who was here.

I’ve looked at the footage and the other shifter that was here doesn’t resemble Stacy. He’s a fair-haired, strong-looking beta. Tall. Lean. Younger than me by a few years. And he ran scared.

I suspect that the dual alpha mating scents in the air along with the smell of the blood of his packmate will have sent him running far. Not that we’ll take chances. We’ll be vigilant.

She’s asleep when I come in, but she rouses when I climb into bed with her.

She turns into me and her eyes open. Panic spikes in her expression, also in my chest.

“Hey,” I say softly, sifting my fingers through her soft hair. “Just me.”

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