Page 9 of Rituals & Runes

CHAPTER4

In truth, as a man, it rubbed me the wrong way to lock a woman up. I wished I could let her go. Let her decide for herself what she wanted.

But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t leave my pack to die.

I didn’t look over my shoulder as I strode away from Aila’s new room next to my office. This time with a complete bathroom and bedroom. And she would soon have company, I consoled myself, convincing my baser self that I was doing the right thing.

My wolf huffed at me leaving Aila alone. He needed her. Needed to be with her. Craved for me to unravel that bun on her head, to run my fingers through her strands, then down her body until he made her his. It made no sense he’d become so attached to a random woman. And I couldn’t afford his wolf instincts to cloud my vision of what I needed to do

Even if the man in me agreed. At least in a primal, physical way

I shoved my office door open with the base of my palm and then headed to my mini-fridge to retrieve a couple of beers. Bently, my Siberian husky, greeted me, asking for scratches, then settled in his bed in the corner. I’d had him since he was a puppy and usually, he went everywhere with me. Tonight, I thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t taken him on the drive. It would have been very difficult to deal with him, and Aila.

Moments later, Ethan knocked on the door. I could tell by the same three-beat, even rhythm he always rapped out. That and I could sniff him through the wood.

After popping the bottles open, we settled on either end of my leather couch. I had a thing for comfort, for making every room in the compound both utilitarian and comfortable. Thus my office lounge. Plus, it put people off guard when I called them here for dangerous business. The comforting atmosphere lulled them into a sense of safety, a sense of trust that worked for my advantage.

Ethan eyed me and sipped his beer. “What are you going to do? Saying you’re really into her is an understatement. You almost killed Drake.”

Leaning against the back of the sofa, my body sprawled across the cushion. Wishing I had Aila straddled across my hips, a heavy sigh left my lips. I cradled the cold beer in my hands recalling Aila’s soft slopes, her jewel-like amber-brown eyes that showed strength and innocence, and that mouth that needed to be taken.

My cock hardened like steel and I crossed my legs to adjust myself. “Fuck if I know. I can’t lie to my best friend and beta. I damn near ripped the laundromat door off when I found her. My wolf is raging against me because I have yet to get her in bed.”

At the moment, he whined and scratched, and rubbed against me, sniffing the air as if he could sense she sat in the next room over. Or as if he wanted me to seek her out. And he wasn’t wrong. Both of us needed that. Her pheromones tugged at me, making my cock painfully hard. It had to be her heat that was making me want to crawl up the fucking wall with my claws.

Ethan set his bottle next to him on a table but didn’t let it go. “I can tell. I’ve seen you lay with plenty of women, shifters, and humans, but never did I see you give them a second glance. What were you doing at a laundromat?”

I sucked back a gulp of cold beer. “I took a drive to get a breather when I needed to stop for gas. Then Dr. Peyton called to give me the shit news about my brother. I’d taken a walk while I talked to him in this tiny human town an hour from here. Aila was doing laundry there. Damn it. I left her clothes behind. I’m going to have to get some stuff together for her. I’ll send Caitlin tomorrow.”

Normally, I’d taken to driving my Jeep Renegade for miles. I would go on solo outings with Bently, and then we would run for miles together, me in my human form, next to him. Sometimes, I would take him fishing at lakes close to home. It helped me unwind.

Until Aila. Against logic, my wolf sought out her touch. Not only to satiate this raw hunger that burned me since I’d first seen her, but some strange instinct told me we needed her touch to soothe my amped state. Even her tiny caresses calmed my wolf.

Which amped me up worse. I hated anything I couldn’t understand.

Ethan sat up. “Kaden, you’re talking as if you plan to settle her into our pack. Man, I’m your best friend. The one person who can give you a wake-up call. She’s half-human, from our enemy pack, and her father is the one who sent us to die.”

I picked at the bottle label, shredding the paper’s edge. “Her being half-human is the least of my worries. Yeah, I know, everyone says they’re inferior, but what male in this pack doesn’t take their women to our beds? They’re inferior enough not to mate but to fuck? I never agreed with that. What gets me, what does me in—”.

Someone else knocked on my door, someone I hadn’t expected but I wasn’t surprised to have arrived at my office.

“Enter,” I called from my seat. Out of respect I could have stood, but as the Alpha, even elders had to bow to me.

My uncle Dan, and a council member, Axel, entered and then sat across from us in a couple of armchairs without me prompting them. They knew the routine.

“Beer?” I tipped the neck of my drink toward them.

Both men shook their heads.

Dan crossed his arms. “Kaden, we need to talk. I’ll get straight to the point. That display of possessiveness you showed toward a human earlier goes against our pack laws, and besides, you know Aila’s destiny.”

My hands slid down the beer neck and I faced them both, seated, with my legs wide apart. “The council was created to back the Alpha, to give me guidance, but my word is final.”

Axel slanted his gaze to the floor in an act of respect and submission but his jaw ticked. “We know that, but it’s clear you want this puny half-human who came from that nasty pack. How could you do this? You can’t seriously be entertaining taking her to bed?”

My wolf and I growled, making the hair on my body stand on end, and my alpha energy shot across the room like a clap of thunder. The three of them exposed their necks. For several moments, silence swallowed us up. No one dared move or breathe. I sucked in air and called back my power.

I leaned toward Axel. “Do not, under any circumstances, talk that way about Aila. Ever again. I don’t give a damn you’re elder and on the council, I will rip your throat out. Got it?”

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