Feral Wolf

When we were in the privacy of our room, I turned to look at Brontes. He crossed his arms and I crossed mine as I arched an eyebrow.

“Why did you leave this morning?” he asked as he walked over to me to take off his shirt and then took off my shredded tank top. His finger ran across the claw marks that were now disappearing.

“I went downstairs for breakfast and then some issues came up that I needed to address.” I said huskily. My body shivered under his tingling touch. My hands went up his arms slowly until I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling me flush against him.

The feel of his hard skin underneath my palm marveled me. I admit I loved touching him. My eyes flitted up to his and the way he was looking at me had me clenching my thighs tightly. His hand had wound around my waist.

“What happened?” he asked.

I struggled to keep up with our conversation when all I wanted to do was do what we did last night all over again. I also didn’t want to tell him what was going on but I knew he probably wouldn’t let it go. I could feel through our bond that he was determined.

I let my hands drift down his shoulders to his chest and down his stomach. His sharp inhalation made me smirk as I knew my touch had affected him. I leaned down and kissed the mark on my neck and my knees turned into jello. I bit my lips as I looked up at him. He let go of me and took a step back. I almost pouted at the missing contact.

“You’re distracting me, Calliope.” He said with a lopsided grin.

I sighed and went to my closet to pull out a t-shirt. I turned to look at him while slipping on my shirt.

“If you must know, all our cattle were killed last night.” I spoke and pulled my shirt down before turning to look at him.

“How did you get hurt?” he asked.

“Rogues were on the land. They attacked me. I killed one and kept one.” I said with a shrug and walked over to him. “I’m hungry. Can we do this later?”

“You haven’t answered all my questions. You keep avoiding them.” He muttered, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Fine.” I walked over and sat on the edge of my bed. “Today, I woke up and went to breakfast. Alecto informed me that all our cattle had been slaughtered. From there, Isis, Alecto, and I went to check our cattle farm to see that it wasn’t something supernatural but rather something human - hunters. After burning the dead cattle I was about to head back when I caught the scent of two rogues on my land and like I said earlier, I killed one and kept one for questioning.”

“Hunters?” he asked.

“Yes. Do you have any idea who it might be?” I asked.

Brontes looked distant for a moment before his eyes flickered back to normal and he walked over to me.

“They are dangerous, Calliope. You have to be careful. I know that the hunters at the camp I was held with also had another group they were working with.” He said.

“Another one? How come you didn’t tell me this until now?” I asked, feeling agitated now because that meant my pack still had a threat lurking around our territory.

“I didn’t think about it until now.” He growled out. “Don’t think I wouldn’t have told you if I knew about it.”

I sighed and stood up, rubbing my forehead, “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

“The hunters in our camps were working with rogues. I saw them converse with each other on the rare occasions that they allowed me outside from the cave.” He spoke and instantly I felt how uncomfortable he was at talking about his past through our bonds. I walked over and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“Clara came to me today. She told me you threatened her.” He said.

I stiffened and pulled back but he held on tight. “She was being disrespectful. I am Alpha and anyone who looks me in the eyes more than they should is silently challenging me. You should understand that I let her off the hook. If it was any other person, I would’ve killed them already.”

He sighed. “You don’t like her at all, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” I wasn’t going to lie to him. “There is just something about her that keeps my wolf and I on edge, and no, it has nothing to do with you.”

“I believe you.” He whispered. “I don’t know why but somehow I can feel you are telling the truth.”

“It’s because of the mate bond. When you mark me, you are more in tune with my emotions. You can sense everything I feel and I can feel the same with you. You can also now speak to me with your mind.” I said as my hand began tracing the hard lines of his naked back.

“Is that so?” he asked lightly.

I want you underneath me right now. His husky voice filtered through my mind. I gave a small laugh and pushed away from him.

I’m hungry. I retorted.

“I guess we will have to feed you, don’t we?” He murmured and wrapped his arm around my waist. We made our way out of the bedroom when he spoke again. “Promise me, you won’t go anywhere without letting me know.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I know you are used to being Alpha and I know you are more than capable of protecting yourself but my wolf does not like knowing that you are not there. He was agitated all day today that I had to hunt down Alecto, your Gamma, to tell me where you went.”

I knew it was difficult for him to have gone and asked someone. In his time here, he barely spoke to anyone but me. So for him to go and finally seek out a pack member told me a lot. He was slowly coming out of his shell and getting comfortable with the people around him and he cared for me enough to want to know where I was.

“Ok, I promise.” I replied and he nodded satisfied with my answer. I was not used to having someone who cared for me in the way that he did. I was used to doing what I needed to get things done. I stood alone as an Alpha for years and it was a habit I had to break out of now that I had a mate who was overly protective - something I was also not used to but found I was beginning to like.