Alrick dismissed Craig and Dale, leaving him alone again with Jessica-Lyn. She was curled up in a chair after finishing a little food. He couldn’t tell whether she was ill, pretending to be ill or making herself ill. But the information he was sitting on. It now contradicted so much that it frustrated him. He looked at her. Alrick now saw her as a victim of her brother. Just like the rest of her pack. He decided to bring her into the fold. If he was wrong, he would have to explain why he harboured a fugitive. With NARC’s rules, his pack may lose access to needed resources like medical services. He hedged on the side of caution and punished her. What if he was wrong? She was innocent and that was punishment. Would that make him worse than her brother then?
If he was careful, he could tr
They sat there for minutes. Still connected to each other. Panting as their world returned to its previous norm. That’s when he felt her shudder. It was out-of-place now. He lifted her from his lap as the moment became awkward. Her hair hung in such away he never saw her face. But he needed to get things done. Not fuck the afternoon away in an attractive piece of entertainment. He needed to remember that he couldn’t. He wouldn’t get involved with a criminal. “It’s time to get dressed. I have things to do. Your jobs today is dusting the books in here. Leave my desk. Take the cart back to the kitchen. Don’t forget in a few hours we will gather to initiate the pack’s newest members.” She couldn’t respond beyond a nod. Jessie was at a loss. She did
“Why would she leave? She has nowhere to go. Get people out there. Search for her. Find out if they know any places she might hide. If she’s not here when the enforcers arrive. I don’t want to know what they’ll do.” By law, right now she was his concern. They’d hunt her. It was standard for the enforcers to hunt down out of control rogue wolves. This did things deep in him. He did not like the feeling. His mind didn’t want to believe she would leave on her own. Why would she choose to become a rogue? She could have worked towards becoming a member of his pack.“Alrick, I might know why she left. Not the place to talk. But I think you should hear it before you go off halfcocked.” Craig wasn’t just his Beta. He’d been through everything with him. From growing up to the recent wars. Alrick knew Craig would tell him the truth. But never where he’d lose face with the pack.Nodding distractedly, he follo
Craig couldn’t understand why she’d left. Everything she’d come with lay discarded in her room. Jessica-Lyn’s choice must have come from her experience with Alrick. Craig felt his respect for his friend lessen thinking she’d felt herself better off alone and hunted that living with the Silver Ridge Pack. Jessica-Lyn has said nothing of her actual intentions to those that knew her. A couple received a goodbye, and she’d just walked out. No one questioned her or stopped her.Alrick returned with the clothes Craig was sure he’d last seen her in his hands not long after dawn. Jessica-Lyn left her people behind in Alrick’s care.Slacking his sexual need on her and then discarding her. Craig could not understand what words Alrick said to her. But for her believe she was better off outside of a pack?Stories were coming in from many
Alrick had never felt like this before. Even in the icy wind that should have taken his breath. He felt like he could breathe. Jessica-Lyn stood before him in her wolf form. He wanted to call her beautiful, and he believed he would have. But right now, he saw the delicate form of a starving wolf. This wasn’t something you saw in a wolf shifter. Unless they’d gone feral long before this. He noticed his sudden appearance triggered her flight reaction before her. But unlike a feral shifter or even a natural wolf, her fighting instincts weren’t apparent. That’s when it hit him. She’d never resisted him. She’d just let him have his way. It hadn’t mattered whether he’d been right or wrong. She’d let him have his way as an honourable and
Alrick slipped out of his apartment and locked the door behind him. He felt bad for tying Jessica-Lyn to his bed. But look at what she’d done when he gave her a small amount of freedom. Alrick knew he couldn’t do that again until he had her trust. She must have misunderstood in her confusion or something. She thought dying alone was better than dealing with him. Then being a member of his pack.He’d to admit that he’d approached her the wrong way. But she needed to learn her lesson, not run from it. Alrick never hurt her. He worried she wasn’t in her right mind, and he feared what she would say if the investigator talked to her. She’d not understood what he was doing. Jessica-Lyn may incriminate herself in something she was not guilty of.This trip into her lands. Seeing the outer buildings and the state the Iron Hill Pack lived in did change Alrick’s impression. She was nothing like the other Alpha family members he’d ev
Alrick agreed with Craig. He’d take the enforcer to see the mess on the Iron Hill lands. He’d go with them to the contested lands and view the drug lab later. Alrick’s men moved the vehicles from pack land earlier to prevent human law enforcement entering their territory and stumbling upon something they shouldn’t. He tried to maintain a polite presence with the enforcer as best as he could. But he left Craig with her as he felt confident Craig would put his full attention into keeping her out of the mess, they were in. Alrick needed to get back to Jessica-Lyn. Unlocking his apartment, he slipped in. She lay on his bed tied with silver to the headboard. He hated to do that. But
He’d seen no one do this before. She wasn’t crying, nor was she putting off any discernible emotional scent. It was almost foreign to him. No, he could see her fear. “Jessica-Lyn look at me. Talk to me now. What were you planning?” Now the fun was over. He’d lost where the pit of his stomach was. He couldn’t stop the dread from forming in his stomach. The thrill of the hunt and having her here with him. It was pleasurable to him. Now he saw something different in her. She wasn’t like the others. Jessica-Lyn wasn’t expecting him to play with her. She expected him to chase her, but not for fun and games.“Jessica!” She just flinched against the headboard but did nothing more. “What did you plan to do?”“Nothing.” Her head slid from his hand. She turned away from him. “I would do nothing. I know where I stand and what the laws say.” That was it. She fell silent again.&l
Alrick carried a tray of food and bags with him. He juggled the items around until he could open the door to his apartment. Once inside, he stopped and looked at the bed. She was there on the bed. Quiet. Too quiet. “Hey.” Words failed him for a bit. “I brought you some clothes to wear.” He paused again. “And some food. You must be hungry.” “So?” She didn’t look his way. If the quiet didn’t dominate. Alrick wouldn’t have heard Jessica-Lyn. He put the tray down on a table near the foot of the bed. Then dropped the bags on the bed. Alrick pulled his keys out of a drawer and walked back to the bed. He unlocked the cuff holding