Luca felt his canines poking against his bottom lip as Dani tugged at his arm. "She can't do anything to hurt us, Love." she whispered in his ear. "I'm your mate. Your pack knows that. She's just making a fool of herself. Don't let her ruin this night for you by losing your temper." Dani was surprised by how calm she felt, staring out at the woman who had been her mate's lover for so many years. Maybe it was because she still had her emotions packed away, behind a wall where she couldn't get to them. She could feel Luca's rage, slamming against her in waves, but she knew that it wasn't her own. And so this time she welcomed the calm emptiness, which sometimes was acurse, but in times like this, felt a bit more like a blessing, and stood, watching the woman who she would hate if she could conjure the emotion, stand before her pack and address them."All of you know that I have loved Luca for all of my life. But I never meant for anything like this to happen. Especially not after h
Dani plunged into the water of the river without thinking twice about it. She only knew that she had to get away and in that moment it seemed that she had two choices. In one scenario there was a very real possibility that she would end up back in Alpha Hardings clutches. And in the other she might find herself in a watery grave. Neither scenario was a foregone conclusion. She might survive either way. Luca and his warriors might win the battle. Maybe tomorrow morning Alpha Harding would be dead. And maybe she would let the water take her down stream and she would find herself a new life where no one had ever heard her name.But she also knew that death, in either case, was a real possibility.The cold water closed around her, and she was thankful that her dress was light, and that she'd spent every summer in her childhood swimming in the river that cut through the town that she'd grown up in. She let the current take her, but she stayed close to the side of the banks that she kne
"Thank you." Dani was leaning back in the passenger seat of the twenty five year old Honda Civic as they pulled out of the bar parking lot. The blonde bartender was named Brandy and she'd been willing to let Dani borrow her phone, but when she heard what she needed it for she shook her head and shoved it back into her pocket. "I can take you there. But no one will be around until morning. And you probably shouldn't hang out outside around here. It's pretty remote and not really safe to do that here. There's-" Brandy's voice had trailed off and she'd glanced across the room at a pool table on the far side of the bar before shaking her head. "There's wildlife."So Dani had hung out towards the back of the bar, avoiding the pool table that she'd seen Brandy look towards, and the moment Brandy's shift was over she'd followed her out the back door and slipped into the passenger seat of her faded blue Honda Civic. "As I said earlier," Brandy said as she pulled out of the bar parking lot,
"Ah Princess, it's dangerous to be out here in the Yukon all alone on your lonesome. And you don't smell a thing like a rogue, so I'm sure you're every bit as defenseless as you look. You aren't from here and I don't see your mate anywhere around to protect you. I think you need a bit of company just about as much as I do." The hair on the back of Dani's neck stood on end as she heard the words not three minutes after walking out of the Hotel where she had filled her stomach with delicious hot dogs and unsweetened ice tea. She had set out to explore the town, to get a sense of where everything was, having decided to buy a map so that she could pick her next destination in the morning and head there as soon as the sun came up. Dani had already decided against shelling out more money for a room. After getting to know the town and getting a map she was planning on disappearing up into the forest and shifting into her wolf to find a cozy place to bed down for the night. But all of that
Alpha Luca West wasn't sure which was greater, the searing pain that sliced from the top of his right shoulder to his left hip, where he had been clawed during the battle that followed Dani's disappearance, or the emotions that had followed his realization that she was gone. He had been injured in wolf form, but the cuts were deep and were still very much with him when the enemy finally made their retreat. He made the painful shift back into this human form and began to search for his mate. Lars, who he only then realized had been standing beside Lyra the entire time, ready to protect her and the pups she had been carrying if she was threatened, was the one to tell him that Dani was gone and that he had seen one of Harding's men disappear into the forest with Stella as well.Luca had fallen to his knees at the news and recoiled when he felt Lyra's hand on his shoulder, managing to stand quickly, despite the pain slicing through him as he stepped back away from her. "Don't. Don't to
Dani was pacing back and forth across the small living room and dining area in Waylon's house when his cell phone rang and she nearly jumped out of her skin, her eyes immediately focused on the front door. "You're safe here, Anna." He said in a reassuring tone, but Dani had a hard time believing him. She didn't want to drag anyone else down with her as she was running both from her mate and from Harding. Either one would have no problem killing any man that they found her with, no questions asked, even though Waylon was just trying to protect her."I'm not safe anywhere, Waylon." She muttered the words, her eyes still glued on the door that he was blocking as he answered his phone."Beta Skinner. Yes Sir, I'm free to speak. No, I hadn't heard there was an attack. Is Alpha West going to be alright?" He turned his head and met Dani's eyes and this time she quickly looked away, before swearing under her breath. This was it. He could turn her in if wanted to and he really had no reaso
"Is your mate okay with you running off with me like this?" Dani was sitting in the passenger seat of Waylon's car, her backpack at her feet, his duffle bag on the seat between them. He had given her one of his baseball hats, a faded camouflage thing that was thoroughly broken in, and an oversized pair of sunglasses that obviously didn't belong to Waylon. Dani watched as Waylon's hands clenched on the steering wheel, his expression turning pained in an instant. She began to ramble, the way she always did when she was nervous. "I remember you mentioned having a mate when you were talking about my mark." Her hands traveled up to her collarbone and she rubbed at the mark roughly as if she could scrub it off of her skin."It's alright. You're right. I did have a mate. And I did mention that earlier. I knew Cora more or less my entire life. We grew up together. She was my dad's beta's daughter. We played together almost every day because our mom's were best friends. She could beat me up
"Dani's lived through too much to just fucking drowned." "It seems your right about that." Alpha Vos came into his office, with Teo by his side. Luca immediately noticed the way his third in command refused to meet his gaze and kept close to the door while Vos settled in a chair directly across from him. Luca had been making phone calls for an hour, personally speaking with every Alpha he could get ahold of, and in areas without Alpha's with every Beta in charge, in the regions immediately surrounding his territory.He was getting ready to leave and search for Dani himself, but before he did he wanted to put the fear of God, or more specifically the fear of himself, into every member of the pack leadership who was out there looking for Dani so that they could impart it to their people on the ground and help them understand just how critical it was that they found her and brought her home unharmed."Do you have news? Did we find her?" Luca was on his feet in an instant, but Vos was