“Valkyrie Pack,” his voice boomed. “Thank you for being here today, a day I hope will be a step into our future. Some members of this pack have not been treating Sloane as the rightful Luna of this pack, myself included. Sloane is strong, compassionate, incredibly smart, and she deserves the respect and power that any Luna should receive. I made her a promise, a long time ago, the first moment I laid eyes on her that I would do anything for her.”
He reached his hand back to me, smiling as I stepped forward to grasp it. His skin wrinkled around his blue eyes that lit up in the sunlight. I looked out onto our pack, their loyal faces gazing up at us.
“I want to sumbit to my Luna,” he announced, much to some confusion. “To show this pack, and every other pack, that we stand as one. We are not an Alpha and his Luna, we are mates, we are one pack, we are one. When Sloane completed her Luna ceremony, it was a notion that she was submitting to me because every Luna is supposed to submit to her Alpha, but that’s not right unless the Alpha submits to her as well.”
A whisper of confusion passed among the pack members as Rush kneeled before me.
“Sloane Ivy Calder,” Rush said as his lips slid into a proud smirk. “I submit to you as my Luna. I acknowledge that you are capable enough to make decisions for this pack, with or without my approval or consent. Do you accept my humble submission as your Alpha?”
I glanced at the pack members before turning my head back to Rush. “I do.”
As he stood up, he lifted me off the ground with him. His lips were on mine before I could open my eyes, kissing me deeply.
It took a moment for our pack to realize what happened, but a small smile of pleasure blanketed them. Rush swung me around in a circle, never once allowing my lips to leave his. My arms curled around his neck, and I pulled on the roots of his hair.
Joyful applause and hollers echoed, happy to see their Alpha and Luna in love. Rush lowered me to the ground, my toes fighting to find the ground. I stumbled back a few steps, drunk on Rush’s scent.
“Every day with you just seems to get-”
His words were cut off by a sharp growl. Our heads snapped sideways, peering out far past our pack members where a wolf stalked predatorily behind the trees. My shoulders tensed as it moved forward, our pack members moved back, allowing the Warriors to shift and circle the wolf.
“What’s going on?” I panted frantically.
“Shh,” Rush hushed me, stepping to the edge of the stage.
The charcoal wolf snarled, whipping it's head violently from side to side, looking at the Warriors surrounding it. Saliva dripped from its muzzle, soaking the ground beneath its feet.
I stepped up behind Rush, placing my hand on his shoulder.
The wolf paused, closed its eyes, and shook its head as if to clear its thoughts. The wolf's eyes opened in a flash, and he pounced forward, intent on blood from our pack. A Warrior quickly caught the wolf around the throat, killing it instantly. The Warrior dropped the body to the ground, its flaccid limbs falling into a pile.
Rush gulped loudly, a torn expression covering his eyes.
“What is going on?”
Slow Burn
“This is absurd that another pack would allow another wolf to invade our territory while we are all fighting the threat of humans,” Rush growled, slamming his hands on the bookshelf; a few books clattered onto the ground.
I carefully stepped over the fallen literature and touched his side lightly with my fingers.
He moved quickly, walking away from me, hands on his head, stomping around the office. “I want to know what pack that wolf came from. Now!” he shouted to Casey, who scrambled out of the room, nearly slipping as he ran. “Who the hell would use this opportunity to move in on a territory?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head.
“And to think they came into our territory while we had the pack gathered. Do you think there’s a traitor in our pack?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “I swear I will tear them to shreds, I don’t care who it is.”
“Rush, you need to breathe,” I told him forcefully.
Beckett sat in the corner of the room, arms crossed, waiting for Rush to settle.
“No, what I need is to find out what the hell is going on!”
“So do I!” I screamed back. “So, calm the hell down so we can actually talk about this!”
The loudness of my voice snapped Rush out of his angry daze, and his eyes grew wide. Beckett leaned back slightly in his chair though he wasn’t close to us.
“Sorry,” Rush mumbled.
“I know you just want to figure this out, and so do we. Why don’t you call Duncan and Francis and see if they know anything about this? Beckett, go help Casey figure out what pack that wolf was from, and I will ask around the pack and see if anyone knows anything.”
Rush nodded and sat down at his desk while Beckett and I left the room. I started by asking the pack Warriors and border guards if they knew anything about the wolf. We had pulled back the guards on the border for the meeting, only three were running point, but for the short amount of time, we thought they would be enough.
All my leads came up short. No one knew anything. Beckett and Casey couldn’t track the scent, and neither Francis nor Duncan knew anything about it. Francis had mentioned something about a neighboring pack’s member going missing, but they hadn’t turned up yet. The wolf was the wrong color to be the one on our territory, but just knowing there was another wandering wolf made me uneasy.
Rush ran
