“Delaney! Do not speak!” I growled at her. She froze and I watched her shrink in on herself at the power in my voice. “I will never hear you talk about humans that way again, and you will never put Tegan down again. She works harder than any other wolf in this pack. She is higher than you.” Delaney’s frightened green eyes grew wide and her mouth opened in a question or defiance, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t plan to let her say anything.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked,” I snapped, “Did you think your little act of defiance and this angry display would go unpunished? Starting tonight you answer to Tegan. If she tells you to do something, I want it done. This will continue until I think you have learned some humility. Until then you will be considered the Omega. You will eat last, speak last, and if you cannot do all that I asked without complaint you will be packing your bags and going back to Colorado. So, before you try to protest, I suggest you think about what your father would think of such a disgrace to his name.”
I didn’t wait for her reply as I left the office. She wouldn’t be happy, but she would do as I said. Her father was not a forgiving man. He had a lot of beliefs of what a wolf should be. Sadly, it seemed that along with a lot of the honorable traits, he had also passed along his prejudices.
I left the house, feeling the energy still rolling off me. I went into the forest and shifted. I set off at a brisk pace, enjoying the wind as it blew through my fur. I sniffed the air as I ran, traveling quickly to the far edges of the territory near town. I noticed an odd smell, human but with a sickly evil smell. I stopped running and tried searching out where it was coming from. My hackles raised and a growl rumbled continuously in my chest. The smell was something bad, something that could hurt the pack.
I kept my nose to the ground, following the smell along the outer perimeter of my territory. The scent never moved more than a few feet inside of my territory, almost as if whoever it was just wanted to taunt us. It finally ended at a small creek, and after assuring myself that it didn’t start again on the other side of the creek I headed back to where I had first picked up the scent.
I could sense Wyatt and Ryker in the forest following the perimeter in other sections of the territory. Wyatt was closest to the house, Wyatt get home, now. Stay with the girls no matter what happens. Something isn’t right out on the east side of the forest. Ryker, get here quickly, we need to track this while it’s fresh. Both wolves conveyed their agreement and started running. I had a horrible feeling that this scent meant something bad was coming.
Chapter Seven
Zee
“You haven’t stopped smiling since you walked in tonight,” Lynn observed as she handed me beers for a table. Her eyes were full of curiosity. I sighed happily but didn’t say anything to her. I knew I was smiling like a fool. My cheeks were sore from it. I couldn’t help it though.
Alex had been by the bar every evening since our date Monday. He never stayed long, just long enough to eat. I didn’t get to spend too much time with him, but every time I could stop by his table, he would touch me somehow. Nothing inappropriate, just a brush of his fingers along my cheek, or tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. If I could take a break and sit with him, he held my hand. He kissed my cheek each night when he left.
By Thursday when he was leaving, I was a ball of sexual tension. I couldn’t imagine how he was so calm about touching me. Before he left Thursday, he asked me to spend Friday morning with him. He pressed a chaste kiss to my lips when I agreed, and I gasped at the rush of heat that simple kiss caused. Looking in his eyes I realized he was just as affected as me. His pupils were dilated, and I could see amber swirling to mix with the light brown.
When he left without taking anything further, I decided I would have to push the matter. He was incredibly sweet, but I was dying to tangle my fingers in his hair and kiss him. Dying to get his shirt off so I could trace all his magnificent muscles. I was smiling so much Friday night, because I had done just that.
Alex was tracing designs on my palm while we sat on his cliff. I didn’t bring my sketch pad because I didn’t want distractions. He was distracting enough, sitting in a pair of dark wash jeans and a maroon button up shirt. The sleeves were unbuttoned and rolled back to reveal his forearms, and I had been idly stroking his arm until he grabbed my hand.
My plans for seduction had gone out the window while we sat together. I was enjoying the forest, imagining how I would shade one place or another if I were drawing it. He stopped his tracing and I glanced at him to find him watching me. His eyes were intense, and, in the sunlight, they looked pure amber. I ducked my head, but he caught my chin between his thumb and finger and tipped it back up
