Second chance love

S i x t e e n

The pair of them didn’t get up until midday, and that was only because Holly had had enough of listening to Caleb’s stomach growl in hunger. She was in the kitchen grabbing some of the leftover food from the packs morning breakfast, when she spotted Darren in the doorway, his arms folded with a strange look on his face. 

“What’s up brother?” Holly said, unsure what the look in his face was. 

“You smell different.” He turned and walked away, as Holly went a deep shade of crimson. She hadn’t even thought about the effect the mate bond has on a wolf’s scent. She grabbed a bottle of lemonade from the fridge and headed back to Caleb, hoping the blush caused by her brother would fade before she got there.

Caleb roared with laughter as she retold the tale, her face reddening once more which only made Caleb laugh harder. She threw a croissant at his head and folded her arms in play, pouting as she pretended to be offended. 

“Aww babe, I’m sorry - it’s just funny to see how you react to these things, that’s all!” He put his arm around her and used his finger to tilt her chin towards him. 

“I think you smell delicious,” he whispered to her before leaning forward for a long and passionate kiss, “absolutely delicious.” He purred in her ear as she let out a soft moan. Soon, their breakfast was on the floor, and any brother induced embarrassment was completely forgotten about. 

***

“Oh s**t!” 

“Already?” Darren asked. He thought they might have got away with having a few more days preparation, but it would seem that luck wasn’t on their side. 

“Yeah, they’re coming up by the southern border, they’ll arrive by thus time tomorrow at the latest.” Finn ran his fingers through his hair in distress. “What’s our move Alpha?”

Finn turned to look Darren in the eye, and at that moment he felt the real burden of being the leader of a pack without the Luna that all packs need to be complete. He knew that Finn could go home to his mate, and feel safe and whole for a moment before everything kicked off with Black Hart. For a moment Darren felt disappointed that he wouldn’t have that, before a flash of jealousy at both his Beta and his sister finding their mates before he did. He shook his head as if to dislodge those thoughts and focused on the problem in front of them. 

“Okay, so we need to strengthen our defences here,” he pointed to the southern part of the parklands. “If this is where they’re going to hit first, we should try and meet them there.”

Darren saw Finns eyes glaze over as he mindlinked the south border patrol to pass on the message. 

“Make it subtle. I want them to think they have managed to sneak up on us. They might get cocky and make a mistake that we can use to our advantage.” Darren watched the information being relayed, before falling back into his office chair. 

“Have you told him yet?” Finn asked softly. 

“I hope you’re not about to question your Alpha, Finn?” He replied, his voice lacking any authority. He knew how his sister felt, and he didn’t want to cause any unnecessary stress and strain on her or her mate, so he hadn’t mentioned that the pack had been advancing this way for some time. 

“Is it true? What they’re saying about Wave Lodge?” Finn asked, his voice betraying his true feelings. The news that Black Hart and torn through their neighbouring pack, killing the men, r****g the women, and destroying everything in their path, had left Darren with a hollow feeling in his heart and soul. He wished more than anything that they could have found out sooner - he might have been able to prevent some of the horrifying things they did. As his sadness moved to anger, he knew he needed to handle it, direct that anger back on the rabid wolves that were headed his way, to his pack. 

“It won’t happen again. They won’t get a chance to.” His face was set, and Finn knew that no matter what, Darren wasn’t going to back down from this. The Beta that Caleb had killed was nothing on their Alpha, and he was out for revenge without caring who got in his way. That didn’t matter, Darren was going to do everything in his power to make sure he didn’t walk away from this.