Chapter 2
I walk behind Lennart with my head down. We are now walking back from my brother's funeral pyre. To celebrate his life, we will have a night BBQ. It's now after midnight. And at 1 am, we all will eat as a pack together in our vast yard surrounding the pack house. One could say our pack house is a Victorian castle; it houses 350 unmated pack members, in addition to the Beta and Alpha families. The unmated that would rather stay in the pack house than with their family or have a log cabin on their own.
If it weren’t for the dreadful circumstances, it's great to see us all together as a pack sharing a meal, chatting, and spending time. Sure, it’s odd to start a BBQ at 1 am, but that’s the custom. I see Kerstin off to the side with a friend. Looks like Kersin is crying as she's speaking to Lollo. Her name is Louise, but everyone calls her Lollo. If I want, I can hear their conversations, wolf hearing and all, but I don’t care to. I turn to search for Lennart.
I find him with friends drinking beer laced with wolfsbane so they can get the buzz of alcohol. I sit beside him and take the beer from his hand.
“What the f**k are you doing?”
“Well, if you can drink, so can I”
He grunts and, under his breath, says how annoying sisters are. I bellowed until I died it down to a snort. They start to chat amongst themselves again, not caring that I am still here. None of them said a word to me. Snortty teenagers. I know they dislike me for no reason. They start a drinking game with Fireball. I take my chance and lace Lennart's beer with something special before walking away.
What an annoyance to have brothers, not only that, but an older brother with a stronger wolf. I've had my mind set on being the Alpha heir, but how? All my siblings were born with two wolves, but I only have one, and a beta wolf at that. Lennart has one Alpha and one Beta wolf. My parents both come from Alpha lineage, where everyone is born with two wolves. So how the hell did only I get one wolf? Life is f*****g unfair. How could the moon Goddess do this to me? I will f*****g show her how wrong she was.
I stomp away towards the forest and the lake where my brother died. I sit down on the jetty. I sit there in eerie silence as I watch the water move with the wind. The trees rattle, and I pay no mind to it until I get pushed into the water by strong hands. Not prepared, I start to sink underwater. I panic a bit before strong arms grab me.
“Sorry, babe, I forgot you can’t swim.” He says and pecks my forehead.
I start to cough violently, and I get a firm slam to my back. I spit out water, and I cling to his muscular frame as he lifts me and gets us out of the lake.
“I can’t keep to the shadows much longer. You are mine, and I intend to claim you. No matter what your Alpha says.”
“PLEASE. Wait a little longer. I am working on it so we can be together.”
I heard a stick break behind the bushes. Damn, I smell the scent of Kerstin.
Her face is visible just for a moment before she takes off running. Morgan takes off running and catches her.
“Rascal, what do you think you are doing?”
“I swear, I didn’t see or hear anything.”
Morgon looks at my sister with a gleam of shenanigan in his eyes.
“Make sure you didn’t. I wouldn’t think twice of killing your sister if it meant saving my own hide, even though she is my mate.”
Kerstin nods frantically as she gasps. My heart felt as if it were struck by lightning. My own goddess-given mate talks so easily about killing me. He was good in bed and, without difficulty, does what I ask of him. Just now, the thought hits me: maybe he had an ulterior motive for all the things I asked him to do, and that he did.
I take Kerstin’s hand and wave goodbye to Morgan as we hurry from the lake.
I stand there observing my mate and her sister dash away, hand in hand, no less. Clinging to each other, hoping I don’t extend my claws and tear their throats. I unreservedly begin to laugh. That should keep Stina in line for a while. I smirk at the idea. I turn and walk towards my warriors hiding in the treeline. It's not safe to walk alone into my enemy's territory. If my mate didn’t so easily please my every wink, I would have rejected her and slit her throat. She is indeed serving my purpose. What a gleeful thought to tell her father that I can f**k her like a w***e long before I even mark her as mine. I have no intention of marking and claiming her as my luna. My Beta walks up to me,
“What did you say to make her walk away that fast?”
I grin, “Nothing of importance. Just mentioning slashing Kristina's throat to her baby sister.”
My beta is chuckling so violently that he has trouble breathing.
We change into our wolves and trot towards our border. As we are 100 yards away, I hear warriors approaching from Stina’s pack. I guess the witch's spell disappeared; more time must have gone by than I thought. The witch stood ready. When we crossed our border, she made a thick fog and a barrier so they couldn’t trespass on my land.
Next time I visit her pack, I need to be more careful. I will definitely visit her soon.
Stina squeezes my hand as she pulls me with hurried steps, and I have a hard time keeping up. The terror on Kristina’s face was real. I feel her heart beating fast and irregularly. I can feel her fear through our sister bond, even though she is trying to hold up her shield. My two Beta wolves are stronger together than Kristina's one Beta wolf, so we can easily get through her shield. As soon as we hit the trees, we shift and make a run for our home. We are both panting heavily when we see the welcoming sight of our pack house. We shift back. I grab a shirt from a clothing line and stand there in disbelief, watching my older sister. She’s now calm and has an unreadable facial expression. Kristina walks into the packhouse side door butt naked like it’s the most natural thing. I no longer know what to think. I don’t dare to say anything to anyone about what happened. I am cursing myself for being curious and sneaking after Kristina.