NightStar Summit

13. In The Wolves Den

COLTON

My night was turning out to be a complete s**t show. It started off with the news that Sadie and Kat were coming up the summit followed by me having to beg the Elders to move my ceremony to a different day because I had a weird feeling something was wrong with Kat and it didn't even end there. I f*****g get to the bottom of the summit before Bex, Patrick or Dylan could just to find Connor trespassing on not only my land but also my mate.

I shouldn't have marked her, it was wrong but I couldn't help it. Connor keeps testing the limits with her and I just couldn't hold back.

I wanted to kill him and I was so close to getting away with it before Bex stopped me. She made a good point. If I would have killed him, there would have been no reason whatsoever for Alpha Sam not to kill my dad but if I just kept Connor as a prisoner it was more leverage to get him back.

I also decided that it was best if Sadie come back with us. That was more for Kat's sake than it was mine though. She would be scared when she woke up and I'm sure Sadie would be able to help with that as much as it disgusted me.

"How are you doing, baby bear?" Two gentle hands placed themselves on my shoulders and squeezed firmly. I knew that voice anywhere. It was Mrs. Marz, Noah's mom. She had gained a new role around the pack as everyone's mother because she was always making sure you were well fed and cared for. "Long day?" She asked while taking the seat next to me at the empty dining room table.

"Extremely."

She placed her warm hand on top of mine and squeezed tightly, "You can talk to me, honey. I know it's got to be pretty lonely right now for you and Noah's always there too, don't forget about him."

I never tried to be the person that kept everything bottled up inside, I didn't think it was productive but no one was even giving me a chance to process what was going on before coming at me with all of their questions. It was completely understandable though. If I was in any one of their shoes, I would have questioned why one of our rival's pack members were shackled to a pole or why an outcasted member of our own pack had been taken back in.

It was a lot to take in for anyone and it all happened within the same ten minutes.

"I think I've regretted almost every single decision I've made tonight," I said honestly, "I'm starting to doubt my own ability to be the Alpha of this pack and I've never done that before. I completely jeopardized our safety by taking Alpha Sam's kid as a pris-"

"Oh, Colton," she cut me off, "Your father would have done the same thing. Connor was trespassing on our land and every wolf in the area knows not to come near us. He had some evil intention in coming here tonight and now him and the rest of his pack are going to pay for it. I'm sure word has gotten out about your dad being gone by now, they must all assume you're going to be our next Alpha. It's time for you to start making decisions that are going to impact how everyone else sees you. Do you want to be loved by everyone but not have the fear? Or would you rather be feared and not loved but never messed with? Whatever you do, just always know that you'll have all of us standing behind you. You're a good boy, Colt," she concluded with a sweet smile.

"Ew, you make me sound like some kind of dog," I joked.

"Only the best kind."

My mood went from somewhat happy right back to stressed within a matter of seconds, "Can you do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"Can you check on Kat in a little while? She's not going to want to see me for awhile I'm sure. Bring her some food too."

"Ooo," she pushed my shoulder back teasingly, "You want me to meet the Mrs. before everyone else? I'm beyond flattered," she said while standing up again, "Of course I'll check on her and I'll bring her some of my homemade lasagna."

"Thank you."

KATARINA

I woke up on a soft couch in an eerily dark room. Everything came rushing back to me all at once as I reached my hand up to my neck only to feel a thick bandage over it. What the f**k was happening?

I started frantically feeling around the space in search of a light switch or some other source of light. On the end table next to me was lamp so I hurriedly switched it on, the light immediately stinging my eyes.

"s**t," I stumbled into a coffee table while trying to regain my senses. I was in some sort of small family room; the only form of entertainment being a large bookcase off to the side.

Pretty civilized for wolves.

The paneled wood door in front of me started to slide open, revealing a larger than average middle aged woman with deep brown hair. I sat back down on the sofa, unsure of what exactly I should be doing right now. I was literally in the wolves den and I'd be damned if I tried anything stupid right now.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" She walked into the room and slid the door closed behind her. She had a big plate of something in her hands. I couldn't tell what it was exactly because it was wrapped in tinfoil but it sure smelled good.

"I don't really know how to feel. I'm scared. Confused."

"All very reasonable emotions to have right now," she set the plate down on the coffee table before sitting down in the rocking chair across from me. "I'm Mrs. Marz, Noah's mom. I think you had a couple of classes with him."

I nodded and offered a small smile her way. I really didn't know much about Noah other than the fact that he was Colt's best friend.

"Oh no," she got up and examined my neck, "We need to change that bandage."

She started to pull it off and I winced in pain. I knew nothing about wolves or the things they did, so I was baffled beyond imagine by this bite. Why would he have done that if not to kill me? Why did he make Connor watch?

I think I was looking right at a pretty good source of information.

"What does it mean?" I asked, "This bite? It has to mean something, doesn't it?"

"Well...it's pretty important actually. I don't know a whole lot about what happened tonight but I do know Colton feels very badly about it. Do you know about mates?"

I nodded, "My friend told me a little about it. She said I'm Colt's."

"That's what I hear too. When us wolves find our mate, the male bites the female, marking her as his so nobody else tries to steal her. It's pretty much all downhill from there, you'll never love or be as attracted to anyone else ever again," she finished with a small laugh. "But we don't know much about how the mate bond works on humans."

Yeah I liked him and everything but I was just a tad more focused on how the hell I was going to get home.

"Does it go away?" I could only imagine how bad my neck must be looking right now. I couldn't go home like that.

"You'll have it forever."

What?

"Is he mad at me or something? Why didn't he come check on me?"

I was suddenly pissed. How are you gonna bite me and then hide from me?

"He didn't think you would want to see him right-"

"Can you take me to him? Or bring him here if I'm supposed to stay here. I don't care."

I could ask anyone here any question I wanted to but why do that when Colt was actually roaming around someplace? If I was his mate why wouldn't he want to see me?

"I'll let him know you want to see him. In the meantime though, I brought you some lasagna if you're hungry."

~~~

It felt like I was waiting forever for Colt to show up. It took so long that I had time to eat that whole big ass plate of lasagna and then peruse around the room. I was so bored I was about to start reading a book off of the enormous bookshelf but that was when the door slid open again and Colt walked through.

He looked anxious and I immediately felt bad but then I remembered that this was completely his fault. I still wanted to comfort him though.

"I brought you some more gauze pads," he held up a couple of packages awkwardly before sliding the door closed behind him.

"Sit with me," I firmly patted the spot on the couch next to me and waited for him to sit down before continuing, "This s**t hurts really bad," I pointed to the mark on my neck. "What is it?"

He squinted his eyes at me, "Mrs. Marz said she told you what it was."

"I want to hear it from you. Why did you do it? This is permanent, right? It's never going away?"

"Kat, if I could take it back, I would." I couldn't help but be offended by that and I couldn't have even told you why. It felt like he was all of a sudden ashamed of me. "You'll never understand what it's like when there's a normal you and then a wolf you. That wolf is...something else. I saw Connor kiss you and I just snapped, I had to do something to get him to stand down but now I feel like even that won't be good enough."

Yeah he kissed me but it wasn't like I wanted to kiss him or I even kissed him back. It was completely forced and I was one hundred percent disgusted with the whole situation. "I think he's disgusting if it makes you feel any better about the situation. I would never do anything with him willingly." He didn't say anything to that, just gave a small nod so I carried on, "Does this thing have any cool powers? Am I going to turn into a wolf now?"

He smiled at that and that was all I was really hoping for, "I guess it would have cool powers if you were a wolf. We would be able to talk to each other telepathically and you could feel what I was feeling."

"Can you hear what I'm thinking?"

It looked like he really didn't want to answer that question but nodded once slowly anyways, "Yes and I can feel what you're feeling. That's how I knew Connor was up to some bullshit."

That's f*****g wack and slightly off putting. "Are we together now then? Like dating?"

"I'm going to leave it completely up to you. I don't ever want to force you into anything. We can go however slow or fast you want, I'll be here for whatever."

I was starting to feel like maybe the quicker things moved the better. "If I was a wolf and you marked me like you did, where would we be in our relationship right now?"

He couldn't help but laugh at my question and for what reason, I wasn't sure but it was still annoying, "Probably having babies."

Oh.