The Huntress and her Alpha

Chapter Twenty Eight

Once the plans were in motion there was no slowing down. Lip and Jack worked endlessly to decide who would go where and how many numbers we had compared to Andrew. Their days were spent holed up in Lip’s office, he barely even came to sleep with me at night.

I knew he was worried, but I just wanted my mate back. This was the first time I saw him in all his alpha glory.

The day before our attack, I found Lip sitting on our bed in the dim light, just staring at the wall. I was surprised since he had been in his office all morning into the afternoon. He didn’t even come down for lunch, I had brought him some food and he barely took a bite as he worked through the plans with Jack.

I was the one who forced him to rest. Which meant him coming back to our suite. I thought he'd just sit on the couch and relax. But he was on the bed, staring into nothing, like he was doing the mind talking thing without the glazed look in his eyes.

He seemed lost in thought, which meant he wasn’t resting like I told him to. “Hey Luca called me. She wants to meet before they come out tomorrow.”

“Why?” He asked confused. He snapped out of his daze and focused his brown eyes on me.

I shrugged. “To go over the plan for guarding the pack house I guess. I want to know how many people she got and who they are. I want to make sure it’s people who don’t hold grudges against wolves you know?”

“Where are you meeting her?”

“The bar. Neutral territory. I’ll be right back you won’t even notice I’m gone. Which means you can take a nap, because you need to sleep.”

“Take Connor with you.” He said sighing as he ran his hands down his face. He was exhausted, running on fumes at this point.

“Lip I’ll be fine. Seriously take a nap and be right back.”

He shook his head. “Take Sarah if you don’t want to take Connor.”

“Lip, Sarah is barely able to stay standing for more than a few minutes. I. Will. Be. Fine.” I all but growled out the words.

Lip glared at me. “Max. Seriously this isn’t up for debate. Take Sarah, take Connor. Just take someone. Or you can wait for me and I’ll go with you.”

“You need all your warriors ready, Lip. I will be fine I’m staying behind anyways.” I wasn’t sure why he was acting this way. I should’ve just left as soon as Luca called me.

“Max I don’t want you going alone.” Lip crossed his arms and I felt my patience wearing thin.

“I’m going to the bar. With Luca. Both of us are trained and pretty decent fighters. I do not need you or another wolf playing body guard. You go do what you need to do before tomorrow.”

“Max.” Lip wasn’t moving out of my way.

I blew a breath out of my nose. “Seriously Lip. I’m fine. I don’t want to fight before tomorrow. But I’m not your property just because you marked me. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

“Max I know you are. But Andrew is planning something and I don’t trust them.”

“Andrew won’t be there.” I said confused.

Lip winced. “I don’t trust Luca and Travis. You said yourself you felt like he was weird on the phone. I don't trust anyone except my pack right now.”

“Well Luca is my best friend, I’ve known her since we were in diapers. I trust her and she trusts Travis.” Well I guess he wanted to fight before he went into battle.

“Max. They could be being blackmailed. They could be being used. There are so many reasons, not just selfish ones, that they would double cross you. I’m not trying to say they would, but it’s possible.”

“Fine then let me go see Luca and I’ll be able to tell. I’m not taking anyone with me, so you’ll just have to deal. Now move.”

“Max.” He just kept saying my name.

“Move out of my way or I will make you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Please don’t make me lock you in here Max.”

“You know I’ve told everyone that you’re my equal, you’ve never treated me lesser than you. But right now I’m rethinking that. Because of that threat right there.”

He looked hurt, which was exactly what I wanted. I pushed him through the door and walked quickly out of the bedroom. Before I made it to the door of the suite, he regained himself and grabbed my wrist.

“Max please. Just wait for me.”

“No.” I spun around and brought my elbow down on his arm causing him to break his hold. “I will get the truth from Luca and we’ll know if we can trust them. Go be an alpha or actually rest like you were told to do.”

I opened the door and I heard him sigh. “Why did I have to mate such a stubborn woman?”

“Sorry the moon goddess didn’t give you such a perfect obedient mate. Maybe if you would’ve rejected me from the start you wouldn’t have this problem.”

“Max that’s not what I meant.” I let the door slam shut between us before I heard him out. I left, tears stinging my eyes as I felt that ache that came whenever I was upset with him.

We weren’t meant to fight. Not like this. But I wouldn’t let him use his alpha status or my status as his mate to tell me what to do. I was fine taking care of myself and going to meet Luca in the neutral territory of the bar. I didn’t see what the big deal was.

My phone buzzed. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.

I rolled my eyes and threw my phone in my bag. He could deal with worrying for a little bit. After acting the way he did I didn’t owe him anything, let alone accepting that rushed apology.

I got into my jeep and started it up. I turned the music up loudly and tried to drown out the ache in my chest that kept telling me to turn around and go back to Lip. It was just the mate bond, I could meet with Luca and then accept Lip’s apology.

I wouldn’t let him go off to fight after arguing with me about something so stupid. If something happened I’d never forgive myself.

Before I knew it I pulled into the parking lot of the bar and threw my Jeep into park. Luca was already there waiting outside.

“Max!” She threw her arms around me. “What no escort today?”

I laughed. “Well let’s just say I had to fight him to come alone. He’s not very… trusting at the moment.”

“I get it. He wants to keep his pack safe and he doesn’t know us. Don’t worry I’ve got about ten hunters who are gonna help us.”

I nodded. “Good. How’s Travis doing? Has my father caught wind of anything?”

With that question Luca’s face fell. She looked down at her shoes and let out a slow breath. “Um well. Actually alpha Andrew is trying to convince him that you guys will attack them sometime soon. He’s trying to build his numbers.”

“Okay but he doesn’t know about our plan for tomorrow right?”

She winced. “Not entirely.”

“Luca just tell me what happened.” My heart fell and I realized Lip had been right.

Her eyes filled with tears. “He threatened us. Your father said he was going to separate us and force me to find another partner and break what we have. So we told him that you guys were going to attack Andrew. But we made up a random date for next week.”

I blew out a breath. “You didn’t say anything about anyone helping me at the pack house?”

“No that’s still mine. And the ones who agreed, Sam, Rowan, Helen, Abby, Hazel, Ryder, Peter, Aaron, Kelly, and Brian, they’ve all promised to keep it.”

I nodded. “Okay. f**k. Lip is not going to be happy about this. So Andrew thinks he’s going to be attacked next week? Has he gotten prepared yet? When did you tell him this?”

“Yesterday. As far as I know he thinks he’s invincible and there is no reason to prepare. He doesn’t know Travis has about twenty hunters of his own ready to follow Lip into Andrew‘s territory.”

I swallowed my anger. “Okay. I um. I have to go back to Lip. I need to tell him he was right.”

“Max.”

“I trusted you. I thought… nothing could force you to give them the information they wanted. You did what you had to do, you lied. But now they know to be watching.”

“Max I’m sorry. What if they tried to take you away from Lip?”

My chest hurt. “They already did. And I still didn’t tell them what they wanted to know.”

I turned away from her. “Tomorrow. Midnight. Bring the others to the border. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

I climbed into my Jeep as the tears slowly filled my eyes. It wasn’t until I pulled out of the parking lot that I let them fall.

——

I found Lip in his office. Jack and Connor were standing there listening to him. He took one look at my tear stained face and sent them away. Once they were gone he shut the door and came towards me.

“Max.” His voice was soft as his hands cupped my face. “I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head and wrapped my small hand around his wrist. “You were right.” My heart hurt with every word I said. “My father threatened Luca and Travis. So they told them we were attacking.”

Lip wrapped his arms around me. “I didn’t want to be right.”

I cried again as he held me. For the betrayal of my best friend. For myself, mourning the loss of the innocence I had before this all happened. I buried my face in his chest, letting his scent calm me.

“I’m sorry I left the way I did. I shouldn’t have done that.”

He pulled back and wiped a tear off my cheek. “You’re allowed to fight me Max. You’re allowed to be angry. And I’m sorry I treated you like an object. I’m just terrified that someone is going to try and take you from me again.”

I nodded. “I know. I know you worry about me. But also please worry about yourself.”

He smiled, his hands framing my face. “Only because you asked me to.”

He kissed me gently and then he pulled me towards his desk. He sat down in his chair and pulled me onto his lap. “So tell me what exactly Luca told your father.”

I sighed and then told him everything I knew. There were ten hunters coming to guard the pack house. They didn’t know about them. Andrew thought we were attacking in a week and had no reason to prepare. Lip kept his brown eyes on me as I spoke, but I could tell he was tired.

I touched his cheek. “Luca said Travis has hunters ready to fight on our side. Let’s go to bed, you need sleep.”

He sighed, leaning into my hand. “I’m exhausted. But I need to go over this plan one more time.”

“No.” I stood up and pushed him away from the desk. “You’re going to sleep. Because a good leader doesn’t need to have every single moment planned out. A good leader needs sleep and fuel to lead his warriors as best he can.”

Lip smiled. “There’s my warrior Luna.”

He grabbed my waist and kissed me, causing me to fall back onto his desk. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he growled against my lips.

“I’m not that tired anymore.”

I laughed. “No. As much as I’d love for you to take me on this desk, we can’t. You’re getting sleep tonight. Let’s go.”

I unwrapped myself from him and then grabbed his hand. He followed me to our suite, then to the bedroom. I changed into his soft shirt as he pulled off his pants and laid down. Once we were both settled I climbed into bed and laid my head on his chest.

“Promise me you’ll come back tomorrow.” I whispered softly looking at the glow of the moon outside our window.

“I will always come back to you, sweetheart. Trust me, Andrew thinks he’s younger than he is. Between me and Jack theres no way he’ll be getting out of there alive.”

I closed my eyes and tried to believe in his confidence. “I love you.” I kissed his warm skin and shivered as his fingers snuck under his shirt and ran lightly across my back.

“I love you too. Even more when you yell at me.”

I smiled as he kissed the top of my head and then I listened to his breathing even out. I laid there, wide awake, counting the beats of his heart. For some reason my gut was telling me that whatever was going to happen tomorrow was going to change the way of both hunters and wolves alike.