Page 26 of Fat Enemy Mate

Despite living on the edge of the pack, I do understand pack loyalty; probably better than most. After all, without my pack, I would have had nothing when my father cut and ran. I’d die for my pack, even if I avoid spending too much time in the town. But this morning, that woman in my arms made me feel something that feels similar to pack loyalty, but somehow more…different. It felt like a closeness that, if I were younger and more inexperienced, I might think just came from having great sex, but I’ve had plenty of that. This is different. It’s a closeness that I can imagine many folk might want to sink into. And it’s not that I don’t want more of it; just the memory of her tight, hot body, and the sounds she made as I took her make me want to storm back in there and tear the sheet from her body, but it makes me feel something else as well. Because it also makes me want to run, because I felt it all a little too strongly for my liking.

The coffee boils, and I pour a cup on autopilot.

My mind goes straight to the lottery, and I can’t help wondering if that open connection has broken something inside me. I’ve felt it, the hollowness, and how my wolf has been restless. The way I felt when I took her filled my soul. I felt the connection between us as though it were a living, breathingthing, and I chased it, relishing in it. But now, in the grey cold light of morning, I’m doubting what I felt. Maybe my wolf is just looking for a connection and will latch onto something it shouldn’t. Like a human who is incapable of a bond and doesn’t care about shifter mating lotteries. Especially a human with some weird kind of power that might be a threat to shifters. Even if I doubt she means intentional harm, despite how much she dislikes us.

None of that would be the same thing as a sanctioned bond, and I’d wager that a random magical misfire doesn’t create a stable situation.

I drink the coffee black and forget to even add sugar, ignoring how bitter it is as I process my thoughts. How do I know anything I do or feel for Lara is real when I have the bond magic messing with my head and wolf? I know he’s quiet and satisfied because she’s near. Because he’s tasted her. In a way, he’s never been satisfied by any other female. But I’d be a fool to think that’s any more than a coincidence.

I didn’t even want to go to the lottery. I didn’t want my name to be pulled. But when it was, and there was no mate, I felt a disappointment in my bones that I didn’t expect. I didn’t question my life or my place in the pack until that moment. I was grateful for the life I had, and now I’m questioning everything whilst trying to carry on as normal, pretending it doesn’t matter when it actually does.

The damn lottery.

And now it’s got me twisted up over something that should be very simple. A beautiful woman wanted to fuck, and I obliged. That should be enough.

I shrug on my jacket and decide I’d rather be cold out there checking the perimeter than standing here overthinking.It might even wake my wolf up, which is ironic because I’ve wanted him to give me a rest for weeks, and now I’m sick of him being quiet. I step out, letting the cold air whip around me for a moment, feeling better already as I zip my jacket and break into a jog, covering the first and second sensors quickly.

It’s over by the third one that I first notice the tracks. Four sets, unmistakably shifters, working in a slow line along the southern boundary. They came in from the west, followed the perimeter for fifty yards out for what looks like at least a quarter of a mile. They didn’t push through, or the sensor would have gone off, but when I check them, I see they’ve been tested and drained. They knew enough to push it but not trigger it. They walked the line and then pulled back.

Four shifters and not pack. The spacing of the tracks tells me all I need to know; they weren’t just out running, they were working. They came to look but not attack. But they’ll be back.

I follow the tracks out and eventually hit a compacted trail that leads out toward the outcrop where I took Lara out of the hut. They’ve been tracking her old routes and obviously figured out that she didn’t get off the mountain. They want her enough to breach our territory repeatedly, despite the patrols. They’re not done yet.

I let out a long breath and stand, listening to the forest.

My wolf is awake and alert now. My vision tunnels to tracking the smallest animals and looks through the canopy below; I have a clear vantage point, and they’re not here now, but they can’t be too far away. And the cabin’s wards are built to obscure, not defend, not against a full onslaught. I thought the snow would buy us more time, but even that hasn’t detoured them.

I realize with a certain finality that I can’t keep this from Nick and the pack any longer. The rogues want Lara, and I need to deal with that. The talismans were one thing—I told myself they might have nothing to do with Lara, but that seems less and less likely. Now the rogues are sniffing around the cabin. I can’t let another patrol head out here without knowing the full picture.

I take some photos of the tracks and the drained sensor, and then trace the line back toward the cabin, completing a perimeter run to check I haven’t missed anything else before heading back. I watch their lines, and I understand their motives. It’s not a question of if they’ll be back. It’s when. And with the worst of the snow seemingly over, it probably won’t be long.

By the time I walk back in, I’ve pretty much got the conversation I’m going to have with Nick and Connor clear in my head, but the moment I cross the threshold, I’m hit with the scent of her, and my brain scrambles. I cross to the security panel and activate the extra sensors and wards, knowing they’re not designed to stop a full-scale attack, but they’re better than nothing.

I assume Lara is still asleep until I hear the sound of water running. The thought of her naked under the steam is enough to make me want to head straight to her, but instead, I force myself to dial Connor’s number. He picks up on the second ring.

“Wilf,” he says, “You ready to come back in yet?”

I sigh, “I think we’d better get Nick on the line for this update.” I tell him.

I hear the switch in his tone and the sound of him dialing Nick from his side. “I’ve had a feeling you were about to drop something big,” he says as I pour a fresh coffee and take a seat.

“I’d better start at the beginning then,” I tell him.

Nick comes onto the line a moment later, before I can even reply, “Right, I’m in. What have you got, Wilf?”

I take a moment before launching into it. The hut. Pulling Lara out before she froze to death. Bringing her back here to avoid the shifters following us, either back to mine or the town. The feeling that she had some kind of ability, but not knowing what until I eventually got it out of her, and how we think that ties into the talismans. And now the tracks.”

“How many?” Connor asks.

“At least four sets along the south line,” I tell him. “Came in from the west, ran the perimeter. Drained the third sensor without setting it off. They know what they’re doing. They left the same way they came in.”

“They’ll be back,” Nick mutters.

“Yeah,” I reply. “They must have followed her trail from the hut. Even with the wards disguising it, they knew she didn’t get off the mountain, so they’ve been circling back and double-checking the routes. Pretty sure they know where she is now.”

“Right,” Connor says eventually, “How long since you found the tracks?”

“Forty or so minutes,” I tell him, adding. “I’ve set the emergency wards, which should confuse them for a while.”