AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He couldn’t shake it. It was more than an anomaly. It was unheard of.
Her sex wasn’t the sticking point—women were bred in the same den of violence as men. At least under Loreck. No. It was her youth that puzzled him. Her confidence. Rarely had he seen a pup so young with such potential to lead. Not since one man who belonged to a rival pack—and had since failed to live up to his potential.
To be fair, Michael—the man she targeted—was an idiot. An overconfident, egotistical, brain-deadidiot,butwhere he lacked in smarts, the fool more than made up for in brute strength. Loreck had tasked him with leading the expedition to confront the rogue purely on a technicality—the man had been a close friend of Jamal’s. It was custom, after all, to let the loved ones of those slain seek retribution on their behalf. Hurting for said vengeance, Michael may have gotten a little carried away. They were only supposed to confront the man, after all.
The female and the other rogue had been casualties of war—though,Eric wasn’t ashamed to admit that he would have easily killed them all. An eye for an eye, it was their way. But, then that little female had stared them down without flinching.
Without betraying one damn ounce of fear.
Who the hell was she? Puzzled, he pictured those haunting eyes—a shade not quite green, or brown, with a hint of gold sprinkled in. A gaze that evenEric—whose position was second only to the Alpha—had been uneasy to face head-on. He couldn’t escape the feeling that it wasfamiliar,somehow. He had seen eyes like that before. A gaze just as fierce and unfaltering.
But where?
“Tell me again why youdidn’tkill him?”
Eric flinched at the disapproving tone. With a sigh, he respectfully inclined his head toward the man sitting across from an oak desk in the center of the room.
Eislanders weren’t concerned with pomp and circumstance like other packs—Black Mountain paramount among them. The Alpha held court in an office off the main communal building, in a large space with very little decoration. Aside from the desk, some bookshelves, and a bearskin rug thrown across the wooden floor.
As far as he was concerned, there didn’t need to be. A true leader spent more time out of any dwelling than inside it. This study more than sufficed as the base of operations for the Eislander territory. The man sitting behind the desk made the place seem just as regal as any King’s throne room.
Dark brown hair, speckled with gray, framed a face that could have been chiseled from stone. The cold expression was a hallmark of the man in question—one of many traits that made him a force to be reckoned with.
“It was one against four,” Loreck Eislander went on, voice deceptively calm, as he shuffled a stack of paperwork over the desk’s surface. “Tell me again how that ends up in a retreat?”
“Four againstthree,” Eric corrected. He may have been the man’s Beta, but that didn’t make him any less intimidated. Called here like a naughty child, he resisted the urge to wring his hands and fidget. “There was another rogue, and the female there with him as well. Not to mention ahuman. Besides,” he added quickly. “The rogue would be driven to protect his mate.”
Making him stronger than abouttenwolves, but he had enough sense not to say it out loud.
Loreck, however, wasn’t impressed. The Alpha didn’t look up from his paperwork, but Eric could sense his annoyance, buzzing from him in waves.
“Fine,” he said simply. “Thenyoucan explain to Janelle and Robin why justice for Jamal was denied.”
Eric went cold at the mention of Jamal’s mate and child. The man had been found a couple days ago, near the boundary of the territory, attacked before he even had the chance to shift.
It just didn’t make sense. Out of all the bastards deserving of being murdered, whyJamal?The man had never picked a battle with anyone he couldn’t handle. Not to mention,what the hell was a rogue doing on their territory anyway?
Something doesn’t make sense…
“That’s the thing,” Eric blurted, thinking on his feet. “The other rogue kept mentioning an attack. Said the murder was justified.”
Which, again, just didn’t make any damn sense—Jamal wouldn’t harm a fly. But, there were bruises all over the girl, andsomeonewould have had to get her mate riled enough to kill...
“Justified?” Suddenly, Loreck glanced up, gaze sharp. “Did you check into it?”
“Of-of course,” Eric said, shifting uneasily on his feet. “Trevor and Lyla reported some strange noises by the west border the night of the murder, but a scout of the area revealed nothing out of the ordinary.”
Nothing besides a trampled field and some strange scents—but at the time, he’d just assumed that some idiots from that fool Lukka’s pack had decided to push the boundary too far.
Again.
But, now…
“Something doesn’t seem right—if you don’t mind me saying,” he added hastily as Loreck’s gaze narrowed. But, it was too late to clam up now. Taking a deep breath, he decided to lay it all on the table. “Why would that rogue kill Jamal? If he has a grudge againstanyone, don’t you think it would be Lukka?”
The man had exiled him, after all. Not to mention, that the asshole had already made more than his fair share of enemies, despite being Alpha for a few short years.
The corner of Loreck’s mouth twitched up into something that could have been a smile if the dark emotion in those hazel eyes wasn’t all wrong.
