My mother is my biggest champion and her even suggesting these things is the biggest sign that something is wrong with me. Because a mother can sense that about her offspring, better than anybody else.
I just don’t know what the fuck is wrong with my nose, my brain. I can’t help but keep going in circles wondering what would have happened if I’d been here at home the night of their mating.
My senses are in overdrive and I’m having vivid dreams of my wolf challenging the black wolf and running off with a non-descript female. And I feel sick about it. She’s already mated to him. A sane alpha doesn’t go after another alpha’s mate. A sane Arcana Falls pack member, let alone a super-alpha doesn’t covet what isn’t his. Especially not his brother’s mate. Not ever. It’s grounds for expulsion from the pack. It’s grounds for a challenge from the other alpha that would end the triangle by the elimination of one of those two alphas.
I’ve been told my whole life – not to mention seen couplings with my own eyes – that I’ll know, indisputably, who my other half is when I catch her scent.
There’s definite dispute here. She’s his and I don’t know if that’s how it’s supposed to be, if that’s how it’d be if I’d been here Friday night instead of hours away in a motel, fucking that bartender. A bartender that has left me three voicemail messages that I haven’t listened to and sent two texts that have gone unanswered, asking me if I’m okay, apologizing for her behavior when I said I needed to go home, asking me to call because she needs to talk to me.
Tonight is the strawberry moon themed party, bot something I’m remotely interested in. This pack loves any excuse to throw a party and the moon phase along with the fact that Tyson Savage is back are more than enough reason.
A week has passed since Tyson claimed a mate and it’s beyond time for me to show my face. Our entire pack is meeting our missing piece tonight and as second alpha and the only council alpha that hasn’t met him, I need to pull myself together.
Will whatever this is pass or begin to make sense?
“Is she a twin?” Carrie, Greyson’s stepmother, non-shifter, asked when we were all at Roxy’s bar last night after they browbeat me until I finally left my house for the first time since Monday.
Bailey answered. “There have been cases where there are twins and the alpha chooses one, isn’t attracted to both of them.”
“I never said I was attracted to her,” I put in, losing my resolve in not participating.
“There’s also the case of the lost days. Witchcraft,” Bailey added.
My mother piped up then with, “You said you smelled strange scents. What sorts of scents? Witches use herbs to cause confusion.”
“It has to be witchcraft,” Linc put in. “Couldn’t sense him at all. And didn’t sense his loss, either. Then when I did find him, his scent was under a heavy layer of herbs and his connection was barely there; it felt… frayed.”
“Which herbs?” Bailey asked, pulling a big book out of her bag. Bailey often has her nose in a book. Didn’t you say basil? Because it can be used in spells to create confusion.”
“Basil was one of them,” Linc nodded.
“And you smelled strange things,” my mother pointed out unnecessarily.
“Might’ve been just her I was smelling. But time will tell,” I said and then I changed the subject. Because I was sick of it. They kept whispering about it, so I made an excuse and went home. Linc came with me to keep me company.
I didn’t bother mentioning that I knew my co-alphas and my family were all taking turns babysitting me under the guise of keeping me company.
And the fact that my mother was questioning my motives weighed on me because what might others in the pack be saying if this was coming from the person who knows me best?
***
The consensus tonight is that I’m smelling like myself again, but I sure as fuck don’t feel like myself.
Despite sleepless nights, the constant agitation, and the fact that my wolf is pacing, none of it changes the fact I need to show my face tonight. And do it ignoring the shadowy presence in my head warning me I might want to attack him when I set eyes on her. Attack, then take.
People in the pack know me as a guy with my head on straight, my shit together, and that I put my pack first. If that wasn’t the case, I’m sure those who have been around me this past week would’ve told me to stay away what with the fragile state of things. I’ve been told Tyson hasn’t been around people or shifters in six years until this past week. His only known exposure to his own kind was the crazy Cornelius Savage.