Chapter 6

KAEL

~•~

She was pregnant.

I knew it the moment she walked through those doors. You didn’t spend years leading a pack without developing my kind of awareness that picked up on things instantly.

She had hidden it well. A woman who could stand in front of me terrified, exhausted, and still thinking clearly enough to manage what she revealed and what she didn’t, that was not nothing.

Caden was at my door within twenty minutes of her being escorted to her room. I heard him knock twice before he came in, which was more courtesy than he usually bothered with, which meant he had something to say that he wanted me to be in a receptive mood for before he said it.

“Sit down,” I said, before he could open his mouth.

He sat. Caden was my Beta and had been for six years, which meant he knew better than most when I was in a mood to be questioned and when I wasn’t.

He looked at me across the desk with that careful expression he wore when he was trying to assess which version of me he was dealing with.

“The girl,” he said.

“What about her?”

“You marked her.”

“I’m aware of what I did, Caden.”

He was quiet for a moment. Outside the window the pack grounds were settling into the particular stillness of early morning, the sky just beginning to lighten at the far edge.

My senses picked up on everything.

“She’s a rogue from Blackthorn,” Caden said. “We don’t know anything about her. We don’t know why she left, we don’t know what she’s carrying, we don’t know if anyone is going to come looking for—”

“No one is coming looking for her,” I said.

He paused. “You don’t know that.”

“She crossed our border alone in the dark with everything she owned in one bag,” I said. “She was walking without a destination.” I looked at him. “No one is coming for her.”

Caden absorbed this. He had the particular quality of a good Beta, which was that he knew when an argument was worth pursuing and when it wasn’t.

He shifted in his chair. “Then what are you going to do with her?”

“Exactly what I told her.”

He looked at me steadily. “You marked a rogue omega as your Luna? I know you love to make your irrational decisions and you don’t give a damn about anyone’s opinion, but are you really serious about this?”

“I did, and yes, I’m serious.”

“Can I ask why?”

I considered how much of the answer to give him. Caden was loyal and capable and I trusted him as much as I trusted anyone, which was not unconditionally but was more than most.

“Because I wanted to,” I said. “And because it amused me to. I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation, as you must already understand.”

It was true as far as it went. When my men had reported the trespasser I had been ready to give the standard order, the one I always gave, the one that kept Dravon Pack’s borders respected and its reputation intact. Trespassers did not leave. It was my law and there were no exceptions to it, no matter what.

But then the description had come back and something in it had caught my attention.

I had seen beautiful women. That was not the thing that had appealed to me. Beauty was common enough and I had long since stopped being moved by it on its own.

And seeing her myself, I knew I was right to send for her.

An omega stood before me, exhausted down to the bone, genuinely frightened, and still looked directly at me, working out what to say and what to hold back. There was a quality of endurance in her that I recognised.

And the unique scent inside of her made her all more interesting to me.

“The men have put her in the east wing,” Caden said, pulling me back to the room. “One of the better rooms.”

“Good.” I said.

“She hasn’t eaten though,” He pointed out with a tone that made me know he was still hoping I’d probably snap out of my decision.

“Then have someone bring her food.” I ordered, final.

Caden nodded slowly, watching me. I could see him assembling the pieces, trying to build a picture of this that made sense to him.

“There’s something else,” he said.

I waited.

“Blackthorn Pack.” He leaned forward slightly. “Their Alpha is Gregor Cross. His son Dorian is the heir, set to take over within the year by most accounts. They’re a mid-level pack, nothing remarkable about them, but they sit on the eastern border of the neutral territory which means they’re adjacent to three other packs including—”

“Including Varen Pack,” I said.

Caden’s eyes sharpened. “You already knew.”

“I know the geography of every pack within a hundred miles of my border. That’s not a coincidence, that’s basic competence.” I picked up the report on my desk and set it aside. “What’s the current relationship between Blackthorn and Varen?”

“Unclear. There’s no formal alliance on record but there have been meetings. Nothing we can confirm.” He answered.

I filed that away. Varen Pack had been a complication on my border for two years, a mid-level operation run by an Alpha with ambitions that exceeded his capability.

He hadn’t made any moves against me directly, he was not that stupid, but there had been a pattern of smaller provocations.

Whether the girl from Blackthorn had anything to do with any of that I did not know yet.

She had the look of someone who had been surviving inside a pack rather than operating for one, the look of someone who had been used rather than deployed.

But I filed it away regardless.

“Keep looking into Blackthorn,” I said. “Quietly. I want to know the internal structure, who holds rank, what the relationship between the Alpha and his heir looks like, and anything unusual in the last thirty days.”

“Alright, consider it done.” Caden stood. He paused at the door. “And the girl? What do we tell the pack?”

I looked at him. “Not that I care, but you can tell them their long awaited Luna might have just arrived.”

He held my gaze for a moment, then nodded once and left.

I sat right where I was after the door closed and listened to the pack grounds outside. The light was coming properly now, the sky shifting from grey to pale gold at the edges, and somewhere in the east wing of this house a woman was sitting in a room she had never seen before with my mark on her neck and no idea what she had walked into.

She had accepted the offer, not like she had much of a choice anyway. The dungeon was not survivable for a pregnant woman and she was sure to understand that without saying.

But the way she had accepted it had been interesting. No tears, no further pleading, no attempt to negotiate once the decision was made.

She thinks she is going to survive me.

She has no idea what kind of man she just said yes to, but she was going to find out soon enough.