Chapter Three

Unsure if it was the right moment, Aaron paced the room, debating whether to speak up. Could he stay away until it was safe? He only became certain after arriving at the pack house and catching a whiff of the single females. As he drove away from her house, he felt increasingly sick with every mile that separated them. Shit, he didn’t need this right now. But his brother had a right to know.

“Bonnie’s sister Drew, I think…. No, I’m sure she’s my mate.” He stopped and looked his brother in the eye. Roland grinned, getting up from his chair and rounding the table to hug his brother.

“Congratulations,” slapping Aaron’s back, overjoyed for his brother.

“Fuck Ro, we don’t need this right now. The danger within the pack and she is human.” Aaron pulled back to look his brother in the eye.

“Things happen for a reason, bro. She must be strong to be your mate.” Smelling him, Roland added, “you didn’t claim her?”

Aaron laughed at that. “What? When? The woman was holding a knife dangerously close to my genitals. Plus, I wasn’t sure until I was driving away from her…. It was only when I arrived here and caught a whiff of the unmated females. I have already called her protection team twice. They must think I don’t trust them.”

“I do remember her. It was after Bonnie got turned..” Roland informed Aaron.

“What?” He looked up in surprise. Partly jealous of having his brother anywhere near her, which was totally ridiculous. He was her mate, not Roland.

“You had gone away on pack business. It was just after Bonnie had been bitten, I went to the hospital. Her sister was there. Interesting woman, her sister. She blames us for her sister’s change and I don’t disagree with her. She got in my face…….. I really didn’t think she was your type, though.” Roland said honestly, moving back to his seat. “to buttoned down for you, bro.”

Aaron snorted. Her outfit may suggest one thing, but there was an underlying secret, something just below the surface.

“My concern is she is human and I will not push the change on anyone. I know she is strong, but there are no guarantees. If she wants to stay human, right now, that puts her in danger. But I can feel I’m already splintering my attention. I should be guarding you, and I’m worried about her. You know how the first few weeks of a mating are. I won’t be at my best. I won’t see the danger until it’s on me or you.”

“Aaron, this is your mate. It’s too late, you need to claim her. The compulsion to do so will become too much. The danger won’t become apparent until the final minute, but you will fight fiercer and more powerful as you protect your mate. Having a mate makes you stronger. If she were to become fertile ….” Roland started to warn him of the danger of holding off.

“I know! I know this. I could hurt her to claim her and against her will as well, which is against our laws.” Aaron replied in frustration.

She is really going to cut my balls off for this, he thought. How was he to convince her that she was his mate? She already hated their kind? For turning her sister. Women had always come easy for Aaron.

All werewolves were attractive and oozed sex appeal. But high-ranking wolves this increased their sex appeal to the lower-ranking females. Roland and he had always been careful. That didn’t mean they had been monks, just careful about choosing partners to sleep with.

At times, they would go to a bar and meet women who desired nothing more than sexual satisfaction for one night, or in rare cases, females from other packs who understood it wasn’t a proposal of marriage. Definitely not women like Blair and Jade. Plus, Aaron was sure their sisters would kick their asses.

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Their time for talking had come to an end. Upon opening the door, Aaron was greeted by their four younger sisters.

Piper stood against the frame, with Bailey, Faith, and baby Lily all standing behind her.

“What’s happening?” Piper demanded before pushing past Aaron and entered the room as the rest followed. Lily shut the door behind them. Aaron looked at Roland and gave him a speaking look. Roland smirked at his brother. Talk about nosy. But he couldn’t blame them.

This affected their family, their pack. Aaron gave Roland another look they shared often when it came to their nosy sisters.

“Bonnie is yet to be found and we need to investigate the pack’s situation, also the external influence that is contributing to it. But members in the pack are involved. We just don’t know what that something is or who are the troublemakers.” Roland finally explained.

Acknowledging Aaron’s unspoken caution against revealing information about Drew. Not yet anyway. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust their sisters. It was more that this was Aaron’s mate. So his choice.

Aaron was glad Roland hadn’t said anything about his mate. He just wasn’t ready to talk about it. Knowing his sisters like he did, they would want every little detail. When he himself didn’t know enough about Drew yet. What he did know about her, she would give his sisters a run for their money on insults. During family time and when it was just them and the girls could say what they liked, but in front of the pack, they always respected the pack hierarchy.

“So the sister didn’t know anything?” Piper asked.

“No, and I knocked on the door and we…. Spoke, while I was there I smelt the house Bonnie hasn’t been there, well for sometime anyway. Plus, Drew didn’t have Bonnie’s smell on her.”

All sisters stood side by side, with Piper slightly in front. She constantly looks out for her younger sisters.

There wasn’t much between the girls, Piper was twenty-four, the twins Bailey and Faith were only thirteen months younger, and baby Lily came two years later. They all had ice-blue eyes and hair as black as night. Not one of the Hemming siblings had found their mates yet.

However, things have changed. Until he met Drew. Was it a good idea for him to bring her into this explosive situation?

They didn’t know what was going on inside their own pack, and any human mate of a high-ranking pack member would be in extreme danger. Shit, fuck, who was he kidding? She was already in danger. The connection to her sister put her right in the middle of it all.

Mating with him would only make things worse. Aaron could feel the pull on the bond between them, the connection to her. He wasn’t sure how long he would be able to fight it. Was she feeling the same? She was human, and he had never asked if human mates felt the same way as wolves did.

The need to be around their mate, to touch and feel. Roland was right. He needed to do something about it before she became fertile. The last thing he wanted to do to his sharp tongued little mate was frighten her. Spank the shit out of her yes, even drive his tongue into her mouth so she couldn’t say anything, she would have to tell him with her body if she wanted more.

“Aaron?”

He snapped back, realising his name had been called more than once. He had been lost in his own thoughts. Looking at his siblings, Ro was smirking. He was getting damn sick of that smirk. Piper was frowning, and the other three looked at him intensely. It wasn’t like him to wonder off into his own thoughts during serious times like this. Only Roland knew the reason why.

“Aaron, we are talking about bringing Bonnie’s sister to the house for protection, or should we still leave her in place, hoping she will lead us to her sister?” Roland tried bringing him up to date.

“I think we leave her in place.” Piper put in her opinion. The problem was she didn’t know yet Drew was Aaron’s mate. Fuck, he knew he would have to tell them. If they knew who she was, they would protect her with their lives.

Everyone loyal to the pack would. Inlay the problem, there was something going on. Wolves had died. They believed someone was going to challenge the pack for leadership, but to take Roland on was a death wish. He was the strongest. They could try to assassinate Roland, which would transfer leadership to Aaron, because Aaron had proven himself to be second strongest within the pack to Ro.

The only other way they could take control was to weaken the pack and build an army. They would have to look mostly outside the pack for support due to the loyalty to Roland. Even though their father had been alpha, the leadership of a pack wasn’t automatically given to an alpha’s son.

Roland had proved himself a strong and fair alpha, giving him the trust of the pack. But with any leadership, there was always someone that thought they could lead better. But normally, the Alpha was the strongest.

Roland looked at Aaron, letting him know it was his mate, so up to him if he wanted to share the news with their sisters.

“Give it a few more days and we will bring her in.” Aaron finally answered. The fact Aaron had taken a few moments to think before answering made Piper frown. Arron was so fast thinking when strategising on their family’s protection and that of the pack.

Piper said accusingly. “Ok, what the fuck is going on? Because something is?”