“Elder Evans, I don’t care. She has done nothing. None of what you’ve claimed ever came to pass. I just spoke to a very upset mother who claims you gave her pups along with others candy to play in a location they were not to play. They claim you told them to tell anyone who asked why they were there to tell them Kiera chased them there and they feared for their safety. You had pups lie. For what? For some sick revenge on someone who wasn’t even involved. Who showed no signs of acting in such a manner?” “You weren’t there. You didn’t have to perform funeral rights on your own offspring. There’s no way you could understand. Don’t you dare sit there in judgement of me when you let that monster into our midst. I am trying to protect our people from the unblessed monsters.” “That’s it. They are my responsibility, not yours. She was born into this pack. She is one of MY people. Nothing that’s happened to her is her fault. Yet you are punishing her for something sh

Dean didn’t knock on her bedroom door when he entered Kiera’s bedroom. He believed she’d have to get over him sharing her intimate spaces with him. Kiera looked up from the window seat where she sat and watched the late afternoon. “You’re back. Why? Are you bored already?” “Really? You’re going to be rude like that to your Alpha and mate?” He knew now from Ellie that Kiera’s healing ability still worked for her, and she would heal completely in a matter of days. But for now, there’d be no mating between them. Dean would need to satisfy himself with being close to her. “Really Dean? This is just plain weird even for your usual games. My mate? Really? Why would you choose that? So you can lead me along and, at the critical moment, reject me?” Dean knew she’d not be a pushover, but he’d not expected Kiera to be his hostile. What brought this on? Sure, some she-wolves fought the bond that started the mating, but this… “You think we’re

Kiera woke up in a dark room to the sound of someone’s soft snores. Wondering where she was and why she was so warm and felt like she had a weight on her. It didn’t take her long to trace the soft snores in her ear the few inches to Dean’s face. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” To her dismay, the jerk wad was fast asleep, and he was cuddling her. What was going on? She wouldn’t have taken him for a cuddler. Heck, she’d had to suffer listening to Judy Davis whine at lunch while she dated him. He’d kick her out of bed after sex because he wanted to sleep alone. She must be in an alternate reality. This was too weird. Kiera was annoyed with him. What right did he have to abuse his Alpha presence to make her sleep like that? She stifled a groan they’d been rubbing against each other like a couple of horny preteens. She was a grown ass woman. What was she doing? He’d mentioned he wanted to mate with her. Then he stops that by telling her she had to be fully healed

Kiera disliked how Dean made her promise to stay here. There’s nothing for her to do. She’d missed several shifts at the Rocking Horse. Kiera wondered if she had a job to do. Then Dean avoided telling her anything about what Trisha got herself into when she went looking for her. All she could do was sit here and twiddle her thumbs. Kiera struggled not to think about how they’d ended up sleeping in the same bed. That was after she’d convinced herself that they’d not done anything more foolish than it looked like. It didn’t matter really what they did with each other when they were both wolves, but now… Now she had to remember she was a Lycan and that made a difference in everyone’s eyes. Eventually, Kiera heard a knock on her door. “Come in.” She frowned because the guards were supposedly there to keep everyone one out. The door popped open and Mary walked in. “No time for pleasantries. I got food, clothes, and keys. Get we’re getting out of here.” Behind her,

James returned to his office in the study. It was small and cramped, there wasn’t any privacy for him or Keith. So it didn’t take long for Keith to mention something. “So, having a bad day?” “You can say that.” “And it’s barely past breakfast time.” “You had to go there.” “You chose to mate with her. Want to talk about it? I heard something about you putting one of our new members in the healing centre. What happened?” Keith knew exactly what had happened soon after it had happened. He wanted James to vent on something other than himself because that’s when he did his best problem solving. “He got handsy with Trisha. How screwed up is that? He’s barely a member, and he put his paws on his Luna, my mate. I have to make sure everyone knows she’s mine, and she’s, their Luna. This is ridiculous and I feel we missed something in his background check.” “I’ll get someone on it. What are they looking for?” “I feel he’s done this before. He t