Ahh!

Tuesday treat for you all! Love you guys to the moon and back!

Song of the chapter is, "Sedated" by Hozier.

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I made her hundreds of bracelets that were all pieces of shit until I finally made one that didn't look like Lander did it. It had tiny red flowers, that reminded me of her hair, tucked into it, green vines made the band along with dried vines that gave it lasting strength. I tucked some of my fur into one of the crevices so it would smell like me. It was small, but so was her wrist. She could easily hide it, easily always keep a piece of me with her whether she was on this side of the line or not.

David told me before we left that he talked to Billy who said he was going to do some recon work for us. Billy apparently didn't mind a little trouble, and right now we needed someone with that kind of mindset.

"You could write her a song, sing one for her," Bowie tells me while we walk back to our meeting place by the creek.

"Girls don't really like that," David says. "You could make her something? You could carve her a knife, or even some arrowheads?"

"So what? She can cut his balls off?"

"She's already done that," Lander snickers out.

A growl vibrates off of me to him. He shrugs, brushing it off with a laugh. He was getting an ass beating later.

"Arrowheads, stick to the arrowheads," David tells me because apparently, his future mate was getting an armory from him.

The others lingered back while I walked towards our meeting place. I could smell her before I saw her; she was early, a thought that had me actually smiling.

My hand brushed over my pant pocket where her bracelet was. I felt like such a fool, but I had to up my game.

I was going to reach for it but another scent hit my nose. It was male and too damn close to Emmett.

Shit.

"Lander watch my flanks," I say.

I crept in quietly around the boulders, half expecting Emmett to stroll out and meet me. Instead, when I turned the corner, Eve was arguing hotly with another male, dark hair, blue-green eyes, and a hotness in his tone that reminded me of his father. Another male was to the side, trying to reason with the first male; tall, sandy blonde hair, and a thick build.

The voices stopped when I stepped closer. A growl reverberated off of the first male. My beast charged forward. I didn't care if this was her idiot brother, he wasn't going to ruin this for us.

"Do you even realize what you've done!?" he asks hotly.

"What I've done?" My beast was shaking out his fur at the sight of the younger male walking towards us.

"Chris, please!" Eve says, walking towards her brother but the other male held her back. I growled at him, he didn't get to keep her from me. He rolled his eyes and whispered something to her, but she just shoved him away. "Stop Billy, let me go!" she hisses out.

"Yes, what you've done! Do you even realize how dangerous it is for her to be out here?!"

My focus goes back to the approaching male. I can feel Lander closing in behind, along with the others. "What choice do we have?! It's not my fault your father is spatting at the moon!"

He growls again, beast stepping closer. "Are you so selfish that you're going to put her in danger like this!?"

"If you want to stop it then go talk to your father! See if he won't tell you lies about our pack!"

That was it. He lunged at me and I heard Eve call my name but I was too consumed with tearing this male from limb to limb. He tries to take a swipe at me but I nail his jaw instead then yank him around so I can nail him again.

I feel something in my gut. He's socked me there then socked me again in the ribs. He's a good fighter, hits harder than it looks like he will. I suck in a breath of air, my fur so close that I'm ready to let it roll over me so I can sink my teeth into him but someone yanks me backward before yanking him away from me.

Bowie and Lander are pulling me back while Billy and David drag Chris away as Eve hurls out more profanities than I thought were in existence at both of us. In that moment my beast wants his female, but I know that giving her brother a black eye was not going to earn me any "wooing" points.

I get up and eye Lander who looks over his shoulder, eyes watching Chris while he hisses something out that I don't catch. I'm still too angry.

"Swell night," Billy says, offering his hand to David.

David laughs then shakes it. "Indeed?"

"All right," Billy says. "Chris, calm down. You promised—"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Do you even know what he's done to the other bondmates that haven't given him a male heir!" I bite out. Chris grows quiet and Eve's eyes grow wide. Oh, they know but they're going to hear it again. "He lynches them right there in the middle of the pack then leaves them for days and days until the crows peck them apart. He did it to a woman from a neighboring pack, her family didn't even recognize her body and that's what you want to send her to?!"

"I never said that!" Chris snarls out. "I'm saying that if my father finds out about this," he says, gesturing his hands towards us. "That the day she goes to the Black line is a lot sooner than any of us want."

"Let's go run," Billy says to Chris. "Now, come on, let's go."

David eyes him then whistles at Bowie. "We'll make a hot lap."

I wait until everyone has left. For a while, I think that Chris is going to come back and try to beat my ass, but the scent of him is gone that the sound of summer crickets signal that it's safe.

She's upset, it rolls off of her. Guilt is weighing on me because in a way, Chris is right. If her father found out then it could be very bad for her, and that's the last thing I want.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"I can't leave him, it's just the two of us. We are all each other has. He has no mate. There's a good portion of the pack that supports him, but he needs me—"

"And Jeremiah?"

"Father hasn't said."

"He could try to take you there tomorrow, then what?"

"What are you going to force me too?!"

I'm trying to stay calm but it's hard when all I want to do is kiss her lips and pull my hair out at the same time. "What do you want me to do, Eve?"

Instead, she walks to me and presses her lips to mine herself.

I'm stunned and I have no idea what to do because I can't believe it's happening until I feel mine move in sync with hers. She shouldn't have done this because now I never want to let her go. Now all I want to do is steal kisses from her until the day I die.

"Levi," she says, breaking away from me. It's bittersweet because my name on her tongue is art, but her lips away from mine is disaster. "Levi I can convince my father. Just let me try."

"Eve, just come with me." I never beg. Ever. But right now, with her, it's all I have.

I push some of her hair back, I want to wake up to see it blanketed on the pillow next to me. "Please, just come with me."

"If I do, then it will be war. You know that."

"War's not so bad." She eyes me, eyes saying then severely disagree. "Fine," I breathe out, stealing another kiss from her.

"We found more deer," she says. "Brains, just the brains gone."

"Brains are all fat."

"I think they are feeding something, trying to fatten it up. Why else would they be taking the fatty parts?"

I smile as does my beast. She's so smart, probably smarter than we are, and equally as beautiful. "Well, sounds like we should snoop, little red." Her eyes fall into a shade of mischief that I think I love most. "We can't keep coming back here. Your brother is right, someone will find out."

She nods while the wheels turn in her brain. "It's not that I don't want to come. I just need more time."

"How much more?" She doesn't want to answer, she looks away but we can't put this off. She's coming to my pack, she will cross that line one way or another. "Eve, how much more."

"My father can't send me if a majority isn't with him. Chris has a good number supporting him, I just need more time. We can reason with him, in our own way."

Christ she's going to kill me. How can I say "no" when she's looking at me like this, how can I when all I want to do is kiss her lips?

"The longer–"

"Please, please just let me try."

I sigh. I'm not going to force her. I wouldn't do that. Males who do such things are dishonorable. The day she walks across my line to be with me I want her to be proud to do it.

"Ok," I say, her lips smiling. "Oh," I say, reaching into my pocket before I forget. I open my hand and hold the bracelet out to her. "I made this for you."

Her nose scrunches as she inspects it. My beast is pacing back and forth, if she doesn't like it then I'm burning down every vine I see.

She takes it and holds it up in the moonlight then slips it onto her wrist. The flowers almost match her hair that's falling around her tonight, curlier than I remember it but I think I like it most like this—untamed.

"You made this?" she is inspecting it on her wrist. She brings her nose to it and I know she's found the spot where I hid the fur. I'm just glad her idiot brother didn't break it when he lunged at me.

"I did." Why am I so nervous all the sudden? Why is this harder than walking up to my own bear?

She smiles at me then presses her lips to my cheek. "No one has ever made me anything like this before."

"Good," I say. I'm trying to limit my body count over this relationship as much as possible, mostly for her, because when she smiles I'm pretty sure I would level an entire pack for that.

She rolls her eyes but I catch her hand and press my lips to the inside of her palm and close it, giving her a part of me to take with her.

It's more kisses lost in moonlight spent together until she leaves me again. She trots off with the bracelet in her mouth and I pray that she doesn't get caught. Part of me wonders how pissed my father really would be if I killed Emmett?

I didn't sleep at all that night. How could I after that? Every time I fell asleep she was there, and when I woke it was like I could smell her next to me. It's an ache I've never known, one that hurts you without making you bleed and I hate it. I hate this lonely feeling that I'm drowning in without her. I even stole the shirt I wore from that burrow just so I could have my own piece of her for now, until she was fully mine.

The next morning my father called me into his office. I half-hoped he wanted to tell me that I had permission to burn down a pack, but I wasn't ever that lucky, and this morning I doubted I would be.

"Well?" he says as I turn the corner and walk into his office.

"She wants to try and sway Emmett."

"Good luck," he says sardonically.

"What am I supposed to do?" I sit down in the chair in front of his desk.

"You're not forcing her to come here."

"I know but the alternative is her being sent to Jeremiah," I say hotly. "That's almost bad as war."

"Which we don't need, but you are right, this is serious. It's a blatant spat into the moon's eye on Emmett's part."

"What do we do?" I ask again because I feel like I'm running out of options. "What is he even gaining for? Joining the two packs? Together they are still not strong enough to take the region."

"Never say never," my father says. "Emmett's always been overly ambitious. Regardless, you're doing this the right way. I won't have you dishonor her or the Goddess."

"I know," I breathe out.

"Listen, we've have spies out. Dagger has an open line with Iona. She's always liked our pack and Dagger, she's a good wolf. He's not sending her over there soon, but I don't think it's a bluff. All the same, we have time, which is what you need." He pauses then shrugs to me with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "What can Emmett do if she has a mark on her neck?"

"Lander said something like that."

"He's right," my father answered. "And no one could come to his aid. Who would? Contesting true mates that have marked each other? Even more madness."

"I'm working on it," I tell him.

"Well, work harder," father says.

I roll my eyes then nod to him before I take my leave. I spend the day working on the damn greenhouse. Claire's given me seeds to plant along with some bulbs and I can only hope that I'm not killing them when I dump water over the soil. But the time I'm done, I'm half covered in dirt but the greenhouse will hopefully start turning a crop this summer. I think she would like it in here.

The next thing to do is build a new outhouse, but that's a project I'll need Lander and the others for. I make a mental note to check the patrol schedule so I can get a time when we are not all on duty, and another note to buy some liquor for all of them. Nothing worse than building a new outhouse, really nothing worse than covering the hole. I should talk to the vampires and see if they can't help me upgrade the bathroom. Really all the plumbing could use some magic, which I know they have. I made another mental note to talk to Derek when he visits, it would be nice to not have to pump for water. I can imagine that it would be nicer for Eve to have a sink with actual running water.

"Are you busy tonight?"

I smile. "What do you have in mind little red?"

"Jeremiah Black's line."

I almost run into the door. "Eve—"

"Listen there are trails of the deer over there. We both need to snoop, you said so yourself."

I pinch my brow because this is asking for it. "Eve, we shouldn't be so risky."

"We also can't let this keep happening!"

"Ya but our luck Jeremiah may decide to take a midnight stroll on his damn pack line tonight!"

She's quiet. I pray to all that is holy that she's taking this in, listening to me. "I'm going with or without you."

I want to reply but she's gone from the line. Frustration and anger flares in me. How could she be so reckless? This is insane! She needs to stay miles and miles away from that pack. She needs to be here where she belongs and not trotting around Jeremiah's line.

"Lander."

I feel a buzzing that lights up in my brain. "How's the wooing?"

"Shut the hell up, listen, we need to go to the Lusa line tonight."

"Do you want to start a war?" he laughs out.

"She's going. She thinks there's deer there."

"Shit," he hisses. "All right, fine. I'll tell the other's. We can't just go on our own, it's too dangerous—is she crazy?"

"I think she may be," I say.

Lander jumps off the line and leaves me to drown in my anxiety the rest of the day. It doesn't get better.

That night I'm ancy. It doesn't help that David brought extra knives. Bowie looks like he's ready to run and I think Lander's been itching but he says nothing about it.

We don't go all the way to the Lusa line, and for that, I praise the damn moon. Billy jogs over our line and waves to us. He looks rather joyful to be dancing too close to war.

Next, I see Chris in the tree line, hovering in front of his sister. "He's such a wet blanket," I tell Lander.

Lander snickers out a laugh before he shifts to his skin. I feel my own bones crack, skin rolling over where fur once stood. Lander tosses me some pants that I quickly slip on. I check the pockets; the small bird I carved for her is still there. It took me hours, mostly because I kept accidentally cutting the head off.

Bowie jogs up, nose in the air. "I'll go ahead." I nod to him and he takes off, shifting back to his fur with his nose to the ground.

Chris walks right across the line. No care for whose it is. He eyes Bowie then looks me over. "You're going to bring nothing but war."

"Everyone likes a little war," I say.

"Does it not bother you?"

"What's worse? Being in bed with vampires or a sacrilegious mating? I don't think I know at this point."

"Chris!" I hear her voice say in a harsh whisper.

Chris rolls his eyes and looks out where Bowie is running. "I'm going to follow him," he says, shifting back to his fur and trailing after Bowie.

Billy shakes his head before he and David walk after them, both doing a double sweep of the ground around them. They're not just strategic men, they're tactical—damned by detail that determines destiny.

I wait a few moments then walk to a tree where I can feel her blood crackling towards me. She's shuffling in the leaves, it sounds like she's rolling around in them but it's hard to tell.

"Little Red, we don't have all night."

"Just look at this!" the dress she has on has the worst pattern of polka dots and lace on it. It looks almost like the polka dots were vomiting lace. "This—who wears this?!"

"Humans," I grumble.

"This is ridiculous."

"No one is saying you have to wear it."

"You would like that wouldn't you?" she says hotly.

My lips quickly quirk into a smile, teeth showing because if anything I'm an honest man. Eve rolls her eyes and trudges past me. That dress never looked that good, and without her, it wasn't going to look better.

I walk after the trail of flames it feels like her hair is leaving. Her feet stop at the pack line. You can't see it but there is markers on the trees, two silver lines pained parallel to each other create a line on their own.

Dramatically, I take a tall step then turn towards her. She bites back what looks like a growl then stomps past me. I try not to laugh but it's impossible to do. "Well, that wasn't so hard."

"Asshole," I hear her grumble.

"What? Expecting a King to come for you?"

She shoves my shoulder. "That's not funny!"

"How so?" I laugh. "It's just a line."

"They told us—it's nothing."

"You have to tell me now Little Red." I say, my hand brushing against my pocket, reminding me of my gift. "Shit," I hiss. I dig the bird out and open my hand, offering it to her. "This is for you."

We continue walking but the moment freezes us. She takes it from my hand, something battling behind her eyes. "They told us you feed the weak pups to vampires. Some say they can hear the cries from the ghost pups on your pack lines, other's say they've seen vampires waiting for someone stupid to stumble into a trap."

I do freeze while she keeps walking, the bird in her hand turning her eyes into a molten green. My heart is pounding as anger rages in me. "Do people believe that?" I jog after her. "Eve?"

"Some," she says, her eyes still on the bird.

"Do you?" She says nothing but I have to know. I walk in front of her—her feet stop before her head tilts up to meet mine.

"No." She steps around me. "I never have. But vampires do live here?"

"If they did?" I'm jogging again to catch up with her because part of me, a damn good part, wants to walk right back to her pack so I can beat Emmett's ass myself.

"Does it not bother you?"

"Why would it?"

"They're dead. Demons."

"We are too in our own way," I answer. "Besides, they're not dead. Their blood pumps like ours does."

"Does it?"

"Have you ever wondered how one could even get an erection?" She snickers out a laugh, not phased at all. I arch a brow at her. She's a maze to me that keeps changing and I don't know whether to stand still so she can eventually show me the way or to keep running in circles.

She tucks the bird into her pocket. "You didn't have to make me that."

"I wanted to."

"Thank you." She says. "I never wondered. I figured if they had mates then they weren't so dead. The moon wouldn't punish a female like that."

"What?" I'm so deep in this maze that I wonder if I'm ever going to get out.

Eve rolls her eyes. "How do you think it gets wet asshole?"

I'm frozen again in something that's burning my cheeks. She's laughing ahead of me and I don't think I can move because I've never heard a female speak in such a way, and I certainly would not dare. My mother would have had my tongue and my father would have put a beating on me for such disrespect.

"You really need to pull that stick out of your ass," she laughs out, and I walk towards her. The breeze tonight is cooler and I can only hope it cools my cheeks down before I reach her.

I say nothing when I reach her. My tongue is stuck in my mouth while my beast is frozen with his eyes wide in the back of my brain. "So what's the plan?" she asks, and now all I can think of are things that I shouldn't be thinking of right now.

"Levi?"

I snap back to the reality and try to think about how ugly that dress is. She makes it look actually beautiful, but if we're being honest it's the only thing calming me down right now.

"See what we find," I say.

"Well obviously," she replies. "We should stake them out."

"What?"

"If the deer are there, we should see if we can catch someone."

Her excitement rolls off her shoulders and onto me. I can't help but reach over and push some hair behind her ears. She gives me a playful scowl, but it's another small victory in my book. I need all the victories I can get.

Bowie jogs too me as we near an area where the stench of rot is starting to trickle out. "Two, dead. On the ground this time."

"Have you touched them?"

"No," he says. "Chris thinks we should wait and see if anyone comes back for them."

Dammit, I hate that he's right. Wet damn blanket.

Eve nods. "We should."

Inwardly I'm groaning but it's a good idea and this far from the Lusa pack line is still safe for her. "Fine. Where?"

"The trees," Bowie says. "There are some thicker Evergreens that will hide our scent."

"Well, let's go," Eve says, marching off towards where Billy is waving us over.

Bowie and I watch her walk a ways. "That's an awful dress," he says before he gives me an apologetic glance. "She's gorgeous Levi, but that's—do you think they make all their females wear shit like that over there?"

"She said they told them that we fed our weak pups to vampires," I say quietly enough that I know she won't hear.

Bowie tilts towards me. "What?"

"She said that some say the ghosts of the children lurk in those woods. That we let vampires wait on our line for unlucky wolves."

He sucks in a deep breath then lets it out. "All of them."

"Enough of them."

"Does Luca know?"

"I haven't asked him. I can't imagine he doesn't."

"Nalia, she's never mentioned that. Ever." He pauses and looks around. "Levi I don't think they know. That's a serious rumor to be peddling. Luca wouldn't just let that go if he knew."

He wouldn't. He would send a box of pigs testicles to Emmett.

"Tomorrow," I tell him.

"Does she?"

"She says she doesn't."

"And wild eyes?"

"Wild eyes?"

"Her brother."

I shrug. "I don't know."

I run off after Eve who Chris has posted himself near. He's taking with Billy and David, one eye on me like its ready to jump out of his skull and bite me.

We opt for a set of evergreens far enough away that our scent won't give us away; the leave of the trees have a powerful scent of their own that will mask us, but luckily the trees are close enough that we can still see the headless deer.

I climb high into one with Eve. The lace on her dress keeps catching on the limbs. She eventually takes a clawed finger and rips most of it off. I catch it and shove it into my pocket. The last thing we need is someone to find lace with her scent so close to Jeremiah's line.

Chris is in the tree next to us, watching us more than he is the deer. He can piss off. More like he can sit there while Lander talks his ear off. It looks like Lander made a link with him because Lander's eyeing him like he's supposed to respond to something while Billy snickers at them.

David and Bowie are below me. David is toying with his knife. He's ancy but being this close to Jeremiah's line is enough to make anyone ancy.

"Come with me," I tell her. I can't say that I'm not trying.

"You are perseverant, I'll give you that."

"Can you blame me?"

Her cheeks flush, even in the dark, I can see it. The beast in me wants to smell her hair again; he wants me to toss her over my shoulder and climb down this damn tree then take her home.

"What are they like?"

"Who?"

"Your parents?"

I furrow my brows, my parents are not what I would expect her to ask about. "They say I'm like my father the most—"

"Stubborn with assholish tendencies?"

"For the most part," I answer. "He's a good man. Fair and loyal. He adores my mother, although, my mother is tougher than him on his best days. She likes to garden and he likes to garden with her. Lander and I joke that he should have been a gardener some days rather than an alpha. He said it's a lot like running a pack."

"How much younger is Lander?"

"Doesn't matter, in his mind he's still able to kick my ass," I answer.

"Chris isn't that much older than me. Only a few years," she replies, a soft smile on her lips.

"Your parents are lucky."

"Ours both are. Plenty in our pack haven't had pups. Plenty wanted."

That's because Emmett's practically closed their borders. They can't get out and see if there's anyone else outside of his chosen allies. I wonder if some are even too scared to try and leave with all the rumors. I bet they are.

"Your father should let them come to festivals. There are faces that they haven't seen. You never know."

She says nothing and I don't push. It's not her fault, and I shouldn't make her feel bad about who her family is. Jesus, I am an asshole.

"I planted carrots yesterday."

"Carrots?"

"And tomatoes," I say. "And okra."

"You've been busy."

"I've been told that women would like more than jerky and whiskey in their home."

"I don't mind the whiskey but the jerky will get old after a while."

My lips tug into a smile. The beast in me is more than pleased to hear this. "There's no running water, yet."

"Running water?" Her eyes go wide.

"The vampires, they have perks. Like connections to witches that have figured out how to do such things."

"Impossible."

"My parents have running water."

"Lies."

I arch a brow. "Lander does too. Ask him. It was an Ancient's gift to Lander for his home he built for Claire."

"An Ancient?" Her brows furrow before she shakes her head. "One of the first?"

"He's always been a friend of our family's."

"And running water?"

"I was going to rebuild the outhouse, but I decided that would be preferable."

"It would be."

I smile again while she plays with the edges of her dress. Her fingers are nervous as they pick at the little threads of lace left, so I take them in mine and still them.

Her veins crackle again and I know she'll give us away but the feeling that's rolling over me is addictive. She sucks in a deep breath and calms down, but doesn't pull her hand from mine, instead, she holds on tighter.

We wait and wait for hours on end. I feel like we're not going to see anything until there's crunching.

The trees grow quiet with us. All our heads snap towards the left where three wolves that I've never seen before walk through the forest. Their not rogues, we would smell even more decay if they were, but I can't place their scent.

Eve scoots closer to me and I try not to relish in it because this could be a bad situation and I have to focus if I'm going to get her out unscathed.

The wolves walk steadily towards the deer. They're agile, already agitated and for a second I think they know we're here. I look towards Lander and shake my head at him. We need to hold tight if we're going to figure out what's going on.

The three men walk to the deer then pull out potato sacks from their leather satchels. Carefully, they put the deer on the sacks then start to tie them up, just like we've seen before, but this time, they don't hang them in the air. They pick them up then start to walk away the same way they came.

I look down and Bowie is already gone. Eve is breathless next to me and Billy has disappeared as well.

The three are gone, the evidence of their crime gone, and all that's left are unanswered questions and the stench of evergreen surrounding us.

I think I may actually hate these trees.

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