Endangered Species

I was nervous as we headed to the kitchens to prepare for breakfast service. Cole’s wolf was long gone when the door opened, and the guards confirmed I had a meeting with the senior wolves after breakfast. I had a plan, but I didn’t know if it would work.

On the other hand, no plan survives the first shot.

In this case, it came while the Pack wolves were eating breakfast. I had again refused to sit with Cole, staying with the women tasked with serving the tables. I was filling glasses with juice when there was a commotion at the door.

A wolf opened the door. “Alpha, Members of the Brinnon Pack, Beta Thomas Kendell, and two warriors are here with news from the Quinalt Pack.” Three men came inside, wearing only loose shorts. Beta Thomas was a giant of a man, his escorts young and in shape. The Alpha and the others at the main table stood while the rest of the Pack members watched silently. The Beta was wide-eyed as he looked around, taking in the numerous human females in the room.

There was growling, then a commotion as his two junior wolves frantically searched for the scent that called to their souls. As they pushed through the tables towards their mates, the other wolves scrambled to get clear of them before anyone got hurt.

The first of the two human mates screamed and started to run away when she saw the nearly-naked man with an obvious erection heading right for her. “DON’T RUN FROM HIM,” I yelled.

“BITE HER WITHOUT PERMISSION, AND YOU DIE,” his Beta added.

He trapped her against the wall, his nose buried in her neck. She stopped screaming as he talked to her, eventually sitting against the wall as he knelt in front of her.

The other girl? She wouldn’t listen. Her jug of water dropped to the floor as she ran for the kitchen, her blonde hair streaming behind her. Her mate slipped on the water, landing heavily, then shifted and scrambled after her. Melanie and I ran after them, stopping inside the doorway. The gray and black wolf had the young girl trapped in the corner. She was quaking in fear, her back to the wall, hiding her head behind her knees. The wolf was growling at anyone who tried to get close to her.

“Everyone out,” Melanie ordered. The kitchen staff left us alone. “You need to shift.” The Quinalt Warrior changed back, his hands covering his evident excitement.

I grabbed a dishcloth and tossed it to him to cover up. “You might want to back off while we get you some clothes. Your mate is not going anywhere.”

“She’s afraid of me!”

“No shit, Sherlock.” I walked over to the girl, placing my hand on her shoulder. “I won’t allow him to hurt you,” I promised.

“Like you could stop any of them!” She showed the breeder tattoo on the back of her hand. “You’re too late, wolf boy! The Pack marked me as their slave. Three days ago, they bred me like a prize heifer! They sensed I was fertile, tied me down, filled me with fresh werewolf spunk, and left me until it took!”

Oh. My. God. This was going to get bad quickly.

The warrior dropped the towel and lunged for her. I pulled her into my arms, but I couldn’t protect her from a furious werewolf. He forced her legs apart, leaning forward until his nose got a good whiff of her sex. He let her go, roaring out his fury.

Alpha Cole and Beta Kendall came in and pulled the angry wolf out. I looked up at Luna Melanie while the girl shook in my arms. “Leave us. I’ll explain things to her while you work that shit out.”

She looked from me to the door, beyond which you could hear the wolf raging against the Alpha and the entire Pack. I couldn’t blame him. The man waits his whole life for his mate, only to find her enslaved and possibly pregnant.

I wouldn’t want to be the wolf who knocked her up, even if done with a turkey baster. It was one more topic I would bring up at the meeting!

After a few minutes, the poor girl calmed enough that I could walk her through the kitchen to a break room. I’d told all the girls about Pack mating habits last night, but I covered the highlights with her again. “What if I don’t want him?”

“You can reject him, but you don’t know him yet. He might be a good guy.”

“He’s one of them,” she said with a shiver.

“He believes you are his destiny, his perfect woman. You won’t feel it as strongly, but there will be a pull you’ll feel towards him. The more time you spend, the deeper the connection will be. He needs your permission to bite you and change you, so don’t give it until you are sure you want to be with him forever.”

“I won’t.” She giggled. “He is hot, and did you see his abs? I could do laundry on those,” she whispered.

“Can’t be worse than my mate, and I’m getting erotic dreams you wouldn’t believe,” I said.

“Come on,” I said as I stood up. “You being there will do more to calm your man down than anything else. You two have a lot to talk about.” I led her back into the dining room. Most of the wolves were gone, and the humans were sitting to eat in the back of the room. At the front table, the three visiting wolves sat across from the Brinnon Pack leaders.

One of the young men had his mate on his lap while the other stood up with his palms out. “I am Brad Thorsenn, junior Warrior in the Quinalt Pack. I apologize for scaring you earlier. My anger was not with you, my beautiful mate.”

“Nicole Pennington,” she replied. She held out her hand, and he took it in his to sniff and kiss it. “That tingles!”

“I’ve waited my whole life to feel this,” he replied.

Alpha Cole cleared his throat. “Beta Kendall needs to leave soon to make it to shelter before sunrise. Humans don’t have rank, so under Werewolf Law, you go to your mate’s Pack.”

“What if I don’t want to go,” Nicole asked.

“You can reject him and stay here, or he will remain here until he can convince you to go with him,” Beta Kendall said. “A werewolf won’t abandon his mate.”

“Come with me,” Brad pleaded. “My family will be thrilled to meet you, and we can have a good life.”

She thought about it. “What if I decide I don’t want you after I get there?”

“I have to let you go if you reject me,” he said with sorrow in his eyes. “You’re my life now, Nicole. You’ll see.”

She looked at me, then nodded. “It can’t be worse than here. I’ll go with you.”

Brad smiled and pulled her onto his lap. “You won’t be sorry.”

“We should be going then,” Beta Kendall said. “I will carry your message to my Alpha.” The three wolves and two nervous humans walked out of the room with two of our wolves as escorts.

“That was close,” Melanie said.

“I’m going to grab some food, then we can start our meeting,” I replied.

My read on the visiting wolves was that their report to their Alpha wouldn’t be complimentary. If anything, it made the Pack a target. The Beta was mated, so what were the odds that both of the other wolves found human mates here? I bet a lot of single wolves would be visiting once the word got out.

That wasn’t my problem; Alpha Cole and his stupid rules were. It was time to straighten some wolfy asses out.