To be totally honest, he’s almost more intimidating in human form. He looks like the kind of lumberjack that lives in the forest and carries an ax around just for funsies.
Then Malix breaks the silence with a flippant, “Hey, Cormac. Long time no see, bro.”
I fight the urge to groan. All three men were specifically told to stay quiet and let me handle the talking. Of all of them, I didn’t expect Malix to be the one who forgot the rules.
So my men know this guy. I suppose it makes sense, given that Felicity’s pack split off from Quinton’s. I’m sure they’ve picked up other members since then, but the original pack members are probably all people the feral shifters know.
Cormac ignores Malix, his green gaze meeting mine.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asks, jerking his chin toward Frost.
I blink. I didn’t expect that to be the first question out of this guy’s mouth. “That’s a long story.”
“He stupid?”
Fury flares inside my chest, but I carefully tamp it down before it can become an inferno. “No,” I say flatly. “He’s injured, and being close to me helps him deal with the injury.”
“You come here because he’s injured?”
“No,” I repeat, trying not to let my agitation show. Cormac’s caveman-like, monosyllabic questions are annoying as fuck. “We’re here to request a parlay with Felicity.”
“Parlay?” A grin splits his beard, his white teeth glinting. He turns his head slightly over his shoulders, and a silver stud glints in his nose in the sunshine. “She must think we’re pirates.”
The group of wolves at his back snuffle and paw at the ground in amusement.
Okay, this guy’s already getting on my damn nerves.
Unfortunately, dealing with arrogant alpha males is a fact of life, something I’ve had way more experience with than I ever wanted. So I summon all my patience before I say, “We came to speak with Felicity. We just want to offer a temporary truce and have a discussion with your alpha and her advisors. We’re here to help.”
Cormac laughs. “We don’t need help.”
Kian shifts restlessly on his feet. It’s a small movement, but the pack reacts with startling quickness, responding to the inherent threat in his posture. Five wolves leap forward, forming a barrier between the ginger-haired man and us. Their jaws drop open, teeth bared as loud snarls cut through the air. Cormac’s previously unbothered expression hardens to steel, although he doesn’t make a move to shift.
“Kian!” I hiss, glaring at the tall man beside me. He can’t hear the thoughts in my head since we’re in human form, but my unspoken subtext is quite clear. If you ruin this, I’ll ruin you.
His jaw tightens as he glances at me for the briefest instant, another silent communication that I think probably promises a massacre if this guy doesn’t stop grandstanding. But Kian holds up both his hands anyway and stands down.
Malix just looks amused. Damn him. I wish I could feel that way right now. I wish I had the ability to let shit roll off me the way he does, maintaining a cool, unbothered composure in even the most stressful situations.
But that’s definitely not me, and it probably never will be.
Cormac glares at me, speaking up over the low snarls of the wolves. “You have the audacity to come onto our land with these… monsters,” he snaps the word, baring his teeth at Kian, “and demand an audience with our Alpha?”
I was starting to think he wasn’t capable of speaking in full sentences, so the formality in his tone gives me pause. The guy’s overbearing “bro” attitude is just an act, I realize. Meant to keep others from realizing he’s in charge.
Realizing he’s a threat.
“They aren’t monsters,” I reply, careful to keep my voice even despite the anger his slur dredges up in me.
“Yeah, well, they’re also not welcome here,” Cormac shoots back.
Shit. I’ve got to get this conversation back under control.
Frost’s tenuous hold on his emotions is wavering beside me. I can feel it. His fingers are wrapped around my bicep like vises, bruising and immovable.
“Look, I know you have no reason to believe me,” I say. “But we’re no longer in communication with Quinton. We’re not allied with him.”
Cormac raises a thick eyebrow. “I’m supposed to believe you?”
“You don’t have to,” I say with a shrug, “but I’m asking you to give us the benefit of the doubt. Give us a half hour to talk to your alpha. If she wants us to leave after that, we will.”
The burly man stares down his nose at me for several moments. I think he’s going to deny us and send us packing just for shits and giggles, and a small pit yawns open in my stomach. What the hell are we supposed to do next if the Silver Crest pack refuses to even grant us a conversation?
But then Cormac glances over his shoulder again and singles out one of the wolves standing at attention behind him. “Rodrigo, go get our alpha.”
The thin black wolf nods once, does an about-face, and takes off.
Cormac turns back to me. “No funny business.”
“Of course not,” I say calmly, keeping my posture as relaxed as possible. “That’s not what we’re here for.”
His eyes narrow a little, and he cocks his head to one side. “How the hell did you get mixed up with these three, anyway? You seem like a nice enough girl. What are you doing running around with them?”
As he speaks, his gaze drifts over my body. It’s more assessing than leering, but it doesn’t matter.
Frost’s reaction is immediate.
His entire body stiffens, the thin thread of control I felt him clinging to earlier seeming to vanish in an instant. A low growl rumbles through his chest, and he starts to step away from me, moving toward Cormac.
Kian and Malix are in motion almost before I even register the danger. Leaving their hands where the wolves can see them, they step forward to put themselves between the Silver Crest pack and me and Frost.
Following their lead, I turn toward the blond man and throw my arms around his neck, clinging to him even as he continues to growl and try to pull away.
“No, Frost. Please. It’s okay, just stay with me,” I murmur directly in his ear. “He’s not a threat. None of these wolves are. They’re not worth it.”
My heart beats wildly, nearly choking me, but I ignore it. I can’t let him lose his tenuous hold on sanity.
I can’t lose him again.
He tries to jerk away, but I don’t let him. At least in human form, he’s not three times bigger than me, so I have a fighting chance of keeping him close if I cling to him with everything I have.
If he shifts, though…
God, please, no.
“What’s going on?” Cormac barks.