“God, that sounds pathetic. Might as well name your fist as your mate too.”
I can’t hold back my laughter when Atticus swings hismate-fistat Case’s junk, making the man grunt and double over in pain. My laughter cuts off when my eyes meet Sara’s.
“What are you glossing over?” I growl out, unable to stop my anger at half-truths.
She takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders before answering, “Nothing, Alpha. I do have worries though. This wolf, she must be Jaz’s sister… Jaz has been the common denominator in all this Dark Bloods talk. How well, if at all, do you know her?”
I stand from my seat so fast that the chair slides back, breaking against the brick wall behind me as my wolf surfaces. I can feel the energy and power of my wolf hovering over me, our anger at being questioned so easily and openly, but I pull him back in. I am not the kind of Alpha who rules like a tyrant. Having questions for me is a welcome no matter how fucking annoying it is, but questioning my mate is new territory for us and my wolf has no remorse for wanting to rip through a pack member for the levelheaded question.
Sara, to her credit, looks down but does not back-peddle on her concern, “Forgive me, Alpha but my question is valid. We, the pack, do not know this woman and I’m afraid that until we do, all of Cutthroat will be weary of her.”
“She’s right,” Jaz’s voice cuts through the tension as she steps around Sara, giving the Witch a small nod, “Cutthroat has no clue who I am and all they know is that I’ve brought trouble to their homes. No one was hurt the day of the fire, but that could change. This pack is yours and now mine, I would like to prove myself to them but working through the ranks, from bottom up. I want to earn my place with them, not just waltz in and claim it.”
Jaz narrows her eyes at me, insinuating the mate bond, but I just grin at her. The more Jaz speaks, the more I know I made the right choice in a mate. She has this altruistic and self-denying personality that makes her humble and makes her perfect for leading. But she’s also got that fierce side, the one that’ll tear your face from you and make you beg for mercy.
Both of those traits are magnificent, making her worthy of unbreakable respect from all of Cutthroat.
But right now? I can’t even think of the small shit, not with this Dark Blood fuckery hanging over my club and pack like a cloud of toxins.
I grab a new chair and slide it over to the head of the table, gesturing to Jaz, “Sit, there’s some things we need to discuss concerning the wolf in the cell.”
She complies easily but I watch as her eyes land on the broken chair behind me. I can see the curiosity burning in her ashy grey depths, but she doesn’t ask, “What’s wrong with the wolf? I noticed she finally stopped screaming in Latin.” Jaz raises her brows while shaking her head, “Shit was annoying as hell.”
Sara, Atticus, Case, and I glance at each other before the Witch asks, “You were able to understand words, like literal words not just screams that sort of sounded like words?”
Jaz casts her eyes at everyone before looking up to me as I still stand behind her chair, “I don’t know, I kind of want to saynobecause your faces all range fromoh shit,towhat the actual fuck?”
Everyone, including Sara, looks at me, fully leaving it up to me to tell her the news, “No one else understood her. All we heard were screams and shouts but nothing understandable.”
She eyes me for a moment, trying to read more in my eyes than my words spoke, “Okay, so I understood her, why does that seem like some dangerous thing?”
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat it for you, little wolf,” I pull a chair closer and sit down, catching the bottle of whiskey Atticus slides over. As I pour a glass for Jaz, I continue, “Sara here is one of the many Witches we have in our pack. Her family line is a powerful one therefore we trust Sara’s knowledge and judgment in the craft area.”
“Among other areas like fabrication and arms,” Sara tosses in with a little puff to her chest which Jaz respectfully nods to. The kid ain’t lying though, she is one of the best engineering designers we have, and she knows her weapons, second only to my brothers and me.
“Sara noticed the wolf wasn’t just screaming but rather, the woman was screaming an incantation to fight off the entity that held her in its grasp.”
Jaz swirls the amber liquid in her glass, “I still don’t get what that has to do with me understanding her words.”
“Only someone blood related can fully comprehend or interpret the words,” Sara says, unconsciously stepping closer to Jaz, “I believe this woman is your sister, the resemblance is much too uncanny to be a distant relative.”
I watch my mate, her eyes blown wide while the color drains from her face. I know she was abandoned as a pup, raised by a pack who willingly took her in and treated her as one of their own, but was she truly alone? Why was she separated? Perhaps it's the same reason Atticus, case and I were separated for a time; Alphas can’t live alongside Alphas.
My turbulent mind swings wildly as unanswered questions pile up, but Jaz’s voice pulls me from them.
“Take me to her.Now.”