Lunar Wolves: The prophecy (Book 3)

Chapter 8

“Now what?” One of the members asked her. They are sitting ducks for the defenders.

Lykos had backed them into a corner, and before they could move, the defenders had them surrounded, and they lost the game. Her dad announced the end of the practice, and she’s furious! How could she make such an obvious mistake?

The defenders are all there, but Lykos is nowhere to be found. She starts to worry that he might have gotten hurt and stops her dad before they leave the clearing. Just as she is about to talk to him, she feels a slight tug, and when she turns around, Lykos is sitting there with her tag in his mouth, and she can swear he is grinning at her.

“The damn game is over!” She growls and Dib agrees, but then Dib tells her that Lykos says a fight is only over when one side has won.

He disappeared again, and she looked at her dad who nods.

“Game on!” They spread out and started tracking him as one group.

***

Lykos watches them from the grass in the clearing. There is no territory he can’t manoeuvre. He will collect all their tags without even blinking twice. He grins adding Dib’s tag to the rest of them.

She is probably going to keep playing because he took it after they thought the game was over, but he doesn’t mind pinning her!

He sneaks up behind the members grabbing their tags until only Dib and the Alpha are left. Catching the two of them off-guard isn’t as easy as the others and especially not when they are in a group of two.

He can see all their senses are on high alert. His paws softly touching the dirt before he puts his paw down, so he doesn’t make noise that they can hear. Everyone else has moved back to the starting point to wait for them.

Lykos takes his time weaving this way and that until he is ready to grab the Alpha’s tag and pounce on Dib.

Catching all of them took everything he was taught throughout his training as a shadow, but he did it.

***

“There!” Dib's mind links her dad, but they don’t look in that direction.

They don’t want to give away the fact that they’ve heard him. They keep moving as if they are looking for him, and when she hears the rustle in the brush, she jumps on a poor squirrel that was trying to find his way back to his tree!

Before she can recover, she is pinned, and Lykos is snuggling his snout in her neck! Her dad is rolling over in fits of laughter when Lykos climbs off her, walks to a tree just a couple of feet away, and comes back with all the tags. This is impossible!

There is no way that he can be that good!

They go back to the rest, and her dad allows Lykos to carry all the tags, looking very happy with himself.

Damn wolfman!

***

When they return, Lykos puts the tags down in front of her dad, and they all split up so they can get showered and changed. She is still angry at her dad for not talking to her about having Erik join the pack, but the frown on his face because Erik took them all out, is what’s drawing her attention now.

She tries to talk to him when she gets back down the stairs, but he’s in a meeting. Her mom looks worried, but she’s not saying anything. Circe is pacing the living room biting her nails, and the tension in the house is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

The office door opens and the first person to come walking out is Erik. He has a huge grin on his face that makes Tabatha lose her temper.

“What the hell is going on? What have you done?”

“He showed us our weak points.” Her dad speaks up from behind her, startling her a little.

“You did great, son.” He walks past her and pats him on the shoulder.

“WHAT?” Tabatha looks from her dad to Erik and back.

What just happened? Erik completely humiliated the entire warrior group, and her dad is saying he did good! There’s nothing good about it!

The elders come walking out of her dad’s office, and she feels dread flowing over her. What are they all up to?

“If you girls don’t mind. The elders agree with me that we should make Erik part of our pack tonight.” Her dad looks at her, and she feels anger rising from the pit of her stomach.

“What?!”

“Tabatha, honey. I have asked him to join our pack as a warrior. There is a lot we can learn from him, and that’s that. The ceremony will continue tonight.”

“But what about his pack and his parents? We haven’t invited anyone! We haven’t even prepared for a ceremony.” Her mom starts to protest, but her dad interrupts, which he never does.

“We’ve spoken to his parents and his Alpha, and they are all happy for him.” Then my dad looks at me. “We will have a big mating ceremony later, and they will join us then.”

There is no arguing with my dad as we follow him to the big hall. He must have linked the pack to get them all together so fast because all of them are waiting when they walk in. The Elders bring in the pack blade.

Her dad steps onto the little stage and announces why they are all there. Her temper has calmed down a little, but he did this without thinking about her feelings! What if they don’t work out!

She watches her dad move through the ceremony, and the moment Erik’s blood mixes with her dad's, she feels an incredible power rush through her. Everyone seems to get the same feeling as she did, and when her dad sends out a pack link, Erik smiles.

“Thank you, Alpha.” She hears Erik’s link.

Shivers run down her spine right to her womanhood, and she nearly clenches her legs together to stop the pain. What the hell? The women get some snacks together, and they have a little informal get-together in the hall. On the one hand, she still feels slightly angry, but when Erik slides his arm around her waist and drops a kiss on her neck, she feels her heart racing.

“Are you okay?” He smiles at her.

“I don’t understand how you could say yes to all of this. What if we…”

He lowers his head. His lips were mere millimeters from hers. Her hot breath blows on her lips, and she feels physically being pulled closer. She burns with wanting to put her arms around his neck and allow him to take her, but she doesn’t want to get lost in him.

She is still scared and especially after he showed how superior he is at hunting, but his lips hover over hers, and she closes the space between them. At that moment everyone around them disappears. She slides her arms around his neck, and he pulls her closer to him.

Hands start clapping around them, and they break apart. Tabatha blushes bright red feeling her entire body breaking out in goosebumps. The pain between her legs was pulsing. Dib is jumping around happily about the kiss and wants them to do it again, but Tabatha feels the broken moment and steps away a little.

She hears a soft growl come from Erik, and he pulls her back up to his side.

“Mine.” He softly whispers next to her ear, making her growl back at him.

“I’m not property!” She turns to whisper next to his ear.

“You know that is not what I meant.” He looks confused, stepping back.

“Good.” She moves past him to talk to someone else. Anyone else.

***

Tabatha is standing next to an old friend from school, and she suddenly sees Erik. His eyes are black, and she suddenly feels her friend's hand move on her hip! Dammit! Turning around, she slaps him through his face.

“What the hell, Mark!”

Lykos grabs her by her arm, pulling her into his embrace, and growls at Mark.

“Lykos! It’s not what you think! Please.” She puts her hand on his chest and looks into his eyes.

He takes a deep breath and his eyes turn back.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me. I told you. I’m not your possession.”

“You’ve made that clear.” He growls, letting go of her.

“Maybe staying was a mistake!”

He turns around and as he is about to walk out when her father calls him to one side. He talks to Erik while she tries to calm her nerves.

“Honey, if you have to imagine him holding another woman in such an intimate way. How would that make you feel?” Her mom’s voice appears behind her.

“He won’t!” She feels instant anger boil up inside her as she turns to look at her mom.

“It’s not as you are giving him much of a choice, honey. If you want him to stay, you have to say something.”

She follows her mom’s gaze and sees her dad and Erik laughing. Erik is slightly blushing, and she wonders why. She knows that her mom is right and that she should probably stop worrying about what could happen, but she can’t help it! What the hell was Mark thinking?!

Erik walks up to her from the other side of the room, and her mom shoves her a little, making her walk towards him.

“I’m sorry.” He starts, but she puts her index finger on his lips.

“No, I’m sorry. I’ve been all over the place, and I haven’t been fair to you when you’ve been nothing but kind to me.”

“Shall we call it even then?” He smiles, and she feels her knees go weak, and her womanhood aches again.

What is this power he has over her? If this is the mate bond, she can understand why Isobel and Willow gave up everything for love. It is also exactly why she is so damn scared of losing herself in him.

It would be so easy to just give in to him and accept their bond. It would be too easy to give herself to him and become his mate.

He leans down and leaves a kiss on her forehead, and she breathes in his scent. All of this is incredibly overwhelming. She doesn’t know if she wants him near her or just plain gone! She can’t imagine having him completely take her over like this, but she can also imagine her life without him…

After the festivities, he walks her home and doesn’t attempt to kiss her goodnight, which makes her feel guilty for the way she’s been treating him.

***

Tabatha wakes up, and the feeling hits her. He is part of the pack no matter what she decides. He moved here to be with her and didn’t take her away to someplace he could keep her prisoner.

“Tabatha, honey, are you up?”

Oh, hell! She’s going to be late for practice! She jumps out of bed and gets dressed. Running down the stairs, she feels his presence in the living room. It makes her feel safe somehow, which is ridiculous if you think about everything her mind is finding to keep them apart.

They have practice at the coven grounds again today, but as far as she knows, Erik and Gareth weren’t invited.

“Oh, there you are, sweetheart. I’ve invited the boys to come along again today. It seemed to help a lot yesterday.” Her mom winks at her, and she rolls her eyes at her mother.

Erik is helping with breakfast, and it smells incredible! None of the men in their pack can cook, so seeing him in the kitchen is just weird. But then seeing his perfect form almost makes her drool more than the smell of the food. It’s amazing how toned he is. There isn’t an ounce of fat on him, and she wonders how he keeps in shape if this is the way he cooks!

They sit down to breakfast and her mom thanks him for making it. Tabatha suddenly feels horrible for thinking such awful things about him, but can anyone blame her? Her sister died! Okay, she came back, but still.