Talons

Chapter 26: The Warning

Rhea's POV

I pretty much stalked Jack the entire time he was on pack grounds, which I could tell was irritating my brother, but for the first time ever, I did not care. Even when it got too cold for me, an omega, I just went inside, layered my clothing, and came right back out.

I found out that Jack is nineteen. He moved from Panama to the United States when he was seven years old, and he was raised by his single mother. His father did not properly reject his mother, which resulted in her overall health deteriorating and ultimately her death.

I was shocked that Jack was open about it, but he said that he wore his mother's strength to stay alive for her children like a badge and I found myself pouting at how terrible the mate bond can be. Some people can hate a person so much that they can ignore the bond, while the other party suffers. I have only seen something similar in Mandy and Carter, but from our daily chats, they seem perfectly fine now.

"Bendición, (blessings,)" I whisper, because that is what I was taught, but Jack looks at me like I am an alien.

"Tu habla Español?" (Do you speak Spanish?) He asks, and I realize that Jack is a stranger to our pack. We are multiracial, with many Latin, European, and Asian members, but it is a little hard to tell because we have melted together.

While my mother is Boriqua (Puerto Rican), my father is only half. My father met my mother while on pack duty in Puerto Rico, and she moved back to the states with him. My father does not speak Spanish, and with his bright blue eyes, it's hard to put a race on him. My mother on the other hand has a thick accent that I'm sure she is holding onto on purpose, and that gives her away completely.

"What are you?" Jack asks, and I pause because I am not even sure. My grandfather is of European descent, my grandmother and mother are Puerto Rican through and through, and my father is… I take too long to answer and Jack laughs.

"It's okay if you don't know. The pack I grew up in was the same. Some of our members came from Jamaica but could speak Spanish as well as I could. Others had parents straight from the islands but only spoke English." Our pack is a lot like Jack’s example. I only know how to speak Spanish because, unlike my siblings, I was wholly raised by my mother and she only spoke Spanish to me until I was of school age.

"Do you want me to show you around, or has Luke already done it?" I have no idea why I cannot stop looking at the beautiful man in front of me, but I really don’t want to walk away.

"I don't like too much attention,'' he says, and I swear those words made me fall in love with him.

Jack and I stayed chatting for a long time, and when I started to shiver from the December cold, he removed the light coat he was wearing to drape over my shoulders.

"Are you sure you are a wolf," he says, and I look down in shame. "Oh," he replies to my reaction. "Thass okay. You are still amazing." I giggle, not at the complement, which I did not mind, but because Jack said 'thass' instead of 'that's.' I never got a chance to reply because my brother and Luke swooped in like falcons. Jack wasn't surprised, but I was shocked when two, well over six-foot men showed up on either side of me.

"B, it's minor curfew hours." I stare at my brother because it is obvious he is making it known that I was not old enough to consent.

I feel the urge to stand my ground but remember the last time I stayed out past minor curfew, and just wave dejectedly instead. As if to add insult to injury, Luke removes Jack's coat from around my shoulders.

I have never been angry with Luke before, but I now regret getting Robin a gift that would benefit him as well.

"Mom will meet you at the Packhouse." I nod my head and walk away, I really wanted to stomp, but Jack is watching. However, as soon as they cannot see me anymore, I cross my arms in anger and huff only to hear an all too familiar chuckle that made me freeze in place.

"Stay away from Jack," Colton warns, as he takes a step closer to me. My hearing goes and while his lips are moving no words reach my ears.

"I am not sixteen," I croak. I am alone with Colton in the one place that is hidden from the Packhouse and the party site. I remember his warning last year and I’m terrified that he may have been serious.

Colton's POV

I am beyond relieved when my father and I have been told that Raven has chosen to celebrate her birthday alone. It's a bullsh*t lie, but her parents trust her enough to believe it and it helps me out of my father's disgusting plan to drug the girl and drag her into a room for me to mark.

I don't know what his issue is with the Claw pack lately, but he has gone from wanting to merge, to wanting to take over, which is war-like talk.

It's true that the Claw pack is more profitable than ours, but they produce goods; we only provide labor. My father's business revolves around renovations, but we also have omega's who go into human homes and clean them in half the time it would take a human.

The whole speedy maid thing was popular in the past, but now, most of our omega's work in hotels and then pay us a fifty percent tax from their income for housing, transportation and safety. Truly, I don't know how we still have a pack, and since I haven't completed training, my father will not let me see the records.

I slip away from my father in search of my beta and when I find him, he is coaxing Mandy. It hasn't been long since they reconciled, but she doesn't look angry with her mate, she looks angry about something else.

"What's going on?" I ask, allowing a bit of my alpha tone into my speech. Mandy rolls her eyes. She is not yet a part of our pack, so my authority doesn't mean much to her and being marked and mated with a beta helps her defy commands.

"Nothing, I'm just telling Mandy not to cause a scene."

"How can I not cause a scene? Is that not the same Jack that you told me about? Should I just let B fall into his trap too?"

I start looking around and see what's got Mandy in an uproar. Jack has Brain wrapped around his finger. I am a jerk, I admit, but Jack is scum. He slept with all three of my father's beta's daughters by telling them all that he was feeling the mate pull early.

It is a pack secret that Carter only knows about because he was there when the girls found out they had been played. Each one was in love with the smooth-talking ass, and while I'm not close with the girls, they are like family.

I find myself unable to look away from the pair laughing and giggling with one another, and I wonder what he sees in her. Brain is on the uglier side of plain, her body is a mystery, and she is a minor.

I watch the man put his jacket around B's shoulders and I start wondering why she is so layered. Before I can get too deep in thought Luke and Lark pull her away from the playboy she was talking to and I feel the need to warn her. I tell myself that it is the least I can do after everything I have put her through.

I wait in the middle ground where I know she will pass. I want to be fully visible to her, so that she is not afraid, but before she can see me, I laugh at her version of a tantrum. I know the feeling of being sent to bed early, and B is wearing the 'I can't wait until I can' face right now. Seeing that she has become rigid, I take a step forward.

"Stay away from Jack," I warn. "He likes to take advantage of young girls. I know you have no reason to trust me, but at least take my word for this."

"I am not sixteen," she says in a shaky voice. I guess she is telling me that she isn't the right age for Jack, which I don't think would matter to him, especially since just last year, it did not matter to me. There is something about B that is intriguing, and in a drunken rage, I had lusted over her.

"You don't look so good." I rest my hands on B's shoulders and look directly into her glasses. I am at first confused, but I am almost positive they are fake. I go to pull them off her face, but Luna Mavis appears screaming B's name in panic.

"Why aren't you home yet? Don't you remember what happened to you? Do you know how scared I was?" I try fading into the background, but B's mother is not distracted and notices me.

"Colt, B is a minor. Why didn't you send her home? You will soon be an alpha and taking care of the young ones should be a priority. Our cabin is a far walk for a young girl to make alone."

"Sorry,” I say, guilty that I am the cause for such a panicked expression on both faces in front of me.