Lost Lycan Princess

I'll kill them!

Kai

I open the door with a growl. My brothers stare at me while laughing.

Bas.tards!

I turn and walk into the living room area, my brothers following. The last thing I needed today was my brother’s turning up. I can’t believe I forgot they were due home today, but my mind had been on nothing but Starr.

Arrow and Zane had been out hunting. They were usually gone three or four days before returning, yet here they are two days later, after sending a mind link yesterday, stating they were on their way back. They better have brought back a good haul or so; help me!

“What brings you two here so early?”

“We caught enough meat to last the month.” Arrow shrugs.

A month’s worth of dead animal meat will need a lot of preserving. I’m not complaining; that amount of meat will keep the pack in good health. My brothers have done well, but I will need to check everything out and ensure the meat isn’t contaminated in any way. It has happened before, more than once. I do not wish to make my pack members sick due to rotten meat.

You would be surprised how fast meat can go off, even in cold storage. Luckily for us, the weather is on our side; because winter is coming.

“How did you manage that?”

“We took down a couple of dear,” Zane tells me, though I’m looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Then we came across Ripley’s farm.”

I grit my teeth. “What the hell did you do?”

“Took a couple of pigs and chickens. I know you don’t like us stealing from anyone, but they were just there in a field. No one saw us, so no harm done.”

I clench my jaw before scrubbing my hands over my face. I don’t tolerate theft from any pack member; my brothers are no exception. Stealing from others is how they track us and find our homes.

How stupid could these two be?

“What the fu.ck have I told you two?”

“We are not permitted to steal.” They speak in unison. “We hunt within the forest, but not outside of it, and we never take from anyone in case they find out where we are.”

“Do you have any idea how reckless it was to take from Ripley’s farm?”

Ripley is a human who owns a farm around two hundred miles from my land, just on the border between Lykos and the human world. Of course, he knows nothing about us, and we have a witch in the pack who masks our location from humans. But that means nothing when we know where he is.

I banned my pack members from approaching that farm because anything could happen. I won’t have anyone attacking humans unless they attack first.

To have my brothers, my Beta and Gamma, go onto that farm and take what they wanted. . . Goddess, I could have killed the both of them!

“We’re sorry, Kai. It was stupid, but they were just there. No one saw us, but I know we shouldn’t have done it.” Arrow bites the inside of his cheek while Zane looks at his feet.

“Just don’t do it again. Because if there is a next time, I won’t let you off so easily. Do you understand?”

They both nod in agreement. They knew I’d string them up by their balls if it happened again!

“So,” Arrow, my full-blood brother, two years my junior, smirks. “Who’s the girl you have in here?”

Zane, our half-brother, son to my father, and his second chance mate, seventeen years my junior, laughs. “We smelt the two of you about to fu.ck. So who is she? Come on, Bro, don’t hold out on us.”

“None of your damn business.”

“Is it Ciska?”

“Oh, Bro,” Arrow shakes his head; shock is written all over his face. “Please tell me you didn’t go there?”

Ciska is a pack member who had a thing for the Alpha. She had always had a thing for me and even once swore blind we were mates. We were no such thing, I never had a mate until Starr walked into my life, or rather, I walked into a room and met her.

However, Ciska hasn’t tried anything in over six months. She had other things on her mind, which was good. If she was thinking of different things, she was leaving me alone.

“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Zane laughs. “I don’t know how many times I caught the two of you screwing each other’s brains out.”

I open my mouth to say something but stop when Starr’s scent hits me. I turn my head and face her wide-eyed expression.

“Starr,”

She shakes her head and runs from the house, slamming the door behind her.

“You idio.ts!” I yell loud enough to shake the foundations of the cabin. My brother’s eyes widen, fear evident within. “How dare you say such things? You have never seen me so much as touch Ciska’s hand, Zane, and you know it!”

“It was a joke. I’m sorry.”

“A joke? How fuc.king old are you?!” I clench my fits beside me, fighting every instinct not to smash Zane’s teeth down his throat.

Instead, I gave them a rundown of how Starr came to us. I make sure they know the state she was in when Davy brought her back from the forest. I even tell them how I had to heal Starr’s skull. I can’t tell my brothers why Starr was beaten almost to death because I don’t know. Although I explained about her memory loss and how afraid she was to be here with people she didn’t know.

“Wow,” Arrow shakes his head as if shaking away a nasty vision. “That poor girl. So you’re letting her stay here?”

“Yes,” I nod.

There is nowhere else Starr could be than with me. I would never allow her to leave me; I need her more than she could ever realize.

“Even though her memory could come back and she could turn out to be the enemy? What if she was planted in the forest so we’d find her? Have you thought about what could happen to the pack then?”

I roll my neck with a sigh.

Arrow isn’t saying anything I hadn’t already thought of, believe me. But I don’t see any reason anyone would want to infiltrate our pack. We have nothing any other pack would want, though most hate us because of the way we live.

Ridiculous right?

Okay, we are the most hated pack in wolf shifter history.

Why?

Because we’re different and refuse to conform to what others call tradition. What is tradition to them is not to the Wild Pack, but it also might have a lot to do with my ability to neutralize most treats that come my way.

Many have tried to take me down. They may have caused damage sometimes, but they always ended up losing more than I ever have. It pays to be the grandson of the Moon Goddess.

But my pack is not a threat to anyone who didn’t threaten us. We live as peacefully as possible until it isn’t. Regardless of all of that, Starr being planted here doesn’t make any sense. If another pack wanted to take us on, they would, without all of this. Besides, Starr was in such a terrible state when she was found, close to death if I hadn’t helped her. The crack in her skull wasn’t fabricated; I felt it and healed it.

“Calm down, Arrow.” Zane takes Arrow’s arm. “Kai wouldn’t have brought her to his home if he thought she could be a threat. Besides, you heard Kai, he had to heal a crack in her head, or she would have died. Someone did that to her, and if they were looking to plant her here, don’t you think that was going a little too far? The girl could have died if Davy hadn’t found her.”

Arrow groans. “I know, I just worry. Wait,” He looks at me as if having a eureka moment. “She’s been here a day, and you were already about to sleep with the girl? You never do things like that, Kai. She’s your mate, isn’t she?”

Zane’s eyes widen with glee, and Arrow smiles excitedly. It’s no secret that I believed I was mateless. For a while there, I thought Selene had forgotten about me. But these two have badgered me for years to get out there and find the one for me. I had traveled to a few places, keeping the peace with the King and Queen as one of the main reasons. But I never found my mate, and I didn’t because Starr wasn’t anywhere I was until now.

“Yes, she’s my mate!” I snap, shutting them up. “But she probably wants nothing to do with me, thanks to you two. So if you don’t mind, I need to go and find her. You two get the meat sorted.”

“Yes, Alpha.” They say in unison with a smirk.

Fu.ck them; I need to find Starr. No mate wants to hear that you have been with someone before them. Many Lycans, especially wolves, will save themselves for their mate, and the Wild Pack is no different. However, some choose their mates if they don’t find them within the pack. Not all pack mates leave this place; some never set foot outside the village. With good reason, they distrust the world around us, hence why they take chosen mates.

I had some explaining to do, and I only hoped Starr listened.