Libby POV
The wolf seems somewhat tame…it just keeps trying to bite at the trap around its ankle. Which when I watch Ben touch, every time he pulls his hands away as if it was hot to touch. He swears before trying to touch the trap all over again.“I’m sorry, I can’t…” He whispers to the wolf. His shoulders slumped as he finally has to admit defeat.I don’t understand what has happened and why Ben has got himself involved with helping a wild animal, the farmer couple would have shot it on site.“Here, let me take over.” I crouch down beside him, very slowly stroking the side of the wolf’s tummy, reassuring it that I wasn’t here to cause anymore pain.I keep my movements slow, not wanting to lose any fingers if the wolf decides to snap at me for handling it too roughly.“Is the trap hot?” I mutter to Ben under my breath. I don’t know why, it’s not as if the animal could understand me.“Why?”“You keep pulling your hands away as it if it is hot?”I prepare myself, expecting it to burn my fingers upon touch…but it doesn’t.I look at the wolf, inspecting its leg when I realise it is a female wolf.Something occurs to me, not that can’t be right…I can’t have come this far only to never have actually left my old life behind.“Where’s Beth?” I look to Ben, then around the surrounding trees, unable to see her close by.“She’s back at the farm. She went ahead of me to get help.” He doesn’t meet my eye contact..first sign of a lie. He’s also very gently rocking back and forth, as if watching this animal in pain is causing him pain. As if he is connected to this wolf.“And hasn’t returned yet?”“No…”“How long have you been out here?”Something wasn’t adding up. There is not a chance in hell that Ben would let his sister walk on ahead of him just to stay with a wild animal.He just wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t leave her alone with Anwir, let alone walk in woods where she might get lost for days.I keep stroking the wolf, trying to calm it down, even providing soothing hushing sounds.The wolf is watching me, as if it can actually understand what I am saying. It’s eyes holding some kind of recognition for me…then it clicks.This isn’t some random wild wolf…This is Beth.My mind is moving at a speed I wasn’t used to now living on a farm. Where life was calmer, rural and slow. If Beth was a wolf…so was Ben.Shit…Shit…and triple shit.I can’t have my old life come back to haunt me now. I want to run, I already have my backpack…there is no need for me to even return to the caravan.But I can’t leave her, she’s in pain and only 14.And they were my friends.“Beth you need to calm down. Can you shift?”Beth’s wolf’s head lifts up slightly just as Ben’s astonished face turns to look at me face on.“You know?”“Yes, if she shifts we can pull her leg out.” I order at him, already moving myself to prepare to act quickly. This was going to hurt her, so we needed to act fast.“It’s covered in wolfsbane, that’s why it burns every time I touch it.”That would make sense why to me the trap was stone cold but seemed to make Ben hiss with pain.I take my backpack off, opening it to pull a T-shirt dress out. Something to help Beth cover up her soon-to-be naked human form.Ben and I move quickly. He moves to Beth’s wolf’s head readying to pull her by her shoulders as soon as she shifts.After counting to 3, I yank open the animal trap, as Ben pulls his now human sister free.Her screams fill the wooded area, birds fly from the safety of their own nests in the nearby trees, fleeing the uncomfortable sounds of her pain.Even I’m struggling as some of her skin has been pulled off from the trap, blood pouring out of her ankle. I’m better in a disaster than I used to be. Month’s of working on the farm teaching me to remain calm under pressure.“She needs a hospital…” I say as I place my backpack on and get ready to leave.“No, she’ll be fine in a while. Her healing will kick in.”“Thank you Libby…” Beth murmurs out, the pain already causing her to become floppy in her brother’s arms. With one movement he lifts her up and safely cradles her in his arms.“I can clean the wound back at our caravan and put her down to sleep.”“Okay…where’s Anwir?”He should have been with them, he was meant to be going into town also.“I don’t now, he ditched us last minute. I thought he might have stayed back to wait for you.”Our pace is quicker than what I was used to but I kept up, Beth needed to get her ankle taken care of. I suggest that Ben puts her in my caravan, laying her on my bed so that I can make the pancakes for when she awakes. The protein from the eggs will help to rebuild her strength when she is awake and no doubt hungry from her body healing itself at super speed.She’s unconscious and Ben moves quickly to gather a medical kit to clean her wound. I leave him to it, instead boiling the kettle to make him a hot drink. I don’t know how long they had been out there but they both looked quite shaken up.When he enters the main part of my caravan he finds me making pancakes for when Beth wakes up. He sits down at the small dining table, watching me.I walk over to him with a mug of coffee, before returning back to the oven hob to flip a fresh pancake. An odd awkward silence now settling over us.I knew it was coming, so when the words leave his mouth I’m not surprised, of course he would be inquisitive to know.“So, how do you know about werewolves?”Libby POVI have to think on my feet, as much as I like Ben, I’m not ready for my past to return to me. Even talking about it brings back flashbacks of that lake house… “I witnessed a man shift in front of me.” This isn’t entirely untrue, a big black wolf did shift the first time I was chased by werewolves. The naked delicious man is who I often dream about. “Fuck! That must have scared the shit out of you.”“You could say that.” “He let you go?” Ben presses further. It was unheard of for werewolves to shift in front of humans. But I was on the run back then and had been cornered. I didn’t know about the werewolf world back then, that fateful night giving me a crash course. “Not exactly…”I don’t elaborate further, I wasn’t let go…but escaped in the most horrific of circumstances. “Who are you and Beth running from?” I ask Ben, keen to move the topic off me. “What makes you think we are running?” He quirks an eyebrow at me. I thought I knew Ben and Beth, but all this time the
Pierce POV “How many guards are on tonight?” “20 in total Alpha. Did you want more?” “No that’s a good number. Not being on high risk anymore, that should be sufficient.” I rub the temple spots by the side of my forehead. Things have been…torturous, but not for any visible reason. The entire pack has been on alert mode for the past 6 months. I have been meticulous in my planning of late. “Did you want to start looking at options for bringing the trackers back…it has been 3 months.” Dane, my long serving beta…my second in command asks. “Can we spare anybody else to take their places?” “No right now Alpha, no. I think they need the break. It has been constant for them, and I know for a fact that they haven’t once come across any Red Stone pack trackers…” They haven’t? In 3 whole months…that surprises me. “They haven’t?” “No, are you sure Alpha Reuben has trackers out in the field?” “That’s what he said.” I stand up from my desk chair, Dane sitting on the other side of my desk,
Pierce POV I’ve visited Reuben’s and Evelyn’s new home plenty of times, but never with a purpose other than just spending time with them. If Reuben’s trackers haven’t been spotted by mine, then there was the strong possibility that he hadn’t sent any out at all.Fate had destined for Reuben and I to be in each other’s lives from a young age. Our Father’s were the best of friends until their feud, forcing Reuben and I to grow apart, to temporarily become adversaries. A few physical arguments as teenagers, I believe one being over both having a crush on the same girl…then our fates crossed again the day he carried a collapsed Evelyn in his arms out of a warehouse located on my outer pack grounds.I found immense pleasure in flirting with Evelyn so openly in front of him, even when he was denying their bond and remaining with Vicky. Now their kids call me uncle. The Royal Alpha family’s house was set away from both packs, geographically in the middle of the Red Stone and the Silver
Pierce POV “What do you mean she is safe?” I can feel my face screwing up as I ask my own question. My own mind at a loss of what he means. “Exactly that, that she is safe.” This is beggar’s belief. “How long….for how long have you known this?” “For 6 months.” For 6 months…for 6 months he has known she is safe yet he has let me think the worse. Every time I have been here I have opened up to Evely, told her how I have been struggling…no wonder he was so quiet, the prick was holding back from me. I could feel my body trembling, my beastly wolf wanting out…to punish this so called Alpha King for letting me think my own mate was possibly dead. My beast becoming ferociously dangerous in this lovely high-end designed kitchen of theirs. The only way to prevent a shift is to attack in myhuman form. The only warning I give him is the snarl that leaves my mouth. I lunge at him, it doesn’t matter there is a dinning table in my way. I knock him to the ground, our bodies rolling around
Pierce POV Reuben prepares me for a long wait. He says he has no idea where Libby has been hiding but from what he suspects, it is the other side of the country. At least, hopefully, she was still in the country and hadn’t gone overseas. That is what filled me with dread…that she would have used smugglers to get her out of the country. Libby has no trace of a digital record, something her father Odin made a point of ordering. She is on the records until she reached the age of 12 and then it’s as if she died…I even have her death certificate…and her mother’s. Claiming she died of pneumonia. We know for certain that Libby’s mother was human, which makes my mate half human half werewolf. A fact she didn’t know until she stumbled across our kind, both Reuben and I chasing her out of one of my warehouses. I have plenty of regrets with Libby. I regret letting her into this world so quickly…she wasn’t ready. She had also lived a life apart from most humans since her mother died. Her an
Libby POV It was a fresh new week on the farm and I was excited on what it might bring.The weekend had been eventful, I now know my friend’s Ben and Beth are secret werewolves with their own problems, hiding just as I am. I now had a fresh batch of tablets to suppress those stomach cramps, Ben and Beth non-the-wiser on my own part in the werewolf world….I was feeling great. Life was starting to seem less…bleak. My life will never be easy, but at least it was a life I was finally choosing for myself. Ben and Beth left my caravan and headed to theirs to freshen up. I took the eggs that Ben had left outside Anwir’s place and was busy making him his favourite breakfast on the campfire. He’ll be out of someone’s caravan momentarily and I’m pretty certain I know which one. I am crouched down by the campfire when I hear a door creak behind me, my head turning to find the culprit. “Why am I not surprised?” I mutter to myself as I witness Anwir climb out of a caravan, as soon as I start
Libby POV I’m slow in comparison but I manage to follow Ben and Beth, breaking away when I reach my own caravan. This was it. Time to move again. I cannot be caught. I rip open the cupboard door under the sink, reaching for my backpack and hoisting it onto my back. I rush to the fridge, clumsily reaching for bottled water as my adrenaline kicks in. I’ve been planning this for months but now that it is happening…I feel severely unprepared. I just don’t possess that…hunter mindset within me. “What’s going on?” Anwir is watching me, too cooly, at the steps leading up to my door. “They will only inspect the others and then move on. Why are you worried?” He turns and I stick my head out the door when I see the blue sirens gathering distance on us…on me. “Anwir…” I hush him, at the sight of the illegal farm workers starting to run away from the now running police officers in the fields. This was like a scene from those tv dramas I used to watch. But now I was in one. I can’t get
Pierce POV I’ve been traveling throughout all of last night and now today. I’ve checked plenty of farms in this area, none of them seem to be hiring illegal farmers from what I can see. Not that they would be advertising this but I have searched the areas for any signs of people remaining hidden. Anwir wasn’t exact in his location, he was holding back on Reuben and I, but I had a small part of the map that he pointed to and didn’t wait to start my search. I knew instantly this was the right farm. The police now swarming the area was the sign that I needed. I keep driving around the farm’s border fencing until I find the accommodation entrance, finding police loading people into vans and vehicles under arrest. I curse under my breath as I exit my vehicle…I was going to have to act as a detective to get any chance of gaining information. I head to the boot of my car, placing a long black smart coat over me…checking the fake detective badge in my inner pocket. “Can I help you?” A po