Red Ribbons (Forgotten Series #1)

Chapter Sixteen

My body felt sore but I didn't mind. It felt good to be put through my paces and I had heard Jace Lawrence wasn't one to go easy and he didn't. He had certainly proved why he was an Alpha. His power was smooth but it had the edge of savageness to him that Alpha Lawrence never had. The edge of ferality to him and his wolf that made him rather impossible to predict. We walked through the trees and back to the house. Collin, Seamus, and Angie were running patrols with Victor and the wild wolf pack. Everyone else, excluding Bailey and Maricella, had come to watch me prove my worth.

"You are in peak physical shape." Amber's voice was sharp over the chatter and I simply nodded at her, acknowledging her words but not speaking. I didn't even know what to say to her otherwise. She had basically dumped my previous Alpha rather coldly and besides that interaction, I wasn't sure what the hell I could even say to the female.

"That he is. He will do good as a pack warrior. Perhaps he can help train those that wander through the territory, if they so choose." Jace's voice was low and I let my eyebrow rise in slight surprise. I hadn't been aware that Jace had allowed rogues or any other sort of shifters onto his territory to be trained. I looked around, Jay and Davin were walking through the trees as if they had not concerns about the area around them but I could tell they weren't as relaxed as they looked. No one was. They all had an edge of wariness to them that I approved of. It was okay to let your guard down but only when you knew you wouldn't be caught off guard by an attack.

"How much do you want to bet that Mari is making Luka something to eat right now?" Jay's voice filtered into my ears and I hid a grimace. I didn't want to ruin Maricella's relationships, not with her friends but it was difficult because we had not been bound together and my wolf was paranoid we would lose her again. Not to mention we didn't know who this Luka was and it made us agitated to not be there to make sure she was safe.

I had found that having a paranoid wolf and an incomplete mate bond was not a very fun combination. I struggled between claiming her fully and hiding her from everyone until the time she was ready to be claimed. I ran my hand through my sweaty hair and tugged on it slightly. My wolf was pacing restlessly in the back of my head and I hated how possessive he was getting. Maricella didn't need to be possessed, not the way my wolf wanted to possess her. It wouldn't be fair and it would terrify her.

"Collin says Luka is here and is most likely inside with the girls." Jay's voice was calm and I glanced at Davin to see his shoulders tensing. His wolf must have been battering at him just as strongly as mine. The urge to bond to what was ours was stronger in males than in females but that was not saying some women didn't get jealous. I had seen my share of jealous females attacking other unmated females for looking at their mates. It was just stronger for males because we knew we had competition and that a bond could be broken as easily as the next. It was ingrained into us to claim our mates to further our bloodlines, to extend the future for our species.

"Hopefully those two are behaving." There was a wary tone in Amber's voice and I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. She had a steely, pained look in her eyes ever since we had left Tacita but currently wariness and worry had replaced it instead. It made my wolf grow unnervingly still.

"Michael and Ezekiel don't ever leave wolf form. They wouldn't hurt anyone close to Luka. You know this." There was a soft edge of reprimand to Jace's voice and I watched as Amber stiffened from the words or the reprimand, I wasn't sure.

"They are wild. We barely know how they will behave. They follow the whims of their wolves and there is a chance they could snap." Her tone was firm as if he hadn't just reprimanded her. My wolf growled lowly in my head. He didn't like the thought of a wild near Maricella. Victor was different, he was her father but two others we both didn't know was worrisome for both my wolf and I.