Mark of the Moon

Chapter 26 - Dangerous Propositions

Chapter 26: Dangerous Propositions:

  “Wrong territory, Everdeen,” My skin grew goose bumps despite my temperature, and I found myself amazed that one voice could pack enough punch to knock your breath out of your lungs, without having the person even touch you. And most definitely not in a good way.

  I stood there, dumbstruck, glancing over at an equally as frozen in place Tristan. His chest didn’t even move up and down with breath, and the hammering of my heart in my ears drowned out the sounds of the forest around us. The falling snow that trailed down, was only a blur in the corner of my eye now, my vision fading the farther it got away from my object of focus. Tristan’s face was hardened into a mask of steel, and his fists clenched, he turned around swifter than I could’ve broken out of my trance-like state, almost like even though he had been caught off guard, he knew something like this was going to happen.

  “You do know you are on Redwood territory don’t you, Tristan? I mean, come on, what kind of Beta would that make you?” Ian taunted, and as I turned, half shielded by Tristan’s broad back, got a good look at him leaning against a tree. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his shoulder was rested nonchalantly on the frost-bitten bark of the tree. A smirk covering his face, shielded none by his recently cut hair, the curly cues of brown locks that had covered his forehead the last time we met, cut sharply into a neat yet messy buzz cut.

  “I knew you were incompetent, but seriously…” Ian scoffed, shaking his head slightly and knocking some of the flakes of snow from his hair.

  A mute growl came from Tristan, I could only tell his irritation from the deep tremors that erupted from his back, my arm grazing the warmth of his shirt so close to his skin. His muscles relaxed though, mildly, but still alert as he looked quizzically at Ian. “It isn’t much good for an Alpha to confront a minor problem such as a tresspassal instead of sending someone else, like an Omega,” he shot back coolly. My eyes widened at the scene being laid out in front of me.

  Ian, I had sort of realized that he had been apart of the Redwood Pack—I had found that out during one of the many listen ins that I had spent upstairs in my, well, Tristan’s room, two of the muted words that I had managed to pick out—but him being the Alpha of that pack? That was a shock. And from the tension that was practically visible in the air between the two males, something was not well between the two packs.

  So much to be found out and taken in, in a matter of seconds before the banter seemed to continue.

  “No. Quite truly I take this matter quite personally, see I don’t take in my rival’s members, especially the decisive ones,” Ian said, mouth turning up in distaste. I let out a deep breath that I had been holding, safe behind Tristan, like watching from the seats of a theater, almost too surreal to comprehend. My stalker and my jerk in the same place. Two separate world’s that had nothing to do with one another, and yet—everything.

  “We have nothing of yours, Ian. You know that our side of the pack broke off because of the feud that had been going on as long as our forefathers can remember. The decision was final, and yet you still keep bringing the tension back up in all of our faces.”

  Craftily, with his arm he pushed his weight off from the tree, taking a near silent step towards us before pausing once again. His head was tilted slightly to one side, almost as if curiosity, mouth tilting down a bit. His eyes were a hard crystal silver, the same shade as Tristan’s and any other shifter’s I had seen thus far—besides me, but I doubt I really even counted. I slid a bit out from behind Tristan, asserting my presence more, but Tristan shifted and blocked me partly from view again, a human shield. My jaw clenched, but I stayed put.