Destiny's Tethers

Chapter 20 - Hearsay

"But...second chance mates don't exist." Olwen spoke dumbly.

"And yet..."

Landon inhaled before deciding to climb out of bed, gathering his clothes from the floor. Olwen had to look away just to prevent Opal from making her pounce on him.

"Uh...I'll...ask Beta Elijah and Stela to look it up once we get back to the Moon River Pack." He stammered. His eyes were carefully avoiding hers but flashing from blue to yellow and back once again. "We should get dressed."

Olwen could only nod and turn away, attempting to focus on locating her clothes rather than her now fated mate's muscles as he pulled his shirt back over his body.

......

Breakfast and then the ride back to the Moon River Pack was a little tense.

Olwen had to wrestle over control with Opal constantly. Her wolf already had been impatient waiting for Aaron to mark her, and now with Landon it was worse. And from the way Landon's hands were gripping the steering wheel and how his blue eyes were staring just a little too hard at the road ahead, he wasn't faring much better with Lark.

Every brush of skin, even accidental, drove both of their wolves wild. Even though they had been dating a month and had already been interested in each other before that, they still thought it better to not move too quickly with one another. After all, they'd both had their fair share of grievances that should have made them despise the matebond, and they wanted the marking process to occur once they were comfortable enough.

In order to try and divert both their minds, Olwen cleared her throat.

"...So...how many other human towns are there around the Wilds?"

"There's several." Landon answered without missing a beat, his body relaxing slightly. "The town we just left was the safest one though. Especially after the rogue attacks...some of the rogues who survived went to live in nearby areas, blending among humans."

Olwen felt the fear welling up inside her as she was reminded how both her parents had died by a rogue's hands.

"Oh.."

"It's highly rumoured that there is an underground black market in one of these towns as well." Landon recounted, as the car sped on. "Started by rogues. A lot of illegal substances that wolves shouldn't be in possession of, like drugs or poisons. It's beyond the packs' jurisdiction, but we try our best to keep a lookout in case it is smuggled into the Wilds."

Suddenly Olwen wasn't too sure whether she'd chosen the right topic to switch to.

"That's actually related to one of the things I tasked Cael with working on." Landon added with a bit more enthusiasm. "A system that will help detect any of those substances within or around our pack."

"Ah." Olwen nodded at this. "Thanks for giving Cael some pack responsibilities that suit him. Back in our old pack, Alpha Bradley and his own dad wrote him off since he wasn't interested in fighting."

"Fighting isn't the only thing one can do to protect the pack." Landon said with a shrug. "I guess your old Alpha must have been caught off guard when Cael hacked his son's emails and sent them to everyone else, huh?"

Olwen chuckled. She could still recall the pride in Cael's eyes when he told her what he'd done in full detail.

"Yeah. Stela and Cael already told me what happened after that but sometimes I wish I didn't leave my pack, just so I could see the look on Alpha Bradley's face back then."

Landon laughed a little in return, and the rest of the car trip was spent in a comfortable silence.

......