Chapter 360 360
Three Days Later
Sabine POV
Pack life, I was learning, wasn’t so different from farm life after all. You rose early, tended what was yours, and watched over one another as a matter of instinct. The main differences were small but noticeable I didn’t have to feed chickens at dawn, and I no longer had to fend off Gilles and his wandering hands before sunrise.
When Maurice wasn’t beside me, I kept to myself more than I should have. I could feel it in the air, the unspoken expectations pressing in from all sides. This pack wanted things from me things I knew, deep down, I might never be able to give.
Training made that painfully clear.
The first day after we arrived, nearly the entire pack had turned out to watch. I hadn’t expected an audience, let alone one so large. By the second day, their numbers had thinned dramatically. By the third, only a handful remained. I imagined disappointment was setting in. They’d expected more from the sister of the Alpha King someone stronger, sharper, better trained.
They must have felt short-changed.
Maurice, at least, never showed frustration. He worked patiently with me, teaching me how to defend myself in human form, adjusting his pace to match mine. But if I was honest, those lessons would only ever help if I faced humans not werewolves.
Every time I swallowed another white pill, guilt crept deeper into my chest. He deserved honesty. He deserved so much more than what I was giving him.
I knew the questions would come eventually. Why wasn’t my wolf surfacing? Why hadn’t I shifted?
We had just finished another brutal training session. Maurice sent me to the sidelines to catch my breath while I watched him spar, moving with the natural authority of the Alpha he was born to be.
Even with the distance I’d kept from the others, I couldn’t deny it the pack adored him. He was their King, and they would follow him into battle without hesitation, without question.
Days spent training under the open sky had deepened his already dark skin, his muscles visibly thicker even after just a few days. He was mesmerizing to watch. A god in motion. I found myself lingering through the ache in my lungs simply for the reward of watching him afterward.
As he took down another warrior with effortless precision, his beta, Maxime, stepped forward to challenge him. Maurice’s gaze flicked to me briefly before he accepted and returned to his stance.
Pack hierarchy fascinated me. Everything about it was disciplined, almost military constant preparation, constant motion, as if stillness itself was a weakness.
Just before the whistle blew, Maurice smiled at me, pure joy lighting his face. I had the sudden thought that he could stay out there for hours and never tire of it.
I tried to push the image of my father’s death out of my mind.
Loss had never been something I handled well. My mother’s death had cast a long shadow over my childhood, and while I hadn’t been especially close to my father, he was still my dad. Still my blood.
My thoughts spiraled easily. Too easily. I wondered how Damien had done it. Whether my father had felt pain. Whether he’d seen it coming.
“Bee?”
“Huh?”
Maurice soaked in sweat pulled me back to the present as he reached for the towel at my feet and wiped himself down.
“I said it’s a hot one today.”
“Oh… yes. Hot.” I looked up at him, not really thinking about the weather at all.
His body was nothing but sculpted muscle the perfect male form. From his broad chest and defined abs to the sharp line of his Adonis belt. Droplets of sweat still clung to his chest where the towel had missed, and suddenly my mouth went dry, my tongue thick as the urge to taste the salt on his skin hit me hard.
“Bee?” he chuckled when I drifted again.
“Sorry what?”
“I asked if there’s anything you’d like to do today. I can take a few hours off.”
“You can?” Excitement flared instantly. He’d been buried in meetings since our return, reconnecting with his beta and department heads. I’d never resented it—he’d spent so long searching for me, then convincing me to come back with him but I knew some in the pack blamed me for his absence.
“Of course,” he said. “I know I’ve been busy and maybe neglected you a little”
“You haven’t neglected me,” I interrupted quickly. Maurice was anything but neglectful. And truthfully, the space had helped me adjust helped me learn the Alpha house, my new surroundings, at my own pace.
“Do you need to pick anything up?” he asked. “You can order clothes or whatever you need through my account.”
“I have my own money,” I replied immediately. I didn’t want him to see me as a charity case, or think I was taking advantage of his generosity.
“I know,” he said gently. “But until you decide what you want to do about it”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I admitted. “I want to find out where my father put it. And I want my mother’s inheritance. It was meant for me. She worked hard to build her business… I think she’d want me to use it for something meaningful.”
I might not have inherited her brilliance in the financial world, but I could do something with it something that gave me purpose.
His eyes studied me, then flickered briefly, that subtle shift he got when his wolf stirred or spoke to him.
“Maxime has been looking into things,” he said. “I could also call Damien”
“No!” I shot up, brushing grass from my clothes as I stood. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s been three days,” he said calmly. “They just want to know you’re okay.”
“Why? Has he called?”
“I usually talk to Damien every day,” Maurice said carefully. “He’s my best friend. He’s been asking about you. He just wants to make sure”
“That killing my father didn’t push me over the edge?” I snapped. “Forget him. I don’t want to talk about him.”
Just the idea of Damien speaking my name to Maurice made my blood boil. He had no right. None at all.
“How about we head back, shower,” Maurice suggested gently, “and then I introduce you to some of the pack?”
I hadn’t even noticed his hand brushing my cheek until my breathing slowed and the anger ebbed.
How did he do that?
“I… I don’t know,” I hesitated. It all felt so final.
“You can’t hide away in the Alpha house forever,” he said softly. “They need to see you. They need to build a connection with their Luna.”
“A Luna without a wolf?” I scoffed.
“She’s there,” he replied with quiet certainty. “I can feel her. Just give her time.”