READY

An Alpha’s first duty was the pack. An Alpha did everything to make sure each member was okay, happy and felt like family.

That was why the first wolf created the Alpha’s bite. People are complicated and fickle, just because they smile at you does not really mean they’re happy or even like you.

Kane sat behind the mahogany desk in his study, a thoughtful expression on his face and his fists places in front of him clenched. His eyes were closed and his brows furrowed in concentration.

He searched for a way to connect.

It had been almost two days since he had given her the Alpha’s bit but yet he felt nothing when he thought about her. Except for uncontrollable attraction and slightly controllable lust.

He tried to get her out of his head for so many days and now he was doing the complete opposite yet, not even that was working.

He couldn’t feel her.

Not in the way he could feel the other pack members.

He knew she was there but Anna was rather faint on his radar, only making her presence known with a burst of emotion but that never really lasted.

The woman was the most calm and collected he’d ever come across. He had never had such a hard time reading someone before until he met her.

Anna was like an onion to him, one that wouldn’t even show the layers that are meant to be peeled away.

After the kiss they shared, Kane had avoided her like a plague. He couldn’t resist getting close to her and he didn’t want to risk anyone finding out about their bond, that would just complicate things.

But why in the world was she still invisible to him?

“Why do you look like you’re trying to attempt telekinesis?”

Kane’s eyes opened abruptly, he was met by the sight of a shirtless and sweaty Tony with a box of cake in his hands with the Hoult family insignia.

“Well, it doesn’t matter!” His life long friend grinned as he made his way to Kane’s desk and set the box right next to Kane’s treasured paper weight.

Tony did it intentionally.

Never had he met anyone like his beta who took so much pleasure in seeing others riled up, or maybe it was just him.

“Happy Birthday Kiddo,” Tony teased, he reached out for Kane’s hair but he swatted it away vef6ut could even come close.

“Thanks,” Kane muttered under his breath. As much as he would hate to admit it, he had forgotten his birthday yet again and just like every other year, Tiny was the one to remind him.

That also meant that the rest of the pack would be so eager to kiss ass or rather as the call it ‘Show their love’ today and he so wasn’t up for it.

He already had enough on his plate as it was.

Too much to do and too little time.

“Do you always have to look like it’s your burial rather than your birthday?” Tony scoffed and took the seat opposite his.

He opened the cake box and cut out a piece.

“You should learn how to enjoy your birthdays, that way everyone else will enjoy it too,” Tony took a bite of the cake and then threw his head back and groaned in bliss.

“Now I’ll tell you,” He said with his mouth still full, “Your mother in law is the best thing that has ever happened to my taste buds,”

“Its just another day, morning, night, it will come and go as the others,” Kane said, “And stop calling her my mother in law,”

Somehow recently, that word didn’t sit well with him anymore.

He found himself spending more time looking at May, just so he could feel for her what he did before but Anna’s presence.

Her presence alone has managed to put him off a lot of things, catch him off guard and make him stay in his toes his toes all day.

Kane couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so tense in his pack.

He was alpha.

Fuck!

Tony was saying something but he really couldn’t tell what it was, he could see his lips moving but his mind was just too far away to make out the words.

“…the Wolf Spirit—”

“What?” Kane blinked in confusion. “What about Anna?”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes.

“You weren’t listening to a word I was saying were you?”

Kane pursed his lips and gave an apologetic smile.

“what’s up with you recently? You been…MIA,”

“MIA?”

“Yes,” Tony nodded, “I figured you’d be in an even better mood knowing that you’ve finally gotten the Wolf Spirit and you’ll be able to achieve all that you’ve wanted in the past ten years yet…here you are acting like you didn’t just achieve something that not even you father was able to,”

Kane’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his father and just as it always did, he felt deep anger and hatred bubbling up in his chest. Years and years of harboring such emotions have taught him to keep them in check.

As an Alpha, his anger is always worse, more violent than others. He had to learn control…he did learn control, until Anna.

“You’re just a few steps away from your goal Kane, I don’t expect you to be jumping up and down for joy but at least you shouldn’t keep looking like all we did was for nothing, you’re giving the pack the wrong idea and in turn…” Tony looked down and stopped talking, hesitant to say the next word.

“What? What are you trying to say?” Kane unclenched his fists and grabbed the box of cake closer to him. Tony’s eyes following the pastry as it left his reach.

“The pack isn’t giving as much respect to the Wolf Spirit as they’re supposed to, they all see her like an issue that has only succeeded in dampening your mood further and you know how they are,”

Yes. GreyThorn consisted of elders that were once under his father’s rule and just like his father, they all doubted and never wanted to see him as head of the pack.

The second he claimed that right from his father, they all turned into ass kissers, wanting only the things that would ‘bring their alpha happiness’.

They were all a bunch of hypocrites but they were also the elders he consulted for advice and they helped in keeping the pack safe and comfortable for everyone else.

He couldn’t kick them out like he did his father.

“I’ll work on my attitude,” Kane said. He took a slice of cake and took one bite.

It was sweet. Just like he expected. He already knew what it would taste like, he had been eating the Hoult pastries his entire life.

“On another note,” Tony chuckled, one that sounded like a nervous laugh and also made Kane tense the second he heard it.

“Our borders have been breached,”

Kane gritted his teeth and trued to control his breathing. No, he wouldn’t take his anger out on the cake.

“How could such a thing happen? What happened to the warriors at the borders? What about the barrier?”

“Look don’t get mad okay?” Tony said cautiously, “They had taken a few days off,”

“They what?” His tone dropped, it became lower, darker and the greens of his eyes glowed even brighter.

His wolf wanted out, wanted to tear down everything and everyone that was the cause of his anger.

“You know nothing really happens at the borders and who would dare try to go against us?”

“Well someone obviously did,” Kane pointed out. He sounded dangerously calm, it made Tony fidget where he sat.

Tony was the only one who could stand against him in the pack but he was also the one who knew him the most.

When he was like this, it meant all hell would break loose.

“Also…before you explode,”

“You still have more to say,”

Tony winced dramatically, “Yeah, you’re not going to like this one…”

Kane was hardly holding on to the reins as it was.

“It’s Bullhorn, Yaakov is alive,”

Then a barrage of images flooded his mind, memories.

His mate’s neck carried Yaakov’s mark and not the mark an alpha gave to his pack members but a mating mark, the faint scars on her skin were from him as well and Kane had wished he hadn’t given the bastard a swift death.

“He’s coming,” Tony said.

“Let him come, we'll be ready!”