Chapter 129 Back to My Borders

Chapter 129 Back to My Borders
Aphrodite 

Valdus put Liam in charge for the duration of our absence. We traveled in wolf form to cover the distance faster. I was still angry with him, yet underneath the anger something else sat heavy and uncomfortable. Guilt, maybe. I wasn’t sure. The feeling refused to name itself cleanly.

I paced around a thick oak and kept my eyes fixed forward while thoughts chased one another in circles.

Did you know I don’t like either one of you two?

I sighed through my muzzle. Eris, I kind of figured that out when you stopped talking to me and stopped trying to take control.

Well. I’m just letting you know so you do know.

Like I said—

And like I said. Just letting you know.

Eris. Do you ever feel… I don’t know. Sad? Angry? Or even like you’re going insane?

Yes. Because those are the things you feel. It’s not as if I have a separate body and separate thoughts where I can generate my own feelings.

I started to answer, but the conversation had pulled my attention so far inward that I failed to notice the tree directly in my path. My snout collided hard with the rough bark. Pain flared white across my nose. I jerked back, shook my head, and rubbed the smarting muzzle with one paw while my eyes watered. A soft whine escaped me, followed by a sneeze.

You okay? Valdus’s voice came cleanly through the mind-link.

Yeah.

Okay.

I circled the tree and continued forward. From the corner of my eye I saw him glance at me more than once, but I kept my gaze locked on the trail ahead.

Roughly an hour later the first familiar scents began to rise through the undergrowth. We were close. The smells I had carried in memory for so long grew stronger with every stride, and something inside my chest loosened. My lips pulled back in the beginning of a wolfish smile. My pace increased without conscious decision.

For a year—maybe a year and a half—I had wanted nothing more than to return to this place. There had been nights when the urge to leave Valdus simply to stand on this soil again had nearly won. The only time I had actually made it this far was the night Brycin broke my mark and dumped me unconscious at Valdus’s border. Brycin was dead now. The knowledge still brought a fierce, quiet satisfaction. The pack’s scents thickened until they filled my lungs, and my heart hammered harder with every breath. I glanced back. Valdus wore a clear wolf grin as he watched me.

I like seeing you happy, he linked.

I stopped. He closed the distance, touched his nose to mine, and held my gaze with those deep hazel eyes. When I finally looked down at the grass between us, his tongue swept once along the side of my face. The affection undid the last of my resistance. I shifted. Bones realigned, fur receded, and I stood on human feet in time to watch him complete the same change. He rose to his full height and rested a warm palm against my cheek.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. The hardness that usually lived in his eyes had gentled.

I managed a small smile. “I should be the one saying that, not you.”

He shook his head, leaned in, and pressed a slow kiss to my forehead while his fingers tucked loose strands of hair behind my ears. I exhaled and, without planning it, pulled him into a full embrace. My cheek settled against the steady beat of his heart. Neither of us cared that we stood completely bare in the middle of the forest. In that moment I actually liked it—the quiet, the contact, the simple fact of him holding me.

He laced his fingers through mine as we covered the final stretch. He walked half a pace ahead so that the border patrol would see him first. My own pack had seen me unclothed many times before, but I knew Valdus would hate the idea of any male’s eyes on me. At the same time a possessive heat curled in my gut at the thought of she-wolves looking at what belonged to me. I swallowed the growl that tried to rise and kept my attention forward.

The trees thinned. The unmistakable scent of my pack rolled over us in a warm wave. Two or three steps past the boundary markers, the border patrol emerged from the underbrush, fur bristling, bodies low and ready. Their eyes locked on Valdus. He immediately shifted me behind the broad shield of his back and released a low, warning growl. The patrol did not stop. They advanced, lips peeled back from sharp teeth.

I stepped out from behind him and met their stares with a blank expression. Recognition hit one of the wolves like a physical blow. He froze mid-snarl, shifted in a rapid crack of bone, and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Alpha.”

“Hi.” I kept walking toward the heart of the territory. “I like how you finally decided to stop. About time you learned. How long did that lesson take?”

More bones snapped behind me as the others shifted, but I did not bother looking back.

“Alpha, you’re back.”

“Yes. Yes, I am. And what exactly have you all been doing since I left? Because I know some of you saw what Brycin did to me, yet you acted like you saw nothing.”

The pack house came into view through the trees. Familiar scents—old wood, cooking fires, the layered musk of dozens of wolves—wrapped around me like a half-forgotten coat.

“Alpha, he told us—”

I spun on them so fast several of them flinched. My growl cut through the clearing. Valdus stood a few paces behind the group, silent and watchful.

“And what was he? A Beta!” The words cracked like a whip. “You would rather watch a Beta hurt your Alpha than lift a single claw?”  

No one answered. Disgust and old anger burned hot under my skin. I turned away and lengthened my stride, heading straight for the estate rather than the main pack house. Somewhere behind me Valdus released another low growl; I did not pause to wonder why.

“Who has been in charge since Brycin never returned?” I called over my shoulder.

“Um… Isaac. The top warrior.”

“Okay. Go get Isaac, then come back here.”

I climbed the short flight of steps to the estate, pushed the door open, and left it wide for Valdus. The soft click of it closing behind him was the only sound for a heartbeat.

Then my eyes found Ekon.

He sat on the floor with Jane, the same she-wolf who had looked after him during the long training sessions years ago. Both of them looked up at the same moment.

“Alpha?” Jane’s voice held careful surprise.

“Jane.” I smiled, the expression coming easier than I expected. She rose quickly from the floor. Her gaze slid past me to Valdus, and a sharp, instinctive urge to growl rose in my throat. I swallowed it.

“I’ll go change real quick and come back down. I need to talk to Ekon.”