Page 32 of Bound

“I don’t know, we’ll have to be careful what we tell him. He’s going to label her as a rogue.”

“Shit,” Hunter swears. “We can’t let that happen.”

Gage nods. “I think it will be easy to show that she isn’t feral. The question is, if he allows her to stay on pack lands, can we convince him to let her stay with us?”

My eyes widen in realization. “Shit, he’s going to make her live with the other unmated wolves, isn’t he?” I ask in fear.

“No fucking way is she living in a house with unbonded males,” Bain says as red creeps up his neck and a vein in his forehead starts to pulse.

“Uhh… Isn’t that what we want her to do? Stay in our home, with us?” I ask, pointing out the obvious. “We’re all unbonded males.”

He lets go of some of the tension in his body and rolls his eyes at me. “You know what I mean. She’s safe with us. We couldn’t protect her there.”

“Just because Alpha Kane is Maddox’s uncle doesn’t mean he’ll agree with us,” I tell them.

“It shouldn’t be up to him anyway,” Bain grumbles. When Maddox looks at him, he adds, “You should be alpha of the Westgrove Pack.”

Maddoxshouldbe alpha. He’s definitely stronger than his uncle, but since his parents died when he was young and his uncle stepped up as alpha, Maddox hasn’t felt the need to take over the pack for some reason.

“It doesn’t matter,” Maddox says with a shake of his head. “I’m not going to ask permission for her to be part of the Westgrove pack.”

His statement stuns everyone into silence. “Why not?” I ask in confusion.

“Because she’s part ofour pack, the Silverstorm Pack.”

My eyes widen in shock. The five of us had unofficially made our own pack within the Westgrove Pack. It was completely unheard of, but when each of us joined with Maddox, he claimed us as part of his pack, the Silverstorm Pack.

His uncle, Marcus Kane, the current alpha, knows that if Maddox challenged him to be alpha of the Westgrove Pack, he’d win in a heartbeat, so he let Maddox create his own pack of alphas within the pack. It doesn’t hurt that we help as enforcers with Westgrove.

Nobody else has been added to our pack since Maddox took Hunter and me in six years ago. Many have tried, but he maintained the claim that it was only the five of us. None of us questioned his decision; nobody felt like family like the four of my brothers did.

Until now.

So, the fact that Maddox wants to add our little wolf to our pack says a lot.

“He’s not gonna like that,” Hunter says after we all take in the ramifications of what adding her to our pack could mean.

Maddox lets out a sigh as he stares at the fire. “Maybe we should look for Starfall Haven,” he whispers so quietly, I’m not sure if he wanted us to hear.

“Uh, Mad… You know that place is just a myth, right? A town for supernaturals that’s so safe and secluded that humans can’t find it?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. Maddox just replies with a non-committal grunt.

“None of this matters if she doesn’t want to go back yet,” Gage reminds us.

“Well then, let’s head back now!” I say in exasperation. I can’t wait to get back to a real washroom and clean clothes. As much as I love it out here, I’m ready to go home. I step through the waterfall, then quickly dive under the water and swim beneath it as far as I can, popping up near the shore where she was lying.

I glance around but don’t see her. My heart starts to beat faster, and I try to tamp down my panic. I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.

I quickly make my way to the edge of the pond and step out, glancing around as I jog to where we left her lying under a tree.

“Fuck!” I yell, grabbing my hair in both hands.

“What is it? Where is she?” Maddox yells, jogging out of the water with the others on his heels.

“I don’t know! She’s… gone.”

Bain shifts instantly, then lets out the loudest howl I’ve ever heard, full of pain and heartache. My wolf tries to press to the surface, wanting to echo Bain’s cry, so I let him press forward and shift.

Wherever she’s gone, we’ll find her. She’sours.