Chapter 103

Nathan

The morning after our night together, Olivia's scent clung to my skin.

It was a haunting fragrance that stirred something deep within me, something primal and wild. Her hot body, her gentle curves, her round breasts, her caramel skin…

Her long, soft hair had tangled itself around me like sentient vines strangling an innocent little rabbit. She was a siren, a beautiful creature lurking in the tidepools of my mind, and now I could never have her again no matter how hard I tried.

No matter how I scratched out my eyes and stuffed wool into my ears and tied myself to the masts, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But I still couldn’t have her.

Something else had happened last night, too. There had been a moment, a single, fleeting second, when I could have sworn I sensed her wolf.

But it must have been the alcohol, I told myself. It must have been the dizzying effect of our shared intimacy, nothing more.

Yet my wolf disagreed, its attention captured by something new, something uniquely Olivia. A scent. Faint, but burned into my mind.

I sat on my bed, my mind drifting back to the way her body had moved against mine, the way her eyes had shimmered in the moonlight. Then her words echoed in my mind, a sobering reminder of our agreement, and a quiet resignation settled over me.

It was a one-time thing. Nothing more. We never should have done it.

Maybe we shouldn’t have. Maybe I walked right into her siren trap, and now I was doomed.

If I thought I was jealous before, I would be insatiable now. The very thought of her ever being with someone else after the night we had shared together filled me with an unimaginable amount of fury.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by the blaring of my phone on the bedside table. I groaned and rolled over, snatching my phone up.

The message on the screen was clear: an emergency meeting of the Alpha Council. Someone had been attacked last night. The monster was back.

The council meeting was intense, with the Alphas and the Elders huddled in the meeting hall, their faces a mix of concern and determination.

“The monster had its first attack last night,” my father said said, his voice carrying the weight of the situation. “The victim is okay, but didn’t come out unscathed. We can't ignore this any longer.”

“I agree,” said Alpha Eric, a formidable man with a scar running down his left cheek. “It's time we took action. This monster could get more confident.”

“The question is, what kind of action?” I chimed in, my eyes scanning the room. “We can't just go in guns blazing. We need a plan.”

The other Alphas stared at me in silence for a few long moments. Ever since I had presented my “paternity test” to the Council, they had been treating me with more respect.

I was allowed to speak now at meetings, although I knew that certain Alphas—particularly my father and Alpha Mike—didn’t want me to take part in the meetings.

“And that is exactly what we have,” Mike finally replied, his lips curling up at me in disdain. “We trap it, incapacitate it, and then... we put it down.”

I blinked in surprise. “Euthanize it? Just like that?”

Mike shrugged. “Do you have a better plan, Nathan?”

Admittedly, I didn’t. It was a plan that made the most sense; but we still had a lot of unanswered questions. “We should gather more information first,” I said. “This so-called ‘monster’ could be a rogue, or a spy from an enemy pack. It could also be one of our own.”

“Where the creature comes from makes no difference,” my father said, his voice stern. “What matters is that we stop it from injuring—or killing—anyone else.”

“Yes,” I said, “But I think that we should be tactful about it—”

“There’s no need to be tactful,” my father growled. “It’s a monster. Plain and simple.”

Suddenly, Elder Mingan’s voice spoke up. “Let Nathan investigate if he pleases,” she said quietly. “Nathan… If you can come to us with any viable information that would convince us not to hunt down this beast by the end of the week, then we will consider your plea.”

Mingan’s words were comforting. None of the Alphas—not even my father—could argue against her. They wouldn’t dare go against the oldest and most renowned Elder on the Council.

So it was settled; I had the remainder of the week to discover information about this ‘monster’. I had to get to work, but where would I begin?

…

When I got home, Olivia was curled up on the sofa, a book in her hands. She looked up as I entered, her face flushing a light shade of red before she looked back down at her book. I wanted nothing more than to curl up alongside her and rest my head on her body, but I couldn’t. I could only sink down into the armchair opposite the couch and let out a sigh.

“Something wrong?” she asked, not lifting her nervous gaze from her book.

“I was just at a Council meeting,” I replied, rubbing my tired eyes. “There's been an attack. A real attack this time. We think it's the same creature.”

Her breath hitched. “What happened?”

I shrugged. “Nothing too serious, thankfully. It leaped out of the woods and jumped on a girl who was walking by herself. By her account, it tried to slash her with its claws, but it thankfully only nicked her here and there before it ran off again.”

Olivia let out a soft sigh of relief, finally lifting her gaze to meet mine. “That’s good,” she said quietly. “Are you sure that it meant to attack her?”

I was a bit taken aback by Olivia’s words. “Meant to?” I asked. “It certainly seems like it—”

“I’m just saying that maybe it’s been misunderstood,” she interjected. “Maybe it was scared, or it didn’t know that she was there. I don’t think that he—the monster, I mean—would want to hurt anyone.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean, Olivia?” I asked. “Do you know something about it?”

Olivia’s eyes flashed with an emotion that I couldn’t quite read, and she quickly shook her head. “No, of course not,” she murmured, averting her gaze back to her book. “So… Did the Alphas say anything else?”

“The other Alphas want to hunt it down and euthanize it,” I said, the words heavy in my mouth.

Suddenly, Olivia shot up from her seat, her eyes wide with shock. Her book tumbled to the floor haphazardly. “No!” she yelled, tears in her eyes. “You can’t kill it! Promise me you won’t!”

“What? Why?” I asked, startled by her reaction. I remembered how terrified she looked when she ran home on the night of Angela’s party after seeing the monster on her walk. But now, she seemed utterly terrified at the thought of the monster being put down more than anything else.

Her gaze was intense, her voice full of conviction as she spoke.

“You can't kill him!” she cried. “The monster is Alvin. I'm sure of it!”