Chapter 4

Dagger's POV

***************

As soon as I left, I fucking knew I shouldn't have.

Fuck.

FUCK!

It wasn't even supposed to be more than an hour. All I was doing was running back to the cabin to have Benny secure some clothes to me so when I had a chance, I could shift, get dressed and explain to my mate everything. But of fucking course it couldn't be that simple. Was anything ever?

When I got to Benny's cabin, the weather was still nice. Rain wasn't even a scent in the air. Nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. I'd get what I needed and head back to my mate. That was all that was on my mind when I reached the cabin: getting back to her.

"You have a mate?" Benny asked as he hobbled out of the house, meeting me on the deck. Even though we really didn't have to communicate through words, he preferred speaking when one or both of us weren't in wolf form. However, I was too focused to answer him directly.

Not really trusting Blind Benny to pick out my outfit, I shifted into human form and sprinted inside. My room was on the second floor, but even up there, I could hear Benny's cane as he shuffled back inside after me.

"Dag?" Benny called up the stairs.

"Busy."

"You have a fated mate?" Benny asked, picking through my whirlwind thoughts. It literally felt like little fingers picking through each of my thoughts. Like he was going through a filing cabinet drawer.

I hated that most about being a wolf. Our thoughts were basically open to everyone close to us, be it a pack or just someone we spent a lot of time with. Except on a full moon. Then everyone's thoughts were fair game to everyone for the sake of the Elder Meetings. Even in human form. Our thoughts were just out there. Of course, we could always close the channel but it took a lot of effort to keep it closed. Evolutionary benefits to the pack mentality or some bullshit like that.

"Dag?"

"Yes, I have a fated mate," I bellowed back. Yes, I have a fated mate. Yes, she's everything they say a fated mate is to be. Now, will you leave me alone?

"Are you're going to miss the Elder Meeting?" Benny pressed. "You know you have give her the chance to—"

"I know!" Slamming my dresser, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to lose control. I really didn't need to give in to the wolf now when I had kept a level head this long. Especially when he was dying to get back to Serenity. Exhaling, I took a moment to accept the facts.

Everything about this was so fucked. First, I had to break some very hard, very difficult news to Serenity while convincing her to believe me. But it couldn't be done around her friends. Not if I wanted to live long enough to claim Serenity.

Second, I had to convince her to go to Elder's Peak with me so that if she wanted to reject me—which was a huge possibility—it could be done. I'd have to at least give her the option. That was every mate's right. It would piss off my wolf if she rejected me, and she'd probably feel nothing, but I couldn't...hide her away until she chose to accept me.

That wasn't the way.

Maybe at one point, it had been, but not anymore. Besides, I wanted her to want me. Forcing her to accept me back wouldn't give me that. So, I had to present her with the facts and her options. Yes. That was what had to be done.

"Ahhh...so she's human." Benny tapped his cane on the floor below me, still picking through my brain as he did. "Fascinating. Pretty too. Serenity. We could use some of that around here. Boy howdy."

"Benny..." I growled, keeping my eyes shut. "You're—"

"Right, pissing you off. Got it." There was more shuffling downstairs as Benny wandered off. The pressure in my head lifted, telling me that my thoughts were my own again.

Relief flooded my body and the panic-rage started to subside. With a clearer head, I reopened my eyes and looked through my dresser again. Did I need to wear a full outfit? No. Just enough to not scare her off. Grabbing a pair of sweats, I closed the dresser and jogged out of my room.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw Benny was already waiting by the door. He held up a little rope with a smile. Despite living with him for ten years, his claw scars never ceased to surprise me. They ran over both eyes, blinding him. It was a wound that he'd suffered when he'd been exiled years ago. Years before I was born.

"I'll see you at the Elders Meeting then?" Benny asked as I neared him, his hand with the rope extended.

"I suppose...if you'll be there," I replied, taking the rope and tying it around the pants to give my wolf form a sort of handle to carry them with. The last thing I needed to do was bite a hole through them. When I was finished, I put the makeshift package back in Benny's hand.

"Of I will!"

"You'll make it there alright?" A frown plastered itself on my face. I really didn't like when he went out alone. Not with his age. At one point, I may have been worried about his blindness, but he'd proven time and time again that it never slowed him down. It was just his age now.

"Will I make it there alright, he asks." Benny smacked my shin with his cane before walking out the front door. "I've made it to the Elder Meeting every full moon for eighty-seven years, boy."

"Right." Following him out, I brushed passed him so I could shift into wolf form. It was obvious that if I wanted to get back to Serenity quickly, I needed to be on all fours. Thankfully, Benny knew just what to do as soon as I'd shifted.

Tottering down the stairs of the deck, Benny gripped the rope and pants tightly as he made his way to me. His hand found my shoulder and he offered up the loop in the rope. I took it into my mouth. It was then that the skies decided to pour down on us.

"Be careful, Dag."

And that was it. Not even ten minutes after I'd been at Benny's and I was back on the fifteen-minute jaunt to where I'd left the human group. But they weren't where I'd left them, and the scent trail had been washed away by the rain. However, it should've been easy to find them.

They were heading to the falls, so I jogged up the human path, following it to where they should've been by now. Irritatingly, they weren't there either. Had they already made it to the falls? I doubted it unless they jogged.

But then again, the brunette with the pissed-off face—Nat, I think the humans called her—had been whining about how long it was taking to get there. Maybe they all broke into a run just to shut her up. The hope in my chest bloomed, thinking they'd made it to the falls and were just waiting out the rain under one of the covers.

However, my hope was quickly crushed when I reached the falls. No one was there. Not even footprints, so they never made it there. Panic set in as I realized that my mate was out somewhere, basically defenseless, and I had no clue where she was. Back to square one.

Heading back to where I'd left the group, I tried to find any clues about where they went. The only problem? The dirt had been dry before so no footprints stuck. Not that the rain would've let them stay anyway. Anything made in dry dirt was quickly washed away. Now all that remained where my pawprints made from pacing up and down the trail, hoping that something would stand out to me.

Shit, the rain was so loud, I couldn't even hear where they went. Only the scurrying of squirrels close by overtook the sound of rain. But trying to hear more than a mile away? Forget it. Any brush that moved could've been because of rain or some other member of the local wildlife.

However, I had no other choice than to start following every, single sound I picked up on. Tedious and beyond aggravating, I was turning up empty-handed each time I left the trail. Some apex predator I am...

I had no idea how long I'd been at it, but the moon started to rise, the daylight fading. And a new fear started to set in. Not only did I lose my mate, but I lost my mate on a full moon. The forest was dangerous enough, but tonight? Tonight it was crawling with wolves. My kind of wolves. If Tank thought I was dangerous, he didn't know what was in store for them.

And then, almost as suddenly as it started, the rain stopped. Heaving a huff of relief, I started searching for a scent, a sign, anything that would lead me back to my Serenity.

Find her yet? Benny's thought broke through my head.

No...the rain washed away the humans' scent. I kept my nose to the ground, hoping by the Moon Goddess's mercy that she'd let me find my mate again.

Huh. Well, I went to the campsite you had in mind—

Fuck! I didn't think of that.

Well, it wouldn't have done you any good. No sign of humans there. At least not for a while. Hold on, I'm almost to you now. Just then, Benny—an old, grizzled gray wolf—emerged from the trees to my left, bumping into my side a couple of times. His cane was held in his mouth, a little sack hanging off the hook.

I'm running out of places to look. We're going to be at Elder's Peak soon, and... I couldn't even bring myself to finish the thought. However, I didn't need to. Benny and I both knew Elder's Peak was a death sentence for the humans tonight if I didn't get to Serenity first.

I smell jasmine. A Bloodmoon member has been through here. Recently. Benny sounded apologetic as he broke away from me to help cover more ground.

My hackles rose, but he was right. I had been smelling wolves for the last three miles. But if the humans had crossed a Bloodmoon wolf? There was no mercy for them. Bloodmoons hated humans more than they hated other wolves. Guilt gripped my chest, knowing at one time I'd held the same sentiments.

I found the humans' trail. Benny stopped where he was, sniffing the air. And you won't like this...they headed straight for the peak.

Right then, a howl ripped through the air followed by another and then another, confirming my worst fear. The humans made it to the peak before I did. Terror ripped through me as I bounded towards the peak. I couldn't believe that anything happened to Serenity until I saw it with my own eyes.

It was about a ten-minute sprint, and each minute that passed was more agonizing than the last. All because I had no idea what happened to her. What was I running into? A trial? A massacre? All were valid for trespassing humans, just dependant on the Elders' mood.

But Benny was right. The humans went this way and my mate's scent was overwhelming me. My wolf was on the edge of taking over, driven by fear and rage. However, I couldn't just bust into the Elder Meeting in wolf form. If Serenity was still alive, I couldn't seem threatening to the council at all. At least...not at first.

Just before I breached the peak's perimeter, I dropped the pants I'd all but forgotten about and shifted just outside the gathering of wolves. Without really thinking, I untied the sweats and slipped them on. I could still smell her, so I hoped that was a good sign. Then I entered the Sacred Circle, where the meeting was taking place.

The Scared Circle really wasn't much more than a clearing at the center of Elder's Peak, but it was where the moon shone directly over at midnight. It also was where all of the wolves' minds linked when they entered. Almost instantly, I was inundated with hundreds of thoughts, all regarding the intrusion of humans.

A Paleoak member had caught them just outside the circle. All because the human leader—Jake, I learned—couldn't keep quiet when they were hiding. Not that it would've helped them, considering someone would've caught their scent when the wind shifted. It just sped up the inevitable.

As I made my way to the center of the circle, where the humans were bound, gagged, and kneeling before the council, I tried to keep calm. Of course, the Elder Guards were in wolf form, and of course, they were intimidating the humans. But as I broke through the circle, all I could think was: Serenity's alive.

Almost as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the general pandemonium of the circle went silent. Everyone's attention was on me. Especially the Elder Council's. They wanted to hear what I had to say. Me. The troublesome rogue. They wanted to use this as leverage to bind me to their law. I could feel it.

"Untie them," I stated from behind the humans, staring directly at the Elder Prime—Cecil.

"And why should we, Dagger?" Cecil asked, his green eyes slicing through me.

"You know why." Clenching my fists at my side, I hated being on display for everyone. It was why I avoided the Elder Meetings. They picked through my mind, pulling the information they wanted as it passed in my thoughts.

"You know the rules..." Cecil's gaze flickered to the humans before returning to me.

"We already have the vote in motion. Aside from Marsha of the Timberpaws, everyone has voted. Bane has spoken for the Bloodmoons, as has Morgana for the Paleoaks, Steele for the Frostclaws, Aurora for the Stargazers...they agree that all humans who know must die. No exceptions."

"So I can kill anyone's mate, can I?" I challenged, knowing that mates were basically untouchable. Unless all-out war was the desire.

The circle shifted uncomfortably at the mention of mate killing. The murmurs started up again. Both mentally and verbally. The council began to speak quietly among themselves, shutting the rest of us out of their heads. As they did, another wolf's thoughts stuck out to me.

Conri. We'd grown up together in the Bloodmoon pack as best friends. After my defeat and exile, our friendship was destroyed, just like the rest of my relationships within the pack. Now, though, his thoughts were conflicted. As beta of the Bloodmoon pack, he had a duty to support Bane, but if he did...it meant death for his mate too.

"Conri's mate is that one," I blurted out, pointing at the pissed-off brunette—Nat. With attention brought to Conri, the Elders would have a hard time playing my mate off as a fluke thing.

"So she is..." Cecil frowned, scratching his jaw. After a moment, he laughed humorlessly, "You can imagine the bind this puts us in, Dagger. A rogue wolf is not supposed to be permitted a mate, let alone a human mate."

"Untie them, Cecil."

Studying me for any signs of weakness, he let out a sigh when he found none. Motioning to the other council members, Cecil permitted the humans to be untied and ungagged. Once free, they were helped to their feet before the council returned to their spots. None of them said a thing, obviously terrified of the four guards that were in wolf form. If that scared them, they really wouldn't like the pack guards outside the circle.

When the humans were untied, Conri made his way to the middle of the circle. He stood beside me, offering me a hand. I eyed it suspiciously but took it anyway.

"It's good to see you," he whispered, as he squeezed my hand.

"I wish I could say the same." Withdrawing my hand from Conri, I caught my Serenity staring at us. I couldn't tell what she was thinking and it bothered me. She wasn't happy. In fact, there were tear stains on her face. No doubt because of the treatment she'd received. I'd make them pay. Mark my words. Just not yet.

"Serenity, do you accept Dagger as your mate?" Cecil asked, using his impeccable timing as always. A helpless feeling overwhelmed me as all of the control I thought I had was ripped away.

Glancing over her shoulder, Serenity waited for elaboration. But Cecil gave a piss-poor excuse of an answer along with a half-assed shrug.

"It's your right to reject the mate bond."

This was bad. Really fucking bad. Not only did she know who I was and what she was to me, but I never got to explain any of it to her. And to top it all off, I didn't have access to her thoughts. There was only one thing that could be said right about now...

I was fucked.

Royally.