Chapter 7

ZACH

A few hours later, Zach was sitting at a large, round wooden table that took up a majority of the conference room.

He was listening absently as his lieutenants debriefed about everything that had happened in the past month, his fingers tapping idly on the surface of the wood.

Alex sat to his left, leaning forward to scribble on some pieces of paper in front of him.

To Zach’s right sat Steph, leaning back in her chair with her ankles crossed on the table.

Deirdre was next to her, squinting at a laptop, and then Luc. He sat with his chair pushed away from the table, one ankle crossed over his knee.

Jonathan and Greg were both attending via video conference, each male taking up half of the large screen that was mounted on the back wall.

Jonathan was overseeing the Silver River sector that resided in the city; the pack members living there were in charge of running the many business ventures the pack had dipped their toes into.

Any pack members who desired to further their education were also welcome to transfer there.

Greg was conferencing from overseas, currently attempting to establish alliances for the Silver River Pack with other packs and develop connections throughout the shifter world.

Zach tried to focus on the meeting, but the conversation seemed muffled, and his eyes kept drifting to the clock.

“The last item on the agenda”—Alex thumped the table with his fist, demanding Zach’s attention—“is our alpha.”

“What about me?” Zach muttered, slouching in his seat.

“You’re bonding with Anna Davis,” Alex announced.

Zach thought the rest of his lieutenants looked bloody comical, dumbstruck with their mouths wide open as they stared at him.

He opened his mouth to deny Alex’s accusation, but his second shook his head firmly.

“Don’t bother. Your bonding scent blanketed that clearing when you tried to kill Mitch.”

“I don’t have time for a mate,” Zach growled in frustration. “What are the chances of the bond halting if I keep my distance from her?”

Even as he said it, the idea of staying away from Anna made his gut clench, but he refused to let it show on his face.

“No chance; you’re too far gone. It will start hurting you to keep away from her until the mating is completed, and now, we know how you’re going to react when other males are near her.”

“It’s worse because you’re an alpha,” Steph interjected. “The whole process will be more intense, and until you mate, you’re a loose cannon, Boss.”

She glanced apologetically at Zach, who leaned his head against the back of his chair and groaned.

Sometimes, he really regretted how open and honest his lieutenants were with him.

They all respected him and knew that he completely reciprocated the respect, but it also meant that they could say whatever the hell they liked and knew that Zach wouldn’t punish them for it.

Steph especially knew how to press his buttons.

His relationship with each person in that room was based on years of friendship. In fact, they had all grown up together in Silver River, except for Jonathan. He had joined the pack when he was sixteen, a runaway on the verge of becoming feral.

He had come to the pack at exactly the right time, and the pack bond grounded him. It hadn’t taken long for him and Zach to connect.

“This timing is ridiculous, especially since Gray Wing is probably going to use Anna to attack us.”

The room fell silent at Zach’s comments, all eyes turning to him once again.

“Uh, come again?” Greg said, scratching his neck. “I think we must have a bad connection.”

Zach leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table as he focused intently on a knot in the table’s wood.

“I should have brought it up earlier,” he said, glancing apologetically at Alex.

“When Anna was welcomed into the pack, we discovered that Gray Wing had blocked her from the pack bond. Once we realized those actions had almost resulted in her death, Anna wondered why Blake had insisted on her transfer. The only motives that I can imagine are anything but good.”

The room was silent as everyone considered what Zach had said.

Silver River had never had any serious dealings with the other pack before, except for interference in business dealings. But that was to be expected since they were the only two wolf packs in such close vicinity, and they had a hand in many similar businesses.

Gray Wing, however, had a reputation for being underhanded in some of their business dealings. But Zach hadn’t heard anything sinister about them, which was why they hadn’t questioned the transfer in the first place.

For a moment, Zach thought of Phillip and felt his throat grow tight. He wished he could speak to the previous alpha and seek his advice.

Phillip had been talented at diplomacy while also being cunningly ruthless. Meanwhile, Zach’s talents were more in brute strength.

Phillip had been mentoring Zach when his second-in-command had turned traitor and thrust a sword into his back.

Jonathan cleared his throat, bringing Zach back to the situation at hand. Zach looked at the other shifter as Jonathan shuffled some papers sitting just out of the screen’s view.

“We haven’t had any dealings with Gray Wing or Blake for the past year. In fact, they’ve been strangely quiet in all ways. I normally wouldn’t consider this a concern, but when paired with what we now know about Anna… I’ll inform everyone to keep their ears up and eyes open to see what we can find out.”

Everyone agreed before adjourning the meeting. Zach also arranged to touch base with Jonathan in a few days to see if he had sniffed anything out.

Zach left the conference room with Alex, and the two of them walked into Zach’s personal office.

“I know you missed it, so I wanted to give you an update on the trespassers.”

Zach took a seat behind his desk, watching as Alex sat down in a chair opposite to him.

“They haven’t moved any closer since this morning, but they’re not exactly leaving either.”

Zach eyed his second, hearing the tense undertones in Alex’s voice. “What’s the problem?”

“One of the patrols got fairly close. Don’t worry, he didn’t get caught,” he quickly injected as Zach opened his mouth to speak, “but he saw that they’re carrying a lot of high-tech equipment.”

Alex opened a folder he had with him and pulled out some photos, laying them out on the desk in front of Zach.

“Surveillance?” Zach growled as he scanned the photos.

“Yes, the kind that can be put into trees and won’t be detected by our scanners. They also have weapons that typical hikers wouldn’t be carrying.”

“Five humans on the edge of our territory with high-tech cameras and weapons. Shit.” Zach sighed, dragging a hand down his face as Alex nodded in agreement.

“Do you want us to forcibly remove them?”

“No.” Zach shook his head firmly. “Talk to Jonathan and get some of that new tech our guys have been working on. I know they have something that can block the camera feed.

“As for the weapons, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re for self-defense… But I want to know what they’re really up to before we engage.

“Do not attack unless shots are fired, and do not let them, any of them, out of sight for even one second. We can’t give them even the smallest opening to attack us,” Zach ordered, knowing his power was coming through his voice but unable to rein it in at the idea of humans threatening his pack.

Once Alex had left, Zach hunched over piles of paperwork, his least favorite task as alpha. After a couple of hours, his stomach started growling angrily.

Zach stood, stretching his aching muscles before leaving the office and venturing to the dining hall.

As he reached the entrance, another pack member came up beside him.

Zach turned in greeting but felt the words die on his tongue as he came face to face with Mitch.

“Mitch,” he said softly, his hand reaching out to grasp the other man’s shoulder, noticing that Mitch was avoiding any kind of eye contact.

Zach felt himself growing tense, but before he could say anything else, Mitch looked up cheekily, exclaiming, “Zach! You aren’t gonna bite me, are you?”

Zach rolled his eyes, laughing as he let his arm fall.

“Oh, you’re so funny!” he returned sarcastically before turning serious. “I wanted to apologize for earlier. I can only claim temporary insanity.”

Mitch rubbed the back of his neck, his expression mimicking the alpha’s serious one.

“It’s okay. I caught on to what was happening pretty quickly once I got back with Alex. I won’t say you didn’t terrify the shit out of me, though. I really thought you were gonna go straight for my jugular.”

“I was,” Zach muttered darkly before giving an evil grin when Mitch’s face paled. He laughed hard before slapping a hand on Mitch’s back, making the other man stumble.

“It’s nice to know I still have the ability to terrify people. Come on, let’s find some dinner.”

Soon after they entered the dining hall, Mitch said goodbye as he walked to sit at a table with some friends.

Zach moved to another table and sat next to Theresa, who smiled warmly.

“Hey, Theresa,” he greeted. “I wanted to ask how our new member is doing in the nursery.”

Theresa took a bite of her steak and chewed as she eyed Zach slyly.

“You’re taking quite an interest in our Anna,” she said once she’d finished her mouthful. “Any particular reason for it?”

Zach swiped a fry off Theresa’s plate, dodging when she tried to smack his hand.

“Alpha tax! Haven’t you heard of it?” He shoved the fry in his mouth and grinned innocently at her. “My interest is purely that of a concerned alpha. She had a rough start; I’m just making sure she’s settling in.”

“Uh-huh,” Theresa murmured disbelievingly. She moved her plate away from Zach, curling her arm around it protectively. “Well, why don’t you ask her? She just walked in.”

Zach didn’t need Theresa to tell him that because as soon as Anna had walked through the door, her scent had hit him like a brick.

His eyes focused on her intently as she walked with Piper, her face relaxed and happy. Next to Zach, Theresa sniffed the air and grinned knowingly.

“Ah, so that’s the way it is,” she said smugly.

Zach glanced at her briefly before looking back at Anna, who had caught his scent and was now glancing over at their table warily.

“What’re you talking about?” Zach said absentmindedly.

“As soon as she walked in, your bonding scent almost suffocated me.” Theresa smirked when Zach glared at her.

“Well, go talk to her. You smell too much to sit here.” Zach got up, leaning over and stealing another fry while he did.

He smiled as Theresa let out a low growl, and he started walking toward a path that would cut Anna off.

Anna’s eyes widened as she saw him moving. She turned quickly to say something to Piper before she spun on her heel and ran back out the door she had just come through.

Zach smiled to himself. He was going to have to tell her to stop running because his wolf was really enjoying the thrill of the chase.

***

ANNA

As soon as Anna was out of sight of the dining hall, she burst into a run because her instincts told her that Zach was following her this time.

She heard him call out her name just as she rounded a corner, but she didn’t stop. In fact, she pushed her body to go even faster.

She didn’t stop until she reached her quarters, slamming and locking the door shut behind her.

She backed away from the door, staring at it as she held her breath, waiting. Less than twenty seconds later, a firm knock sounded.

“Anna, please open the door.” She sucked in a breath at the sound of his voice, feeling like her stomach was doing somersaults.

“Anna, we need to talk.”

“Uh, I don’t feel like talking,” she replied quietly, knowing that he could hear her.

“Too bad. We didn’t get to talk yesterday, so we’re talking now.”

He waited for a beat, but when only silence answered him, he growled out, “If you don’t open this door in five seconds, I’m gonna knock it down.”

Anna raised one eyebrow in disbelief, but the expression turned to shock when the whole door, frame and all, shuddered under an impact from the other side.

~Had he just…?~

A loud crash echoed again, and Anna gasped angrily. He was actually going to break her bloody door down!

Anna quickly ran to the door, unlocking and opening it before standing beside it.

Zach was in the middle of throwing his shoulder against the door again when it opened. His eyes widened as he was unable to stop his forward motion.

He stumbled head-first into the room before regaining his footing. He then turned to eye Anna predatorily as she covered a smile with her hand.

“You wanted to talk?” she inquired innocently. He stalked over to her, and Anna lost her smile as she quickly backed up until her back hit the wall.

Zach casually reached out and flicked the door shut before he leaned his arms against the wall on either side of her head, caging her in.

“Yes, I do want to talk.” His voice was quiet, and his head was tilted down, looking straight into her eyes. “I want to apologize for yesterday.”

Anna looked away from him, unable to maintain eye contact with his intense gaze.

She ducked under his arm and walked to the other side of the room, crossing her arms across her chest awkwardly and looking anywhere but at Zach.

“Why don’t you have any furniture?” Zach’s question broke the tense silence, and Anna glanced at him.

He was leaning casually against the wall, mirroring her with his arms crossed against his chest.

His eyes were still focused intently on Anna, and she quickly looked away again.

“I didn’t exactly have any to bring with me”—she shrugged, her voice quiet—“and I haven’t had a chance to go to the town yet.”

Anna wished that he would look away, unable to concentrate because it felt like his gaze was about to set her on fire.

Anna felt her chest burning and inhaled shakily, wondering how on earth another person’s presence could make her forget how to breathe.

“I’ll arrange for someone to take you on your next day off,” he said, suddenly pushing away from the wall and stepping toward her.

Anna fought the urge to take a step back, thinking this was what prey must feel like.

“Anna, please. I really want to talk about what happened yesterday.”

“It’s okay. You wolfed out. It happens, right?” she rambled. “Don’t worry about it; completely forgotten!”

Zach was watching her cautiously now, but Anna couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of her mouth.

“You didn’t hurt anyone, so we don’t need to keep talking… Anyway, I’m really tired, so I should go to sleep. I have an early start at the nursery tomorrow.”

Zach didn’t move for a long minute once Anna had finally finished. He had finally taken his eyes off her and was staring at the ground.

Anna could see a muscle tic in his cheek and wondered what he was thinking about.

Eventually, he let out a heavy sigh, looking up as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Anna, what do you know about mates?”

Anna blinked at the abrupt change in subject, her head whirling.

“Not a lot. My parents never really saw fit to educate me on shifters in general, let alone something like that. I do know that they weren’t bonded mates, though. They couldn’t have been; they barely tolerated each other.”

She trailed off thoughtfully. Zach nodded, his features drawing into a frown.

“All right, I was just curious. All right, as long as you are sure you’re okay after yesterday…”

Zach turned toward the door and opened it, looking at Anna over his shoulder. “I’ll let you get some sleep. Find me if you need anything, all right?”

Anna nodded, and then he was gone, the door shutting softly behind him.

Anna was left alone in a room that was still filled with his scent, and her heart was traitorously missing him already.