Shattered Pack (Alpha Girl 6)

Now for the hard part. “Have you ever thought there’s a reason why the other members aren’t pack Alphas, too?”

“I cannot give up my pack. This is my home. I’ve built it myself. I’ll not leave it.”

I understood loyalty, but Donovan had left his pack alone for years at a time. That was too long to keep it in any kind of healthy shape. “The pack could find another place to live.”

His eyes widened. “Throw them out? It’s my home, but it’s theirs, too.”

“What about leaving the Seven?”

“I can’t. The bonds and oaths I made, I’m not sure if they can be undone.”

I had no idea what joining the Council of Seven involved, but it had to be big. “What does your gut say?”

“Leaving the Council could be a possibility. Might take some doing, though. I’m not sure what would be required.”

I gave his wrist a squeeze before letting go. “I’ll support you in whatever you decide to do, but this isn’t working.”

He moved away from me and sat on his desk. “I know. I was worried about being able to balance the pack and being on the Council. I almost didn’t join the Seven. John convinced me I could do both. For a while, the pack was fine. At least I thought it was fine. But without John…”

I didn’t know what to tell him. Maybe he was right and everything had been working for a while, but it wasn’t anymore. Something had to give. “That’s enough heavy talk. We’ll figure out who killed John and get the pack bonds fixed, but eventually, you might have to choose. I just want you to be aware.”

“I know. I don’t want to have to choose. I honestly don’t know what I’d do.”

I didn’t have any answers for him. He was in an impossible situation with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. More than any other Council member. “We’ll figure out what’s best for us. There’s no rush for you to do anything yet.” I waited for him to say something, but he was quiet. “I’ll go through your files, but first—food? Sleep? Shower? Maybe not in that order.”

“Aye. How about you shower while I fix us some food? We’ll get you settled and then I’ll have my shower.”

We moved back through his rooms. I grabbed my toiletries and pajamas out of my bag and went to the bathroom.

The shower took forever to warm up, but once it did, steam filled the room. As I showered, I thought about the pack that I’d soon be joining. I hated to be the bad news bear, but the Irish pack was in terrible shape. Donovan had to make some changes if there was any hope of healing the pack. He’d been gone years. Plural. He was the Alpha. He couldn’t be gone for that long and expect everything to be okay.

Donovan was going to have to give up something, and I hoped I could help him make the right choice. Even bringing the subject up was complicated. I was so much younger than him and had way less experience, but I was his mate. If I saw something going wrong, then I had to speak up. I just didn’t want to see him unhappy, and right now, I knew he wasn’t happy. He needed to learn to slow down and enjoy life.

I let the shower wash away my worries for a second. The more I got to know Donovan and everything he was dealing with, the trickier it all became. I wasn’t sure how much wisdom or guidance I had to offer him, but I knew I cared about Donovan more than anyone else and I wasn’t about to sit idly by and watch him suffer. Not while I had air enough to breathe.

Chapter Eleven

Pain ripped me from sleep. Not physical pain, although for a split-second, I thought someone was tearing out my heart.

It was Donovan’s pain. He was leaping out of bed as his body changed from human to wolf.

“What’s going on?”

He didn’t even spare me a glance before running toward the hall. I rushed out of bed to open the door for him, but he jumped to paw the knob and it swung open.

I started to go after him but came to my senses. I was wearing a nearly see-through white tank top and a pair of hot pink boy shorts. Not exactly appropriate for whatever emergency had woken Donovan.

Shift or more clothes?

Shifting would be faster. I started to undress, but howling sounded in the distance. A call for help. Danger was close.

More howls sounded from inside the stronghold. The call to battle echoed through the halls. I ran to the window to see if I could tell what was going on. Wolves rushed into the darkness. It looked like the whole pack was on the run.

Not being a part of the pack put me at a severe disadvantage. I had no idea what was going on, what their protocol was, or what I should be doing in an emergency.

I gave myself one second to decide and chose to stay human. Every single Were I’d seen was in wolf form and they were all heading toward town.

Wayfarers had a plan. In an emergency, we knew who was going to stay human and who was shifting. Everyone had a job, depending on the type of emergency. But Wayfarers were more organized than most packs. Usually, a pack didn’t see any trouble unless they were causing it.