Chapter Two

Keiran parked his car in the garage and looked over his shoulder at the motorcycle that was leaning against the wall. It seemed like Blaez was still home, which was surprising. Normally, the male went out and partied as hard as he could, and only when he couldn’t stand on his own two feet would he find his way home, so either he got drunk early tonight, or he didn’t leave.

Furrowing his brows, he walked into his pack’s house. The twins, Tala and Seth, were arguing about what movie to watch. He leaned against the doorway to the living room for a minute, watching their antics with an amused smile on his face. As they sensed his presence, they turned around and lowered their heads in respect.

He ignored the gesture; he never did care for the formalities of being the alpha of the pack. He wasn’t any more important than the members of his pack.

He took a step into the living room and was immediately tackled by Tala. She was a hugger. “You look like you’ve had a rough day, big guy,” she tugged on his arm and directed him to the couch.

The cushions eagerly welcomed his weary body. “You could say that.” He rubbed the back of his head and leaned back against the couch fully, letting out an exhausted breath. He looked at the twins and could tell they were anxious to hear about his day, but he didn’t have it in his heart to tell them the bad news just yet. “Where’s Blaez and Em?”

Seth was quick to answer. “Blaez has been in his room all night, and Em is in her library, of course.”

“Of course.” Forcing himself to get up off of the comfortable couch, he chuckled low when Tala gave him another hug. He started to walk away until he heard Seth calling after him.

"You sure you don’t want to tell us about your day?” He turned slightly and looked back at Seth. The young male had a look of knowing on his face. Nothing got past him.

“Later, Seth, I promise.” That satisfied him, but he knew it wouldn’t last long.

He made his way down the hallway till he got to the library. Not bothering with knocking, he opened the door and looked around for Embry. She was, as expected, nose deep in a thick book. He tried to be as noisy as possible, but no matter what he did, she was not disturbed or roused from her interest in the book. Giving up, he gripped her shoulder and held onto her tight as she jumped and dropped the book to the floor, a soft yelp leaving her lips.

“Keiran! I swear, you are terrible at approaching someone in a library!”

“I tried to make my presence known but you were so far gone in the damn book.”

“Well, still…I need to teach you some library etiquette.” She rolled her eyes and picked up the book, checking to make sure every page was as pristine as they could be before finding the page she was reading again.

“Has Blaez left his room tonight at all?”

Her face, which had been enthusiastic about the book in her hands, quickly became haunted and she tucked the book against her chest. “No…he’s been in his room, blaring his music all night. Are you going to talk to him?”

He nodded his head and rested his hand lightly on her shoulder.

“Let me know how he’s doing, will you? I worry about him.”

“Me, too, and I will.” She didn’t reply after that, or even give him a nod of her head. He left the library, closing the door behind him before making his way to his beta’s room.

Em was right; Blaez’s music was so damn loud that he couldn’t hear himself think. He lifted his fist and banged it on the door three times. The music was turned down a couple seconds later and the door whipped open.

“Sup, boss. Come in.” Blaez had his dark jeans and a dirty white t-shirt on. His hair was disheveled and the room smelled like Jack Daniel’s.

Furrowing his brows, Keiran walked in and looked around the room. The damn place was a mess. “What the hell is all this stuff, man?” He motioned to all the dirty clothes, the empty whisky bottles, and CD’s all over the place.

“My stuff, boss…and if you came in here to chew my a*s, you can leave. If not, say what you came to say.”

He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. So it seemed like Blaez was in one of his bad moods. No wonder he hadn’t left the house.

He wished things would straighten out for Blaez. The male had been an orphan for the better part of his life before he had been bitten and changed into a wolf shifter. The two of them had stumbled upon each other and had been friends ever since. Blaez had even helped him by dragging his a*s out of the depression he’d fallen into after…

Grunting low, Keiran scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at his best friend. If he could only figure out what it was that was affecting him so badly then he could return the favor he owed him.

“Just going to say one thing and then I’ll say what I originally came here to talk about. Damn it, man, I wish you’d just let me help you.”

“I don’t need your help, boss. Get on with it.”

He should have expected that. Gritting his teeth to hold back a growl, he looked away as he spoke. “Robert hit again.”

That one statement was sure to gain Blaez’s attention. “What did he do?”

“He left a man that he had tortured in some alley, and he meant for one of us to find it. He left this with the body.” He pulled out the note and handed it to Blaez who immediately growled as soon as he looked at it. “The thing I don’t get is that the man wasn’t one of us. He was clearly a human by the scent of his blood, so why would he torture a human for information?”

“We’re making him desperate for anything he can get.”

“Maybe…but why this man? I want to know what he knew, if anything.”

"I can ask around, boss, and see what I can come up with some information for you.”

“Good. We can’t take any risks. Until we know who this man was and what he knew, I want us to stay down for a while. The full moon’s coming up in two days, so until we get this information, we’re going to put the run off.”

This news wasn’t taken well by his beta. The growl that echoed in the room made that obvious. Not going for a run on the full moon could become painful for a male wolf shifter. If they were mated, or had found their mate, they would be overcome with the need to mark her as his, as well as run with his pack. If they were single, for all intents and purposes, they had to run with their pack. Otherwise, they would be racked with unimaginable pain. A wolf was only as strong as the pack they were with.

“I’m sorry, man. You know how important this is.”

“Yeah,” Blaez muttered as he walked out of his room to let the pack know of the meeting they’d soon be having.

Reviews

[ms.seliz]

Another very good chapter. I think you put in a good amount of suspense in here, as well as the dynamic of Keiran not really caring for being Alpha, which shows well here.

I was a little surprised that when Keiran first walked into Blaez's room, Blaez was able to say, “My stuff, boss…and if you came in here to chew my a*s, you can leave. If not, say what you came to say.” But explaining the fact that Keiran feels as if he owes Blaez, as well as knowing that Keiran doesn't care for being Alpha, helps. However, I'm wondering if at some point there will be some confrontation over this behavior towards him? I mean, Keiran must be Alpha for some reason.

And the only thing I would point out as far as edits go, I would take out the word 'damn', in non dialogue situations because while it adds to your character's when speaking, it's not really needed for descriptions. Your descriptions should be able to stand on their own, for example, "The damn place was a mess." If you changed the sentence to, "The place was a mess." It would be just as effective. Just a thought though!

[Sparrow01]

The relationship between Keiran and his pack members is very easy-going. But I see what you mean when you said you were surprised. Thanks for the feedback!