Forsaken by the Moon Goddess novel Chapter 66

Sloane

I jolt up in bed

‘Aisling, what’s wrong?’ I ask, knowing only Aisling could have pulled me out of my sleep that quickly.

‘Someone was in our room.’

Who?’

‘I don’t know. They smell.. familiar, but not familiar.

I have no idea what that means. I look around the room, using Aisling’s heightened senses to listen for any sound or see any movement.

The door to my bedroom is open. I get up and walk to the door, looking down the hallway, Then I smell it, him.

Aisling’s right. His scent is familiar but not.

‘He’s not part of this pack. He’s an intruder, she says.

I lift my head and howl that we have an intruder before taking off down the stairs and following his scent.

“Sloane!” I hear Grandpa Waylon shout from the Alpha floor, but l ignore him. Aisling is on the hunt.

Just as I reach the bottom of the stairs, Scarlet and Daniel come rushing out of their room along with several other warriors.”What’s going on?” Scarlet asks, falling into step beside me as we both race outside.

“Someone was in my room,” I say.

“WHAT? How?” she snarls.

“When we catch him, we’ll ask him,” I snarl, just before | leap and let Aisling pull the shift. Davina is right behind us and the two of us push hard to chase after the person who somehow got past our patrols, into the packhouse, and up to my bedroom without anyone seeing them.

‘It’s not possible, Aisling says as we run. ‘Someone helped him.’

‘And why the fuck did the patrols not announce an intruder?’

“More questions we’ll need to answer after we catch this asshole who thinks he can come into OUR pack, enter OUR bedroom, like he owns the place, she snarls.

And that’s when it clicks. Kaelin. That’s why he smells familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He’s got a scent similar to Wayton’s, but we’ve never met him so it’s an unfamiliar combination.

Aisling growls and Davina looks at her. We don’t live in the same pack, so we don’t share a mink link, not until! become Alpha and she accepts me and her position as my Beta. I may not be able to tell her what I’m thinking, but she trusts me and we continue to hunt.When we get to the pack’s border, I smell the gap in Kaelin’s scent. He must have leapt over the area where the patrols run, That’s still no excuse for why they didn’t alert someone that an intruder, someone whose scent they most likely remember, was this close to the pack borders.

This time it’s Davina who growts and I feel Daniel’s wolf pull away from us. I’m guessing he’s going to start interviewing the patrols to see why they didn’t catch Kaelin’s scent and alert the pack to his presence.

Scarlet and I continue to hunt down the scent away from the pack. When we get to a river, I lose his scent at the water’s edge. I have no idea if we swam across, doubled back, or swam ahead, but right now, I’m not willing to risk continuing to search. It’s the middle of the night and Scarlet and I are out here alone.

I shift, staring out across the river. Scarlet shifts beside me.

“Who was it? And how the fuck did they get into the pack?” she growls.

“Kaelin, and Aisling says there’s no way he got in without help. I agree with her,” I say, scanning the area across the river. “Is Daniel interviewing the patrols?”

“Yeah. He wanted to see who is on patrol because the only way they missed that scent is if they weren’t patrolling like they should have been,” she says. “Are you sure it was Kaelin?””Yes. Aisling said his scent was familiar but not. It took me a bit to figure out why. He smells enough like Waylon that it has to be him. Let’s go. I don’t know what Kaelin was doing here. Coming into my room may have been arbitrary …” I begin.

“I don’t think so,” Scarlet says thoughtfully. When I look at her, she’s scanning the area across the river just like I was.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Gabrial and Jack have been up to something. I wasn’t able to figure out what it was, but they’ve been having too many private meetings, whispering away from listening ears. I haven’t liked the way they’ve been monitoring your whereabouts, asking if you’re going to stay with BWFive, or if he’s coming here. The timing of Kaelin getting into the packhouse is much, much too convenient.”

I look at my friend. “You think they let him in?”

“Yes, and I think whatever he had planned, it was directly related to you, Sloane.”

She finally turns and looks at me. “Do you think he recognized your scent as a family scent?”

Aisling pushes forward. “Yes,” she answers. “I didn’t immediately process that his scent was familial because l was worried that we were in danger. But his wolf would recognize my scent the same way I recognized his.”

“No one in the pack knows that you’re Waylon’sgranddaughter, Sloane. If he came for you, it’s because Gabriel and Jack have realized that you’re taking over.

Kaelin came here for you. He must still think he has a chance to take over this pack.”

“It’s too bad he didn’t stick around then,” I growl. “I would have loved to show him exactly the kind of wolf 1 am and what a real Alpha looks like.”

“You need to be careful, Sloane. If he came for you once, he’ll come for you again.”

I know she’s right. I also know that if he were to challenge his father for the pack, Waylon would lose. He’s too old.

“Did you ask Beta about using the pack’s warriors to reclaim my pack?” I ask.

Her lips press tightly together. “He told me that if you’re not man enough to ask yourself, then maybe you’re not man enough to be an Alpha.”

I snarl, punching a hole in the wall in her room.

“It would have been easier to hold her until she turned eighteen and mark her, but now, I need to move fast.

Gabriel said she turns eighteen this weekend. If that’s the case, my sperm donor is probably going to announce her as his heir and replacement then.”

“And?” she asks.

“It looks like I’m going to have to challenge dear ol’ dad to take over as Alpha of that pack. That’s probably a better plan anyway. Once I’m Alpha, I’ll have my choice of who I want as my mate and Luna,” I say.”Waylon is protected, Kaelin. If you’re right about Sloane being family, she could very well accept the challenge on his behalf.”

“I don’t care about killing her, mother. If she’s gone, there is only one heir left. That would be even better. I kill her, then kill the old man for not giving me the pack like he should have all those years ago. Then there’s no one else to lay claim to that pack. Problem solved.”

“Kaelin, as Althea’s daughter, she’s descended from the white wolf line. Even if she’s not a white wolf, she’s a powerful Alpha.”

“And what am I, mother? Am I not descended from an Alpha line? I’m no weakling. You don’t think I can hold my own against a seventeen-year-old she-wolf?” I growl.

“I’m just saying, don’t underestimate her. Even if you do defeat her and kill your father, she has powerful allies.

Alpha Roman alone controls three packs, and apparently, she’s aligned herself with Alpha Benedict too.”

“It won’t matter. I’ll have my own pack by then. If they want to wage war against me, they’ll be waging war against my pack. I’m sure Alpha will want to be allies with me and I still have some other Alpha friends that I could call on as well.”

“You should confirm that before you go in and challenge your father, Kaelin,” she says.

“I don’t have time for that, mother. According to Gabriel,Sloane turns eighteen on Saturday. That’s two days away.

I’ll talk to Alpha in the morning. If he won’t let me use this pack’s warriors, I’ll have to challenge my sperm donor tomorrow, before Sloane turns eighteen.”

“Kaelin …” she begins.

“I know what I’m doing, mother,” I growl, done with this conversation.

There’s only one choice, attack or challenge my father. If Alpha lets me use his warriors, I’ll attack on Saturday while everyone is at Sloane’s birthday party. If not, I’ll challenge my father tomorrow. Either way, that pack will be mine.