The Pack's Luna: The Pack Series Book 4 novel Chapter 411

Wendy

Unlike Hacker, or anyone in my life really, Hijack stood behind me and watched, but he didn’t tell me if I was right or wrong in my assessments of the heat sources I found. Small animals were easy. Mid-size and large animals weren’t so easy. Stellan could be hiding in human or wolf form. He could be curled into a tight ball or stretched out lying flat on the ground. I tried to determine the differences between the heat sources while Hijack went outside to speak with Raptor before they took off.

When he comes back in he pulls his chair in between our workstations, turning a monitor so he can watch it and watch mine at the same time.

“Okay, Raptor and Siren are going south, Venom, Intrigue, and Cipher are going north. Choose your team,” he says. “Venom, Intrigue, and Cipher,” I say instantly. I’m pretty sure they will be more accepting of my errors than Raptor.

He glances at his monitor, making sure that Raptor and Siren are good to go before letting them know there’s no threat before turning back to my monitor.

“What about that large heat source?” I ask, pointing to one that’s close to edge of the river where they’re headed.

“Beaver family,” he says dismissively.

“UGH! How do you know that?”

He grins. “I saw the dam when I went outside to talk to Raptor.”

I roll my eyes and turn back to my monitor.

“Sphinx? Are we good to go?” Intrigue asks.

“There’s a heat source about a half a mile up on the left, opposite of the river. I’ll walk you to it,” I say.

“Okay, let’s move out,” Venom says.

As they get closer, the heat source begins running away.

“It’s on the move! The heat source is on the move,” I say.

“Deer. It’s a deer, Sphinx,” Venom says.

Damn. “Okay. There’s not another heat source for about three-quarters of a mile.”

“Heat source ahead of you, Raptor. Right-hand side, large. Use caution,” I hear Hijack say behind me. I glance at his monitor and see that it’s a large heat source, larger than anything I have on mine. It also wasn’t there when I did my first pass thirty minutes ago.

“What do you think it is, Hijack?” Raptor asks.

“I’d say it’s a bear,” he says.

I glance at his monitor again, wondering how he knows that.

“Watch your own monitor, Sphinx. These people are counting on you to keep them safe,” he says.

I tuck my question about how he knew it was a bear away for later. Maybe he’s wrong.

“Fucking bear,” Raptor growls few minutes later.

Of course Hijack isn’t wrong.

“Show off,” I grumble.

“It’s not showing off when you’re keeping others safe, Sphinx. And this isn’t a competition. I have way more experience than you, not just at the Academy, but also in the field. Focus.”

I focus on my team while Hijack helps Raptor and Siren navigate around the bear.

“Any idea who’s having sex across the river? She’s fucking loud,” Venom says.

“You’d think the water would mute the sound, but I swear it’s amplifying it,” Intrigue says.

Hijack clicks into my comm. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

I turn and look at him. “You know who that is?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Who?”

He points to my monitor, and I focus on my team coming on up the next heat source.

I hear the yipping and then one of the team members snarling at the creature.

“A den of coyotes,” Cipher says. “Maybe look at heat sources that aren’t quite so spread out, Sphinx. That was a mother and her pups.”

I know Zach is trying to help, but I just feel like I’ve failed them.

“You’re welcome.”

I realize that, while I hated today’s lesson from Hijack, I learned a lot from him in a very short amount of time.

Lila POV

“What does it mean that Stellan is feral and focused on me?” I ask my mate.

He told me we needed to talk, then he pulled me into a room with him, Alpha Warren, Alpha Yorick, and Alpha Cyra. “Lila, the first thing you need to know is that you and Lily are safe,” Alpha Warren says in the way he has that usually makes me feel safe. But this is Stellan. He was in our old bedroom. He smelled my daughter and now he’s feral?

“Baby, I need you to calm down for me, okay?” Landon says. He has me in his lap with his arms wrapped tightly around me. “What if he comes for our pup, Landon?” I whisper.

“Then I will kill him. Everyone in this pack will fight to protect you and Lily,” he says, cupping my cheek and forcing me to hold his gaze. “You’re not alone this time, Lila. I’m here, and I won’t let him get to you.”

“No one will, Lila. Landon’s right. The pack will protect you and your daughter,” Alpha Yorick says.

I lean against Landon, letting the mate bond calm me. I need to focus on what’s important and what’s important is Lily. “What does it mean that he’s focused on me?” I ask again.

“It means he’s probably going to keep trying to find ways to get to you. He’s apparently never accepted that you’re not his mate and because of that, he feels like Landon has taken you from him,” Alpha Warren says.

“And Lily?” I ask, looking at Landon. He presses his lips together and I know he doesn’t want to tell me. I can feel his resistance through the bond, but I also know he’ll never lie to me.

“Raptor said that, sometimes in these situations, a feral wolf will kill a pup to get the female to mate with him. It’s a very instinctual need to exterminate any competition to their bloodline. Lions in the wild do it. It’s the same concept except with a shifter.”

“But this is why we both have guards on us at all times, Lila. We won’t let Stellan hurt us or our pups. You and I, we don’t go anywhere alone, not until this is done,” Alpha Cyra says. “I’m not putting Cyrus at risk either. It sucks, but we’ll do what’s necessary to protect our pups.❞

“And we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep our mates and our pups safe,” Alpha Yorick growls.

“I wanted you to understand the severity of what’s happening, Lila. You don’t need to be afraid. We’ll protect you, Alpha Cyra,

and our pups,” Landon says.

I nod, but I’m still not entirely confident that Stellan won’t find a way to get to me.

Cooper Author

Wendy is growing and Lila, understandably, is freaking out.