The Hunted Wolf – Chapter 72

MARK

I had a weird feeling as Jori spoke. I knew he was Jori again, but it felt like the man I knew was a broken shell of himself. He lacked the overwhelming confidence I had looked up to all of my life. He had lost his passion, and it felt like he was simply going through the motions of life.

“I can’t be an alpha anymore,” Jori admitted. Despite his lack of confidence, he was confident in his statement.

hat do you mean?” Adira asked. Her heart was racing, which told me she knew exactly what Jori meant, but she

lpha of the pack and be a strong leader everyone could look up to.

l Xavier, but still me. I don’t deserve to be the Alpha of Pack Sallow anymore. They deserve a leader who can protect them and stay strong in the face of adversity.” Jori curled his fingers and then uncurled them, giving his eyes somewhere to linger fo

gs.”

I need to fix myself right now. I don’t have the confidence necessary to be a leader, and my pack deserves better than that. I thought about the best way of going about this. Percy would make a good leader, but he’s not an alpha. Mark, you were born to be the alpha of a wolf pack. It runs in your blood. Your grandfather used to be in charge of my wolf pack, and I think it’s only right that you get that title back.”

re family. There was still a sense of joy that I felt knowing Jori actually trusted me to take over his pack.

nt to do?” I asked. I would be able to combine the packs, which would strengthen the wolf pack and make everything easier. It would be tricky to figure out how to handle the transfer exactly, but I knew we could make it work. I wasn’t about to jump on the opportunity, though, not unti

ll of this for a while, clear my head, and find myse

r maybe forever. We’ll see what happens.” Jori shrugged to emphasize his indifference to the situation.

s. Thankfully, Adira stepped up and saved the day.

s is what you need, we’ll happily take over. If there’s anything else we can do for you, d

to kill her and take everything away from her, and she was still here, hugging the man and showing him compassion. One day, I hoped I could find that same compassion. As I looked at Jori, I wished him the best, but there was also a lot o

wo of us once Adira released him from her grasp. “I should let you two get back to celebrating. We’ll figure out the details la

a good alpha for our small pack, so I hoped I would be able to bring that same energy to a larger pack.

e needed. I believe in you.”

her by my side, I knew I could handle whatever was to come.

and I loved that she was all mine now. There was no question as to where she belonged.

us to disappear. Although, would we really be missed for a half hour?

e’re all set up. It’s time to start the dancing, Scythe linked. It was like he knew what I was debating, and his superpower was to interrupt it.

king for a while, so she hadn’t experienced a group link, at least not in the time I knew her. She was buzzing with joy.

here, Adira linked back, her smile threatening to split her face in two.

nding a reason to smile. She deserved one night without any stress or worry.

–

ADIRA

ke a wedding reception in some ways, but Scythe insisted it was the Alpha and Luna’s job to get the party started. Soft violin music started playing accompanied by a beautiful voice, singing a ballad. Mark held out his hand to me, and I grabbed it quickly. He led me onto the dance floor, and then he placed his hand on my hip, holding my other hand in the air. I p

ent in his steps than I remembered.

cticing?” I asked, giving him a surprised smile.

winked at me before lifting

morning. For now, I was just going to live in the moment.

k that?”

, and the crowd cheered. “Because I want to do whatever I can to make sure you are happy. If you weren’t happy, I would figure out what I ne

now what would make me happier?”

g look. “And what might that be, my luna?”

want dessert.” My mouth watered as

rowd and motioned for everyone to start dancing. As the dance floor began to fill up with couples

he same time. I grabbed a strawberry and dipped it in the fountain. I twisted it to stop the chocolate from falling, and then I turned back to Mark. I motioned for him to open his mouth, and I held the leaves of the strawb

d my hand away to clean it off, but Mark quickly caught my hand and pulled it back to his mouth. He licked the chocolate off my fingers while making direct eye contact. My core tensed and pooled with desire. With actions like that, he was making it nearly impossible to resist him.

taste.” It was something he could have simply linked me, but there was something about his breath in my ear that made my legs quiver.

n the chocolate. When I brought it to my mouth, I licked the chocolate off the pretzel and then bit into the crunchy treat. “This tastes amazing.”

ked at me like that.

miss us if we left right now? Mark linked.

robot, but he was still having fun. Everyone else was eating or dancing.

is hand and started pulling him towards our room.