Poison

Chapter One

Chapter One

Although he really wanted more sleep, Talon forced himself to stay awake. There were more important things in the world than sleep. Like his mate. Thoughts of her were what kept him going when he woke up in the middle of the night so he could leave before anyone else was awake. Although he knew his packmates were suspicious of his disappearances, he could handle that. He just didn’t want to take the risk of anyone following him.

As usual, Talon didn’t have any idea of how long he would be gone, so he simply threw enough clothes into a bag to last for a week. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t do laundry where he was going, but he simply preferred not to. With his clothes packed, he retrieved a folder from underneath his mattress and placed that on top of his clothes and then grabbed one last item from his dresser.

He ran his fingers along the stem of the metal rose, tracing his way up towards the pink tinted copper petals. For several weeks, Talon had been looking for something special to get his mate but he could just never come to a decision. A few times, he almost broke down and asked one of his female packmates for help, but no one knew about his mate and he wanted to keep it that way.

When he came across the copper rose, he knew that would be a great gift. Of course, after he purchased it, he started to have doubts about whether or not she would actually like it. He knew girls were supposed to like flowers, but then, he looked at his sister – she’d laugh at any man who dared give her something like a flower. His mate didn’t strike him as the type who wouldn’t appreciate a flower, but he still didn’t know much about her. She was so closed off to him.

It was too late to get anything else for her, so he gently placed the metal flower in the bag and zipped it up. He grabbed his car keys and then left his room and moving as stealthily as possible, he crept down the stairs, heading for the front door.

“Leaving again?”

Talon froze at the sound of the familiar voice and turned his head to see a shadow standing up from a chair just off to the side. Although he couldn’t see any details on his face, Talon knew it was the pack’s beta, Jason.

“None of your business,” Talon grumbled as he took a step towards the door.

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

Before Talon could react, Jason had pushed him backwards away from the front door. Not expecting such a move from the normally calm and relaxed beta, Talon stumbled into a wall, although his bag was between him and the wall, preventing him from feeling the impact too much.

“What the –”

“I’ve seen what you’ve been doing,” Jason growled. “Those files you’ve printed off. What are you doing with them?”

“I told you,” Talon said, also growling, “it’s none of your fucking business.”

“That’s pack property. You can’t be taking it without permission. Now what are you doing with it?”

“They belong to Lukas, not the pack,” Talon argued. “And Lukas doesn’t belong to the pack. So I’m not doing anything that’s of any concern to you.”

Talon stepped around Jason, done with their discussion, but Jason didn’t feel the same. He grabbed Talon’s arm, but having run out of patience, Talon did something he never thought he’d do. He raised his free arm and making a fist, he struck Jason.

Jason released Talon, shocked that he’d actually been punched. The two men froze, just looking at each other. Finally, Talon darted for the door. His speed wasn’t due to the fact that he had an opportunity to leave – it was because he panicked once he realized just exactly what he’d done.

He’d assaulted the beta.

Although Sophia had let up on him in the past months and hadn’t made any threats of kicking him out of the pack, he knew that what he’d just done was not about to be overlooked. And with that offense, he knew things would be worse than had he been kicked out for disobeying the alpha. At least in that case, he’d have had some time to collect his things and say goodbye to friends. But Talon knew he’d be lucky if he was able to show his face around the pack at all after what he just did.

The action was done and there was nothing Talon could do about it, not unless he wanted to beg for forgiveness from Jason and he wasn’t about to do that. Instead, he stormed off towards his car parked along the street and got in, slamming the door once he sat down.

He glanced towards the door of the house, surprised and relieved to see that Jason wasn’t coming after him. Not wanting to give Jason the chance to do so, he started the car and took off quickly, not even remembering to buckle his seat belt until he was at the stop sign at the end of the street.

The two hour drive into the mountains had never felt so long. Although he had grown more familiar with the Carter family in the months that he had known them and knew that they liked him well enough, he had no idea how they would feel about taking him into their pack. If they refused to take him, Talon would be without a place to go and for Talon, that was a frightening prospect.

 He tried not to let his worries occupy his mind on the way up, but he found he couldn’t turn the radio up loud enough to keep him from thinking. As he drew closer, his thoughts started to become more positive. Knowing he would soon see his mate was the main reason for that.

By the time he had arrived at the Carter house, he started to feel more confident. He wouldn’t mention that he had no pack to return to until after he spent some good, quality time with his mate. Then, he would actually tell Melanie that they were, in fact, mates. After that was out of the way, he would see how the Carters felt about him joining their pack.

As he turning the engine off, there was no doubt in his mind that things would all go well. Even if the Carters didn’t want him, Melanie had lived with them long enough and Talon felt that the two of them could easily make it on their own.

The sun’s light had just started to become visible, although the sun itself was still hidden in the east. Where the Carters lived, they wouldn’t even see the actual sun for several hours, but that didn’t stop the two young children from being awake.

“Talon!” the young boys shouted as they ran out the front door of the house.

“Zack! Lyle!” Despite the events earlier that morning, Talon couldn’t help but genuinely smile and feel happy to see the kids.

“I’m so glad you’re back!” Zack said as he and his younger brother tried to tackle the much larger wolf.

“Yeah, no one ever has time to play!” Lyle said.

“I get him first!” Zack yelled at Lyle.

“No you don’t!” Lyle shoved Zack backwards.

“I’m oldest! I get to play with Talon first!” Zack returned the shove.

Having seen the two boys interact before, Talon knew exactly where the shoving match was headed. He stood between them, preventing them from getting to each other again.

“Since when do you guys fight over me?” Talon asked, slightly amused. “Don’t we usually play together?”

“Lyle’s too slow!”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

Talon smiled as the boys continued their argument, watching them to make sure they didn’t start fighting again. He grabbed his bag from the passenger seat of his car before heading towards the house with the two boys, who quickly forgot their argument as they began to describe all the things they wanted to do with Talon while he was there.

He could definitely get used to living with the Carters.