Ivory

NINE*

“Marguerite?” Austin asked, completely dumbfounded that I was actually there.

The feeling was mutual. What the hell was he doing here?

“Brooke,” a timid voice beside me said. I looked and saw Natalia staring at me with so much hurt and betrayal that I felt like slapping myself for being so stupid.

I grabbed both of their hands and dragged them back to the green room. When we walked in I dropped their hands and walked towards the big weeping willow tree in the middle of the room. This tree always made me feel happy, maybe it was because there was a small river that ran along the inside of the curtain of leaves or maybe it was because it was the first thing that I actually grew, either way I loved this tree.

I sat down against the trunk and closed my eyes. I could feel them following close behind me, and I could tell that Talia was keeping a distance between her and Austin. Not that I blamed her, when I ran into Brettly, which was bound to happen, I would keep at least twelve feet between us. But I hated knowing that it was my fault that they had that distance between them.

When I opened my eyes Talia was sitting in front of me with her legs crossed and her elbows resting on her knees. Austin was standing a few feet away with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his eyes trained on her. I sighed and a snake of water flowed through the air and began twisting and turning in the air.

Why was he here? He wasn’t a beta or an Alpha so there was no conceivable reason why he should possibly be away from the pack. And who was the Silver Skies pack? I had never heard of it before, I didn’t even know that we had a sister pack. Or a brother pack for that matter.

The snake began to ripple and in its place was a rabbit, which began to hop around the small area. Austin was staring at it in awe, but Talia and I were too engrossed in our thoughts to be bothered by a simple bunny.

“Why are you here?” I finally asked, looking at Austin.

His gaze shot to me for a second before going back to the water bunny. “Why are you here?” he countered.

I narrowed my eyes on him, my short temper flaring. Most people know how short a temper I had when it came to my old pack and Austin was no acceptation to that. The room went dead silent; the creek made no noise and every living thing that took resident in my oasis didn’t make a sound, sensing the change in my demeanor. “I was the one that asked you first, and as far as I see you have no right to be here,” I shot at him with a slight tone that I hadn’t heard often.

Natalia flinched and scooted a little further away from me, not that I blamed her.

“Fair point,” Austin said with an easy grin. Obviously the four years that we had been kind to him. As much as I hated to say it, he looked handsome. But I was in no way attracted to him, he was Talia’s mate and I was technically supposed to be insanely in love with his brother. “But you’ve been missing for a long time and things have changed a lot since then.”

“Like what?”

“I’m beta of the Silver Skies pack,” he stated with a sense of pride. I saw him steal a glance at Talia, but she wasn’t looking at him. She hadn’t since they came into the green room.

All in all that wasn’t that big of news, he had a beta bloodline so it was obvious that he would go to great things. “Never heard of the Silver Skies pack before.”

“It was established after you left. Mostly desperate runaways or rogues looking to improve their life. Actually, Brett’s the Alpha.”

My blood instantly ran cold and the water rabbit fell to the ground with a splash. Brettly’s an Alpha? How the hell was that even remotely possible? My wolf stirred in me and a sense of pride for her mate coursed through her, a feeling that I didn’t share so much. It was bad enough that he was having sex with some random chick, but it somehow made it worse that he was an Alpha now.