Chapter 6

ARTEMISIA

A clearing of a throat gets me to jump once again, meeting my brother’s eyes. “Are you alright? What happened?” Giorgio asks worriedly.

His eyes narrow as he sees Zeno walking back around the lake slumped and dripping wet.

“It’s my fault, Alpha Guerrieri,” Cayden says, and I look at him surprised. “I made a stupid joke. And he just wanted to protect his sister’s pride. I’m sorry for the fuss I created!”

Giorgio doesn’t seem to be convinced about what Cayden is saying, but he knows better than to accuse an enemy pack’s alpha of lying.

“No worries, Alpha Blackwood. I’m sorry if my brother wasn’t able to react like a grown adult to a joke.”

After a lot of diplomatic back and forth between the two, Zeno finally reaches us.

“Chiedi scusa!” I hiss at him, making him distort his face. [Apologize!]

Zeno sways back and forth, acting childishly, but as more and more people join us at the lake, he finally gives in. “I’m sorry, Alpha Blackwood!”

“No, please. I apologize as well.”

Cayden taps my hand gently before he steps away to meet his pack members standing a few steps away from us.

I watch him, rooted to the ground while Giorgio is reprimanding Zeno. As the group of men has reached the side of the house, about to disappear, I detach myself from the ground and run towards his broad back.

“Alpha Blackwood.” I cringe internally, as I call him, reaching him with fast steps. He turns around looking at me unamused, and I get immediately what angers him.

“Cayden, sorry.” While he smiles lightly, my stomach turns at the hateful glances I get from his entourage. “Thank you. For what you said to Giorgio. I hope you can forgive my brother and not think that badly of us.”

“Of course, Missy.”

He is about to open my stole bandage when I stop him. “No, please. You can keep it. I won’t be wearing this dress anymore anyway.”

I force a smile as he sighs happily, “What a pity. It looks stunning on you.”

“Oh, thank you,” I say, feeling my cheeks heat up.

With another smile and a slight bow, he turns around, his baritone seeping through my skin.

“Good night, Missy. Thank you for the tour.”

I blink several times before I get myself to speak. “All my pleasure, Cayden.”

“Good night,” I add in a stutter, hitting my leg with my fist repeatedly.

So, embarrassing.

“They were kissing!” Zeno shouts, making me gasp.

“Liar!”

Giorgio groans, passing a hand over his face.

“This is enough! Zeno, I’ll be thinking about an appropriate punishment for you, and you will apologize to Alpha Blackwood appropriately.”

After what had happened at the lake, and the members of the Blood Fang Pack retreating immediately after the protection of my pride, as my brother eloquently put it, Giorgio panicked.

He sent home everyone right away and declared the party as over.

Naturally, he used me as an excuse, telling everyone I was feeling unwell.

As if anybody cared.

Fearing a looming war because of my brother’s reckless behavior, he proceeded to execute his first agenda item as Alpha and ordered everybody into our living room.

Which had been the perfect thing to do. Because this way I could discuss directly with everybody in my family and the higher commanding staff in our pack, that I was caught by my little brother while I was trying to get some sugar from the enemy pack’s Alpha.

Cool. Cool. Cool.

“But I already did!” Zeno wails, having my brothers snicker around us.

“This was some lame excuse for an apology.” I snort, looking at him with my arms crossed over my chest.

He sticks his tongue out at me, “Well, thanks a lot, sister! I was just trying to save your dignity!”

My jaw literally hits the floor, and I slap his chest. “Don’t you dare!”

“Okay! I’ve had enough! Everybody out!” Giorgio shouts, and we all stand up to leave the room as he points his finger at me. “Not you!”

I hear my brothers snicker while leaving the room, my mother and their mates look at me with a pitiful expression.

As I get left alone in the room with my new Alpha and Luna, I sit back down with a sigh, while my brother takes a chair and sits down in front of me.

“Missy, what happened?”

I shrug, pouting. “Nothing! I showed him around the lands as we couldn’t get to you guys. And then we landed by the lake. But we were just talking.”

“Okay,” Giorgio says calmly, pressing his hands together. “And was he mean or aggressive towards you?”

I shake my head repeatedly. “No, he was very nice.”

Diana’s suspicious hum, makes me groan, and I throw my head back. “Listen, there wasn’t anything to it. He rescued me from Rick a few moments before, so maybe he got his protective sense reawakened. I don’t know.”

I throw my hands in the air, while Giorgio and Diana flash me the same confused expression. “He rescued you?”

“Yeah. Well, he saw me being uncomfortable with him and came to my rescue.”

I sigh as their expressions morph into shock. “Like I told you, he was nice.”

“What about what Zeno saw?”

Rolling my eyes, I chuckle awkwardly. “I don’t know what he saw, but I would have noticed if we were kissing.”

My heartbeat accelerates as they stare at me, and I clear my voice as if it could fool their heightened senses.

“Do you think he is… you know…” My brother begins to stutter.

Diana gasps, slapping him on his arm. “You can’t ask her like that!”

“He isn’t my mate,” I say with a sigh, and they look at me mortified. “I didn’t feel, smell, or sense something special.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, baby,” Diana says soothingly, making my brother hiss at her. “What are you sorry for, now? A moment ago, you were scared for her.”

They start bickering, and I slump back against the backrest of my chair.

If she was scared it is a good thing I hid the fact that I sensed Cassy stir.

“Look, I was just being nice,” I say while twirling the fabric of my dress around my finger.

Giorgio takes a deep breath, looking at me with a serious expression.

“Well, if it wasn’t just that we will find out soon enough anyway.” He says, making my heart skip a beat.

***

After reaching my room feeling drained, I let myself slump onto my bed.

“They must be fucking kidding me,” I groan, my face buried in my pillow.

The image of Cayden standing right beside me while he is staring at the lake, and the moon gives him all the advantageously light, appears before my inner eye.

Oh, I’m fucked.

Of all the cute or handsome partners I could find in the pack and our ally pack my wolf has to get fuzzy at the only Alpha who is off-limits.

Nice, Cassy. Thank you for that.

‘It is not my fault that his scent had me wake up from my nap.’

I jerk up as I heard her talking to me clearly.

‘Cass!’

‘Leave me alone.’ She simply says snippy, ‘Just try to not fuck it up this time.’

Turning around on my back, my hand goes to my lip automatically, and I gulp. “I must have misinterpreted what he was about to do. That is for sure.”

I chuckle to myself, but my head starts spinning before I can even stop my panicky thinking.

What did Giorgio mean when he said that we would find out?