Fang

The Ceremony pt 2

Forrest

Raven stood beside the window of my office. Her arms clasped around her chest, fingers digging into the sweater my mate had given her.

Ezekiel sat across from me, hands held together atop the table as he studied the map I'd pulled out. Ezekiel rarely met my eyes.

He was intimidated by me, like most were. But he didn't cower how they did. I liked him for that.

"Have you thought about my other offer?" My voice snapped his attention back to the present.

"I have," Ezekiel responded, trailing off. I enjoyed watching him squirm. He would accept my offer for the sake of Raven, but he didn't want to.

"And?" I pressed him. Ezekiel opened his mouth before closing it. Lines formed on his face as the room filled with silence, the seconds drawing on.

From the corner of my eye, Raven twitched, her fingers digging deeper into her own skin. The mark on LycanMoon's alpha hadn't escaped my eyes. It was fresh. Angry, like it wasn't meant to be made.

Raven did not sport the same mark.

She had told me her story, but left out most details pertaining to this man.

"He accepts," Raven said. She didn't turn to us, her eyes focused intently on something below. Ezekiel gave a small sigh at her words, but didn't correct her.

"Wonderful news," I smiled. Ezekiel shifted in his seat, Raven tensing at my words. "Alpha Eversole will be upset he lost his settlement in the south, but we'll make do."

"Eversole," Ezekiel responded. "CruelMane?"

I nodded, confirming, holding my tongue. He was a quick learner, but still bothersome to have to teach.

"If LycanMoon gets the south, where do AshGrowl, SteelPaw, and GrassTail fit in?" He drew his eyes over to the map I'd created. It was a simple map, showing how the territory would be split into fifths. Four settlements, north, east, south, and west with NightBlood in the middle.

"As far as it stands, AshGrowl will take the North. GrassTail the East. West we are still figuring out. SteelPaw or CruelMane." Ezekiel nodded in understanding, his eyes tracing over my scribbled notes.

Our conversation wasn't going much farther.

"Raven," I turned my attention to the female. I could only see half of her face, her eyebrow furrowed in concentration. A shiver down her spine.

"It's Moros," she corrected me. I knew her name, but that was when she belonged to ScorchedEye. She belonged to LycanMoon now, the intimacy of her real name stripped away. She was trying to reclaim it.

"Moros," I repeated, the familiar name rolling from my tongue. "Come sit down." She didn't move. Not much had changed from the juvenile I'd grown up with, ever so stubborn.

"Is SteelPaw not coming?" Ah. She was watching the packs of NightBlood trickle in.

"SteelPaw is coming." She partially turned to me. "Eventually." SteelPaw would come, but not in celebration. That much had been clear when Javenson announced he would come.

The woman I'd once called Crow frowned at me. With another look casted over her shoulder, she neared the table. There was hesitation in the way she walked. Cautious. Eyes on the only available seat, next to Ezekiel.

She double checked my side of the table before resigning her fate, pulling the chair out and sitting in it. Ezekiel and I watched her. Goosebumps raised on the exposed skin of her forearms.

"Yes?" Her voice was soft, hazel eyes peering into mine. The smell of her then drifted over to me, and I was reminded that she was my potential mate.

I had met many in my short life, but over the years there was only one I could think of. The first. The crow with black, glossy hair and bright hazel eyes. Thoughts of her had only stopped months ago, when Samantha arrived. There wasn't room for Raven in my mind when Samantha dominated it.