Claimed

Chapter 42: Possessive

Ben's POV:

Rubbing my eyes, I let out a long breath. Last night, we stayed up too late celebrating with Sophia's pack. That coupled with everyone's favorite duo showing up—Kaden and Violet—meant sleep did not come as early as it needed to. Every one of our ranked wolves were exhausted.

The only person who didn't look tired at our ranked meeting was Kane. For Kane, his lips pressed into a firm line, arms crossed, eyes on the desk... His concern overtook any sleepiness we might've been able to spot since I knew he was up all night too, excited to see Violet.

Then in the Delta house, Thaddeus met with Red Claw pack. Early this morning because Thaddeus had to leave. Like, before the sun rose early. Needless to say, they all went back to bed after Thaddeus left.

Ezra was descendant from some powerful sorcerer and Thaddeus explained the same thing he had when he put protection over Kora, then Violet. The unique supernaturals of the world would be targeted unless they were Elder allies, and now Ezra not only needed that protection but also needed to learn what else he was capable of. Apparently, Thaddeus knew an old vampire witch that'd be able to guide Ezra in his self-exploration. Had even worked with everyone in Ezra's family, going back centuries.

Not the lightest topic on a day that was supposed to be happy for Ezra and Alana.

"Tonight will be long for all of us." Tess yawned and rested her hand on a stack of papers in front of her. "Between the hounds and the guests for Alana and Ezra's ceremony, our hands are full. Even those of you that are technically off need to be aware and on call. This is an all hands on deck, no one fully has the day off kind of thing."

"We're not sparing any guards on the hounds."

Tess sighed at Kane's firm tone. Her gaze shifted to him and it was clear they were linking. Something about the hounds unsettled Kane. They were all in recovery, but he was on edge and I'd been his Beta long enough to know when Kane felt something was off, it was.

He's never wrong about this kind of thing, I linked Tess. His gut is always right.

I know, Tess answered. It's just not that simple. There's hundreds of them. Finding homes or somewhere for them to go until they're strong enough isn't easy and neither of us want to kick them out as rogues. No one has room to take that many in, so we have to split them up and transport them. It's not a fast process.

My attention moved to Kane. What is it, Alpha?

I don't know. His eyes didn't leave the table. We just need to get them out of here as soon as possible.

I nodded and leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees. "Who have we not contacted about taking hounds in?"

"We got almost everyone in the state," Connor said, flipping through the clipboard on his lap.

"The person we need is Alpha Arden," Tess said. "He has a ton of space thanks to his landing grounds for his flying shifters. Hopefully the meeting with him tonight will go well."

"Wait, what?" I frowned. "When are you meeting him?"

Easy, Kane linked.

I'm fine, I just don't understand why he needs to be here on a busy day.

I repeat what I said, Kane answered, finally making eye contact with me to emphasize how serious he was. His stare had me shrinking back in my seat. Easy. He won't be here for Sophia.

"We're meeting him after the ceremony. Alana knows him from before she ended up in Blood Moon. The ceremony was a good enough excuse to get him over here and then we just need to charm him." Tess shrugged. "Or, Sophia can charm him for us and that'll help our situation and before you growl," she held up her hand and leveled a glare at me, "it's harmless. It's not like she's going to be all over him, she'll just help us sweet talk him because they're already going to be allies. Any help we can get, we need."