Chasing Tail: A reader x shifters romance

Part 23

Cody POV

"We have to do something." Ash crosses his arms as he addresses me in a harsh whisper.

We both stand in the small entry hall of the hotel room, watching Y/N sleep in the king bed at the center of the suite. She sleeps fitfully, her brows scrunched together even while dreaming. It takes all my self-control not to shift into my dog form and burrow beneath the covers to comfort her.

But Ash is right; we have more urgent problems to solve. A shifter, one of the wolves from my former pack, has broken into our apartment and left his scent everywhere. It's a threat and a challenge we can't leave unanswered.

A shudder runs through me at the thought of what might have happened if we hadn't been gone during the break-in. Ash and I can defend ourselves against any one of my old pack members, but what if Y/N had been home alone? We've been far too lax in protecting her so far. I realize that now.

My wolf snarls within me—he never wants her out of our sight ever again. My claws slide out again. With the tension gnawing at my insides, they've been out most of the night, along with my fangs.

"At least one of us has to be at her side at all times from now on," Ash says, voicing my thoughts. I'm glad he and I are aligned on this. I never thought I'd be grateful to share a human mate with a moody cat shifter, but here we are.

"I agree. And I know we need to do something about the pack."

Ash nods, pulling his gaze away from our mate to shoot me a furtive glance. "Why are they coming after you? Did you leave under violent circumstances?"

"No, but only because I chose not to engage in a fight. Our previous alpha was a reasonable woman, but when she died, the new alpha who took over was a lot less mature. Braden is only in his late twenties, and he's an insecure, vindictive asshole. He knew I was the only one in the pack with the strength to challenge him for alpha rights and win. So he tried to force me to fight him to the death, without warning. I guess he thought he could win if I had no time to prepare. I tried to tell him that I had no interest in his title, but he wouldn't listen."

I sigh. "But since he'd just recently become alpha and wasn't well established as a leader yet, the pack elders still had some sway. They raised me as a group after my parents died, so they did what they could to help me out. They told me that if I didn't want to kill the alpha and take over, I could choose to leave the pack and become a Loner. So I did."

"Sounds like the matter was settled. Why would he keep bothering us now?"

"Because he's an asshole," I snarl. Y/N stirs with a murmur, and I lower my voice back down. "Braden's always been a bully, and he's always hated me for outperforming him. I think as long as I'm in the city, he won't stop seeing me as a threat to his position. But he's also a coward, deep down, so he doesn't want to challenge me directly. That's got to be why he's been tracking and threatening my mate instead. We crossed into pack territory a month or so ago, and he saw us together."

Ash flashes his teeth with a feline hiss. "What the fuck did you go there for?"

I grimace at his accusation, because I feel guilty as all hell about it. It was a stupid mistake, and it's put our mate in danger. "It was an accident."

He cuts me a glare and mutters a string of curses under his breath that definitely includes the words "idiot" and "dog". Finally, he says in a beleaguered tone, "What's done is done. Let's focus on how to fix it."

"We can't go back to that apartment until I deal with Braden."

"You can't just walk into pack territory on your own."