Chasing the Moon

Chapter 5

“How do you know?” Mia asked, looking around them as though she could find them herself.

            “I can smell them,” he said bitterly. “I will never forget that scent.”

            “Chris...” Mia trailed off, unsure of what to say to make the pain of his father's death go away after all this time. She knew that nothing would ever take that pain away from him after living through his father's last moments, but as his mate she always felt that she should. “I think maybe we should leave.” Chris nodded silently as he tried to pinpoint exactly where the scent led. He managed to track it to the other side of the bar from where they had been but without going there himself there was no way of telling for sure who the scent belonged to in that crowd of people. Mia told their friends what was happening and everyone immediately got on edge.

            “What do you want to do?” Carlos asked. “We have your back no matter what.”

            “He won't need you to have his back because he's not going to do anything stupid like confront them,” Eve said. “Right Chris?” Chris didn't respond and Eve saw a nervous look cross Mia's face. “Chris, you can't seriously be considering attacking them here.”

            “Not here,” was all Chris said.

            “That's a bad joke,” Eve said.

            “Because it's not a joke,” Travis said.

            “Whoever this person is, they killed his dad,” Carlos said. “Chris had to live through that like it was his own death. He has the right to want to attack them.”

            “I didn't say he didn't,” Eve said. “But having the right to want to attack them and actually attacking them in a public area are two completely different things.”

            “He said he wouldn't attack them here,” Travis said. “So clearly he's not planning on doing it in a public place.”

            “He shouldn't be planning it at all,” Lindy spoke up. “He should be leaving with us to go back home and report it to Tom. Tom would want to know that they were still in the area. As Alpha he should decide what the appropriate action is.”

            “And Chris is Beta,” Jose said. “Which means when Tom isn't around, he makes the calls as second in command. Since Tom isn't here, if Chris decided to attack around right now none of us would have the authority go against that call.”

            “Well we won't have to worry about that because Chris isn't going to make that call, now are you?” Eve said, turning to Chris who hadn't said a word since the argument started. “Are you really willing to risk exposing all of us to get revenge on them? Because if you attack them and end up having to retreat, then you will have exposed yourself along with these idiots here who are biting at the chance for a fight. And as an extension of exposing yourselves you'll expose Mia too and I guarantee, they will go after her to get back at you. Are you really willing to risk the life of your mate for five minutes of revenge? Because I've always thought you were smarter than that.” Chris stared Eve down before turning to look at Mia who watched him with nervous eyes.

            Travis stepped up next to Eve, fixing her with an irritated look. “Stop insulting everyone's intelligence,” he said to her. “The smart thing to do, which Chris knows, is to eliminate any pack threat he comes across-”

            “There is no proof they are a pack threat,” Eve said angrily, a growl escaping her throat. “There was only one attack and that was two years ago. It could've been someone deer hunting who panicked when they saw wolves.”