Rejected and Regretted (Ashen Wolves #1)

27

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K O E N

I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept this well.

Ever since I took over as alpha, I worked restlessly to fix the damage my father had done during his rule. Most of my nights were spent awake, in my office, planning how to undo the dozens of hostile relationships Whispering Hills had with other packs. When I did manage to sleep, I could barely rest, fearing what would happen if any of our enemies decided to join forces and take us down.

However, this time, I even dreamt the sweetest dreams.

As I sat in my chair after training, my mind wandered to the moment I had shared with the woman I used to think I would never meet again. Her bittersweet words, drenched in aggressiveness, yet layered with a soft undertone that my ears clung to, played in my head once more. Bliss hit me as I revived the taste of her intense flavor, the heat of her body against mine, the feeling of her skin underneath my fingertips. Daydreaming was also new to me, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be hard to get used to it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to become familiar with the sensation.

“Sorry, I’m late,” my beta excused as he entered my office, not bothering to knock.

Caught off guard by his invasion, I cleared my throat, straightening myself in my seat. I had to get rid of the awkward dreamy expression I was probably wearing. If Gregor noticed it, questions would arise - questions I couldn’t answer without compromising what I needed to conceal.

“Don’t worry about it.” I brushed him off, handing him half of the pile of papers I should have been looking at instead of fantasizing about Avril. “There’s not much to do today, anyway.”

He nodded as he took his seat in front of me across the desk. “Let’s get it over with, then.”

An hour ticked by as I struggled to focus on what I was reading. There were documents that had to be signed, reports to analyze, and pack member requests to evaluate - tasks I usually took care of quickly, but that proved harder when I found myself thinking of Avril every few seconds. I was nowhere near done when my beta laid his half on the table.

As he reached to my load to help me, he broke the silence. “Saw you talking to that omega after leaving the training grounds today.”

His tone sounded accusing, but the way he refused to name her bothered me the most. “Avril,” I corrected sharply, asking afterward, “What about it?”

“Has she made up her mind yet?” His irritation was evident both in his voice and in the way he avoided glancing directly at me. “Or is she still stringing you along?”

My wolf growled inside my head, displeased with the tone our beta was using. Despite being just as annoyed as him, I tried to contain my composure, except for a frown that inevitably stained my face.

“It’s not unreasonable for her to ask for time after everything she suffered when she was a part of this pack. In fact, I’m surprised she hasn’t given up on us completely even after being attacked by Angelica and…” - I hesitated, rage filling me at the simple thought of the bastard - “Chad,” I finally spat out, taking a deep breath to keep my emotions in check before continuing. “The opportunity of a deal with Azure Smoke is worth being patient for.”

“Perhaps, but is it worth waiting forever?” he insisted. “Meanwhile, that girl and her cronies are eating our food, using our resources, taking shelter in our lands.”

“Avril,” I snapped again, my eyes darkening as they glared into my beta’s. “I won’t correct you a third time, Gregor. Be careful when speaking of her,” I warned. I didn’t miss the way he clenched his jaw in annoyance, the atmosphere shifting in a flash. “And what she can give us is far more valuable than what she’s taking, which is barely anything to begin with.”

“Is that why you’ve been spending so much time with her? To convince her faster? To change her mind about us? About you ?” he insinuated, not a drop of innocence in his question.

I couldn’t tell if I was more angry or taken aback by his suspicion, and I wasn’t allowed a moment to decide.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. It stunned me for a brief second, then it was gone. When I glanced at my beta again, his evident tension let me know he had experienced the same discomfort.

Just then, a different voice, hesitant and shaken, echoed in my mind, “Alpha.” I didn’t immediately recognize that it was the head of the scouts, yet when I did, I started connecting the dots before he even revealed, “One of ours was taken down.”

As worry washed over me, I prompted myself up, readying myself for a possible attack. “By who? Rogues?” I demanded to know as I started toward the exit.

But the answer made me halt. “No. By the men of Opal Moon,” he told me, and confusion settled in.

Opal Moon was a decades-long enemy, one I hadn’t succeeded in establishing a friendly - or at least, neutral - relationship with, despite my relentless efforts. His feud with my father ran too deep; no matter what I offered, he refused to set aside his pride to live in peace with me, the son of the leader he despised.

Normally, my failure wouldn’t bother me. They weren’t the only enemy pack I couldn’t convert into allies. However, they were far more problematic than any of the other ones, because they shared a border with us. The only thing that has kept them from attacking up until this point is their size - they are smaller in number than us, leaving them at a clear disadvantage.

“Jared was caught for trespassing on accident,” the man continued to explain after my long silence. “They refuse to let us cross to retrieve the body so we can give him a proper burial, and they won’t return it to us either.”

Shit. That’s not good.

“Hold on, I’m on my way there,” I let the head of the scouts know before closing the mindlink.

In a rush, I filled my beta in on what I had just learned as we hurried to the outskirts of our territory. While Columbus crossed our lands as fast as he could, worried about the safety of the rest of our team, I cursed my father for leaving so many problems for me to handle. Sometimes, I struggled to understand how we could be related when we had such diverging mentalities.

Dad used to think he was above everyone else. Whispering Hills was never among the largest or most powerful packs, but that didn’t stop him from believing he was invincible. From omegas to other alphas, he treated no one with respect, always looking down on them. He didn’t mind the horde of enemies he collected due to his attitude; in fact, I think he was even proud of it.

It didn’t come as a surprise to me when I received news about his murder, shortly after he passed on the alpha title to me. He was found dead in his hotel on some tropical island where he was celebrating his retirement. The killer was never caught, and to be honest, I never insisted on pursuing the case. With the long list of people who hated him, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Once we made it to the area where our scouts team was, both my beta and I shifted back to our human forms, quickly dressing in the robes we had brought with us. Tension hung heavy in the air, our men standing defensively in line, inches away from the line that divided Opal Moon and Whispering Hills. In front of them, standing on their side of the land, were the enemy scouts guarding the corpse of our fallen pack member. Fuck, if it didn’t overflow me with sadness and fury seeing his lifeless body - another victim of my father’s egocentric mindset. Would I ever be able to stop this meaningless violence?

Inhaling deeply, I tried to clear my head. I couldn’t succumb to the rage filling me to the brim. If I wanted to be better than my old man, to prove his ways wrong, I had to act diplomatically even in such a maddening scenario. Yet, before I could try to reason with Opal Moon’s scouts, their leader showed up, a wicked smirk on his face. It would be a lot harder to negotiate with him.

“Well, what do we have here?” The man in his forties glanced at my fallen scout without the least bit of remorse in his eyes. In fact, I daresay he found amusement in the situation.

Diplomacy, Koen , I reminded myself, swallowing the urge to punch the bastard in the face, forcing a smile instead. “It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Alpha Grayson,” I somehow managed to say without an ounce of my rage shining through. “I just wish it was under different circumstances.”

“Yes,” he agreed, mockingly adding, “It’s a shame you couldn’t teach your man to stay out of my territory. Poor fella’s death is on you.”

Rage bubbled up in my throat, but a mindlink took my mind off of it before I acted impulsively. “Jared barely trespassed, Alpha,” John, the head of my scouts, reached out to me again. “He merely tripped. Maybe one of his paws touched the grass on the other side, and Grayson’s men immediately flew at him. It’s like they were waiting for one of us to accidentally set foot beyond our borders.”

Once his message had been delivered, I discreetly nodded at him. I believed him, and if what he said was true, it would be wise to further investigate Grayson’s intentions. Nonetheless, until I could check my facts, it would be best to avoid animosity to keep things from escalating - it was bad enough as it was.

Shifting my attention back to the other Alpha, I gave in. “It was my fault. If you could kindly return Jared’s body to us, I would like to do right by him by preparing a proper funeral for him.”

“You know the rules, Alpha Koen. If it gets into our territory, it’s ours to choose how to deal with,” the despicable man asserted, testing the limits of my patience.

“I’m aware,” I replied, clenching my fists to hide the black claws that were starting to break through my skin as Col pushed forward, eager to teach Grayson not to mess with our family. “Since this was the first time one of our men trespassed, could you please consider making an exception?”

Grayson touched his chin thoughtfully. He was clearly having too much fun with this, and it was getting on my nerves. Depending on his answer, I might not be able to keep Columbus from breaking free and tearing his throat.

Thankfully for him, he proved to have a drop of decency in him. “Lucky for you, I’m in a good mood, Alpha Koen. It’s your trash anyway, so you might as well clean it up.”

Contradicting my earlier thought, he proceeded to kick the body over the borderline, as if taking my man’s life for no reason had meant nothing to him. My team hurried to collect their friend’s corpse, and I instructed them on where to take it.

As they rushed past me, Grayson’s voice sounded again, making my skin crawl. “If my scouts catch any more of your men in our territory again, consider it war, Alpha Koen,” he warned.

With my composure hanging by a thread, I glared into his eyes fearlessly, spitting through gritted teeth, “Likewise.”

With a huff, the man shifted into his beast and disappeared into his territory, his team following behind him. My beta approached me to discuss our hostile encounter with Opal Moon, and what other consequences it could have. After that, I struggled to resume my day.

Deep down, I worried this could be the beginning of a bigger problem.