Chapter 1
Cayden pov
"Are you seriously still sulking?"
I continued to glare out the window, ignoring Jason.
Aka,my best friend.
Well, not right now he isn't.
This asshole dragged me out of my den and is forcing me to come with him to meet with some random alpha.
Again.
"Come on Cayden, you can't stay mad at me forever"
I glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow,
"Wanna bet?"
He smirked, "Knowing you and how much you hate silence? Yes."
I huffed and turned back to the window
I could almost hear his eyes rolling, "You're being ridiculous dude, it's just one meeting. Plus, I can't go alone. I mean come on, An alpha wolf alone is another alphas territory? I'd be setting myself up for a kidnapping"
A growl slipped past my lips as I crossed my arms, "Why couldn't you just take Brady? He's almost as strong as me, plus he's trained to accompany you on these things."
Brady was Jason's beta, all three of us grew up together. His pack made an alliance with my pride back when we were kids so me, Jason, and Brady were basically brothers.
Jason sighed, as if the fact that Brady wasn't here instead of me was botherthing him too.
Which, let's be honest, probably was.
"Because Brady is busy with his pregnant mate. I'm not gonna ask him to leave her when she's bound to pop any day now, I'm not cruel."
I rolled my eyes and mumbled, "I beg to differ." But of course he heard with his wolf hearing and smacked me in my head
I hissed and rubbed my head with a pout. "I can't wait for you to find your mate so I can tattle on you for all the abuse you do to me"
He smirked and glanced at me, raising a brow
"Oh yeah? Do it. I'll make sure to tell your mate all your embarrassing story's"
I turned sideways in my seat and glared at him, he just continued to stare straight ahead at the road
"You wouldn't dare."
"Oh, I would so dare."
I growled and huffed down in my seat, facing the window once again.
"Asshole."
He laughed and I continued to ignore him for the rest of the ride.
Well....more like for the next few minutes.
He wasn't wrong when he said I hate silence.
"Why do you need to talk to this Alpha anyway?"
Jason groaned and his jaw cleanched,
"I've told you like fifteen times Cayden" he growled out
I just shrugged with a blank face, "Meh, I tune you out when you talk about boring stuff."
He rolled his eyes and huffed,
"We are going there for a multitude of reasons. The main one being to make allies so that if, goddess forbid, anything were to happen. We would have people to help back us up."
My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "What do you mean? You already have like 5 pack allies plus my pride. Not to mention, you're already like the third strongest pack. Why bother with just One more ally?"
"Well," he started as he turned from the main road onto a dirt one "This pack is the strongest pack known to wolf kind. If we can befriend them, we would be set for generations"
I hummed as I reached over and reclined my seat, setting my feet up on the dash
"So what should I expect going into this meeting? Is it happening at their Alphas quarters?"
I heard Jason growl at the sight of my feet on his newly cleaned dash but he didn't bother telling me to take them off
"Well for starters, like it or not, you're gonna have to be quiet. Meaning, unless you are directly spoken to, I will do all the talking. I don't need you saying anything that could jeopardize this alliance."
I gasped and put a hand on my chest in mock offense, "I can't believe it. After all we've been through, you don't trust me?"
"No." He deadpanned
"Hm. Wow. I'm truly wounded." I spoke with no emotion in my voice. He just shook his head, a small smile on his lips
"I'm serious Cayden, please just behave. Just until this meeting is over and we're back home"
Jason begged
"Fine," I huffed "I'll be a perfect little angel"
Jason smirked, "As if you could be, let's just be realistic and say a good little kit-"
"Call me a kitten and I will rip out your tongue and shove it so far up your ass, you'll be able to taste your liver"
Jason's face scrunched in disgust and I watched him gag, "Dude, gross"
I just smirked as he shook his head, "You're really something else. Why do you hate being called that so much?"
My tiger was growling lowly in my mind, it was mostly him who hated the name. I didn't care for it but I wasn't about to hurt anyone who said it. My tiger though, would straight up maul anyone who even mumbled that in his presence.
"It's derogatory. How would you like it if I called you a little puppy?"
Jason's eyes flashed as he let out a low growl.
"See?" I pointed out his eyes, "You would clearly be very pissed."
"I guess that's fair."
We arrived at the pack house about an hour later. Jason and I were guided under guard to the alphas office for this meeting.
On the way there, my tiger was suddenly acting all weird.
He wasn't growling but he was making this strange noise, almost like a purr mixed with a whimper.
'What the hells going on with you?'
He growled, pacing in the back of our mind.
'I don't know. Somethings about to happen, I can feel it.'
I almost tripped while walking making Jason give me a look.
'You mean like...something bad?'
I really hoped not, I may be strong as hell but I couldn't take on a whole wolf pack.
'I don't think so.'
'You don't think so? What the fuck does that mean?'
He growled, 'it means I don't think so.'
"Cayden."
I was so distracted by my tiger that I didn't realize we had made it to the office already. Everyone except the alpha was here and they were all sitting down (except the guards at door)
Jason motioned to the seat next to him in front of the desk and I quickly sat down
While we were waiting, I mind linked Jason
'My tiger is acting weird. He thinks something is gonna happen.'
Immediately I saw Jason tense up.
'Something bad?'
'He doesn't think so.'
Jason raised a brow,
'Doesn't think so?'
Before I could go into it, the door opened and me and Jason sat up straighter.
I may not have been Jason's beta but I still represent his pack and my pride, so I don't wanna look uninterested or disrespectful.
'That and we need to be prepared for anything,' Jason added
Oops, forgot to close the link
Jason kinda smirked a little bit other than that, all attention was on the man who just walked in.
He was an older gentleman, probably mid 40's to early 50's. He came in but didn't sit in the chair, which was odd.
He instead leaned over the desk, standing behind it, and shook our hands
"Good evening Alpha Bennet, and..?"
"Alpha Cayden, Sir."
I shook his hand and exchanged a brief greeting.
Jason side eyed me when I gave this man my "title" but otherwise didn't mention it.
Tigers didn't have Alphas or any titles at all. In fact, having a pride in general was rare since tigers were solitary creatures.
Technically I would be an alpha if my pride was a pack since my parents were elected to lead the pride way back before I was born so I wasn't really lying.
But this man didn't need to know that.
"My deepest apologies Alpha's, I'm Gregory Linin. My son, the now Alpha, isn't feeling well and won't be able to attend this meeting. You were meant to be sent a letter of notification but some issues occurred and that wasn't able to happen. Again, my sincerest apologies but I'm afraid this meeting will have to be re- arranged for another time."
Me and Jason glanced at each other before mind linking
'That's not good, we really needed this to happen right now.'
I gave him a puzzled look,
'Why?'
'Because, My schedule is already filled up to the next couple months. By the time I would be able to reschedule this, it would be too late in the year to travel up here. Snow would for sure be covering the path.'
'So just run in wolf form'
He rolled his eyes at me,
'You and I both know that wouldn't work. It would be way too easy to be attacked and-'
Our conversation was suddenly put on hold when the door opened and a heavenly scent filled my nose
My tiger damn near took over as our eyes immediately glued to the source of the wonderful aroma of cherry blossoms and fresh fruit.
There, stood the most handsome man I'd ever seen. And when he spoke, my body shivered with lust.
"What's going on here?"
His voice was raspy, most likely from the cold he seemed to be sparing
He was staring at his father but the oddest thing happened
He glanced over to me, and his blue eyes were foggy. He looked directly in my eyes and nothing happened.
No realization of our mate bond at all.
Then it occurred to me.
My mate, was blind.
