I marked Bria Benton last night.

Staring up at the ceiling with Bria tucked under my arm, I blew out a breath and let reality sink in. I had waited my whole life, for forty-three damn years, to find my mate. Now, she was finally here with me where she belonged.

But in the next few weeks, Bria would become more animalistic, would grow canines and claws, ache for her belly to be swollen with pups like all she-wolves did once they found their mates. And, fuck...

Bria shifted in my arms, her head falling back against the pillow over the crook of my elbow and her lips parted slightly. The blankets covered her nearly naked body, but boy did I want to rip them off of her and take her.

Like all alphas, I wanted pups as soon as possible. I wanted my family lineage to continue. Our sons and daughters would be stronger than Bria and me, and would become the greatest leaders of their time. Though... with Adan sitting on the edge of my property and Bria not even have shifted once yet, pups weren't in the foreseeable future.

"It's too early," Bria mumbled, turning over completely and pulling the blankets over her head. "Turn off the light, Jasmine. I'm having a good dream about Professor Lee. Go back to bed."

My lips curled into a small smile, and I shuffled out of the bed and drew the curtains closed. Bria needed all the rest in the world. I didn't even know if she really processed what had happened last night. She nearly fell asleep in my arms on the way back to my packhouse.

When she woke up, she'd be in a world full of shock that she was now a werewolf.

That would be the first of many obstacles she'd have to overcome.

After dressing and shutting the door softly behind me, I bumped into Milo who stood across the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest and his dark brow arched hard. "Why didn't you tell me that Adan is after your mate? We could've brought her here to protect her."

"I didn't want to draw attention to her," I said, walking down the hall toward my office and keeping my voice quiet. "It's bad enough that one of the most ruthless alphas in New England is after a human girl. If he—or the Council—found out that she was my mate too, they'd work twice as hard to find her."

Milo followed me into my office and collapsed into one of the plush red seats. "Fuck the Council," he growled. "They're getting on my nerves. They're trying to control all the packs on the continent."

"Fucking tell me about it."

If they found out that I had a human mate, they'd be all fucking over her. Even more than Adan was. They were old, traditional sons of bitches who wanted to keep werewolf blood pure. If they knew about Bria, they might even try to kill her.

My stomach twisted into knots. Had I made the right decision biting Bria last night?

"Alpha," Levi said through the mindlink. "Adan is at the edge of our property with his warriors, demanding to see you. What should I do?"

I glanced at Milo who stood almost immediately. We hurried out of the room and down the hall past my bedroom. Bria's sweet scent drifted through my nose, and I tensed. If Adan was here, Bria wasn't safe alone.

"Get to and guard the packhouse with your life. Nobody sets a paw inside," I said to Levi.

"Got it," Levi said a couple moments later.

Once I stepped outside, I shifted into my wolf and sprinted toward the edge of my property where Adan had been fucking camping out lately. My pack warriors parted a path for me and Milo to walk through to come face to face with Adan himself.

"Where is she?" Adan asked once one of my warriors tossed me a pair of pants. Teeth lengthening into canines, he growled at me and stepped forward with aggression. "Where the fuck is Bria? I smell her here. Her scent is all fucking over your property."

I pressed my lips together to keep cool, but all I wanted to do was rip this man's head right off his body. What was his damn obsession with Bria, and why the fuck did he want her so badly? She was mine, and nobody—not even Alpha Adan—would tear her away.

"How do you know what she smells like?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Adan let out a ferocious growl. "Answer my question."

"You answer mine first."

After glaring at me for a few moments, he took another threatening step closer and bared his canines. "I don't care if I have to tear down every inch of this town, I will fucking find her. And when I do, I'm taking her back. She's not yours to fuck around with."

My wolf took complete control. I ripped my claws through his shirt collar and thrust him against a tree, canines lengthening and muscles flexing. "Don't threaten me or Bria. I will rip you in two fucking pieces, if you touch a damn hair on her head."

"You kill me, and the Council will take away all your power and your people, and claim your land as theirs," Adan threatened.

And he was right.

They would take away all my pack's freedoms. Everything I had dedicated my life to.

"You're working for the Council?" I asked.

"I don't work for anyone, Lee." He shoved me off him and back a few feet. "If I did, I would've taken your fucking pack by now." He walked back to where his pack was gathered and nodded to the woods. "Mark my words, Lee. I'll find her. I don't care how long it takes. We have the university and your pack surrounded. Once she leaves, I'll know it."

When he started back through the woods, I growled, "How do you know Bria?"

He had to be looking for her for a damn reason, and I needed to figure it out now.

Adan called over his shoulder, "If I told you that, you'd hand my ass over to the Council."

Once they disappeared, Milo shifted into his human and pointed through the woods. "Why didn't you kill him? He's threatening to take away our luna and your mate. We should have his head now."

As much as I wanted to kill him right then and there, I couldn't.

I fucking couldn't.

The Council would catch word that my pack wiped out another, that I was protecting a human, that Bria was my mate, and we'd lose more than only a couple warrior wolves in war. We would lose this pack, our family, our luna, and my mate. I couldn't fucking risk it.

Not yet.

Not until... Bria shifted for the first time, and I knew that she could protect herself.

Then I would fucking rip Adan to shreds and take the Council on.