Mated to the Moon (Portal City Protectors Book 6), Georgette Clair [best classic books to read .TXT] 📗

power not bleeding out past the area of the battle. It wasn’t a skill many wolves could claim to have and most Alphas could only dream of. Pasquale was not a wolf to be trifled with, even if he couldn’t challenge Adonis directly.

Adonis’s men moved without being told, trained in urban warfare to the point they didn’t need direction on the battlefield.

But all that didn’t answer his question.

“Where. Is. My. Mate?”

“Saying it slower and louder isn’t going to get you the answer you seek.” Pasquale rolled his neck. “My sister is a special case.”

“I’m aware of her father’s death and his attempt to usurp the Moretti’s.”

They all knew about it. One thing the meetings had done was bring the different groups up to speed on situations occurring within borders they didn’t normally cross. Through Adonis’s connection to Carlos, before he’d been healed, he knew a lot of what went on with the Moretti Pack but never used the intel. Sometimes, knowing was powerful enough. As long as the other packs left the Moonstone alone, they were safe.

Since Skuld had come into the picture and started a war with them, information was safety. There was no doubt in Adonis’s mind that Dominic, Alpha of the Lombardi, knew he was here and what was going on. The earpieces they all wore could be used for two-way communication.

But they all had enough on their plate.

Dominic and Zoey were dealing with the change in their daughter since removing the extra life energy within her, something that slowed her growth but caused fractures in a mind more mature than her physical age.

The Moretti were dealing with the very real possibility they’d have an Alpha female running the pack if Arturo never found his own mate. Isadora was his recognized heir, both to the Lombardi and Moretti. Adonis would have to watch that. Combined, the packs would be much stronger.

But Pasquale’s Alpha position and his control over his father’s Bianchi pack could prove a bond breaker with Adonis as his sister’s mate. Of course, no one would want it to come to that. The Renegades were searching alongside the Guardians, a feat no one ever thought possible. The Renegades had been slated for execution before the war, and now they were melding into Encantado’s citizens.

Hell, they even had Fae royalty bound to the Mage Council leader, who was also mated to a wolf, creating a trifecta of “the world’s fucked if anyone messed with them.” And that didn’t take into account Carlo’s new position as the King of History beside Nanshe.

So no, the situation of an Alpha claim was not high on anyone’s respective radar.

Well, except for Adonis’s, of course.

“But do you know he beat her into the plan?”

Adonis froze, blinking. What was Pasquale talking about? “Explica me.”

“Fabiana hates loud sounds and raised voices. It took me nearly a year to get her to look me in the eye and not curl into a ball when I got angry. My Alpha Call? I trained it down to that level of precision so I could control who could feel the effects … all for her. I never wanted her to feel controlled by me.”

Pasquale wasn’t answering the demand, yet he was. Fear of anger and sudden movement. The watchful way Adonis’s mother paid attention to his father and moved to do what he needed before he could open his mouth.

Yana never lived a moment in safety. The Pendulum Swing of the 1950s didn’t serve his mother well. She was born a wolf but never shifted; something latent in her bloodline prevented it. After the spill, her power grew and she was the coveted daughter of a drug lord in Guatemala. She’d been purchased, through blood and tears, in the name of an alliance.

One Antonio, his father, never meant to abide by.

Once he had Yana, he killed her family and forcibly took over their territory. Worst of all, he’d survived being made into a wolf by Yana and demanded she give him pups.

A little known, horrible fact of being made a wolf by a woman: The male, if he survived, was her mate.

Call it a safety feature to ensure the continuance of the race or what have you, but Yana was shackled to a man she could never escape or be rid of. He was able to force children on her, all while using her as his daily punching bag every time she breathed. He was terrified she’d leave him, strip him of his power.

For him, Yana was a possession meant to be used and controlled.

His death … well, it freed her even as it broke her in ways she still tried to heal from.

Yes, Adonis knew the plight of the broken woman.

“Are they all dead?” Adonis forced the question past gritted teeth.

“Every one of them I could put my hands on.”

For a moment, they weren’t too wolves fighting over control but rather two men who had protected someone dear to them. Two men who needed retribution for the pain and damage caused by callous hands and dangerous words.

“And the ones you couldn’t put your hands on?”

Pasquale nodded. “Carlo took care of him for me.”

Primo.

“Almost wish I knew a necromancer or two just so I could kill him again.”

Not that Adonis would admit he in fact did know a necromancer and would search them out soon enough. But first …

“My coming to her this way was traumatic.” Adonis glanced around at his men. “I look like him.”

“Yes, her first real interaction with her mate, and he’s just like her father. What a shame.”

No, this wolf didn’t care much for Adonis either. With a shrug, Adonis tossed off the concern. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but he would never apologize for who he was. He’d earned his position through violence because