The Banning - Teton Pack

Kacie

My eyes popped open at the sound of angry voices nearing my home. The tone aggressive, the words spoken harshly. The meaning not yet clear, but I couldn’t just ignore the unease filling my stomach simply because I wasn’t fully alert yet. The energy vibrating against my bedroom walls made my skin crawl. Something was horribly wrong.

Brain fuzzy with sleep, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, choking back a sharp gasp at the biting cold floors grasping onto my skin like leeches, draining any remaining warmth of circulating blood, leaving behind husks of cold, hurting feet.

The thud of boots hitting my porch just outside my front door, made my head snap up. Why the hell would they be coming to my home?

7 Hour Earlier…

“Hey, did you hear about the break in?” I raised an eyebrow at Stella, silently wondering why she’s now deciding to gossip when I’m refilling the silverware for the dinner rush. She’s barely spoken five words to me since I clocked in for my shift two hours ago and now she’s suddenly a squirming body needing an outlet for juicy gossip? She just wants a reaction. Personally, I think she’s secretly in love or, at the very least, in intense lust for the male I’m to mate with, which grosses me out and makes my skin crawl over her sometimes pushy and clingy energy.

She smirked at me, “I’ll take that as a no, then. Anyway, the Cavendish’s cabin got broken into, and you know as one of the Border Patrols, Mark has all the top-of-the-line equipment to help protect the Pack. Although why the idiot would keep those things in his own home in the first place, I have no idea, but they’re all gone now.” Stella waved a hand in the air, not caring with how callous she sounds, “It happened around four am. Can you believe the balls of someone to do it at that hour? It’s not as if everyone is asleep with every single light out.” Stella shook her head in bafflement.

I nodded, knowing that would appease her, or she would only persist in repeating the same sentence until I showed some form of agreement with her. “Pretty risky. Did they find out who did it?”

“Nope and that’s the weird thing, Kacie, there’s no tracks, no fur. The only thing Jason could discern was a lingering scent left behind. That’s it.”

I stared at her in shock. “Are you frickin’ kidding me? Not a single track?”

“None. And Jason-”

I raised a hand, palm facing out, “Why was Jason there?” I asked, feeling a weird knot forming in my stomach at the thought of my intended mate at the scene of the crime. Why the heck would he be there? That wasn’t a part of his duties to begin with and besides he’d told me he was out on a scouting venture and wouldn’t be back till later today at the earliest.

Stella shrugged her shoulders, “Apparently the scouting trip was a total bust, the crew came back early and thank goodness too-”

A hand came down and clasped her shoulder, startling us both. Turning in unison we saw Amy, my mom’s friend standing behind us, eyes intent on Stella. Amy easily turned Stella’s body away from the others as they continued bustling in and out of the kitchen.

With a quiet voice she asked, “Was the rest of the scouting crew with Jason when he discovered there was only a scent left behind?”

Stella blinked at her, “Are you suggesting-”

Amy cut her off, not caring about manners at this point, “I’m not suggesting, merely asking. Was anyone else there with him?”

“I think so, but you know how Luke and Dion are always in Jason’s shadow. They were probably with him when he came upon the break in.” Stella looked a little intimidated by the older woman and she should. Amy wasn’t known for being soft, the woman was straight up no nonsense on the best of days.

“Is he the only one with the information about it though?” Amy asked, shaking Stella’s shoulder to get her attention. Stella nodded her head, eye darting to the side in the presence of the more alpha female. Over Stella’s head, Amy gave me a searching look, eyes narrowing when she apparently found what she was looking for. I just barely shifted my feet and her jaw clenched.

She gave me a weird look and it’s my fault. I didn’t tell her about my misgivings about Jason, about my genuine reluctance to even consider accepting his advances. My place in this Pack is tumultuous at best. I wouldn’t necessarily say lowest ranking but I’m definitely in a certain class that isn’t mentioned around the rest of the Pack. Which is total b*llsh*t considering my lineage and the fact that it was one of my great, great, great grandfathers that helped restore and nurture this Pack to be one of the strongest in this part of the country. That all was shot to hell though, completely splintering apart once Jason’s dad took over in a brutal Alpha Challenge that not only killed my grandfather but also resulted in my mom and dad being banned from the Pack for life. And to this day, no one will give me any answers as to the actual Banning Ceremony, or any hints if they know what became of my parents or why exactly I wasn’t banned along with them. Why was I left behind? Who decided that shitty punishment?

As far as the Pack is concerned, I’m now an orphan, needing to earn my keep in a humble manner. Hence the reason for my wearing this apron and putting up with men calling me ‘sweetheart’ while ordering gravy on the side of their hashbrowns and sausage. I strongly dislike working at the diner but what other option is left to me? I could be a Meg but that’s even less desirable than getting my butt pinched because I brought over extra napkins.

For the last several years nothing has made sense and that’s only compounded when barely seven months ago, Jason started taking notice of me as a woman. He would come into my work, flirt with me, give compliments and it always, always slithered along my skin like black oil. I would shower at the end of a long day and still feel his slimy touch and undressing eyes on my body. I hated it. I didn’t trust him or his father. Both seemed too friendly at times, like a politician when he feels he’s entitled to something. I don’t play the games, and I don’t allow myself to be made into one of their sick games. At least that was something I could claim until seven months ago. I have trouble sleeping the whole night through now, because I know deep down, that I am the game for the Baxter men.

I didn’t care for them before the Alpha Challenge and the fallout, and by fallout, I’m referring to my personal fallout, because it seemed that no one else was affected by the sequence of events that followed the brutal slaying of my grandfather. It was as if the entire Pack didn’t care, my family and everything they have done for this Pack, this community was erased immediately upon my grandfather taking his last breath on this Earth. I like to think I still have some alliances, secret obviously, but still there. My parent’s friends, Amy and her husband Kirk, have kept an eye on me, but then again, their hands are tied on what they can actually do for me. I was in no-man’s-land as the depressing expression goes. Untouchable to everyone but the Baxter men.

Kacie

I’ve caught Kirk and Amy watching me at times, but I never confided in them my suspicions regarding our Pack’s Alpha and the Alphason.

I wasn’t going to put them in a position to be harmed in any way, shape, or form because of information on me. Besides I was twenty-two now, not a minor, not a pup that still generated those wonderful protective instincts in the hearts of the more nurturing and motherly wolves in the Pack. I was an adult, mature. I didn’t realize that transitioning from pup to mature wolf would devalue me even further, stripped me even more of the few precious safeguards I had known since I was a little girl.

I had become familiar with the old order of things regarding my treatment and life in this Pack. The transition into maturity however blew all that goodbye for me. I’m still discovering every day how to best navigate my new role in this community, which for some bizarre reason involved accepting the m