Chapter 4

Maddox

“Daddy!” Kylie shouted, running into my office with a painting in her small hands and chocolate all over her face. I had put her down to bed two hours ago, so I could get some work done, but it seemed like she had other plans that included decorating the house in paint and stuffing chocolate ice cream into her mouth. “Look at what I did!”

After placing some plans for tonight down, I lifted Kylie to put her in my lap and grabbed the picture from her. “It’s very nice, Squirt.”

“Look who it is!” Kylie pointed to the two figures painted on the sheet, one with brown hair like hers and the other with purple, which looked exactly like…  

Jade King.

Jade fucking King.

“It’s Jade!”

I clenched my jaw and picked her up, bringing her back toward her room. “It looks nice,” I said to Kylie, holding the painting in my other hand. “Really good.” Even though I hated Jade and her family with every fiber of my being. “You’ll have to draw another, Squirt. Maybe with me next time?”

Kylie giggled. “You, me, and Jade.”

“No,” I said tensely. “Not Jade.”

Entering Kylie’s room, I cursed under my breath at the mess she had made. The box of ice cream melted on the bedroom floor and paint was splattered everywhere, even on her blankets. It’d be a bitch trying to get that out.

“Why not Jade, Daddy? She has nice lipstick. I’m going to get it someday.”

After placing Kylie on her bed, I took the blankets stained with paint and retrieved some fresh ones from the closet. I pulled them over her body to tuck her into bed and prayed to the Moon Goddess that she’d actually go to bed this time.

I hadn’t gotten any sleep these past few years, and damn was I tired. Kylie didn’t usually go to bed until really late and woke up before the sun rose. With her having autism and ADHD, it was damn fucking hard sometimes and I rarely got a few moments to myself. But I wouldn’t trade her for the world. She brought light to my life, even in the darkest of moments after her mother cheated on me.

Kylie stared up at me, or past me, and furrowed her brows. “Daddy.”

“What is it, Squirt?”

“Why is the moon red?” Kylie asked me, pointing at the window.

My entire body tensed. Red? The moon was red? I glanced over my shoulder and out the window to see a full moon glimmering red in the night sky, sitting high above the Valley, and a thick bout of fog rolling in from the west.

The Chaos was back.

After nine years of waiting, nine years of hoping, praying, losing hope of ever finding a second-chance mate, the Chaos was finally back. The last time this happened, I met Clea, the woman who fucking cheated on me and the woman who became pregnant with Kylie just a few weeks later.

Maybe, just maybe, the Moon Goddess would grant me another mate, a second chance at love. Maybe I’d find someone who could make both Kylie and me happy for the rest of our lives. Or maybe I’d find someone who’d do the exact same thing to me as Clea did.

Either way, I wouldn’t let this pass me up.

I had waited so many fucking years for the Chaos to return.

Wolves could only find their mates and complete a bond under one week in the entire year. And for some reason, the Chaos hadn’t come in nine damn years. I blamed it on Clea tainting the mate bond with her unfaithful ways, a way to punish us all.

Now that it was back, I wanted to find a new mate, and I wanted to find her now.

“The Chaos is here,” I murmured more to myself than to Kylie, still in shock. Opening the window, I inhaled a sweet scent that lingered by the house, the aroma so overwhelming that I knew she was close—whoever she was.

After pulling out my cell phone, I called Ellen. “I need you to come over to watch Kylie for the night. I have some business to take care of.”

Usually, Ellen only worked during the day while I had alpha duties but I needed her to get her ass over here now, so I could follow this scent and find my mate. And, anyway, the forest was about to turn to madness now that the Chaos had returned.

“Chaos business?” Ellen asked.

“Will you come?” I asked, ignoring her question.

“I’ll be there in five.”

I put the ice cream box back in the fridge and paced around the packhouse, checking in Kylie’s room every so often to make sure she didn’t take that paint back out again. My heart pounded against my chest, the ache to run outside and claim my mate paralyzing me.

As soon as Ellen walked through the front door, I slipped out into the night, trying desperately to track the scent of my mate through the thick fog and monstrous black trees. An uneasy energy sat heavily in the air today. Something bad must’ve been brewing in these woods.

When a distinct scent of sugar drifted through the air, I howled in response. Nothing had ever smelled sweeter than this scent, teasing me, tormenting me even. I inhaled again and found myself following it through the Valley, desperate to get more of it into my lungs.

My pack called through the mind-link. Rogues and Silver Vipers approached the northern and western borders, aiming to steal land, children, and women. I stopped in my tracks, both wanting to protect my pack and find my mate.

I had waited so long for her…

A rogue dragged a pup from my pack through the woods right in front of me by his tiny arm. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he reached out to me. “Alpha! Please, help me!” he squealed.

Transforming into my wolf, I ran through the fog and ripped off the rogue’s arm, throwing it to the side, killing him within an instant, then scooping up the pup in my arms and running him to safety at the pack shelter, where a couple of higher ranked wolves waited for my orders.

I handed him off and turned back to the forest.

“Alpha, what should we do?” one of the warriors asked.

My mate was out here, but so was my pack.

Somehow, I had to find a way to protect everyone.

“We kill any feral and rogue wolf on our property. Nobody takes our pups, nor our women.” The full moon glimmered red above me, and I balled my hands into fists. “We protect our people. That’s what we have always done, and what we’ll continue to do.”

And, so, I ran through the forest with my mate’s sugary scent drifting through my nose and the howls from my pack running through my ears. Whatever happened tonight, I knew two things to be certain…

These rogues would not take my pack, and I would find my mate.

No matter what.