Once I was sure Jett was good and passed out from the werewolf level pain killers, I decided to let Riley, the Sheriff and Beta of the closest pack around for miles, have a piece of my mind. I hated other wolves in my territory, but I dealt with him and his alpha on my land from time to time.
"What the hell were you thinking bringing him wolf grade medication? You could kill him, Riley! Did your Alpha allow this? He seems to have a better understanding of humans than you do! Christ, I hate you fucking pack wolves!"
"Malakai, I was going to warn him they were extremely strong. I wouldn't have put his life in danger. You don't need to freak out."
"Clearly I do! Even a fucking quarter of that pill could nearly kill him."
"Fuck sakes, I said I wasn't trying to kill him Malakai, I was trying to help."
"Like you were last night? When you called him a stupid human!"
"I didn't mean to call him that. It just slipped out."
"I don't care if it just slipped out. Call him that again and I will send you back to your Alpha in little doggie chunks."
"Right. It won't happen again."
He didn't say another word, but I could tell he wanted to ask me about the Alpha's offer to be his pick for the council and honestly, I wasn't fucking interested. I didn't want to play pack wolf with any of these fuckers; I hated them all. I barely tolerated them. The thing was, I was hundreds of years old and didn't want to play little doggie games with them; I enjoyed being my own person and doing what I wanted when I wanted. None of these packs were like what they were when I was Riley's age. They had changed, and I wasn't fond of some changes. For example, these wolves thought they were above humans, simply for the gift they had.
I didn't have the same perspective on that they did. Humans were better at some things than we were and us better at other things than them. We had lived in harmony before. Now some packs chased humans and made a game out of making them fear us.
"Malakai, Did you perhaps think over the Alpha's offer?"
"Yes. I'm not interested."
"I don't understand you——"
"You never will. I'm far older than you and I don't want to play pack life with you or your Alpha."
"Is it because of Jett?"
"Why would you even ask that? Of course, it's not because of him."
"I find that harder and harder to believe."
"You are believing in something that doesn't exist."
"If I didn't know any better, I would almost say your wolf wants him and not as a meal. As something far .... better or worse, I'm not sure."
"You're delusional."
"So you're saying I could go after Jett for my mate?"
Anger filled my chest, and it took everything in me not to kill this little prick. The nerve of this two-bite doggie.
"You would be the worst thing to happen to Jett. Stay the fuck away from him in that way."
"What makes you so different that you think you're better for him? Huh, Malakai?"
"I am in plenty of ways better for him. But I'm not interested in him like that. But I won't allow you to be either. He is not a plaything for you."
"I think you're only saying that because you're fond of him, but you can't admit it."
"That is not even——"
The sound of something hitting the floor had me getting out of the kitchen chair and checking on Jett. He was laying flat on the floor, blinking and looking up at the ceiling. It took him a solid minute to get his barrings before he let out a groan and rubbed his eyes. It had been two hours since he fell asleep. The pain killer would still be working, but he should be able to move. That much should have worn off.
"How are feeling?"
He groaned again before slowly getting off the floor. His hair was sticking up and his eyes were glossy, but he could move. I heard the car leaving the driveway, which told me Riley had either had enough of me or got a call. Both were fine. It meant he wasn't here.
"Why don't you go upstairs and lay down?"
"Ruby..."
"I'll get him. You go sleep."
"Don't get bit."
"I won't."
He made his way up the stairs and I listened to make sure he got there safely before I went to fetch the other dog, Ruby. He really was not fond of Riley now, not at all. Can't say I blame him, either. The sound of his whining led me right to him. Opening the door, he looked up at me.
"I've come to let you loose. He's gone now."
Ruby sniffed my hand as I released the latch on the kennel and once the door was open, he waited.
"Come on out, you are allowed."
He looked up at me again, but walked out of the kennel and out the doggie door. He probably had to go in the worst way. I asked myself why I was still here, and I couldn't come up with an appropriate answer, other than I needed to be. I stripped my clothes off in the laundry room and left them on top of the washer before I shifted and walked upstairs to his bedroom.
Riley was right about the fact that I watched him sleep, but it wasn't like that. I only watched him sleep while I waited to fall asleep myself. He had left the door open a crack, and I strolled into the room and hopped up on the bed. He didn't open an eye, but he mumbled about knowing I would be there soon, and that he had left the door open for me.
He quickly passed out after that. The meds were really kicking his ass, as they would, because he was human. He was going to get quite a few extra hours of sleep from the meds, but he would probably be grateful for them. I knew that once Reily got back to the pack land; he was going to tell the alpha I had threatened him about Jett, then I would surely have that to deal with. But that was fine. Wasn't the first time the alpha came knocking on my door in an angry rage.
If Jett thought I was unkind, I wondered what he would think about the Alpha. He hardly left the pack land because he didn't get along with humans in the best ways. I could understand why he didn't get along with humans, though he had a really harsh past with some humans, hunters to be more clear. I was glad that the hunters seemed to avoid us or at least moved on to hunting improved things, but we still had a few that didn't have a problem hunting us. We had occasional run-ins, mostly they avoided us and we avoided them. The hunters that hunted us knew what we were. Unlike the ones who had shot me, they were hunting deer.
They had kept the alpha like an animal, forced to eat scraps and fight other wolves to remain alive. He had a very terrible past, one that still liked to rear its ugly head around humans. He was a very capable alpha, however, there was no doubting that. I just wanted to keep him and Jett the farthest apart, for both of their safety. I had seen Jett's temper from a distance, dealing with the moving company and his own father. Not to mention the hunters, which he had threatened to shoot. They were bound to clash; it was just going to happen.
Jett groaned out in his sleep, making me perk my ears up. He shoved the blankets down, wobbling towards the bathroom. I waited on the bed for him to come back, Listening in the entire time to make sure he was ok. Watching him from a distance had been a much better idea than this, now that I was this close to him, I didn't want to leave. This was going to be such a problem. This was why Reily thought there was something between us. When there wasn't, I was ok being the nasty neighbour.
When Jett returned to the bedroom, he ran his fingers along the top of my head and down my spine before actually crawling back into bed. Once he laid down, he patted the spot beside him. I wanted to go where he was willing to pet me, but that would only cause more problems. He didn't need to think that we were friends or more. I only watched over him because of his grandfather. That was it. There was nothing else to it.
There needed to be a distance between us again. The next time he tried to pet me, I snapped at his fingers, catching them in my teeth and breaking the skin. The wounds would be just enough to bleed, and that was it.
He pulled his hand back looking at the blood on his fingers. He drew his other hand back and slapped me on the nose pretty damn hard.
"Get out. You don't bite."
I growled at him again. He screamed at me to get out again. I snapped at his hand again, this time missing it. He threw something at me but missed. I left the bedroom, Still growling at him. I slipped out the dog door, leaving. Hopefully, that would be enough to distance us.