"The promises of the witches hold no meaning," growled Killian.
"It’s up to you whether you want to believe me or not. I only promised to stop you from butting in between me and Inez; if not, I wouldn’t have even bothered." Tracy blinked her eyes up at him. "You can either trust me and leave her safety to me, or you can stay with her like a shadow. But I know that as the alpha of this pack, you have more things to do than just playing the role of her shadow."
"You will keep her protected?" Tracy tipped her chin up and questioned with a mocking smile. "Have you forgotten how someone snuck into your territory? How they attacked and tried to take her away? Just accept that you need someone to take care of her. And I am better than any of your enforcers for this job. At least I can detect a witch trespassing through the territory line faster than they can."
Killian turned and glanced at Inez. "And you agree with her? Do you want her to stay with you?"
"Hey, back off, big guy," Tracy stepped between the two of them once again, just as Killian stepped close to her. She called him out, "You cannot just loom over her and growl like a rabid dog; it’s going to make her feel cornered. Not everyone likes being loomed over by men, no matter how handsome they are. We are not in a stupid, braindead, smutty novel, alright?"
When Killian tried to walk around her, Tracy followed him. If he stepped to the left, she would follow him, and if he stepped to the right, she would too. In short, she didn’t let Killian come any closer to her.
Losing his head, Killian snapped his teeth at the witch, only for her to raise her hand and smack him right across his face. Not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to jolt him out of his animal instincts.
"I did." Tracy spoke without an ounce of fear, and this time around, even Inez glanced at the woman as if she wanted to question if Tracy had lost her mind. How could she just step forward and slap the alpha of a pack? It was light but still. It had to be quite a blow to Killian.
It was because the man did lunge at the witch, quite upset that she had raised her hand at him, and Inez had to step between the two of them before pushing Tracy behind her and placing her hands on Killian’s chest. She pushed him away from Tracy and said to him, "She didn’t mean it –"
"You are not helping," Inez said with a sigh as she looked up at Killian. The man was still growling, louder than he was before. She could feel his chest vibrating under her fingers. His hands were clenched at his sides, and Inez closed her eyes, preparing herself for an explosion of anger and fierce temper. He might be stopping himself from attacking Tracy, but that was only because he cared for her; if he wanted to attack her, he could easily push Inez away and do it. But he was doing it for her.
That was kind of nice of him. But it would have been better if he had acted like his usual gentlemanly self, like he did with other women.
"What’s going on?" Finn, who had chased after Killian when the man had bolted from the clearing, stepped inside the lodge. He looked at Inez and Killian before turning to look at Tracy. As soon as his gaze met with the woman, he stiffened as if he had run into his mathematics teacher while bunking his class. "You are here too?"
His sudden arrival helped Inez feel a bit calmer. The sparks flying in the air also slowed down while bouncing off the walls. Though they were still there, they were a bit more controlled, which was better than nothing.
"So what if I am here?" Tracy spoke to Finn as if she weren’t the one who caused the trouble just now.
Finn eyed her like a child who was staring at his idol. There was an odd sort of appreciation in his eyes that Inez had never seen; she hoped that this man was well aware of Tracy’s age before he jumped down a pit from which he would have a hard time pulling himself out.
"I was just asking; there is no need to get angry with me," Finn said with a smile.
He was acting way too weird, causing Inez to groan inwardly. She had a feeling that the man was way too far gone.
Finn, however, didn’t seem to sense anything. He continued to stare at Tracy before questioning her, "So, what are you doing here?"
"Why should I be telling you that?" Tracy asked with a raise of her brow.
Finn cleared his throat and replied, "I am the beta of this pack. As you are a trespasser, I have no choice but to question you about your intentions."
Killian slowly turned his head to look at his beta. His eyes were flashing part wolf and part human as he stated, "Oh, so you remember that you ate the beta of this pack? I thought you had forgotten that small detail, with how well you were treating this trespasser who appeared in our territory without trying to hold her down."
The fact that both his beast and he were present to say those words, Inez understood just how exasperated they were at the moment.
"He can try," snarled Tracy with her arms crossed. She was eyeing Finn as if she were waiting to see the man move, and she could wring him like a rag.
Finn simply smiled at his alpha before saying, "It’s not that I don’t want to. But I have seen what she can do; I would rather not intervene."