Runt [ManxMan]

Chapter Nineteen

Chase was irritated, to say the least.

Dawn was still an hour or so away, but they should have already been halfway across the territory on the trail of a deer herd. Instead, here he was, stalking through the pack house in search of a certain slacker with the title of beta.

He should have known this would happen when Dax told him to bring Mav along, but he had so few interactions with the man that he often forgot how Mav spent his time away from his duties—which was most of the time, as he never listened to anyone but Dax, and the alpha could hardly be bothered to make sure the beta acted like an adult most of the time.

Chase had told Mav when they were leaving, and the beta had agreed to meet them at the edge of the clearing the pack complex resided in. Chase had thought that would be the end of it. Yet all the hunters had gathered by the appointed time, and they'd waited an extra five minutes, then ten, then fifteen before Chase's impatience had pushed him to seek out the man preventing them all from leaving. He'd considered leaving Mav behind, but Dax would be upset if he found out, so instead he was off to rouse the laziest werewolf in existence from his bed.

He stalked up the stairs to the third floor, where all the pack leadership—and Chase, as the alpha's little brother—had rooms, if they desired. Often, they would move into houses with their families at some point, but the pack's leadership had just changed hands a few years before, and most of those new in their positions were still young and single and enjoying the life of having a single room to live in that the omegas kept clean for them.

Mav's room was only two down from Chase's, with Dax's between them. Chase regretted not waking him when he left to meet with the hunting party, but he'd assumed the man was already up, possibly already with the rest of the group. Now that he knew better, his annoyance was only growing, so he didn't hesitate to walk straight up to the beta's door and bang on it hard enough to wake the entire hall.

And yet there was no immediate answer, so after a few moments of waiting, he knocked again, pounding his fist against the wood he was surprised it took the abuse without breaking. Still no answer. Was he even in there? Where would he be if he wasn't?

Confusion starting to mar his annoyance, Chase tried the handle and found it turned easily, allowing the door to fall open and reveal a room hidden by shadows. He stepped inside, his eyes falling on the trail of clothes leading from the door to the bed, some much too small to belong to the large, muscular beta.

Some feeling of dread settled deep in the hunter's stomach, but his eyes still followed the trail all the way to the bed, where the stripe of light from the hallway illuminated the ruffled sheets barely covering the two forms tangled together beneath them.

"Mav?"

He hadn't intended to speak, but it was his voice he heard, and it sounded too small even to his own ears. If his banging had done nothing to wake the sleeping pair, the single word also should have had no effect, but one of the forms stirred, a large, muscular arm moving to rub a face and push the sheet away from a barrellike chest.

Noticing the light from the doorway, and the silhouette, the larger of the two forms sat up suddenly, the sheets pooling around his waist and showing he was entirely naked, which shouldn't have affected Chase the way it did, shouldn't have made him feel hot while his horror made him feel like he was going to be sick.

"Chase?" If he'd needed a confirmation, that voice would have it. It was Maverick in that bed, curled up with his lover instead of down with the hunters, ready to provide for the pack. Why had Chase expected any different? Mav had always been a free spirit, and it was common knowledge that he had a string of lovers through his bed unmatched by anyone else in the pack.