Page 17 of Alpha Games

“You know, we didn’t have to do this the legal way. I’m not saying we had to go full Lester, but we could have handled it differently. You wouldn’t have needed to be involved.” She winced on the last part, feeling my frustration.

“There’s a reason why I’m Alpha and you’re not and Lester is behind bars,” I growled, knowing how quickly revenge could turn into mindless bloodshed. Fallon was quicker to temper than I was and that put us in a lot of risky situations while growing up without family or pack backing us.

“You’re right. I trust you.” She nodded. “In the meantime, what are you going to do for this date?”

“I’m going to–”

“Are you busy now, Alpha?”Ivan mind-linked me.

“Fallon and I are in the room. Come on up.”

“What was that?” Fallon asked.

“Ivan,” I said. Something about his tone set me on edge and I stood, needing to be on my feet.

He slid into the penthouse suite a moment later.

“Is this a bad time?” Ivan looked to Fallon.

“Seriously?” Fallon growled. “If you try to kick me out, I’m just going to eavesdrop from the other room.”

Ivan turned his grim expression toward me. An apology was already written on his face.

“It’s fine,” I said. “What happened?”

“It’s about Aspen.”

Fur broke out along my arms and my fangs extended as my beast howled in anger.

Ivan let out a whine, baring his neck. “She’s alright and safely in her hotel room.”

“I’ll pull up the video feed.” Fallon grabbed my laptop, somehow bypassing my security measures. I’d figure out how she knew my password later.

Seeing Aspen pacing in her bedroom was enough to soothe my beast.

“Lead with the part where she is okay next time,” I bit out, retracting my fangs.

“My apologies, Alpha.” Ivan seemed like he wanted to bolt and I didn’t blame him. It was rare of me to hulk out like this. The impending rut must have been affecting me worse than I thought.

“Go on,” I tried to sound nice. It came out garbled with my wolf. Oh well. I tried.

“Molly had Aspen in the conference room again, harping on her for not giving a better performance during filming.”

The human should die.

I was still seeing red through my wolf’s vision, but I wrestled my beast back down. Watching Aspen through the video feed on my laptop helped. She fellonto her bed with a dramatic huff and my wolf gave a snort of laughter.

“This is the second time she’s cornered her? The first was the final night of the trials?”

Ivan nodded, still baring his neck.

“I’ll take care of the producers,” I said. “Thank you for telling me.”

“There’s more,” Ivan muttered.

My jaw clenched as I watched Aspen pull a pillow over her face. “How much more?”

“I think they’re blackmailing her somehow. At first, they offered her money to leave the show with Trenton. She said no and Molly seized the opportunity to have Aspen work with her to increase ratings. She was supposed to…” His voice trailed off.

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