Page 22 of Devotion

“Am I supposed to be scared?”Trouble asked, looking between the two of us.

Before I had a chance to answer, Eden zoomed in between my front paws, barking furiously at the interloper.

“Disgusting little menace to society,”Chode said, venom in his words.

I was on him before he had the chance to stop me, latching onto his throat and knocking him to the ground in seconds.

“You want to say that again, asshole?”

“She’s a filthy mutant. Not even a real wolf.”

I growled again, my teeth pressing harder against the tender flesh of his throat.“You keep talking about my daughter that way, I will rip your fucking throat out. There won’t be enough pieces of you left for anyone to find your body. So keep going, I fucking dare you.”

His body relaxed, and he turned his muzzle away from me, baring his throat in a gesture of submission. I gave him one final shake before releasing my grip, but I didn’t back away. I stood over him, chest heaving as I stared him down.

Eden’s increasingly furious barks grew louder as shebroke rank and raced to defend me, getting in his face and letting him have it.

“Good girl,”I praised as an idea took root in my mind.“Hey, Sunbeam. Remember when we talked about watering trees?”

“Kingston,”Trouble said with a laugh, already guessing where this was going.

“This would be a great time to assert your dominance.”

And proving that she was, in fact, a good girl and listened to her Alpha, my daughter lifted her leg and peed all over the asshole who thought he’d run around my land talking shit about my pup.

I couldn’t have been more proud.

“Good job. Let’s go. Mama’s waiting on us.”

Without looking back at the piss-stain who’d made the biggest mistake of his life, I nosed Eden forward and the three of us took off at a run, heading back to the house.

Chapter

Seven

ALEK

Istared down at the sparkly purple box in my hands as I sat on the edge of the bed and revisited Moira’s note.

Stop being stupid. Go get your brother.

Moira

(This was Sunday’s idea, by the way,

so you can’t use her as an excuse)

Honestly,I was of two minds. One part of me was desperate to go to Tor, grab him by the hair, and bring him home where he belonged. The other had a painful amount of anxiety around leaving my mate and child. Not just because of what happened yesterday in the woods, but because of how abandoned Sunday felt the last time I left her.

The wound had long since healed, but I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t left a scar. We didn’t talkabout my missing memories, not since Sunday and Quinn sat down and had the peace talk to end all peace talks. I’d thought my Kærasta was never going to be able to forgive my misguided but well-meaning aunt for what she did. But Sunday proved once again that we should never underestimate her.

Closing my eyes, I let the memory of that afternoon in Novasgard float to the surface.

“If there had been any other way to save him, I would have done it. I need you to know that, Sunday. Alek may not be mine by blood, but he’s the closest thing to a child I’ll ever have. I would lay down my life to keep him safe.”

Aunt Quinn’s normally stoic expression was tortured as she spoke, tears glistening in her amethyst irises.

“I risked everything to stop him from succumbing to the madness of a Berserker without his mate. I broke a promise to the man I love and could have ruined everything between us because of how important Alek is to me. You have to know I didn’t make such a choice lightly, but it was the only solution available. It was that or lose Alek forever. When faced with such a possibility, it was really no choice at all. I would carve out my own heart to spare him a second’s pain. So I will bear your hatred if I must, but please know, I only did what I had to to save him.”

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