Page 8 of The Alpha's Temptation

“Caelan’s right. You don’t want a luggage boy to be your mate,” Marcus said.

I nodded and stepped away because if I stayed this close to her, then I would surely lose it. My wolf had been on edge ever since we’d stepped into the capital. “You should wait until you actually find him.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll have to wait for him, but I think I’ll be waiting forever at this rate,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. Then she scanned the room of royalty. “So I might as well have a little fun, right?”

“You’re not going to fucking embarrass us here,” I snarled.

She shrugged. “Then you should’ve let me stay home.”

My wolf fucking begged me to let him out so he could claim her right here and right now. It had gotten harder and harder and even fucking harder the more time that passed after I met her. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold myself back.

I wanted this war with Soren from the Whispering Pines to be fucking over with so I could make her mine for once and for all.

“A quick way to get rid of me,” Livia joked, but it didn’t come off that way to me.

Someone would have to fucking kill me before Livia left my pack.

“Alpha Caelan,” someone said to my right, and my body stiffened, recognizing his scent.

Marcus squared his shoulders beside me, and I turned around to see Elijah, Soren’s son and successor to the Whispering Pines Pack once I finally killed his father. I pressed my lips together and scanned the room for Soren.

It’d be disrespectful to start shit here, but I wouldn’t put it past Soren.

“How’re you doing?” Elijah asked.

“Who’s asking?” Livia said, stepping to my side.

My nails extended into claws inside my fists. She knew who he was.

Elijah’s gaze traveled from me to Livia and then lingered, his lips curling into a small smile. “Elijah. My father is Alpha Soren from the Whispering Pines Pack. And who might this cutie be?”

Livia stiffened for the slightest moment, and if she’d had any fucking sense, she’d have stepped behind me, but instead she smiled back at him.To taunt me. Then she held out her hand. “I’m Livia, Marcus’s daughter.”

Elijah looked from Livia to me, to Marcus, then back. “Well, Livia, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around. Maybe tonight, if you’re free.”

“She won’t be,” I said.

“Yeah,” Livia said, peering up at me with those bratty eyes. “Maybe tonight.”

CHAPTER 6

LIVIA

“There’ssomething I just can’t put my finger on,” Elijah said, placing his hand on my knee underneath the bar counter. His lips were curled into a small smile, his brown eyes glowing underneath the dim light. And if he wasn’t our enemy, I might’ve actually been interested in him.

We had been flirting for the past hour and a half over drinks. After I told Dad and Caelan that I planned on staying in tonight, I snuck down here to meet up with Elijah because I knew Caelan would follow me.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, leaning forward, my cleavage brushing against his arm.

Since I moved in with Dad several months ago after Mom died, nobody showed me any attention like this anymore. Except Caelan but he didn’t count. And part of me was dying to be wanted again.

Elijah didn’t know that I couldn’t shift, and I wasn’t sure that he would even care.

Across the restaurant, I spotted Caelan sitting at the bar by himself, his glare on me. There was a girl near him, trying to spark up a conversation. He’d say a few words to her every now and then, but he never, ever took his gaze off of me.

Warmth spread through my body, and I leaned closer to Elijah to piss Caelan off even more. While I continued to hope that one of these days I would get him to break and claim me, I highly doubted that would ever happen.

And Dad was right. I needed to find someone.

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