Page 206 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“He told you?” I asked, horrified that he’d told my son that he wanted me as his little piece of arm candy.

“Basically. Not in so many words, but…” Ashton went quiet for a moment, then said, “He’s being really nice to me. A few days ago, he started trying to get me to call him… he wants me to call himDad.”

I swallowed hard, trying to keep both rage and vomit from roaring out of my mouth. That fucker was trying to get my son to treat him like a father? If Cole didn’t kill the prick, then I most certainly would.

“Don’t worry about all that,” I said. “I’m just happy to hear your voice and know you’re safe. Cole and I will handle everything else.”

“Mom, I know you won’t leave my dad for this psycho?—”

“Speak up, I want to hear you, please,” Kyle said, his voice muffled from the other end. He’d obviously noticed how quiet Ashton was being.

“Uh, sorry. Sure,” Ashton said, and raised his voice to a more normal conversational volume. “Anyway, Mom, I love you. I miss you. Be careful, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I won’t,” I said. The conversation was coming to an end, but I didn’t want him to go away. If I’d had my wishes, we would have spoken like that for hours. Simply hearing his voice made me feel better.

“Oh, hey,” Ashton said, and he sounded like he was smiling. “Did you ever go get that dog from the shelter we talked about?”

I blinked, thrown by the question. We’dneverdiscussed a dog. Not in years, anyway. What the hell was he talking about?

“Uh, no,” I said, drawing the last word out as I tried to figure out what he was getting at.

“No?” Ashton sounded disappointed. “Man, I thought you were for sure going to get him. I guess I misunderstood.” He paused. “Things weren’t what they seemed.”

“What?Ashton, what the hell are you talking about?”

“You’ll see soon,” he said. “Also, I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to call again. Uh, Cole might catch you, and you know how angry he gets. I love you, Mom. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” I said, my throat clenching, turning the word into a squeak.

Before I could hang up, there was another rustling sound, and Kyle was back on the line.

“So nice for mother and child to have a few minutes,” he said. “I’m happy to give you that.”

“Yeah,” I said, choking back emotion. “Thank you for that.”

“No thanks necessary. I’m taking great care of our boy.”

Ourboy? This motherfucker. I clamped my teeth onto my tongue to hold back the stream of curses that threatened to explode from my mouth.

“One thing. I have to tell you, Avery, you’ve done a magnificent job raising him. He’s going to be the perfect heir to my empire.My men have been training with him, and it’s shocking how powerful he is.”

Training? What the hell did he mean by that? Was he putting Ashton through similar work that Cole had been doing? Trying to turn Ashton into some sort of soldier who would carry out Kyle’s sick plans?

“I always knew he was strong,” I said, unsure what else to say to keep the conversation going.

“You should know, I’ve had a few reports from my men about wolves patrolling the area around Harbor Mills, North Crest, and a few other areas. Most likely, they’re Cole’s forces trying to get intel on me. As much as I want to talk to you, I’ll need to sever contact until things have reached their conclusion.”

“Conclusion?” I asked dumbly.

Kyle chuckled. “Everything will be over soon. Within the next forty-eight hours, Cole will be dead, Harbor Mills will be ours, and I can take you to bed and claim you. Until then, stay safe.”

The phone went dead. I almost sobbed, but I was too busy thinking to give in. What had Ash been trying to tell me? That whole thing about the dog? What the hell?

Things weren’t what they seemed.

Was he trying to tell me something without Kyle hearing?Things weren’t what they seemed. The only thing I could think was that he was telling me something about the whole situation was off. Could that be it? Was it about the training Kyle had mentioned? If that was the case, why would Ashton think he needed to hide that information when Kyle had been forthcoming with it? I hissed a breath through my teeth. Whycouldn’t Kyle have given him a few minutes alone rather than him being forced to use some code to get information across? Then there’d been that last little bit about not calling again. Cole didn’t have a temper like Ashton had said. That was obvious. He didn’t want me calling again, but why?

The only consolation I had was the fact that he sounded healthy and relatively safe. Not that it did anything to ease my worries. Kyle was becoming more unhinged by the day. Anything might end up tipping him over the edge into a full-blown maniac.

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