Page 69 of Marked

“I suppose so. You’ll need to tell me who the fuck he is first, though.”

“Richard Masters. Son of Lincoln and Madison Masters.”

“You say that like I should know who the rich pricks are. Info, Ollie. Give me fuckinginfo.”

“Sorry,” he grunted. “I forget you aren’t in this pack sometimes.”

The words irked me, but I let him continue without saying anything.

“Lincoln Masters is a shifter. A high-ranking member of the Toronto-Ottawa pack, and a self-made millionaire to boot. He’s married to Madison Masters, a human. Lady comes fromoldmoney. Like, railroads and newspapers old.

“Lincoln left his old pack and came to join ours thirty or so years back. Since the Masters showed up, Lincoln has beenjockeying for control of the Toronto pack. It got bad when Quintin Bishop died.”

“Quintin Bishop?” The name rang a bell.

“He was the last alpha prior to JC. Alec Dupont was one of Quintin’s right-hand men, and that’s why he took over as interim alpha. JC was chosen as next in line because he was the strongest and most powerful alpha the Toronto-Ottawa pack had seen in generations. It was a foregone conclusion even before Quintin died that JC would take over one day. Alec was just a placeholder until JC came of age. Everyone was cool with it.” He paused. “Everyone but Lincoln Masters, that is.”

I sighed, leaning back against the concrete wall of the building. “This is reading like a goddamned soap opera. Get to the point, Ollie.”

“I’m trying. To have a chance of being alpha of a pack and to prevent outside members from swooping in for some sort of hostile takeover, a shifter has to have a three-generation link to the pack. Meaning, to have a shot, you need to have atleasta father, son, and grandson born as members of the pack to be considered established enough to vie for leadership.”

“Let me guess,” I’d said. “Rick is Daddy’s most precious boy, and he thinks he should be alpha over JC?”

“Bingo. He and his wife Madison are snobbish pricks, and everyone knows it. JC wasn’t poor, but he was definitely what you’d call middle-class, and that didn’t fly with Lincoln. If his wife ever found out about her husband and son’s true natures, I’m sure she wouldn’t like it, either.” He chuckled. “Some fucking commoner being in charge of them? It probably eats at Lincoln night and day.”

The threads were coming together. The extreme aggression Rick had shown upon seeing me, the protective way he hovered near Cameron. It came from his bond with her, sure, but also outside pressure, if I had to guess.

“Daddy Lincoln needs a grandson,” I said.

“That’s what I’m thinking, too. Rick Masters may genuinely care for Cameron, but he may be using her as well. Mate with her, knock her up, andboom, he’s eligible and willing to fight JC for control of the whole damn thing.” Ollie sighed. “This is crazy. Rick Masters could have any shifter woman he wanted. Why go for a human?”

“I already told you,” I said. “He’s bonded to her. The guy’s attached. Probably caught a whiff of her pheromones and zeroed in on her. His wolf is screaming she’s a good mate, so he pounces. He’s like a damned leech on her from what I’ve seen. The guy could find another woman, but once the bond is in place, it’s hard to break. You know that as well as I do. Shifters get with humans all the time. That wouldn’t preclude him from being a pack alpha.”

“True, I suppose,” Ollie considered.

“I need to go. Thanks for the intel,” I’d said. “I’ll call with any more questions. I need you to get some cops to watch out for her. I, uh, need to do some work and can’t watch her nonstop.”

In truth, I’d been worried I wouldn’t be able to control myself around her. I needed a clear head to catch this feral, and Cameron was making everything fuzzy in my mind.

“I think I can swing that,” Ollie said. “At least for a few days.”

“Great. Thanks. As soon as possible. And make sure they stay out of sight.”

“Yes, sir,” Ollie grunted sarcastically.

I’d hung up then, sitting there running it over in my head before moving my bike out of sight of the apartment. Now, as I rolled back over for more crunches, more details emerged as I worked it over in my head.

Rick was a shifter and bonded to Cameron. Okay, fine. Whatever. But if that was the case, why thefuckwasn’t he taking better care of her? There was no way he hadn’t smelled thatferal lone wolf on her. That, along with him knowing she’d been attacked, should have had him on high alert.

With a grunt of anger, I rolled to my feet and began pounding on the dummy again, not bothering to put on my gloves. The thought of Cameron in danger filled me with rage. The fact that this dude, who was supposedlybondedto her, was doing jack shit to protect her irritated me, too.

With a final right cross, the arm of the dummy snapped off and went flying across the ring.

“Shit,” I muttered.

Not only did I have to deal with a territorial and incompetent boyfriend, but now I had to break the news to Cameron that her life would never be the same. The tests had come back positive. She had a shifter in the male line of her ancestry. The genetic link had been low, so probably as far back as a great-great-grandfather or something, but it was enough.

The bite had made it a foregone conclusion. Cameron was going to become a shifter.

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