Page 33 of Claimed By the Wolf
Great. Just fucking great.
I eye him warningly. “Did you have something you wanted to add?”
“You can’t go,” Brax tells me flatly.
“I’m the fucking Alpha. I have to go,” I bark, outraged at this intervention.
“I’ll go in your place,” my Beta tells me.
Anger clouds my vision, and I wonder if he’s been conspiring with Connor during guard duty to confront me in front of the pack.
“What is going on?” Ryland calls out.
The pack shuffles awkwardly as I glower at Connor, who meets my stare defiantly.
“Are you going to tell them?” he hisses.
This ends right now.
Furiously, I advance on the wolf, and he cowers as my hand curls around the cuff of his shirt.
Dancing him back against the wall, I pin him up, baring my fangs. “You should remember your place,” I snarl. “I’m still the Alpha, and if you want to remain in this pack, I suggest you try to remember that.”
“Nox!” Brax cries, his hand on my arm. “Don’t.”
Snarling, I release Connor’s quivering form into a heap on the floor and glare at Brax before turning to confront the rest of my pack. Like it or not, they need to know the truth about Brynn and me.
Connor scrambles to his feet and scurries out of the way, glowering hatefully at me, but I ignore him. I’m not prepared to tell them about this, but it needs to be said.
“Everything will proceed as planned. Brynn…” To my horror, my voice falters when I speak her name, and the pack instantly notices.
“Did she back out? Is she not going with Emeric?” Ryland calls out.
“It’s still happening. The party is tonight. You’ll go. We’re all going.”
“You can’t go!” Brax explodes. “There’s no way!”
“Why not?” someone calls. “He’s the Alpha. Emeric won’t like that!”
“Because he and my sister are fated mates,” Brax explains when I don’t.
Dead silence follows Brax’s explanation, but every set of eyes is on me. The front door opens again, and the last of the pack’s enforcers on duty filters inside, laughing and oblivious to the chaos that was just unleashed.
The newcomers grin at us, but their smiles fade when they read the tension. “What’s going on?”
“Is that some kind of joke?” Ryland challenges, ignoring the question from his packmate. “That’s impossible! They’ve known each other for their entire lives.”
“Is it true, Alpha?”
“Is this some kind of smear campaign?” someone else asks, and I almost smile at her loyalty.
“It’s true,” Connor hisses. “I saw it myself. And if those two are anywhere near each other, Emeric and his pack will sense it, too. We’ll be fucked.”
A din erupts in the room like nothing I’ve ever heard, full chaos emerging. I jump onto the coffee table, knocking over the remaining beer bottles with a smash, and the group falls silent as I growl at them. “You will keep it together,” I order them. “All we need to do is get through tonight, and everything will be fine.”
Skeptical looks follow my proclamation.
“How?” Ryland questions. “If Emeric finds out you’re giving him your mate, he’ll think you’re sending a spy! You need to send him someone else.”
