Page 53 of Claimed By the Wolf
All around us, the Willow Grove pack members shift into their animal forms, outnumbering us, their sights set predominantly on me.
This is going to be the end for me, I’m sure, but at least I’ll go down fighting for the female I love.
Snout to snout, Emeric and I face off, huffing, our eyes clashing. I desperately want to look back and see if Brynn made it to the car safely, but I don’t dare look away.
Emeric’s fury is tangible through the thick of his chocolate-colored fur, his eyes flashing. He feels betrayed, and nothing I can do or say will make it right now.
It has to be this way.
Through my peripheral view, Brax’s ebony fur stands on end, each one of us waiting for the other to make the first move that will inevitably lead to a long and drawn-out war.
“Please! Don’t do this!” Brynn cries from the hillside. “You don’t understand! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, Emeric!”
He releases a primal grunt, and I snap my head toward her, urging her to run with my eyes. To my horror, Brynn descends into the pit of animals, the Willow Grove members hissing and snapping at her, fueling my anger when she passes.
Brax rushes to stay on her heels, but she holds out a hand to keep him back. “No! Just let me talk to him,” she begs. “The one thing we haven’t tried is honesty.”
She stops in front of us, kneeling to meet us both at eye level. She cups my head first before turning to Emeric, who snaps at her furiously, but Brynn doesn’t back away.
“Please hear me out,” she pleads. “I don’t know you well, Emeric, but I think you’re a rational leader. You don’t want to go to war over this, over me.”
She places a hand on his fur and stares imploringly into his snarling snout. “We didn’t know we were bonded until after I was promised to you. By then, it was too late to back out of the arrangement.”
Emeric morphs back into his human body, and one of his pack members hurries to find him clothes as he snorts in disbelief. “You expect me to accept that?”
“It’s what happened.” She looks toward me and then Brax for confirmation.
I shift back with Brax, scouring for the remnants of tattered clothes to dress.
“She’s not lying,” I tell him begrudgingly. “We didn’t want to lose the alliance. But think about it? Why would we do something like that? It was a misunderstanding, but one we didn’t know how to undo.”
Emeric’s face twists into a grimace of disgust as he pulls on a pair of jeans and slips a t-shirt over his head. “So, it’s just a coincidence that your mate happened to be the one you chose to come here,” he laughs humorlessly. “I find that hard to believe.”
“No.” I stare at Brynn admiringly. “Brynn has always been the one I’ve trusted most, well before our bond. She’s our pack’s rock, its foundation. It was fitting that she would be the one who joined our packs together.”
Her eyes lock with mine, and that pulse of energy we had tried so hard to keep under wraps finally flows freely between us. My heart pounds, her scent enveloping me as I exhale a breath I feel I’ve been holding since this whole thing started.
A cat’s meow distracts me as a black cat rubs itself against Emeric’s leg, her eyes staring wisely up at him. The corners of the Alpha’s lips twitch, and he looks away.
“Okay, Alessa,” he mutters.
The cat sashays off, swishing her tail.
“You handled this terribly,” Emeric tells us. “You embarrassed all of us.”
He looks at his pack and back at us.
I purse my lips, not wanting to admit fault, but Brynn’s gentle hazel stare forces me to concede slightly.
“We did what we thought was best for the pack,” I tell him. “You would have done the same.”
An odd expression overtakes his face. “We all make choices we have to live with when it comes to love. Some of us don’t get a second chance.”
His words send a chill through me, and my neck tenses as I prepare to shift again. “What are you saying, Emeric? You’re not going to let Brynn go?”
He casts her another look, his eyes trailing over her with a fusion of annoyance and admiration.
“You can have your mate, Nox. I have no use for another Alpha’s mate.”
