Page 70 of Hunted Mate
“Good luck with that. In the meantime, your pack is on its knees for her, and she has the resources to take everything. It’s likely not your lab anymore, Father. It’s hers. You engineered your own demise, old man.”
“I still own all I own.”
“True, but the pack itself has shifted loyalty. They will not forget the experience they had, submitting as a group to the embodiment of pure, raw, female energy.” I say the wordsslowly, enjoying them, and the effect they’re having on Orion and Karl. They are visibly uncomfortable at what I am saying, and being reminded that raw femininity ruined all their plans in an instant.
“You’ve never managed to bring that to the pack. You’ve brought single alpha male energy. Rough, pointless, self-serving dominance that doesn’t even love its children. And now they have her. She’s more powerful. She’s more wild. And she’s nicer.”
Appearing almost as summoned, Callie shows up with some donuts on a plate, the perfect little feral hostess.
“Have some snackies,” she says, presenting the plate in both hands. She’s taken the time to brush her hair, put on a nice new dress, oh, and find an apron from somewhere with frills around the edges. She is the perfect picture of a domestic goddess. “If you don’t like sprinkles, I think we have some plain ones back in the kitchen? The ones with pink icing are delicious.”
“Wolves don’t want pink icing,” Orion snarls. “They will return to me. I will make an army of werewolves.”
“Oh, never mind,” Callie grins, wandering off again. She is enjoying herself far too much. I’ve never seen a battle won with catering, but she is doing it.
“You couldn’t handle the one,” I tell him.
“And you think you can?”
“I already know I can, because unlike you, I won’t abandon my mate when things get hard, then go and knock up someone else just to feel like I’m still a man. My pups will be from the same werewolf. They will have her blood.”
“And mine,” he points out.
“A shame that cannot be avoided,” I snap back.
I am taking pleasure in watching him lose everything in real time. It is starting to dawn that the twenty or so members of the pack who fled instead of submitted are not the strongest, or the most useful. They are the weakest. They are the ones who fled from the ultimate incarnation of our kind, a pure blending of man and wolf.
“We need more pastry,” the pure beast who is my mate, and heiress to the Hart fortune, says from somewhere inside the conservatory, her voice carrying across the lawn to the driveway where I and my father are finally having our long overdue reckoning. “Toaster strudel? Does that count? It’s a box of six.”
I look at my father. My father looks at me.
“It’s not that easy to run a pack. It takes more than being able to walk upright as a wolf and offer people toasted pastry,” he says. “It involves hard decisions and tactics. It means being able to manage budgets. Knowing where the bodies are buried. Knowing who your enemies are, and keeping them close. You’re not ready to take over from me.”
“I’m not going to take over from you.”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to have to do. She’s a baby orphan who happens to have a specific mutation that makes the pack drop at her feet. But she’s your mate. She’s submissive to you—and without you, she’s chaos incarnate. So yes, my son, you are going to have to take over for me. It’s not going to be a satisfying conquest.” He smirks at me, as if he’s just figured out what he thinks is a winning move.
“I’m going to take my youngest kids and my prettiest, most recent wife, and we’re going to move to Hawaii. I don’t give a fuck what happens to the rest of you.”
Callie shows up again at this point. She smells sweet and rich. Or maybe that’s the pastry.
“Are you two hungry? It’s been a big day,” she smiles. She has a tray of toaster pastry now. It smells like icing and trans fats. Perfect.
Orion looks her up and down, and snorts at me.
“My father is moving to Hawaii,” I tell her.
“Oh? But who will hatch the evil laboratory plans?” Callie hands me the toaster pastry and advances on my father, in spite of the fact that she is almost two feet shorter than him in this form. “Who will alienate their adult children and pit them against one another?”
“You think it’s so easy,” he says. “But the truth is, your parents didn’t live long enough to disappoint you. I hope you live long enough to realize that you’re not going to be any better than I was.”
Oh, shit. Nobody told the old man never to mention Callie’s parents. I did it once and lived to regret it.
Smack!
The sound of Callie’s hand slapping my father’s face echoes through the clearing. I push in front of her before he can hit her back, and stay his hand, which was already in motion.
“My parents loved me!” Callie is emotional. “Not being able to survive a plane crash is not the same as making your kid killpeople to keep your secrets. You’re a… a…” she casts around for the right word. “A real dick.”
