Page 35 of Mated
“On what’s in it for me,” she says coolly.
I blink. “Since when does theLoitímertake recompense for aiding the pack?”
She looks at me. “Things are changing, Tanner. We can't all survive on the scraps the Alpha feels generous enough to toss our way. Surelyyoucan sense that.”
The jab is pointed and cold.
Glaring, I purposefully open myself up to theciorcal. My body tightens like a tuning fork.
The energy flowing through the land is weak, almost non-fucking-existent. It ebbs and flows like a tide or maybe water trickling through the rocks of a brook.
“Where is the power?” I ask, voice low, edged.
She walks up next to me. “Callus takes most of it and does not share it with any but those he deems worthy.”
The growl that pulls from me is ripped from between my rapidly changing teeth. “The circuit is meant to be shared. Not withheld.”
“I knew you would grasp the problem,” Ebony says. I look at her, noting the long white teeth of her beast form as she smiles.
“What do you want from me?”
Her eyes glitter. “Challenge Callus. Retake the pack.”
I back up. “I can't.”
“Can't or won't, Tanner?” she asks, voice hardening. “We know what you are.Whoyou are. Why do you continue to deny it? Why come back here if you have no intention of claiming what is yours?”
My eyes trail of their own accord to Nisha. She stands with Daisy near the edge of the trees, her sea foam gaze locked on me and the woman at my side.
“A human?” Ebony hisses. “You would deny your people for one of the flesh bags?”
I snarl. “I denymypeople nothing. And thathumanwas attacked on Silver Rock land, Ebony. I need to know who was near the basin last night.”
She watches me, a trace of gold light filtering into her irises as the wolf under her skin begs to come play. “I won't sell out my pack for nothing.”
“But you would sell them out for power?” I ask, advancing on her. At just under six feet tall, Ebony comes to my jaw. She’s tall, lean. Powerful. She doesn't back down.
Her teeth gnash. “Not all here aremypack. I ask for a sip. A taste of what I could be. Of what we all could be.” She tracks her glittering gaze over my face. “I will swear fealty to you, and you alone.”
My heart slams, and I know she can hear it.
Where Ebony goes, her thetas go. I glance past her to the two large timber wolves. Low in power, but high in strength. They have the force to barrel through anyone present. To tear them down. Or apart. Depending on Ebony's mood.
“What say you, Alpha?” One dark hand flows down my chest, idly petting me. I grab her wrist, fingers overlapping and digging into the thin bones of her wrist.
“Don't call me that,” I snap.
She preens. “Then you agree?”
To take them as pack is the first line in the proverbial fucking sand. A line I never wanted to draw. Daisy would be better suited as Alpha. More stable. Sane.
The cat inside of me rails as I wait, trying to rip through my skin in an Alpha shift. To do what I walked away from years ago. I force the cat into submission, near to doubling in half from the pain it causes. My eyes lock with Ebony’s shining gaze. She knows she has me.
I growl, grab her by the back of the neck, and wrench her to me. My lips slant over hers with force.
She purrs, feasting at me. But my power breaks free to spill between us. It flows from my mouth to hers, filling her reserves and overflowing. My body responds whether I want it to or not.
My dick hardens at the seductive press, an exchange that is not meant for such intimate contact. Not unless it is between mates.
