Page 144 of Mate
The breeze breathes through the trees. A too-long silence ticks by. I briefly avert my eyes, and he does the same. There’s a tic in his jaw, and I’m wringing my hands.
“If— ” I start, just as he says, “You— ”
We stop. His lips curl into a smile. Mine don’t. This territory, it’s uncharted.
“You first,” he says.
“Right. Thanks.” I don’t know why my throat feels like it’s seizing up. “The business with the Vampyres . . . is it over?”
“Owen cleaned up the council,” he says evenly. “There no longer is a bounty on you and Ana.”
“Good. Yeah, I . . . Good. In that case . . .” Why am I having to remind myself that this is precisely what I wanted? “I no longer have my phone, because of the . . . Can I borrow yours? I need to get in touch with Nele and . . . and Misery. We need to figure out . . . well.” My turn to smile. Koen’s mouth tightens. “Everything.”
He nods, likeyes, of course, he’s going to hand me his phone. But says, “C’mere, killer.”
I hang back, unsure.
“Serena. Come.”
This time I go. Stop a foot away from him. Pretend his scent doesn’t feel like home, like a blanket, like he’s holding me already, and that my heart doesn’t drop into my stomach as he says, “I’m going to step down.”
I ask, “From what?” But I already know, so I don’t give him time to answer. “Why?” Regrettably, I already knowthat, too. That only leaves me with “You can’t.”
“See, that’s the thing about being Alpha. I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
“Are you— Please tell me you are joking.”
“While I’m widely known for my prankster personality and comedic timing, no. I’m not joking. Not about this.”
“You . . . We talked about this.” I sound shrill. “The pack is too important to you. And you are necessary to the pack.”
“Things have changed.”
“Things—nothinghas changed. You love the Northwest more than anything.”
“Not more than anything, Serena.”
His words are like a rock in my gut, sinking further by the second. I’m surprised I’m still upright. “You can’t,” I whisper. “You don’t have a successor picked out.”
“I’ll wait until the situation with Irene is resolved,” he says, like he has aplan. “Then one of my seconds will take over.”
“Who?”
“Amanda is the most— ”
“Amanda doesn’t want to be Alpha. And she’s not established like you— people would challenge her.”
“She can win any challenge.”
“All of them? Are you sure? Because it would only take one loss, and she’d be dead. And even if she does win, what about Saul? They’re off now, but who knows when they’ll be on again?”
His lips flatten. “Whoever takes over, it wouldn’t have to be permanent. And we will stick around. I can act as an advisor for a while.”
“We?” I sound frantic. “We’re not— Don’t say ‘we.’?”
“It doesn’t have to be Amanda. There are several dominant Weres in the pack. Most are young, but they could take over in a couple of years, and I would trust them to— ”
“Koen, no. You actuallylikebeing Alpha. Youliveto order people around.”
