Page 263 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Xavier has proven himself to be our strongest prospect,” Ross said. “Given his history as a fighter, it will be interesting to see how he performs.”
I filed that name away to tell Night. “Will I still serve as interim alpha until the challenge?”
“Yes. Once the challenge is over, you can move to your den mother position if you’re up to it.”
“I understand,” I forced myself to say. “Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”
Silence answered me, so I gave them a single nod of farewell and turned to leave. I still wanted to tell them off, but I needed to let that go.
The middle-aged wolf who had escorted me here was waiting for me when I left the building, but I snuck past him. Allowing a King to follow me around was a recipe for disaster. If I came across him again, I’d go off on him, and I wouldn’t care who was around to see me do it.
When I successfully avoided him, I walked with purpose. Now that the time until the alpha challenge had been sliced in half, it was much more important to update Night as soon as I could.
98
NIGHT
After kissing Bryn goodbye, I planned to meet up with Dom but decided to stop at the library. All the talk about fate and magic reminded me of the portal legend Gregor and Troy supposedly believed. I wanted to know if anything in the Kings’ libraries had more information. Gregor had hoarded most of the books about it and stored them away somewhere, but he might have missed something.
I spotted Tavi in one of the rows, debating between two novels.
“Hey, Tav,” I said, walking toward her.
She flinched but relaxed when she saw me. “Hey, Night. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I just thought I’d do some light reading,” I joked. “What about you? Looking through the romances?”
She snorted. “I haven’t had the stomach for romance lately. I’m trying to decide if this novel about battles in space is more appealing than this one about battles in space.” She put thebooks back on the shelf. “I want something that will help me relax, but I don’t know if science fiction is doing it for me.”
“Do you want to go outside for a bit?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
We headed outside and moved into the trees until we found a massive oak tree. We climbed it the way we used to when we were kids. I sat on one of the thicker branches, and she took one a bit higher than me.
“Well, this takes me back,” I said. “We haven’t been tree-climbing in, what, ten years?”
“At least,” she said. Smiling, she peered down at me through the leaves. “So what’s going on? Is Bryn okay?”
“She’s fine. Actually, I think she’s doing a little better than fine after last night.”
She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Gross, Night. I hope you didn’t interrupt me just to talk about what you and my best friend do in your alone time.”
I plucked an acorn from my branch and tossed it at her. “Don’t be an idiot, Tav.”
The way she joked with me wasn’t the same as the Tavi I’d grown up with, but the fact that she still joked eased some of my worries about her.
A warm breeze chased through the leaves, and Tavi let out a long sigh. Now was a good time to ask how she felt about Dom.
“So, you and Dom,” I began slowly. “Are you interested in him?”
There was a pause, and then a handful of acorns bounced off the top of my head. I looked up at her bright red face. “Um, ouch?” I said.
She was still flushed, but her tone was teasing when she said, “That was probably the most awkward way you could ask me a question like that, Night Shepherd.”
“Can you blame me? It’s an awkward subject for me to bring up.”
“Then why are you?”
