Page 184 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
When we stepped into the office, Tavi let out a gasp. “Wow. You weren’t kidding.”
“Yeah. I wanted to go through the accounts, but at this rate, I’ll be lucky if we can finish organizing before the end of the day.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. Let’s just see what we can do now.”
“Sure.”
The most intimidating mountain of paperwork was on the birchwood desk. Corners of paper stuck out at random points of the messy stack. If we weren’t careful, we’d pluck out one of the pages holding the pile in place.
Tavi and I took each side of the mass and carefully dismantled it. Though I hadn’t set out to look through the papers until they were more orderly, I couldn’t help but glance at them as we collected them.
There were a lot of overdue bills, requests for repairs, complaints about various goings-on around the pack. Unsurprisingly, it looked like Troy hadn’t taken his responsibilities as alpha very seriously. Very little, if anything, had been handled as far back as a few months ago when Gregor showed signs of being sick. It was as if Troy had never intended to do a good job as alpha. His methods of dealing with his pack were deplorable, but some of these requests were for things the pack needed, like a construction request for a new shop at the market.
My stomach lurched. I pressed a hand to my mouth and closed my eyes. A wave of nausea hit me like a brick.
Tavi glanced at me when I dropped a sheaf of papers. “Hey, are you okay, Bryn?”
“I don’t know…I think so? My stomach hasn’t been agreeing with me the past few mornings.”
“You look a little pale.” She came over to me and pressed the back of her hand against my forehead. “You don’t feel feverish. Something you ate, maybe?”
“That’s what I thought at first, but it’s been pretty consistent since Troy escaped. I’ve also been getting these headaches.” I touched my temples—the pain had lessened, but I felt the lingering ache as I talked about it.
“It could be stress,” she said.
“Stress?”
“Yeah. You say you’ve started feeling this way since Troy escaped, right?Everyone’sbeen on edge—and I’m including myself in that. If you’re so stressed that you’re experiencing physical symptoms, I think you should take a break.”
I frowned. “I don’t know…I can’t afford to take one with all this overdue paperwork.”
She quirked a brow. “You’re talking to your beta right now. It’s my job to keep you as healthy as possible.”
I smiled even as my stomach continued to churn. “That’s true, but how can I leave all of this behind?”
“Why don’t you leave the organizing to me and head to your mom’s? It’s been a while since you’ve seen her, hasn’t it?”
I tried not to wince at the reminder. I’d been so busy that I hadn’t visited Mom in days. Going to see her would be nice. It had been a while since we had talked, and she might have tea or some other remedy to take care of my nausea. If nothing else, a bit of fresh air would probably help.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll leave the organizing to you.”
“Great.” She smiled, then added telepathically,“And I’ll reach out if I need anything, okay?”
I laughed. Being able to talk to each other at any time would take some getting used to, but I was glad for it. Having Tavi in my mind wasn’t unpleasant at all. In fact, it was as comforting as having my wolf.
“Sounds good. We’ll catch up later.”
The walk to my mother’s cabin took about fifteen minutes. The morning air was clear and fresh, and the sky a bright azure. As I walked through the compound, nobody jeered at me or sent me strange looks as they had after I beat Troy in the alpha ceremony. It seemed to finally sink in that I was their alpha.You’d think nearly killing Troy right in front of them would have been enough. At least they’re giving me some space now.
One familiar face stood out to me from a group of male wolves near one of the rebuilding sites. He looked around my age, with short, wavy auburn hair. He was very muscular, maybe even bigger than Night or Dom, and had sky-blue eyes tinged with silver when the light hit them. He didn’t look like the type who would sell wares at the market; with that kind of physique, he was probably a fighter.
His name came to me when he met my gaze. Lance. I’d seen him around the compound when I was a teenager. I’d always kept mydistance from him because he was close to Troy. He smiled at me, and I looked away. He had never participated in the bullying Troy and his goons had put me through, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t just as mean as them.
I jogged up the steps to Mom’s front door and knocked. “It’s me,” I called.
“You know you don’t have to knock, baby,” she called back. “Come in!”
I laughed and pushed open the door. The moment I did, I smelled mint, chamomile, and rosemary. Mom was already making tea.
