Page 299 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
That didn’t bode well. After what I’d learned from the elders, I didn’t want my mate to keep me in the dark about anything.
I went to our room with a full laundry basket. “Night,” I called, “when you’re done in there, could you help me fold some laundry?”
He grunted in response, which rubbed me the wrong way. Why was he acting like this? He’d started being more open about his days, but the way he was acting now reminded me of when we’d first met. Back then, he’d been rude and cagey—a real asshole, to be honest. I’d thought we’d left that phase of our life behind, dammit.
While he finished up his shower, I yanked sheets from the mattress and replaced them with clean linens that smelled like lavender. The calming scent did nothing to settle my nerves, though.
Eventually, he emerged from the shower in a cloud of steam with a towel wrapped around his waist. No matter how frustrated I was with him, I couldn’t help noticing what a beautiful man he was—hard muscles imprinted with scars from past battles, intricate tattoos that spread from his tanned right shoulder to his wrist. I loved watching his hard muscles shift under his soft skin.
When he dropped the towel, I tore my eyes away from him and focused on the laundry. I would not let his sexiness distract me.
“How was your day?” I asked.
He walked to the dresser to get clothes. “Not very interesting.”
“You don’t want to talk about it?” I asked. “Why? Did something happen?”
He mumbled something noncommittal under his breath.
“All right, I’ll talk about my day first,” I said. “I met with the elders today.”
“Oh, right.” He stood on the other side of the bed and grabbed a few items of clothing to fold. “I forgot that was today. How did it go?”
“It was productive, but from what they told me, this stuff about the portal is even more dangerous than we thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“The portals could be gateways to riches or immortality, but many legends say that they’ll take the summoner to a fiery hellscape. That tells me that Troy and his dad were desperate enough to risk condemning themselves just to achieve their crazy goals.”
“That sounds intense.” He picked off a piece of lint from one of the shirts in his pile.
Was it just me, or was Night not paying full attention to what I was saying? I watched him as I folded a T-shirt.
“They had more information about the symbols I saw in the vision, too,” I went on. “They were able to find some of them in mythological texts, but a lot of what I drew for them were actually combinations of preexisting symbols. Like whoever put them on the walls was trying to make a new language.”
“Uh huh?” He didn’t sound interested.
“But the rituals they need to perform all need blood from children or a pack mother.” I paused. When he didn’t respond, I said, “So, the blood of a pregnant descendant of a pack mother would be exactly what they needed if they wanted to try opening a portal.”
He sighed and looked up at me. “Bryn, you already know I’d never let anything happen to you. I’ll be damned if Troy ever gets within five feet of you or our pup.”
I reached for more laundry. That deadpan tone told me he wasn’t invested or interested in having this conversation. I didn’t doubt that he loved me and wanted to protect me, but it didn’t feel like he was present or cared what I was saying.
“So,” I prompted, “what did you do today?”
He sighed. “Dom and I watched the builders finish painting the last cabin. We can finally put our focus back on building Warg properties, and Graham seemed impressed by that.”
“That’s great news.” I meant it. Anything that involved progress was encouraging. “So, what were you doing on the training grounds?”
He didn’t answer, his eyes glued to the laundry as if it was the most important thing in the room.
“Did you…speak to Lance?” I asked.
“A little bit, yeah.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Not much.”
