Page 91 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
Doc cursed under his breath when he saw Mom, scoping the Alpha wound immediately. He didn’t waste time in greeting me, immediately starting to treat his patient. He knew that formalities meant nothing to me as my mom lay dying on the bed in front of us.
I backed away as he worked, pressing my spine to the wall. My blood coursed boiling hot through my veins, and my hands clenched into fists. My wolf’s growling became more insistent and he began banging around inside me, scratching for control. It was annoying and distracting, but I wouldn’t ask him to stop. My muscles were so tense that veins stood out visibly on my arms and my legs. It felt wrong for me to just stand there, doing nothing as Doc saved her life.
“Come on, Violet,” he mumbled under his breath, pouring some fluid onto a strip of cloth. “This isn’t your time to die.” He touched her forehead, her hair.
She groaned, her fingers twitching at his voice and touch.
He took a deep breath and pressed the cloth to her neck. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She arched off the bed, gasping with pain. It was too much for me to watch, to hear. I stormed out of the room, ripping the doorknob free from the door as I did. My heart pounded hard in my chest, my fangs slowly elongating. I was going out, I was going to find my mate, and I was going to murder Redwolf.
But a hand gripped my shoulder, bringing me up short. I snatched myself away from the hand, tearing my shirt in theprocess, whirling around to find my beta standing there. Dom’s face was pale and pinched tight, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. His eyes were full of concern.
“Night, you can’t leave.”
“What do you mean?” Speaking through sharpened fangs, my voice was a barely discernable growl. “My sister is out there. Mymateis out there.” Tavi and I weren’t blood, but that didn’t matter. She was pack, and she was family. “Who knows what Troy and his lackeys are doing to them?”
Dom raked a hand through his gold hair. “Do you think I don’t know that?” he demanded. “I’m trying not to fucking torture myself by thinking about that right now.”
He and I stood in the foyer of my cabin. I was feet away from the door, feet away from feeling the moon-chilled air across my face as I hunted Redwolf down. But my beta was stopping me.
I understood that he was hurting, too, but there was blood that needed to be spilled. “I have to go,” I said, turning back to the door.
I was within feet of the door, but this time, Dom put himself in my way, blocking the door with his body.
“Move!” I snarled.
“No.” Dom’s eyes glowed amber. “You need to stop and focus. We have no idea where the fuck they are, and we have no way to find them. We need to be here for Violet right now.”
My wolf snapped and snarled inside me. He was halfway to taking control of me already. Outside the cabin, I sensed the presence of my strongest wolves pacing around, waiting for my orders, standing by just as I wanted them to. Their agitation fedmine. “Do notspeak to me about my mother, Dom,” I snapped. “Youcan stay. I’ll take a team and track themmyself!”
“Fuck you, Night!” His fangs were sharpening, too. His voice was growling almost as much as mine. “You think you can reliably track anything in this state? And even if you were able to, do you think you would be of any use to them? Fuckingthink, Night! You’re not the only one who cares about them!”
I took a step toward my beta. “Don’t make me hurt you, Dom.”
He didn’t back down. “Going in half-cocked will put the girls at greater risk, Night, and I’m not prepared to fuck around with their safety. I want to get out there just as fucking badly as you, but the only way you’re getting through this door is if you use your Alpha voice on me. Are you that far gone, Night?”
I was tempted to do it, to make Dom bend to my power, but I’d sworn to him that I would never do that. To me, it defeated the purpose of having a beta if I could just exert my will over him whenever I wanted. It was the path of a tyrant, not a leader.
No, I wasn’t that far gone.
With a loud snarl, I punched a hole through the wall next to the door. When I pulled my hand back, there was blood and sawdust on my knuckles, but the wounds were already healing. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I tried to soothe my wolf and my heartbeat. Dom was right; as desperately as I wanted to go out anddosomething, I didn’t want to put Tavi and Bryn’s safety at further risk.
After a few tense moments, Dom stepped away from the door and put his hand on my shoulder, where the shirt was torn.
The scene struck me as familiar. In the days following the raid that had taken the lives of Dom’s parents, almost twelve years ago now, Dom had often wandered off alone. He hadn’t wanted to speak to anyone or eat or drink anything. I had found him standing against a tree in the forest by himself with tears streaking down his face. Back then, Dom had been scrawny, almost gangly, and he was quick to argue and deflect rather than talk about his emotions. That was something I understood.
I’d seen others try and fail to connect with him, so instead of talking, I had simply leaned against the tree next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. We stood in silence for a long time, until Dom finally broke down in tears. I said nothing while he cried, and I never moved from that spot. I let Dom have that moment and offered my presence as comfort.
And now, over a decade later, Dom was doing the same for me.
I took another deep breath and nodded. “Alright. I’m calmer.”
Dom let his hand fall. “I’m sorry, Night. I wish we could go out to find them.”
So did I. I opened my eyes and cracked my knuckles. “Send out anyone we’ve got—hunters, sentinels, anyone not on duty—and tell them to fan out to find Tavi and Bryn. They can’t have gone too far.”
Dom nodded. I caught relief in his smile. “I can do that. I’ll let you know the moment they have any leads.”
