Page 54 of In Your Eyes
“We’re in the car,” I pointed out sharply.
“Uh-huh.”
“And we’re about to visit your friend and his family to talk about very serious matters.”
After seemingly thinking that over for a few seconds, he said, “Good point. Getting you all hot and bothered when I can’t do anything about it sucks. I’ll cool it for now and then talk dirty again when we’re heading home. That way the only sucking will be the good kind.”
There was absolutely no way for me to keep the image of his lips wrapped around my cock out of my head. None. My dick went from semihard to ready to go.
“Korban,” I groaned.
“Okay, I’ll stop!” He chuckled a bit more and then cleared his throat. “So what were we talking about?”
I had no idea. My attention was well and truly thrown.
“Oh, right. My uncle’s weird thing about you taking over the Miancarem pack by pretending to be my mate. It makes no sense. Plus, he has to know that if he’s actually Alpha and you want to take the pack, all you have to do is challenge him. He won’t stand a chance against you in human form, and your wolf will eviscerate him in seconds.”
My mate thought I was strong. I puffed up with pride. Truly, I had never had so much trouble focusing.
“Actually, I can’t challenge him,” I said. “Even if he was Alpha of Miancarem, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I had my chance in the ring with your father and I got disqualified, which is the same thing as losing. The rules prohibit a shifter from trying to lead a pack through a challenge more than once.”
“They do?”
The first thing I’d do as Alpha would be talk with theschoolteachers. We had to implement studies about pack rules. Though some of our pack lore had turned out to be false and the rules were considered antiquated, they were still enforced, and it wasn’t safe for shifters to grow up with no knowledge of them.
“Yes. Otherwise, a shifter who wants to be Alpha would keep calling for a challenge over and over again,” I explained.
“But fights in the ring are usually to the death.”
“They are unless someone admits defeat and surrenders. If a shifter knows he can come back and try again another day, then he might do exactly that. Call a challenge, fight until he sees he’s losing, then surrender, and start the whole thing over again when he’s healed.” I shook my head. “That would keep the Alpha in a constant state of distraction and injury, which endangers the pack. So the rules don’t let it happen. A shifter gets one bite at the apple. If he loses a challenge, he can no longer seek to unseat the Alpha of that pack.”
“Oh.” Korban bit his lip.
I wanted to lick it and suck it into my mouth.
“You can’t fight to be Alpha of Miancarem, so my uncle thinks you’re trying to find some other weird way to do it even though you never asked for it to begin with?”
“It’s a possibility. Your father knows he can’t challenge anyone for the position because of what he did. So his only way to maintain control of the pack is to do exactly what your uncle accused me of doing—put someone else in place as Alpha and then run the pack through him.”
“That’s manipulative and self-serving, which sounds just like my father.”
“Plus, it could explain why he’s keeping a low profile right now. He knows you’re Alpha so long as you’re alive.”
Just thinking about what Dirk was doing made me simultaneously ill and enraged, so I couldn’t bring myself to articulate the rest of my theory. Korban had no such compunction.
“So dear old Dad is sitting around waiting for my dead body to be delivered, and then he’ll go back to business as usual, running the pack, except my uncle will be in place as a surrogate Alpha.”
Hearing the words out loud was even worse than thinking them. I thought nothing could be more horrible than losing my father right before my eyes, but I was wrong. My father had loved me, cared for me, and wanted what was best for me every moment of my life. Korban’s father had mistreated him for years and now wanted him dead. I wished I had killed him in that ring.
“It’s just a guess,” I said. “Maybe I’m wrong.” But I doubted it. My logic was solid; it accounted for all the facts we knew; it fit.
“You’re right and we both know it.” He pulled up in front of a yellow house, turned off the car, and looked at me. “You’re brilliant, Samuel. Completely brilliant. You know every detail of every rule and you can make sense of things that make no sense. I admire you so much.” He dipped his chin and picked at his jeans. “I hope you don’t regret having me for a mate. I don’t know as much as you. My wolf isn’t as strong. And my brain doesn’t….” He bit his lip. “I’m not as smart.”
“You are everything I could ever want or hope to have.” I climbed to my knees, leaned over, and grasped both sides of his head, forcing him to meet my gaze. “You’re sensitive and kind, optimistic and resilient, funny and charismatic.” He was everything I wasn’t. “You’re the other half of me.”
His eyes wet, Korban nodded and clutched my wrists. “Yes.” He rubbed our noses together. “My true mate,” he whispered, and he leaned his forehead against mine. “My perfect mate.”
Chapter 17
