Page 33 of Accepted Bonds

Alpha Owen snorted, “You didn’t honestly think that all the Alphas who opposed the law opposed it in their hearts, right?Of course not.I knew we needed something just like that, but I needed to put up a show to preserve my reputation.After all, it was practically suicide for my pack and my unstable position as the head of Mac Tire City Council if I showed any inkling of affiliation with the Supernatural Council back then.Now that everything is stable, I can consider affiliating with the Supernatural Council in exchange for the benefits that will take my pack to the next level.But I’m not sure I want to be affiliated with you if you can’t even maintain the only good and innovative system you’ve put in place in the last few decades.”

Mr.Keane stared at Alpha Owen for a second before changing the subject.“Who’s the Alpha?”

“Alpha Timothy.”Alpha Owen said.

“Of the Branson Pack?!”Alpha Reece sounded as shocked as I felt.

Mr.Keane’s gaze deepened as he asked, “I thought you two were enemies?”

“But we aren’t.It’s simple.I helped him once, he helped me and then I helped him again.Boom!Secret alliance formed.”Alpha Owen boasted with a smirk.

“And they have invited him to compel his pack observer?”Mr.Keane asked.

“Do you know who his pack observer is?That guy is too ambitious, reporting every minor incident to the Supernatural Council.Every few months, there is always an inspection at the Branson Pack because of him.Someone indirectly suggested finding a way to deal with his pack observer to Timothy.He considered it, but after we spoke about it, he decided against it, but he hasn’t refused them yet.”Alpha Owen said.

“Can you introduce us?”Mr.Keane asked.

“Of course.”Alpha Owen said.

“Alright, let’s do that.”

21

Levi

When I woke up, the room was unlit, but the faint light of dawn pushed some light into the room through the curtains in Aurora’s room at the Mac Tire City hotel which the Crawford Pack was using to host the Alphas Congress.

The first thing I did when I woke up was to push away Aiden’s hand, which was placed on Aurora’s hand over my chest.Then I pushed him away slightly since he’d been lying on the bed beside me with his head buried in my arm.

Once I’d settled him, I covered Aurora’s hand over my chest with my hand, pressing her hand to my slow yet steady half-vampire heartbeat.Then I leaned over her, pulling her closer so that I could bury my nose in her hair.

I hadn’t seen her in the past few days and I had missed her so much.The extent to which I’d felt her absence made me awed at the previous version of myself, who could keep her at a distance and pretend she was just my friend when she wasn’t.Now, I couldn’t even bear to be away from her for a day or two.

Everyone thought the death of the Harrison pack Alpha was unfortunate, but I had been so miserable that it felt like some kind of divine intervention.Without it, the Alphas Congress could have lasted for two weeks and I wouldn’t have been able to see Aurora in person because vampires weren’t welcome to werewolf meetings.One of the current perks of being a member of the Supernatural Council was that I could stay with Aurora all day long as we continued our ‘investigation’ on the pack observer that killed Alpha Dean of the Harrison pack.

Without knocking, the door to Aurora’s room was pushed open.Mateo’s fresh mint scent and Caden’s lemon scent were unmistakable, so I wasn’t alarmed when they walked into the room.

After Mateo strode into the room, he climbed onto the bed to lie behind Aurora, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her neck.I ignored him and the twinge of annoyance at their interruption as I moved away to lie on my back, still gripping Aurora’s hand over my chest.

“She was worried about you.We were all worried about you.You didn’t stop shivering until around 11pm yesterday.”Caden’s whisper made me glance at him where he was sitting at the foot of the bed close to Mateo’s foot, gripping Aurora and Mateo’s foot with both hands.“Are you okay now?”

I raised myself up with one arm and held his gaze for a few seconds, wanting to see the hostility I’d seen there the first time we met, but there was nothing but warmth in his eyes.

The warmth in his eyes was disconcerting.It made me realize that I was the only one still holding onto the hope that somehow, Aurora would be my mate alone.Caden, Mateo, and Aiden seemed to have accepted me as Aurora’s other mate.I was the only one who was still prickly and unwilling to accept it, even though I knew better.

Realizing that I was going to need to accept them now that they’d accepted me, I took a deep breath before saying, “I’m fine ...thanks ...”

I laid back down and an awkward silence descended in the room again.When I felt Aurora’s hand twitch a little, signaling that she was waking up, I barely resisted the urge to sigh in relief.

Caden seemed to have also noticed that Aurora was awake.“We have the entire day off.There are no activities today in honor of Alpha Dean.What do you guys want to do today?Aurora?”

“I want to dye the tips of my hair silver again.”Aiden, whom I didn’t know was awake, was the first to speak.“Aurora, let’s do it together?Couple hair goals?”

He wanted to dye the tips of Aurora’s beautiful jet-black hair into the cringy color of silver so she could look as weird as he did?

“Hell no!She will do no such thing.”I retorted unconsciously.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Aiden growled, his voice full of annoyance, like he wished he could gag me.

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