“No.”
“Tough. Your wolf just manifested without your permission and ran off to some woman. Start talking.”
I slam my fist into the wall. The concrete cracks, blood running down my knuckles.
“There’s nothing to say.”
My beta doesn’t even blink, unaffected by my anger. It’s not directed at him, anyway, and he knows it.
“Right. Because it’s totally normal for the Lycan King’s wolf to break free and chase after a human girl.”
“Don’t.”
“Is she why you’ve been distracted? Why you’ve been letting me land hits that shouldn’t connect?”
The blood drips onto the floor. One drop. Two. Three.
“She’s nothing.”
“Tell that to Fenris.”
Jack-Eye moves to the door.
“I’ll track him-“
“No.”
The word comes out as a growl, and it’s not because a vision of Jack-Eye comforting the strange woman is more irritating than Fenris’s obsession with her. It can’t possibly be that. She’s just a human girl.
“I’ll deal with this myself.”
Jack-Eye grins.
“You know, I think we haven’t visited the Blue Mountain Pack in years. They’re about due for an official delegation, which is under the beta’s purview-“
My eyes narrow at Jack-Eye’s smirk. The blood on my knuckles has already dried, cuts already healed, but the sting remains.
“Whatever scheme you’re plotting, drop it.”
“You know what would be hilarious?”
He leans his back against the wall, crossing his arms.
“If word got out that the mighty Lycan King is searching for his mate. They’d welcome the delegation with open arms.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Come on. Think about the possibilities.”
He gestures with his hands, painting an invisible picture.
“The mysterious and brooding High Alpha, finally ready to open his heart again-“
“I will rip out your tongue.”
“It would put those other rumors to rest. The ones about…”
His voice trails off, but the meaning hangs heavy in the air.
“The rumors help more than they hinder.”
Ice coats each word. Fear keeps order better than respect.
Jack-Eye’s expression sobers.
“And how exactly do you plan to explain that to the new girl? ‘Welcome to the pack, by the way, everyone thinks I murdered my last mate’?”
A growl builds in my chest, low and threatening.
“I’m not bringing some human girl into the pack.”
The way everything changes so quickly, like I never existed as Alpha’s daughter, is shocking. In a week, all my privileges have been stripped away. Even things I didn’t realize were a privilege.
Like clothes.
A private bathroom.
Even my name.
“Hey!”
Yeah, that’s my new name.
“Hey! You!”
Stopping mid-step, I turn, only to find myself wanting to be swallowed whole. Seriously, a sinkhole opening up right beneath me would be heaven right now.
It’s Rafe’s mate.
The sight of her approaching sends a jolt through my system, my heart lurching painfully in my chest. She’s even more stunning up close, her long black hair cascading over her shoulders like a silken waterfall, those piercing green eyes pure poison as they watch me.
“Remember me?”
Her voice drips with honeyed venom.
She’s not alone. A few she-wolves follow along behind her. Some are faces I recognize, part of the pack. The others are strangers.
“I…”
My voice catches in my throat, barely a whisper.
“Yes.”
My pride is nonexistent these days. It’s nothing to lower my gaze to the ground in front of her. It doesn’t tear me up inside at all.
Who am I kidding? It’s shredding me apart.
“Good. I’d hate to think I made such a small impression.”
She circles me, and I can feel her gaze raking over my body. I’m no longer dressed in my clothes, clothes that fit. Instead, I’m in an oversized t-shirt with holes in the hem and jeans that are only held up thanks to a cloth belt. Everything Alpha ever gave me was taken away.
“My, my. How the mighty have fallen.”
She tuts, shaking her head in mock sympathy.
“Your alpha’s little pet has been reduced to this. A fake daughter, trying to weasel her way into the pack under his good graces.”
The way she’s twisted facts around make me want to snap back, to defend myself, but what’s the point? I’m nothing now. No one is on my side here.
“What do you want?”
Keeping my voice level and calm is the only win I’m going to get today.
She stops in front of me, tilting her head to the side.
“Want? Oh, darling. I already have everything I want.”
Her smile widens, revealing perfect white teeth.
“Rafe, the pack, the future. It’s all mine now. Haven’t you heard?”
Yes, actually. It’s all the wolves can talk about, the successful mateship of our pack to the neighboring Forest Springs Pack. I even know her name now.
Ellie. Her dad’s the Alpha of Forest Springs.
Her real dad. Biological. Wolf and all. Not like me. I’m just Rafe’s castaway, the abandoned adopted daughter of his Alpha.
The casual way she claims it all, as if it’s her birthright, makes my blood boil. But there’s nothing I can do. She’s won, and we both know it.
“I just wanted to see it for myself,”
she continues, reaching out to twirl a strand of my greasy hair around her finger. Baths are also a privilege I’ve had to give up, there’s never enough hot water. Or time.
“The human girl who thought she could play with wolves.”
I flinch away from her touch, my skin crawling.
“I never played-“
“Shh.”
She presses a finger to my lips, silencing me.
“It doesn’t matter now, does it? You’re where you belong. Among the dregs of the pack.”
Her words hit home, each one a fresh wound. I blink back tears, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Despite telling myself that I wouldn’t rise to the occasion, she got it out of me anyway. And so easily, too.
“You know,”
she leans in close, her breath hot against my ear,
“Rafe told me all about you. How you clung to him, desperate for attention. It was pathetic, really.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.