My father rocks back on his heels.
“What?”
“You heard me.
You need to answer for your crimes.”
“My crimes?”
My father’s teeth are sharpening and growing too large for his face.
His wolf is taking over in his rage.
“What about yours?
Consorting with a human.
I saw you.”
He points at me and turns to the pack to accuse me of my so-called crimes.
“He picked her up in a limo.
She was in a dress, and he was in a tux.
He was courting her.”
My father spits this like it’s the worst crime imaginable.
My wolf is on high alert.
He saw me with Aubrey.
The night of the gala, he must have been following me.
He’s known I was with Aubrey for longer than I thought.
If I missed that, what else did I miss?
Something niggles in the back of my mind, a premonition of what’s to come.
“My own flesh and blood,” he rants.
“And now he thinks he’ll challenge me?
Take over my pack?”
“No,” I interrupt his raving.
I need to get us back on track.
“This isn’t about me.
I have no intention of leading this pack.
I’m just here to stop you, once and for all.”
“You want to fight?
Prove that you’re stronger?
That human has made you weak.”
I almost laugh in his face.
Aubrey makes me stronger.
I need to be the best version of myself just to deserve to breathe her air.
“We’ll see just how weak I am.”
I shrug off my jacket and toss it to the ground.
We’ll fight as wolves.
My father won’t win.
And he knows it.
So does the pack.
Everyone’s watching closely, the mated pairs, the greybacks, the enforcers.
Mothers hold their pups close, shushing them when they’d make a fuss.
There’s an energy in the air.
Change is coming.
My father stops ranting and turns to me.
His voice turns whiny.
He’s trying a different tack.
“I tried, you know, son,” he says.
“I tried to take care of the problem for you.
I thought if the human was gone, you would see reason, but-“
“What are you talking about?”
Goosebumps break out on my arms.
“What did you do?”
“I did what needed to be done!
I did what you’d do if vermin overran your home.
I hired an exterminator to take her out!”
The world goes black for a moment.
When I come to, I’ve crossed the clearing and am holding my father by the throat.
Everyone’s shouting, but all I can see are the whites of my father’s eyes.
If I just squeeze a little harder-
“Billy,” my sister’s voice is calling.
“Billy!
Stop,” her voice takes on a tinge of alpha power.
The command rolls down my arms, making them weaker.
“Not like this,” she says.
“I know you want to kill him, but there’s a right way to do this.”
I drop him and step back, and my sister orders everyone to step back.
They all do although the enforcers don’t look happy about it.
My gut feels hollow, like I’m going to be sick.
My father was a bigger threat than I thought.
I missed it and almost lost my mate.
“Is this true?” my sister asks my father.
“Did you try to harm Billy’s human friend?”
“Mate,” I say, needing to publicly claim Aubrey.
“The human is my mate.”
A murmur ripples through the watching wolves.
Half the pack looks stunned, but some look curious.
This seems to incense my father.
“Harm her?
I tried to take her out!
She poisoned his mind.”
The hitman in Monaco.
Sentience wasn’t behind it.
Luka’s pack wasn’t, either.
My father was.
My own father tried to take my mate from me forever.
“How?”
I ask.
“Where did you get the money?”
He’d need a hefty amount to hire a hitman.
“He bankrupted us,” one of the elders speaks up.
She’s a stooped, grey-haired woman with gnarled hands resting on a carved wooden cane.
“He’s been draining the pack funds for his own personal gain for years, but it’s been getting worse.
And a few days ago, I discovered he’s cleaned our savings out.”
“Is this true?”
Boudicca asks gently.
The elder nods, and a few others murmur agreement.
The pack seems to drift closer to my sister, looking to her for guidance.
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