A sharp pain raced up my jawline.
“I know, father. I was there. But, my wolf. He knows her.”
The man had perfected his glare. You could make no mistake he was pissed off.
“Does she know you?”
This felt like déjà vu.
“No. She’s been drugged. Her wolf is weak. I am not even sure if she’s ever shifted. The healer said it’s going to take some time for her wolf to regain her strength.”
The smirk that crossed his face struck a cord that had me seeing red.
“Sounds like you have quite the problem to figure out. Perhaps this should be your final test. Choose right and I hand the pack over. Choose incorrectly? Well, I suppose we do this the old way.”
I shuddered. The old ways were brutal and archaic and would end up with one of us dead. Fuck, one step forward for wolf kind and then twelve steps back.
“And the only one who knows what is correct is you?”
He shrugged and pulled off the jacket.
“I suppose that would be the case wouldn’t it, son.”
My claws tried to spring free, and I sucked in a deep breath against the sharp pain in my hands. I needed something to calm me and at this point I knew it was alcohol or a good run. I couldn’t even take joy in breaking a jaw or two. I just needed to breathe in my mate.
“Very good, Devon. You truly are learning to control your temper. An alpha must show no emotion.”
Hadn’t I heard that my entire damn life. When in this life could I just be me? He hadn’t cried at my mother’s death, even though it should have broken him. He still walked around like he was the strongest, most powerful alpha to walk this fucking earth. Me? Well, for every tear shed I’d been punched until I’d been numb.
Still. Losing my mate? That had broken me the worst. There was nothing to hope for. Every day would be the same from then on out. Every day would fade and blend into the next. Unless I had to mate someone I was certain to hate for my life and that could make every day last a damn eternity.
This female coming with her father? That pack? Well, fuck me. Cripple Creek was going to have to answer to some major allegations if what Kiara said was true. I couldn’t break anything right now. But, I would figure this out. That pack would pay. I had the proof. The scars on her body were proof and the confessions of a few rogues.
“Fine, alpha. I accept the challenge. Only, at the end of the trial I get to decide if I made the right choice by pack vote.”
He nodded, and I walked out.
Another day was ending, and I wasn’t sure where the time went. The only thing keeping me from going into the infirmary and claiming her was keeping myself busy. That and the immense guilt that she still had no idea I was her mate, yet.
Still, I needed to see her. My wolf wanted to be near her and that gave him strength.
I needed to figure out what to tell a pack that was dirtier than the sewage dumps that I didn’t want to mate the alpha’s daughter. Fuck. That might have been the bigger issue. My father hadn’t so much as asked me, rather decided for me that if the Moon goddess hadn’t blessed me with a second mate, then it was better to mate the devil we all knew rather than letting them roam free.
I yanked at the handle of the door of the office and ran smack into Colton.
“You need to come with me,” he said.
My wolf paused his ever annoyed prowling in my soul. The only thing that could distract him from taking his mate was to kill something. His ears were perked up as was my interest.
I sniffed the air and smiled. The metallic scents of blood lingered on Colt’s skin.
“Lead the way.”
CHAPTER8
Kiara
“Come on. Shift.”