Page 7

Yet the thought of my mate being in this pack swept that happiness away.

It was still a battle inside me as I waited for the females to be presented to me. Anger boiled enough to cause black dots to dance across my vision, but I pushed it aside, knowing she would walk through that door at any moment. My heart hammered in my chest at the thought. If it wouldn’t frighten the females to see me bouncing on the balls of my feet while I waited for confirmation of them being my mate, I would do it.

“We need to stay calm, brother. Or we will lose control of our lycans,” he whispered to me, sensing the turmoil I faced inside.

Eli was right. I couldn’t lose my temper here. My lycan would take over and rip this house apart while trying to find our mate. That wasn’t on the agenda. If I wanted to locate my mate and determine whether Alexander was treating his pack well, I needed to calm down. After several deep breaths, I wrapped my energy around my lycan to keep him contained. He didn’t like it and growled at me for it, but he accepted it, knowing the females would soon be presented to me. We would find her, one way or another.

Alexander approached us hesitantly, his eyes cast toward the floor to avoid upsetting either of us. He motioned for us to follow him, and we obliged. As we walked, the mixture of scents fromthe pack, tinged with fear, permeated the air. I balled my fists and released them as an exercise while I continued to take deep breaths.

Why would Alexander think we wouldn’t smell this? Fear was a strong emotion and wasn’t easily masked. The strong scents of cleaning products mingled in, and it dawned on me.

The bastard thought the chemicals would mask the potency of fear. An imbecile. Nothing covers emotions like this.

He doesn’t deserve to live.

I stifled my growl.No, he doesn’t. But he also deserves to die slowly.

Yes.

Alexander led us to a room at the end of the hall, giving Eli and me privacy while he said he’d bring the females for us to meet. Eli shook his head at him.

“You think if you bring either of our mates in here, she would feel at ease with another male in the room?” He snarled.

It wasn’t like my beta to act this way, but then again, I had never seen him catch a whiff of his mate’s scent before. If Alexander wasn’t careful, this could end badly—and not just because of me.

“Alex, you are smarter than this. I need to be in a separate room. Our king is barely holding his lycan back, and that’s just from catching her scent.”

Alexander growled and took a step toward Eli. I moved faster than I had in ages, grabbing a fistful of his button-up shirt beforehe got any closer. If he thought he could challenge my beta, he had another think coming. Alexander wasn’t the type to fear anything, but when I was an inch away from his face, I caught the flicker of it in his eyes.

“Do as my beta says, or you will find out exactly why you shouldn’t piss me off.” I flicked my wrist, and Alexander stumbled backward.

He looked over at Eli, cracked his neck, and then motioned for Eli to follow him. “There’s an empty room next door. You can go in there.”

“Good,” Eli said as he walked toward the door. “You’re lucky we are being patient enough to meet the unmated females of this pack. Otherwise, we would be talking toyourbeta about becoming the alpha.” Eli snarled loud enough to rival my own.

I smirked in Alexander’s direction, silently agreeing with my beta. Alexander followed my beta out of the room, and a few minutes passed before I heard Alexander’s footsteps walking down the hall. Another set of footsteps followed him. These were softer than his, and I knew he was bringing a female for me to meet. My heart thumped in my chest as anticipation grew. Was this the one I would call my mate?

A blonde-haired female with big green eyes walked in, a petite little thing that smelled of roses. She kept her gaze averted from mine, and I noticed she maintained some distance between herself and Alexander. A whiff of fear coated her, overwhelming everything else, but I couldn’t tell if she was afraid of me or Alexander right now. With my lycan on edge from sensing his mate and the anger I felt about Alexander’s actions, she could very well be afraid of me.

It made me want to rip Alexander’s head off his shoulders for making this young female so scared to be around a male. I had to swallow down that anger before she could feel it rolling off me. She didn’t deserve to be more fearful of anyone than she already was. I narrowed my eyes at Alexander before I composed my expression to talk to her.

“This is not my mate. I apologize, little one,” I said. She looked down, and I continued, “Don’t fear me. My rage is not directed at you. After tonight, I will make things right.” I turned to look at the alpha and spoke louder. “This one is not mine. Please bring her to Beta Eli so he may determine if she is his mate.”

Alexander nodded and then turned toward the door. The female looked at me, hope filling her eyes. I needed to fix this pack. No one should look like that among anyone, let alone their alpha.

Several other females were brought into the room. None of them were my mate, but I sensed from the joy I heard in the next room that Eli had found his. I couldn’t be happier for my beta, but my lycan wasn’t satisfied that we hadn’t found ours yet. She was here. The scent of caramel and vanilla followed Alexander, clinging to him. Was he keeping my mate from me? It was against the laws of lycans to keep a mate from another. It could be punishable by death if I chose to, but I needed to know what was going on for that to happen. If Alexander chose to do such a thing to me, the king, it would most certainly end in death for him. The man didn’t understand the fire he was playing with right now.

My lycan felt the same way—he loved to bathe in the blood of anyone who stood in his way. Keeping him caged was the last thing I wanted to do. However, if my mate was here, I didn’twant to scare her any more than she already was, judging by the scent of fear mixed with hers.

“Where’s my mate, Alexander? She is here. I know her scent, and she is here.”

He winced under my gaze, and it did nothing to keep my rage contained. “I’ve presented every female in the pack to you, Your Highness.” Lie. He was fucking lying to me. “Maybe someone from my pack brought someone from another pack—”

I roared, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Wrong, you asshole. I know she is here, and you will bring me to her! Her scent betrays your lie!”

“She isn’t here!” he roared at me again.

My fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. Before his mind caught up with what I had done, I grabbed onto his shirt and pulled his face to mine.