Page 21 of Alpha Wolf’s Nanny (Silvermist Wolves #2)

With Cassie safely home, snuggled up in front of a movie with the boys, Felix knew he had to sort things out with the pack sooner rather than later.

Truth be told, all he wanted was a hot shower and to spend some time with his family, but being alpha, he rarely got to indulge in such fantasies.

So with a heavy sigh, he set out for the Pine Shadow Club.

When he entered, all conversation fell silent. Pack members who had been sprawled over couches, sitting at the bar, playing pool in the corner, slowly began to stand, to straighten, their eyes following him as he walked through the room.

The skin at the back of his neck prickled, and not for the first time, Felix had to squash down his self-doubt. He had made the right call, sparing Cassie. He had made the right call, reaffirming his beliefs to the pack. He had done as he believed best, which was all he could do.

Still, the wolves surrounded him, their faces guarded, the air tense and thick.

Felix came to a halt, his fists clenching at his sides.

He was no fool. He knew that there were those in the pack who would have him treat the humans with much greater aggression.

There were also those who believed the only way to peace was through greater integration of humans and shifters.

Balancing the different beliefs, the different desires, of his pack had long been his burden.

Wherever he was in any doubt, he just reminded himself of his core beliefs. His ultimate mission.

Protect the pack.

Killing Cassie, any fondness he might have for her aside, would not have protected the pack.

“Alpha,” one young male stepped forward, his gaze downcast, his expression carefully neutral.

“Speak,” Felix said, turning to him.

The alpha shuffled, glancing back at his friends, before heaving in a fortifying breath. “You let the human live.”

“I did,” Felix said, “what of it?”

The male, whom he now recognized as being called Harry, swallowed, his scent spiking with anxiety, and Felix sighed.

“You are free to speak your mind.”

Glancing up, Harry’s face held nothing but respect. But still, beneath it, Felix could see the confusion. The disagreement.

“We have our laws for a reason, Alpha,” Harry said carefully. “Just because a human might be…close to you—”

Felix snarled, the sound echoing through the room, the wolves wincing away from him in fear.

“Is that what you think? That I let her live because she happens to be my…my nanny?”

“Would you have let a stranger live?” Harry asked, a moment of pure bravery.

Felix opened his mouth, but found he had no response. Would he have shown a stranger mercy? A human had not entered Pine Shadow Grove since he took leadership. Alphas' past had indeed killed humans on sight, but he had never had to be the executioner.

Keep the pack safe.

“A well-meaning stranger, stumbling into things they don’t understand? Of course, I would have let them live.”

Harry exchanged another glance with some of his friends.

Felix looked them over. Young alphas, all of them, no doubt keen to make their mark in the pack.

Still, a young alpha knew not to question the Alpha unless they had a damn good reason.

Felix owed it to them to hear them out. He knew that.

It didn’t stop his blood from boiling in rage.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Harry said. “The humans don’t understand. They’ve forgotten .”

Felix’s jaw worked. “How old are you, boy?”

Harry bristled. “I’m nineteen.”

Felix’s eyes narrowed. “Nineteen. So tell me, Harry, what exactly have you seen of what humans have forgotten?”

Harry didn’t answer.

“Exactly,” Felix growled, “you know what your elders have told you. What you’ve read in curated pack histories.

You get to exist, safe from harm, because those who came before you made it that way.

We still fight every day to ensure that both humans and shifters can live safely and freely.

That comes with compromise. To blindly hate humans, to insist on violence, is the response of a child. ”

Felix swept his gaze around the room. “I have seen what humans can do. I’ve seen the impact of their hatred. And I know better than anyone that fear makes monsters out of men. But if we give in to that fear, if we react to ignorance with blood, we lose the right to call ourselves protectors.”

A hush fell.

“Cassie made a mistake,” Felix continued, voice lowering. “She should not have been there. And yes, she’s human. But I saw no malice in her. No threat. Just a frightened girl stumbling into something she didn’t understand.”

He paused.

“If I had killed her, what lesson would that teach the pack? That mercy is weakness? That fear should govern us?”

The wolves didn’t answer. But the tension in the room shifted. Muted. Muddled. Not resolved, but quieter. For now.

“I spoke yesterday. And I meant what I said,” Felix growled. “We will not hide. We will not be ashamed. But we will not give in to baseless violence. If anybody has an issue with that, anyone wants to challenge me for what I did, you know where to find me.”

No one moved.

Felix didn’t wait. He left the main room and stalked down the hall to the private office upstairs reserved for the senior ranking members of the pack.

Sure enough, he found Rick in a leather armchair by the fireplace, sipping something dark from a tumbler, booted feet resting on a footstool like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“You’ve got a storm following you tonight,” Rick said without looking up. “Whole pack’s up in arms.”

Felix stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “You made sure of that.”

Rick’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I made sure they knew the stakes. I didn’t twist your arm.”

“You knew what you were doing, riling them up.”

“Someone had to,” Rick said coolly, “because it sure as hell wasn’t going to be you, lost in the woods over some girl you barely know.”

“I’m not lost anywhere,” Felix snapped, “and she’s not just some girl.”

“Exactly my point.”

Felix paced, the firelight casting his shadow long across the floor. “You think I don’t remember what happened with Sarah? She broke my heart, she hurt my boys, she walked away from us. How could I forget about that?”

Rick’s expression hardened. “Then how the fuck can you even think about going down that road again?”

“Because Cassie isn’t Sarah .”

“You don’t know that,” Rick said, slamming his drink down. “She’s human. That’s all I need to know.”

The silence hung between them, thick as the smoke curling from the fire.

Felix stared at him. “This isn’t just about me. Or Sarah. Is it?”

Rick’s lips tightened. But he said nothing.

“You hate humans,” Felix said, watching him. “Not just mistrust. Not wariness. Not distance. It’s hatred . Why?”

Rick looked away. Then, with a bitter laugh, he stood and walked toward the window, looking out into the dark.

“You want to know why?” he said, voice low. “Fine. Let me paint you a picture.”

He didn’t turn around.

“There’s a pack in Turkey. Mountain wolves. Old, proud bloodline living secluded in the forest. Got exposed after a tourist caught a half-shift on camera. Within a week, their whole village was burned to the ground. The few that survived ended up in cages.”

Felix stood silent, watching Rick’s shoulders tense.

“There’s a tiger clan in Northern India. They used to roam near the border. Gone now. Shot out by paramilitary contractors paid off by mining companies. The bodies were dumped in a ravine.”

His voice grew colder. “In Argentina, a group of university students lured a panther shifter into bed so they could live-stream his shift and sell it to a documentary crew. He was skinned alive. Alive , Felix.”

Felix’s gut twisted. He had heard rumors. Whispers of atrocities. But nothing of this magnitude.

“How have I not heard about this?”

“Because it’s my job to keep it under wraps,” Rick hissed, “because you ordered me to pursue peace and the Shifter Accords through any means necessary. If word of this were to get out, shifters all over the world would be demanding blood—don’t try and tell me they wouldn’t.

The situation is too unstable. Too flammable.

Because it’s not like shifters everywhere are treating humans well, either.

Both sides are committing horrendous acts against the other. ”

“That’s what we’re trying to stop, Rick. That’s what we’re working towards.”

Rick’s jaw tightened. “Trust me, I want nothing more than peace for our people. I know what I am. What savagery I’m capable of. But I believe we as shifters should be free to live as we are, without the influence of humans. If it were up to me, the two groups would live completely separately.”

“Society tried that once. It didn’t end well.”

“Don’t lecture me about our history,” Rick said, turning now. “Don’t tell me this ends in peace. Because humans don’t want peace. They want power . And shifters? We scare them. So they’ll kill us. Slowly. Legally. With politics or with bullets.”

Felix exhaled slowly. “Not all humans are like that.”

Rick stepped closer, his voice a low snarl. “No. But enough of them are. And if you’re wrong about her , Felix, if you let her in, and she breaks that trust, we’re not the only ones who’ll pay. The whole damn pack will. You’re too important to let yourself get tied up in this again.”

Felix stood his ground, though his jaw clenched. “I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions,” he said, his voice cool, “and if you ever attack her again, if you try to intimidate her or make her feel unsafe, I will consider it a personal threat. And I won’t be so understanding next time.”

Rick let out a hollow laugh. “Contrary to what you may think, I don’t have anything against Cassie personally.

I think she’s a lovely girl, and she’s great with your boys.

If your relationship was purely professional, I’d have nothing to say.

But as things stand, you’re vulnerable, Alpha.

And when you’re vulnerable, we all are.”

“You’re scared,” Felix said suddenly, something in his chest freezing over in fear at the thought.

Rick didn’t get scared. Rick was unshakeable. Terrifying. Powerful.

The idea that something could scare him…

“Of course I’m scared,” Rick said, his voice unnaturally soft, “I don’t want a return to the old ways.

Whatever rumors may swirl, I don’t want your position.

I don’t want to be alpha. And if you lose your head over a human girl, if she breaks you, the way things stand at the moment?

You’d lose power. The pack would demand your usurping.

And there are those who would look to me. ”

Felix opened his mouth to speak, but Rick raised a hand to stop him.

“I’m not telling you this as a threat, Felix.

I’m genuinely trying to warn you. You are my alpha, and my friend, and I don’t want that changing.

What you’re trying to do, what we’re trying to achieve, I think it’s the best way forward.

I’ll do anything to avoid war. I don’t want my people in danger. ”

Felix swallowed. “Neither do I.”

Finishing his drink, Rick stood, clapping Felix on the shoulder. “I’ll leave you to your thoughts, then.”

He slipped out quietly, leaving Felix alone in the flickering light of the fire.

Felix sank into the nearest chair, his elbows braced on his knees, hands running roughly over his face.

He hated that Rick had a point.

The man was infuriating. Abrasive, confrontational, and stubborn to the core.

But he wasn’t wrong. And underneath all the snakelike cunning and political posturing, he truly was one of Felix’s closest allies and friends, despite it all.

The balance of power was razor-thin—it always was for an alpha—and if Felix slipped, even for a second, there were plenty who’d take it as a reason to start sharpening their teeth.

He thought of Cassie.

Of her scent. Spring fig and rain, grounding and wild all at once.

Of the way she smiled without thinking, how her brow furrowed in thought when she was focused, how fiercely she defended his boys, even against him .

He thought of her soft body underneath his, the sighs that tumbled from her lips when he kissed her.

She had trusted him. Completely.

And she had no idea what kind of man he really was.

What would she do if she ever saw the worst of him?

If she watched him shift in anger, teeth bared, power thrumming through his veins like wildfire?

What if she couldn’t handle it? What if she turned away like Sarah had?

He had been vicious during the overthrowing of the Old Guard. Merciless and unrepentant and cruel.

And God, she was so young . Not in years, perhaps, but in experience. She’d told him how little she'd known of men. Of closeness. That night they’d shared…it hadn’t just been good. It had been a first .

She hadn’t told him because she’d been too afraid it would change things.

And she’d been right.

Because it had changed things. It meant she was more fragile than he’d realized. That she was navigating something huge and raw and new while he…he’d just been trying to forget. He hadn’t deserved her trust. He hadn’t even asked for it.

Now he was entangled. And he didn’t know how to unravel himself without hurting her.

His fists clenched. What had he done?

Cassie was clever, brave, and resourceful. But she had no idea what it meant to be close to someone like him. To a shifter. To an alpha. If he pushed her too fast, too soon, it would shatter her.

And if he lost her trust…if she broke under the weight of this world she’d barely begun to understand…

He wasn’t sure if she’d survive it.

He wasn’t sure if he would.

Felix stood, rolling his shoulders, trying to shake off the tension that clung to him like a second skin. One thing was clear.

He couldn’t pursue her. Not now. Not while she was still learning how to stand in his world.

He had to let her come to him.

If she ever wanted to.