Page 16 of Ascendant King

I pressed my advantage. “I don’t want to fight you. I want to bring you and yours home. Will you come with me?”

He stopped moving, and Harrison swore. “We’re going to hunt you down, Cortez. We’re going to kill your kid and your wife and leave them gutted for everyone to see what happens when you cross Ghost Pack.”

“No,” someone said.

I had been so focused on Emilio, so trusting that my pack would have my back if something went wrong, that I hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening around me.

There was a crowd on the street, people who had come out of the storefronts, people who had arrived seemingly out of nowhere. They weren’t wearing Ghost Pack patches, and they looked visibly uncomfortable.

The woman who had spoken was short, and I recognized her as Emilio’s wife, her arms crossed. The kid at her side looked ten or eleven, and I didn’t need to have a calculator to do that math.

What would I have done to survive if my life wasn’t the only one on the line?

Then again, I didn’t have to ask. I’d done everything I could when Cade and I had been on the run. We had gone toHouse Morrison. We had almost sacrificed our lives.

I could see movement, and the door to the café opened. Cade stepped out, trailing his eyes over the crowd. He kept to the back, but our eyes locked for a moment.

The blue was so frigid I could relax into it. He might hate me, but he was alive.

“Excuse me?” Harrison turned to Emilio. “Are you letting yourbitchtalk for you now? Get this over with, and we’ll deal with what happens to cucks who let theirwivesspeak for them.”

“No,” the woman repeated. “No, Emilio. I sayno. I have watched you destroy yourself for years because you thought you had to, but I won’t let you kill Elena’s kid.”

“I’m offering you a place.” I extended my hand. The bell on the café door rang again, and Morris came out, a heavy shotgun in his hands. “I don’t want to fight someone who my mother loved, who my mother trusted. You have a place with me. You and your family have a place with me.”

Emilio took a big breath, the sort of inhalation that felt like a gasp of air after being submerged in water. His shoulders dropped, his eyes going wide. He shook his head.

“Yes. Come with me.” I looked around. “Anyonewho loved my mother is welcome in my pack.”

Harrison shook his head. “You better shut your mouth, or I’ll?—”

“Yield,” I commanded him. “Yield.”

He blinked, freezing in place. Around me, the crowd shifted and moved. The Los Santos wolves tensed, but more and more, people were dropping to their knees, showing their proverbial bellies to me.

“I am my mother’s heir. I’m all that’s left of the strongest pack in North America, and she didn’t rule by force, so I’m not either. But if you attack me or those in my pack, Iwill answer.” I raised my voice so that everyone could hear the words. “Yield, Harrison.”

He hesitated. Then he dropped to his knees, his whine audible.

Emilio was crying, and his wife pushed through, reaching him and cupping his face in her hands. She wiped at his tears, speaking quiet words of affection and love. He collapsed into her, burying his face into her shoulder.

Gabe approached, looking around at the milling crowd. “Good speech, boss.”

I could hear the question in his words. I nodded.

“I’m not going to demand anyone who submits join the Los Santos Pack. That’s not who I am. That’s not what I’m building.But if you want to join, you need to come to me and my beta, talk to us.” I waited as the crowd shifted again.

Then, I walked over to where Harrison was still on his knees, the discomfort obvious as he shifted on his knees. He shouldn’t have given in. Not that easily. Not if Ghost Pack did control the town.

Harrison had handed me a victory here on a promise of nothing.

Crouching, I put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight. It was part warning, part reassurance. I was a strong alpha, and he leaned into that strength.

“All right. What’s going on? Where’s Ghost Pack?” I asked.

“Gone,” Harrison muttered. “Gone for a while now. I can’t get a hold of Benji or… Miriam.”

He looked away at my sister’s name.