Page 116 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

brYN

Ismiled as I walked out of our bedroom. I’d woken alone, but my body was still deliciously sore from the previous night. On his way out, Night had kissed me goodbye, and I could almost taste him on my mouth.

I headed to the alpha’s office with the key to the office study. I wasn’t looking forward to going through all the files and records the Redwolfs had left behind, but at least the memory of Night’s touch would see me through it.

When I reached the door to the office, I slid the key into the lock.

It clicked open, and the door creaked as I pushed it.

The office was a mess. Papers were piled haphazardly into piles of varying sizes; documents were spread out across the floor as if someone had been rummaging through them before being interrupted.

At a glance, it looked like these papers held the Kings’ census information and notices of those who had died or gone missing over the past decade.

As I picked up the papers and collected them into a neat stack, I wondered why Troy would be interested in this information.

What was he planning on doing with population records?

Maybe once I had a chance to really look at them, I’d find an answer to that question.

But first, I needed to do some organizing.

There were reams of paper collected in seemingly random piles.

My stomach churned just looking at the mess.

Having another person around to help me with this chore would make this so much easier.

I could always rope Tavi into helping me.

“Um…hello?”

I jumped, almost dropping the small stack of papers. A sense of something else lingered at the edge of my mind, another presence, a sense of magic. With that feeling came a voice, but it wasn’t mine, and it wasn’t my wolf’s. It sounded a bit like…

“Tavi?” I asked. “Is that you?”

“Bryn!” Tavi responded. “Yes, it’s me. I felt…another person in my mind, and I thought I was going crazy. I had no idea that was you.”

“But how are we…how is this happening?”

“It’s part of our bond!” She had so much excitement in her voice that she almost sounded like the old bubbly Tavi from before Troy had kidnapped her. “Alphas and betas can communicate like this, but I didn’t think we would be able to do this because this was supposed to be temporary.”

“This is amazing!” I had tingles. Despite the setback of Troy’s escape, the fact that I had an alpha connection to Tavi made me feel like it hadn’t been a series of misunderstandings that had led to me being alpha. “I was just thinking I could use your help.”

“You needing me must have formed our connection. What can I do to help you?”

“I finally got into the alpha’s office, but it’s a mess. I could really use some help organizing everything.”

“I can be there in a few minutes. See you soon.”

I was already downstairs when Tavi arrived. She wore a large gray hoodie and jeans, and her long black hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. When I hugged her, she stiffened but warmed up to the hug after a second and patted my back.

“I guess Night already headed back home?”

“That’s right.” I led her upstairs to the office. “He left this morning. He’s probably about halfway there by now.”

“It’s not like him to leave us unsupervised,” she joked.

I laughed. “Well, Dom’s still around.”

“He didn’t go with Night?”

At her surprised, somewhat squeaky tone, I glanced over my shoulder at her. “Yeah. He’s probably overseeing the rebuilding.”

Her cheeks reddened. “Oh. Okay.”

“Tavi, is something going on between you and Dom?”

“What? N-no.” She shook her head vehemently. “There’s nothing at all.”.

“You seem a little…flustered?”

“No. I’m just surprised he didn’t go with Night, is all.” She forced a laugh. “Anyway, aren’t we supposed to be organizing things instead of gossiping?”

I enjoyed teasing Tavi a bit, but I couldn’t push it too far. The excitement she’d shown at our alpha/beta bond and the fact that she wasn’t looking for a place to hide at the mention of Dom’s name showed me she had made real progress from when she was more reclusive.

When we stepped into the office, Tavi let out a gasp. “Wow. You weren’t kidding.”

“Yeah. I wanted to go through the accounts, but at this rate, I’ll be lucky if we can finish organizing before the end of the day.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. Let’s just see what we can do now.”

“Sure.”

The most intimidating mountain of paperwork was on the birchwood desk. Corners of paper stuck out at random points of the messy stack. If we weren’t careful, we’d pluck out one of the pages holding the pile in place.

Tavi and I took each side of the mass and carefully dismantled it. Though I hadn’t set out to look through the papers until they were more orderly, I couldn’t help but glance at them as we collected them.

There were a lot of overdue bills, requests for repairs, complaints about various goings-on around the pack.

Unsurprisingly, it looked like Troy hadn’t taken his responsibilities as alpha very seriously.

Very little, if anything, had been handled as far back as a few months ago when Gregor showed signs of being sick.

It was as if Troy had never intended to do a good job as alpha.

His methods of dealing with his pack were deplorable, but some of these requests were for things the pack needed, like a construction request for a new shop at the market.

My stomach lurched. I pressed a hand to my mouth and closed my eyes. A wave of nausea hit me like a brick.

Tavi glanced at me when I dropped a sheaf of papers. “Hey, are you okay, Bryn?”

“I don’t know…I think so? My stomach hasn’t been agreeing with me the past few mornings.”

“You look a little pale.” She came over to me and pressed the back of her hand against my forehead. “You don’t feel feverish. Something you ate, maybe?”

“That’s what I thought at first, but it’s been pretty consistent since Troy escaped. I’ve also been getting these headaches.” I touched my temples—the pain had lessened, but I felt the lingering ache as I talked about it.

“It could be stress,” she said.

“Stress?”

“Yeah. You say you’ve started feeling this way since Troy escaped, right? Everyone’s been on edge—and I’m including myself in that. If you’re so stressed that you’re experiencing physical symptoms, I think you should take a break.”

I frowned. “I don’t know…I can’t afford to take one with all this overdue paperwork.”

She quirked a brow. “You’re talking to your beta right now. It’s my job to keep you as healthy as possible.”

I smiled even as my stomach continued to churn. “That’s true, but how can I leave all of this behind?”

“Why don’t you leave the organizing to me and head to your mom’s? It’s been a while since you’ve seen her, hasn’t it?”

I tried not to wince at the reminder. I’d been so busy that I hadn’t visited Mom in days. Going to see her would be nice. It had been a while since we had talked, and she might have tea or some other remedy to take care of my nausea. If nothing else, a bit of fresh air would probably help.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll leave the organizing to you.”

“Great.” She smiled, then added telepathically, “And I’ll reach out if I need anything, okay?”

I laughed. Being able to talk to each other at any time would take some getting used to, but I was glad for it. Having Tavi in my mind wasn’t unpleasant at all. In fact, it was as comforting as having my wolf.

“Sounds good. We’ll catch up later.”

The walk to my mother’s cabin took about fifteen minutes.

The morning air was clear and fresh, and the sky a bright azure.

As I walked through the compound, nobody jeered at me or sent me strange looks as they had after I beat Troy in the alpha ceremony.

It seemed to finally sink in that I was their alpha.

You’d think nearly killing Troy right in front of them would have been enough.

At least they’re giving me some space now.

One familiar face stood out to me from a group of male wolves near one of the rebuilding sites.

He looked around my age, with short, wavy auburn hair.

He was very muscular, maybe even bigger than Night or Dom, and had sky-blue eyes tinged with silver when the light hit them.

He didn’t look like the type who would sell wares at the market; with that kind of physique, he was probably a fighter.

His name came to me when he met my gaze.

Lance. I’d seen him around the compound when I was a teenager.

I’d always kept my distance from him because he was close to Troy.

He smiled at me, and I looked away. He had never participated in the bullying Troy and his goons had put me through, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t just as mean as them.

I jogged up the steps to Mom’s front door and knocked. “It’s me,” I called.

“You know you don’t have to knock, baby,” she called back. “Come in!”

I laughed and pushed open the door. The moment I did, I smelled mint, chamomile, and rosemary. Mom was already making tea.

“That smells great,” I said. “Could I have some?”

“Of course, baby.” Her eyes twinkled as she gestured for me to sit. “Sit, sit. I’ll make you a cup.”

I sat at the table, and she filled two mugs with hot water and tea leaves before handing one to me. “I had a feeling you would come and see me today,” she said as she sat across from me.

“I’m sorry I haven’t come by to see you. Things have been—”

“Hectic, I know.” She nodded. “Bryn, anyone with eyes can see how hard you’re working. You don’t have to apologize to me for taking care of business.”

“I know, but still…I’ve missed you.”

She patted my hand, her fingers warm from handling the hot cups. “I’ve missed you, too, love. So, let’s catch up a little before you get back to work.”

I sipped the tea and found it warm, comforting, and refreshing. I loved Violet’s teas, but there was something special about my mom’s. Probably just bias on my part, but I felt thoroughly relaxed as I leaned back in the chair.