Page 139 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“Bryn, look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but my hands were tied, alright? The council wanted a hunting party sent after Troy, and I couldn’t say no. They were right to request it.”

“They were right to request it, but I wasn’t right to forbid it?”

“It’s different, Bryn. I’m the Wargs’ alpha, and I need to do what’s right for my pack. This is what my pack wanted.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell me the truth? You had plenty of time to tell me, and you never did. I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t keep secrets from each other anymore!”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds before reopening them.

“I didn’t mean to go behind your back, Bryn,” he said, speaking at a calmer, slower pace.

You’re right—I should have told you—but there was no way I could do that without stressing you out or coming off like I was undermining your authority. ”

“You decided that this would stress me out, so you also decided not to tell me. You kept this a secret so I wouldn’t get mad at you. You see how well that turned out, Night, because I’m fucking pissed off.”

He stared hard at me but seemed unable to come up with a good response.

“I can’t believe you would do this,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “I bet you’re happy the council asked you to send them, aren’t you?”

He paused, and I saw the debate raging in his forest-green eyes before he said, “To be honest, Bryn, yeah, I am. After I found out about the baby, I can say that I’m fucking glad the council forced me to send them.

At least with him dead, we don’t have to worry about him trying to kill you or our baby. ”

“I knew it,” I shot back. “But now that we know about the secret account, we need him alive more than ever, don’t we? We have no leads without him!”

“Bryn, you know as well as I do that he’s not going to tell us anything,” he retorted. “Even if we captured him, you know that all he’ll do is lie to us.”

“Troy’s crafty, but he’s not that smart. Night, I was stuck with him for a week in that damn cave, and he was more than willing to give away family secrets without much of a push from me. I could get him to talk.”

“You don’t seriously think I’d let you interrogate him alone?”

“I didn’t seriously think you would go behind my back, Night! Maybe you’re willing to do all kinds of things that I wouldn’t have imagined you capable of doing.”

He let out a tight breath. “Listen, Bryn, even with the account in play, Troy is still too dangerous to be allowed to live. He’s a fucking psychopath, and he’s crafty. If we captured him, he’d just escape again.”

I gritted my teeth. We were retreading the same argument.

Night claimed he wanted to avoid stressing me out, but now my stress levels were through the roof because he hadn’t been honest with me…

again. Why did he insist on making it so hard to believe when he was telling the truth?

I loved him, but I needed to trust that he wouldn’t keep important things like this from me.

It was true that I was in a more fragile state because of the baby, but I was pretty damned sure that Night still wouldn’t have told me if I wasn’t pregnant.

I stared at him, feeling pressure build behind my eyes.

“I am your mate, Night, and because of that, you should have trusted me with the hard news,” I said finally.

“If you didn’t tell me because you thought I was too weak to take it, you’re no better than Edward or Dana, who think I’m too stupid to understand a ledger. ”

The anger on his face faded, and he looked like I’d thrown ice water on him. “Hold on, Bryn—”

I held up my hand, and he stopped talking. “Is there anything else you’ve been keeping from me?”

It took him a few seconds to answer. “I wasn’t keeping this from you, Bryn,” he said gently. “I just hadn’t had the chance to tell you. Tavi told you about the missing pups, right?”

“Yes, she told me,” I said. The reminder of the missing boys cooled some of my anger, replacing it with sadness. “I was only a few years older than the boys who went missing. Mom wouldn’t let me out of her sight.”

During that time, I was hardly ever bullied because Mom was with me all the time. The pack’s mood had changed. Their paranoia, worry, and grief had put me even more on edge.

“Do you think the disappearances have something to do with the ferals?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Bryn. It could be nothing.”

But I recognized the determination in his eyes. “Your gut is telling you that it’s not nothing.”

“Yeah, something feels off about it all, but I can’t prove that they’re linked. I’m planning on talking to a witness, but I don’t know how well that will go. Apparently, the poor kid was traumatized by what he saw, and he might not be the most reliable source of information.”

“I want to be there when you talk to him.”

He was about to say something—maybe to argue against me going or maybe to agree that he wanted me there—but before he could, I noticed Jasper approaching cautiously from behind Night. Night sighed instead of speaking and turned to meet Jasper.

“I’m sorry, Alpha—I really am—but I need to catch you up on what’s happened. The others are waiting for me to get back to them.”

Night cursed under his breath and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be back, Bryn. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“Fine. Whatever.”

Almost as soon as they walked away, my stomach flipped.

Nausea rushed to my head, and I ran to a nearby tree.

I threw up in the grass behind the tree.

Having an omelet for breakfast had been a mistake.

I felt a soothing hand on my back, and I assumed Night had come over to help me through it.

When I finally stopped heaving and looked over my shoulder, I saw that it was Dom, not my mate, helping me through it.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Do you need to lie down?”

“No.” I straightened and stepped away from him, leaning my back against a different tree. “I had a right to know about the hunting party,” I said. “Night should have told me.”

“You’re right. He should have.”

I let out a long sigh. “There’s a ‘but’ there, Dom. I can hear it in your voice.”

He gave me an apologetic smile. “But things are complicated. The council is up his ass about Troy, and they want him to take the Kings over by force.”

“No, I get that they’re putting pressure on him, but I’m an alpha, too. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have been upset, but I am saying I would’ve understood what he was going through if he had just told me. He chose not to, and now I’m pissed off.” And hurt. But I was too heated to admit that to Dom.

“Night is trying to balance a lot—and so are you,” he quickly added. “But that also means he has to make calls that neither of you will be happy about to keep his pack healthy. He can’t risk the council trying to usurp him, especially now.”

“I don’t want to go back and forth with you about this, Dom. Night Shepherd should be explaining all of this to me, not you.” I glanced at my mate, who was still in deep conversation with Jasper. “We could have avoided this conflict if he’d just come clean, but he chose not to.”

He sighed. “You’re completely in the right about that, Bryn. He should have been smarter about it but I think Night’s trying, you know? He’ll get better at communication with time, but he’ll mess up along the way.”

I felt stilting pressure behind my eyes, but I gave a small chuckle instead of crying. “You know, it feels a little like I’m being scolded by my big brother.”

He smiled. “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant to do.

You have every right to be upset with him, Bryn.

I really am on your side about that.” He put his hand on my head, which might have annoyed me under normal circumstances, but I found it strangely comforting now.

“I’m sure you two will work things out eventually. ”

I wanted to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later, but the hurt in my heart went pretty deep.

I wanted us to be equal partners in this relationship, and Night sparing my feelings made me feel like he didn’t trust me.

And I still felt bad about not having the ability to give him more kids.

Were I a stronger wolf, a wolf with the capacity to give him as many pups as he wanted, would he rely on me more?

Night’s conversation with Jasper wrapped up, and they jogged over to where Dom and I stood. Their expressions were grim, and I felt a pit form in my stomach.

“What’s wrong?” Dom asked.

“There’s been another feral attack on a smaller pack about a three-day run from here. The pack was just starting to form and hadn’t even decided on an official name for themselves. From what Jasper tells me, none of them survived. Not the women or children. No one.”

“No.” I covered my mouth with both hands. Horror poured through me, ice forming in its wake.

Dom scowled. “How do we know it was ferals?”

“We caught a trace scent of Troy in one of the buildings,” Jasper said. “The rest of the hunting party is tracking down the scent, but they had me come back to give the report. I intend to meet up with them again once I’m done here.”

“Were they looking for something?” Dom asked.

“We couldn’t tell. The compound was ransacked, and cabins had been burned to the ground. It was an awful mess.”

Night said, “I’m planning on sending word to other packs near the site of the attack to inform them of the situation.

I don’t want anyone else caught unawares like that.

Bryn…” He looked at me, and I tried to decipher the expression on his face.

But I couldn’t—it was too muddled. “We’ll talk later,” he finished.

I nodded, not trusting my voice to keep from shaking.

“I’ll go with you, Night,” Dom said. “Jasper, make sure Bryn gets home safe.”

“Of course.” Jasper turned to me. “Bryn, follow me.”

I went with him, but my legs were numb as I walked, and my body felt drained.

Dammit. I clenched my hands. How could things have gotten to this point?

Troy was out there killing wolves, and we had no idea why or how to stop him.

I felt useless and small, and I hated feeling that way.

I wished I could be out there with them looking for Troy, but I knew I couldn’t risk the baby.

All I could do was wait and hope this wouldn’t end in disaster.