Page 154 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

NIGHT

I’d managed to convince Bryn to rest last night, but as I watched her dress now, unease pricked at the back of my mind.

I had no idea how Dom would take the news.

I knew he would be happy eventually, but he might also be skeptical or at least hurt that he’d lost so many years with Bryn.

After all this time, his sister had been held by the pack that had killed his father.

If that upset him, he’d come around once the shock wore off, but I couldn’t get comfortable with the fact that we were about to drop such a massive bomb on him.

Hell, I was still dealing with the shock of Bryn’s revelations.

Memories that were buried deep in my mind were coming to the surface.

I should have prepared myself for this, but never in a million years would I have thought that what she’d seen would hit so close to home.

I knew this would only bring Bryn and me closer, and that it would, as Bryn hoped, reveal more about who she was and what made her tick.

But until we went through it, this information would weigh me down.

The lights were already on in Dom’s cabin, which was a relief. At least we weren’t rousing him from his sleep on top of everything else.

Bryn knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, Dom opened it. From his light blue short-sleeved shirt and shorts combo, he was obviously about to go on a run.

“Huh,” he said. “Usually, I’m the one finding you two, not the other way around.”

“Hi, Dom,” Bryn said. She sounded adorably shy, but it was easier for her to find her voice than for me. “Sorry we’re interrupting your workout, but could we come in?”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting visitors,” he said, his usual easy grin spreading across his face. “But yeah, of course.”

He held the door open for us, and Bryn and I went inside.

“I’m glad you weren’t still asleep,” she said.

“Yeah, you two are lucky,” he said as he closed the door behind us. “Usually, I’m still dead to the world, but I felt like going on a jog. So, what brings you two lovebirds around?”

“We needed to talk to you,” I said.

He arched a brow at me. “Wow. Been a while since I’ve seen you so stiff and awkward, Night.” He smirked. “Whatever you’re here to tell me must have shaken you up. But it can’t be bad news; otherwise, you’d be crossing your arms.”

I glanced down at myself and then up at him. “Dom, I think you know me a little too well.”

“That’s my job, right?” He leaned against the wall. “So, what’s up?”

I rubbed the back of my head and looked at Bryn. We shared the same expression. Where do we even start?

It took some time, but Bryn and I explained the ritual and what she had seen.

The longer we talked, the more serious Dom became.

By the end, Dom wasn’t standing by the wall anymore; he’d sunk on the couch.

He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his head hanging down.

Hell, we probably should have asked him to sit before we started talking.

“Lucian saved my life,” Bryn told him. “I saw him fight off dozens of wolves before he helped my mother give birth to me. If not for him, I don’t know where she or I would be.”

He ran his hands over his face as he processed the information. And then, he slowly got to his feet and headed to the cabin’s back door.

Bryn started after him. “Wait, Dom—”

I caught her arm and tugged her to my side. “Don’t worry,” I told her. “He’s just going for a run.”

“Oh.” She relaxed into my chest. “When do you think he’ll be back?”

“Hard to say.” I could have reached out to him telepathically, but that would have been overstepping. “I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Do you mind waiting?”

She shook her head. “Let’s give him all the time he needs.”

Though it was early morning, I grabbed a beer from the fridge—I needed something to fortify myself—and got some water for Bryn.

I moved some throw pillows to the armchair and sat on one side of the couch.

Bryn finished her water and settled in beside me.

She grabbed a book off the table and thumbed through the pages.

The sight of it reminded me of when she and Dom first met.

He had been able to do what I couldn’t: get her comfortable enough to talk.

They’d spoken about books all the way back to the Warg compound.

At the time, I’d been jealous, but now it made me wonder if their connection as siblings had made it easier for them to bond.

Eventually, Bryn lay down with her head in my lap. I stroked her hair. It was lucky that the men Dom shared the cabin with were either back on Warg territory or searching and hunting for Troy. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have this privacy.

Dom returned fifteen minutes later. He was still breathing hard, and his light brown hair was windblown. Bryn sat up, pushing her hair over her shoulder. She’d been on the verge of falling asleep.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get my thoughts in order,” he said. “It was like I had to dust off the cobwebs in my brain or something.”

Bryn and I shook our heads. “There’s nothing to apologize for,” she said. “You needed time, and we were happy to give that to you.”

“I appreciate it.” He ran his hands through his hair. “So, then, you’re my little sister, Bryn?”

“Yeah.” Her eyes shone with tears, and she tried to smile. “It turns out you’re my big brother after all.”

Dom went quiet again. We waited while he ordered his thoughts. “My mom…” he said finally. “She told me the baby who was supposed to be my little sister had died with her mother. She said my dad had died, too.”

“That’s what everyone thought,” I replied. “Glenda found Bryn in the woods near the outskirts of the Kings’ territory. I think Lucian was trying to bring Bryn back, but that was as close as he could get her to Warg territory.”

That last bit hurt to say. I was an adult man who had seen more than my fair share of tragedy.

It shouldn’t have been difficult for me to accept that someone as powerful as Lucian had died in battle, trying to protect his family as best he could.

But there was a large lump at the back of my throat, like the pup who’d known Lucian was still in me somewhere, missing him.

I hadn’t let myself think about him for a long, long time, that even the man I’d viewed as a hero could fail.

Dom briefly closed his eyes and opened them again. “This is a lot to take in,” he murmured. “But I believe what you’ve told me.” He looked at Bryn. “I want to tell you about the people who raised me.”

She nodded, sniffling. “I have so many questions, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

He smiled. “I appreciate that, Bryn. You’re just as kind as Blossom was to me.”

She went to him and touched his shoulder. “So, then, you knew that the child Blossom was carrying was your father’s?”

“Yeah, I knew. Things between my dad and my mom were complicated,” he said.

“She always loved him, and he, in the beginning, loved her, too. They had me, and they were happy, but when Blossom was accepted into the pack, he and my mom separated. Blossom was his soulmate, and my mother wouldn’t stand in the way of that.

It broke her heart, but there was nothing she could do.

I remember there was a lingering sense of hurt when she and Blossom were in the room together, but she wasn’t mean or cruel to your mother, Bryn. My mom wasn’t like that.”

“Of course she wasn’t,” she said, tears tracking down her cheeks. She wasn’t trying to hold in her emotions like Dom and I were, and that made her stronger than either of us. “I’m sure your mom was a very kind person. I can’t even imagine the heartache she endured.”

“Thank you for saying that. She and Dad remained friends even after they stopped living together, and they shared the responsibility of raising me. By the time Blossom got pregnant, Mom was even excited about me having a younger sister. She wouldn’t stop gushing about how beautiful you were going to be. ”

Bryn laughed and wiped under her eyes with her sleeves.

“I’d always wanted a sibling, but Mom was never able to give me one because she never fell in love with another man.

” He took a deep breath. “When we heard that the three of you had died, we were devastated. I think the shock of losing you all hurt her so much that she couldn’t fight off the sickness that took her life.

I wish she’d lived long enough to meet you, Bryn.

She probably wouldn’t have known you were Blossom’s daughter, but I’m sure she would’ve loved you. ”

He paused, pushing his hands through his hair again. “I never thought you survived, Bryn. And to learn that you were alive this whole time, that I could have come and helped you at any time…I’m sorry the Kings were so awful to you and Glenda.”

“Dom, no.” She wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

I watched them, waiting to feel some pushback from my wolf, but the jealousy I might have felt under normal circumstances wasn’t there. I mean, what was there to be jealous of? A sister and brother hugging?

“You didn’t know,” she whispered. “You couldn’t possibly have known. What my mom and I went through is not your fault, Dom.”

He tentatively hugged her back, letting out a sound that wasn’t a sob and wasn’t a laugh. “I never thought I’d get to do this with my little sister.”

She laughed and hugged him harder. It was so rare to see my beta so emotional. It felt like I was intruding on a private moment.

“I’m sorry for the way things ended,” she said. “I’m sorry about what happened to your—no, our father. I wish I could tell you more about what happened to him, but the vision stopped when my mother passed away.”

“You’ve told me more than I ever thought I’d get to hear.

” He pulled back but kept hold of her hands.

“I made peace with my dad’s death a long time ago.

I’ve always been proud that he went down swinging.

But I am sorry you didn’t get to know him.

He was an amazing man and an incredible father to me. And to Night.”

I tried to clear the lump in my throat, but it touched me that Dom had mentioned Lucian being like my father. It meant a hell of a lot that Dom viewed me as his brother as much as I viewed him as mine.

Bryn smiled. “What little I saw of him told me as much. He cared so much about you and Night, and my mother did, too.”

“Blossom was the sweetest woman I knew, next to my mother. There are so many stories about our childhood that I could tell you.”

Her face brightened. “Tell me everything! I want to know as much as I can about how you and Night grew up.” She glanced at me and stood on her tiptoes to whisper loudly, “Especially the embarrassing stuff.”

I laughed and reached for Bryn’s hand. She let me take it and pull her back to the couch. “I’m really not looking forward to you knowing that much about my past,” I joked.

Dom smirked. “No, you shouldn’t be. Bryn, I have plenty of stories that would make Night squirm. It’s tempting to go into them while he’s here.” The smirk fell, and his face softened. “But I don’t think I should do that right now. I need to process all of this and decompress, you know?”

“Of course.” She nodded. “We have all the time in the world to go down memory lane, and I want you in tip-top shape so you can tell me everything.”

He grinned.

“If you want, you can have the next few days off,” I said.

“Why? So you can pawn my work onto some other poor wolf?” He chuckled. “No, I think I’ll keep working.”

I’d known he’d say that. Dom was the kind of man who processed things best while staying busy. He could be a real workhorse sometimes, but he always handled his tasks without getting overwhelmed or burnt out by them.

“The offer’s still on the table if you change your mind,” I told him. “You can take time off whenever you want.”

He smiled, then looked back at Bryn. “So after everything you’ve been through, you’re okay, Bryn?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. After the ritual ended, I was shaking so badly, I thought it’d never stop. But then it did, and it’s over, and I’m fine. The ritual didn’t answer all my questions about who my mother was, but I’m glad everyone knows about our father, so I can at least find out more about him.”

“Well, of course everyone knows him.” His eyes brightened. “My dad was more than just a fighter for the Wargs; he was a warrior. I mean, he was the stuff of legends.”

Dom’s excitement touched me, too. “His reputation went far outside our territory. I’m sure every wolf in the state heard of him,” I said.

“We all expected him to take over as alpha one day, but that didn’t end up happening,” Dom said. “I guess he had other priorities than taking on Pete.”

Hearing him say that made me question whether that was an example of the Fates intervening in our lives, crafting things so they happened just as they were supposed to…

or if it was another coincidence. I didn’t want to think too deeply about that because if I started worrying about it, I’d question whether any of us had an active role in our lives. That was a little too heavy for me.

To distract myself, I told Bryn a story about a fishing trip Lucian, Dom, and I went on and the massive catfish Lucian caught and cooked for us.

We stayed for another hour or so, talking and laughing about our past. Dom had said he wasn’t sure he could handle talking about our past, but once we got going, he couldn’t seem to stop.

Being Wargs, we’d had plenty of dark moments in our lives, but it was so nice to remember the happy, precious moments, too.