Page 177 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“Cut the shit. What’s your problem, and why are you so interested in Bryn?”

He glared at me. “The only reason you can get me to tell you anything is because I didn’t challenge you for alpha.”

“Then why didn’t you? I would’ve loved to get you in the ring.”

He didn’t immediately reply, which only pissed me off more.

“Were you scared to die, Lance?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Did you lose your nerve?”

He bared sharp, wolflike teeth. “I can’t stand you. Bryn deserves better than to be mated to someone with blood as tainted as yours. The fact that you two are soulmates is the only thing keeping me from killing you to save her.”

My wolf growled inside me, begging for the chance to sink his teeth in Lance’s neck, but what he’d said confused me. I stepped back, letting Lance catch his breath. He rubbed his chest where I’d held him.

“You and Bryn aren’t even close,” I said. “The only time you ever interact is when you’re saying cryptic bullshit to her. Why do you care about her at all?”

Lance started to laugh. “You can thank our familial bond,” he said. “Bryn is my sister.”

Shock speared right through my chest between my ribs. I stared at him, disbelief and confusion warring for supremacy inside me. “No, she’s not,” I said. “Bryn is the daughter of a pack mother and a wolf named Lucian Slate. You can’t be related.”

He leaned more comfortably against the tree. “We share the same mother. She had me before she found her way to the Wargs Pack.”

My mind was reeling with this information. “Say I believe you. I don’t, but let’s just pretend.”

He raised a brow.

“What does this have to do with that book?”

“It’s got information that’s important to both Bryn and me. It talks about pack mothers and blood rituals.”

I shook my head. He’d said it again, that he and Bryn were siblings. But how could that be true? Wouldn’t Bryn have felt a connection with Lance the same way she’d felt with Dom?

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, use your alpha voice to make me tell you the truth. I’d say the same thing.”

I could do that, but if Lance believed what he was saying was true, then I doubted forcing him to speak would give me more information. All I could do was ask more questions.

“Then why weren’t you with Blossom?” I asked. “You and I should have grown up together.”

Lance sighed. “Things were complicated back then. My father was killed before I was born, but I never learned how it happened or who he was. When Mom gave birth to me, she left me in Colville to keep me safe. I grew up not knowing I was a shifter until she came to me when I was four. She told me that I had a destiny to protect Bryn when I was strong enough. Until then, I had to lay low and pretend to be human.”

I remembered the little bit of information that Dom had found out about Lance. “And when you turned sixteen, you were strong enough?” I asked. “That’s when you joined the Kings, right?”

“Right.” He nodded. “I graduated high school early and knew I needed to find my sister. Up until then, I didn’t even know my sister’s name, but I was sure that if I could find our mother, I’d find my sister.

Eventually, I met Troy when he was in town with his goons.

He knew I was a wolf and was confused that I was living with humans.

I told him I’d been adopted and didn’t know my wolf parents, and he took an interest in me.

I wasn’t planning on joining the Kings until he said there was a human in their pack.

I knew she had to be the one. Shortly after I joined, I found out that our mom had been killed around the time Bryn was born. ”

Every word that slipped past his lips scraped me raw. It was so much to digest.

This was the last thing I’d expected to hear. “You’re really telling the truth?”

“Yes. But you need to keep this between us. You can’t tell anyone, especially Bryn.”

That knocked me out of the trance the information had put me in. “Wait, what?”

“I’m telling you to keep your mouth shut. This is too dangerous for Bryn to know.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I can’t keep this from her, Lance. She’s my mate. It’s not right for me to hold this back.”

“You’ll have to. I keep telling the two of you that there are enemies everywhere in this pack. Even I’m not sure of every wolf Troy has in his pocket. But for now, they think I’m still loyal to Troy. If they suspect I’m not, they’ll kill me, and I wouldn’t be able to protect Bryn.”

I shook my head. “We can work with each other. I’m sure there’s a better way to keep her safe.”

“Not one I’m willing to risk.” He stormed up to me and got in my face.

“I mean it. You keep this between us. If what I said about her safety isn’t enough to convince you, then maybe this will: this is a family matter, one that’s between me, Bryn, and the memory of our mother—a pack mother.

You’ll be fucking with destiny if you even consider telling her before she needs to know. ”

I stepped back, his words ringing in my head.

Only hours before, I’d vowed to Bryn I wouldn’t keep anything from her, yet now I was at this impasse.

It might endanger Bryn and our pup if she found out Lance was her brother, but I felt the truth of his words when he mentioned destiny.

If I told her now, would I be interfering with Fate?

It felt like I was killing a piece of my soul, but how could I risk our future?

“Fine,” I said slowly. “But I’m not keeping this shit to myself forever.

What you’re asking me to do will break Bryn’s heart.

If you don’t tell her by the time our baby is born or by the time Troy is dead and buried, I will.

And”—I went to the spot where Lance tossed the book and picked it up—“I’m holding onto this for now. "

He glared at me, but then he nodded. “Fine. I can agree to those terms. You just keep it safe.”

I rolled my eyes and started walking home. “Obviously,” I called over my shoulder.

As I walked, I tried to gather my thoughts.

Lance and I had come to a kind of truce, but it felt like I’d just taken ten steps back in my relationship with Bryn by keeping this huge secret from her.

I didn’t even know if I could keep it from her.

If she called me out, I doubted I could keep this information to myself.