Page 229 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“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. “Butthings 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 justtoldme. 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 itstrangely 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.

87

BRYN

“Iwant to go to my mom’s,” I said as Jasper and I walked through the compound. The last place I wanted to be right now was the alpha cabin.