Page 340 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“I’m sorry to interrupt your evening, Alpha, Bryn.” He nodded to her as she eased around my arm to see him. “It probably would have been better if your beta had been able to do this instead, but since he’s in town…” His joking tone didn’t match the urgency in his eyes.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “What’s happened?”

“Troy’s ferals attacked our hunting party.”

The news came as a blow to the chest, stealing my breath.

“There were a few wolves out scouting from a small pack,” he said. “They were roughly a day’s travel from here.”

“Were there casualties?” Bryn asked.

“There were a few injured, but Frankie didn’t mention any deaths. The hunting team has things sorted right now, but she said they’re heading back to home base to regroup.”

I clenched my jaw. It irked me that Troy’s chaotic attacks were impossible to predict. And it pissed me off that they could catch even my hunting team unawares. I wanted to hear the report straight from my wolves’ mouths. We had to be missing something, some trick to figuring out what he’d do next.

I said, “I understand. We’ll be ready for them to return.”

“I assured them of that myself,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve already let the infirmary know about it. Frankie said they’d be back within thirty-six hours.”

“You did?” That was some initiative. Suddenly, I was reminded of how Vince had my back during the meeting, the toast he’d made for Bryn and me after I became alpha of the Kings, and all the other times he’d taken care to be a good soldier for our pack.It seemed that ever since Bryn saved him, when she was lured away by the vision of the wolf months and months ago, Vince had gone the extra mile to do everything he could for the pack.

I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for your diligence and devotion to this pack, Vince. You’re an asset to the pack, and you’re an asset to me.”

His eyes widened, and his face started to turn tomato-red. “I-I was just trying to take one thing off your plate, Alpha. It’s my responsibility.”

“You’re right. Which is why I’ve got men like you on my team, but to ignore your accomplishments would be a huge disservice to what you do for us.” I clapped his shoulder. “I’ll say it again, Vince. Thank you.”

He pressed his lips together to keep from grinning too widely, but his red cheeks belied his happiness. “Thankyou, Alpha. It’s an honor to be part of this pack, and to see what you’ve done with it. I’m just happy to see so many changes in my lifetime.”

I chuckled and let him go. “Keep me updated if you learn anything new. And have a good night.”

“I’ll try, Alpha. I’ll try.” He nodded at Bryn. “Goodnight, Bryn.”

“Goodnight.” She waved, and as he turned to walk away, I closed the door. “Wow,” she said with a light laugh. “If he were in his wolf form, I bet his tail would have been wagging.”

I snorted. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

She laughed a bit more, then sighed. “Thank goodness no one was badly hurt after Troy’s attack, but I hate that they were attacked at all.”

“I hate it, too.”

She moved closer to me and lay her cheek against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, stroking her back. She and I had made huge strides for the betterment of our packs, but the threat of Troy hanging over our heads made it hard to really appreciate how far we’d come. I’d have to go out there soon to deal with him and put an end to all of this. That time would probably come the minute my hunting team returned, when I’d head out with them to track him down.

“There are too many unknowns,” Bryn said. “Too many loose ends. It feels like if even one more thing goes wrong, everything we’ve worked for will fall apart.”

“I know how you feel.” I ran my fingers through her hair. The strands passed like silk ribbons between my fingers. “We’ve worked so hard, and the thought of it all falling apart is too painful to consider.”

She looked up. “It almost sounds like you’re about to say ‘but.’”

I smiled. “Butthere’s nothing we can do at this very second. Nothing more that can be done tonight. It might feel like the calm before the storm, but so what? For tonight, let’s enjoy that calm as much as we can.”

She gazed up at me. When she didn’t say anything, I worried I might have hurt her feelings or come off as insensitive, but the smile she gave me banished those worries.

“You’re right. We do have tonight.” She reached up and twined her arms around my neck. As she did, her belly pressed against mine, and I felt our baby kick. Her eyes were the color of the Kootenai River at first light. “So tonight, you’ll make love to me.”

As the words left her mouth, my need for her flared to life. We kissed slowly, hungrily as we walked up the stairs to our bedroom. We lay down together side by side, hands stroking, lips fused together. Bryn sucked my bottom lip into her mouth as my hand slid up her thigh under her dress. She grazed my lip with her teeth, and I stroked her slit, my fingers becoming slick with her wetness.

She pulled away to moan, which let me take back control. I dragged my teeth along her chin and jaw and circled her clit with the pads of my two fingers. She started to open her legs, so I stopped rubbing to push them closed.