Page 44 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

NIGHT

Isat at the dinner table across from Dom, both of us nursing a bottle of beer while we enjoyed chips with salsa made from the vegetables that Bryn had helped grow.

The salsa was spicy and fresh, the beers were cold, and the night air blowing in through the windows was cool and smelled vaguely sweet.

It was a rare, quiet night following the public shifts of the pups, and Dom and I were relaxing and catching up.

“Oh, I have an update from the sentries,” he said.

I nodded for him to continue.

“Things are quiet, but we have one wolf unaccounted for. Vince.”

My expression darkened. Vince had only recently become an elite tracker. He had a bright, successful future ahead of him, so losing him would be another huge loss after Iggy.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry,” he assured me. “There’s no indication that the Kings have anything to do with it.

And besides, we’ve got our best trackers on it.

We’ll find him soon. After all, he’s probably just chasing a female shifter in heat.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a young man broke form to get lucky. ”

I nodded, but after Iggy, I doubted I would ever be able to relax when one of my wolves went missing. “You say there’s no sign of the Kings’ involvement?”

He nodded. “That’s right. So far, there’ve been no indications that the Kings’ pack is even planning to attack us any time soon.”

“Mm. Still, I think we should beef up our patrols.”

“Already on it. We’ve got small packs of three wolves on patrol just in case. But to be honest, Night, I really don’t see that Redwolf coward showing his ugly mug to get Bryn himself. Even he wouldn’t be that bold.”

I took a swig of my beer. Dom always calls her by her first name. They must be close. The thought struck me with its suddenness, but their friendship didn’t bother me much anymore.

Dom cleared his throat. “Speaking of Bryn, and I know you don’t want to talk about this again, but I have to bring this up.”

I closed my eyes for a few seconds and opened them again. I knew what he was going to say, but I wouldn’t stop him from speaking his mind.

“I think we should pull Bryn out of the deal entirely. I know we talked about how important it is that we do this right, but dammit, Night, it doesn’t sit right with me.

” He ran a hand through his hair. “We need a new plan, one that keeps her as far away from that fucker as we can get her. I really like her, Tavi and Violet like her—shit, the whole pack is practically in love with her, and it wouldn’t be right to use her like this. ”

He was right, but I couldn’t give him an answer.

I didn’t like the idea of handing Bryn over at all, but I hadn’t come up with a good alternative for the plan.

Telling Redwolf outright that we were breaking off the deal like that might make things even more dangerous for the pack and for Bryn.

Who knew how the fucker would respond if we changed plans so suddenly?

“I hear you,” I said, “but for now, we should focus on how we plan on retaliating against the Kings for Iggy.”

We’d buried Iggy in a plot of land in her favorite section of the forest. It was a small ceremony—just her family, me, Dom, and Iggy’s close friends.

It was the first time I had seen Iggy’s family since I broke the news of her death, and the first thing they’d asked me was what I was going to do about her death.

They rightfully wanted some retribution for their loss.

Dom sighed. “Alright, what do you propose?”

“We could do the same thing they did—send a special team to attack them while they’re unawares.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s direct enough.”

“That’s fair.” I would never attack children, expectant mothers, or their infirmaries directly, but it was hard to know exactly how to respond when Iggy had meant so much to the community, and to me, as a member of my inner circle. “We could target someone who Troy keeps close to him.”

“An assassination,” Dom said with a nod. “We’ll send a few sentries to do some recon. It’ll be easier to know who to target once we know their names.”

“Actually, I already know a few of their names.”

Dom blinked. “Wait, really? How did you get that kind of intel?”

“I went through a good source.”

Dom faced me, crossing his arms. “And who was that good source?”

I coughed and glanced away. “Bryn.”

Dom paused, and then he grinned. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to make peace with her.”

“Shut up.”

Dom tsked at me. “So testy. What did you think of my training schedule proposal? There are dozens of young wolves that are eager to show that they have what it takes to be part of the elite squads. Preston, Mark, Vince, Jasper—”

The moment I heard that young wolf’s name, I growled.

My wolf moved close to the surface—his teeth elongating, his claws sharpening.

I nearly ripped through my chair as I gripped it, trying to breathe through the unexpected reaction.

My beer rolled off the table and shattered against the ground with my movements.

Dom stared at me. “What the hell?” he demanded, his voice echoing in my mind.

I didn’t reply, though it would be easier to do telepathically than to attempt to form words through all my sharp teeth. It took me several uncomfortable moments to get my wolf under control. As my breathing calmed from growling rasps to human panting, Dom left the table to grab me a fresh beer.

“So,” Dom began as I pulled the beer close to me, “you wanna talk about what the fuck that was?”

“No.” My response was clipped, brooking no argument, but Dom wouldn’t leave it at that.

“Tough shit. Night, I’m your beta and your best friend.

If something is eating at you, I want to help you.

That’s what I’m here for. Also,” he added, “you’re reminding me of when we were preteens just surviving puberty.

If you can’t control your shifts or your emotions, it’ll be a problem for what we’re setting out to do. ”

I sighed. I knew Dom was right, but it wasn’t exactly easy for me to come out and say what had been bothering me. Then again, there wasn’t anyone else in the world who I trusted more than Dom and my mother, so I might as well come clean.

“It’s that damned woman,” I admitted.

Dom blinked. “Wait, Bryn?”

“From the moment I caught her scent, my wolf has been almost impossible to control around her. He loses it whenever she’s nearby.”

That was part of the reason I was so choked up when I talked to Bryn during the shifting ceremony.

My wolf wasn’t jealous of Pax. In fact, he was incredibly proud of the display and had wanted to come out to congratulate her too.

It had taken everything to keep myself in check.

But damn, it had been a beautiful moment.

“I’ve been having dreams for months now, but they’ve increased to almost every night since I brought her here,” I explained.

“Usually, they’re of me in bed with a woman whose eyes are the same color as Bryn’s.

I’ve started to think of the woman as Bryn, and every time I have one of the dreams, it’s even more difficult to keep my wolf in check.

” I shook my head. “Bryn also…she gets under my skin, and I can’t shake her off no matter what I do.

It’s been so hard that I was considering moving her to the other side of our territory just to make sure that I could avoid her.

“Obviously, I never followed through. I think some part of me knew it wouldn’t help anyway because somehow, I always end up near her.

And now she’s got free rein of the compound.

It’s impossible for me not to see her or smell her or hear her voice.

She’s everywhere. And it’s too late to put her back on restrictions.

She’s already won over everyone who’s met her, which confuses the shit out of me.

” I rubbed my eyes. “It’s fucking with me. ”

Dom sat listening as I let all my anger and frustration out. I felt raw and vulnerable. I waited for some sort of encouragement or advice from my beta, but the first sound out of Dom’s mouth wasn’t a vote of optimism or a solution—it was a snicker.

My head snapped up, unsure if my ears were deceiving me. I found Dom trying to hold back his laughter as best he could, but the amusement in his dark eyes gave him away.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demanded. “You think this shit is funny?”

Apparently, that was too much because Dom let it out, laughing his ass off while I sat there, in equal parts, angry and stupefied.

Eventually, Dom gained control of himself enough to bring the laughter down to a minimum. “You must be the most jacked up fucker there is,” he said. “The universe must have it out for you, Night.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You kidnap a girl and try to make her life miserable, only for her to turn out to be your mate!” Dom dissolved into laughter again.

Mate? The word was like a silent explosion in my head. My wolf began to pant and hop around like the word had summoned him.

“No,” I said. “What? No, that’s ridiculous. Bryn is a human woman, Dom. There’s never been a real mate pair between a wolf and a human. Ever.”

“Uh huh.” Dom smirked.

“It’s more likely that it’s just stress about blowing the mission to kill Troy when I had the chance. Now I’ve got the stress of this human and of trying to figure out how to keep our pack safe. That’s all.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Dom. I’m telling you, it isn’t like that.”

“Yeah? Then why were you about ready to shift when I mentioned a particular young wolf’s name?”

I clenched my hand so tight that the beer bottle shattered in my hand, spraying blood and beer over the table. Fortunately, it was mostly empty. Dom pursed his lips to keep from laughing.

“Forget I said anything, and mind your damn business. I never want to speak to you about this again.”

“That’s what I thought.” Dom grinned. “There’s no possible way Bryn could be your mate. You’re just under the kind of stress that has you in a constant jealous rage. How stupid of me to think it could be anything else.”

I kicked him the hell out shortly after that.