Page 34 of Hunted Mate (Stalked Mates #1)

“And mine,” he points out.

“A shame that cannot be avoided,” I snap back.

I am taking pleasure in watching him lose everything in real time.

It is starting to dawn that the twenty or so members of the pack who fled instead of submitted are not the strongest, or the most useful.

They are the weakest. They are the ones who fled from the ultimate incarnation of our kind, a pure blending of man and wolf.

“We need more pastry,” the pure beast who is my mate, and heiress to the Hart fortune, says from somewhere inside the conservatory, her voice carrying across the lawn to the driveway where I and my father are finally having our long overdue reckoning.

“Toaster strudel? Does that count? It’s a box of six. ”

I look at my father. My father looks at me.

“It’s not that easy to run a pack. It takes more than being able to walk upright as a wolf and offer people toasted pastry,” he says.

“It involves hard decisions and tactics. It means being able to manage budgets. Knowing where the bodies are buried. Knowing who your enemies are, and keeping them close. You’re not ready to take over from me. ”

“I’m not going to take over from you.”

“That’s exactly what you’re going to have to do.

She’s a baby orphan who happens to have a specific mutation that makes the pack drop at her feet.

But she’s your mate. She’s submissive to you—and without you, she’s chaos incarnate.

So yes, my son, you are going to have to take over for me.

It’s not going to be a satisfying conquest.” He smirks at me, as if he’s just figured out what he thinks is a winning move.

“I’m going to take my youngest kids and my prettiest, most recent wife, and we’re going to move to Hawaii. I don’t give a fuck what happens to the rest of you.”

Callie shows up again at this point. She smells sweet and rich. Or maybe that’s the pastry.

“Are you two hungry? It’s been a big day,” she smiles. She has a tray of toaster pastry now. It smells like icing and trans fats. Perfect.

Orion looks her up and down, and snorts at me.

“My father is moving to Hawaii,” I tell her.

“Oh? But who will hatch the evil laboratory plans?” Callie hands me the toaster pastry and advances on my father, in spite of the fact that she is almost two feet shorter than him in this form. “Who will alienate their adult children and pit them against one another?”

“You think it’s so easy,” he says. “But the truth is, your parents didn’t live long enough to disappoint you. I hope you live long enough to realize that you’re not going to be any better than I was.”

Oh, shit. Nobody told the old man never to mention Callie’s parents. I did it once and lived to regret it.

Smack!

The sound of Callie’s hand slapping my father’s face echoes through the clearing. I push in front of her before he can hit her back, and stay his hand, which was already in motion.

“My parents loved me!” Callie is emotional. “Not being able to survive a plane crash is not the same as making your kid kill people to keep your secrets. You’re a… a…” she casts around for the right word. “A real dick.”

Orion laughs. “I am so much more than a real dick,” he says. “Enjoy the pack. They get rowdy on too much sugar.”

“Why don’t you just chill the fuck out and have some fucking toaster strudel?” Callie snatches one from the ground and thrusts it at my father. I don’t know if it is supposed to be an olive branch or a gauntlet. Could be both, or either, depending on his response.

He looks at her, and down at the toasted treat that is probably starting to get quite cold now.

“You’re not equipped to handle this level of responsibility,” he tells her. “You’re going to fail. You’re going to get the wolves discovered and you’re going to usher in a new age of persecution against our kind.”

“If any of that happens, it won’t be because I did something wrong,” she says. “It will be because you are a dick, as I mentioned before. You’re probably going to run off and tell everyone about wolves as some kind of revenge for not getting to be alpha anymore. Some twelve-year-old girl shit.”

I can see from the look on Orion’s face that he was indeed thinking about betraying the packs’ secrets in some form of revenge.

He’s losing everything, and he’s losing it fast, and as a result of his own actions.

If he’d left Callie alone, she’d never have undergone this transformation, and he’d have remained in control.

Instead, he’s changed the shape of wolves forever.

“Oh, yeah, see, I know. I’m not stupid,” Callie continues.

“You think I got this far in life by being dumb? You think I haven’t sat in on hundreds of C-level meetings and listened to the petty bullshit that passes for adult men scheming on one another?

I know you, old man. I’ve seen you with a dozen different faces on.

I know what you’ll do before you think about doing it.

That’s why we have so much fucking strudel. ”

Callie’s brand of offensive olive branch handling is impressive. I don’t think Orion knows what to do with himself. He wants to beat her, but he can’t, and he wants to hate her, but he can’t do that either because she’s smarter than he thought she was and she’s funnier than he can really deal with.

“Where’s your strudel, old man?” she says. “What did you bring to the party, besides your greed and your anger and your mean son who is also a dick?”

“Alright,” I say, drawing her back to me.

The mention of her parents really threw her off and she’s lost some of her composure.

That’s not a good thing for a couple of reasons.

One, I don’t like seeing her upset. Two, if she gets upset enough, it could trigger something nasty in the pack.

I can already see a few of the boys pricking their ears up from the verandah.

If my father is not careful, he could end up torn to pieces by his own wolf army.

“I am still going to take retirement, but it won’t be hostile.” My father softens slightly. “I am not going to see any of you hurt. I did not put in decades as alpha of Louisiana just to see every wolf here hunted to extinction.”

“Oh, good. Real nice of you to not have us all wiped out. Swell guy.”

“Alright, Callie,” I say, kissing her head. “That’s enough.”

“Is it?”

“It is,” I say. But I’m not really speaking to her. I’m not looking at her. I’m looking at my father, and at Karl. The scientist has already gotten back in the vehicle, a much smarter man than either of them.

“I think it’s time you left,” I say. “Book your flights and fuck off out of my sight.”

“Let’s go,” Orion says to Karl. “Let them clean up their own mess for once.”

The irony of him saying that after making the whole fuck show is intense, but that’s old men for you. Destroying everything, then leaving it to their kids to clean up.

I don’t care about what he says. I just care that he fucks off about now, and leaves me and Callie in whatever passes for peace.