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Chapter Sixteen

Ryder

‘H andle her,’ he said. How the fuck was I supposed to handle a bratty beta who was now officially under Jace’s protection? He hadn’t said that part, but it was kind of an unwritten rule. Just like neither Dane nor me put our hands on Ella, touching Em felt much the same.

But as I exited the elevator…and was assaulted by a sharp bony finger in the centre of my chest, all that went out the window.

“Where’s Sloane?” Emma demanded. “You said you were fetching her.”

“I said I was going to check on her,” I replied, feeling that calm settle over me, the kind that usually foreshadowed someone getting fucked up…or a brat getting the spanking of their life. “And she was pretty busy.”

I didn’t point out that Jace had sounded like he would rearrange my face if I didn’t fuck off.

“It was implied,” she practically growled, giving another sharp poke.

“For fuck’s sake, Em, stop poking me in the damn chest!”

“Don’t ‘Em’ me, tough guy. I’m not afraid of you.”

On the other side of the room, the full crew was in attendance—omegas poised with food halfway to their lips, the guys looking on with amusement. Dane chuckled, the fucker.

Why exactly had I let Emma in the gates again?

Yeah, that was right—she’d been shaking the mesh like a madwoman, looking straight up at the surveillance camera, demanding to speak to the manager.

The fucking manager?! Like this was some kind of holiday resort.

She was batshit crazy. It was either bring her in, or have another damn riot on our hands when the rest of the deadbeats in this zone roused themselves to come and check what the fuck was going on.

“Are you even listening to me?” I asked. “You get your sister is newly mated, right? And from the sounds of things, they were busy alleviating their newly mated needs.”

The frown faded, her eyes went round, and she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before spluttering, “Newly mated needs!” Her scowl was back in an instant, little chin tipping in defiance that might as well have been a red flag to the alpha side of me.

“I demand to see my sister, this instant, before your ‘brother’” —she put air quotes on the word with an exaggerated roll of her eyes— “gets notions of breeding her.”

I rubbed my jaw as though pondering this. I was confident Jace was already balls deep and well into the process of breeding her formerly sensible sister, so I offered Emma a fake smile. “How about no.”

Then she poked me one time too fucking many.

“Oh!”

Her screech accompanied me tossing her over my shoulder. Small fists beat against my back, while she cursed me out like a pro.

And just like that, all the tension left me, because handling brats was a personal forte of mine. All alphas had a beast and all had a weakness. My beast’s weakness was taming querulous women, and this one needed a firm but loving lesson in boundaries and respect applied to her arse via my hand.

“Quiet down, princess.” I landed the first swat against her backside, chuckling when it roused an outraged squeal.

I nodded my head to Dane, who was watching with a shit-eating grin.

“If Jace and Sloane surface, tell them I’m going to be” —I gestured toward the wriggling spitfire hanging over my shoulder— “handling this little problem.”

I didn’t wait for a reply, just punched the button on the elevator, and with Emma still wailing about her rights, exited the room.