Page 36 of New Blood (Werewolf Alliance #1)

E ve looked into the full-length mirror in her bedroom.

After hearing that her father would be exiled to Canada, she’d made a decision to cut her losses.

Her father had made too many mistakes, and she had no intention of paying for them.

She had nothing to do with what he and Cameron had done.

She’d lived her life separately from them, spending as much time as she could at the equestrian estate.

With her father gone for good, never to return to the pack as alpha or otherwise, she had to take her life into her own hands, and that meant clawing herself to the highest position she could attain: the alpha female of the pack. All it took was to mate with Jude.

It wouldn’t be too much of a hardship. He was tall and handsome with a good body.

If she was lucky, he was even good in bed.

After all, a man like Jude would have plenty of sexual expertise, attracting women like a pot of honey attracted bees and flies.

She wasn’t blind and was fully aware of Jude’s charms, even though they left her cold.

But she wouldn’t be the first woman to fake love or attraction for a man simply because he could give her the power or status she craved.

She’d had plenty of one-night stands where she hadn’t even liked the guys she was sleeping with.

She’d simply picked them because she wanted sex, and as long as the guy was good-looking enough and had a nice body, she didn’t care much if he had dirt for brains or a stutter or was a chauvinistic pig.

She’d always been able to separate love and affection from sex, just like men could.

If that made her seem cold and calculated, so be it.

She wasn’t looking for anyone’s approval.

Certainly not for her father’s. He’d screwed up her life enough.

At least, this was the last time his actions would have a negative effect on her.

From now on, she would do what she knew she had to.

She glanced at her image in the mirror once more.

Her black negligee was short, her breasts perky beneath the lace, and her legs long and slender.

She knew that she appealed to men. They looked at her and thought of sex.

Well, tonight, that would turn into her advantage.

Any man seeing her like this would lick his chops and toss her on the nearest flat surface and take what she was offering. Jude was certainly no different.

She’d smelled the arousal on him when she’d sat next to him during dinner. He was a virile werewolf, and like all males of their species, he had urges and needs. She wouldn’t make him wait any longer, even though he’d said he would give her time to grieve. She’d grieved long enough.

With a determined gait, she walked to the door of her bedroom and opened it.

Her room was located on the same floor as Jude’s, only three doors down.

She didn’t bother wearing a robe over her revealing attire.

Nobody would see her. It was dark and quiet in the corridor.

Walking barefoot, she made barely a sound.

At Jude’s door, she noticed the faint sliver of light shining from beneath the door into the corridor. He was still awake.

She took a fortifying breath and knocked at the door.

A low sound came from the room—almost like a growl.

Surely, his attitude to this nightly interruption would change the moment he saw her.

She was aware of her sex appeal and had never been turned down by any man she’d offered her body to. Tonight would be no different.

Eve turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. She made two steps into the room. What she saw robbed her of her breath for a long moment, making her unable to speak or even think. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be happening!

She blinked once, twice, three times, but the scene taking place in Jude’s bed didn’t change.

Jude was naked, which would have been a welcome sight if only he’d been alone.

But he wasn’t. His feet firmly planted at the foot of the bed, he was hunched over a woman, fucking her with such fervor that it was no surprise that he hadn’t heard her knock or open the door.

He hadn’t grunted in response to her knock.

No, he’d moaned, just like he moaned now.

Her feet carried her two steps closer until she could finally see the face of the woman in Jude’s bed.

Fury charged through her veins when she recognized her.

“You fucking little whore!” she yelled.

Danielle’s gaze shot to her, shock and embarrassment colliding in it, while Jude spun toward her, glaring at her, a growl ripping from his throat.

Eve glanced at him for a brief moment, noticing that his cock was rock-hard and glistening. That made her even more incensed. Outrage charged through her.

Anger ruling her, she glared back at Danielle.

“It wasn’t enough that you fucked my father? No, now you have to fuck my mate too.”

Her feet carried her closer to the bed, while Danielle gripped the torn shreds of her nightgown and held them together in the front as if she could hide what she had done. By the sights of it she’d probably played the vulnerable little lamb to his powerful wolf.

“That’s not true!” Danielle cried out.

Eve ate up the distance to the bed with a few more steps and swung a fist at her. But her punch was intercepted by Jude snatching her wrist and keeping it in a vise grip.

Fury blazed from his eyes. “If you hurt her, it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Stunned at his stern warning, one that, judging by the dangerous glint in his eyes, he was willing to make good on, she shook her head.

“Don’t you see what she’s doing? She did this with my father, too. She destroyed my parents’ marriage by having an affair with him. It’s her fault that my mother killed herself!”

“That’s not true! William never touched me,” Danielle cried out, looking all innocent.

But she wasn’t fooled. This little bitch had been a thorn in her eye ever since she’d joined their pack, ever since she’d found out about her relationship with her father.

“Liar! I’ve seen your love letters. You even initialed them. As if that would disguise that they were from you.”

Danielle shot a pleading look at Jude. “That’s not true. She’s lying.”

Jude seemed to believe her, because he said, “You should leave, Eve. Now!”

“Don’t let her manipulate you!” Eve replied, shaking her head. “I want her to leave the house tonight and never come back.” She glared at Danielle. “You won’t come between me and Jude. I won’t tolerate you like my mother did. Jude is my mate.”

With his hand still around her wrist, Jude jerked her to the side.

“Nobody is gonna throw her out. And I’m not your mate, Eve. I’m Danielle’s.”

Dumbstruck, Eve’s heart stopped for a second. “What?”

“Danielle and I are mated.”

Gasps coming from the door drowned out her own choked sound of disbelief. It felt as if the world around her was spinning.

Danielle’s gaze shot to the open door. She hadn’t heard anybody approach while Eve had accused her of the vile lie that she’d had an affair with her father. It was evident that their loud voices had awoken other members of the household, and they’d come to investigate.

Flora was the first one to enter the room, but she wasn’t alone. Violet and Byron followed her, Thaddeus on their heels. More sounds came from the hallway, indicating that some of the others had also heard the argument.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Jude reach for his pajama pants and pull them on, before he picked up her bathrobe and tossed it to her. He shielded her from the view of the intruders so she could put it on.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Byron demanded.

Danielle looked past Jude and realized that Wendell, Mason, and Owen had also entered the room, though it appeared they didn’t know yet what had happened. They’d arrived after Jude had announced that they were mated.

Eve pointed toward her while addressing her brother, “She stole my mate from me! That fucking whore just stole him! She tricked him into mating with her.”

Jude growled low and dark. “Another word of disrespect toward my mate, and I’ll forget that you’re a woman and beat the living daylights out of you.”

At his words, Danielle felt better. Jude would stand by her, despite the awful lies Eve was spreading.

“What the—”

Byron’s eyes ping-ponged between Eve, Jude, and her until he finally seemed to understand what was going on. He glared at Jude, making a step toward him, anger rolling off him in waves.

“You slept with this fucking little nobody and disrespected my sister?” A grunt underscored his words.

“Another word against Danielle, and I’ll teach you about respect. So for everybody in the cheap seats who hasn’t heard it yet: Danielle and I are mated. She’s mine, and nothing and nobody will change that.”

Jude looked even broader and bigger now as he stood there dressed in only his pajama pants, defending her and laying down the law. He was truly the alpha.

Danielle looked at the small crowd that had assembled in the master bedroom, most of them dressed in pajamas or bathrobes, with Thaddeus and Owen still dressed in street clothes, just like Wendell who was carrying his cat in his arms.

Violet looked distraught, while Flora’s face was unreadable. It appeared that nothing could shake her inbred stoicism. Jude’s men, of which more were arriving, judging by the sounds of footsteps echoing in the corridor, looked surprised, but not displeased.

The two people who were spewing anger and hate were Eve and Byron, and it appeared they were feeding off each other’s fury.

“You had no right to do this!” Byron now spat, his lips pulled into an evil snarl. “You’ve disrespected my entire family by shacking up with that little floozy.”

“Enough!” Jude yelled.

But Byron was on a roll. “You’ll pay for this.”