Page 52 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

“Okay,” he responds, leaning back on the pillow, his silver blue eyes tracing the ceiling.

I follow his lead, lying on my back facing the wooden sky above.

It’s funny how this place once felt so foreign and scary, but now, I also consider thismybed.

Ourbed, I suppose.

“So how was it?” I ask him. “The hunt.”

“I was with some of the witches, helping safeguard their passage through the woods. They have a magical solution that can be added to areas of blackened forest to slow the decay. I was just there to help protect the group from shadow monsters, to hunt for some food, and to keep an eye out for anything else suspicious that could help us undo this curse.”

“Wow,” I breathe. “That sounds like a lot.”

I look at him, and he smiles a little. “What, you don’t think that I can multi-task?”

I shake my head. “Oh, shut up, I know youcan, doesn’t mean you should. Like, why were you also hunting for food? Shouldn’t that activity be separate?”

“Well, yes,” he says. “But we had to miss out on a big hunt recently because of all this crap. A lot of our guys got pulled in different directions. I was busy, so we were running a little low on a specific meat. I thought Why not kill two birds with one stone, you know?”

“Three birds, it seems.”

“Three birds, yes. Why not? I’m the most capable of doing it.”

“Are you stressed?”

I turn on my side to gaze at him. I never understood exactly what an Alpha got up to, but living with him has shown me a lot. He’s the busiest person I’ve ever met. And yet, he never seems stressed.

I’m stressed from trying to figure out all this curse stuff, and I’m not even a shifter; it’s not even my pack.

He shrugs. “Yeah, I get a little stressed from time to time, but there’s no point in it. It doesn’t help.”

“Just because it doesn’t help doesn’t mean you can control it.”

He stretches a little and puts his forearms behind his head.

I register the curve of his muscles, his underarm hair, the way that his chest tenses.

“I believe everything can be controlled, and if it can’t, it needs to be let go. I choose not to be overwhelmed by things that don’t serve me.”

Something in me sinks like a weighted ship falling into the ocean. I bet that’s what he thought about me. Except now I do serve him, now it’s worth keeping me around.

“That’s a little harsh, no?”

“Not harsh, just realistic. You know my training for this position was brutal. My dad was hard on me, and rightly so. To be in this position of power, you have to be strong. It’s the choice I made to be responsible for all these things and people.”

I get it. I’d never do it myself, but I understand why he has to be the way that he is.

Growing up alone hasn’t been easy, and you learn to build certain walls up.

“You’re doing a good job,” I whisper.

He looks at me, and my heart somersaults. “You don’t mean that, Tara.”

“Hey, I won’t claim to ever know what’s going on around here, but I’ve been trying, and from what I’ve seen, you look like you’ve truly made everyone feel cared for.”

“I appreciate that,” he says.

For a second, I think he might reach out and touch me, but he doesn’t. He just moves his head.