Page 55 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)

~Amanda~

Troy sat in the chair opposite my desk, bare-chested under a loose hoodie he hadn’t bothered to zip, his skin pale but unbroken. I didn’t need the doctor’s praise to know how lucky he was, but hearing the words didn’t hurt.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the doctor said, shaking his head as he checked the last of the readings.

“The wound should have killed him a second time. Instead, it closed as if it had never been there. Your bond, the fairy’s magic, and his genetics…

somehow, it all worked together.” He turned to me with something almost like awe.

“Whatever force is protecting him, Alpha, don’t let it go. ”

He was preaching to the choir. I wouldn’t let Troy go again for anything in this world.

The office door clicked shut behind him, leaving me and Troy alone for a brief moment of stillness. I leaned against the edge of my desk, watching Troy as he flexed his fingers slowly, testing his strength. “You good?” I asked softly.

He glanced up, those pale brown eyes meeting mine with a small, almost crooked smile. “Getting there. We survived, Alpha.”

I exhaled slowly. There’d be time later to process the trauma of the battle. For now, there was still unfinished business.

Jasper, bring them in, I mind-linked, my tone sharp again. All of them.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Jasper entered with Beta Chad, shackled and sullen. Sweat gathered on his flushed brow. Alpha Craig and Alexander followed, uncuffed but closely watched by Savannah and Darius. Alexander’s expression held wary curiosity while Alpha Craig feigned boredom.

I knew enough about putting on a show to cover up your true feelings to recognize when someone else was doing it.

I motioned them further into the room. Troy stood as soon as Alpha Craig approached, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

“Sit,” I ordered. They all obeyed: Chad glaring, Craig lounging arrogantly in the chair across from me, and Alexander looking increasingly uncomfortable next to his father, fingers twitching against his thigh while his gaze returned to Troy again and again.

My mate remained standing, towering over the other men as he came to stand next to my desk.

I let a long pause linger in the air, forcing them to feel the weight of the moment. Their fate rested in my hands, and they needed to understand that.

“Clearly, you two,” I nodded toward Craig and Chad, “were working together to take my pack. What I want to know is who was foolish enough to start it and who was the idiot who went along with it.”

Silence followed, a silence during which Chad gave Craig a hard side-eye until Craig’s lips curled in faint amusement. “ If I was working with your Beta, and I’m not saying I was, it would seem he did a piss-poor job of holding up his end.”

“And if I was working with you, I’d say you exaggerated your pack’s strength,” Chad snapped back.

Craig growled, his mask slipping with the insult. “You told me they wouldn’t fight. That morale was crumbling. Instead, we got a rallying she-wolf and a magical force field.”

“It’s not my fault someone blocked the assassin’s shot. And even then, the genie was supposed to…”

“The genie,” Craig snarled. “You put so much fucking faith in this genie and all he did was keep us out while they regrouped!”

They’re admitting to everything, Savannah marvelled in my head.

Indeed they were. I just had to dangle a little bit of rope and they scrambled to hang themselves with it.

“Enough.” My voice cracked through the room like a whip and both men flinched. “Chad, you and the others who supported you are banished from the Ravenstone, effective immediately. Including your eldest son, who I assume slunk off with the other Battle River men. You’ll leave today.”

“You can’t…” he tried to bluster.

“Oh, yes, I can. I am the Alpha of this pack, your Alpha, which you seem to have forgotten. Your years of loyal service to my father are the only reason you’re leaving with your life. Step foot on my land again, and I’ll tear your throat out myself.”

I nodded at Jasper who called two of his men in and passed on my instructions. Stone-faced, they accompanied Chad from the room, leaving me with the two Battle River wolves.

When the door closed, I shifted my gaze to Craig.

“As for you, your pack lost. You invaded us and you failed. Under the ancient surrender terms, you owe us damage costs and blood prices for the fallen.”

The doctor had confirmed to me that four men were dead.

Three more were in critical condition, but they were hopeful they could be saved.

Guilt twisted at my gut at the idea that anyone had died because of me, but Troy, sensing my despair, assured me that every warrior was ready to die for his pack and would be proud of the part they’d played.

It simply came with the territory of being a warrior in the first place.

It didn’t make it any easier.

Craig’s expression twisted in disdain at my declaration. “Send me the bill, then. Are we done here?”

A growl rumbled from my left, and I knew without looking that it came from Troy. “Don’t speak to her that way, you bastard.”

Craig simply scoffed. “I don’t think I’m the bastard here.”

Troy lunged before I could react, but Alexander was quicker, stepping in front of his father and Alpha.

“What the hell is going on?” His eyes swung from Troy to Craig and back again. Seeing them so close together, the resemblance was impossible to miss.

“Oh, I know.” Savannah raised her hand, her tone both bright and sarcastic. “Troy is Alpha Craig’s son. It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?”

I shot her a warning look as Alexander blinked in surprise. “That’s not possible.”

“Oh, it’s possible,” Troy said, ice in his voice. “Your father slept with my mother while your mother was carrying you. Real class act.”

All the colour drained from Alexander’s face as he turned to his father. This time, there was no deference in his expression, only disbelief and something like grief. “Is that true?”

Craig’s jaw flexed, hard and sharp. His voice, when it came out, was cold as stone. “You were the only son that mattered.”

The silence that followed was suffocating, sucking all the air from the room.

Alexander slowly sat back down, visibly struggling with the truth that had just been revealed, while Troy stepped away, as if he couldn’t trust himself not to attack Craig again with nothing between them.

He prowled the edge of the room instead.

I stood slowly, folding my arms across my chest. “Alexander, you’re free to go. Return to your forces and take them home. I’ll be in touch about the reparations.”

He didn’t react for so long, I wasn’t sure he even heard me.

“What about him?” he finally asked, gesturing to his father.

“Alpha Craig still has some questions to answer for us.”

That was too much for the Alpha, who leaned forward, slamming his fist on my desk. “I don’t answer to you. You can’t keep me here without violating werewolf law.”

He tried to stand, but Jasper immediately shoved him back down, giving me a nod to continue.

“For the battle, no. Murder, however, is another matter.”

“What murder?” Alexander asked, sounding like he didn’t really want to know.

Troy answered for me, each word clear and strong.

“The murder of my mother.”