Page 17 of Fated to Him

“No.” The man stops to rip his green t-shirt right off his body. He does the same to his black sweatpants, leaving scraps of torn fabric on the ground. “He’ll find you.”

My heart spikes in alarm.

Malakhi’s wolf burst right out of him. Why do I get the impression I’m going to see the same thing happen, only this time, have a wolf lunge for my throat the way Malakhi lunged at Jerry?

“So you have to die. Bad enough when you were human.” He curls his top lip in disgust as he runs his eyes up and down my body. “But a half-breed? No half-breed is leading Pack Arleigh, and I’m not the only one who thinks it.”

A light brown-gray mix wolf explodes out of him.

Shit.

6

MALAKHI

“What are you doing here?” I stalk toward Morgan and Teri, making no attempt to hide the growl in my voice. “I’m guiding my mate through her shift.”

If she ever stops fighting the shift. Or however she’s managing to hold her wolf back.

“We need you to mediate a dispute,” Morgan says.

Blond-haired Morgan and his red-headed partner Teri are a mated pair. Usually, they’ll find some reason to stir up trouble unless I keep a close eye on them. Today, I don’t have the patience—or the time—to deal with them.

A faint noise makes me swing away, back to the cabin. “Talk to Benji.”

Their footsteps follow. “He doesn’t understand the situation,” Teri adds.

“If the situation is another pointless dispute engineered to move you up the pack hierarchy, I can see why he wouldn’t want to understand. Go away.”

Did I hear footsteps leave the cabin?

Teri steps around me, blocking me with a warm smile. “It’s your advice we need, Alpha.”

I stare down at her.

I’m missing something. It isn’t like her to smile so warmly at me. And it also isn’t like Teri and Morgan to disregard an order so openly.

Teri and Morgan snipe, and they grumble. But an order is an order, and they follow them. No Alpha has patience when dealing with a packmate who can’t or won’t fall in line.

So what the fuck are they doing here?

“You’re up to something,” I say.

When Teri only smiles wider, it dials up my suspicion. I glance at Morgan, hoping I’ll find a reason there. He peers back blandly.

Yeah, they’re definitely up to something.

A growl erupts from behind me. I’m wearing human skin, not fur, but the sound raises all my hackles. For a moment, it feels like my fur is standing on end.

And then I get it.

“Distraction,” I mutter.

Benji said the others had learned about Delilah despite me keeping that card close to my chest. They wouldn’t have been happy with a human woman serving as pack leader.

How would they respond to her as their Luna?

They’d want her gone.

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