Page 10 of Destined For The Wolf Daddy

Travis moved out of the way, but Ashton stayed sprawled on the floor a few feet away from me, seemingly lost in the horror of his own making.

Sylvia rested her hands on my neck, patting it as if she was frisking me. She finally placed a hand over my windpipe and shook her head. “Almost crushed his larynx,” she said. “Damn lucky I’m here. You may have lost your voice forever.”

Her grasp got a little rougher, and I could physically feel the sensation of her moving my windpipe back to where it was supposed to be. My airways suddenly opened, and I took a deep, hungry breath, not aware until now that I’d been struggling so hard to breathe.

Sylvia held me there like that while my body took care of the rest, my natural healing abilities coaxing my wounds closed and shoring up the shape of my windpipe. When it was over, I was finally able to shift back into my human form.

Travis and Sylvia helped me sit up, and once I was leaning against the wall next to the door, I looked up at the stairs to see Marley standing there, her expression sober. I gave her a weak smile. She did not return it.

I watched as she took unhurried steps down the stairs. Weakly, I opened my arms toward her, but to my surprise, she altered course right before she reached me. Instead of coming to collapse into me, she knelt down in front of Ashton a few feet away.

Had I not been so weak, so shaken, I would have snatched her away from him. As it was, though, I was still catching my breath.

She grabbed Ashton’s flannel shirt, the one we’d provided for him when he’d come to live with us, and pulled firmly at it until he met her fiery eyes.

“We took you into our home to protect you and help you recover,” she said with quiet menace. “You have shown myself and Travis and all of the transitioned shifters and nonshifters nothing but scorn and hatred the entire time. We have overlooked it, giving you room to process and heal, but this is a step too far.”

“But—”

“No,” she commanded. “If my husband had been a second later, you would have torn my son to shreds. And for what?”

Ashton clammed up, seemingly unable to talk.

Marley looked over at Travis. “What was it over this time?”

I looked at Travis, too, wondering what could have gotten them off on such a bad track.

“This time?” Travis repeated. “I told him it was his turn to work kitchen duty with Claire.”

That was it? All of this aggression had been over kitchen duty?

Maybe Travis was right. Maybe I really was out of touch with the problems starting to percolate in my pack.

I looked at Marley, who was now staring into Ashton’s face with icy fury, her lips set in a hard line as she shook her head.

“If this happens again, you are out of the pack and out of the territory. Do you understand me? If you so much as lift a finger or say one thing out of line—”

“That isn’t your jurisdiction—” Ashton started.

He couldn’t finish his asinine reply before Marley landed a loud slap across his face.

“Do. Not. Give me a reason. To kick your ass to the curb right fucking now,” she whispered to him in quiet rage. “Get off your ass. Go into the kitchen. And get to fucking work.”

Ashton looked from her over to me, like he expected me to intervene for him after he’d nearly torn my throat out.

“You heard the woman,” I said. “And you can do kitchen duty on your own today.”

Ashton got back onto his feet, his shirt covered in his own blood, though I was near certain he was fully healed by now. He stalked away from us, exiting the room and going into the kitchen to finally do what he was told.

Once he finally stepped away from us and was out of earshot, I let out a drained sigh and looked at Marley. “You were downright lethal with him, sweetheart,” I said with a smile.

She didn’t smile back, shaking her head before looking at Sylvia. “Is Cole patched up?” she asked.

“Yes, he should be fine,” Sylvia replied. “From what I can tell, nothing is permanently damaged or incorrectly healed. He just needs to get some rest at this point.”

“Alright,” Marley said before looking at me again. “Let’s get you upstairs.”

I knew that look. Even though we’d only been married a couple of months, I could tell when Marley had something she wanted to talk about. I wondered if this was finally the straw that would break the camel’s back. Maybe it was too much for her to watch me be attacked and pestered by enemies, and our supposed pack mates on top of that.

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