Page 73 of Possessive Alpha

Ty lifts his head and stares into my face. His eyes glitter and a growl rumbles from his throat.

I smile faintly, remembering his order to list alphas who were interested in me. “Not me. No alpha was interested in me there.”

He licks my jaw, and I smile again.

When he returns his head to my thigh, I keep talking. “Clara and I were out running one day. She liked to show me things she’d found. I’d go along, not really interested because I preferred to stay home with the others. I didn’t want to upset her, so I went.”

Even as kids, she was always out, wanting to explore, never content to settle. I just wanted to stay close to home and be around my packmates.

A burst of memory lances through my mind. Jagged. Sharp.

Painful.

No. Agonizing.

“While we were running, the other pack attacked ours.” I blink back tears. “It was the middle of the day. No one would have known or prepared.” I swallow tears. “When we went back from our run, everyone was dead or dying.”

My fingers tighten in his fur, and I try hard not to cry.

I’m not seeing Ty anymore.

I’m back in Ohio, back on that day Clara and I lost our pack, our home, everything. The only thing we had was each other, and I swore I would never let anything hurt my little sister. I would always protect her.

No matter what.

“We didn’t know what the other pack would do with our land, but it was too dangerous to stay. I told Clara to wait in the forest and I went to gather clothes, food, and anything else I thought we might need.”

As I stare at the sunlight between the curtains, I’m amid the blood and the death, knowing everyone is gone, and as the oldest, I have to look after Clara.

“There was so much death. So much blood…” I pull my hand from Ty’s fur and brush the tears from my face. “I’m sorry. I’m getting your fur wet.”

He lifts his head, and I watch him shift, alpha-quick.

Two seconds.

That’s all it takes. If I’d blinked, I would have missed it.

He says nothing as he sits with his back to the wall, gathers me in his arms, and holds me in his lap, mirroring our previous position.

I wish we could sit like this forever, but I’m not finished with my story, and Ty needs to know what happened to him was my fault.

“The men who came here tonight are enforcers for an alpha called Adrian,” I tell him.

He strokes a hand down the length of my hair, and I lean into his caress. “I heard a little of what they said in the cave. They wanted Clara?”

I nod. “Clara is an omega like our mom, but she’s still figuring out her gift. I wonder if Adrian knows what she is, and that’s why he refuses to let her go.”

Ty sighs. “Hard to know, sweetheart, but we alphas are demanding. Some more than others. If he decided Clara was his, it would explain why he sent his enforcers after you.”

I lift my head to meet his eye. It takes serious effort because Ty is resistant to releasing his tight grip on me. “It was in Minnesota. I made a mistake thinking I could trust him.”

His eyes probe mine. “He befriended you?”

“He seemed nice at first, wanting to help me out, instead of demanding we stay in his town the way other shifters had.”

“But he had a long game,” Ty rumbles, anger hardening his jaw.

“I think he did. Clara.” I return my cheek to his chest and wrap my arms around him. “By the time I’d introduced him to Clara, I thought I could trust him. Later that night, Clara told me she wasn’t sure we could. That it would be a mistake to stay.”

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