Page 82 of Possessive Alpha

She’s all innocence. “What? Is it so wrong to want to see my packmates happy?”

“Well, if you still want to lock us down there, I wouldn’t mind,” Ty says, dropping a kiss on top of my head.

I lean into his side. It feels strange to let myself do it instead of always forcing myself to stay away or pretend disinterest.

Later, we’re in the dining room, having just sat down for breakfast, when Clara finally emerges. The day she’s up early is the day I know an asteroid is heading for Earth.

But she’s not holding a plate of breakfast. She’s looking thoughtful as she chews her lip. “Can I talk to you, Martha?”

I nod. “Yep. I think I need to talk to you as well.”

I kiss Ty and move to get up.

Approximately two seconds later, I’m in his lap, being given a more thorough version of the kiss I gave him. Trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing after takes a minute. By a minute, I mean so long that Ty grins at me and asks if I want another kiss. Blushing, I climb off his lap.

I let Clara lead the way out of the dining room, through the entryway, and down the back porch steps. By mutual agreement, we stick close to the house.

After Seth and Cody’s attack, Ty told me that Jackson has some of the guys doing regular perimeter checks to make sure Adrian doesn’t send more enforcers. When Seth and Cody don’t return to Minnesota, I have a feeling the chances of that happening will grow.

I’m not sure what will happen, but Ty and Jackson don’t seem worried, so I assure myself that I shouldn’t worry either.

As we slowly circle the house, Clara is quiet.

I lift my fingers to trace the bite on the junction of my neck and shoulder. The faint imprint tells every shifter that I have a mate, and which I will wear forever.

“I was talking with Regan the other day when Ty was making you scream the house down,” Clara says.

I’m bright red in a second, whipping my head to face her. “Clara!”

Clara grins at me, unrepentant. “He’s hot. I’m sure every girl was jealous.” She slings an arm around my shoulder and rests her head on mine. “And you’re hot too, so I’m sure all the guys were wishing they were Ty.”

“I’m not?—”

Clara stops, pulls her arm from my shoulders, and says, “Stop.”

“Stop what?”

She gestures vaguely toward me. “That. You always sell yourself short. You’re beautiful, brave, strong, and you always think more about others than you do about yourself. So you need to stop putting yourself down.”

“I do, do I?” My voice is dry as I flash her a faint smile.

She doesn’t return it. “You’re always focused on taking care of me, making sure we’re safe and fed, and it’s time to stop. It’s time you prioritized you instead of me.”

I recall Ty’s insistence I talk to Clara about what she wants, and I wonder how he can be so observant. I’ve known Clara all her life, yet I think he read her better than I did.

“You sound like you’ve decided something,” I say, watching her closely.

She nods. “Like I said before, I was speaking with Regan. You probably already guessed that I wasn’t happy here, right?”

My heart is in my throat as I nod. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her to stay, or that I’ll go with her because it isn’t safe for her to be alone. I have to swallow those fears down. I need to stop always thinking and planning and worrying.

Maybe it’s time I just asked my twenty-two-year-old sister, who isn’t so little anymore, what she wants. “I guessed you weren’t happy. Do you know what you want to do?”

When her shoulders slump in relief, she must have expected me to argue. Before Ty, I would have continued making the decisions for both of us and probably stifled Clara’s ability to decide her own future.

“Well, I was speaking with Regan. And she has family in a place called Hardin. She asked if I might want to go see if I could be happier there,” Clara says.

I frown. “Is it far?”

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