Page 5 of Fractured Mates

“Then, who?” I ask, fingers curling around the navy-blue, suede material of the chair beneath me.

“York Graves took over for him,” she says. “Now, he’s been named interim alpha, but things are tense there. Your pack isn’t the same place you might remember, Sophie. I need you to stay away from there. At least until things have been…settled.”

She could just be referring to the new alpha placement. With bigger packs, a change in leader can sometimes lead to a death challenge. I hope that’s something Dawsyn is prepared for, but I’m more concerned about what’s happening in my old pack at the moment.

Yet, the way she said “settled” makes me believe something else is going on.

“Who was the alpha before he went missing?” I ask next, because if it’s Thane’s father Astor, then the alpha isn’t missing. He’s strategically fucking with my pack.

“A man named Joseph Lane,” she replies coolly. “Do you know him?”

I shake my head, but I knew of him. He was friends with my father, but not close enough that he came around the house. I’d just heard the name in passing conversations between my parents.

“So, why would you need to call me about this?” I ask. “My pack has been East Texas for over a decade now.”

There’s no way Dawsyn could have known the decision I made less than twenty-four hours ago, but I want to know what she thinks I have to do with this before I say anything more.

“Because I’ve been specifically told to keep you safe.” Her words are like a bucket of ice being thrown over my head.

I blink twice. “No.”

“No, what?” Her lips purse, as if she’s more than intrigued by my response.

“You’re not keeping me prisoner here, Dawsyn,” I say with a growl. “I will fight until my death before I allow that to happen.”

She holds her hands up innocently. “Calm down. That isn’t and wasn’t my plan. I was going to call you back here, tell you what I just have, and advise you to stay with the pack, but you’re a grown-ass woman. You’re going to do what you want.”

This feels like some screwed-up reverse psychology, and I’m not going to fall for it.

“Good,” I say, then stand from my chair. “I appreciate the information about my old pack, but that isn’t important to me. I came here for a reason, and it seems I need your father.”

Dawsyn doesn’t bother to stand as she stares intently at me. “You want to be released from the pack.”

“I do.”

“Why?” she asks. “After all these years, why now? Why still, after what I’ve just told you? And why haven’t you asked me about your family and more about what’s happening there now?”

She’s going to make one hell of an alpha, but she isn’t mine. She can’t force me to answer those questions, but I will tell her something.

“It’s not my problem,” I say. “I don’t care that the alpha is missing or that the beta is dead. Just like none of them cared when I left.”

At least, that’s what I’ve assumed all this time after years of silence from them. What she’s told me has changed my thoughts. I’m not returning to South Carolina to find my home. I thought I could have both that and closure, but that’s only wishful thinking. I only need to see my family. However they greet me will dictate my subsequent actions. Including asking my parents and younger sister to flee whatever fucked-up situation the pack has gotten themselves into.

“Right.” Dawsyn finally rises from her chair and moves around her desk to stand toe-to-toe with me. “My father isn’t here. He and my mother are on a little vacation. They won’t be back for a week. You’re welcome to stay or?—”

“I’ll be back, then,” I say. “Maybe I’ll even watch you officially get your new title.”

Not that Dawsyn and I were ever close or even friends, given our age difference, which is only seven years. As adults now, it doesn’t feel like such a stretch, but when I was only sixteen and she was twenty-three, it seemed like a lot. Even still, she’s always shown me respect.

When I arrived here as a messed-up teenager with a chip on my shoulder, she never treated me like the child I still was. Instead, she made sure I had access to the resources I needed to become an adult who wouldn’t completely fuck up her life just because she’d become a murderer at the ripe age of sixteen.

“Astor Crowe has inserted himself as acting beta,” Dawsyn adds, and the words have me tensing, something I’m certain she doesn’t miss.

“I. Don’t. Care.” The words are forced from between my gritted teeth.

Her eyes bore into me, and her mouth forms into a tight line. “Sophie. Don’t do this.”

I’m torn between lying to her and telling her I don’t give a shit what she says. The truth is that I do care, but more than I respect Dawsyn and her family, I need to do what I’ve already decided.

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