Page 8 of Forced By the Alpha

“She's a spry one, Dev, I’ll give you that.” Chris waggled his eyebrows. “Even gave Em a run for her money.”

Emma flipped him off from across the table. “Bullshit, she did. I could’ve caught her anytime. I just wanted to give you boys something to do. Didn’t want the fun to be over so soon.”

“Yeah? How about when you bit it on the mud? Was that on purpose, too?” Caleb elbowed her in the side and got one back twice as hard. He took it with a wink.

Yup, those two were definitely sleeping together. Devon steeled himself for the inevitable fallout there.

“When’s the mating ceremony?” Em’s voice was all honey.

It set Devon’s hair on edge. If there was one thing he knew about his sister, she didn’t have a sweet bone in her body. Probably why their father preferred her. She was as cutthroat as he was. Why had she stayed? The puzzle of that kept him up at night.

“Soon. Once she’s had time to settle in.”

“You mean once you get her to, like, even look at you?” Emma smirked.

Devon pushed back his chair. “With me, Em.”

“Ooooh,” the boys chorused like a pack of schoolchildren.

“Someone's in trouble,” Jonah tacked on.

Caleb caught her hand as she passed, a hint of affection in his eyes that stopped Devon short. Did he truly care for her? Was it more than just a way for them to pass the time?

She yanked her hand free and shot him a glare that could’ve chilled the sun. Well, at least that tracked. Hell hadn’t yet frozen over.

Devon led the way to his office. Even now, at forty-one, he felt the remnants of his father there. Unconsciously, he’d stand up straighter and pull his shoulders back at the doorstep.

Emma stalked in behind him, a tornado in human form. She slammed the door shut behind her and whirled on Devon.

“You can’t just order me around like that. It’s embarrassing.”

He leaned back against the desk, hands on the edge of it, the picture of nonchalance.

“I think you’ll find that I can. I’m the alpha.” He pointed at himself. “You’re just the gamma, remember?”

She tossed her hair over her shoulder, eyes murderous. “Even though I should be beta.”

He bit back a laugh. “Yeah, somehow I didn’t want a beta where I had to worry they were gunning for my job. Or my life. You know, I’m funny like that.”

“So that’s why you picked poor, sweet Jonah? Nothing to fear from him when he hasn’t even got any balls.”

“You’d know better than I, wouldn’t you? Jonah, Caleb, who’s next? Don’t know how you have time to be such a twit when you can’t seem to spend a night alone.”

Pink flushed high on her cheekbones, two bright spots above those sharp planes. “You sound jealous, Dev. But then, that’s why we had to kidnap you a mate, isn’t it? Couldn’t get any on your own.”

“Maybe, just maybe,” Dev snarled, voice low, “I’m a little too busy keeping this pack together to enjoy the frivolities you do.”

She laughed, high and humorless. “Is that what you’re doing? Would you call this together? If you didn’t have this place and an endless supply of food, half of those boys would be out the door tomorrow.”

He pushed off the desk and got in Emma’s face. “And whose fault is that? I’m not blind, Em. I can see you trying to pull this thing down, I’ve just got no fucking idea why.”

Emma raised her chin. She was shorter than Devon, nearly half his weight, but she’d never been afraid to go toe to toe with him. As children, her tenacity had made him proud. He’d never had to defend her in the schoolyard, who would dare bully her? Now, it all seemed to be aimed his way.

“Because you're weak. You don’t need a Rosewood mate, you need to wipe that pack off the earth. We’ve got the strength for it, so what are you waiting for?”

He flung up his hands, incredulous. "Do you have any idea how many we’d lose in a fight like that? It’s not worth it. There are other ways.”

She set her hands on his chest and shoved, the tips of her nails digging in through his shirt. “You don’t believe in us, in the boys. They can see it, and they can feel it, and you’re proving it with every second you keep that bitch in our house.”

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