Page 30 of Forced By the Alpha

Devon followed, and Caleb and Jonah took up the rear. It was a long run back to the White Winter territory, time enough for Emma to find her voice.

You should have let me kill him.

Any other time, and he would have flattened her for her disobedience. Once again, she was questioning her alpha. Maybe Beth was softening him. He couldn’t find it in himself to lay her low so soon after she’d knelt at Jonathan’s grave.

We can’t afford that, not right now. You need to wash at the stream.

At least in this form, she couldn’t throw one of her withering glares at him.

So your precious luna doesn’t know it’s Rosewood blood? Either she’s a White Winter, or she’s not.

They hit the territory line and stopped at the stream’s edge. Devon shifted first, kneeling by the stream to cup a handful of water into his mouth. It was cold and clear, bubbling over rocks as it wound its way through the forest.

“Fuck, that was close,” Jonah said, kicking a rock into the water. “They don’t usually patrol up there.”

“Something’s got them worked up.” Caleb knelt and splashed water over his face. It dripped down onto his shirt and left splatters there.

“Something?” Emma finally shifted, wiping blood off her chin with her arm. “You mean like kidnapping one of their members? That kind of something?”

She glared at Devon but bent and rinsed the rest of the blood in the stream. He held his hand in his hands.

“Maybe we should just let her go,” he said quietly. Jonathan’s imagined reprimand was ringing in his head like a bell. Would his brother even recognize who he had become?

Emma scoffed. “Seriously? Now? No, Dev. You made this plan, and you need to see it through. Go back on it now, and everything falls apart.”

Devon turned to her in surprise. “I thought you’d love to get rid of her.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I think this was an idiotic decision, and I think she’s weak as a wet paper bag. But she’s yours now. Why are you getting soft on me now? Don’t tell me. You’re starting to really like her.”

But she read everything she needed to know before Devon even opened his mouth. Her lips thinned.

Devon held up his hand to forestall her vitriol. “I don’t need to hear it, and I don’t want to fight right now, not after… not after that. You’re right, though. I can’t let her go now. It would make all of this meaningless.”

Jonah clapped him on the shoulder. “She’s coming around. I think you’re really starting to win her over, and I think, despite everything, she might be good for us. Don’t give up now, man.”

“Yeah, I kind of like having her around, much as I never thought I'd say that about a Rosewood.” Caleb chimed in.

"I wouldn’t go that far,” Emma drawled.

Their words helped, but they did not smother the pang inside of him that grew each time he thought of how Beth was a prisoner, that despite this growing… something between them, she was not there because she wanted to be.

“And how do you think she will react to hearing you broke a Rosewood leg, exactly?” Dev asked, pointing at Emma.

She shrugged, uncaring. “This time, they attacked first. I don't think I’m to blame here.”

Somehow, Devon didn’t think Beth would see it that way.

Chapter 13 - Beth

“Where is Devon?” Beth searched for his face at the dinner table.

Everyone else was there, and bags of carryouts, far more than they could ever eat, were spread out in front of them. She paused in the doorway. Walking into a room full of White Winter wolves had never stopped feeling like walking into the enemy’s lair, and with their eyes all turned toward her, she felt like a deer caught in the open. Jonah pulled out the chair beside him and patted the seat.

“He’s out today. Just us, I’m afraid,” he said.

She sat down beside him and folded her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. Emma was watching her closely.

“Oh,” Beth replied, reaching for a container of fries. “what is he doing?”

---