Page 7 of Predator

The she-wolf who lusts for my mate. Who challenged me before I know I was a wolf, too, and who has done nothing but fuck with me since we met.

I snarl at her. Eleanor stops stroking my tail, but I can’t help it. Curling my lips over my muzzle, baring my fangs at the she-wolf, I snarl because it just seems like the right thing to do.

The conversation between the three other wolves—Lucas, Kirk, and Jade—was too low for me to follow. I caught a few words, so I know they’re talking about something happening tonight. The Luna taking control though she won’t be rising… the new moon. That’s right. They mentioned it’s the new moon.

How? It seems like the moon was only just full…

Lucas’s gaze darkens as he turns his attention on Jade. Not what I wanted at all, and the pitch of my snarl only grows louder.

He curses under his breath. And then, gaze darting my way, he says to Jade, “Look what you’ve done. Are you happy?”

She throws her hands up in the air. “I didn’t do a thing! I was just standing here, offering to help you get her to the cabin. That’s it!”

The cabin? What about the cabin?

“You made her snarl. She’s been calm all afternoon… maybe you should go.”

“What’s the matter, Luc? You don’t want any witnesses when your precious mate attacks you again?”

Kirk steps between Lucas and Jade. “Jade. You heard the Alpha. He’s right. We can handle this without you.”

The blonde she-wolf huffs angrily. “This isn’t fair. I know you don’t believe me, but everything I did… it was for the pack. You can’t continue to blame me for this!”

“I’m not.” Lucas’s jaw goes tight. “But you’re also right. I don’t believe you.”

At a nod from his Alpha, Kirk steps back where he was.

Jade doesn’t go anywhere.

She hesitates a moment before she says in an unusually soft tone, “An Alpha can sense when one of his packmates is lying to him. I’ve never been anything but loyal?—”

“To who, Jade?”

“To you. To the pack. She’s an echo, Luc. She’s not Jolie?—”

She’s wrong there. Sometimes, I think I might be.

Lucas disagrees. “Two for two. I know she’s not Jolie. She’s Fallon, and she’s mine. My mate. She was pack the moment I took her under my protection. That means you owe her your loyalty, too, Jade. After all these years… I thought you would back me up on this.”

“I didn’t want to see you hurt again!”

“I’m the Alpha. It’s my responsibility to keep the rest of the pack safe.

“You’re the Alpha, but I—” Her green eyes glitter as she cuts herself short. “I don’t have a mate. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I saw what you had with Jolie before she was gone. I saw what it did to you. Spending seventy years with Kirk and Ellie being all lovey-dovey has only made it worse. Sometimes I want that. Other times I wish it would go back to the days when it was just the four of us wolves, no outsiders allowed. But that’s my problem. I tried to make up for it. I did. I thought… if she knew that she can’t beat fate, you’d get her back. No secrets, Luc. You told me that once when you wanted to introduce Jolie to the pack. No secrets between mates.”

“It’s not the same?—”

“Don’t you think I could see that? You did Jolie from us. But this one… she was there from the beginning. But even if you didn’t realize you were heading down the same path, we did. Me. Tristan. He wanted her for himself so he stepped back. Not me.

“So I told her we were wolves. She didn’t care. I left her the photos of Jolie. She still chose you, Luc. I did it because waiting around too long is how you lost your last mate. Did you really want to lose this one?”

“You never liked Fallon,” Eleanor says.

Fallon. That’s me. I’m Fallon.

I’m Fallon?—

“Of course not. I didn’t like her for the same reason I didn’t like you in the beginning, Ellie.” Jade shrugs. “I thought she was human.”

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