Page 38 of The Alpha's Arranged Bride

“Goodness. I had better go save her poor dolls. The boys aren’t used to playing with little girls and dolls.”

“Whatever happened to chess?”

“Don’t you remember being young and having a five-minute attention span?”

“If they haven’t taken the living room apart already, you’ve done a good job raising them. They probably came to you like feral animals.”

“No. Blake and Levi are great kids. They’re tough, but incredibly smart and sweet.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “They needed a mother. Badly.”

“So does Waverly. I’m afraid I fit that bill like shit.”

She grasped Rome’s shoulder with her soapy hands. For once, he looked absolutely miserable. Normally, he let what he was feeling and thinking show even less than Agnar. “She needs you.” His eyes gleamed with a feral light. “Rome. She needs you.”

“Arrr, here comes the executioner.”

“Anyone want cookies?” She’d seen a box in the cupboard earlier when she’d helped Rome make dinner.

That caused a stampede. The boys rushed in with Waverly close behind them. She was all smiles and not close to tears as Prairie Rose feared she might be, with her poor toys threatened by wild boys.

She passed one around to the kids and then handed two over to Rome when he held out his hand. He was like Agnar that way too. He didn’t do sweets. Apparently, he’d changed his mind about a lot of things since leaving the pack.

“I didn’t thank you for everything you did for Briar May when she came here,” she told Rome quietly while the kids munched happily on their treats.

He shrugged, shoving the whole cookie into his mouth. “I can do more for you too.”

“No,” she responded immediately, giving him a stink eye like no other, hoping for once that he’d listen. “No. You stay right here in Casper. You’re building a life. No need to tear it down.”

Another shrug. It might have been a yes. It might have meant that he was going to prove to be a shit listener like he’d always been and do whatever the hell he wanted.

Chapter 16

Agnar

He’d left his new braces in the backseat of the truck, which left his hands free to pull the knife from the holster at his waist the second he was thrust up against the wall after Rome opened the door and stepped back. Agnar’s hands might not have been fully functional, but he could still press it against someone’s throat in just the right spot.

The lights were all off and there was no secondary attacker to worry about. His heart pumped straight adrenaline into his blood, but it was Rome himself who pinned him up against the wall, one hand on his shoulder, the other at his throat.

“Looks like we’re at impasse.” Rome wasn’t the kind of man to be intimidated by a little blood, even if the source of it flowed from right by his jugular. His hold relaxed slightly on Agnar’s throat, enough for him to breathe again. “I want to make a deal with you.”

“You could have just asked,” Agnar grunted, annoyed with the late-night cloak and dagger bullshit. He was on full alert, but it had been a long day, and he didn’t like his emotions toyed with. His mate and his sons were in there and Rome was pulling this? “But anything you’re going to bargain with or for, the answer is no. I don’t have much of a soul left, but if I did, I sure as fuck wouldn’t sell it to you.”

Rome was pitch black against pitch black. A shadow figure against a disquietingly dark backdrop. His lips pricked up at the corners. He even leaned a little harder into the sharp blade of the knife like he enjoyed the pain or maybe it was the gamble. “The deal is this—”

“Are you hard of hearing, or maybe it’s your brain that’s having trouble keeping up. I want nothing to do with you.”

Rome’s sharp laugh was all taunt. “You treat my sister well. She doesn’t need you to make her happy, but for some inexplicable reason, she’d made it her mission to see you some version of redeemed. I want her to have the family she’s always wanted, and that’s more than just the kids that she adores. It’s a mate who would do anything for her. Love her. Die for her. Make her laugh over stupid fucking things. I don’t give a shit about my siblings other than the three closest in age to me. The rest, my parents just kept popping out. Twelve. It’s absurd. They were just there. Annoying little creatures, but Briar May, Kieran, and Prairie Rose? We were the original family before there was more. I’d do anything for those three. So. You take care of my sister and I’ll take care of your problem in Arizona.”

Rome hadn’t removed his hands and Agnar felt those cold fingers burning against his neck like cold chains. He exhaled too quickly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. Alexander Phaethon. We both know I killed his son and, in a way, started all of this. Even if it’s not up to me to end it, I want revenge as much as you do. I don’t care about your pack lands or your stupid feuds with other wolves, why you’re fighting or how you justify it, but I do want revenge. It’s my right to eliminate that whole family, just as the chance to ever have one of my own was stolen from me.”

“You have a daughter now.”

“Yes. A daughter with no mother. A man with no mate. I might be putting on a good face, but on the inside, I’ve always been dead as fuck. Nonexistent. If you go, you’ll be seeking something more than revenge. If I go and I’m killed, there’s no one who would miss me.”

“Don’t be an idiot. What about your family? What about Waverly?”

Rome finally stepped back. He cleared the blade and Agnar wiped it on his black pants and stuffed it away. Rome walked over slowly and sat down on the couch. The room was set up awkwardly, with the back of the sectional facing the walkway. It was unheard of to give a predator like Agnar an unguarded position, but Rome was clearly confident in his own ability to survive.

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