Page 13 of The Alpha's Arranged Bride

“What happened at the meeting?” Blake asked again, and this time, it was a useful distraction.

“I restored order,” he said gruffly between bites. He wasn’t going to go slow and savor it. That would admit that he liked things like strawberries and whipped cream and fucking dough more than he should. “Banished Alexander, but he was long gone. The blow didn’t kill him. Hopefully we’ll never hear from him again, but I suspect a scorned wolf like him will be on the path for vengeance.”

Prairie Rose snorted, then whipped her hand over her mouth. “Are you serious? What right does he have to seek vengeance for trying to betray and kill his own alpha? That is the disgusting behavior of an unhinged, dangerous man.”

He slammed back a long pull of the scalding coffee. At least that was strong and bitter. “I made him beta because of those qualities. Wanted to keep him close. It would have been better had you killed him. It would have been best had you done nothing at all.”

She whirled like those words were a blow of their own. She caught herself on the counter again and raised her head, stricken. “I should just have let you die?”

“It would have been better than weakening my status as alpha in front of the entire pack.” If that was true, he had put to rest any questions about his ability to lead that morning.

He’d survived the kind of challenge that was unheard of. Beaten off five warriors, six if Alexander’s treachery was included. The killing blow from his former beta aimed at his back was viewed by the pack with utter contempt and disgust. It was cowardly and it was out of the bounds of a formal challenge. No warrior acted that way. There were those at the meeting, both male and female, who voiced their approval of Prairie Rose as a mate.

She might not have been a part of them before, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t courageous and dangerous in her own right. She’d saved his life, as any mate would do for another. She’d picked up a warrior’s axe and hefted it, even drugged to the point of oblivion. She’d wounded a very dangerous man all on her own. He couldn’t let her know that, however, because he’d never be able to do what he had to do otherwise.

“That’s just ridiculous,” she sputtered.

“I told you not to get involved, not to unman me in front of the pack.”

“Dad!” Blake yelped, rising to the defense of a woman he’d only just met. Even he knew that his father’s cruelty, biting words, and lack of gratitude were all wrong.

Levi shuffled next to his brother, openly uncertain about the animosity he was throwing off.

“So, I should have just let you die? The boys told me what could have happened to them if you weren’t here. We might all be…” She gulped and looked like she wanted to run straight to his sons and sweep them into her arms. She shook her head, getting control of herself.

“You’re not a true mate. That’s known.”

“Why? Because we didn’t get mated for love? We did chooseeach other. We weren’t forced into anything. Don’t you dare sit there and tell me that I’m not true or real.”

He looked up and finally fullyallowed himself to take her in. She’d showered and her hair was already dry and hanging in lush waves down her back. She had on one of those ridiculously whimsical dresses. Yellow with flowers all over it. It covered her waiflike form completely except for the cap sleeves, but somehow the chasteness of it and the unflattering shape only managed to highlight the shape of her breasts and hips, her lovely height, her pale skin. He even noticed a few freckles on the bridge of her nose, dancing across her cheeks, that he hadn’t taken in before. Her lips were pinker than normal and so were her cheeks, flushed with life and anger.

She was beyond stunning.

Unfortunately, his body recalled every single thing she’d done during the night. She might have been drugged, but he’d felt the heat of her as she parted her legs, trying to fuck herself on his thigh, the sweet wetness that soaked through her leggings onto him.

He was a bastard and he hated that he had no control over his own body as his cock kicked to life, hardening like a steel rod in his black fatigues under the table.

She looked ready to cleave him in half right there. Ready for battle. Fierce without being a warrior. Something in his chest tightened and his heartrate spiked.

“Boys, to your rooms, now.”

They didn’t dare defy him a second time. They scuttled away without looking over their shoulders. That wasn’t fair, but they didn’t have a say in what he needed to do. Looking at their faces, so like his own and so like their mother’s, would only haunt him when he delivered the killing blow.

A blow that would cut out his own heart. He’d finally, well and truly, be the dead man that he saw in half the eyes of those in the pack. Those who had lost families and loved ones. Those who had nothing left to live for.

“Mate or not,” he said in a tone so cold and emotionless that it chilled even him, “you’re leaving. You’re not cut out for being here.”

Prairie Rose stumbled back. The naked hurt in her eyes bit at him far more savagely than anything he’d suffered the night before. “You’re rejecting me?”

“No. You’ll be my mate and I’ll be yours, to keep the peace, but you’re going back to your pack. You’re going to take my sons with you as an added assurance that I will keep my word. They’ll remain as hostages with your pack until they’re grown.”

Understanding immediately dawned. He’d hoped that it wouldn’t and now he knew, as he’d spread his chest and cracked his heart clean in half, that she saw him do it. She knew. She was like some kind of seer of old who saw through this world into the next, into the realms of the dead and the gods.

“Agnar, you can’t.” She clearly had no self-respect. She fell to her knees and clasped her hands, begging him so easily and readily. It should have disgusted him, but all it did was press that blade deeper in against his throat. “You can’t send your sons away. I know that you want to keep them safe, and after last night and what could have happened, you have every right to be afraid for them, but—”

“I’m not afraid,” he roared, then felt immediately stupid because that kind of denial was little more than an affirmation.

“Yes, you are. You’re afraid because they’re your sons and any parent fears for their children. They worry over them, and they love them, and they’ll do anything to keep them safe, but this isn’t the way. You can’t separate yourself from them.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, which made them look double their size. “It can’t truly be this bad. You had so much hope for this place and for your pack, I know you did. That’s why you became alpha. You’ve worked tirelessly to hold on to this peace. I know you’d sacrifice anything for that too, as any alpha would, but not your sons. That would do nothing but destroy you, and you’re not the kind of man who should walk around with no soul. You need to live. Your pack needs you. Please don’t give up on them.”

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