Page 6 of The Alpha's Pregnant Mate

It hadn’t been like this before, he thought as he worked steadily on clearing out the rooms downstairs. He’d known the girl her whole life, and she’d never possessed any power over him. If anything, he’d been less susceptible to her charms than the old Alpha’s other advisors. They’d all gathered around to coo over the child at any opportunity, but Laurent had never taken much interest in children. And when he’d come back from his lorekeeper training, she’d been background noise at best—his Alpha’s apprentice, occasionally getting underfoot or making a nuisance of herself in meetings, but overall easy to ignore. It hadn’t been until the Alpha’s death that he’d given her much thought at all, and then only because it seemed so patently absurd to appoint a child to lead the pack.

But she wasn’t a child now, was she? Perhaps that was the problem. He’d allowed himself to grow complacent, to dismiss any threat she might pose to him on the grounds of her youth, her immaturity. Well, she still had immaturity in spades. But she also had more force in her than he’d expected, more of her father’s talent for getting what he wanted. Even from unwilling sources.

“This is the last time,” he muttered aloud as he set down a heavy box of pack records in the room that was now crowded with the contents of the two he’d been clearing out. It felt faintly absurd to speak aloud to himself, but it was clear that the point needed to be hammered home. “This is the last time she manipulates you, understood?”

Only silence. That made sense, he supposed. Even his wolf was quiet, seeming oddly content with the situation. Strange, that. His wolf would usually bristle at any kind of challenge to his authority, no matter how slight…but it seemed perfectly content to be doing exactly as Rhietta had requested.

With the rooms clear, he returned to his office, quickly losing himself in the work of planning the following week’s patrol schedule, but it wasn’t long before his concentration was broken again. This time, it was the faintly concerned face of Seff, who was still wary of him after the sharp rebuke he’d had to give him after Rhietta’s first visit to the settlement.

“Alpha Laurent? Apologies for disturbing you, but there are—members of the other pack on the doorstep. They said you’ve invited them to live here, which I told them was absurd, but…” The young man trailed off, clearly working hard to hide his unease. He wasn’t alone. It had slipped Laurent’s mind entirely that he’d need to explain the unconventional arrangement to his subordinates. It had been bad enough making the announcement a few days ago that the other pack would be taking shelter with them, if only briefly. Even then, he’d worried that they’d think him soft for taking in the traitors. There was precious little goodwill toward the other pack among his wolves. If anything, the other pack had served a useful purpose, a kind of shared enemy that they had rallied against in the hard, lean months that had passed since the division of the pack. In some ways, the other pack had come to represent a focal point for all their frustrations and resentments, a scapegoat for their struggles. So when Laurent had announced that they’d be offering them shelter…well, he’d taken great pains to make it clear that it would be a short-term arrangement. And he’d reminded the pack, too, that the refugees were still their enemies. Nothing had changed, politically speaking. But the sooner they got out of here, the better.

“Alpha? Shall I tell them to get back to the town square?”

“No,” he said, annoyed with himself for his hesitation to answer. “No, I’ve arranged for the families to stay downstairs. The infants aren’t coping well with residing in the tents, it seems, and I’m not interested in compounding the loss of their home with easily-averted tragedy, as inconvenient as it may be.”

“Right,” Seff said, though he wasn’t doing an especially good job of hiding his surprise. “Alright. Well. I’ll help them get settled, then—”

“You will do no such thing,” Laurent snapped. “I am growing tired of reminding you that these wolves aren’t our guests, Seff.”

“Of course, sir. Apologies, sir. I’ll, uh, I’ll keep watch, then. Make sure they don’t disturb you.”

The young man hastened out of the room, the door slamming hurriedly behind him. Laurent sighed at the muffled apology he shouted through the door. He tried to return his focus to his work, but his concentration had been well and truly broken by the announcement of his guests, and he found himself listening to the sounds downstairs as the families moved into the rooms he’d emptied. Rhietta hadn’t mentioned the names of the parents, and despite his determination to ignore what was happening down there, Laurent found himself working through his memory of the lost half of his pack. One of the families had to be Cadia and Rovell—they’d learned they were expecting only a few days before the pack had left for their new home. Laurent remembered being a little baffled by their excitement about the news. Wasn’t there stress and pressure enough associated with moving to a dangerous, demon-infested new land without adding a child to the mix? He couldn’t have imagined worse news…but he still remembered the way Cadia’s eyes had shone when the news had been confirmed.

And later that afternoon, when he heard a baby’s laughter echo faintly up the stairs, he felt a faint smile pass across his face. Quickly, he suppressed it, glancing around his empty office as though someone might be waiting to leap out, to accuse him of going soft.

The days began to pass, slowly, marked by the uneasy silence that lay between the two packs. Laurent had hoped that Rhietta would take her victories and leave him in peace, at least for a while—was it not enough that she’d effectively seized considerable swathes of territory not only in the heart of his pack’s territory but in his very own home? But he should have known better than to expect that kind of restraint from the impetuous young woman. Some leaders could be trusted to take the inches they were given without coming back to ask for a mile. But it had barely been two days since the other pack’s arrival when Rhietta was back in his office again.

She looked better than she had when the other pack had first arrived, he found himself noticing. A lot of the exhaustion had left her face, and the bags under her eyes were much smaller—it was always impressive, how quickly young people bounced back from hardship. Her mane of auburn hair was in a better state, too, the curls bouncing around her face as she shifted energetically from foot to foot, and Laurent tried not to pay too much attention to the bright, cheerful smile that was dancing freely across her face. He suspected that the smile had a lot to do with her apparent skill at manipulating him, and he was still very much determined not to let that happen again.

For once, she hadn’t come alone. She had Silea at her side, a young woman he distantly remembered as one of the first to speak up in defense of her laughable claim to leadership of the pack. One look at her expression made it clear that she hadn’t forgiven him for what he’d done that day. Well, he hadn’t forgiven her for dividing the pack. Hadn’t forgiven any of them, in fact. Every last one of them would do well to remember who it was that held the upper hand, here.

“Well?” he asked, declining to rise from his seated position behind the desk or invite them in. Let them stand there in his doorway, if they chose. “I trust there’s a reason for yet another unscheduled visit?”

“Like you were busy,” Silea muttered under her breath. Laurent’s eyes narrowed as Rhietta shot her friend a warning look. That kind of insubordination would have merited severe punishment if it had been one of his wolves—not that anyone under his leadership would be so bold as to utter an insult in the presence of another Alpha. Did Rhietta have any idea how profoundly her own authority was being undermined by her leadership style? He found himself itching to explain it to her, to sit her down and lecture her until she understood…but he knew better than to imagine it would help. If she hadn’t learned from her father, she’d never learn from him.

“We come bearing good news,” Rhietta said brightly. “My scouts have identified the perfect place for our new settlement.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Awfully fast.”

“We don’t waste time,” Silea said smugly, moving forward to spread out the map she was carrying on his desk. Laurent leaned forward to see which area Rhietta had marked, keeping his expression carefully neutral. “Scouts found it yesterday. It’s on top of a reasonably steep hill, which means flooding won’t be an issue, and it’ll only take a few days to clear enough vegetation to keep us safe from fire—”

“I’m looking at this correctly?” Laurent broke in, annoyed by the impudence of the scout to be speaking before her Alpha. He unrolled one of his own maps for comparison, which had been updated when the building of their settlement had been completed. It was easy enough to find the place Silea had marked; it lay just north of a sharp bend in the river that subsequently ran through the middle of their own town. “This is the place you’re proposing?”

“It’s perfect,” Rhietta agreed, her voice full of sunshine. “And it means we’ll be out of your hair in a matter of weeks—”

“It falls squarely within our territory,” Laurent said flatly. “This hill is barely an hour’s walk from here.”

“That’s part of what makes it such a good idea,” Rhietta said brightly. “The proximity means we can share a little of the load when it comes to patrolling. I’ve heard all about the grueling schedule you’ve had to set to keep this place safe. With my pack so close, you won’t have to—”

“You misunderstand.” Laurent rolled the map up again, his hands shaking as he fought to keep his voice level. “I will not tolerate the construction of a settlement on my pack’s territory. I’d have thought that much was obvious.”

Rhietta’s smile faded. “Laurent. Be reasonable. This island is more dangerous than anyone ever imagined—”

That did it. “It may be more dangerous than you or your fool of a father imagined, Alpha, but I have never once been under any illusions as to the challenge we are facing here,” he snapped, his voice far louder than he’d intended. “When you made the foolish decision to divide us, I allowed you and your band of traitors to leave unharmed. Clearly, my generosity was taken utterly for granted. What you’re requesting is not only unacceptable, it’s an insult. My wolves are not interested in ‘sharing the load’, as you call it, with traitors.”

“That’s not true,” Silea broke in. “I’ve talked with—”

“Control your subordinate before I’m forced to,” Laurent snapped, his gaze burning through Rhietta. For a moment, he saw her shrink away from him, a mixture of shock and fear on her face. She hid it quickly, straightening her spine and squaring up to him, but not before he knew that he’d rattled her. He wished the victory felt less hollow. “I reject your proposition, Alpha. Will there be anything else?”

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