Page 15 of Dutiful Wolf's Mail Order Mate

I swirled my drink and took another sip. Waited. Strangled my inner wolf to keep him from galloping off to annihilate any and all who contributed to those buried emotions and posturing.

“Bowen demanded Kai’s head for ‘ruining’ his newest mate.” Madison reached for her glass and emptied it in a single swallow. “And for me to take Shauna’s place. As retribution.”

Understanding dawned, cold and unsettling. “So, you told him you were already promised to someone else. To me.”

Madison’s silence was answer enough. I cocked my head, watching her. My wolf paced, agitated, torn between fury at the deception and a fierce, primal need to protect what was mine.

“And you thought, what? That you could just show up here and everything would be fine? That I’d just accept you and your brother, no questions asked?”

“I didn’t have a choice! Bowen is a monster!” Her voice cracked, her composure slipping. “He would’ve killed Kai. Killed me. Kai was supposed to escort me here and then disappear. I could safely say I had no idea where he went while staying under the protection of another’s mate mark. He understands property.”

She spat the last word like it was poison.

I dragged a hand down my face, exhaustion settling heavy on my shoulders. This was a mess. A dangerous, complicated mess that threatened everything I’d worked to build. Everything I was responsible for.

But beneath the anger, beneath the fear, there was something else. A flicker of admiration for the woman in front of me. For her bravery, her loyalty. Her clever, stubborn will to survive.

Madison’s eyes flashed, her posture defensive as she squared her shoulders. “So, there it is. You can send us on our way now.”

The words were sharp, biting, but I caught the drop of vulnerability in her gaze, the slight tremble in her voice. She expected rejection and anticipated being cast aside like she was nothing.

Like hell I would.

Like hell my wolf would allow anything close.

“I’m not sending you anywhere,” I said with a slow shake of my head.

Surprise flittered over her features, followed by a wary confusion. She opened her mouth, no doubt ready to argue, but I held up a hand to stop her.

“I was never meant to be alpha, you know,” I admitted. Madison watched me approach, her posture still guarded, but there was a flicker of curiosity in her eyes. “It should be Elise. She was raised for it. Fates know she has the balls for it. But she refused when her father crossed too many lines and paid the price.”

A slight narrow, a tiny tilt of her head. I plucked her glass from her toying hands and turned to refill our drinks. “That shit you saw with Elise? I don’t have a taste for it. I’m a fixer, a problem-solver. I try to find the bloodless compromise before anything else.”

I took a sip, savoring the burn, before turning and holding out her glass. Madison’s fingertips brushed mine as she took the drink. Warmth tingled up my arm. My wolf stirred, suddenly far too aware of the proximity to our mate.

Our very unclaimed mate.

“The old ways—like Bowen, like the alpha before me—they’re not sustainable in the modern world.” I gestured to the window, to the trees and the dying town of Mill Creek beyond. “You have eyes. You can see the state of this place. A gold rush town that refused to open roads to their neighbors, and look what it got them. They choked off their own opportunities to thrive. That’s what our kind is facing if we don’t adapt.”

Madison’s brow furrowed, but she remained silent, listening.

“The humans are encroaching, whether we like it or not. We’re running out of space and shadows to hide in, and let’s face it, war with humans wouldn’t be war at all. We would be massacred.” I stepped closer, my gaze locked with hers. “When I became alpha, I vowed to protect this pack. And that includes you, Madison. Both you and brother.”

Her eyes snapped to mine. Suspicion swirled in her scent. Unease. Sour lack of trust.

What she hid in her straight spine and lifted chin, she couldn’t hide in her eyes. Fierce determination battled with anxiety. Desperation. And maybe just the smallest bit of hope.

“Why?” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Why would you protect us? You don’t even know us.”

“Because that dipshit’s mindset has no place in my territory,” I answered, a snarl on my tongue. My wolf ached to sink fangs into him, wanted to make the payback slow and deadly. “Because I won’t tolerate threats to my pack.”

I breathed deep, forcing myself to calm. “Or to my mate.”

The tension between us stretched taut, electric, alive. I fought the urge to bridge the gap and close that distance.

My wolf paced restlessly, urging me to claim her, to make her mine in every way possible. But I held back, knowing that trust had to be earned, not demanded.

Madison searched my face, as if trying to gauge the sincerity of my words. I met her gaze unflinchingly, willing her to see the truth in my eyes.

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