Page 62 of Rejected By the Alpha King

“I’d say it is, because if you mated with her the way that you should, your pack wouldn’t be trying to kill her.”

“They know she’s mine.”

“Do they?” Finn crossed his arms. “Because I know that when an alpha chooses a mate, really chooses her, they become a partner. Another layer of protection of the pack, and a pack would never endanger that.”

“Downstairs,” I said softly. “Guard her.”

With a nod, he turned and stopped. “Maeve Frost. Did she ever take a mate?”

“You’re the messenger. Don’t you know?”

“I never ran messages to Indigo Peak.”

“Makes sense. Maeve’s mated status has been debated for a long time. Most say she was mated before becoming an alpha but he died. Others said she mated and hid the bond somehow, from even her pack. Others think she probably executed her mate.”

Finn snorted. “Probably the latter.”

I was inclined to agree.

I spent the day prepping for the alpha’s meeting and directing the guards. The council dogged my every move, and I was late to dinner. I half expected to find the table empty, but there Anna sat, drumming her fingers on the table with one hand and reading a book with another.

“I brought tacos,” I said, hating the hesitation in my voice. In jeans and a T-shirt, she didn’t look like she was playing games.

“Great. I’m starving.” Putting the book down, she straightened.

She’d set the table and put out a couple of beers. Cautiously, I sat the bag down. “What are you reading?”

“A romance novel,” she said with a dry laugh. “Amaya’s little joke. Turns out it is enjoyable, though.”

I wasn’t about to touch that one with a ten-foot pole. “I gather you know that they’re coming.”

“Just a few days. Yeah, I hate waiting, so at least it’s not a few weeks.”

I sat down and she just stared at me. “If you pass the bag over, I can just serve myself.”

“Shit. Sorry. Tired.” Opening the bag, I doled out the tacos. “How is The Fanged Smile coming?”

“I’ve ordered new furniture and worked on the menu. And I placed an ad for employment.”

“Don’t bother with that. I’ll assign some people to work for you.”

“No.” Eyes wide, Anna shook her head. “No, way. I don’t want a bunch of people forced to work for me. They want to work for me, or The Fanged Smile doesn’t open.”

“You could have told me that before you spent the money to buy new furniture,” I said grumpily.

She chuckled. “Worried about the bottom line? I thought this was the richest pack in the mountains?”

“It is, because I’m worried about the bottom line.”

“Fair enough. I mean it, though, about the staff. I don’t want them if they don’t want to work for me, and I understand that might mean The Fanged Smile doesn’t re-open. If that’s the case, I’ll turn it over to someone else. If I’m ever going to be safe here, really safe and accepted, then I’m going to have to stand on my own.”

Stand on her own. Slowly, I relaxed. She’d decided to stay. “All right.”

“I want transparency about when the alphas come. You don’t hide anything from me.”

“Or you from me.” I lean on the table and study her. “Your father and Emerson were friends. Tell me what you know.”

Anna paled a little and picked up her taco. She took a few bites and chewed while she collected her thoughts. “All right. I was a child the first time that I met Emerson. I don’t think he was an alpha then because he was around far too much. Uncle Emerson, he forced me to call him until I got older. Then he told me to do away with the childish title. That’s when I realized he was a disgusting pervert.”

---