Page 9 of Wolf Crowned

He grabbed my hand and led me to the bed, taking a seat. The bed creaked beneath our weight.

His gaze darted around the room before finally landing on our joint hands. “It’s not just Fiona that has me worried, Sloane. I learned something. I’m not entirely sure how to process it.”

I squeezed his hand and turned to face him. “What’s wrong?”

He ran his thumb over my thigh. “There’s this girl there, Angel. My dad and her...” He sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

I shifted, my pulse racing.

Sawyer grimaced and closed his eyes for a moment. “My dad and her they are... they’re going to have a baby, a pup.”

I backed up so fast I almost fell off the bed. “What?”

I couldn’t have heard him right.

Sawyer got up, scrubbing his hands over his face as he paced. “She’s Fiona’s sister and was very eager. She’s ecstatic that she is carrying the alpha’s kid. I don’t know what to think about that.” He stopped his frantic walk for a moment to glance at me. “This changes some things. He’s going to protect her. If anything happens to me, or he finds out about what I am doing, he has a backup future alpha now.”

Sawyer would be expendable.

My heart sank like a stone into the bottom of my stomach. I wrapped my arms around myself. Sawyer was supposed to be the next alpha, but now with a new kid on the way there was a second alpha in line, even if they would be significantly younger. Alpha Dane could mold the child in his image.

That was disturbing to say the least.

Sawyer’s pacing quickened. “I just don’t know what to think about it and wanted someone to tell.”

On his next pass, I reached out and grabbed his hand, tugging him to a stop. “You know you can tell me and Lincoln anything, right?”

He blew out a breath and plopped back down onto the mattress. I pulled him to me, wrapping him in a hug.

I kissed his temple. “You don’t have to carry all this burden by yourself, Sawyer. We can take it with you.”

I couldn’t imagine the weight he was carrying, and I wished that there was more we could do to take the load off him.

He sat up ramrod straight and turned so that we were facing each other. He took both of my hands and pulled them into his lap. “I do have some good news.”

I lifted my brow and waited for him to continue.

He looked down at our hands and then smiled. “I told my dad that Fiona wasn’t the type of woman I was looking to mate with and thankfully that got her out-of-the-way, at least for now.” He let out a chuckle and his shoulders sagged. “It also gave me the opportunity to go down into the prisoner buildings where most of the women are being held. He thinks I’m going down there to breed, but I’ve been able to connect with some ladies and some of the other guys there, too.”

I sucked in a breath. “Sawyer, that is great news.”

He nodded excitedly. “I’ve been feeling them out and seeing if I can trust them. So far it seems I can. There is a brother and sister there I’ve been talking to. If they will join us, it will give us a few dozen extra men and women on the property ready to fight.”

“That’s fantastic. I know you’ll convince them we are on the same side.” I squeezed his hands. “I have good news too, Charles Denning, his son Leo, the one that we rescued. He reached out to his uncle and some packs in Pennsylvania are sending us seventy-five enforcers.”

Sawyer looked like the weight of the world was being lifted off his shoulders. He let his head fall back and he let out the heaviest sigh. “I feel like things are falling in place and starting to go our way.”

I agreed, but I still couldn’t shake that sense of foreboding that something was about to come crashing down like a wrecking ball.

I pushed that thought away. Stay positive! “We will have to come up with a signal. Someway to let everyone in those houses know that we’re there and it’s time to begin our attack. I don’t want something happening like the last time where the prisoners fight is over before it can begin.”

The smile on his face brightened. “I know. I’ve already been thinking about what we can do. We have to come up with something they’re going to hear. The property there is huge, bigger than here.”

I shook his hands with my excitement. “Are there hunters usually around your property? Do you ever hear gunshots?”

Sawyer frowned. “My father hates guns. He makes sure no one can get close enough to hunt.”

That made my idea ten times better. “My dad has hunting rifles. He kept them here in the enforcer’s house because my mom didn’t want them around the house when we were younger. If we fired them in quick succession, that could be the signal.”

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