Page 36 of Wolf Crowned

Everything was as it should be. I hurried to my dad and put a hand on his shoulder. “Everything seems to be falling into place.”

He glanced my way with a wide grin. “Indeed, it does.” He clapped me on the back.

“You’re in a good mood.” I was afraid to know why.

He lifted his brows. “The FBI has eyes on Sloane and Lincoln’s pack. They can’t make a move without us knowing.” He chuckled darkly. “They can’t even shift.”

Oh no. Sloane hadn’t mentioned that. Did she know? I had to think of a way to warn her. If the agents saw them turn into wolves, we’d have a lot more problems on our hands.

I cleared my throat. “It doesn’t worry you to expose the shifter community?”

He batted the air and made a pfft sound. “No. Not at all. Your uncle will keep them under control.” He shrugged. “Besides, we will out ourselves sooner than later anyhow.”

That’s right. He had it in his head that he could take on the world. Literally. Oh boy. “Dad, I’m not sure that is a good idea. People are going to freak out. We keep our kind secret for a reason.”

He held up a finger, his nostrils flaring as he gave me his full attention. “I don’t appreciate being questioned.”

I opened and shut my mouth. “I just worry is all. Fighting other wolves is one thing, but fighting men with guns...” I didn’t know how to finish.

He blinked slowly as he glared at me. “Rest assured, we will be fine.”

I wanted to ask how, but thought better of it. He was stuck in his ways, and questioning him would only make things worse.

He turned back to the sparring. “The pack is coming along well, don’t you think?”

I arched a brow. “We’ve always been strong fighters.”

Even before Mom and Hannah, we’d made sure our enforcers knew how to fight.

Dad motioned to the group of men. “Yes, but look at how many strong we are.”

“Ah.” That was the point. “I’ve lost count of how many we have now. Have you?” I tried to make it sound like a joke.

It must have worked. Dad threw his head back and laughed out loud. “When we get our next set of recruits we will be just shy of a thousand men?”

I fought to keep the smile on my face. My cheeks burned from the effort. “A thousand. Really? When and who is coming?”

Dad’s eyes lit up. “It was a project Mikey was working on for me. And also your uncle. We are getting the bastard wolves.”

Bastard wolves?

He rubbed his hands together. “The men who one parent was a wolf, but they didn’t inherit the gene. They are faster and stronger than humans and very expendable. But they don’t know that part. What matters to them is they will finally have a pack to call home.”

And we had a lot more men to worry about. Crap. “When do they get here?”

Dad looked at his wristwatch. “Five days.”

And Sloane was coming in three. If any timeline changed, we were in trouble.

Fourteen

Sloane

I held my breath as I paced back and forth. My heels clomped against the floor and I wore a path in the already worn gray carpet. My gaze shifted to the bright bluish-green numbers on the old school rectangular alarm clock.

It had only been forty-five minutes. Everything was going to be fine.

Lincoln sat on the bed, but he kept shifting his position, sitting one minute and then laying the next.

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