Page 90 of Dawn of the Pack

It brought back the memories of those years without a home, and how I always felt looked after when Derrek was around. Obviously, our relationship has changed dramatically since then, but the deep surety that I’m protected and cared for is exactly the same. Well, perhaps not exactly; there’s a new richness to the feeling that’s tied into our new status as mates.

Four fated mates. I thought I’d wrapped my head around three, that I was coming to terms with the idea, and now there’s four. I could let myself get hung up on overthinking it, spinning scenarios in my head, but I choose not to. My heart knows it’s right. There’s no more doubt, no more confusion. It’s as if I’ve finally clicked the last piece into the puzzle and I can see the complete picture now.

And this entire time he was the heir to Pack Montrose, and a wolf-warlock hybrid. It’s a lot to wrap my head around, how this knowledge colors the way I view so many things in the past. My mind wanders over the events of last night, and suddenly I freeze, my breath stilled in my lungs.

Nielsen said there was never a curse on the Harridans preventing us from being away from Smoky Falls, that my ancestors made it up to keep us apart.

But the curse that limits us from shifting outside of the midnight hour is real, according to him.

So is that curse now broken, since I’ve beaten the Montrose alpha?

Or do the Montrose wolves now fall under the curse, since they’re part of my pack?

How exactly are we supposed to break that curse?

“Will you stop worrying for five minutes? Your thoughts are extremely loud.” Derrek’s voice startles me, and I jerk upright when I realize it didn’t come from his mouth.

I study his face carefully, trying to determine if I’m losing my mind. His eyes remain closed, his breaths even, but a tiny smile curls the corner of his lips.

Feeling crazy, I think at him, “You can hear me?”

Without missing a beat he replies silently, “You’re practically shouting, it’s impossible not to hear, baby.”

I scrunch my brows and sit all the way up. “I don’t understand. Only alphas can hear unless you speak directly at them. Or rather, think directly at them.”

The smile widens, spreading across his face, and he answers my thoughts again. “So the logical conclusion would be…”

This time, I answer him aloud. “That you’re an alpha?”

“Bingo.” Derrek replies in kind, his eyes still closed.

“But how? We haven’t officially mated. There’s a whole ceremony with the lunar eclipse and god only knows what else I have to do to make it official.”

Apparently, that question is enough to make him sit up and look at me.

It’s almost a complete distraction; his messy blond curls, his face adorably sleepy. But his emerald eyes are bright, practically glowing, as he meets my gaze. “I’m not alpha through you, Lilliana. I’m alpha of Pack Montrose.”

“What? No, that’s impossible. Nielsen said-”

He chokes a laugh. “After all that, you’d really believe anything he told you?”

“But he said if he defeated me, he’d become the alpha of Smoky Falls.”

Derrek shrugs. “Well, that part’s true.”

“But me defeating him doesn’t make me the alpha of Montrose?”

“Nope. He has something you don’t, or should I say, he had.”

“What’s that?”

“An heir. It doesn’t matter that you defeated him; since you weren’t part of the pack, alpha status passed to me.”

“But you don’t have the alpha voice when you think at me. Nielsen did.”

He shrugs again. “I can’t answer to that part. Maybe it’s just because we’re mates?”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

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