Page 89 of Alpha Chase

“I told you!” Vienna sighs, throwing up her hands.

Leo and Adrian exchange a glance, then both of them move closer to Vienna, assessing her. “Why haven’t you trained as a tracker?” Leo asks, arching a brow.

Vienna squints at Leo in confusion. “What?”

“You’ve obviously got an enhanced sense of smell,” Adrian comments. “Any trackers in your family?”

She starts to shake her head, but Brock speaks up to answer for her.

“Her father.”

Vienna’s body goes rigid and she turns toward Brock, shaking her head again. “My dad was an enforcer.”

“Yeah, he became lead enforcer because he was our best tracker,” Brock states, narrowing his eyes on Vienna. “You didn’t know? I suppose you were still young when we lost him, but I’m surprised your mom never mentioned it.”

Her throat bobs with a hard swallow. “I didn’t know.”

Leo and Adrian start shucking their clothes, tossing them to the concrete at their feet. “We’ll see if we can catch his trail,” Leo offers, the air shimmering around him as he shifts to his wolf form. As soon as his paws hit the pavement, he lets out a low howl, spinning around and bounding away. Adrian’s quick to shift and follow him, taking off in a blur of dark fur.

Gray steps up beside me, clapping me on the shoulder and leaning in. “Why don’t you take her home,” he says quietly, nodding toward Vienna. I follow his gaze to see her wringing her hands in front of her as she stares down at the ground, her mind obviously spinning following Brock’s revelation.

I blow out a breath, nodding to Gray before taking a cautious step in her direction. She may still be pissed at me, but I risk wrapping my arms around her anyways, sensing that she needs it. She’s rigid at first, but a moment later, I feel her arms snake around my waist and she buries her face in my chest, drawing a deep breath.

“Ready to go home?” I ask, leaning down to drop a kiss on the crown of her head.

She squeezes her arms around me tighter and nods.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Chase

Aswegetinthe truck to leave the lodge, I’m fully expecting Vienna to unleash her wrath on me for wielding my Alpha command. In hindsight, it was a stupid move- the girl hates being told what to do- but I was so desperate to keep her safe in that moment that I just acted on instinct. As I start the truck and pull away from the lodge, I’m bracing myself for the fallout. I’m ready for it. But it doesn’t come. Instead, she turns up the volume on the radio and ignores me for the entire drive back to Norbury, which is somehow worse. Fighting, I can handle. It’s practically our love language. But the silent treatment? Fucking kill me.

I park the truck in the driveway and before I can even cut the ignition, Vienna unclips her seatbelt and jumps out, tearing up the front walk. I quickly follow, my long strides eating up the distance quickly so that by the time she’s walking over the threshold into the packhouse, I’m right behind her, catching the door before she can slam it in my face. I push inside after her, kicking the front door closed as she wheels around, a turbulent storm of fury burning in her eyes.

“Don’t you ever fucking use your Alpha command on me like that again!” she hisses, pointing a finger in my direction.

There it is.

I heave a sigh, stepping toward her and setting my hands on her shoulders. “I was just trying to keep you safe.”

She shrugs my hands off, shuffling backwards and folding her arms over her chest. “I can handle myself! I’m not some helpless fucking damsel. If I was out there with you, maybe I would’ve been able to pick up his scent.” She whips around and stomps toward the living room with me hot on her heels. She stops short in front of the sectional, spinning toward me and throwing up her arms. “Apparently I’m a damn tracker!”

“It’s not like either of us knew that,” I growl, snatching her wrist and yanking her closer.

“That’s not the point,” she scowls, wrenching her wrist free from my grip. “I can take care of myself and I can make my own damn decisions. Using your Alpha command like that was wrong and you know it.”

I scrub a hand over my face, heaving a sigh of frustration. “I know. I’m fucking sorry, okay?Fuck.”

She folds her arms over her chest again, staring down at her feet angrily and kicking scuffmarks into the hardwood floor. “May as well have just commanded me to get on my knees,” she mutters.

I raise a brow at her suggestion, the corner of my mouth involuntarily twitching up in a smirk. Slipping a finger underneath her chin, I tip her face up, her eyes colliding with mine. “Baby, you know I don’t need to use my command to get you on your knees,” I murmur darkly, wetting my lips with my tongue.

Fuck, why does fighting with this girl get me so revved up?

“Because she-wolves just fall to their knees for you all the time, right?” she scoffs, her eyes blazing brighter as she sidesteps around me. I turn to follow her movements, playing right into her hands- once we’ve swapped places, she plants her palms on my chest and gives me a hard shove, sending me falling back onto the couch.

As soon as I make impact, I lean forward to scoop my arms around the backs of her thighs, dragging her onto my lap, her knees sinking into the cushions on either side of my hips. “There’s only one girl I want on her knees for me,” I snarl, reaching up to take her chin between my thumb and forefinger. “And only one I’ll get on my own knees for.”

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