Page 13 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

I shrug. “I never saw the need to tell her. But I will if she asks me. My army is now hers. My people are hers.”

Brian is silent for a few seconds before he murmurs. "It seems you’re good at hiding your true face, Alpha Stone.”

He's called me Alex so far. The respect in his voice doesn't escape me.

I give him a cool smile. “Only a foolish man reveals all his cards. You’ve just noticed the one I’m holding out.”

“I believed that you were lucky to have the Silver Wolf as your mate," Brian looks toward her, his voice quiet. "But now, I can safely say that she is just as lucky. No wonder you didn’t care much about the Alpha role. You are anincredibly powerful figure.”

I don’t respond to his words.

“There is something that’s bothering me," he suddenly says. "If you had all these assets at your disposal, why didn’t you go after Karina immediately? And why did you show up with just a few hundred soldiers at the banquet hall?"

My face tightens. "She had our children in her control. I had the manpower, but needed a witch. And even after Sophia removed the magic linking our pups to Karina's soldiers, there were still the lives of all the other shifter pups in the North Alliance to think of. She could’ve killed them in retaliation to turn the packs against me. And even if she didn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself, having all that blood on my hands. As for the banquet, I didn't have time to recall all of my soldiers. I took a risk. The other squadrons were on the way."

Brian arches his brows at my words. “I see. And how many squadrons do you have at your disposal? How many men arein one squadron? If you don't mind me asking.”

I give him a steady look. "I have enough. And it's five hundred men per squadron, or unit, as I call them."

The alpha's expression tightens and when he walks away, I can tell he's troubled. He has every right to be worried.

After a few minutes, Sophia approaches me. “What was Brian saying to you?”

Her arms are wrapped around herself, her posture defensive and hostile. She's still mad at me.

“He wanted to tell me that I was lucky to have you as my mate.”

She bristles. “That’s not his business.”

I smile lightly. “I was kidding. We were discussing something else. How's your mother doing?”

She glances toward where Grace is lying. “She’s fine. You were careful with her when you were running.”

Under the anger is a streak of gratitude, apparently.

“She’s your mother, Sophia. She’s important to you.”

I want to broach the topic of the fight with her, but there are too many eyes on us right now. I don’t want the others to know that Sophia isn’t happy with me right now.

When the two Alphas return from their hunt, they look irritated. I soon find out the reason why.

My soldiers are right behind them, dragging two deer carcasses behind them. My men dump the deer in front of the fire and begin skinning them. The two Alphas have empty hands, andwhen I see my two soldiers smirking, I realize they showed the two leaders up.

"What happened?" I ask them in a low voice, approaching them.

One of the soldiers snickers. "They were too slow."

He removes the deer's hide, taking out a small packet from his pocket to season the meat. The two alphas shoot them dirty looks before heading off to a corner somewhere.

“What’s wrong with them?” I hear Sophia ask Elsa, who just chuckles.

“They lost a dick-measuring competition. Pay no mind to them.”

That’s when I realize that Elsa has been paying more attention than I thought. My soldiers move quickly, accustomed to preparing meals in the wild, and the meat is seasoned and placed on the fire to cook right away. The other Alphas look even more irritated by this. By the time we all sit down to eat, one of them tries to bring Sophia some food, but my soldiers have already given me her portion, which she's eating.

Elsa is right. As I stare at the two Alphas, I smile at them, darkly. My dick will always be bigger than theirs, and they realize that.

It doesn’t matter whether I wear Sophia’s mark or she wears mine. It will never change the fact that her heart belongs to me. Even sulking, she still chooses to sit near me and share some of her food with me.

---