Page 40 of The Alpha's Rejected Mate

Billie’s emerald-green eyes were filled with uncertainty. But I drank in their color like spring shoots, shining after the rain. As I stood there, having just received the news that my pack’s position was perilous, I marveled that her gaze alone gave relief.

I couldn’t help admiring little things that I’d failed to notice at first, like the fact that her nose was a little upturned at the end. The petite elfin quality gave her even more of a fae air. I had been touched again earlier by the way her features had been edged with concern when she’d looked at me. But her words had been decisive. “I came to see you, Gavin, not get information.”The sense that she wanted me and not my position sank in. She didn’t seek my wealth or even my resources to find the truth about what had happened to her parents. She’d said she’d come to see me. Disbelief and confusion whirred through me.

Yet, I knew I had to put my pack before whatever was happening between me and Billie. So, once again, I put my feelings on the back burner.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked with concern. Her bright eyes awash with compassion.

My frenzied mind snagged on her mouth. I noticed that her top lip was a perfect cupid’s bow. The longer she was around, the more tempted I was to ride that wave of euphoria that her lips, tongue, and soft skin had brought. So, I kept distance between us, schooling my expression into solemn lines. “I need you to keep close to Aislin. Don’t go off alone,” I said.

A flush stole over her cheeks. “Of course,” she agreed.

Resolve steeled my features as I realized that Billie was a vulnerability that I had to be aware of.

“I need to take care of a few things,” I said.

A sense of déjà vu tripped through me as she left, our moment of intimacy curtailed by the way our world was crumbling around us.

I went for a shower and got dressed for the day, mulling over the problems in front of me. Our smaller territory meant that we didn’t have as much wealth as Dalesbloom, who were able to sustain themselves on the game from their meadows and woods. They also profited from their lumber-rich forests. But Vana had blessed us with abundant waters, and while the smaller forest size meant that we couldn’t be sustained by the game in our woods alone, our river was rich in fish. Oslo and Gretel would ensure that there was a watch around the clock. While we were at war with Dalesbloom, we wouldn’t be able to leave our lands. But we could entrench, I told myself. My pack was loyal and would do whatever they needed to protect our lands.

Yet, I knew that the wisest thing to do would be to fortify Grandbay’s position. If David and Catrina were hell-bent on seizing the unicorn horn so that she could attain her Lycan form, they would look for any weakness or opportunity to attack. The best thing we could do was to get more wolves for Grandbay to watch its perimeters and lessen the strain on my pack.

In jeans and a clean shirt, I felt ready to confront what else the day might bring. I knew my predicament meant that outside help was necessary.

My stomach dipped at the thought of having to ask for help. My shoulders knotted with tension as I contemplated that the only option ahead of me seemed to be reaching out to form an alliance with the Eastpeak Pack.

I knew from all that I’d had to do with Everett and his pack that he liked to keep himself removed from the other two packs here in Gunnison. Cracking my knuckles, I reminded myself that he’d told me to call him, though, if Grandbay or Muriel needed more protection. That was the sensible option. I needed to do this.

Finally, psyching myself up, I pulled out my mobile. I didn’t want to inconvenience Everett by calling him down from the mountain again, but neither could I risk traveling away from my pack lands while things were so precarious with Dalesbloom. It would be tactical for David to attack if I left my pack vulnerable, so for the foreseeable I would be staying put.

Telephone it is.

At least, talking to Everett this way meant that Aislin wouldn’t pounce on him and bug him with questions about Mythguard.

Tension swirled through me, my shoulders feeling tight as I paced across the space of the living room as the phone rang.

As he picked up, he asked, “Gavin, everything okay?” A presentiment that the mountain man already knew about the state of affairs between Grandbay and Dalesbloom whipped through me, as if he could see all from high up on his peak.

“Not really,” I confided. “David terminated the alliance between Grandbay and Dalesbloom.”

Sure enough, my inkling was proved correct as Everett’s gruff tone said, “I heard on the grapevine that you took his ward.” Of course, it was every Alpha’s duty to keep apprised of what was happening in his area. I wasn’t surprised that Everett knew the circumstances that had led to the breakdown of the alliance between the packs.

But I had to ensure that he knew all of those circumstances if Grandbay were to stand a chance of forming an alliance with the Eastpeakers. Everett was distant, but everything I’d heard about him was that he was fair.

Determined to appeal to his sense of justice, I leveled with the Eastpeak Alpha about the injustice the Dalesbloom wolves had committed. “David had been keeping Billie, his ward and adoptive daughter, locked up against her will. We also discovered that Billie’s actually Elizabeth Rathbone, the daughter of the old Grandbay Betas who disappeared from here fifteen years ago,” I explained. “How David came to have Billie in his custody and what happened to her real parents is something the Dalesbloom Alpha hasn’t answered for yet. But I’m determined he’ll answer for his crimes soon.”

“I understand,” Everett said, his voice mellowing. “If Billie belongs to Grandbay, it was right for you to take her back.”

Something eased in my chest at Everett’s allowance.

Determined to paint the full picture of just how dangerous the Dalesbloom Pack was, I continued, “David’s daughter, Catrina, is just as much a threat as her father. When my pack and I rescued Billie, Catrina was going in for the kill. If it hadn’t been for our intervening, she’d have killed her adoptive sister.

“And it’s not just attempted murder she’s guilty of. Her packmate, Joseph, was found dead last week. I used one of my contacts from Denver, a forensic scientist, Douglas Ferris, to verify that she was the killer. He confirmed it was her DNA on the man, who just so happened to be her fated mate.”

For the first time, Everett’s voice rang with surprise. “She killed her mate?”

I gripped the phone harder and growled out, “Yes. She confessed to me that she wanted to before the event. She wanted to be awarded a different mate by Vana.” I paused before adding, “Although since she executed him herself, I think her ambitions have changed direction.”

I let my statement hang in the air, wondering whether Everett would get where I was going. The shrewd Alpha’s voice rumbled, “You think Catrina aspires to get her Lycan form?”

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