Page 51 of Cruel Alpha Daddy

“Me too,” I grumble. “I’m going to the hall. Are you coming?”

“In a minute,” she answers.

I shake my head, frustrated. “Fine.”

I yank the door open and let it swing shut with a harsh bang as I walk through. I need coffee and food. I also need information, and I hope my beta has been busy while I was asleep.

I can’t believe she just let me snooze like that. What was she thinking?

When I enter the hall, I see Ryan right away. He’s sitting by himself at a back table. I grab some food and hurry over to him.

“Hey, sorry I’ve been out of it. What’s going on?”

“Not much,” he answers. “Things have been pretty quiet. All the kids who were critical are coming out of it now and starting to heal.”

“That’s great news.” I sigh with relief. “Anything from Tobias?”

“Not a peep.”

“That’s weird.”

“Yeah, it is. I mean, the whole pack is quiet at the moment, but I expected him to be pushing for a leadership challenge by now.”

I think about Fiona and her strange behavior today. I’ve trusted her not to run away for a while, but now I’m worried that I left her alone.

“What’s on your mind, boss?” Ryan asks.

“Aside from imminent ruin?”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Fiona,” I admit. “She’s all I think about, when I’m not contemplating death and disaster.”

“Fair,” Ryan acknowledges. “How has it been going?”

“I thought it was good. She’s been so involved with the women, up early every day, helping prepare food, and makingfriends. Even when this whole attack went down, she seemed very committed.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“She was acting strangely today.” I shrug.

“Maybe it’s just the Tobias thing.”

I nod, rubbing my chin as I think. “I should probably just declare the challenge,” I say with defeat. “It’s safer to kill him, even if everyone ends up judging me as being worse than Jethro.”

“You could lose all the young guys,” Ryan counters. “Mark says they all blame you for this. If you challenge Tobias and win, they will leave.”

It pains me to think of them taking off on their own, becoming rogues and drifters again. Helping them was the whole reason I became alpha.

“I have no choice,” I say, sighing again. “I have to protect the women and children. The only way to do that is to kill Tobias. We know what his plan is, the others don’t. Once he’s dead, I’ll have to make peace with Bailey somehow. And convince the pack I can keep them safe.”

He nods. “I’ll be ready. We all will be. Even if you take Tobias down, plenty of his supporters will be standing by to finish you off if they get the chance.”

“Where are the others? Tucker and Donny?”

Before Ryan can answer, a terrified shriek splits the air. I’m on my feet before I even know what I’m doing, running to the big back doors of the hall. I can hear raised voices and shouting over the moans of someone in pain.

“What happened?” I roar, making people dive out of the way. As I come through the back doors and see a crowd gathered around someone on the ground, my heart skips a beat.

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