Page 2 of Wanted

With Gloria, I know her deal. She’d never be interested in mating a broken wolf like me. Fuck? Sure.

Mate? Absolutely not.

Our thing worked.

Yet, as I stare down into her beautiful face, nothing inside of me stirs. My wolf feels more annoyed than anything else.

“I need to do a security check,” I tell her, taking her by the wrist and moving her hand away from me.

“Is that all you plan to do tonight?” She cocks her head sideways. Not for the first time I’m grateful I can’t hear what I guess would be a whine in her voice.

“Not tonight.” I sidestep her and go refocus on my intentions.

The safety of my pack. Nothing more. There’s no room for me to want anything else. Especially not with my brokenness.

As if on cue, the words of my father come spiraling back to me.

“You’re no good to any of us now!” he yells.

I can’t hear the words, but over the two weeks it’s taken me to recover, I’ve learned to read lips. I’ve always been a fast learner. A much-needed asset as the second-born son and rightful lead beta of the Nightwolf pack.

I can’t read everything he says exactly, but I can read enough to know that he’s telling me I’m useless now.

“A fucking wolf who can’t hear is bad enough,” he seethes. “But the main beta of our pack? Our defender! What good are you in this condition?”

“Papa, I-I just wanted?—”

I feel the sting on the left side of my face. There’s no ringing in my ears, though. My sense of hearing is lost. Likely, forever, according to Dr. Drake, our pack’s physician.

It’s not until I see the red drops on the snow that I realize my nose is bleeding from his hit.

That recognition barely registers before I’m yanked back onto my feet. My father holds me up, his massive hand gripping my shirt as he forces me to stare up into his enraged eyes.

“What you want doesn’t fucking matter. It never did. You’re the beta. The spare. We only had you in case anything happened to your brother. Now look at you. A fucking invalid.”

He pushes me away from him with some much force, the momentum carries me head over heels. I come to a stop in a heap, barely able to catch my breath.

I don’t feel the freezing snow against my exposed skin. The pain from my bloodied nose doesn’t even register right now. But my father’s words…

‘The spare…only had you…a fucking invalid.”

My vision blurs. I blink once. Twice. A third time, and this time I squeeze my eyes so tight they ache. When I open themagain, I see stars, but I won’t let the tears fall. I can’t show any more weakness.

I rise to my feet and look my father in the face.

“You can’t be the lead beta of this pack,” he says finally.

“I can!” Those are the first two words I’ve said since he brought me out to this snowy field, away from our pack.

“How?” he shouts. “You’re a fucking invalid! How are you going to be the protector of our pack? How are you…” He pauses.

I recoil from the disgusted look he gives me.

“…going to have your brother’s back to lead our pack into the next generation. Impossible!”

The sheer rage displayed on the lines between his brows, the redness of his skin tone despite its usual copper shade, and the clenched fists at his side all tell me the depths of which I’ve let my pack down.

“You can’t even protect yourself.”

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