Page 34 of Mated

Denholm has a great many spaces for socialization. There are lounges, studies, nooks, and eating places galore. The pack is able to get together in groups, small and large. Then there are offices and areas associated with particular members who have high ranking positions. And there are wings given to some specific bloodlines. Denholm is not just a building. It is a living mass of rank, hierarchy, and breeding.

I encounter the first bit of trouble in a part of the building reserved for those of what is known as foundation bloodlines. It’s not a place I spend a lot of time. These wolves tend to be stuffy and overly impressed with themselves.

“Long time no see, Cain.”

Isabella Inferi smiles at me with a wide crimson smile. She is a smart, powerful, dangerous she-wolf. She is also regarded as being extraordinarily beautiful, with crimson lips and bright blue eyes matched with raven dark hair. Her features are soft with an edge of malevolence that intensifies when she smiles. Many expected her to be my mate, but the bond never manifested. She is unmated for the moment. I am sure that is frustrating to her. A while ago, she started to insist she was destined for Abel, but my brother does not share her certainty. There are rumors that she might not be a mate at all. She might be an alpha in her own right. That’s a whispering that is kept very quiet. There can be only one alpha wolf in Denholm.

“Hello, Isabella. How are you?”

“You don’t have to be that polite,” she laughs at me. “Look how stiff and formal you’ve become now you have a sweet little thing to protect. Are we about to see a new side of our alpha?”

“Leave him alone, Iz.”

Abel’s voice cuts into our conversation, and I am glad for it. I am not in the mood to be toyed with, even playfully, by any pack member. I’m somewhat surprised to see him here in her company. I thought he would have been avoiding her, given her interest. He gives her a dark glower as he approaches us from another direction. I assume this interaction is unwilling on his part.

She turns and gives him a brighter, broader grin. “Jealous, Abel? Your brother has a pretty new mate, and you’re still refusing to acknowledge our mate bond.”

“You and I are not meant for each other,” Abel growls. “Now leave us, before I lose patience with you and enact some pack discipline.”

“Wish you would,” she grins without any remorse.

He growls at her, an intense sound accompanied by the flash of canine.

Isabella might seem a little sassy and harmless, but we know better. A female with her power needs to be kept in her place ruthlessly. Her brothers used to do it, before they disappeared. There are rumors about that unfortunate event as well.

In their absence, Abel and I act as older brothers, keeping her in check.

“Would you whip me? Beat me? Pull my hair? Would you make me beg for mercy?” She asks the questions with a laughing lilt,running the tip of her tongue over the underside of her upper teeth with obvious anticipation.

“I will put you in a cell and you will not have a chance to speak to, much less torment, anybody else,” he says. “Now get. I need to speak with my brother.”

She gives him a fake pout. “I wouldn’t mind a cell, as long as we were both in it,” she says before flouncing off. Even she knows better than to taunt Abel twice and remain in arm’s reach.

“She’s a piece of work,” Abel growls under his breath.

She is, but I also suspect there may, in fact, be some kind of bond between Abel and Izzy. I don’t know if it’s a mate bond, but there’s something that sparks between them whenever they are in the same room. I wonder if they have mated before, without the bond. That is more than possible. Abel is popular with the ladies, and in no hurry to be tied down. I am sure he lives in horror of actually meeting his mate.

“Maybe your mate is a dilute too, Abel,” Izzy calls back. “Maybe the pack is finally going to get some fresh blood. It was boring everybody being purebred anyway.”

We both narrow our eyes in her wake, but neither one of us gives her the satisfaction of the attention she is clearly trying to get.

“She is a pain in the ass,” Abel growls.

“She’s the least of our worries. Linus wants to know where Kira comes from. Everybody wants to know. It feels like the pack thinks they own my balls.”

Abel laughs. “They’re jealous of her. It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. Dilutes are part of the wolf world, and her domestic streak is cute. They’ll learn to love her, just like you do.”

“Or they’ll revolt, and one of the other males will try to take my place as alpha, citing her bloodline as being unfit.”

Abel laughs that suggestion off. “It would take a true monster to unseat you, Cain.”

“That’s the problem. We’re all monsters.”

CHAPTER 7

Kira

I am eased out of bed by Cain in the morning. I come to consciousness in his arms while being actively removed from the sheets. Stretching a little, I turn and snuggle into his chest, burying my face against him and inhaling his scent deeply. There is something so comforting about the way things feel first thing in the morning. My brain isn’t online enough to worry about things the way I usually do.

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