Page 27 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

“I’d like you to be there as a member of my pack.”

As a child, he’d always seemed all-powerful, knowledgeable, and unopposable, but the softness in his voice underscored how much my father had aged.

I wondered how much of it was an act.

I turned to face him and bowed deeply.

“As you command, alpha.”

Straightening, I headed for the door once more.

“I am glad you’ve finally taken a mate.” Father’s voice was stronger now, almost proud. “Things will now be as they should.”

A bitter taste filled my mouth.

No. Things would never be as they should.

I would make sure of that if it was the last thing I did.

I might have marked and claimed Eleanor as my mate, but she would never be my mate in truth. I wouldn’t let her.

I would break her so completely that her current hatred for me would seem like nothing in comparison.

I headed for the hunting grounds alone.

During hunts involving newly mated couples, the female wolf escorted her mate to the hunting grounds and tied a knot with fabric cut from her clothes around his arm as a good luck charm.

There was no need for Eleanor to do that. The last thing I needed was for her to misunderstand the nature of this relationship.

When I reached the hunting grounds, it was teeming with members of the Nightshade Pack.

Most of them gave me a wide berth, their awe mingling with fear. It was an instinctive reaction, so I didn’t blame them for. Even if they couldn’t see it, their wolves felt the presence of the monster.

I found a less populated space off to the side where I wouldn’t exert as much dominance over them.

Alpha Maximus wasn’t present, so Beta Aria officiated, her commanding voice easily carrying across the area.

“The wolf with the highest number of kills will be the winner of the hunt. The hunting area will be between…”

I tuned out as she went over the routine rules of the hunt. I couldn’t wait for it to be done already.

I met Dylan’s gaze. He stood next to his mate, Micah, who seemed to be annoyed by something.

Dylan was ignoring her rant, the anger in his eyes burning bright as he glared at me. And I knew that to him, this hunt was yet another competition between us.

Some days, I wondered how, as brothers, we’d come to this. But most days, I didn’t care enough to think about it.

The scent of lilacs infused with something so viscerally erotic it had the monster within me stirring hit me hard. I didn’t have to turn to know Eleanor had just arrived.

Fucking great.

Dylan’s gaze shifted from me to somewhere behind me. His eyes narrowed when they landed on Eleanor, and then he tugged a surprised Micah into a passionate kiss that was characteristic of a newly mated couple.

How juvenile.

But it’d probably get to Eleanor anyway—after all, they’d been together for four years.

Eleanor stopped right behind me, but she didn’t say anything, forcing me to make the first move.

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