Page 78 of Wolf Hunter

I am bound heart and soul, ready for Tasha to do whatever she fancies with me, whenever she fancies doing it.

Sure, she has no idea. But I came to the realization shortly after she left: it isn’t worth fighting this alone anymore.

She’s mine. I’m hers.

I’ll do whatever it takes to fight for the life we can have together and take on anyone who might wish it otherwise. I glance down at my plate of food with a grin.

Fuck, I miss her.

If Tasha were here, she’d say something witty or snarky. I’d probably pretend to be annoyed, but I’d laugh anyway. She’d probably leap off the counter and race down the hall ready to kick some ass.

How do I get her back?

I knew letting her leave was the right thing to do, no matter what kind of chunk her absence carved out of me. So what do I do now to convince her I’m the guy for her?

The sandwich tastes drier than hell, and Crane and Emily walk into the room with a clatter of sound as I struggle to power through it.

“A man can’t eat in private?” I snap, scowling at them. Not like I have anything personally against either, but my foul mood spills out to everyone. “Don’t you two have somewhere else to be?”

“I told you, Alpha. Now that things are back to normal, we need to begin plans for our expansion.” Crane shrugs, laughing innocently. “You didn’t think I’d let you off the hook, did you?”

I know I have a problem when I snatch a butter knife up and slam it straight down into the butcher block at my side.

“It can wait for a day,” I tell him—both of them, since Emily shifts closer to get a better seat for whatever conversation is brewing.

“I don’t think it can. I think you’ve been distracted enough, and you’re not taking the welfare of this pack into consideration. We got stuck in town!” Crane sounds outraged. Like I somehow control the weather, too. “Something might have happened to us. Or to you, left here vulnerable. Especially with a mole in our midst.”

“You’re not talking about Tasha.”

“Tasha.” Emily repeats her name with a snigger. “Good riddance.”

I really don’t like the way she speaks, since it isn’t her place to voice an opinion against me. I send her a warning gaze before turning my attention back to Crane. He’s been a powerhouse in the pack since joining five years ago, and I’ve always relied on his steady presence, even before I took on the alpha mantle.

Soft spoken, submissive, he’s been content in the number three spot for the last year.

“Since we’re both standing here having this chat, nothing happened to either one of us during the snowstorm,” I say, not unkindly.

Although, I got a much better idea of the true dynamics of my pack with the little break from half of them. And I know I need to keep a close eye on certain members.

“Sheer luck,” Crane says. He bares his teeth at me, and I automatically take a step toward him.

“You don’t want to maintain your power based on sheer luck. Do you?” Emily asks.

“I certainly don’t need to base it on the opinions of a wolf who’s barely above an omega. Learn your place,” I tell her.

“My place is certainly not below a sacrifice you didn’t have the balls to kill.”

I reach out and knock her aside. Emily loses her balance and goes tumbling to the floor. I didn’t expect her to go down quite so hard.

“Enough,” I call out. “You two are pushing me, and not only do I not appreciate it, but I won’t tolerate it. If you have a problem you’d like to discuss, then I am happy to listen to you on my own time. Step back.”

Instead of listening to me, Crane actually moves forward, pushing his chest out to the point where he touches me. My wolf rises to the surface in retaliation.

“Know your place, Crane,” I repeat, pushing aside a trickle of warning.

“You’re still thinking about her. I thought a few days of fucking her would get it all out of your system, and you’d be in a better place to focus. But you’re soft. You’re weak. You haven’t been the same since your mother died, and bringing the sacrifice back here, expecting us to treat her like one of our own, was ridiculous,” Emily puts in.

“It’s not up to you to question what I do. That’s why you are an omega, and I am alpha.”

---