Page 8 of The Last Ultimatum: Part 1

Despite our differences, we’d grabbed hold of each other and never let go.

She was my ride or die, the sister of my heart, and the one person I confided everything in. I didn’t know what I would do without Kayla in my life.

“You aren’t mating him,” she stubbornly whispered, like somehow, if we spoke really softly, they wouldn’t hear.

We were canines. Our ears picked up everything, even in human form.

I screamed into my pillow once more.

“I’m worried about Chelle. Even knowing what they were going to make her do, she wouldn’t just run away. Something bad has happened. I just know it.”

“Was anyone with her?”

“Chloe.”

“Maybe we should go talk to her, yeah?”

“I don’t think they’re going to let me out of this room anytime soon.”

“Stupid Campbells.”

“They can hear you.”

“I don’t care. This is insane. If Chelle wants to mate this guy, then fine, that’s her choice. But I know you don’t want this, Tilly.”

“I’m scared, Kay. I don’t think I’m going to have a choice.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

It was the honest truth. I didn’t know why I was going to have to mate Aiden Campbell, but I had a feeling I needed to start getting on board with the idea real quick.

Aiden was arrogant and a pain in the arse. He was five years older than me, just a year ahead of Chelle in school, but beyond that I really didn’t know much about him.

“Matilda Rose, you are a King. Kings do not answer to Campbells. Especially not Aiden Campbell.”

She practically spit his name out like it had left a sour taste in her mouth. I understood why. Even as pups, we’d known who he was. He had walked around our school campus like he owned the place. I wasn’t sure he had actually bullied anyone, just belittled everyone.

We’d all gone to school together. It was a boarding school for shifters throughout Australia. For primary school, we lived at home, but once we entered secondary school until we were ready for Uni, we lived at St. Christopher’s.

Aiden had been in his final year when Kayla and I started. He had a seniority complex and looked down his nose at everyone, even my family, despite his family Pack ranking beneath mine.

But life had a funny way of changing the rules.

A fire, a bad season of crops, humans pushing into territories, there were dozens of reasons Tribes were struggling all throughout Australia. Now the Campbells, whose territory was so deep in the bush that they struggled to connect with civilized Tribes was rising in strength because of their isolation.

Life just seemed upside down lately.

I’d heard the whispers and rumors enough that I wasn’t exactly surprised to find my dad trying to form a tight alliance with them. Putting his daughter as she-Alpha of the Campbell Tribe would certainly strengthen his status.

I had always assumed as eldest that Chelle would someday rule our Tribe alongside her mate, but Aiden was an only child and future heir to Campbell. If Dad was willing to sacrifice both me and Chelle over this, leaving Gazza, my baby brother, as his heir told me things at home were much worse than I’d suspected.

“What am I gonna do, Kay?”

Lachlan

Chapter 3

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