Page 116 of Never Submit

At once, the massive shoes I have to fill suddenly feel much bigger than they did initially.

Noble is visible from the corner of my vision but I focus on Mathis. Focus on breathing and ignoring the reek of Ren on both of them. She’s not in the room with us but she might as well be.

And her wolf… I’ve seen her before, but she’d been out of control then. Tonight, she’d shifted on her own, and looking at her, proud and strong and secure?—

It did something to me.

“Our people aren’t melding well,” I begin, focusing on the task at hand rather than my own mental and emotional issues. “The attack in the city left them frayed, distrusting. Fights are breaking out, and while we’ve been distracted by a certain woman, things are falling apart. It seems most of the Grey Valley are concerned with another attack from the Blood Moons.”

Mathis widens his stance. “Do you blame them? We just got hit again. There are so many more Steel Claws thanGrey Valley. They’re outnumbered and intimidated.” He casts a viperous look at me. “It’s not like you’ve been going out of your way to make them feel more comfortable.”

He’s not fighting the allegation about his distraction with Ren. Somehow, it feels like a win to me.

“So purchasing the property and allowing your wolves to take up residence means nothing?” I shouldn’t throw it in Mathis’s face, because I’d already had the property in my portfolio. Except I’d bought it for a very different wolf.

“Torin, stop, please,” Noble warns. “Throwing out accusations isn’t going to fix the problem. If the people are uncomfortable, then it’s up to both of you to reassure them. The distraction with Ren won’t continue now that…the bond has expanded.”

Elegantly put. I hate it.

“If you believe you can do a better job, then maybe you shouldn't have thrown away your pack status in the first place.” I rake a hand through my hair, my nails lengthening until the tips of my claws dig grooves in my scalp. The small flash of pain focuses me as I dredge up ancient history.

“You want to think carefully about what you say next,” Noble says in an undertone. “Water under the bridge, Tor.”

Picking a fight with my beta won’t smooth over the crackle in the air. It won’t make it easier for me to breathe. It certainly won’t help me pull the pieces of myself together in a way I’m used to, one that makes sense.

Noble has stepped fully into the room and instead of coming directly to my side, he’s moved closer to Mathis. The two of them are connected in a way I don’t want to understand, and whatever they’re sensing, feeling, it is something I have no access to.

The way it has to be.

I throw back my shoulders as my phone vibrates in mypocket again. The fourth call I’ve ignored in the last ten minutes, and I know without looking who keeps calling. Catarina.

But the more people who know where we are, the more expansive the target is on us.

“I’m doing the best job I’m able to do. Which is why you brought me back in, remember? Which is why I came home after all those years of not talking,” Noble reminds me. “I’m here now.”

The unspoken words between the lines tell me to focus on the present, on all the healing he and I have been able to do. The steps we’ve taken with Mathis and his people over the last few days.

It’s not enough.

“Because you wanted to be a fucking professor at Yale,” I reply with a laugh, adjusting the lapels of my suit jacket. “Come on. We grew up together. Do you really think I’d let you throw away all your talent to work at some school and move in with your human girlfriend?”

Noble’s sister died while he was in college. But Noble got out. He hadn’t wanted the typical pack life, despite being naturally gifted for it. He’d gone to school, been poised to graduate, had his own apartment and job.

Thenshedied and he’d blamed me. He’d come back for the funeral, which coincided with my new rise to the position of alpha. A god-awful transition period marked by tragedy.

The way Noble’s looking at me currently, I wonder if he’s ever forgiven me for not being there to protect Kelee. Or if he ever will.

“Shut it down,” he warns, reading my thoughts.

I adjust my weight from one foot to the other. Unwilling to give up the tiny fraction of edge I have over him. “Thefact remains that our people are restless, and I can’t be in a thousand places at once. Not with the wedding coming up. So the slack will need to be taken up in the meantime. Back to business. No more distractions.”

It’s impossible to miss the way Noble flinches.

Mathis marks the play by play between me and my beta with his usual smirk. “There’s slack because we are too busy with our heads up our asses, yes?”

My cell rings again. I grimace, my insides twisting. I’ll throw the thing in the fucking fireplace if this keeps up. The lake, the fire, whatever it takes to stop the ringing.

Catarina needs to calm the fuck down.

---