Page 27 of Forced By the Alpha

“Thanks,” I told him as he pushed one of the drinks toward me.

We both took big swigs of them as we sat awkwardly next to each other. I wasn’t sure where to go from here. He had shot down my offer of sex and forbidden me from going back to Sparkle Hollow. If he wanted the curse to be broken, the ball was in his court.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Franco told me quietly.

“Oh, do you?” I asked, eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“Yes,” he said. “You want to go back to your family to get help with breaking the curse. The problem is, I don’t think that’s what you would do. I think you would take the opportunity to disappear, leaving my pack with an unquenchable thirst for death.”

“I wouldn’t leave,” I argued. “I told you I would help you break the curse, and I’m not a liar.”

“Maybe not, but that’s not a risk I can take. Not when everyone is depending on me.”

I sighed in frustration because we appeared to be at an impasse still.

“What’s your solution, then?” I asked. “Do you want me to call my dad and have him come here?”

Franco growled in anger before quickly covering up his emotions. “I doubt the pack would take kindly to that witch being in their territory. I wouldn’t be able to ensure his safety.”

“Would you even try?” I asked.

His silence told me everything I needed to know about his feelings toward my father. We continued sipping our drinks as the minutes ticked by slowly.

“I’m doing everything I can to protectyou,” Franco said, finally breaking the silence. “That’s why I marked you to begin with.”

“Because you need me alive to break the curse,” I pointed out.

He shifted uncomfortably on his seat, his face bearing an odd expression. For the first time, I wondered if that was the only reason he had marked me. There were plenty of other ways he could have ensured my cooperation and safety besides making me his mate. Why had that been the option he had chosen?

“I do need you to break the curse,” he said. “That’s why you can’t leave. But that’s not all I’ve been doing to keep you safe. Why do you think I won’t sleep with you unless you want it?”

There were plenty of reasons a man would make that choice, but one reason I hadn’t considered was that it was for my own protection. If that were true, it wasn’t about my physical safety. It seemed far-fetched to believe he had any qualms about hurting my feelings.

“Because you would only find me attractive if I was fawning over you?” I guessed.

Franco’s icy gaze flashed at me. “Silly princess,” he whispered. “I thought I made it clear that my boundaries of decency were already being tested just by being near you.”

“I’m starting to get whiplash from all this hot-and-cold bullshit,” I told him. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to risk being rejected by him for a third time in a day. Our situation was a more complicated relationship than I could have fathomed being involved in, and there seemed to be no reprieve for either of us from its complexities.

Franco opened his mouth to reply, but once again, we were interrupted when his phone rang.

“Sven,” he answered, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand while he held his cell with the other. “Yes. Roger, we’ll be right there.” He hung up and slid a fifty onto the bar top. “Time to go back. Duty calls,” he sighed.

“What is it this time?”

“Dylan and Clara are fighting, and no one wants to intervene because of his position,” he explained.

“Dylan and Clara?” Of all the people to argue, those two were who I least expected. “I thought those two had a thing for each other.”

“I think that’s the problem.”

We hurried back to the cabins and found the pack circled around the offending parties. Dylan was on the ground, covering his head as Clara pummeled him with her fists.

“Enough!” Franco shouted.

I wasn’t a wolf, but even I could hear the alpha timbre in his voice as he commanded a halt to the violence. Clara’s hand stopped an inch from Dylan’s face as she whipped her head up to look into her alpha’s eyes.

“Both of you, get up,” Franco commanded. “The rest of you, back to your cabins. I think that’s enough for tonight.”

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