Page 41 of Cats and Dogs

There was silence all around. Some eyes in the crowd were shocked, others, angry. Some were full of hatred. Christine could tell Rye had been right; there were those who looked at Jason like they wanted nothing more than to grab Arthur’s discarded gun and shoot him. It was a good thing they’d come. There were five enforcers who would have turned on him otherwise. But none made a move, staring beyond Jason, at them.

Poor guy was going to have a hard time running that pack now.

“That man,” said Jason, “my father has done nothing but lie to us - all of us. He’s lied about hunting that pack’s child. He’s lied about submissives. Our pack used to be respected; do you know what they say about us behind our backs now? That we’re degenerate fanatics. And they’re right.” Jason’s foot pushed the half-beastly corpse. “Under his rule, we were. If that was your thing, get out now. I’ll give you money and recommendations to join another pack. But get out of my sight, because I will not hesitate to kill you.”

A second passed. “Those of you with slaves, bring them to the main house. They’re free. Those of you who go on hunts on weekends, they stop now. There will be no evaluations. There will be no rules about mating within the pack. There will be a new order.”

“Jason, you can’t expect us to—”

The man who’d started to talk didn’t finish that sentence because his Alpha’s hand was on his throat, squeezing it.

He let go before killing him but it was a close call.

“I wasn’t finished.”

There was a dead silence.

“I will be an Alpha to our people. My purpose is to take care of the pack. I shall. But this pack is poisoned, and if I must cut limbs to salvage the body, that’s exactly what I will do. Understood?”

Everyone understood that they might have seen a tyrant take the throne. Christine knew he didn’t have much of a choice. If he’d shown weakness, someone would have jumped him the moment she and the rest of the Wyvern went home. But it didn’t change the fact that the guy was fucking scary.

Which, of course, explained why Jas breathed out when he disappeared inside his house, and said, “Okay, I have to give him this. That was hot.”

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