Page 29 of Baby and the Beast

“Let’s go into the den so we can talk.”

Cyrus’s heart started thumping. Talk? He followed Kyle taking care not to spill his glass. He was relieved to spot a coaster on a small table so he could put it down. He stood, unsure of whether to sit or not. Kyle had called it a den, but apart from a couple of chairs it seemed pretty uninviting.

“I need a mate.”

Cyrus understood. He really did. “I’m sorry.”

“Having said that, I’m not about to send you back somewhere you really don’t want to go.”

His heart did a silly flip flop. “I don’t know what to say.” He didn’t deserve to be forgiven after deceiving Kyle. “Alpha—”

“Kyle,” Kyle corrected.

“K-Kyle,” Cyrus amended. “I wasn’t joking about the books. I can help. I know it’s a much bigger business, but the principles are the same, even if the tax implications differ.”

Kyle nodded. “That would be good. As I said before, Martin and Clara run the office. She’s a pack mother as you obviously know, but there aren’t that many kids to keep her busy so she helps him.” He hesitated. It seemed like he was going to say something else, but he didn’t.

“Anything I can do to help.” In case there was anything else.

“I need to find you a bedroom. Somewhere permanent. I don’t want to put you in the gamma wing.” He winced. Cyrus carefully kept his features pleasant. He didn’t want to go in the gamma wing either. But of course he had to move. He couldn’t stay in the alpha’s private space. Because Kyle wanted to see if they could manage apart. He knew that.

Cyrus’s throat tightened but he took a couple of breaths. He was out from under Mike. He actually might get a life. It seemed a small thing to have to watch as Kyle eventually found happiness with someone else.

A small thing?Who was he kidding? It would kill him, but they might be stuck which would be even worse.

“I’m going to try and get some sleep while the girls are. Please help yourself to anything you need.”

Cyrus watched Kyle head off to bed. And with every step he wished he could follow.

Baby and the Alpha

Chapter Four

“It could easily be taken as a challenge.” Kyle scrubbed a hand over his beard which he knew needed trimming and gazed at Pepper. He glanced at Liam and Josh and they both nodded their agreement. The Fairfield pack had extended their hunting territory a little too close to Knoxville’s western border. Their territory was the Arkansas side of the Mississippi and wolves had been seen in the woodland on their side. He threw his pen down on the desk. He’d been looking at figures until his head ached and he still couldn’t believe what Martin had told him that morning.

“Martin wants me to think about selling everything west of Nashville anyway.”

Pepper scowled. “But that’s a third of our territory. That’s ridiculous.”

“No, it’s more like a quarter if that. He says its dead weight because that territory has so many small parcels that we’ve never developed. We don’t use it except for paying taxes on it.”

“Then why would someone else want it?”

“Housing, development. Some of it is industrial land. It’s different in the human areas as you know.” The humans kept the Reelfoot State Wildlife Management Area and that was a good chunk. The only point of keeping it was as a buffer between packs.

“Not to a pack then? Because Fairfield is mighty close if we’re already having problems,” Liam said.

“I wouldn’t sell it to a pack. You know that.” It was the one thing his dad had taught him. Never give up your land to another pack.

“Except you don’t know they wouldn’t end up with it,” Josh said quietly. And that was the problem. Pack politics. The bigger the land, the more wolves, the more influence on the shifter council. His uncle had been on the council just to get what he could out of it, but Kyle wasn’t interested. Pepper glanced at Josh and Liam and took a breath.Here it comes.He’d been waiting to be asked about Cyrus since the spectacular clusterfuck of three days ago.

“Tell me to butt out, but we’ve been asked a lot of questions about Cyrus.”

Kyle looked up and pinned her gaze. “Asked what exactly?”

“Okay, I’ll say this,” Liam interrupted before Pepper answered. “For whatever reason, if it’s true, Cyrus can’t have kids but you two still mated.”

Kyle didn’t move a muscle. He really didn’t like where this conversation was going. He’d been on edge for the last forty-eight hours. Hadn’t slept for shit even after the girls did.

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