Page 14 of Brutal Alpha Bully

Her daughter looks skeptical, glancing back at the car like it might be a better place to sleep than a stranger’s house. Seraphina reaches out and touches her daughter’s shoulder in a way that feels like a signal. She pulls her closer to her side.

For a moment, we just stand there, looking at one another.

“Come inside.” The words are gruff as they come out of me, landing with the grace of a belly flop. But it’s too late to draw them back in now, so I just turn and walk up the porch, relieved when I hear them following along behind me.

From her scent, I can tell that Seraphina’s daughter isn’t an omega, like her, but an alpha. The curiosity and jealousy rise up in me again—that means Seraphinahasbeen with an alpha. But who? Do I know him? And what happened to him? Where the hell is he now?

“Wow,” the daughter says, walking into the foyer ahead of me. “This place is massive!”

“Seraphina, wait.” I grab her arm and tug her back, keeping her from following her daughter into the house. I mean to ask her about this whole situation—her daughter’s name, her age, her paternity.

Instead, I hear myself asking, “Seraphina… whathappened?”

“What do you mean?” Her eyes dart between me and the house, where her daughter has stopped, watching us.

Staring at Seraphina, I realize that, for some reason, I want the answer to this right now. “What exactly happened back in high school? With the fire?”

She blinks at me in surprise. Then, just as quickly, a laugh bubbles up from her throat, and she leans in close. So close, that flighty scent of hers dances around me.

“Let’s get this straight, Xeran,” she whispers. “No matter what lie we make up to my daughter, you and I arenotfriends.”

With that, she turns on her heel and walks into the house, and I wonder what the hell I’m getting myself into.

***

The house is a real fucking mess.

Embarrassed by the state of it, I spent the next hour making sure one of the bedrooms is in good shape for them to stay in. Seraphina tells me multiple times that she can clean it herself, that she doesn’t need the help, but I ignore her, shoving boxes out of the way, pushing a broom along the floors, and scalding my hands with boiling water to mop them.

When it’s up to my standards and the girls are both inside, I step into the hallway, heart hammering in my chest.

What the hell am I doing?

Asking—or more accurately,telling—Seraphina and her kid to stay with me? I’m only here to deal with the house. And yet here I am, willingly taking on roommates.

But the idea of turning her out, of just waiting for Declan to get his hands on her again? Not an option.

I’ll have to figure out what to do with her. What to do about that entire situation.

But while cleaning, I couldn’t stop my eyes from drifting to the shimmering, almost silver ash on the girl’s—Nora, I’ve learned—shoes. Couldn’t stop thinking about what the two of them must have gone through to get out of a fire that size. What it must have been like to lose everything in one fell swoop.

The town felt that grief once more than a decade ago, when the first of the daemonic fires swept through the western portion, taking out everything in its path. It wasn’t like otherfires, leaving chunks and frames, the skeletons of what used to be. That fire crushed Silverville in the palm of its hand, ground it beneath its heel, until the only thing left was that fine, shifting ash. The stuff clogged up our throats and swirled through the air, making you feel stuck in a hellish snow globe until it eventually drifted into the forest, dusting itself over the trees and turning the leaves yellow from lack of sunlight.

I pull my phone from my pocket, turning it over in my hand and thinking.

I’m only here to deal with the house.

But what if another fire comes through, and there was something I could do to stop it? What if the other guys are ready to get back on a squad?

As though he’s sensed my thoughts, my phone lights up with a call from Kalen.

“Hey,” he says the second I answer. “Why didn’t you text me back? You’re back in town? Someone said they saw you at the gas station.”

“Yeah,” I say, voice low so the girls won’t hear me. “Long story. You think the other guys would want to get the squad back together?”

Kalen laughs. “I think the other guys are going to shit bricks when they hear you’re back in town.”

I should laugh, but something in my stomach turns over at the thought of it. I’m not staying. I should tell him that, and I’ll have to be clear with the guys about it, too. We’re just getting the squad together to fight fires if they happen. There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to sit idly by while they sweep through and destroy the town.

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