Page 50 of Wolf's Reckoning
Dad closed his eyes as he spoke. “To remind your pack what lengths you would go to, to protect it.”
It was a diabolical plan. Or was it brilliant? I wasn’t sure.
“Let me get this right,” I said slowly. “All this was aruseto show the pack that I wouldsacrificemyself, my happiness, for them if I needed to?”
Dad opened one eye to look at me. “Demonstrating your commitment to your people is a full-time job. Never forget it.”
“I wore a dress,” I blurted, still pissed off with what I was beginning to understand.
Dad smiled as he closed his eyes again. “Even after all these years, you even surprised me with that level of commitment.”
I sat back in the chair, staring at him in shock. Maybe fury.Definitelymixed emotions.
“That’s the most monstrous thing you’ve ever done to me.”
He choked out a laugh. “Just wait for my next trick,” he murmured with glee.
I leaned forward in my seat, anxiety stirring in my belly. “Dad? What are you planning?”
Chapter 13
Wolfe
“Tellme you didn’t see that coming,” Killian said beside me as we left the overlook.
“I saw it.”
“You looked like you wanted to drag her off by her hair.”
I didn’t answer because I had wanted to.
Rowen, standing in the middle of the training field and dismissing two potential husbands as if they were nothing, really pissed me off—that it took her so long to do it. Even though they had been handpicked by the Pack Council, maybe her father, and every law this region still clings to…and she’d told them all to fuck off.
She looked every bit the leader they said she couldn’t be.
I hated that I feltproudwhen she did it. I hated how much I wanted to rip that control out of her hands and make her submit.
Tome.
“She’s doing it her way,” Killian muttered, watching me from the corner of his eye. “You going to let that slide?”
“I’m not the alpha of this pack yet,” I said flatly. “She’s not mine to rein in.”
But even I didn’t believe that.
Not really.
Because shehad been mine. Still was. Only different circumstances now. But that didn’t stop the way her scent hit the back of my throat when she passed. The way her voice cut through a room like she was born to be followed. The way her wolf still reacted to mine, even now.
But none of that mattered.
Because she didn’t trust me, and I sure as shit didn’t trust her.
I wasn’t the boy I’d been when I left the Hollow. Back then, I’d bled for a different kind of power. Now, I bled for my pack, not bloodlines. If she thought I came back to play politics or stand in the shadows while she decided who got to keep this pack? She didn’t know me at all.
“She’s testing you,” Killian said. “Waiting to see if you bite.”
“I don’t bite,” I said. “I take.”
