Page 85 of Wolf Claimed
Maddox stood his ground and didn’t push back or growl. He remained amazingly calm. “I protected the DSA by killing a WSSO mole. I followed my orders, Heir. You should respect that if nothing else.”
Rafe blew out a deep breath, calming himself. He understood orders. Maddox didn’t bear the responsibility here, but he’d suffer the punishment.
“What tipped you off to Graves?” Rafe asked.
“It was after the rappelling exercise when Kingsley and his pack were harassing Alyssa. When she left and Tiernan went after her, they ended up kissing.”
“You were watching us?” Alyssa asked.
“From a distance. To make sure you were okay. And Tiernan too. We’d warned Kingsley off, but I know better than to trust a shifter like him. When the wind shifted, I caught another scent. I wasn’t the only one watching you.”
“Graves,” Tiernan said. “I’d smelled him there. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“Neither did I. Until later that day. I had headed to his office, to request a change of teams.”
“Really?” Alyssa said, unable to hide the hurt in her voice.
Maddox placed his large hand against the left side of her face, his fingers reaching toward the back of her head. It was hard not to lean into him, to feel his warmth and the tenderness she always found there.
“It was getting hard to watch you with Tiernan, angel. I didn’t think I could keep from touching you much longer. You were mine.” He tapped his chest. “In here.”
“Don’t do this, Maddox. Recant your confession. Tell Gallagher that Graves was the mole, and you killed him in self-defense.”
“Self-defense will be hard to prove. Just like proving he was the mole will be difficult if not impossible.”
“You can’t let Gallagher just take you away and charge you with murder.”
“Oh, he can try,” Maddox said, that sly grin of his emerging.
“You can’t hurt Gallagher. You can’t harm him or any of the humans,” Rafe pointed out. “We’ll have to dig to prove Graves was the WSSO mole, but we won’t have a chance in hell of saving this treaty or convincing them to release you if you hurt anyone else.”
“You still didn’t explain how you knew it was Graves,” Alyssa said. Then she realized what he wasn’t saying. Graves had seen her with Tiernan. “He said something about me and Tiernan, didn’t he? My being with a shifter repulsed him.” She’d heard the hate speeches from her father, both in-person and on the internet, often enough.
Maddox lifted her chin with a finger, demanding she hold her head high. “Graves was on the phone speaking about you contaminating the human race by slumming with shifters.” Maddox took a deep breath. “I realized he might just be spewing the same crap as the other humans here, but then Graves threatened you, Alyssa. He planned to kill you and frame Tiernan to destroy the program. He said you betrayed all humans and deserved to die.”
She leaned into Maddox, resting her head against his chest. His massive arms wrapped around her. This was what safety felt like. Being in Maddox’s arms, with Rafe guarding the door, and Tiernan standing nearby, giving her time with Maddox without interfering or showing any jealousy. She reached over to Tiernan and ran her hand down his arm to reassure him.
The smile Tiernan flashed her said he understood she needed Maddox as much as she needed him. When did having three shifters in her life become sonormal?
Except she didn’t have three. Gallagher would take Maddox soon.
Alyssa’s fingers trembled as she traced over Maddox’s lower lip. “What do we do, Rafe?” she asked, her eyes still locked on Maddox. “How do we get him away from Gallagher without starting a war?”
“We don’t.”
She turned to him sharply.
“I’m sorry, Artemis. We cooperate or we fight. Those are our options. If we fight, no one wins. If we cooperate, perhaps our alphas can negotiate for him.”
Maddox puffed out air. “Maybe yours would negotiate for you, but mine will leave me to rot. He doesn’t like failure.”
“But you did what he wanted,” Alyssa said.
“I killed Graves, but I got caught.”
“No, you didn’t. You confessed to save me.”
Maddox laughed. “By all that’s holy, if you ever meet Drake, don’t tell him that. That’s worse than getting caught. He’d skin me alive.”
