Page 265 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“I don’t know, Dom. Everything in me told me it was dangerous to let her do it. It was like I was letting her walk off the edge of a cliff. But now that it’s all over and she and I have talked, I have to acknowledge that my instincts were totally off. Bryn was fine at the end of the ritual, and it’s helped us connect on a level we couldn’t reach before.”
“That’s great to hear, Night. It was along timecoming.”
I scoffed and nudged him. “Yeah, yeah…there is still one thing about it that worries me, though.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Blossom said Bryn and I had a destiny we needed to fulfill, but neither of us has any idea what it might be.”
“I guess that’s something you won’t know until it’s staring you in the face, you know? But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Between you and me and everyone else who cares about us, Bryn is protected and supported. We’re not going to let anything happen to her or the baby.”
There was resolve in his voice as he spoke. He hadn’t sounded that fired up in a while. Dom was already protective of Bryn, but now that he knew they were blood, his drive to keep her safe must have increased. I couldn’t be happier about that. He was a powerful wolf, and I knew if something happened to me, he would keep Bryn and our pup safe and loved. I had no intention of dying anytime soon, but my beta made me feel more secure.
Dom and I watched the training a while longer, and my gaze wandered to Xavier and Lance again.
“Any new intel on those two?” I asked.
“I’ve got something on Xavier. He has a bad right knee. If you watch him long enough, you’ll see he eventually favors his left leg and overcompensates for it.”
I took a look at Xavier’s leg. Dom was right; he always stepped with his left leg first and protected his right leg slightly more while he sparred.
“That’s really good intel,” I said. “What about Lance?”
“I haven’t been able to dig up anything about him, and it’s frustrating the hell out of me.”
“Well, we’ve still got time. We should be able to figure something out about him.”
“That’s true, but it’s bizarre that nobody knows anything about him. He could be a spy for Troy, but nobody is talking. It puts me on edge.”
I agreed with him. I was sure there were spies within the Kings that we hadn’t had time to weed out, and there was a real possibility that Lance was one of them.
“Night, Dom.”
Bryn’s voice pulled my and Dom’s attention. She was striding toward us with a flat, unreadable expression on her face. Tavi was at her side, but she just shrugged when I shot her a questioning look. Bryn must not have filled her in, either.
“Night said you’re not feeling so sick today,” Dom said to Bryn when she and Tavi neared us. “Still true?”
“Yeah, I’m feeling great physically, but emotionally…” She trailed off and frowned in annoyance. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What’s wrong?”
She glanced over my shoulder at the training grounds. I glanced behind me and saw Lance looking at us—specifically at Bryn. There wasn’t anything threatening about his look, but I didn’t like it.
I returned my gaze to Bryn. She and Tavi looked just as wary of Lance as I was.
I took Bryn’s hand and led her a few steps to the side, Tavi following. I blocked Bryn from Lance’s view, and Dom, catching on to what we were doing, stood close to my shoulder, ensuring Lance would see no part of her.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” I said.
“The council found out I’m pregnant,” she said. “They’re using it as an excuse to move the alpha challenge up and replace me.”
“They’re what?”
She sighed, then went into more detail about what had happened. As she spoke, she became more agitated, her hands moving faster and faster with every word. I was right there with her. The council had no reason to vote her out just because she hadn’t told them about the baby. They had never had a female alpha, so there was no precedent for their decision.
Tavi was so angry, she growled. “Those bastards. And to do that to you without me by your side? Fucking cowards.”
“True,” Dom agreed. “And they’ve moved the alpha challenge to five days from now, which means we have half as much time as we thought.” He looked at me. “If one wolf ends up fighting each challenger after another, that could be bad for you, Night.”
