Page 296 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
He blinked at me. “What?”
“From the moment Bryn became alpha of the Kings, it’s been a balancing act for us. We never wanted to ignore the Wargs, but while we tried to get Kings to warm up to a merger, the Wargs had to wait. As alpha, I’m still getting the hang of things, but I hate that I’ve given the impression that I don’t care about my home. I plan on correcting that as soon as possible.”
“Right.” Uncrossing his arms, he looked down. “That is helpful to hear, but I won’t put my stock in your words until I see some action to back them up.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Well…I’ll continue my walk. We can talk more about your plans soon.”
Again, I nodded, and Graham walked away.
When I turned my attention to Dom, I found him grinning at me. “Look at you, being all diplomatic.”
I scoffed and pushed his shoulder. “Fuck off.”
“No, really. Who would’ve thought you’d get a member of our council to shut up?” He chuckled. “So, what’s next for you?”
“I should probably talk to Lance. Know where he’d be?”
“I spoke to Lance earlier,” Aiden said as he walked toward us. There was a smear of marigold paint on his cheek. “He said he’d be on the training grounds for most of the day.”
I looked at Dom, who nodded. “That’s where I was going to say you should head to.”
“I see. Thanks, Aiden.”
“No problem, Alpha Night.” He hesitated, his cheeks turning pink. “By the way, I’d like to volunteer to be one of the men you send to Wargs’ territory.”
“Yeah?” I pretended to be surprised. “You want to help us out?”
He nodded. “I’m not a hunter; I’ve never been anywhere outside of Kings’ territory. I…I’m eager to see what your homeland is like.”
“Me too,” Steven called.
Soon, there was a chorus of men offering up their services. I didn’t hide my grin as I looked at them. The only thing that would make the moment better was if Graham had stuck around to hear it, but I’d tell him and the rest of the council that we had plenty of eager volunteers.
“Night, you get going,” Dom said. “I’ll put together a list of those who want to help out. Lance won’t be training forever.”
“Great.” I inclined my head in thanks to my beta and the builders for their enthusiasm, then headed to the training grounds.
I expected to see Lance training with the other men, but that wasn’t what I found. He was talking to Vince. From the way he was gesturing, he was telling Vince how to improve his form, which Vince always struggled with.
I felt a twinge of something just behind my sternum. It wasn’t quite jealousy, more like resentment—a sense that Lance was overstepping by doing this with one of my men. It was illogical and stupid, but the feeling struck me so quickly, I couldn’t stop it. I tried to stuff that emotion down and smother it before I reached them, but when Lance looked at me, another pang shot through me.
“Hey,” I said as nonchalantly as possible. “Hope I’m not interrupting.”
“Not at all, Alpha,” Vince replied. “Did you need me for something?”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to Lance.”
Both men stared at me, Lance with eyebrows raised toward his hairline and Vince with a slight, knowing smile. “Got it. I’ll find something else to do while you talk.”
“If you’ve got time, there’s still paperwork that needs to be sorted.”
Vince’s smile waned a bit. “Oh. Right. I’ll get on that. Thanks for the assistance, Lance.”
“Anytime.”
Vince went off in the direction of the alpha cabin, leaving Lance and me alone.
