Page 111 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“You’re an idiot,” I said, calm stealing over me as he teetered on the edge of losing his mind. “You had the perfect opportunity to prove Gregor and everyone else wrong. You could have been a better man, but now you’re going down in history as the worst Alpha the Kings have ever had.”
“You knownothing,” he snapped. “I will go down as a legend. Once Night dies a public death, everyone will know that there is no one left to stop me from creating my own empire. I’ll fucking showeveryonethat I’m the rightful heir, and I’ll combine both packs just to prove it.”
“You’re delusional.” I shook my head. “Under you? Everyone will suffer. It’ll be chaos.”
There was a pause followed by an eerie quiet. “And so what?”
My eyebrows scrunched together. “What do you mean ‘so what?’”
His blank face suddenly parted into a manic grin that was somehow too wide and full of sharp wolf’s teeth. His dark brown hair was coming out of its usual, slick bun, falling around his shoulders in unkempt, unruly strands. “Why should I want the packs to succeed? One of them is loyal to my half-brother, and the other turned a blind eye to the way my father treated me.Maybe…maybe I’ll enjoy watching the packs tear each other apart.”
“You’re sick,” I hissed with dawning horror. “You’redisgusting. It’s only a matter of time before Night kills you. And if he doesn’t kill you, then someone else will. You can’t destroy these packs, you…you’ll?—”
Troy threw back his head and laughed, drowning out the rest of my sentence.
I gritted my teeth and wished I had the power to make him collapse right here. I hated knowing that Night was likely at his weakest now, just like I was. I hated that I couldn’t do anything to help him or Tavi or even myself. The only thing I could do wastryto survive, to be alive after Night killed Troy so I could hold him in my arms again. At this rate, I wasn’t sure I could do even that much.
Sudden movement from Troy caused my instincts to kick in. I jerked away from him as hard as I could despite the protesting aches in my body. In Troy’s hand was something black and small.
I screamed as I realized what it was—a muzzle that was used to prevent shifting. It kept the snout from growing, thus forcing the wolf to stay inside. These days, it was meant to be reserved for use in the most desperate of medical situations only, but it had been created hundreds of years ago. Its original purpose was to subdue and torture, not to heal.
“Get that away from me, you son of a bitch!” I screeched. But still, he drew nearer. “Don’t you fucking—don’t put it anywhere near me!”
“Time’s ticking, Bryn,” he said, giggling as he tried to get the muzzle on me. “Soon, you’ll be begging me to claim you just to save your life.”
“Never! You’ll have to kill me before?—”
With one deft move, he pulled the muzzle over my head and fit it over my mouth, securing it with the strap at the back. When he was finished, he stepped back and smirked. “When Night is dead, your wolf will be begging for a new mate and she’ll claw at the chance to be mated to me, even if you don’t want her to.” He winked at me. “I’ll see you soon, Bryn.”
Troy went back up the steps, giggling to himself, leaving me alone, chained up and muzzled like a rabid dog. I fought hard not to cry, not wanting to give Troy or any of his lackeys the satisfaction.
Another day passed without me hearing anything, marking day seven since Troy had taken me and Tavi away from the Wargs’ territory. All this time in the darkness, in the quiet, made me want to give up and cry. I hadn’t seen Tavi since Troy’s men took her away, so for all I knew, my best friend was dead. My mental health had been all over the place this past week, but today it was at its lowest.
If Tavi was gone, there was little point in me sticking around. At this rate, I would never see the Wargs or Tavi or Night ever again. I closed my eyes, almost wishing I could be dead, too, or at least somewhere far, far away from here.
These dark thoughts persisted even as I heard the door at the top of the staircase creak open. It was probably another one of the Kings who’d come to torture me or take me away or drug me yetagain. But it was a light pair of footsteps descending the stairs, sounding nothing like Troy or any of his men.
46
NIGHT
The last time I’d made the trek into the Kings’ lands, I’d had murder on my mind and little else. This time, as my wolves and I ran through the forest, murder was again my intent, but there were other things on my mind, too.
Bryn and Tavi were foremost in my thoughts. Not for the first time, I recalled the last moments I’d been with Bryn. I remembered every second of our conversation: the way her blouse had lifted in the breeze as I walked her to Mom’s cabin, the way her lips had lifted into a slight smirk when she’d assured me that I wouldn’t even miss her while she was gone, and of course, I recalled the sweetness of our last kiss.
Our last conversation had been a goodbye. She’d said that she wanted to spend time with Tavi and Mom, but it was clear to me that there was something specific she wanted to talk with them about. And whatever it was, it had put uncertainty in her large, blue-gray eyes.
Now as we zipped between trees and over boulders and through brush, I wondered what she had wanted to talk with themabout. Knowing Bryn, there were a myriad of things that could have been weighing down her thoughts. We had been navigating the fact that we were mates, she was still learning how to get in touch with her wolf, and she’d just learned that she was a descendant of the pack mothers.
But it was also possible that what she wanted to talk about had nothing to do with those things. Maybe she’d wanted to talk to them aboutus. Though it wasn’t the first time I’d thought about our last conversation, I’d never considered that our relationship might be what Bryn had needed to talk about. The reason she wanted space might have been more than just missing my mom and Tavi. If there was uncertainty in her gaze, maybe she doubted something about our relationship. It made my heart sick to think that I might be the cause of her insecurity.
I hadn’t thought to ask Mom about it, with her focused on her recovery and me focused on Bryn and Tavi. Now I might never know what it was that had made my mate so uncertain.
I would never forgive myself if it was my fault. I’d let my doubts take precedence over my wolf and my instincts. If I’d listened to what I really wanted, Troy’s plan would have fallen apart before it started. Bryn would have been claimed, and we both would have entered this situation much stronger than Troy expected us to be.
And if I’d pushed harder to keep Bryn with me, would we have been able to avoid all of this? Bryn wouldn’t have been alone, and Redwolf, seeing that Bryn wasn’t at my mother’s cabin, might not have attacked. Or would that have just delayed the inevitable? At one point or another, Bryn would have been left alone. As much as I wanted to keep her at my side, I couldn’t have eyes on her all the time. Troy could have taken her at anymoment she was by herself. At least right now she had Tavi with her.
My wolf huffed at me, and I knew what he was trying to tell me. It was useless to dwell on what I could have done differently, or what I could have done to prevent this. None of us were psychics, after all; there was no way we could have predicted when or how Troy would strike. But I figured it was normal for a man heading toward his death to revisit his regrets.
