Page 138 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Are you sure?—”
“Yep! Violet said you were hoping to get this done today.”
I frowned, but she was right. I did want to handle this asap. I sighed and turned again to the door. I knocked a few times, and then waited.
I was nervous about speaking to these men, but unlike the Elders, where much of my nervousness came from uncertainty around my new role, my nervousness now came from a fear of being bullied. Tyrell and whoever was with him with might try to physically intimidate us. And if that happened, I didn’t know what we’d do.
Tyrell pulled open the door, still joking with someone behind him. “—didn’t know she’d hurt him like that.” When he turned to us, his smile faded, and surprise replaced it.
“Hi, Tyrell,” I said, hoping the expression on my face was neutral but not unfriendly but also not too casual. “I was hoping I could talk to you.”
“Oh. Um. Sure.” He blinked. “A-Alpha Hunter, right?”
“That’s right.” It still felt weird to hear.
“I have company over. Is that going to be a problem?”
I was glad to see that Tyrell didn’t seem to dislike me. Or, if he did, he hid it pretty well. He seemed nervous, too; I could see it in the slight twitch of his cheek before he spoke. He seemed almost as nervous as I felt.
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ve brought someone along, too.” I gestured to Tavi. “This is Octavia.”
“Hello,” she said brightly.
He nodded to her, and then he led us inside. Unlike the Elders’ cabin or Violet and Tavi’s, Tyrell’s was very obviously lived in. There were clothes and dishes and candy wrappers in random corners of the cabin. It was messy and disorganized, but fortunately, it didn’t smell too bad.
Tyrell led us into his kitchen, where eight other men sat sipping beers. Their conversation stopped as they looked at Tavi and me.
Tyrell introduced each man, pointing to each one as he went around the table. The men said nothing as he did, all of them just staring at us with intense, unwelcoming eyes.At least Samson and Harlon aren’t with them…
“This is Octavia,” I said when Tyrell had finished. “It’s nice to meet you all.”
Silence answered me.
Tavi broke it. “Hey, I know it’s been a little while since you all have had an Alpha, but it’s customary to greet her when she greets you.” Her tone was still bright, but the sarcasm was obvious.
“I don’t see an Alpha here,” one of them, Seth, replied, leering at us. “Just a couple of bitches.”
“A couple of female wolves in your presence, and that’s the best you could come up with?” Tavi laughed, the sharp sound of it almost made me flinch. “Next you’ll be calling us ‘cunts’ or something just as unoriginal.”
He gripped his beer tight, and I knew he was wishing for her death with his eyes. I glanced at Tyrell, but he was watching me. I got the impression that he was waiting for something.
I cleared my throat, hoping to diffuse some of that tension. “I don’t want to interrupt your evening, men, I just came here to talk about how the repairs are going around the compound. How is that going?”
No one responded, not even Tyrell. They did, however, have the presence of mind to avoid eye contact with me. I guess that was an answer in itself.
“Okay, so you haven’t started. When were you planning on doing it?”
Again, there was silence.
“I’ll answer for them,” Tavi said suddenly. “They’d much rather leave their pack in shambles than try and rebuild anything. Picking up a hammer and doing something would just make it more real that they did nothing against Troy.”
I glanced at her, finding a kind of manic edge to her smile and the twinkle in her eye. I got the impression that she was letting off some steam.
“Shut the fuck up,” Seth said. “You don’t know shit.”
“You could try and make me,” she said. “But you know it would start a war.”
At that, the air in the room shifted from one of unfriendliness to one of trepidation and hostility.
