Page 145 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Fair enough, love.” I kissed her gently, but I didn’t agree. It felt like a bad idea, but I knew we’d go around in circles about it.“So, what do you need me to do while I’m here?” I asked. “What would be most helpful to you?”
Her eyes lit up. They were the bright, sunny blue of a summer’s day. “My current strategy is to gain the respect of the female wolves and to help get the pack lands back into good standing. I want to try and help them unlearn a lot of the sexist bullshit that the Redwolfs indoctrinated them into, and I think having high-ranking female members of the Wargs pack around will help me do that.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “And me?”
“Remember those destroyed cabins we saw the day after you claimed me? I let the men heading the reconstruction projects know that you’re available to help them rebuild. I don’t know how receptive they’ll be to it, but I let them know help was available. What do you think?”
“Divide and conquer.” I rubbed my chin. It was a sound plan. A very sound plan. “It’s solid. I think we’ll have a good shot at making this happen.”
She grinned and pressed closer to me. “I’m glad you think so, too.”
58
BRYN
Tavi and I had given each other plenty of space while I became more accustomed to the role I’d been given. As the days passed, I tried stopping by to see Tavi more than once, but she always said she wasn’t ready for a visit. I had something important to talk to her about, but she would just shake her head and give me that sad, distant smile that had replaced her usual beaming grin.
I tried speaking to Violet about Tavi the night before the Alpha ceremony, but she didn’t know much more than me.
“I can’t say, girlie,” she said with a sad shake of her head. The moment I mentioned Tavi’s name, her shoulders slumped, and she let out a long sigh laden with worry. “You would know more about what happened in those caves than any of us would.”
Violet couldn’t have meant it, but those words cut me deep. I didn’t know any of the specifics of what Tavi had been through; all I knew was that the experience had changed her. But I still loved her. She had been my first friend at the Wargs compound,and she had quickly become precious to me. It hurt to see her suffering like this and be unable to help her.
I couldn’t stand being apart from my best friend anymore.
“I know she keeps refusing to see you, Bryn,” Violet said. Her hands pulled apart her braid with deft, quick movements. Her long hair, crimped from the braid, fell over her shoulders like a silvery waterfall, covering the awful mark that Troy had left on her shoulder. “But don’t give up. She wants to see you, too, but she doesn’t think she’s ready.”
“She told you that?” I asked.
“Not in so many words.” Violet gave me a small smile. “Call it a mother’s intuition for her daughter. And anyway, you can’t keep letting her avoid you. You have something important to ask her, don’t you?”
My eyes widened, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Violet was so in tune with things, I should have known that she would have an idea of what I wanted to talk with Tavi about.Partof what I wanted to talk to her about, anyway.
“Yeah, I do.” I nodded. “Do you think she’ll talk if I’m straightforward with her?”
“I do. She misses you, too, remember.”
Again, I nodded. I headed back to the Alpha cabin and had some fun with Night, but even after we had exhausted each other with sweet ecstasy, I couldn’t sleep. My mind was too clouded with thoughts about not only the Alpha ceremony, but Tavi as well. I tried over and over to plan what I wanted to say to her, but nothing felt quite right.
I woke after a fitful hour, maybe two hours of sleep, and slipped out of bed. It was the day of the Alpha ceremony, and for once, I was up before Night. After I got ready, I wrote him a note telling him that I needed to prepare for the ceremony. Even in sleep, his hands reached for me as I pressed a kiss to his forehead.
I suppressed a giggle, avoided his hands, and quickly slipped out of the room. It was still dark out; the sun wasn’t set to rise for a while yet. Well, it would have been dark for me if I were still human. With my shifter eyes, I could see everything clearly, though in a slightly monochrome hue.
I headed to Tavi and Violet’s cabin and knocked on the door. It opened a few seconds later. Violet never seemed to sleep, so I expected her to be the one to answer, but Tavi was the one who stood on the other side. All of my plans for what I had wanted to say, thoroughly considered over the course of a restless night, vanished from my mind as I met her deep, mahogany-brown eyes.
Tavi seemed just as surprised to see me. For a second, her eyes widened and her fingers twitched, as if she wanted to raise her hand. But the surprise quickly faded, and that empty, blank smile returned to her face.
“Oh, Bryn. It’s a little early for you, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah.” My laugh sounded forced, and decidedly un-Alpha of me.
If Tavi noticed, she didn’t show it. She held onto the knob, her body facing me, but made no move to let me in. In sweatpants and an oversized long-sleeved shirt, she looked like she’d slept for days but still hadn’t rested. “So, did you need something?”
“Um, yes, actually. Tavi, I—” I hesitated. “I need to talk to you.”
There was a flash of another expression across her face, but this one I recognized immediately despite the fact that it had rarely marred her features when she spoke to me. Annoyance.
Again, it vanished quickly. “I’m sure, but isn’t today the day of the Alpha ceremony, Bryn?” She stepped back into the cabin, trying to give me the hint to leave. “Violet let me know you’ve got a full schedule. I’m sure you have other things to do than waste your time with me. We’ll talk sometime soon, okay?”
