Page 302 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Wow,” I said again. “Is this how you feel when you mess with me? Because if so, I get why you do it.”
“Shut up. I could bring up the fact that you were withmysister.”
“You could,” I said with a smirk. “But that’s not new.”
He closed his eyes like he was trying to count down from ten.
“I never this powerful, even now that I’m alpha to two packs,” I said, interrupting his efforts to keep his cool. “It feels great.”
“Night, I don’t care that I’m your beta. I’ll kill you if you keep this up.”
I laughed hard as he got increasingly flustered. “Bryn and I knew you two were dating. It’s not like you were good at hiding it.”
“All right, all right. I know I probably deserve this, but can’t we just start running?”
I decided to take it easy on him, even though I doubted he’d have been as lenient for me. We took the path around the perimeter of the Kings’ land. It was a little over two miles, but we’d do two or three passes of it.
“So, I really don’t want specifics,” I said, “but I take it this means that things are going well with Tavi?”
He sighed. “Yes…and no.”
“Wanna talk about that?”
“I guess.” He took a minute or two to get his thoughts in order. “We never talk about what happened when Troy kidnapped her because I know that’s a tender subject. I wouldn’t care if she never told me as long as she was happy, but sometimes when we’re together, I get the impression that she’s somewhere else. Like she’s thinking of something very sad. When I ask her about it, she clams up. She’s amazing and strong and smart and beautiful, but I’m worried there’ll always be part of her I can’t reach.” His shoulders drooped.
“I get you.”
“Really?” His eyebrows raised. “With Bryn?”
“No, with Tavi. Like there’s a distance there that wasn’t there before.”
He nodded. “I tell her that whatever she needs, I’m there for her, but I’m not sure if she believes me.” He shook his head. “I just don’t want to hurt her. Ever.”
In some ways, this conversation reminded me of what Bryn and I had just argued about. What we’d argued about many times before. Openness. Honesty.
“You’re doing what you can, Dom,” I said. “Tavi knows you’re there for her. She knows you’ll be there to support her if she ever wants to talk about what she’s been through. For now, you haven’t hurt her, pushed her away, or forced her to do anything she wasn’t ready for. You’re doing fine.”
He mulled that over, and after a few minutes, he nodded. “That’s actually kind of nice to hear.”
“You’re not a bad guy, Dom.” We upped the pace of our run, both of us breathing harder. “You’re just trying your best, like the rest of us.”
“I wish my best made her more comfortable around me.”
“Maybe you should tell her some of this. Let her know you’ve been thinking about her.”
“That’s not a bad idea. We’ve talked about this before, but I don’t think I ever put it into words like I did just now.”
“Yeah, that might help. And it might encourage her to open up more. Who knows?” We continued running for a while, then I admitted, “Bryn and I were arguing earlier, but we made up.”
“I noticed.” He eyed me. “What was your argument about?”
“Communication. Again. I didn’t want to tell her how badly things went with Lance.” I filled him in on the argument I’d had with Bryn.
“Ah. I guess it was inevitable for the two of you to fight.”
I rolled my eyes. “The point is, we agreed we weren’t going to hide the truth from each other anymore. If Tavi is anything like me, opening up about something that gives you complicated feelings is almost impossible. Bryn and I had a fight, but you and Tavi don’t have to.”
“Huh. When did you become a relationship expert?”
