Page 320 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“That sounds like my mate, but I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about you,” I said. “Specifically, why you thought that keeping the truth from me was the best thing to keep me safe.”
Lance didn’t answer right away, but I didn’t mind. I knew he’d tell me everything. Unlike Dom, who I’d known for months before I found out the truth, Lance was an unknown. And yet, something in me told me that he reallywasmy brother. The feeling in my gut was so strong, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t known it earlier.
“Our mother gave me up right after she had me,” he finally said. “She left me with a human family. But when I was four, she came to me. Honestly, I’m not sure if she came to me in a dream or in person. All I know is that when she appeared, she was so beautiful, I thought she was an angel.”
He knew what our mother looked like. That sent a painful pang through my chest.
“Right after she told me I was a shifter, she told me I was meant to protect you because your destiny is very important, and that when I was a teenager, I’d know what to do to get to you. I went through the human school system, and I was lucky that I took to their teaching easily. I graduated from high school when I was sixteen and left home because I felt the ‘pull’ to.” He tilted his head at me. “You know what I mean by that, don’t you? You’ve felt that pull before?”
I started to shake my head, but I was immediately reminded of the time I saw my mother’s wolf for the first time. I had felt that “pull” to follow her, and it had resulted in me finding Vince.
“Yeah, I do. I’ve felt that pull a handful of times.”
He smiled. “It’s probably a little selfish of me to say, but it’s so refreshing to find someone else who knows what I mean.”
It was hard not to smile back. “I think I get what you mean. My mom and Violet talk a lot about spirits and having a connection to the land, but I don’t think either of them have felt what you and I have.” I had more that I could say, but I knew it would be easy to get sidetracked, and I had too many questions for him. “So what did the ‘pull’ tell you to do?”
“It led me downtown and into an alley to Troy and his lackeys. I had the sense to follow them, so for the rest of the night, Idid that. He and those idiots were awful—cat-calling, causing trouble, and generally being assholes to everyone they met.”
Disgust flared through me. “Yeah, that sounds like him.”
He nodded. “I followed them to a club. I waited for a bit, then a bouncer tossed him out. Troy’s fake ID didn’t pass muster at the bar. The bouncer was going to call the police, but I convinced the bouncer not to, telling him they were kids I tutored. The bouncer knew the people who raised me, so he believed me. He let them go, and helping them out was enough to convince Troy that I was trustworthy.”
I snorted. “Wow, that’s all it took?”
He smirked. “Yeah, that was it. He knew I was a wolf, and he was fascinated by the fact that I had been raised among humans. He wanted me to join his pack. At the time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I wanted to look for you, but I didn’t even know your name. But when Troy told me there was a human in his pack, I knew it had to be you.”
“You joined the Kings after that.”
He nodded. “And I found you. I wanted to tell you everything, but when I saw how they treated you, I was terrified it would make things even worse for you. I saw so many people die at the hands of Troy and his father…I could never risk that happening to you. You were my only family left.”
What remained of my anger evaporated at the tears shining in his eyes. I felt the concern, the fear, wafting from him.
“I’m sorry things were hard for you,” I said. “I can relate to your story a little. I grew up lonely, unlike everyone else. I was lucky my mom loved me, but you saw how the pack ostracized me.”
He nodded. “That was why I was worried one of them would try to kill you when you were alpha.”
“But they didn’t. And that was because they weren’t inherently bad people. The Redwolfs made them awful, angry people. The environment ruined them.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry I scared you. And I’m sorry I was so cryptic. I…to be honest, it had been such a long time, and the first chance I had to talk to you was at the market. I wanted to help you, to show you I wasn’t a bad guy, but I feel like all I did was creep you out.”
I remembered how he’d haggled down the price of the bracelets I’d bought for Tavi and Night. I laughed.
“You definitely confused me, to say the least.”
Chuckling, he rubbed the back of his head. “When you became alpha, I thought, ‘Shit, this is what our mom was talking about. I need to protect Bryn from the whole pack.’ It was so important to protect you because you were in the spotlight as alpha, and I thought you’d just painted a huge target on your back. But you had Night and Tavi and Dom…I was stressed out, but you were in good hands.”
I smiled.
“He cares a lot about you,” he said. “Night, I mean. It was a mistake for me to think he didn’t just because he’s related to Gregor and Troy.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “But it’s not your fault for being worried. He saved me from Troy, but he did kidnap me in the process.”
“I was about ready to cause an inter-pack incident when that happened,” he admitted. “I was worried out of my mind. ButI wasn’t nearly as concerned as when I learned that Troy had taken you back. He wouldn’t tell me where you were, just kept sending me on away missions.”
“You know, even Night worries that he’s like the Redwolfs. I’ve told him that he doesn’t need to worry because he’s nothing like them, but I don’t know if he believes me.”
“I didn’t know he thought that. I might owe him another apology.”
