Page 37 of The Weakest Wolf

“But what?”

Her eyes search mine. “I don’t want to upset your father. He’s always wanted to build connections with other packs. And if he can’t do that with you…”

I sigh. “Then he’ll make Eden mate with someone she doesn’t want to.”

“Yes, and she deserves to be happy, too.”

“So either we’re happy or Eden is,” I murmur, thinking of Eden, who, at sixteen, and Melody’s best friend, doesn’t deserve to be my father’s pawn. None of us do.

“We could all run away together. You, me, and Eden,” Melody suggests. “Start our own pack?”

I smile down at her. “We could, but where? And how?” I kiss her softly on the lips. “I want you safe. Both you and Eden. The safest place is with the rest of the pack. I’ll talk to my dad, make him understand.”

My phone vibrates, dragging me back to the present. Rolling over, I grab it and glance at the message on the screen.How about Yelena?

I tap out a quick response.Causes trouble with the others. No.

After I’ve finished with my message, I plug the phone into the charger so it can charge overnight, and close my eyes even though I know I won’t sleep.

Not with my memories so close to the surface. That, and the guilt.

I’m still awake an hour later when the farmhouse door creaks open.

When cool air drifts in from the hallway, I still don’t move.

It’s only when my senses scream a warning that my eyes snap open. I’m already moving when a clawed hand punches through my pillow, right where my neck was a second before.

I come up on my knees, grip my uninvited guest's head with both hands, and wrench hard to the right.

Bone crunches, and he releases a soft sigh.

I let his body drop to the ground. A naked, dark-haired shifter with dead blue eyes stares up at me. It’s a face I’ve never seen before.

“Why do you always have to be right, Dom?” I mutter as I grip the shifter by his ankle and drag him from the room.

This time I wasn’t asleep during the nighttime ambush, but next time I just might be.

There’s no one outside the farmhouse front door. In the distance, wolves howl. Looks like Bowen stepped up as alpha and led the run. Though from what Sierra told me, I wonder who their victim is tonight.

Once I’ve tossed the body outside, I close the door and head back to bed.

If Bowen wants to keep sending the pack after me, I’ll have no problem killing them one by one. In fact, I look forward to it.

Maybe then Sierra will see what her silence will cost her.

Melody is gone forever. But Eden isn’t. She’s somewhere in the world, alive.

I have to find her.

9

SIERRA

Early the next morning, I climb off my bed and sit on the edge.

All I want to do is crawl beneath the sheets and hide from the world today. But I know I can’t.

Not because I have to serve up breakfast to Galen Hunt, who looked about a second away from wringing my neck the night before, but because I have no sheets to burrow beneath.