Page 54 of Ruthless Wolf

I cut my gaze to Fena. She avoids looking at me by bringing the cup to her mouth and taking a rather long sip.

"You weren't supposed to hear that."

Adeline smiles. "It's okay, Luke. I get it."

The teacup warms my palm. "And you're not going to stop me?"

Adeline drinks from her tea again. "No, honestly. I won't stop you. But Fena is right. My pack outnumbers the new pack. I haven't met the Blood Born Pack or seen how many wolves they have but I've seen mine and we breed like there's no end of the world.”

"I'm not going to sit back and let your brothers get away with what they did.” Anger simmers low in my gut. “I'm going to make them pay and I don't care how many wolves I have to face."

Fena sits on the couch, placing one leg over the other. "He's so obstinate, Adeline. How did you even fall for him?"

Adeline chuckles. "Luke has got a good heart, but his good heart is going to be the death of him." She puts a hand on my chest. "If not for yourself but for me, don't go after my brothers alone."

I take her hand and squeeze it gently. "I refuse to let them win."

"Then if you must fight them, I'll fight alongside you."

Chapter18

Adeline

“That's insane,” is the first thing Luke blurts out.

He drops the tea and regards me as though I just talked about leaping from the Empire State building. Honestly, I don't understand his rage. He's doing this for me, isn't he? Why does he not want me to fight this war with him?

“You'll need me,” I insist and Luke hisses, turning his back to me. “I know everything there is to know about my brothers. I'll be of great help to you."

"No, you're not fighting!" Luke snaps, facing me again. "I told you I'll fix this. You don't have to get involved."

His words baffle me. Luke's flashing eyes tell me he's angry. I don't know why he's overprotective all of a sudden. It's the same reason I fled from my brothers.

Then it hits me. Maybe Luke isn't doing this for me after all. When we first met, I was a way for him to infiltrate my pack and get his revenge. What if I'm still that conduit of vengeance? He's going to spew me out like a bland gum.

"Aren't you doing this because of me?" I ask him, trying to keep my voice strong even as my heart constricts painfully. "Or are you doing it for yourself? Has this been your plan all along? To use me and dump me when it comes to the real deal?"

“What? No!” Luke looks around wildly, like he’s just been cornered, then storms out of the room, his heavy footsteps echoing throughout the cabin. I glance at Fena, expecting her to tell me I said something wrong.

She raises her shoulders and drops them again. "I don't know what’s gotten into him."

I sit down beside the female wolf, drawing my hands up my face. "Oh, God." Our enemy blood is already coming between us.

"Give him time," Fena says. "He'll come around."

I face her. "You agree that I should fight, too?"

"Why not? You're a wolf, not a weakling."

"Then why is he behaving like it's the end of the world?"

Fena looks away and doesn't speak for seconds. "Because he loves you and doesn't want to see you get hurt," she says softly.

Maybe she's right. The possibility of Luke objecting to my involvement because he loves me warms my heart. At the same time, it could be ego or pure need for vengeance that Luke deems himself the only person capable of bringing my brothers down. I'm not going to sit back and let him get hurt, especially when I'm the cause of this.

"What do you think I should do? I'm not going to let him harm himself."

"It's not like he’s a weak wolf," Fena chuckles but the glare I give her buries the laughter. "Look, you're right. You should fight alongside him but it's just going to be the two of you. It's the same thing, a suicide mission. You need other wolves who can help you."

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