Page 25 of Alpha's Arranged Mate

"Women and children," Cole responded, looking reluctant. He glanced between the two alphas.

"Cole, who do they have?" Dash asked, looking just as concerned as Braxton felt.

Cole lowered his gaze and Braxton saw his Adam's apple jump, as though he was gulping deeply in order to prepare himself.

"They have Melody, Raya, Lottie and several of the pack's pups, sir."

Braxton's blood turned to ice in his veins. Of course. He should have known they would have Lottie. The alliance would never stand if they killed the very she-wolf who had been put forward for the marriage that was supposed to bring peace to the two packs.

"And you were just asking me to remove their cuffs," Dash scoffed at Braxton. He turned on him, glowering as though he would like to tear him to shreds. "Was that some kind of distraction while your pack did your dirty work for you?"

Braxton's heart sank. "I would never have condoned any attack on children!"

"Your pack attacked a community filled with children!" Cole burst out, but he clamped his jaws shut at a glare from his alpha.

"What do you suggest I do about this then, Braxton?" Dash asked, turning his gaze on him once more. He stood threateningly, looking prepared to attack at the slightest hint of aggression.

"They say they will kill every last one of them if we do not open the gates, remove their cuffs and release them," Cole said, as though he wanted to reiterate just how dire the situation was.

Braxton didn't need him to tell him. He had seen the glint in Molly's eye that told him just how far she and some of his pack were willing to go. He should have realized it sooner.

"I will not allow that to happen!" Braxton assured them both. He straightened up and squared his shoulders. "You have to leave this to me."

"I do not have to do anything!" Dash snarled back at him. Frustration threatened to overwhelm Braxton. Why did alphas have to be so damn stubborn?

"We don't have time to argue," he pointed out, tightening his hands into fists, ready to fight if Dash decided that was it. "If the Silverdale pack takes this into their own hands, the rest of my pack who aren't involved in this may take it the wrong way. It has to be me."

"You're just one wolf," Dash pointed out.

"Yeah, what do you plan to do?" Cole scoffed at him. Braxton's insides churned with the desire to put the lesser wolf in his place.

Instead, he squared his shoulders, puffed out his chest and declared, "I am Alpha."

His words seemed to speak to the fellow alpha, and Dash dipped his head. Stepping out of the way, he silently gestured Braxton to go ahead.

It was only as Braxton set forth that he allowed himself to realize he truly had no idea what he was going to do. All he knew was that he couldn't bear the thought of any harm coming to Lottie because he had been too slow to act. It was time he truly put his pack in their place. Only then would he truly be their alpha. Only then could he truly set the alliance between demon and Silverdale. Only then would there be peace.

Chapter 12 - Lottie

Lottie wasn't scared. She was pissed off. Having been rudely and roughly removed from her bed just before dawn, she would have loved to rip the throats out of those holding her and the other hostages in the main square. Her human form was not nearly so comfortable in the chill, damp air of the morning as her wolf might have been, and her silken pink pajamas did little to protect her bare flesh from the drizzle that soaked her through to the bone.

The children who cowered behind Melody's skirts only infuriated Lottie more, not because they were obviously frightened, but because they had been made to feel that way in their own home.

Melody, the she-wolf who had once been a part of another enemy pack—one whose pack alpha and other males liked to take their tempers out on the women and children—clearly wasn't all that impressed by the situation either. She crouched and gripped hold of the three children tightly, and though she whispered words of surety to them, she glowered at their captors as if she might rip them apart with her bare hands if she did not have time to shift.

Lottie wondered whether together she and Melody might be able to take the five demon wolves who had taken it upon themselves to cause trouble.

Raya was already distracting them by trying to reason her way out of the situation, just as she always did whenever things were tough. It was expected of the alpha's mate to be cool and level-headed, but Raya was often on the very next level, able to handle any situation.

There was just one problem. There had never been a situation like this before. No enemy had ever been so deep within the community that they could pick off some of its most vulnerable members and hold them hostage.

"This is all my fault," Lottie whispered under her breath, bile rising in her throat as she thought of how she had released Braxton all those months ago. If she hadn't, none of this would be happening. There would have been no talk of an alliance, and demon wolves wouldn't have been free to roam the streets.

And Braxton would never see his children again, she thought bitterly, remembering once again why she had done what she had in the first place. Over the weeks before she had helped him escape, Lottie had learned so much about Diane and Duncan that she felt we though she knew them. And she could not call herself a Silverdale wolf if she did not care for the next generation of werewolves, even if they were demon wolves.

"If you let us go now, we can forget all about all of this, and I shall speak with Dash on your behalf," Raya said to the brown-haired she-wolf who appeared to be one of the ringleaders of the rebellion. Lottie thought that she recognized her from the cell beside Braxton's, though she couldn't quite remember her name.

"Raya, don't negotiate with them," Lottie snapped at her alpha's mate. Soon, if the alliance held, she would be her equal, and when these dogs were a part of her pack there was no way she would let them off so easy. "Let the shame eat them alive. There will be no place in the pack of disobedience."

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