Page 29 of Alpha's Arranged Mate

Running his fingers through his dark hair, he hurried to the door and unlocked it. Holding his breath, he braced himself for whoever might be on the other side. Dash come to finish their meeting, Lottie come to check if he was okay, maybe Raya to discuss some way that he might be able to fix things in order for Dash to trust him again.

Of all the people he thought might come to his door, he never anticipated that it might be one of his own pack.

“Bailey? What are you doing here?” he exclaimed the moment he saw the black-haired, brown-eyed she-wolf standing before him.

“Is that any way to greet your sister?” she scowled back at him, and before he could say another word, she barged right past him into the room.

Closing the door quickly behind her, Braxton turned on his heels to look at her. Though the two of them had never been very close, she was his sister, and he was relieved to see her well. In fact, he hadn’t even known that she had been one of the wolves to be kept inside Silverdale. For all he had known, she had died out on the battlefield.

“It’s good to see you well,” he said, blushing slightly with embarrassment at the thought he had not sought her out sooner.

“Yes, well, it’s no thanks to you,” Bailey hissed back at him. Braxton, taken aback, physically moved backwards. Feeling the coolness of the wooden door at his back, he stepped sideways and moved to the mini fridge on the far side of the room.

“Can I get you a drink?”

“I didn’t come here to drink like old comrades, Brax,” Bailey snapped at him. “I came here to figure out exactly what it is you think you are playing at.”

“Excuse me?” Braxton asked, turning on her once more. “What do you mean, what am I playing at? I’m trying to secure an alliance with the Silverdale pack so that we can get out of here still breathing. I’m trying to make it possible to see my children again. I’m trying to—”

He bit down on the inside of his lip, hard, realizing he had been about to mention the fact that he was trying to make life safe for Lottie again. What would it matter to his sister, a demon wolf, if a Silverdale she-wolf was in danger of being caught as a traitor?

“Look, I don’t agree with what Molly and the others tried to do, but I also don’t agree with what you are doing!” Bailey declared, glowering at him as if she wished to strike him. “If Father could see you now, turning on your own pack like this—”

“I am not turning on my own pack!”

Bailey closed the distance between them and, staring deep into his eyes, asked, “Then how is it that half of the pack has been returned to those damned cells?”

“Half is a little of an exaggeration, don’t you think?” Braxton sighed, cocking his head. Five werewolves and one she-wolf were not half of their pack, not nearly so. But he could see where she was coming from, and it made his gut churn.

Closing his eyes, he sucked in a deep breath and reminded himself of all the promises he had made, not just for himself but also for the entire pack. When he opened them again, he found his sister still glaring at him.

“Need I remind you that our father did not give a damn about the pack? He only cared what the pack could do for him,” he said, meeting his sister’s gaze, knowing she knew all too well. He remembered walking in more than once to find her beaten and bloodied on the floor of their apartment within the compound, either thanks to their father or at the hands of one of his closest men.

“At least he didn’t stand by while we were being turned into weaklings with runed bracelets around our wrists. We may as well be collared dogs!”

Unable to take it a moment longer, Braxton snarled, “Would you rather I beat you right here and now, just like he would have done for speaking to him like this? If you’d questioned him, he would have had you dragged out into the main square by his guards, and they’d have beaten you and had their way with you for all to see. Is that what you want?”

The fury burning in him, Braxton stepped up so close to his sister that he had to lower his face just to look down at her. She tilted her head up to meet his gaze once more, never backing down, her nostrils flared.

“Go ahead and try,” she hissed back at him, her hands tightening into fists, and Braxton knew that this could very easily turn into a real tooth and claw fight, just as it might have done when they were teenagers and he had been more willing to be like his father.

With a deep sigh, he took a step back and lowered his gaze. Shaking his head, he said, “Bailey, I’ll never be like him, and I will do whatever it takes to bring peace to our pack. I will keep everyone safe, even if that means marrying a Silverdale.”

When Braxton raised his gaze once more, the two siblings stared at each other for several moments in silence. Though he tried his hardest to read her gaze, Braxton couldn’t quite figure out where his sister’s mood was going to land.

He was surprised when she finally smiled and said, “I’m proud of you, Braxton.”

“Huh?” was the only sound that escaped his lips, completely flabbergasted by the sudden change in her.

“I’m glad you didn’t turn out to be just like dad,” Bailey said with a shrug of her shoulders. “As I said, I might not agree with your methods, but I can see how hard you are trying. I’m just worried about you.”

“Worried about me?” Braxton asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Why would you be worried about me?”

“If all of this goes wrong, who will the Silverdales blame? Who will our own pack blame if we never get out of here?” Bailey pointed out, and Braxton’s heart sank. “Either way, you’ll likely end up with your pelt clawed off.”

“For my pack, and for my children, that is a chance I am willing to take,” Braxton assured her, though a painful lump had begun to form in the back of his throat. He knew all too well that his sister was right.

She stepped up before him and placed her hand on his forearm. Squeezing gently, she looked him deep in the eye as she told him, “Just please be careful, okay? If I ever get out of here, I don’t want to have to take news of your death to Diane and Duncan.”

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