Page 7 of Alpha's Arranged Mate

“Molly, enough!” Braxton snarled. She had always been way too outspoken, and now wasn’t any better than when they had been free wolves. In fact, it was somehow worse. Once, he might have let her go on and on until the Silverdale wolf finally got the hint, but if he did hope to make an alliance in order to save his pack, he didn’t want every bridge burned before they even got out of the gate.

Though she growled deep in her throat, Molly didn’t say another word. The Silverdale wolf scoffed, and seeming as though he had grown bored of taunting them, he turned on his heels and walked away. Braxton watched him go, wondering once more if could he truly align himself with these wolves after all the bad blood between them.

Whether he was serious about it or not, one thing he knew for certain. Now more than ever, he felt the need to get back to his children.

Chapter 6 - Lottie

Standing on guard duty again, Lottie felt that same tugging sensation in her gut, the one that left her almost unable to stop from walking right down the dungeon steps to Braxton’s cell. It was infuriating and quite frankly sickening, yet the more she stood there, the more she felt it.

Until she couldn’t take it for a moment longer. Growling through gritted teeth, Lottie pushed herself to her feet where she had been sitting at the table in the basement and asked, “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Cole, the wolf who had been assigned to guard duty with her for that shift, looked up from where he had been flicking through his phone. Clearly, whatever was on there was far more interesting than she was. Not that it bothered her. She preferred to be left to her own thoughts—at least, she usually did, but of late she was finding that more and more difficult. Especially during guard duty, when all she could think about was how she wished they could go back to single guard duty so that she could sneak back down into the dungeons to talk with Braxton like she used to, when he had been in a cell further away from his pack mates and they could have much more privacy than they did now.

“It’s probably nothing,” Lottie said, shaking her head. In truth, she hadn’t heard anything at all, but somehow, she needed this. “I’ll go and check it out.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No!” Lottie snapped a little too quickly, and Cole paused in getting up from his chair to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You sure?” he asked, looking unconvinced.

“I’ll be fine,” Lottie insisted, forcing a smile. “I’m a big she-wolf.”

“Okay, well, howl if you get into trouble,” Cole insisted. Lottie nodded and headed off toward the door that led down into the dungeons.

She paused at the door with her hand on the deadbolt, wondering whether she should turn back around and sit back down. It would be best for her and everyone involved if she didn’t do what her head and her heart were telling her to do, and yet she couldn’t stop herself. Besides, if she tried to sit back down now, Cole would likely get even more suspicious.

Sucking in a breath, she pulled back the deadbolt and slipped through the door. Heading down the stairs carefully, she followed the long and winding corridor down to Braxton’s cell and whispered, “Braxton?”

At first, there was no answer. She listened carefully for the sound of his breathing, and suddenly realized that she didn’t hear the sound of anyone or anything.

Odd. Where were the demon wolves in the cell next to Braxton’s?

“Lottie?” the moment she heard his voice, all thoughts of everything save him disappeared from her mind.

She gripped the iron bars in front of her and hissed, “Braxton, I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have been so cold to you the last time I was here.”

In the near darkness, Braxton appeared on the other side of the bars. He didn’t speak, and as Lottie opened her mouth to say more, he stopped her with a hand raised through the bars.

The second she felt his palm pressed against her cheek, she started to lean into him. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed the scent of him all around her. The warmth of his hand on her face was so welcoming after the cold of the dungeons that she practically purred like a cat, pressing her face into his palm.

“I’m glad you came back,” he whispered, his voice sultry and seductive. “I missed you.”

Tears pricked the corners of Lottie’s eyes and she fluttered them open to look into his glowing amber eyes. “I missed you too.”

“Can we just forget that anything ever came between us?” Braxton asked, his hand dropping from her face to grip hold of hers. He squeezed her fingers, and in the darkness she saw his teeth glint in the beginnings of a smile.

“Yes,” she breathed back, leaning closer to the door, wanting to be close to him.

In the next moment, Lottie reached into her jacket pocket. Unsure how she’d managed to get her hands on them, she pulled the cell keys from her pocket and slipped the right one into the lock on Braxton’s door.

“I can’t take this any longer,” she insisted, trembling with anticipation. “I have to get you out of here.”

“Lottie, you can’t!” Braxton protested, but she wasn’t going to hear it. She pulled the door open and reached for him. Grabbing hold of his hand, she yanked him through the door and, turning on her heels, she dragged him back down the corridor with her.

She didn’t think about what Cole would do when they reached the basement. She didn’t think of what she would have to do in order to stop him from trying to tear them both apart. All she could think about was getting Braxton out of those horrid dungeons. He didn’t belong there. She knew deep in her soul that he didn’t.

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