Page 14 of The Sacred Wolf

Now who’s the Queen of Mixed Signals?

“It’s complicated,” I muttered. “But I understand we have to get this sorted out.”

“What seems most important to me,” Julius spoke up, his back ironing-board straight in his seat, “is that Kiana is not here to address this herself.”

“Yes, Blaze, why is that?” Although Tony’s tone was unnecessarily petulant, all eyes turned back to Blaze with equal curiosity, including mine. Why wasn’t Kiana here?

Blaze raised his chin, meeting my eyes. “She has quite a lot of pack business to attend to now that she’s taken over. It’s not unusual for an Alpha to send a proxy to an all-throne meeting.”

Despite the forcefulness of his tone, I sensed that he was trying to tell me something. Or trying not to tell me something. And I wondered if I needed to find a way to tell him that I’d just come from the Bronx and Kiana wasn’t there either. I sucked in a sharp breath. What if he was trying to tell me she was with Damian?

“It’s hardly a common occurrence,” Julius said, rising. “And given that it was she and her father and other members of your pack—” He looked Blaze up and down, his gaze withering. “—presumably including yourself, who were spotted running across Central Park looking like bloody lunatics—”

“Literally,” snarled Tony, stepping forward before Gigi put a hand on his arm.

“That’s not fair,” I blurted. “Damian was controlling—”

“Oh, yes, the omnipotent Beta.” Julius rolled his eyes. “A convenient explanation for why your pack showed themselves after voting against the rest of us being allowed to do so!”

“What say you, Blaze?” Max spoke for the first time since my arrival. “Were you acting of your own volition or not that day?”

“I… I’m not sure.” Blaze ducked his head. “It’s not mine to question the will of my Alpha, as you know.”

“But it is ours,” Yeh said levelly. “And much as it pains me to agree with these two—” He waved at the Staten Island siblings, causing Tony to wriggle free from his sister’s grasp with a growl, “—as Alphas, we have our own packs to think about, and Kiana’s recklessness has created a problem for us all.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Tony said hotly. “We have no problem with the humans on our own island.”

“And how long do you think that will last?” Yeh said, pushing his long braid over one slender shoulder with a sigh.

“Enough,” Sebastian said, coming to stand in the middle of the group.

His commanding presence was all it took to silence them, and pride stirred in me like the first flame in a pile of kindling. I didn’t care for the Alpha Heir in a domestic setting, but here among these other control freaks… with his dark mane just sweeping his crisp-as-a-new-dollar-bill collar, his strong shoulders thrown back and his left hand tucked just-so into a pocket so tight that only his fingertips were hidden… It made me want to fit against the crook of that elbow, where I could lean into him and sniff his neck.

Oh, here we go again…

As if he could hear my thoughts, he met my eyes, and for just a moment, a smile ghosted across his face, softening that strong brow. It faded again in an instant, breaking the spell, and I remembered that while I might like the commanding Sebastian, I didn’t like it one iota when he was commanding me.

“Damian is everything we’ve warned you about and possibly more,” Sebastian continued, “Suppose he’s the one orchestrating these murders to destabilize our packs. In that case, he may be trying to destabilize your packs as well. That seems like the most important thing right now—that, and getting my mother back.”

“And just how do you propose we find your mother in the entirety of New York City, Sebastian?” Julius said, his voice growing heated. “We’ve already tried! Should we send all our pack members across the boroughs to sniff her out like a fox to our hounds? It’s not like we don’t have other pack business to attend to, you know.”

“And what if she doesn’t want to be found. Didn’t she run away with Damien?” Tony mused, giving his perfectly manicured nails a once over and then waggling his fingers at Max. “I heard she may have been the one to free him, which wouldn’t be surprising, given her condition.”

Max lunged forward, stopping only when Sebastian’s broad arm slammed across his heaving chest. But Sebastian’s handsome mouth bulged with fangs, and the glimpse of his wolf called out to mine. She strained at my sweaty, chafing shiftskin, her fangs pushing through for a second time, begging to be set totally free. But that would be a disaster.

Down, girl. I got this.

“Think what you will, Tony,” I growled, eyeing him with the same disrespect he’d shown me. “We’re telling the truth. Damien’s power is beyond anything that any of us have ever seen. You’d do well to remember the threat he poses to us all, rather than making lascivious suggestions about other Alpha’s wives when you don’t even smell mated.”

Tony’s eyes flashed black, and he took a menacing step toward me, but Sebastian swept between us, wolf hair bristling at the edge of his suddenly pointy ears. Well, that was one hell of a look.

“Touch her,” Sebastian said, and in his anger I caught the faint trace of Yara’s accent, “and I will kill you twice for what you said about my mother.”

Gigi tugged on her brother’s arm, and he fell back, slicking both hands through his oily hair. He swore. “So, which is it? Are you two making puppies or not?”

"Mind your tongue!” Sebastian’s fingers curled into paw-sized fists, barely holding himself together. “Elyse is my f—”

His phone rang then, but I already knew how the sentence ended. If I gave him an inch, he was going to take a thousand miles. His hands returned to normal, and he reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.

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