Page 19 of Planet Wolf

“What do you do for a living?” I asked Alfie.

He smiled. “I’m always a Healer. It’s a bit of an exception to the duality rule.”

“And that would make Jadon…?” I let my voice drift off to indicate it was a question.

“What did you call him in your head?” Alfie asked as an answer. A question for a question.

I swallowed. “Leader. It seemed you answered to him.”

He smiled slowly. “See? You did know us. Jadon is our Alpha. Heisthe Leader. He formed his own pack five years ago, and we went with him. We still have ties to his father’s pack, but yes, he is our leader. You couldn’t speak our language, yet you understood us perfectly. He’s the leader, the Alpha, and he’s also an engineer. But Alpha defines who he is.”

I really had understood them just from what I’d observed. That was sort of… amazing.

“Let’s go; he’s waiting.” Carl nodded toward the house and offered his hand, which I took without thought, lacing our fingers together.

Touching them like we’d done on their planet was so natural. Maybe that’s why they thought I was their mate. Of course, they said it had to do with their sense of smell, so something about my scent told them I was theirs?I’m lost in this mess.

But then I was inside the big, white house, and it was beautiful. My cousin stared at his feet in the main hallway as Jadon looked bored staring at the wall behind him. No… that was deceptive. He wasn’t the least bit lost to ennui. How did I know that? I wasn’t sure, but I sensed he was playing with Doug.

Any second, Jadon could become deadly. And what was more, my cousin’s body language said he understood that. I’d never seen Doug look at his feet that way before.

Goosebumps broke out on my skin, and I rubbed my arms against the pain. Jadon looked over to meet my gaze. In that second, he wasn’t threatening. In fact, he was anything but. He might as well have caressed me with the way his look moved through me. I wasn’t at risk in any way, but that didn’t mean that Doug wasn’t.

I cleared my throat. “We grew up together. I have no family except for my cousins.” It would have been weird for me to have said it, except I was sure he would understand what I was telling him. That he could read my gaze the same way I had his. I didn’t want him to hurt my cousin. “Well, except for my mother, but she’s locked away from here.”

Jadon nodded once but Carl stared at me for a second. “Did she get sent to jail for something?”

“No, she’s not mentally sound. She was sent to a floating space station that orbits the Earth where they take care of her, since there weren’t any facilities here that could help her.”

My cousin pointed at me. “See? She’s making my case for me. First off, I can’t justgiveher to you. There’s no trade to be made. That isn’t how it works here. Women decide what they want romantically. I’m not in charge of Esther’s love life as the oldest living male in my family.”

Jadon shifted his stance, widening his legs. “Then how do you handle unworthy males who might come with ill intent? You’re rich. How do you stop them from coming after the females in your family for your wealth?”

My cousin shook his head then shrugged. “The women in my family are perfectly capable of figuring that out for themselves. Besides, Esther never likes anyone.”

I didn’t know why that made Jadon smirk, but he did. My cousin continued. “But she still can’t be your so-called mate and go live with you on your planet. She’s not well. She’s tough, strong, and she hangs on, but she is very sick. And there’s a strong history of it. Her mother is, and I know this isn’t going to be a kind way to say this, totally lost. She hasn’t made a lick of sense in eighteen years, so she’s somewhere where they can look after her. That is my point. Between Esther’s health issues and what could be an upcoming degradation of her mind, I think, if anyone were asking me, that it’s probably a terrible idea for her to do any more gallivanting about the universe.”

My mouth fell open before I even knew I was going to speak. “You think I’m going to lose my mind? That I’m a walking time bomb that might explode any day into insanity?”

Doug lifted a single shoulder. “You have to know that’s a possibility.”

“I don’t know any such thing. My head is screwed on just fine. I’m perfectly sane, and it sounds like you’re not trying to convince me not to leave you so much as you’re making a case about why they shouldn’t want me.”

He held up his hands as if to ward off my argument. “Look, I know that sounded shitty. I get it. But I just think they need to understand some things about you. It might make this whole thing go away and then we can go back to the status quo.”

I had never lost my temper at Doug. In fact, I couldn’t really remember losing it on anyone anytime. I usually had a pretty good leash on my anger, but it surged—maybe it was because I’d never let it loose before that I had no idea what to do with it.

Clenching my fists, I hollered at my cousin, “I think they have a pretty good idea who I am and what my issues are, since they experienced them over and over again in the woods after theysaved my life. Maybe they should’ve let me die, since it seems you’re so overwhelmed by my issues. Don’t get me wrong, Doug, I’m grateful, but right now I just want to… I just want to rip out your throat. Are you actually telling the men who crossed the universe to see me to go home without me? Why? So I can run your campaign?”

He paled. “I’ve really made you upset.”

“Yes, asshole, you have.” I stormed out of the house, my temper driving me to go—where? I had no idea, but somewhere. I couldn’t stay there a moment longer.

A hand grabbed my arm—Jadon. The other two were right behind him. His touch was gentle, a counterpoint to my fury. “He didn’t mean to hurt you, but that doesn’t negate what he said. I can see to it that he suffers, if you like. One word, and Carl will handle it.”

I swallowed.Wow. That was… an intense statement. It moved through me, cooling my temper. I knew, in that moment—maybe from the tone of his voice, maybe because I had always just seemed to know things about these three men—he meant every word. I could send Carl after Doug to make him pay for hurting me, if it was what I wanted.

The thing was, I had many, many more years of Doug loving me and not causing me pain to draw on than otherwise. Plus, I wasn’t going to use these men like some sort of weapon.

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