Chapter 20 #2
The three laughing idiots went back to work as I shot my wife a glower, but I couldn’t hide the twitch of my lips. “Not funny,” I mumbled, bending down and kissing her.
“I think they liked it,” she said smugly. “Oh, and Wolfe, I love you, but you say anything to Adair, Axel, or Diesel about their arrangement, and you will only make it awkward.” She reached up and kissed me again. “Be a good alpha and keep your nose out of their business.”
“I…”
She was already walking away.
“Always knew you were more than a shifter,” I growled after her. “Did they check to see if you were a witch?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Wolfe,” she scolded. “We all know witches are just fairy tales.”
I sucked my teeth, watching the sway of her hips as she sashayed away. There was definitely something bewitching about her.
“Wolfe! Are you drooling or training, Alpha?” Diesel asked loudly. “You’re rusty, let’s go!”
I’d show him who was fucking rusty. Pulling off my shirt, I was grinning as I stepped into the ring across from Diesel.
“Give me your best shot.”
Hours later, I sat at her father’s old desk in his old office, reading every journal he had ever written in, while eating my soup.
Everyone from his old circle was either dead or gone.
I had no one to ask if Lewis’s claims were true.
Had Malric been using the rogues to fight the Pack Council or as tools for them to exploit?
If the Pack Council had wanted the Hollow when he was alpha here and only needed a pack leader going forward, they would have made him go along with it instead of allowing him the leeway of playing an ace card and naming me his heir.
Or had he seized a strategic advantage, not expecting my mate to be his daughter?
The door was tapped, and Killian entered the room. He hesitated when he saw all the paperwork in front of me, then closed the door with the heel of his boot and let out a sigh. He carried his own bowl of broth, but he also had a nice healthy chunk of bread in his hand.
“There’s bread?” I asked.
He sat carefully, the bowl balanced on his knee, and with his mouth and one hand, tore the bread in two. He handed me the second half.
“No spit,” he assured me when I took it.
“Thanks.” The bread was warm and delicious. I gestured toward the journals in front of me. “I can’t tell if he was a traitor to his pack or a cunning strategist who played both sides.”
Killian ate his soup and stayed silent for a long moment. “I hope…I hope for her sake it’s neither.”
I huffed out a sigh. “Me too, friend, me too.”
We ate silently. I flipped through the journals, nothing catching my eye. “This is a pointless task.”
“I agree.” Killian leaned back in his seat. “I think you need to send me, Brand, and even Cody to other packs.”
I looked at him in surprise. “They’re collecting alphas,” he said, his gaze earnest. “Not everyone will be aligned with them. Let’s find out who we can bring to our side.”
“It’s not their fight,” I said, dismissing his suggestion. “I won’t bring them into this.”
Killian barked out a laugh. “It is exactly their fight. You think the Hollow and Stonefang are the only territories where a little bit of Luna’s grace still sleeps in the soil?
” He looked at me as if I were an idiot.
“And even if they are, the Pack Council is trying to claim your packlands. What’s to stop them from claiming just yours?
Placing pack leaders of their choice. Not alphas. ”
“You think that’s their plan? To remove alphas?” It would never work.
Killian shook his head. “No. But to surround themselves with pack leaders loyal to them? Absolutely.”
“That’s…ambitious.”
“It’s doable.”
We held each other’s gaze for a long moment, our minds contemplating the same problem but with different approaches. That’s why we worked together so well—one problem. Two solutions.
“Why Cody?”
Killian shrugged. “He’s practically your fourth beta.”
“Why not Axel?”
“Not as grounded as Cody—Thalia keeps him honest.”
I grinned. It was true.
“Cale?” I asked because I knew there were still many in Stonefang who thought he should have been a beta.
“It’s your party, Alpha, you get to invite whoever you want to sit beside.” Killian looked out the window. “It spoils the cake when there’s too much bloodshed.”
I gave him a flat stare. “I don’t want to kill him.”
Killian’s eyebrow rose into his hairline. “Huh…I call bullshit.”
I wanted to deny it. I did. I wanted to believe he was wrong…he just wasn’t. “Who do you think we should approach first?”
“Nice switch,” he said, sitting forward. “Smooth.”
“Fuck off and answer the question.”
“Four Winds,” Killian said, not blinking when I didn’t hide my surprise. “We don’t know what bullshit the Pack Council told Tyler. Let’s see if his father or his brother, the next alpha in the pack, knew of his intent.”
“It could be suicide to send someone in there.”
“It could be.” Killian shrugged. “Or it could be a move so brilliant it gains you a very pissed-off pack as an ally.”
I smiled, and he did the same. “Devious.”
Killian grinned. “Aren’t I just?”
“I’ll send Brand.” I thought about it for less than a second. “And Cale.”
Killian snorted. “You’re ridiculous.”
Indeed, I was, but I didn’t feel guilty. Brand would save himself before he saved his cousin; his alpha demanded it of him.