Chapter 35
UNDOUBTEDLY HER EQUAL
LUKE
Nia snores and it’s still damn cute. Her snorts and snuffles ought to be annoying, but they’re not. They’re calming, an irregular backing track of noise that takes the edge off my anger.
I’ve contained myself until now.
Until I knew she was safely sleeping, until I was sure I could leave her. My girl was hysterical and then distraught, and I think she only fell asleep because she exhausted herself. Lyall too, although her wolf took longer to calm and Lawson had to work hard to settle her down.
I pace over the floorboards, waiting for Malcolm to arrive. Nia might wake whilst I’m not here, and if she does she’ll need support. The pack doctor’s the best person to give her it.
Outside of me.
And I won’t be there.
I’ve got other plans.
Plans I have every intention of keeping.
“Where the fuck are you?”
“My office,” Cole replies. “He knows, Luke. He’s ready for you.”
Good.
The cunt walked onto my goddamn territory and made my Luna cry. I’ve never been so enraged, so incandescent. I’m going to make the wanker pay for every single tear she’s cried and all the ones still to come.
And that’s before I make him pay for destroying her world.
I thought what I’d done was bad enough, but Carl’s destroyed everything she thought she knew.
Nia’s foundations were ripped out from under her and she’s been torn apart like a cabin in a hurricane.
Her insides have been torn out of her, and the girl who’s finally finding some peace in my bed deserves better. She deserves more.
I’m going to pulverize the shit out of that asshole.
“Alpha,” Malcolm whispers, edging into my bedroom, his gaze fixed on Nia. “She looks well, Luke. You’ve done brilliantly.”
My eyebrow arches.
“She’s recovering. Progress isn’t linear, but Nia is getting better. It’s good for her here. You’re good for her.” He tilts his head and smiles. “She’s good for you too, Alpha. I’ll keep her safe.”
I nod and turn abruptly, marching out of my room and stopping only to make sure the damn door doesn’t slam.
Nia needs some sleep and my pace quickens as I head down the stairs and out the front door, ignoring the stars above me.
On other nights, I’d take the time to pause and admire their constellations, orientating myself beneath their heavenly dance.
But not tonight.
This is not a night for pleasure, not in the conventional sense.
I’ll get a kick out of delivering my message to the asshole who’s currently with Cole.
It’s going to hurt, and the cunt’s not going to be an easy opponent.
Carl won’t take any beating like a good boy and he’s going to learn his lesson the hard way.
The difficult way. The way that hurts him more than it hurts me.
I jog along the path between my house and Cole’s, my feet moving over the ground they’ve memorized.
I’ve traveled over this road as many goddamn times as he has, although I’ve often been drunk when I make my way to his.
I’m inebriated tonight, although it’s a different drug pouring through my veins.
The gate sings a screech that haunts the night like a shrieking owl and I quiet as I step toward Cole’s front door.
His house is smaller than mine, older and less modern.
It’s built from the same wood but there’s less glass, less light, and he prefers it that way.
He hasn’t needed to change anything about the house he grew up in, whereas I’ve had mine entirely rebuilt, the newer building helping me escape the shadows of my father.
Cole’s front door is unlocked and I step into his entrance hall.
I don’t stop to take my goddamn shoes off and I feel my Beta laughing at me through our bond, mocking me for being well-trained.
Elias is riling Lawson, and my wolf is feral, as irate as I am that the cunt Cole’s entertaining has injured our mate.
“Alpha,” Carl says, meeting my stare as I throw open the door of Cole’s study.
Cole’s leaning back in his chair, sitting behind his desk.
Carl’s leaning back too, swirling whisky around a crystal glass again, sitting in a chair that gives him a damn good view of the door I’ve just walked through.
The moonlight catches the Elite, and my jaw ticks, irritated Carl knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing.
“I assume you’re going to try to hand my ass to me for the stunt I just pulled.”
“Are we going to have a drink before we step outside?” he asks.
“How many has he had, Cole?”
“Not enough to numb the pain,” Cole replies. “And not enough for him to claim it was the reason for his defeat.”
I smirk.
And the cunt smirks back.
“I assume you’d be upset,” Carl says, his tone more than condescending. “How’s your Luna?”
“Fine, no thanks to your intervention.” My knuckles crack as I clench my fingers. “You’re a cunt for dragging her into this, Carl. You and I know damn well that it was fucking unnecessary. It was cruel to do it to her, and now you’re going to find out what happens when you fuck with my Luna.”
“She fucked with me first. Nia killed three of my men, Luke. She’s not soft.
She’s far from kind. That girl needs to learn to take what she dishes out, even if she is a High Lord.
” His grin widens. “I was wrong to think I could hurt her badly enough to make her leave you. I was wrong to think I could divide the pair of you.”
Carl isn’t wrong.
It doesn’t make him right though.
Nia’s had her world torn apart, again, and the wanker could have spared her most of it. He could have told me alone and I could have broken it to her. When she was ready. When I was ready.
And he made a power play that he had no right to make.
Not then. Especially fucking not when he’s using Nia’s pain and distress to gain an edge and not when he uses it to manipulate me.
There’s no fucking way I’m agreeing to an alliance with him, not until I know exactly what makes him tick.
Only a fool would trust another Alpha so blindly and it’s an insult that he thinks I’d be taken in by his feigned concern for Nia.
“Your father would have fallen for it,” Carl sighs, taking a sip of whisky. “But you’re not him. You make quite the pair.”
“Are you trying to make things worse?”
Carl shakes his head and downs the rest of his drink.
“No, Luke. You and I are about to step outside and I doubt either of us will want to talk after. For what it’s worth, there was a moment when I thought I’d got my way.
I thought she was going to run and she didn’t.
You shouldn’t doubt that she’s your mate, nor that you are hers. ”
He gets up and slams his glass onto Cole’s table. Carl closes his eyes and tilts his head from side to side, his neck cracking as my knuckles did earlier.
“Shall we step out, Alpha?”
I step closer and spend a few seconds eyeing Carl up. He’s a little shorter than me but his muscles equal mine. Maybe more powerful. His reach is the same as mine too, this fight won’t be anything other than brutal.
“Why bother?” I sigh.
Carl blinks and my arm moves fucking fast, my fist connecting with his jaw so quickly he doesn’t see it coming.
The cunt needs to learn some lessons too, and one of them is that I’m not going to pull my punches.
The other is that I’m sure as fuck not going to be polite when he’s been this damn rude.
He staggers back and I catch Cole standing out of the corner of my eye, stepping toward the door that leads outside. My Beta might be opening it but my focus is on Carl, and I watch the asshole as he staggers backward and I step forward, refusing to give the asshole time to recover.
My left hand flies forward and I land a square, hard punch in the center of Carl’s chest, sending him backward into the bookcase. He grunts and throws his arms up, finally reacting in a way that at least earns him a modicum of respect.
“Kill the fucker, Luke.”
I grind my teeth and tell Lawson to shut the fuck up. I need his aggression and I need to harness his violence. What I don’t need is the interruption or the distraction, or the temptation to take somewhere that causes even more trouble.
Killing another wolf wouldn’t normally be a problem.
But killing an Elite would be a catastrophe.
I can beat the living shit out of him, but Carl’s got to leave here alive. He can hobble off my territory with his tail between my legs, but he can’t die because of what happens tonight. Even so, I intend to make sure that tonight stays with him.
Carl spits blood onto the floor and launches forward, and I’m too busy telling Lawson to let me focus to concentrate.
I react fast, blocking the right hook that ought to have connected with my jaw.
But I’m thrown off balance and I’m not fast enough to stop the straight-line punch that knocks the wind out of me.
Fuck, Carl’s vicious.
“You think I’m going to let you walk all over me?” he snarls.
“I think you’re a cunt,” I bark back. “And I think you need to learn a hard lesson or several.”
“More than several. Beat the living crap out of him.” Lawson snarls and my wolf isn’t holding back. “If you don’t, I will.”
“This is between me and him, Lawson.”
“Tear him to shreds. Rip his guts out. Leave that cunt with not one ounce of dignity or I’ll take control and do it for you.”
Carl edges toward the door and I tip my head at it, telling the asshole he can step outside but he’d better not even think about running.
Cole won’t let him get far and we’ll tell every other Alpha and anyone else we can that the asshole is a coward, and he stares back at me, disgusted that I’d even think he was considering it.
“No holds barred, Luke,” Carl snarls, his eyes darkening as his wolf comes to the fore.