Chapter 21
Eve wasn’t the only one who’d heard a heated argument unfolding between Jude and Byron behind closed doors.
Violet and Flora had been alerted by the loud voices, too.
They’d looked at each other, wondering what the two men were fighting about now.
Knowing how easily Byron flew off the handle, she decided to wait in case she needed to play umpire.
The moment the door had opened, she’d heard the last few words that Byron had uttered. She gasped, just as shocked as Violet and Flora. She couldn’t have heard correctly, but seeing that her cousin and aunt were just as stunned as she, Byron had truly uttered the most surprising and unwelcome news.
Eve snatched him by his arm before he could get past her.
“You and Charlotte? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“None of your business, Eve.” He swept his gaze to Violet and Flora, who stood there with their mouths open. “Nor yours.”
“It is our business,” Eve insisted. “You’re shacking up with Jude’s sister? That’s how you betray our family? By sleeping with the enemy?”
Byron glared at her. “Be careful what you say about Charlotte. She’s not the enemy.”
“Well, that’s convenient! First, you’re the one who wants to mount a rebellion against the Werewolf Alliance and take back our pack, and now you’re rolling over because your dick is doing the thinking for you!”
The feeling of being betrayed surged inside her.
“I should have known that we can’t rely on you. Dad was right, you’re volatile and unreliable. Is she that good in bed that you’re willing to betray your family for her?”
Byron shook off her arm and went toe to toe with her. “Another derogatory remark about Charlotte, and I’ll have your hide.”
“You’re threatening me?”
Eve braced her hands at her hips and picked up a movement coming from Jude’s office, but she didn’t break eye contact with her brother. He would see it as weakness if she backed down now.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Damn it, Byron,” Flora interrupted and stepped closer. “You can’t treat your sister like this. Is that what this family has come to? Violence amongst ourselves? Don’t we have enough problems already?”
“Stay out of this, Flora,” Byron warned, not even glancing at her.
Flora scoffed. “With pleasure!” She turned on her heel. “Come, Violet. Let’s leave this hothead on his own. He’s chosen the other side. It won’t end well.”
Dutifully, Violet followed her mother as she walked down the corridor toward the kitchen.
“Flora is right,” Eve said when the two women disappeared.
She shook her head. She noticed Jude standing in the doorway to his office, silent for now.
“I’m disappointed in you. I thought you would fight for our family. Instead, you let your dick make decisions for you. Do you really think that Jude or the Alliance will let you and her mate?”
“How would you suddenly know what your alpha is gonna do? If I remember right, you couldn’t even figure out that he wanted Danielle instead of you until it was too late.”
She gritted her teeth. “How dare you?”
The night when she’d gone to Jude’s bedroom to seduce him so he would mate with her was still vivid in her mind. Like it was yesterday, she remembered the moment when she’d seen Danielle in his bed. The humiliation still stung. She tried to ban the memory from her mind, but didn’t succeed.
Fury charged through her, and she took a swing at Byron. He was faster. He caught her by the wrist, imprisoning it, clamping around it with such force that it cut off circulation to her hand so rapidly that it turned pale within seconds. Her heart was pounding out of control.
His jaw visibly tight, Byron leaned in. “The only reason I’m not delivering the beating you’ve got coming is because of Charlotte. She’s making me a better man.”
At the words, nausea rose from her stomach, and skepticism settled in her solar plexus.
“What a fucking cliché! You’re still the same impulsive, insincere, selfish little prick that you always were. Just like Cameron! You two are cut out of the same cloth!”
“I’m nothing like Cameron,” Byron refuted. “He was a narcissistic killer who only cared about himself. I’m not. But if you stand in the way of my happiness with Charlotte, you will get hurt.” He turned his head slightly in Jude’s direction. “That goes for everybody.”
The threat was clear. Her brother had lost his mind.
He was prepared to go against his entire family, his alpha, and the Werewolf Alliance for a woman he’d only just met.
A woman he thought himself in love with.
In lust was more like it. Byron wasn’t grown-up enough to distinguish the two feelings from each other.
She’d done what she felt was her duty as his sister: to warn him.
But he wasn’t listening. Whatever would happen now, whatever calamity resulted from Byron’s decision wasn’t her concern anymore.
He would have to deal with it himself. She was staying out of the line of fire from now on.
“Let go of me,” she demanded, her voice strong, her back straight.
He removed his hand from her wrist. Without another word, she turned on her heel, crossed the foyer, and left the house. She needed fresh air.