Chapter 14 #2
“Thank you, Charlotte,” I said, giving her a true smile that I flashed in Osyrius’s direction out of sheer pettiness. “I’ve never been so happy in all my life. Ethan is all I could ever want in a man and more than I’d ever hoped.”
Osyrius picked that moment to reach across the table to grab a straw and “accidentally” spilled his full drink into Charlotte’s lap. She gave a helpless yelp as the entire contents of his glass soaked through her pants.
“Oh no!” she ejected, jumping up and staring at her dripping clothes.
“So sorry, babe,” Osyrius apologized, handing her a stack of napkins. “I’m such a klutz.”
“It’s not your fault,” Charlotte quickly dismissed. “These drinks are really strong. I’m feeling the booze kick in myself. I’ll just pop over to the bathroom and clean myself up. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll come with you,” I offered, getting ready to join my friend so that Ethan could take care of Osyrius in private.
“No need. Stay,” Charlotte told me, waiving away the help. “I’m going to call Alice anyways. You and Ethan can keep my man company while I’m gone,” she told me before pulling out her phone.
As soon as she turned the corner, Osyrius dropped the smile and adopted an expression of sheer hatred. “Get your fucking hands off my mate, mutt,” he growled at Ethan, his upper lip curled in a snarl.
Ethan tilted his head to the side and ignored his command entirely. “Millie’s my mate, not yours,” he replied, lifting his fingers to my neck and stroking his bite mark there. “I’ll touch her however, whenever, and wherever, I like.”
Osyrius’s eyes rounded in burning outrage. “You will fucking pay for your disgrace of my omega, and my pack, Conner! Mark my words. You’re a dead man. You just don’t know it yet.”
“I don’t think so,” Ethan casually returned, leaning back in the booth like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Omegas have the choice of who they’re mated to. Millie has made her choice, whether you like it or not. If I were you, Osyrius, I’d walk away while you still can.”
“What choice did she have?” Osyrius angrily retorted.
“She didn’t even know who she was, or where the fuck she belonged.
You’ve stolen her birthright. It was her destiny to be at my side at the head of the most powerful pack in North America.
Not the head of some rag-tag mutt pack that doesn’t understand anything but self-interest.”
I’d heard enough. I didn’t care about Osyrius or his fancy pack. He could, with all due respect to his family, fuck right off with that shitty, elitist attitude.
“Whose fault is it that I didn’t know who I was, Osyrius?
My mother’s! And, based on what you’re telling me now, yours.
The entire Tupilaq pack’s, in fact. Even my father kept me in the dark.
The only one who’s ever told me a single truth about who I am is Ethan.
To claim anything else is a straight-up lie and we all know it! ”
Osyrius surged forward, his teeth bared in a grimace of rage. “I would have told you everything, mate, but I never got the chance because this opportunistic stray defiled you before I even had a chance to meet you!”
Flashing my teeth right back at him, I hissed, “Don’t EVER call my mate a stray again. He and his brothers are ten times the men you or your pack will ever be.”
“Is that so?” He returned in a deadly calm voice.
“It is,” I spoke, matching his level of solemnity with every syllable.
Osyrius smiled like I’d just walked into a trap. Exposing the predatory sharpness of his canines then, he shifted his gaze over to Ethan. “If this alpha is my superior, then he won’t mind proving his right to his claim.”
“Any time,” my mate responded without hesitation.
“Excellent. I’ll see you in Alaska in three days’ time.
Bring the omega. She’s been a naughty girl and needs some much overdue correction after what she’s put my pack through.
Before she carries my bite and my pup, and stands by my side, she’s going to have to do some heavy groveling on her knees for my forgiveness, and I’m very much looking forward to that. ”
Standing, Osyrius stared Ethan dead in the eye. “Seventy-two hours. That’s all you get before I’m coming back with my pack to eradicate yours.”
He turned and walked out of the restaurant. Swallowing hard, I turned to Ethan. “What did he mean we’re meeting him in Alaska? What just happened?”
My mate gave me a grim look. “Osyrius just challenged me to an alpha duel.”
My vision swam and my heart began to pound. “Absolutely not. We’re not animals, Ethan. We’re not playing into that psycho’s hands and traveling to his home territory just because he says so. I don’t care what wares do. This fight isn’t happening. I won’t let it.”
“You don’t understand, Millie. This isn’t just a fight. Not like you think. It’s a challenge between wares. It’s deadly serious. If I don’t go, Osyrius won’t just go away. He’ll come back with his pack and kill the entire family.”
My world began to spin off kilter than. “What!? Why? I don’t understand. You said it’s an omega’s choice to decide who she ends up with!”
“It is,” Ethan agreed. “But it’s an alpha’s prerogative to challenge anyone they like. Osyrius just did that. I can either rise to the bait or run and hide. I’m not running, Princess. This is my home. Our home. And you are my mate.”
“What happens if you win the fight?” I asked, terrified about being made to witness such a scene.
“We go home,” Ethan quietly relayed. “And the Tupilaq leaves us alone.”
I hated asking, but I needed to know the worst-case scenario. “And if you don’t?”
“The Tupilaq pack will keep you in Alaska with them.” His grey-blue gaze lasered into mine then. “And they send me home in a plain pine box.”