Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
VIVIENNE
As we left the town hall and headed for the car, I was hoping we could make a quick getaway without running into anyone else. But of course, we couldn’t be so lucky.
“Alpha Korwyn? Oh, Alpha Korwyn?” A breathless voice called and a moment later, Mrs. Browder and her daughter, Cynthia-Ann were right in front of us.
Kor barely glanced at her. He just nodded and tried to keep walking, but Mrs. Browder stepped right in our path.
She was a tall, imposing woman with a mountainous bosom and a huge amount of wheat blonde hair piled on top of her head.
Her daughter was a slightly slimmer version of her, though her own hair was done in braids.
“Excuse me, Alpha Korwyn,” Mrs. Browder said. “But I really have to talk to you.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time right now,” Kor said, frowning.
“But this will only take a minute,” she insisted, moving to block him when he tried to go around her. “You see, I believe that you’re going to win the Alpha Challenge. You have the last Pack Leader’s blood in your veins, and everyone knows the wolves of the Jamison line are exceptionally strong.”
“Well…thank you.” Kor nodded and reluctantly stopped trying to get around her. “I appreciate your vote of support,” he said, nodding.
“Yes—you’ll definitely win. Which is why I want to offer you my daughter, Cynthia-Ann, right now to prove I have faith in you,” she said.
“Offer me your daughter?” Kor honestly looked confused. “For what purpose?”
“For breeding, of course! Just look at her.”
Mrs. Browder dragged her daughter forward to stand in front of Kor. The girl was shivering and looking down at her shoes and she couldn’t have been any older than I was when I was sold to Carter. Maybe even a year or two younger.
“Just look at her,” Mrs. Browder repeated.
“Look at those breasts—she’ll make plenty of milk for your babies.
And her hips—she’s very fertile—unlike her Ladyship there,” she added with a sniff, nodding at me.
“She’s barren you know. Tried for twenty years to give your uncle an heir and never caught pregnant even once. ”
Kor’s face hardened and he pulled me closer and put an arm around my shoulders.
“How dare you speak that way? How dare you insult a Moon Widow?” He demanded.
Mrs. Browder’s face went brick red, but she didn’t back down. Instead, she lifted her chin.
“So? It’s true, isn’t it? The new Leader of the Blackridge Pack needs to have heirs to carry on his line.
Our Pack has been cursed for generations but I know my Cynthia-Ann could help you break that curse.
I’ll even knock her bride price down to a single dollar—that’s how sure I am of her fertility. ”
Kor looked even angrier.
“So you’re offering to sell your daughter to me?” He glanced at me, and I knew he was thinking of how I had been sold to Carter. “Have you even asked her if that’s what she wants?” He demanded, looking at the shivering Cynthia-Ann whose dull blue eyes were shiny with unshed tears.
“Doesn’t matter what she wants—she knows she has to serve the best interests of the Pack,” Mrs. Browder said.
“She’s a virgin but I’ve trained her right.
She’ll spread her thighs for you whenever you ask, and you just wait and see if she doesn’t pop up with a swelled belly in a month or two from the first time you take her. ”
Kor gave her a disgusted look.
“What’s wrong with you people? This girl is a child.”
“She’s not—she’s nineteen this October!” Mrs. Browder exclaimed. “She’s woman enough to bear your heirs—don’t you worry about that.”
“I didn’t come here because I wanted heirs,” Kor snapped, apparently losing his patience. “I don’t want to buy your daughter and impregnate her. I’m not a pedophile or a rapist. Now will you please let me pass? Vivienne and I need to get home.”
Mrs. Browder’s face turned ugly and went from red to purple.
“Oh, so my Cynthia-Ann isn’t good enough for you, Mr. High-and-Mighty Alpha, is that it? You think you can do better with that barren old bitch your uncle used up and threw away?”
If she had been a man, I was sure Kor would have punched her. He looked like he wanted to—his jaw clenched tight, and his hand clamped down on mine in a way that was almost painful.
“Lady Vivienne is a Moon Widow who deserves your respect,” he said, and his voice had dropped to a low, menacing growl. “If you speak ill of her again, you’re going to be very, very sorry when I take over as Pack Leader. Do you understand?”
As he spoke, his chocolate brown eyes went wolf-gold, and he seemed to grow bigger somehow.
I saw what looked like a shadow gathering around him—I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a normal Shift.
It was as though the wolf inside him had another face—a more frightening one than I’d ever seen before.
This transformation was too much for Cynthia-Ann who pulled her hand from her mother’s grip with a squeal of fear and ran away as fast as she could.
I saw her look over her shoulder just once, as though to make sure Kor wasn’t chasing her and then she was gone, her long braids flying out behind her.
Even Mrs. Browder looked cowed—though still angry.
“Yes, Alpha Korwyn,” she said, bowing her head unwillingly. “I understand you perfectly.”
“Good. Now leave me the fuck alone,” Kor snarled.
Mrs. Browder gave a stiff nod and stalked off, her shoulders tight with tension. Kor stood there, watching her go, a low growl rumbling deep in his chest. His eyes were wild and though I would have said he was around six foot five or six normally, now he was definitely at least seven feet tall.
What was happening to him?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t a normal Shift.
I’d seen enough of those in my lifetime, being raised in the Pack and then sold to the Pack Leader.
Every full moon I’d seen the men around me shed their human forms and become wolves.
But there was something different about the energy I felt around Kor right now—something that wasn’t exactly a wolf, but wasn’t a man, either.
I felt a cold finger of fear trace down my spine as I looked up at him. Here was a side I hadn’t seen before—a side that wasn’t right somehow—wasn’t normal.
And yet, I felt drawn to him anyway—maybe even more than before. Despite my fear or maybe because of it, I wanted him, even though I knew I could never have him. Not really.
“Come on,” he said at last, looking down at me. “Let’s get the hell out of here before someone else offers me their daughter to rape.”
I only nodded, not knowing what to say and we headed once more to the car.
But as we walked, and he gradually looked more normal again, I wondered what it was that he had inside him and what it might look like when it came out under the full moon.