I stood rooted in place and watched Selene leave. I couldn’t follow after her. It would weaken her position and make it look like I thought she needed me to protect her if I did. Not that anyone seemed to be looking at me right now. Caleb slid up beside me and quietly hissed in my ear, “I thought she understood that the goal was to get the other Alphas to support us against her uncle’s claims, not alienate them by demonstrating her unique strengths.” I turned to glare at him; struggling to keep from breaking his jaw, “She didn’t do anything but talk to him.” “We were all witnesses. He challenged her,” Maxim shook his head at Caleb, “If he’d come at any of us that way we’d be scraping him off the floor right now.” His lips curled up in an amused smile, “He might have suffered less of an embarrassment if he’d come at one of us instead. She didn’t even have to touch him to make her point.” Instead of being th
I couldn’t help but feel like Dmitri had found a new crafty way to torment and torture me. After being backed against a wall, literally, his close proximity made my heart skip a beat. But he hadn’t taken the bait when I pushed myself up onto my toes for a kiss. He stepped away from me and reminded me of our obligation to join our guests for dinner. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown in my face. There wasn’t even a hint of playfulness on his face. I hadn’t thought visiting my aunt would upset him quite this much. “Let’s go Princess,” his growl had sent a shiver down my back and made my toes want to curl. Playing it over and over in my head distracted me from the conversations around the table. Now, every time I absently chewed on my lower lip and daydreamed about the promise hidden behind his threat, he scolded me silently with a stern look. If it wasn’t for the gnawing hunger I could feel through the bond
Dmitri refused to budge out of his chair, as he continued to brood over everything Caleb had dumped in our laps. This was not the direction I thought my night was heading in after the loaded promise I earned before dinner. I grabbed a fresh bottle out of the liquor cabinet and exchanged it with the empty one on the desk. “Let’s get on with it,” I hopped up on the edge of the desk and pulled the bottle over to me. “But if we’re going to do this right now, I’m going to need to catch up a little bit first.” I knocked the bottle back and gagged as the liquid burned the back of my throat. I managed to swallow a shot or two down before I had to give up. Dmitri looked up at me with a half cocked grin and an arched brow, “Is that the best you can manage?” “It’s not my fault that it goes down like lit kerosene,” I croaked out, trying to keep the liquid from coming back up while I spoke. I managed another small swig before I held the bottle out
Dmitri’s shirtless torso greeted me as he pulled the door open, but I still caught a glimpse of Selene sitting atop his desk with his just his shirt draped over her. I fought back the urge to blush and smiled up at him, “You two couldn’t wait an hour or two so you could do this in the privacy of your own room?” “Isn’t your mate currently residing in our private rooms?” he frowned down at me, “What did you need to see us for Sophia?” “Alpha Hunter was hoping to meet with the two of you before you turned in for the night,” I shrugged. “Gives about ten minutes to make ourselves more presentable, and for Nathan to make his way here,” he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “We’ll finish up the day, and then we’ll go meet Hunter while you retrieve your mate from our rooms for the night.” I let out a snort of disbelief, “Ten minutes, really? You two have locked yourselves away together for days, and still we
There hadn’t been much for me to contribute in Dmitri and Nathan’s strategy planning. I was sticking to my guns when it came to the traditional itinerary for large groups of alphas, and I refused to be pushed back into the role of docile female. So with just four days left until Candice was dead and they all left, I was going to avoid the lot of them. Dmitri had only just crawled into bed when I got up to start my day. The sun was just barely starting to peak over the horizon, so I left him there to sleep a few hours before we were due to join everyone for breakfast. Blake was already up and waiting on me by the time I snuck out of our rooms. We crept through the house like a couple of thieves until we made our way down to the garage. “Are you sure that you want to go all the way out there just for some sparing?” Blake grabbed a set of keys to one of the bikes. “We can’t use the sparing room here, on the off chance that C
I made Sophie tag along with me to the Luna’s Luncheon in the green house. I was hoping that listening to their gossip would help take her mind off her own problems long enough to relax a little. I should’ve known better than to press my luck these days. Kathleen, Connor’s mate, drew everyone’s attention as she made her way through the room towards me. She offered me a small nod, “Alpha Selene, I just wanted to convey my deepest apologies for Connor’s lack of decorum.” Sophie let out a small snort, “Lack of decorum? You’re kidding right? Because if any of us had come at you the way he went after her, I doubt your Alpha would’ve been as merciful as mine.” “It’s okay, Sophie,” I rested a hand on her shoulder, “I doubt she has any more power over her mate than any of these other lovely ladies here.” Katherine frowned at me, “Are you intentionally trying to insult everyone here? We are all the most influential
I was starting to wonder if I shouldn’t be sequestered away the rest of the world the same way Candice was. I was gaining a less than stellar track record when it came to dealing with other people these days. Granted Connor brought my irritation with him on himself. Blake let out a muffled grunt as my fist connected to his abdomen, just below the rib cage. He stepped back and held up his hands in surrender, “Fuck! Who pissed you off this time?” “No one,” I huffed. He arched his brow quizzically at me, forcing me to change my answer, “I guess me. I’ve been pissing myself off. We planned this entire thing out to most trivial detail, and every time I turn around I’ve fucked it up in one way or another. Now the best I can do is stay out of the way so I don’t fuck up anything else.” He flashed me his patented dimpled smile, “You’re too hard on yourself. We expected some push back from the other Alphas, so you can’t blame yours
It was hard to believe that all of this was just for me. Well, me and the miracle that was our baby, now that I was a shifting member of the pack. It was also a nice political move for Selene, even though she’d been resistant to the idea of opening up the celebration to including the visiting lunas. There was a mountain of gifts piled high and they were adding another table to hold the increasing pile when Blake walked in with me. Selene had agreed to let Nathan be her shadow for the day, to allow him to be at my side. She’d insisted on it in fact. She wanted me to have the comfort of my own mate at my side. This wasn’t just going to be about party games, and gifts, I’d agreed to use mine and my wolf’s gifts to help her find possible candidates for the Menae waiting to be called to server beside her. Sophie was her beta. Blake was her protector. Dmitri was her mate. But this was the only thing that I could contribute for her, our goddess