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Hudson shook his head vehemently. “Absolutely not. I refuse to accept that. I don’t share.”
Brody chuckled. “I mean, it’s not uncommon for a female to take multiple partners.”
Levi scoffed. “Well, she seems very set on not sticking around, so I doubt any of us being her partner will happen in the first place.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, though. Not after the moment I had just shared with her.
“Look, if she really doesn’t want to be alpha, we can’t force her,” Brody said calmly. “So, all we can do is give her the answers she seeks and—”
“I bought us a week,” I said.
Everyone fell silent before Brody cleared his throat. “She’s staying for an entire week?”
I nodded. “She promised me she would. One week for us to not only educate her, but find the answers that get her out of this. All I asked her for was a week, and in exchange for her time if she still didn’t want to be alpha? I told her I’d take her to the airport myself.”
Hudson stepped up to the plate. “So, did the twinkly lights come before that conversation, or after?”
I looked over at him as my headache sank to the base of my neck again. “After.”
“Look,” Levi said as he held up his hands in mock surrender, “I don’t think any of us here are actually going to force her to do anything. Despite the fact that we couldn’t in the first place even if we wanted to, I’m not so sure that I want someone like her as my alpha, anyway, much less my fucking mate.”
Brody snapped in his general direction. “Good thing it isn’t your choice, then. Anyone would be lucky to have my cousin as their mate.”
Hudson grinned. “Says the man who’s already declared himself ready and able to take on the responsibility of alpha.”
“What?” we all said as we turned to face him.
He raked his hands through his hair. “It was just to settle her mind. I have no intention of being alpha. But she needed someone to transfer that power to, and then from there we can figure out who would best be suited as alpha.”
“Not me,” I murmured.
“And speaking of forcing,” Hudson said as he turned toward Levi, “your little outburst made it sound like you were trying to force her to stay, Mr. We-Can’t-Do-That.”
Levi barked back. “We all were. We all want to see Colin’s last will and testament fulfilled. Don’t you put that shit solely on my shoulders.”
“Either way,” I said as I drew in a sobering breath, “it must be hard to be thrown into all of this after learning that the man you wanted to know all of your life is dead.”
Brody pointed at me. “Exactly. Which is why we should, at the very least, look into options of transferring the pack and who to transfer the pack to should that be the decision she makes.”
And as we all nodded our heads in agreement, the rain finally cleared. The sun peeked through the trees, warming our tired and soaking wet bodies. I cracked my neck to stave off the tension working its way down my spine. Fucking hell, the pain was getting worse and much more chronic. If we didn’t find an alpha, and soon, it would overcome me. It would bring me to my knees as if I were nothing. Hell, it might even kill me if I didn’t find a way to control my powers while we sorted this shit out.
And even though I loved Colin—even though I respected Colin for everything he had been—I found myself growing frustrated with him. With putting his pack in this situation. With putting his own daughter in this situation. With withholding so much from her in those developmental years that could’ve aided us in that moment.
Because we’d all suffer while his estranged daughter yanked us around simply because she could.
9
RAVEN
As I watched the men run off into the distance, I heaved a heavy sigh. From the looks of it, it seemed Dean had another vision. Part of me wanted to know what it was, while the other part wanted to not care. I turned back into the musty house that had accepted me back into its presence, allowing the memories to take hold. I closed my eyes and heard my mother’s laughter echoing throughout the tired hallways. I smiled at the feeling of my father’s hand slipped tightly against my own, his dexterous fingers wrapped around my entire hand. He’d always had such big hands, ever since I could remember. And as my eyes slowly opened, something he always said to me slapped me across the face.
You are only as good as you allow yourself to be, lovebug. You’re in control.
I turned toward the steps and made my way up them for the first time since being in the house. The creaky stairs backdropped the slamming of my heart against my chest, and as I paused at the top, I stared all the way down the hallway. My gaze landed upon the double doors that had once led into my parent’s bedroom. The door to the left held my childhood escape while the door to the right housed the bathroom I had cried many tears in and cleaned up many skinned knees that Brody had always given me after chasing me down for a game of tag.
And still, that phrase echoed off the corners of my mind.
You are only as good as you allow yourself to be, lovebug. You’re in control.
