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“Will I ever feel the bond?”
“Oh, yes. My mate will soon never know a day where she isn’t claimed by a Wolfe brother,” Orion says with a salacious smirk on his face. “You’ll have your mark, and you’ll crave my touch. You’ll feel the call to us just as we feel the call to you. Once we’ve proved ourselves as your men, no other will ever exist for you.”
A warmth spreads through me, and I know it’s not coming from the blanket.
I nod. “If she’s… if Phoebe needs this… if she needs you, are you going to give it to her?”
“We’ve all only kept our distance out of respect to you and the fact that you need time to wrap your head around this,” Alex says gently. “If you’re okay with us stepping in… we’d love nothing more than to deepen our connection.”
“We’d love nothing more,” Orion echoes. His eyes flash a brighter gold before fading to hazel. There’s a blankness to him now as Orion fades from consciousness. Christopher reaches up and wipes a stray tear away. “It would be our honour to be there for Phoebe. We’re not trying to replace you—we want to be there as well as you, princess.”
And for the first time, his nickname doesn’t sound like an insult.
9
MAIA
“What do you want me to do with this?” I ask, looking at the large box in front of me. The contents of it are all packed away neatly, and I’ve gone through to take out all of the items I want to keep that won’t help them much.
Sentimental things.
Personal photos of the two of us together. The ugly sweater he wore for our first Christmas together. The birthday cards he’d saved over the years, despite me thinking it’s silly. He always claimed that it would be good in case someone died so he had their handwriting. For what, I have no idea. But he’s the dead one now, and his sentimental desires are something I can’t bring myself to break.
“I’ll take it,” Alex says, and his voice is dry from not speaking in a while.
He’s been quietly working on his laptop in the corner of the room since we got up here, with Phoebe sprawled out on her mat in front of us both. I have the ceiling projector turned on and the lights dimmed lower, and she’s obsessed with watching the sea animals float around the room.
Alex has been pretty quiet, only speaking up when I talk to him, and I have no doubt the space he’s been giving me has been set out deliberately to let me process.
I’m grateful for it.
“To give to your parents?” I raise an eyebrow as my tone heavily implies the answer to my question should be yes. They’re the ones who make the decisions to help Phoebe, right? Shouldn’t they be the ones to have it?
He sighs, a small ‘V’ forming in the centre of his forehead. “No.”
“Then what are you going to do with it?” I’m not giving up my daughter’s things—Ryan’s things—for him to just mess around with for no good reason. The whole point of this is to identify Ryan’s birth pack so that we can... so that we can what?
What is the plan here? How is finding out her birth pack going to change anything? Phoebe is my daughter, sure, and she’s absolutely Ryan’s... so, they do have a claim on us. If females are as rare as the Wolfe men are claiming, then why would the pack give her up?
Why haven’t I questioned this until now? Why?
“Well, we want to know who he is and where he came from,” Alex says, seemingly unaware of my inner plight. “Chances are we’re going to recognise him or at least narrow it down, and Topher and I need that information before my parents.”
“Why?” I’m not sure if I’m questioning what he said or myself for being this stupid until now. Why didn’t I ask this yesterday?
“My parents are done being the leaders of this pack, and yet, they refuse to hand it over to us right now,” Alex says with a shrug. “We’re not going to sit back until we have our rightful place—as Alphas to this pack. We need to know the best way to protect Phoebe, and that includes not giving information to those we find inadequate.”
“I see. And who has the most resources to protect Phoebe from whatever you find?” Can he hear how brittle my words are? Can he smell my anxiety?
A manic grin seems to fill his face as his eyes turn silver. There’s an almost predatory look about him that I know for a fact is directed solely towards me. His wolf believes we’re soul mates, after all. “Believe me, little mate, there is nobody on this Earth who could protect you and Phoebe better than I. My hands will be coated in the blood of your enemies, your lives safe in my hands. There’ll not be a body left to identify once I get my hands on anyone who dares even think about harming either of you. You and the pup will be safe from any werewolf, human, or other because you are both protected by the best there is.”
I sit back on my heels and pray he can’t scent my arousal. How is that a turn on? “Um...”
“Um?” he echoes, smirking. I watch as he closes the laptop and then slowly walks over to me. There’s a swagger in his step, his eyes not blinking as they focus on me. I don’t move, I don’t even think I can, as he comes to sit right next to me.
His silver eyes are hypnotising me, holding me underneath his spell in a way I can’t—or more accurately, don’t want to—break away from. His large, warm hand gently rises and brushes across my cheek, sending sparks through my body. My lips part ever so slowly, and he leans in and brushes his against mine.
It’s a soft kiss, hesitant, despite the confidence he seems to be emanating, but oh, fuck, do I sink into it. My hands rise up to his light caramel hair, running my fingers through the softness of it, and he deepens the kiss at my probing. Alex tugs me into his lap, and at every spot that our bodies touch, those pleasure-filled sparks shoot across us.
