AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’re staying,” I blurt, putting her out of her misery.
“You don’t have to decide now, Belle. Don’t feel pressured, I know you’re only newly mated and you might not have had time to decide yet…” Cooper is giving me an out. He’s practically telling me to say that we don’t know yet and move the conversation swiftly along – but he’s the only one. Everyone else is waiting. The gathered crowd has fallen silent, and Ethan looks at me, leaving it up to me to confirm or not.
“We’re definitely staying.” When I nod again, Ethan grins, his big smile making my stomach flip. The wolf closest to him picks him up, pressing a kiss to his cheek before releasing him again. Ethan laughs, and kisses me softly, whispering ‘I love you’,” in my ear as he’s swept away by the crowd.
Marie steps up beside me and links her arm through mine.
“I knew you were a good one,” she whispers, a broad smile on her face. “Thank you.”
“No thanks needed, but I want you to do one thing for me.”
Marie tips her head, encouraging me to go on. I doubt many people ask the former Luna to do them favours. The twinkle in her eye tells me she’s curious and that’s a good start.
“Teach me how to hotwire a car.”
55
ETHAN
As we move further into the mating celebration, more and more friendly faces come forward to greet me and give us their best wishes.
Cooper shakes my hand and pulls me in for a hard back slap. “Good to have you home.”
Hayley tucks herself into his side and he wraps an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and extends a hand to Belle. “Thank you. We never could have gotten Carla back if it weren’t for you. And Leon would have let that bomb take out half the alphas in the region just to make sure Lucia and Toby got the blame.”
Belle waves his thanks away, still not convinced that anything she did made any difference to the outcome. At the very least, just knowing it was a dark van bought me enough time to warn everyone.
“Did Leon tell anyone what his master plan was?”
Cooper shrugs. “My guess is he was going to pin both explosions on them and make it look like they skipped town with the money, when, really, he was going to keep Lucia until she went into heat and use Toby to get the cash, then kill him.”
Hayley shivers in disgust at the thought of Leon keeping Lucia tied up for breeding. I hate the woman, but that is still too horrific to contemplate.
“And his back? Will he walk again?” Ethan asks and Cooper frowns, shaking his head.
“It doesn’t seem likely. Bodhi’s pretty torn up over it. He hates his father, but never meant to put him in a wheelchair. Marcus says he’s barely come out of the woods since they got back.”
It is a fate worse than death for most shifters. Unable to run and do the things we love would be a cruel punishment. Having an animal side caged like that would do unpleasant things to a shifter’s mind.
“And what about the pack? Anderson is back in charge?” While we’ve heard Alpha Anderson is doing much better, helping to lead the clean-up of the pack, he’s still getting on in years.
“Temporarily, but he’s made it clear he wants to step down. Someone else will need to go in there and take that place by the scruff of the neck.”
Joseph isn’t dominant enough, even though he could run the place blindfolded from an administrative point of view. Anderson only had Lucia, and with no other children, there’s no clear line of succession to the alpha role.
“There’s nobody strong enough there to take it over,” I muse, looking down at Belle with a frown. A hush falls over the party as Alpha Steel walks in. Even if you couldn’t smell him coming, you’d feel his power. There’s nobody in the Anderson pack with that kind of presence. They’ll need an outsider.
“What about you, Ethan? Fancy taking on a challenge?” Blake asks, with no hint of humour in his expression as he joins our group.
I stare at him, gobsmacked, waiting for him to laugh and take it back. Instead, he shakes hands with Cooper, who no longer looks quite so cheerful, and greets Belle warmly.
“Well?” Turning back to face me, he looks at me expectantly.
“Well… what?” I’m not assuming anything here or I’ll risk making an idiot out of myself.
“Do you want to take over the pack?” he repeats patiently.
He really is offering me the top job. Belle pinches my side, and looks up at me wide-eyed. I can feel how happy she is for me; how proud she is that I’m being given an opportunity like this. But that pack has nothing but bad memories for me and I doubt the people there would want to see me coming.
