Volt is the first to react to Alpha Dirk’s presence, his growl low and menacing. Tieran does the same, both males rumbling in disapproval and fury.
When Volt starts to stalk forward, I nip him on the flank.
He spins on me, growling at the unexpected bite. Then softens when he realizes it was me.
I stand then, and move to sit between him and Alpha Dirk.
All three of my males watch me with interest, their confusion palpable.
“She’s saying she’s in charge of his punishment,” Alpha Ebony translates for me, a hint of wonder in her tone. “That’swhy you’ve been sitting by the door.”
I grunt in confirmation.
And now that my males are here, I can shift.
Because I feel safe again.
So I do, which turns out to be a mistake because Volt immediately tackles me to the ground in the next breath, his furry body covering all of mine.
“Oomph.” The sound escapes me on a puff of air, leaving me a little lightheaded.
“Get her a shirt,” Tieran demands, apparently back in human form. “What the fuck happened down here?”
“Alpha Kin took out the communications tower and the power. Only his sat phone seems to work,” Alpha Ebony says. “But we couldn’t figure out his password to make outgoing calls. And without access to electricity, which we need to power up the computers, we couldn’t use anything to hack it.”
A shirt appears in my peripheral as Caius kneels beside us. “Here you go, gorgeous,” he says, his eyes more silver than gray as he scans my face.
Volt grumbles a little, shifting just enough to give Caius room to pull the shirt over my head.
“No one sees you naked except us,” Caius explains, tugging the fabric down.
“I’m a shifter,” I mutter at him. “I have to be naked to shift.”
His eyes narrow. “No one,” he repeats.
My mother’s voice is in my head telling me to pick my battles. This is one I may fight him on later, but for now I let him pull the shirt down while Alpha Ebony continues to report on what happened down here.
“Alpha Kin killed Alpha Duncan,” she says, her voice void of the emotion I know she’s feeling. “He tried to kill me and Alpha Edwin, and would have succeeded if Alpha Dirk hadn’t removed the silver.”
“And you had no idea he was working with Bryson?” Tieran demands, his words for Alpha Dirk.
“No, but I should have known,” he admits. “I failed as a clan leader. I failed as a Carnage Wolf. I failed as one of your Alphas. I’ll accept whatever fate you assign to me.”
“He saved me from Alpha Kin,” I interject, still partially trapped beneath Volt’s bulky form. Apparently, the shirt isn’t enough for him. Or maybe he just likes laying on top of me. “This… this was after Alpha Kin told me he’s my half-brother. His father… his father raped my mother.”
It hurts to voice out loud. But Tieran needs to understand that Alpha Kin’s loyalty was never to Alpha Dirk.
And while yes, Alpha Dirk should have suspected the lack of allegiance, sometimes blood can be a powerful motivator in manipulation.
“But Alpha Dirk killed Alpha Kin, and he killed Beta Gafton,” I say. “He acted in honor of the pack. In honor ofme.” It’s something I instinctively understand, the way he bowed to me for nearly thirty minutes after Tieran’s howl.
He wassubmittingto my wolf.
“Alpha Kin told you that about his father?” Tieran asks, stepping around Volt’s wolfish head to meet my gaze.
I nod. “Bryson let him do it because he knew my mother was a half-breed. He thought she would make a nice…fuck toy… for his father.” I cringe with the term, but it’s the one he used. “Only she ended up pregnant.”
Tieran considers me a long moment. “I’ll have my father confirm his scent with one of the Nantahala Wolf witnesses.”
