Arturo nodded, and the Enforcers lifted Bastion off his feet. Bastion’s eyes went wide with fear; he knew what that meant. He thrashed and bucked against them, his fangs thrusting from his gums, but their grip on him was like iron.
“Make sure his brother gets all the messages.”
Piece by piece.
Bastion kicked and snarled and tried to shift yet again, yellow fur flowing over his face. Dominic sent out another wave of Alpha power and forced him back into his human form, wrenching a shriek of pain from the panicked animal.
The wolves watched as the screeching, struggling lion was hauled from the room.
It wasn’t something they did often, but the Leo of Viscount Pride had moved to claim two mated women. Kalinda may not have been mated when they’d been put on her trail, but Zoey had been, and there was no way they hadn’t known. Even Kalinda’s Katering would have been run over with the scent of wolves, a warning to anyone wanting to encroach. Not a single one of them sitting at the table was going to ignore such a violation without violence.
“I’m surprised you didn’t have him think of a number between one and two hundred like we used to do,” Carlo commented.
“I find myself getting a little lenient in my older age,” Arturo returned.
Carlo snorted. “Yeah, so lenient you’ll be sending him to his brother in pieces.”
“It absolutely is. I could have kept him alive while the pieces were made.”
To punctuate his thoughts, a single gunshot rang out loudly, echoing through the room.
“At least we know why the Viscount Pride was willing to challenge us to get Kalinda out of there. What the Council orchestrated in dangerous. Yes, Kalinda is my mate, but maneuvering whole power structures in Encantado?”
“They never would have given the Viscount Pride half of what they promised. It would have been impossible, and the pride was just too stupid and greedy to see that. But we don’t know if everyone on the Council was privy to those plans or not,” Arturo argued.
“I have no doubt Lennox was in on it. He wants Kalinda.”
Romano remembered how the bastard had touched her like she belonged to him or was meant for him. He still planned on killing the bastard at a later date.
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Carlo offered. “We know what the pride’s game was, and we can keep protection at a heightened level. The Leo will want to retaliate, but the message may be enough to remind him he is pushing things far above his strength. All we need to do is protect the women and wait to see what happens when the time is up for Kalinda’s shifting.”
“We still don’t know how to get her out of the death sentence,” Romano argued. “Kalinda isn’t going to accept joining the Council after the way they’ve done her, and we still face that. Joining the Council would mean she’d be locked to their lands and under their control. It won’t matter that I am her mate. They may have to allow me access to her or confine me to living beside her.”
“Neither of which is an option,” Dominic promised. “Zahara is the only high-level mage who was able to turn down the Council and survive.”
“You won’t be able to follow Zahara’s path,” Arturo warned.
“Why?” Romano had never seen Arturo look as deadly as he did at that moment.
Dominic tensed. He hadn’t relaxed since Bastion’s exposure of the Viscount Pride’s play in all of this. But he was rock solid now.
For moment, surprise broke through before the shutters came back down over Arturo’s face. “We will discuss it later.”
“I am not one of your wolves any longer, Arturo,” Dominic argued.
Threat and domination whipped through the room. Romano maneuvered to be behind his Alpha, even as Carlo did the same with Arturo. The two pairs faced off in the center of the room, one Alpha against another, their Enforcers at their side.
Not exactly how this meeting was supposed to go.
“You think you have what it takes to go after me, pup?”
“We can sure as fuck see how it goes.”
And that was not going to help.
Romano grimaced, knowing what he was about to do could get his head ripped off, but so be it. There were much more important things going on than an Alpha pissing contest. Dominic would just have to hate him now and thank him later.
He stepped in front of his Alpha, and domination and control immediately washed over him. The tight, puckered skin of scarring on his face itched. He gritted his teeth, trying against everything to stay on his damn feet with a ton of bricks weighing down on his shoulders. Submit. Submit. Alpha. His wolf was snarling and biting, warring against the human side of Romano. His wolf didn’t understand what he was doing, only that he should never stand up against his Alpha.
