AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m promising you. I think you are worthy of me. You’re worthy of ten of me. You did what you had to do, and you put my well-being before your family. Remember that. And as for everything else, the claiming, being with me, there’s no rush. We’ll do it when you’re ready. And only if you want more from this.”
“The independent woman in me is squirming right about now,” she mumbled, and I laughed.
“You strike me as someone who likes to take risks.” I kissed her, soft and slow. “Take a risk with me.”
“You have all the control in this. You know that, don’t you?”
“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I like control. I enjoy having power. But you have the power now. It’s on you now, sweet cheeks.” I slapped her ass and strutted off, knowing she’d follow.
“Sweet cheeks?” she gasped, falling into step with me.
“Yep,” I replied, satisfied. “Sexy ass.”
“I’ll kick your ass,” she muttered. I grinned, taking her hand again.
“I have no doubts. And when we sort all this out with Gideon, I’d like us to explore things further. How about we leave it at that for now?”
“Yeah,” she breathed. “I guess I can do that.” We fell into silence until she asked, “So what’s the deal with you and Gideon?”
“Gideon was the Alpha of the Green Springs pack many years ago,” I replied. “Me and my friend Victor stumbled on his territory looking for shelter. Gideon took us under his wing and spoke about us joining the pack if we could prove ourselves. He shoved his daughter, Belinda, under our noses. It intrigued me. I didn’t know that Victor also wanted his way into the pack, so I thought I was her only interest, courting her. Courting was required back then.”
“But you weren’t her only interest?”
“No. Once she’d agreed to marry me, Gideon sanctioned the match, but she became distant and withdrawn. Then, out of the blue, she wanted to bring forward the date of the wedding. She wanted to have sex with me, to get it out of the way before the wedding night because she was nervous. It made me suspicious.”
“Ah,” she said in understanding.
“Out of honor for her, I hadn’t laid a finger on her other than a few kisses. And when I pressed her hard enough that night, she confessed to me she was pregnant. She said it was only a one-off, and that she loved me, saying she was scared about being wed to a practical stranger, that’s all. When I asked who the father was, she refused to answer me. After that, she left. But I discovered who it was soon enough.”
“Let me guess… your buddy, Victor?”
“Yeah. He stepped forward, claimed the child as his, and I refused to marry her. Gideon lost his shit, claimed I had no choice, and that Victor wasn’t fit to be the father of his grandchild. When I refused to back down, Gideon challenged me to a fight. If I lost, I would marry Belinda. If he lost, I was to leave the pack with no repercussions. But I told him I would only engage in the challenge if the terms changed. He agreed that if he lost, I would gain control of his pack. He never expected me to win.”
“Because he’s an arrogant, egotistical maniac, that’s why,” she retorted.
“He is. And that was his downfall. Gideon brought in an alpha he trusted to oversee the fight, not expecting the alpha to back me when I won fair and square. The idiot thought he would win. Thought he would prove he was the stronger wolf. But I’d fought to survive for most of my life. I knew how to take down one of my kin, no matter how strong they were. I won the challenge when he conceded only seconds away from me slashing his throat.”
“What happened next?”
“Gideon wouldn’t accept the loss. And after being thrown off his lands, which under pack law were now mine, he went through the human law route to cause problems. The land registered to him on paper gave him leverage, and it would have taken a long fight to resolve it. Instead, I asked his people if they wished to follow their new alpha to a new home.”
“And they did?”
“Most of them. Beneath the surface, they hated Gideon’s reign. It turned out he was a brutal monster, and they couldn’t wait to get rid of him. They put their faith in me, packed up, and left their homes. We pooled our funds together to purchase this land now known as Moonlight Creek.”
She laughed. “No wonder he’s pissed.”
“Yeah, well. If he’d treated his people right, then I wouldn’t have had much of a leg to stand on. We began with a quarter of the land we have now, and with my investments over the years, we’ve grown to this.”
“No wonder you wanted to keep it all off his radar. Gideon’s pride will keep him hunting you forever. And I understand why you want to keep your people out of his reach. In his twisted mind, he still sees them as his.”
“He does. He also blames me for murdering his daughter.”
“What happened to Belinda?” she asked.
“They found her body in the woods one night. Someone had snapped her neck. She and her baby stood no chance against whoever attacked her. Gideon blames me. He accused me of murder, claiming I’d done it so she wouldn’t have my child. It’s bullshit,” I scoffed. “And he tried to get the human police to arrest me. It didn’t stick.”
“What a hypocritical prick,” she retorted. “It doesn’t take much to realize that Gideon has killed a few people. There’s a danger in his eyes, one of a spoiled child with a weapon ready to use when he doesn’t get his way.”
