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She rises from her seat in the back. Her dominance is just as powerful as the other alphas in the room, but she has one thing they don’t: she’s not an Alpha of a pack. In Mountainside, Ryker is the Alpha, while she’s his female. It’s a shifter thing. If she left and formed a pack of her own, she could’ve made any male her alpha, regardless of his rank. It’s the same for the male Alphas. They’re mates become the female alpha of the pack, with the Alpha—the pack’s leader—at the tippity-top of the hierarchy. Most Alpha couples are equals, but the biggest difference comes down to something as simple as this. Ryker is an Alpha, Gem isn’t, and because she isn’t, she’s the only dominant one in the room who could shut down Peyton Slade without bringing pack politics into it.
And that’s exactly what Gem does.
“Put up or shut up, Peyton. You have such a problem with Elizabeth, fine. None of us are universally liked. But since you want to blame her when your mate fucked around on you and she broke your bond, I’ve gotta tell you that you’re picking on the innocent one here. Maybe your mate should’ve kept it in his pants.”
Is she trying to help me? I’m not so sure how she thinks reminding everyone in the room that I did exactly what Peyton’s accusing me of, but the dare on Gem’s face makes me thinkshethinks she’s helping.
Next to her, Ryker Wolfson’s eyes are burning bright like lava as his lips curve in a proud smirk that says,That’smymate.
It’s a low blow. Everyone here knows it. When shifters mate for life, none of us want to admit that there are a few rotten apples in every bunch. Our kind of supe might be hard-wired to be loyal to our bonded mates, but males like Jack Walker and Kyle prove that it’s not the case for all of us.
Kyle cheated. You can blame me for falling head over heels for a male I knew nothing about, but I didn’t know he had a bonded mate back at Oak Valley. If I snapped their bond so easily that I didn’t even know it was there, it was a whisper of a thread to begin with.
And she’s been blaming me for her failed mating for seven years because of it.
I don’t know what she’s hoping to accomplish here. Gunning for my head all because I fucked her mate… it’s not fair. It’s not right. He manipulated me as much as he betrayed Peyton, yet it’s the two of us sitting on opposite sides of the Northern Wind Pack den, spilling our guts for all of these strangers.
I get that. But Peyton… her face twists into a nasty look as she glares at me. Because of course she does. “You stole him from me!”
Gem scoffs. “I met the Oak Valley Beta. My dad’s the Alpha of Lakeview.
Ryker’s head shoots toward Gem. “He did what?”
Gem shushes her mate. “The only difference is that Elizabeth made it so you weren’t stuck with a male who was the pack peen. You’re free to choose a male who loves you. Fated mates are great, but we all know the Luna doesn’t get it right all of the time. She obviously didn’t with you and Kyle.”
“I don’t care,” snaps Peyton. Jumping to her feet, she jabs a finger in my direction. “She ruined my life. I have to ruin hers!”
Yeah… that’s exactly what she’s hoping to accomplish here after all, isn’t it?
Gem arches an eyebrow. Tilting her head just so, her long blonde ponytail falls over her shoulder, nestling next to the golden fang—one of Ryker’s— hanging off of a chain that she wears around her throat. “And how do you plan on doing that?”
“Jack said they’d kill her. That she was an abomination and… and afreak. That she shouldn’t be able to play around with mate bonds like that. He said, if you all”—she waves a wild hand in the direction of the twelve Alphas in front of us—“knew the truth, you’d execute her so that her line ends with her. Hesaid—”
“My sperm donor said a lot of shit, and none of it was good. You know where it got him? Dead. And the whole world is better for it.”
“Jack was a good male! He should still be here, and Howell should be nothing but maggot food.”
Wow. Tell me how you really feel.
I’m used to Peyton talking about me like that. But Gem? She’snot.
“Okay. You’ve just pushed my last fucking nerve, Peyton.” She gestures with her fingers, giving her a “bring it” wave. “You and me. Heads will roll in this den, but it won’t be Elizabeth’s.”
Peyton goes still. “Are you challenging me?”
“Luna damn right I am. What do you say? You accept?”
Shifter tradition says that the challenge should come from the lower ranked wolf. Technically, Peyton should be the one to throw down the gauntlet, but her issue isn’t with Gemma Swann. It’s with me. But Gem? She thinks of me as one of her own and, alpha wolf to her core, she’s going to stand up for the more submissive wolf.
And, Luna, I love to see it. Peyton might have just admitted she wants the Alpha collective to sentence me to death, but it’s still nice to see Gem tossing the challenge out like that. She’s a hothead, but she’s in my corner, and I love her for it.
The only thing is, because Gem’s the more dominant wolf, Peyton gets to decide if she wants to risk fighting her. It’s an imbalance of power for someone of Gem’s ranking to target a delta like Peyton, so no one will think any less of her for refusing to face off against an alpha.
Well, I will, but I probably don’t count.
Peyton opens her mouth. Closes it. Shakes her head and, purposely avoiding the murder written in every line of Gem’s deceptively innocent face, she takes her seat again.
Dash clears his throat. “That’s enough of that. There will be no more challenging today. We are here to discuss what Elizabeth’s Luna-given gifts mean for the rest of shifter society.”
