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She finished her shower quickly, getting dressed in black slacks and a long-sleeved blouse. Maybe, if she covered herself, she wouldn’t fall into these tantalizing hallucinations.
Are they hallucinations, or is he thinking about me?
Just as she was getting ready to leave, there was a firm knock on the door. She hurried to answer it and was surprised to see Marley, one of her brother’s underlings.
Just be cool. No one knows.
“What do you want?” she asked impatiently. “I have to get going.”
“You must attend the den immediately, Reika,” Marley said with an edge of concern. “Uldof wishes an audience with you, most urgently.”
“Okay,” she muttered, not even bothering to protest. None of her pack would care if she missed a shift at her crappy job, so there was no point protesting.
Marley didn’t say much as they drove toward the main building, but he did keep glancing sideways at her in a way that made her uneasy. By the time she got there, her anxiety was so high that she charged into Uldof’s rooms, determined to get this all over and done with.
“Reika,” Uldof said as she burst into the room. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”
“What is this about?” she snapped.
“I think I’m the one that needs to be asking questions,” Uldof said as he got up to walk toward her. “You have put me in a very difficult position.”
Reika’s blistering retort died on her tongue. She stared at Uldof, realizing for the first time that something was really, truly wrong.
“What’s happening?” she said, her voice much softer now.
“What’s happening is that the alpha of Raff pack, Dernet, has put a price on your head.”
Her brother’s eyes were so hard that she actually took a step back. Uldof shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say.
“He wants you dead as quickly as possible,” Uldof said, fixing her with his cold eyes. “For mating with his heir, his eldest son!”
FOURTEEN
OWEN
Owen hurried to the den as fast as he could, hoping to get there in time to delay his father … maybe even talk sense into him. When he came through the main building into the older sections that had been built before the modern city, he found the hallways thick with loyal pack members.
All of them looked at him with mixtures of disgust and contempt. He ignored their eyes and went straight to his father’s office, secretly glad that his brothers weren’t there to complicate things.
But when he entered the room, he realized things could not get more complicated than they already were.
Dernet flew at him, crossing the room in a lightning-fast charge. Owen felt his father’s hand gripping his throat before he was even consciously aware that Dernet had come at him. He smacked the wall behind him under the impact of his father’s leap, and for a second, he saw stars spinning through his vision.
“Father …” he gasped, but Dernet roared at him, drowning out his attempt at explanation.
“You crossed a line!” Dernet yelled. Owen knew his father was beyond reason … his face was red with rage, his eyes gleaming with fury.
“Father, please. I didn’t know who she was …”
“It doesn’t matter!” his father screamed. “She has tainted you, corrupted your blood! I must have hers in recompense.”
“No.” Owen struggled against the alpha’s grip, finally managing to loosen his father’s hand so he could draw a breath. “You can’t …”
“I can and I will! Once her blood cleanses the insult she has made on our pack, you can become the alpha. It is the only way.”
Owen watched his father pace away from him, his mind erupting with images of his beautiful Reika being torn to shreds by his fellow pack members.
I could not survive it!
