Chapter 66
LEAH
He’s about to lose it again.
Aaron is quick to anger and his temper is legendary.
But fighting benefits no one.
And I haven’t spent the last ten years as a veritable prisoner only
to have this wolf undo that peace in a matter of minutes.
“Why don’t you check in on James and the rest of the guys,
Aaron?”
“Naw. I’m good.” He rolls his shoulders. “I have some unfinished business with your piece of sh it brother.”
Liam lunges and I leap in front of him. “Stop!” I glare at Aaron. “Give me a minute with my brother, please. What you’re doing right now…it’s not helping me.”
He doesn’t budge.
“Seriously,” I tell him. “Take a walk. Go cool down.”
Aaron looks between me and Liam for several fraught seconds. “Harm a hair on her head,” he threatens my brother, “And I’ll tear your lungs out.” Then he turns and walks out without
saying another word.
The threat hangs heavy in the air.
Liam sits in Aaron’s vacant chair. “Your husband is an as shole.”
I take a sip of coffee. “He’s just trying to protect me.”
I know that deep down. Aaron’s motives may be questionable, but apparently, when it comes to this wolf, it’s okay for Aaron to abuse me. Just not anyone else.
He’s saved me though, countless times.
I’m not really sure why.
His life would be much easier without me in it.
Something swirls in my chest when I acknowledge that. My husband has protected me, even at risk to his own life and pack.
I take another sip of coffee. My lips feel swollen and sensitive and the hot beverage only heightens the sensation.
It was that kiss.
Aaron has a way of kissing that can make me absolutely
mindless.
That was always the problem I think.
I’m too wrapped up in that wolf.
“I don’t understand your relationship with him,” Liam says.
When I look at him, he looks so much like my father. Thick hair pushed back. Close-cropped beard. Strong, lean body. The kind of smile that puts you at ease.
“Eat,” Liam tells me. “You’re too thin. You need your strength.”
I take a few bites of toast. Then a forkful of eggs.
“Did it happen?” he eventually asks.
“What?” I don’t think he wants to hear about me absorbing dad’s powers.
He had to have thought those powers were meant for him.
Always, he was my father’s right hand.
x
I still don’t understand why dad chose me over him.
“Did your wolf surface?”
I shake my head.
He frowns.
His new Alpha is a human female.
It’s like adding insult to injury, I imagine.
“It’s not good for our people. It’s a slap in the face.”
I shove my plate away from me. “Of all the sexist, ig norant things to say-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you talking about?”
“It’s not my fault I’m not a wolf, Liam.”
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about Aaron. He is not good for our people. He is an insult…”
“Oh.”
“Seeing him is going to trigger our pack. No one here has forgotten him or the things he’s done.”
It was the same in Aaron’s pack. Their resentment of my father and Pack Roberts, it never faded.
He reaches for a piece of bacon, takes a bite and then sets it back down. “Our Pack…they think he’s going to make a play on us-and use you to do it. You need to divorce him. We have to sever ties to ensure Pack Roberts’ safety.”
It’s a valid concern and echoes what I think and feel.
“We can prove to the Council that your marriage was never valid in the first place…”
Which makes me the “adulteress” one. And to think, I’d called out Jessica for trying to seduce my husband.
It’s hard to accept. These last years, when I thought myself married… to realize now that the vows we exchanged were never real…
“He’s here with only a handful of wolves, Leah. We can overpower him. We can ki ll him before he leaves this compound.”
I swallow hard and set my coffee aside. These aren’t angry words or airing old grievances. My brother is proposing murder.
“Just say the word, Leah. You’re the Alpha now. You need to do what’s right for our pack. One word and we end this war forever… This is your first decree as Alpha. You’re in power. You can get justice for Dad and M om, for everyone we lost to this ba stard. What’s it going to be?”
