I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But she’s all around me, her pain echoing between the trees. It’s like I’m losing my fucking mind.
Except Tieran is snarling with fury, searching for the source.
And Caius is howling.
It takes a beat for me to understand the source—a fucking speaker system.
“Smile for the camera, Aspen,” a flat voice says.
“Yes, say, free me,” a second drawls, causing my jaw to pop in fury. Alpha Kin.
She shrieks instead, the sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard from her and my blood is fucking on fire as a result.
“Make a choice,” another voice says, this one deeper. Bryson. “Your lives or hers.”
“Cease fire!” Tieran shouts at our men.
They immediately obey.
And Bryson chuckles, the sound victorious.
Only for Clove to scream again, the sound an agonized cry that goes right to my heart.
Three things occur to me at once.
We never should have left her alone.
If we were bonded, we would be able to talk to her.
And… I’m going to fucking kill Bryson.
31
CLOVE
Several Minutes Earlier
The silver burns against my neck, but I don’t stop staring up at the man I once called father. There’s something different about him, a sense of indifference that feels wrong.
He’s looking at me like he doesn’t even recognize me.
Like he didn’t spend two decades raising me as his own.
Most males leave the child-rearing to the females, but he often helped with my training as a child, ensuring I was the fastest female of my age. He pushed me, perhaps not kindly, but I am who I am today because of his influence.
Yet his expression registers absolutely nothing as he holds the knife to my throat. It’s like he’s frozen there, demanding I stay without even requesting it.
“Good job, Gafton,” a new voice says, the source of it making my stomach churn.
Alpha Kin.
He steps into view, his intimidating size immediately making me want to shrink into a corner. It’s also the look in his eyes that has me almost cringing. His fractured irises are blazing with fragments of colors that make him look half-mad. Like his wolf is trying to shift, and he’s not allowing it.
Brown.
Green.
Brown.
Red.
I swallow as the array of colors shift, giving a whole new meaning to hazel eyes.
I’m guessing brown is the usual shade as his hair is also a thick dark brown. But he appears a bit unhinged, like he’s on the edge of going feral.
“Well, it seems Bryson has fucked everything up for me,” the Alpha drawls, leaning against the wall and running his gaze over me. “And it all started with you.” He shakes his head and sighs. “Why our father chose your mother, I’ll never know.”
I swallow against the knife at my throat. My former father isn’t otherwise touching me, just frozen before me with that dead look on his face. He’s barely even blinking.
What the hell is going on?
And what did Kin just say about my mother?
Our father?
“It was the beginning of their alliance, which proved fruitful for a while. But Bryson’s lost his touch.” Alpha Kin sounds disgusted by it, his expression darkening. “However, my father cherishes the relationship. So here we are.”
He gestures to the hallway, to my former father holding a knife at my throat, and to himself. “A pretty awkward family reunion, I guess.” He shrugs. “Well, Gafton’s not really part of it. He didn’t even realize his mate was part Carnage Wolf until recently.”
My former father doesn’t even blink at that, just continues to stare at me with the blade.
It’s like he’s under a trance of some kind.
Is Alpha Bryson doing this to you? I wonder. As Pack Alpha, he’s capable of controlling anyone under his rule, even his Beta.
“Bryson knew, though,” Alpha Kin continues. “That’s why he brought her into the pack—her mixed heritage intrigued him. And he used it to his advantage by forcing her to play with our father. She was meant to be a glorified fuck doll—an Omega-like cunt capable of taking the knot, but a womb that rejects the sperm.” He gives me a cruel grin. “What I imagine you’d become to T and his clan eventually.”
I’m listening to him, but not reacting. Because I know I’m more than a fuck toy to my clan.
And I’m too disturbed by the fact that my former father still hasn’t moved. He’s just… standing there… unblinking, holding me at knife point.
Can I jump backward? I wonder.
“Unfortunately,” Alpha Kin draws out the word, his head tilting to the side. “Your mother didn’t turn out to be the ideal fuck toy because she had you. So the playtime only lasted a night as a result, which almost ruined the alliance between him and our father. But Bryson negotiated to keep you while offering a few other perks to satisfy my father’s darker inclinations.”
His tone allows me to guess what those perks are, and the glitter in his gaze confirms they’re crude.
“Breaking Nantahala Wolves by forcing them to take a knot is quite fun,” he says, because apparently I needed that detail in my mind.
I’m going to be sick.
Yet my former father still isn’t moving.
Seriously, why aren’t you moving? I think, locking eyes with my father while Alpha Kin continues speaking.
“I don’t know why Bryson wanted to keep you. Maybe he thought you’d be an Alpha, someone he could mold into a weapon. Or perhaps he planned to fuck you when you came of age,” he says. “Regardless, he found a use for you with that idiot Santeetlah Wolf. At least until you turned white.” He steps forward. “So you ended up here, and we’ve now come full circle.”
I swallow again, my gaze darting to Alpha Kin’s crazed expression.
He’s too close for comfort.
And he looks pissed.
“You have ruined everything. I tried to handle it, but Tieran was too fucking fast. And Dirk proved to be an incompetent ass.” Alpha Kin shudders visibly, his eyes closing for a moment. His irises are full brown again when he reopens them. “I told Bryson to fix it. He failed. And now I have to decide what the fuck to do with you.”