Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“It’s not sport, it’s to correct who leads the pack. I put this off too long. Even if there had been no foul play, I couldn’t, in good conscience, not take my place as alpha. My father would have been so disappointed that I’d turned my back on my birthright.”
They probably would have left then, seeing as there was nothing more to say, but Justin moved to stand in front of me.
He was trying to intimidate me, which I wanted to tell him would have been a neat trick if many others both stronger and scarier had not tried in the past. I had even annoyed the god Lugh at one point, and he could have erased me from both existence and time. Justin Swann being upset with me was doing nothing for me at all.
“You took my power. We need it to grow our pack.” He spoke softly, but I could hear the anger and venom in his voice. “I thought maybe I was wrong and it would all be back to normal this morning, but it wasn’t.”
“No. You used your power not for good, not because you wanted the best for everyone, but solely for the benefit of yourself and your alpha. I could not, in good conscience, allow that to continue.”
“I used it to increase the numbers in the pack.”
“Which Anson did not think was necessary,” I reminded him. “Like most good alphas, he showed everyone the care and kindness, protection and shelter that pack members should have received by belonging to him. Unfortunately, that understanding was lost on your own father, as he was not an alpha. And now Cole will take back the pack that is rightfully his, and you, Justin, have no need for a power that, again, should only have been used for good.”
“And if I kill you, will my power return?”
I shook my head. “It’s returned to where it came from. Waiting, I’m sure, to imbue someone more worthy.”
“Maybe I’ll test your theory, Merritt,” he yelled, and only then did I see that he had a knife in his hand.
“Won’t he just pass—yeah, that’s what I thought,” Cole said, and we all watched his cousin crumple to the ground in a heap.
The moment he’d threatened me, and had meant it in his heart, down he went, out cold.
As there was nothing more to say after that, Abel picked up his son and left, with Narah walking out behind them. Of course, Justin would wake up as soon as they were off my land, but Cole made sure to follow them to the door and close it behind them. When he turned to me, I saw the uncertainty on his face. It was one thing to know what you had to do, another entirely to arrive at the moment and jump. There was also the realization that the family he’d thought he had was gone.
“Come here,” I whispered, gesturing him over to me.
He rushed across the room and wrapped me in his arms, pressing his face into my shoulder. The sudden sobbing was not a surprise.
“Listen to me,” I whispered. “I will be your family, starting now. I will be Evan’s as well. I will always be here for both of you, and I won’t ever leave you.”
He gasped for air and squeezed me tighter. I was honored to be his rock in the storm.
TEN
When Evan woke up, Cole sat him down at the kitchen table and explained everything that had happened. I was surprised that he didn’t leave anything out, even how their father was killed and his injuries, but I understood that their relationship was based on honesty in all things, so he could do nothing less.
Evan took a deep breath and looked at Cole. “I don’t want you to die.”
Cole shook his head. “I’m not gonna die. Even if he somehow cheats and I lose, the contest isn’t to the death. It’ll be determined by whoever yields first.”
“What if you beat Abel,” Evan said, the “uncle” having been dropped as soon as he learned that the man had either murdered his father himself, or arranged the killing, “but then you have to beat Justin as well?”
Cole shot his brother a look.
“Yeah, okay, fine. Justin can’t hurt you at all.”
“Listen—” Cole took a deep breath. “—if you want to see them on your own after the challenge, you have to take Mere with you, okay?”
“I won’t want to,” Evan muttered.
“I need you to understand that I won’t think you’re being disloyal to me if you see them, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t trust them not to hurt you to get back at me.”
Evan nodded.
“And I know that’s awful, because they’ve all been in your life since you were a baby,” Cole said gently, “but in that moment, when Abel made the decision to kill Dad because he wanted to be alpha, he wasn’t his brother anymore. I can’t trust him to be your uncle in a similar situation.”