Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
I feel Billy bristling. His instinct is always to protect me from threats. But maybe that’s just so he can maintain his position as most important to me. Maybe he’s threatened by Madi and my mom, and that’s why he puts wedges between us.
Fuck. I don’t know what to think anymore.
About my mom. About how to handle my mating to Madison. About how to keep this pack together and ensure my family’s legacy isn’t destroyed by Odin Adalwulf.
Madi looks up at me. She trusts my mom. And my mom supposedly nearly sacrificed her life to keep Madi safe. But if I’ve been wrong about my mom all these years…
The pain of it all blasts through my chest like a javelin to the heart.
I never dealt with this shit emotionally. I had to shut down all feelings to just survive.
My father was murdered, and my mother–a woman I deeply loved who’d taken on an almost mythical position in our lives because we only saw her on weekends–poisoned him. I couldn’t think about her. Cutting her out of my life was the only measure I managed to take.
It was my first year at Yale, and I had to focus on keeping the pack. I had to recover from the financial hit and show massive leadership, so my pack members wouldn’t leave.
Luckily, their rage over my father’s murder put them firmly behind me, despite my young age and the loss of the bulk of our fortune. With the help of Billy, Nickel, Vance, Sully, Jake and Eagle, I founded Moon Co, and we made billions.
That should have ensured their loyalty forever, but the Adalwulfs are dastardly. They sow rumors and discontent everywhere they can.
If I make a mistake about my mother again, the pack won’t recover.
I won’t recover.
Then again, if I’ve wrongfully shut out the second most important female in my life… The thought sickens me.
“Tell her–” I stop and clear the rust from my throat. “Tell her to come to my building in Manhattan. She’s under my protection now.”
I see the flash of warning in Billy’s gaze, and he opens his mouth but seems to think better of saying anything because he closes it again.
“Yes, Alpha,” Vance says.
The doorbell rings, and Jake leaves and returns with stacked boxes of pizza. He hands me a box. “For your mate.”
“I know it seems outlandish, but humans have hands, too.” Madi deadpans, winning a smile from him.
“Male wolves like to feed their mates. It’s a provide and protect thing,” he explains.
“Humans used to do that too,” Madi says. She’s using her cool, businesslike voice. “–in medieval times.”
There’s a chorus of oohs and chuckles, like the ones Madi earned that first day when she handed Billy his ass for trying to stump her on the drinks. The mood in the room lightens. Some of the pressure in my chest lifts.
There’s something about my mate being on top of her game that both calms me and turns me on. Thinking of her as this weak link, this fragile human who I can barely protect had me and my wolf going mad again. But here Madi is, reminding me she isn’t to be trifled with. She was just used as a pawn in a war, was kidnapped, had her life threatened and nearly suffered–for a second time–hypothermia, but here she is cool, calm, and collected. Facing off with me and the most powerful wolves in Manhattan without blinking an eye.
I fucking love her for it.
I cradle her face and pull it against my chest, so I can drop a kiss on her forehead then pull out a chair at the table. “Make room for my mate.”
Chapter Eleven
Aster
Oma’s breath rattles in and out of her chest. Odin, her grandnephew and our pack alpha, lies on his deathbed, sending his henchmen out on wild, dangerous missions. His Hail Mary Pass before he dies.
His demise seems to be dragging the life from Oma’s body, too.
I sit beside her bed and hold her gnarled hand.
I will die with him, she tells me telepathically. I drew lifeforce from the alpha to be the pack seeress. Her explanation makes no sense to me, but there was a mingling of witch blood somewhere in the Adalwulf line. It’s possible some ancient witch wove a spell to forever bind those with the Sight to the alpha of the pack for the protection of both species.
I lift the glass of water to her mouth, fitting the straw between her lips, so she can sip from it.
Odin and I will both end our life cycle without seeing the Blackthroats obliterated. Bitterness laces her words. She’s carried the weight of this feud longer than anyone alive in either pack. To her, winning against the Blackthroats means everything.
She blinks her shriveled lids at me, her blue eyes unfocused as she looks through me into the beyond. You will use your gifts to guide Aiden when he takes the throne. You will draw your power from him, for him.