Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
But could I push him into breeding me? I didn’t know. I couldn’t strip any more—not right this minute with two huge Alpha guards outside my front door, anyway. I would have to think of something else…but what?
I wanted Cole more than ever but I didn’t know how to get him. I had no idea that fate was about to take a hand because my big brother wanted me too…even if he couldn’t admit it to himself.
5
COLE
“We’ve heard there was as problem with your little sister, Cole.” Jack Rickter raised his bushy salt and pepper eyebrows at me disapprovingly the moment I walked into the Council room—which was just the conference room at his office building. It had a long oval table and the Council members were sitting at it, all in a row on one side with Rickter at the head.
He’s a leading businessman here in Tampa, which he thinks makes him hot shit. And it might, in the human world. But in the world of the Pack, it’s not business acumen that determines your place and importance—it’s the size and ferocity of your Wolf. Rickter’s Wolf was puny and scrawny—I think it’s one reason he so clearly resented me. That and the fact that I was nearly twenty years younger than him, yet I was the Head Alpha and he was a has-been who was never going to run at the front of the Pack.
“That’s ‘Packmaster Cole,’ to you, Councilmember Rickter,” I corrected him sharply. “And there’s no problem with my sister—I’ve already taken care of it.”
The other Council members—there were five of them—murmured among themselves and Rickter frowned at me.
“That’s not what I heard. My information is that your little sister, Delilah, has been making a display of herself in a certain Gentleman’s Club across town,” he said pointedly. “Which I’m sure you know is not acceptable to the Council.”
“It’s not acceptable to me either,” I growled. “Which is why I took care of it. Delilah is under house arrest in her townhouse right now—I’ve got two Alpha guards outside her place which means she can’t go in or out for any reason. I have also personally called up every strip club in town and let them know what will happen to them if they hire her. Believe me—nobody is going to want her within a mile of their establishment now.”
But this still didn’t seem to please Rickter—which didn’t surprise me. Nothing ever seemed to please the old bastard.
I say “old” but he was actually a year younger than my Dad was when he and my mom died in the crash. He was tall—though not as tall as me—and he was going bald on top. When he shifted into his Fur Form, his Wolf had patchy brown fur and shifty yellow eyes. I didn’t fucking trust him.
I always got the feeling that Rickter thought he’d make a better Packmaster than me—he was always talking about my “inexperience” and my “lack of wisdom”—as though my Dad hadn’t been raising me all my life to fill this position. It was Rickter’s idea to form a Provisional Council when my Dad died—to help “guide the new Packmaster” until they felt I was ready to take over the role completely.
I never should have gone along with it—I wouldn’t have if Rickter hadn’t made such a stink and so many of the older Pack members hadn’t agreed with him. But I wasn’t going to put up with it forever. I was nearing thirty now—the same age my dad was when he took over as Packmaster. As soon as I got there, I planned to take a mate to solidify my position and then dissolve the Provisional Council completely.
Of course, who I was going to take for a mate was still up in the air. I had lots of ripe Were bitches throwing themselves at me…but somehow, I didn’t find any of them appealing. When I closed my eyes, all I saw was Delilah…which I knew was all kinds of wrong. So I was putting off the decision and just marking time until I turned thirty…which would be very soon now. Then I would kick Rickter and the Council to the fucking curb and not look back.
“I think it might be a good idea if your little sister was settled and mated,” Rickter said, interrupting my vivid fantasies of getting rid of him.
“Mated? What are you talking about?” I demanded, frowning. “Delilah can’t get mated—she’s a dud.”
Rickter cleared his throat delicately.
“Excuse me, but have you seen your sister lately, Packmaster?” He put a heavy sarcastic emphasis on my title, as though humoring a child. “It’s clear that her body has ripened and she’s no longer a dud. In fact, we of the Council think it’s very possible that she might even go into her first Heat Cycle very soon now.”