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)
“Delilah’s not my sister—not by blood,” I said steadily.
“But the adoption ceremony—” one of the Council members began.
“I don’t give a fuck about the adoption ceremony—do you hear me?” I snarled. “I refuse to be held captive by an ancient law that shouldn’t apply to a male and female with no blood ties between them. I want Delilah for my mate and I’m going to have her as my mate.”
“You can’t just decide not to follow the laws!” Rickter exclaimed. “Being Packmaster doesn’t make you above the law!”
“No, it doesn’t—the Laws of the Pack are there for a reason,” I said. “For instance, the law against harming or killing the Packmaster or any member of his family—that’s important, don’t you think?”
“If you’re referring to the way I was forced to subdue you and your sister—” Rickter began.
“No, I’m not talking about the way you drugged me with Wolf’s Bane spray and kidnapped me and my future mate,” I said glaring at him. “I’m talking about the way you killed my parents by fucking around with the brakes on their car, causing them to have a fatal accident!”
Rickter went suddenly pale.
“How did you—? I mean, what are you talking about?” he exclaimed, taking a step back from me.
“Kurt—show them the surveillance footage,” I ordered. My second in command pulled out his own phone and passed it around.
“Notice the time stamp,” he pointed out. “This is footage of Rickter sneaking in and out of the former Packmaster’s garage with a toolbox just hours before his fatal accident.”
“That proves nothing!” Rickter’s voice had gone high and his scent was full of fear.
“What about the bank statements proving that you hired the people who broke into Delilah’s house when she was a little girl and murdered her parents?” I demanded. “Then you immediately offered to adopt her yourself and you got angry when my father refused to let a single, middle-aged male take in a girl of eleven!”
“I…I never…I didn’t…” Rickter was stammering as he backed away from me. But his scent told it all—I could smell his fear now that he had been caught dead-to-rights. Even the Council members, in their human forms, could smell it.
“Rickter, how could you?” demanded one of them. “When you came to us, you said you wanted to form a Council to help guide the new Packmaster—not replace him!.”
“We had no idea that you’d killed our old Packmaster so you could get to his daughter!” another exclaimed.
Good, they were turning on him now. I knew it and Rickter knew it too. With a curse, he bolted from the clearing, headed for the deeper woods where he probably hoped we would lose his trail.
I was on him in two bounds. I leaped after his fleeing form and landed on his back, bearing him to the ground.
He was already Shifting when I turned him over with a paw and stared down into his frightened face.
“This is vengeance—for my family and Delilah’s!” I snarled.
Then I lowered my head and ripped out his throat.
He died almost at once—a more merciful death than he deserved. I spat out his blood and wiped my mouth on the clean grass—I wanted nothing more to do with the lying, murdering bastard.
I dragged his carcass back to the place where the rest of the Provisional Council still stood, stunned by all that had happened. I dropped Rickter’s body at their feet.
“This is what the judgment of the rightful Packmaster looks like,” I growled, baring my bloody teeth at all of them in turn. “This Council is hereby dissolved—I don’t need your help to do my job. If I need advice, I’ll ask for it but I’m fucking finished letting the lot of you tell me what to do. Now, I’m going to go get in the breeding line and claim my mate. Does anyone have any problems with that?”
One by one, they shook their heads. I could smell their fear and acceptance and knew that they wouldn’t dare to lift a hand—or a paw—against me again.
Now it was time to get to Delilah and claim her as my mate and breed her properly so that all the Pack could see.
20
DELILAH
When the first of the Partially Shifted Alphas came up behind me, I thought I might die of fright. I could feel him looming over me, huge and hairy and bestial. His hot breath panting against my bare skin as he knelt behind me made all the short hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I have to endure this, I told myself sternly. Every other woman of our Pack has done the same. I can do this—I will do this.
And then I grabbed the golden rings attached to the two obelisks on either side of me as I knelt on the Choosing Stone.
At once I felt the intense sexual energy flowing through me. Though I was kneeling, I kept my back straight and my head up. I spread my legs. This Alpha was not the one for me, but I would let him thrust his cock in my pussy to take the edge off my need to be bred.