Chapter 55

Please say yes so I can kill him right now. It’s a good reason. I’ll hunt him down and kill him slowly.
‘I like this plan,’ Kral praises me.
“Uh, no...” She clears her throat. “Of course not. I just... Uh, I think it’s just my job to make sure he’s well fed and—”
“For Goddess’s sake! It’s not your fucking job to make sure of his well-being!” I snap.
“Are you jealous, Ethan?” she asks, smiling broadly and wiping the tears away from her delicate face.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” A little, maybe, but I wouldn’t say I’m completely jealous of that fucker. “Promise me you won’t give him another dime.”
“What if Logan, uh...” She clears her throat, looking away. “Complains?”
“If he complains or if you’re even the slightest bit afraid of his reaction, you can tell him he can come complain directly to me.”
“I can’t do that.” Before I can interrupt her, she continues, “But I can give him just a small amount and then decrease it over time.”
Better than nothing right now. It’s not the ideal, but at least it’s something.
Kral reminds me once more, ‘Again, if he’s dead, the problem is solved.’
‘I agree with you,’ I reply to him.
“From now on, I’ll bring you every time you have to meet him.”
I don’t trust that fucker at all.
“Ethan, you don’t have to. Seriously, I can take care of this.”
“Can you protect yourself if he hurts you?” I ask sternly.
She seems to think about something before answering in an even weaker voice, “Uh, no.”
“Then you’ll leave it up to the man that can.” I point to myself. “That’s me.”
I puff out my chest with confidence when I see her shy smile in response and then her bright aura.
Because her aura beams with comfort.
Little Dove leans her head closer to me, and I realize she’s about to kiss me, so I turn my face away and reach for my seatbelt to avoid her kiss. When I start the car, I realize my mistake right away. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see her sad face. Her aura is no longer radiating light like it was seconds ago.
I did the right thing. I repeat it over and over in my head until I’m convinced.

🐺 🐺 🐺

‘Done,’ Vi mindlinks me.
‘About time.’
‘Oh, please, stop thanking me, Ian. It’s embarrassing how effusive you are,’ my sister’s voice drips with sarcasm.
‘Thank you, my dear sister. What would I do without you? Well, anything.'
‘Fuck you, asshole.’
‘Just kidding. Seriously, thanks. It went okay?’
‘Yes.’
Gazing out from my office window, my eyes scan the scene below.
I don’t have a mate and I don’t do the whole possessive and jealous act. I’ve never felt that way towards a female, human or she-wolf, and I’m sure as shit I have no plans to start now.
Too bad my mantra goes out the fucking window the second I spot her. Little Dove is standing near the packhouse entrance, wearing a pale yellow dress and a cute side braid that makes her look like an angel on Earth, along with that breathtaking smile and bright aura that *not me* but Kral always craves. I’m so distracted by her beckoning aura that I almost don’t notice the guy talking to her. Almost.
‘What the fuck Shawn is doing here?’ I mindlink my sister immediately.
“Calm down. He came to talk to me about the nightclub,” my sister says, entering my office without knocking. When she sees me at the window, she walks over to me and follows my line of sight, noticing Shawn and Alicent talking. He’s younger than me, closer to her age. He says something I couldn’t care less about, and she giggles. I contemplate strangling him. No. Not jealous. At all.
“If I had your number, we could make this whole talking thing a lot easier,” I hear Shawn saying to her. The way he talks to Little Dove makes it painfully obvious that he’s into her. Perhaps I should rip his head off and feed it to wild dogs just because.
“Wow, Ian, I’ve never noticed that vein in your forehead before,” Vi says next to me, and when I look at her, I realize that my hands are tight into fists. I shove them in my pockets before looking forward at the two of them below.
Shawn glances at us, and his eyes search for Vi. He can’t mindlink her because he’s not part of our pack.
Seeing her with another guy has triggered something deeply buried inside of me. There isn’t anything I can do to fight it, not when every part of me goes numb at the sight of her laughing with another man. No. *Boy*.
‘Just admit that you like her,’ Vi says through mindlink.
Without looking at my sister, I reply, ‘She was just a one-night stand. I don’t care about her. I told you. She’s not my fated mate.’
Vi leans her elbows on the window, and when Shawn looks up at her again, she nods at him.
“When are you going to Summerville again?” Shawn asks Little Dove with a smile. I want to wipe that fuck smile off Shawn’s face and stick it up his—
“I guess next week,” she replies.
“How about we hang out when you’re in town” he suggests. “I know a good place.” He winks.
No. No. No.
‘You can stop this if you want to,’ Vi mindlinks me.
I’m pretty sure Little Dove won’t go for it. I smile easily and respond to my sister, ‘I don’t have to.’ No chance in hell would she accept anything from him.
But then, much to my surprise, she says, “Yes, sure.”
What the fuck?

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alicent***

I look up and see that the pair of serious black eyes laser-focused on our every move that I sensed, belong to Ethan.
“Anyway, I’m sorry about your car. But I’ll do my best to sell it for a good price,” Shawn adds, making me look back at him.
“Okay. Thanks again for your help. You don’t have to,” I say, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Will you be here for the festival?”
“Oh, no. This is for Blackmoon’s members only,” he replies, putting his hands behind his back.
“But I was invited,” I say, frowning.
“Definitely just for a part of it,” Shawn explains, looking away and arching a brow.
This is definitely a cult. “Hmm, okay then.”
“See you in Summerville, Allie,” he says with a wink.
Shawn is a good person, and God knows I need friends. I look up at Ethan’s office window as Shawn leaves, but neither he nor Vi are there anymore. I sigh. I’ve felt so pathetic ever since I tried to kiss him, and he turned his face away. Maybe I just caught him at a bad time. Now that I know he and Kelly aren’t together and thank God she hasn’t been here in the last few weeks, maybe Ethan and I can have something.
Even though Ethan told me our one-night stand was meaningless, I know what I felt. And the way he’s looked at me since I moved here has been nothing but lust or jealousy, like now when he looked at Shawn and me together. I open a smile. I’ll only settle down when he admits how he feels about me, too.

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alpha Ethan***

I read the new report in my hands for the third time. Days have passed since Shawn’s visit, and I’ve been avoiding Alicent at all costs. It’s no help that she lives in the same place as me, despite the packhouse being huge.
Every single interaction I’ve had with her has ended in a fight since Shawn’s visit.
Fuck! I throw the paper on the desk and pinch the bridge of my nose. Then, I hear someone knocking on my office door. The only certainty I have is that it is not my sister.
“Come on in,” I say, and then there she is.
“Are you upset with me?” Little Dove asks, standing in the doorway of my office with one hand holding a stack of papers against her chest and her other hand holding the door handle.
Sitting back in my chair, I motion for her to come closer. “Come here, Little Dove,” I say.
Shuffling into the room, she moves closer to me until my desk divides us.
“Why would you think I am upset with you?” I ask.
Shrugging her shoulders, she avoids my gaze. “You seemed upset with me the last few days. Did I do something wrong? Listen, if you don’t want me to live here anymore, just tell me. I don’t want to be like this with you, Ethan. I can try to get a place or find somewhere else to go.”
‘Oh, hell no.’ Kral growls.
I want to kick my own ass for making her think I didn’t want her here. I take a deep breath. “Listen to me. I’m not upset with you. You can live here as long as you want to.”
“Are you sure?” she asks, biting her bottom lip.
“Yes. You have nothing to worry about from me. Even though you piss me off on a daily basis,” I say, arching one brow.
Then the tiny human dares to say, “In my defense, it’s not that hard to annoy you.”
“Little Dove!” Why the hell do I feel like smiling? This is a serious conversation.
She giggles, hugging the papers in her arms. But then she stops smiling. Her eyes subtly scan me, and a hint of desire flashes in her gaze.
My blood seems to heat up as I look at her plump lips. She tastes so good. More. I need more. I need to strip her down, bend her over my desk, and fuck her hard. Make her mine.

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alicent***

Ethan moves across the room and locks his office door. I can barely contain my excitement as he turns back towards me. My whole body warms.
He walks over to me like a predator, and my legs instinctively take a step back, but without much to go, I end up leaning my butt against his desk.
When I’m within his arm’s reach, he picks me up and settles me on his desk. His huge palms slide up my forearms and cradle my elbows.
Ethan’s so tall that I’m at eye level with his lower stomach. My eyes drift downward, and I catch a glimpse of the faint outline of his cock. Even soft, I can still make out a hint of the monster in his pants. Ethan’s fingers slide under my chin. Tilting it up. He’s so tall I have to crane my neck back to look up into his face.
“Why are you really here, Little Dove?” he asks, his deep voice making me clench my legs.
I blink. “To talk to you,” I reply with difficulty, as it’s hard to focus on anything right now other than his strong arms or his warm hand holding the tip of my chin.
“Did you go out with Shawn?” he asks, looking straight into my eyes. His eyes reveal nothing.
I shake my head, still looking into his black eyes.
Ethan slides his thumb up, making my mouth open. Then he slides his thumb between my lips. The taste of verbena soap and the feeling of his smooth skin fill my mouth. My pussy is already heating up in anticipation.
“And you’re going to?” Ethan asks, and then he runs his thumb over my tongue in a slow circle, the movement deliberate. His gaze is fixed intently on my lips as though he can’t look away. A pulsing throb in my pussy.
I’ve forgotten how much I crave his touch, how he seems to possess an innate understanding of how to make me completely lose myself in him. I can make this work. He can’t say it is meaningless this time. I like this feeling of thinking I am his as he gently strokes the inside of my mouth.
He thrusts with his thumb. “Answer me,” Ethan demands with his deep voice, and I close my mouth around his finger, shaking my head slowly. The sensation of his finger in my mouth is strangely alluring.
His thumb pushes forward again. I feel a bit of saliva slip down my lips. I don’t know why, but I keep perfectly still, waiting and wanting everything he can give me. I’m so completely fixated on his eyes that I don’t even move my face to glance down and see if he’s completely hard now. But by the heat in his black eyes, I would say he is.