Chapter 16

“Are you speaking to me, human?” Marcellus snapped at her in the same tone that she had used on him, finally forcing himself to turn his eyes away from the Beta and to his mate.

“Yes, I am, wolf.” She scowled deeply and braced her hands on her hips, forcing herself to continue glowering at him despite her need to take a seat and bare her neck in submission at him. Anastasia had never felt this way before even though she had been around numerous wolves before however, she pinned it down to the fact that she was speaking to an Alpha wolf, and an awfully powerful one at that. “What’s wrong with you?”

“You’re the one on my land so I could ask you that.”

When she didn’t answer him or even acknowledge his words, only dropping her eyes and looking away from him in response, he continued.

“Who allowed you onto pack lands?” He forced the words out of his mouth, fighting off his innate desire to pull her into his arms and crush her body against.

His wolf wanted nothing more than to declare to everyone that she was his mate and their future Luna. Despite how angry he was at her and the situation that she had forced them both into, he had a hard time fighting off that urge.

“Beta Dalton.” She answered in a small voice, her chin held high even though she avoided making eye contact with him, almost as if internally battling herself to not succumb under the strong Alpha aura that he was radiating.

Dalton, knowing better than to go against his Alpha or try to prove him wrong when he was in such a mood, was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Marcellus continued to glower at her but only broke his gaze to turn to his Beta.

You gave her permission to come onto pack lands?

Yes, Alpha. Dalton answered back almost immediately, clearly not wanting to upset the Alpha wolf any further. I can ask her to leave if you want.

He hummed and pursed his lips as he turned his attention back to his little spitfire, glaring down at the ground that she was stood on. He had no doubt of the direction of her thoughts and internally chuckled as he could tell that she wished for nothing more than for it to be his face that she was stood on; trampling all over it.

I think I’ll do it myself.

“You have some nerve speaking to me in that tone, human.” He growled quietly and took a menacing step toward him, expecting her to quiver in her boots and beg for mercy like any other human probably would have reacted if they were in her position. But not his mate apparently who continued glaring down at the ground, not deeming him worthy of gazing into her big beautiful blues.

What did you expect? His wolf snorted. She’s our mate. She’s the one person in this world that’s going to be able to put up with our bullshit and challenge us. And with how fiery this little spitfire is. She’s going to keep us on our toes.

Too bad she won’t be around here for long.

We’ll see about that.

Marcellus didn’t have time to respond or question his wolf on his motives as his mate chose this moment to answer back to him.

“I understand that you’re the Alpha and that I’m on your pack land without your permission, but you don’t have to be rude about it. You could just ask me to leave nicely and I’ll leave. You don’t have to speak about me as if I’m not right here. I’m not sure if your parents ever taught you any manners, but that’s just plain rude and definitely not the way that you speak to people.”

As her rant came to an end, the only thing that sounded was her quiet breathing from getting so worked up after having completely blown up at him. Other than her, pin drop silence filled the room as no one here had ever witnessed anyone dare to speak to the Alpha in such a way, nor had they had seen their Alpha so livid before.

Unable to hold himself back anymore, Marcellus glowered harshly at her. Instead of apologising or baring her neck in submission, she dared to roll her eyes and look away from him. As if he wasn’t worth her time.

While her actions completely aggravated him to no end, both him and his wolf couldn’t help but agree with her pure bravery, choosing to take on a big bad Alpha like him, as she had chosen to put it.

“Leave!” He demanded in his Alpha tone. “But not you two.” He turned his attention to Raphael and Justas, two wolves who appeared to be at the centre of all of this, right alongside his mate.

The pack members scrambled out of the den and up the stairs in record time, not used to the Alpha raising his voice or losing his cool like this. The only times he used his Alpha voice were during emergency situations when he needed to get things done as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this particular situation didn’t quite match up with the others.

When his mate shot him one last scowl, pressed a hand against her protruding stomach and tried to move around him and leave everyone else, he made sure to stop her with a low growl, not trusting himself to touch her.

One touch would ruin everything and get him addicted, and frankly, Marcellus couldn’t afford to make such a mistake.

“And definitely not you.” He murmured quietly, “You can stay. We have some things we need to talk about.”