Chapter 29: Parlay

I pulled myself away from Zander, and he looked at me with a fire in his eyes. A warmth spread throughout my body under the heat of his gaze. I wanted him like I hadn’t wanted anyone before. It was a strong feeling in my heart that wanted to feel him pressed up against my body again.

"Maybe we can try that again sometime,” Zander flirtatiously said.

I laid my head on his shoulder and said, “Only if I feel like it. Maybe this was a once in a lifetime thing.”

“You're so cold.”

“You’d have to convince me.”

“Maybe I can do that. I convinced you the first time,” he said with a charming smile.

Zander pulled me onto his lap and leaned in close enough that his lips were dangerously close to mine. My heart thudded loudly, and it felt as if time had slowed down.

His lips got close enough to kiss me. Zander’s breath felt hot near my mouth, and he gazed into my eyes with an intensity I had never seen before. It felt as if he was staring into my soul which made me shiver.

Was he going to kiss me again or was this just him teasing? I almost wanted to close the gap between us myself. I trailed my fingers slowly down his chest to mess with him. He me a lopsided grin and ran a hand through my messy hair.

He pulled away seconds before his lips touched mine. I playfully pushed his chest. Zander laughed and kissed my cheek.

“You’re such a tease Zander!”

Zander pressed his lips against my neck and sucked on it gently. It felt so good and made me feel kind of turned on. I wanted him to kiss and touch me more. I couldn’t get enough of Zander’s touch and his lips.

He pulled away and chuckled, as if he read my thoughts. I gave a shy smile and stroked his dark hair away from his eyes. It was so soft and absolutely a lovely mess.

My heart was still beating loudly when I got off of him. I didn’t want to keep being so close to him. I wouldn’t be able to hold back from doing more than kissing if I stayed there.

“I think we should finish setting up our camp. We have huts but didn’t get any food out.”

“Guess we should eat after all that lip exercise.”

I tried not to get flustered and nodded in silent agreement. Zander stood up and held my hand in his while we walked out of the hut together.

As we got food out of my bag, there were footsteps approaching. Our heightened hearing helped us hear the person before they got too close to us. The intruder smelled like a wolf, which made us on high alert.

I prepared myself to fight if the wolf proved not be friendly. No way would an intruder get away if they were planning on attacking us. We wouldn’t let someone get away with threatening us.

My heart flipped over when I saw Maurice’s familiar face come up to us. I quickly scanned that he had no weapons on him. It was just out of precaution. I didn’t believe that Maurice would hurt me.

Flashes of Zander and I came flooding back to me. I had been kissing someone who wasn't his son. How had I done something so careless? I pushed guilty thoughts away and paid attention to Maurice.

Maurice kept an unreadable expression and said, “I want to talk to you about something important.”

Zander spitefully said, “You mean about how you killed my parents?! I’d rather not.”

Maurice said in a calm tone, “I was hoping to convince you both to keep my secret.”

“How did you figure out we knew your secret? I don’t recall talking to you about this,” I spoke up.

Maybe Zander stating what he did gave it away. I wouldn’t have told Maurice that so bluntly. I wanted to avoid any fighting, especially with an Alpha. I wasn’t sure if Zander could win against Maurice and feared for his life.

Maurice looked around and kept his eyes on Zander. Maurice didn’t seem to trust that Zander wouldn’t attack him without warning. I grasped Zander’s hand and tried to calm him down. His one hand was clenched into a fist.

Seconds later, Maurice said, “It certainly isn’t my fault that your father was an adulterer and couldn’t be loyal to his wife. I mean, you mother wasn’t any better. She wouldn’t keep quiet like I wanted her to. That woman was an idiot for trying to reveal the truth.”

Zander turned aggressive and told him, “How dare you talk about my parents that way? You took them away from me when I was twelve. I became an orphan because of you!”

Maurice chuckled and said, “You’re lucky I didn’t eliminate you back then. I didn't like how you
accused me of negligence. You had no respect for your Alpha and it irritated me greatly. Besides, you were a useless pack member anyway. You disobeyed a lot of orders as a child.”

I had to hold Zander back from trying to go after Maurice. He was in an odd in-between state of wolf and human. I saw his hands had changed into claws and his teeth were a wolf’s. Maurice looked amused at Zander’s anger and smiled in a sickening way.

“Don’t you talk about me like that! I’m not useless.” Zander added, “At least I'm not a coward like you are. You’ve been hiding this secret because you’re afraid!”

“You’re wrong about Zander. He’s a better person than you are. You are a disgrace to Alphas everywhere. It should be taken away from you!”

He didn’t like hearing that from me and bared his teeth. Zander kept close to me, as if he wanted to protect me. I had never seen Maurice act so out of control before. Maybe he was never the good leader I used to see him as.
Any respect I had for him had been lost at seeing his behavior. Maurice wasn’t acting like an Alpha. He was just a bitter man who was power hungry.

The Alpha kept his teeth bared at me and growled as if was a wolf already. I smelled the scent of wolf coming from him stronger than when he first arrived. He seemed close to shifting, but so was Zander. Wolf scent drifted off of Zander too.

Maurice growled and narrowed his eyes at us. “I will destroy any evidence of the past. You two are now loose ends that I’ll have to discard.” He added, “This is the end for both of you!”