bChapter /bb255 /b

L

b“/bBaby, you know I want to be with you as much as you want to be with me,” Sten says. He pulled me into an empty room in the packhouse when I confronted him once again about getting out of the agreement with Alpha Cyra.

Ever since that woman, Piper, called me, I can’t get the thought out of my head that what she said might be true. But every time I say something to Sten, he has a good reason why he can’t get out of the agreement.

“What if she finds her fated mate at the Academy, Stell? Maybe she will and that will be that,” I say, remembering that Piper told me Cyra did

find her mate and he’s the one who punched Sten,

“She didn’t, baby. I told you, when I was there, she refused to release me from the alliance bond. If she had met her mate, she’d have told me. She’d have been as eager to get out of this alliance bond as I am,” he says, running his fingers over my cheek and tucking my hair behind my

earb. /b

Now bI /bdon’t know what to believe.

“You know I only want you, right?” he says, leaning in to kiss me.

It took that call from Piper for me to pay attention, but I’ve finally realized that this is how he gets me to stop asking questions. He moves bour /bconversations into sex and by the time we’re done, I don’t want to drag up the argument again.

He has just pressed his lips to mine when he jerks back.

“Stenb?/b”

“Christer just sent me a mind link. I have to go see him. We’ll finish thister, okay? Promise,” he says, stepping away from me.

He doesn’t wait for me to respond but turns and makes his way out of the room quickly. I only wait a moment before I’m carefully following behind him. Maybe now I can get some answers.

I make my way to Alpha Christer’s office. There’s no one else here at this time of night, so I find a dark corner and tuck myself into the shadows. The door to Christer’s office is slightly ajar, and since Alpha is yelling and banging around, it’s not hard to hear him.

“Some Alpha named Quirin bought the loan and is calling the note,” Alpha Christer growls.

“Who the fuck is Alpha Quirin?” Sten asks.

“Fuck if I know. Some mega–powerful, mega–wealthy Alpha ording to the pack logs.”

“What loan did he buy?” Sten asks.

“What loan? WHAT LOAN? The loan that I took out so we could ckmail Arden, and you could be an Alpha, Sten! That’s what loan!”

I p a hand over my mouth to hold in the sound that my mouth wants to make as I feel my heart breaking. Bree, my wolf, begins howling in my head as our mate’s betrayal hits us like a brick. I know that Alpha Arden is Cyra’s father. Christer and Sten are ckmailing him so Sten can be an Alpha?

“He has to give us time, right? He can’t just expect us toe up with twenty million dors,” Sten says.

“The terms of the loan were that it could be called at any time. At the time, we only had a year before Cyra turned eighteen and you took over as Alpha. I had enough money to pay the interest for that year. Then you had to go and agree to let her attend that fucking Academy for a year!” Alpha Christer screams.

bI /bslide down to the floor keeping myself pressed against the wall. Piper was right, Sten has been lying to me all along.

“So, how long do we haveb?/bb” /bSten asks.

“Until tomorrow. He’sing here, nning to take my pack from me. I’m not losing my fucking pack because I listened to your stupid idea bof /btaking over Arden’s pack,” Christer growls.

It was Sten’s idea? All of it? I feel like I’m going to vomit.

“Fine, I’ll drive to the Academy tonight. I’ll force Cyra toplete the bond. Then we can get our hands on the money and pay back the loanb,/bb” /bSten saysb. /b

“You’d better be ready for a fight, Sten. If her mate finds out that you’re there to force your mark on her, he’ll kill you.”

“He can try,” Sten snarls. “That money is ours. That pack is mine.”

“Before you leave, call Arden. Tell him that if we go down, he goes down with us, so he’d better get his warriors here tonight and be ready for a battle tomorrow,” Christer growls.

“What are you going to do?” Sten asks me.

“I have to prepare to defend the only fucking pack we currently have,i” /ihe snarls. “Now call Arden and get the fuck out of here. Whatever you have to do, you better put your fucking mark on that girl. Did you get her birth control reced with cebos?”

“Yeah. I did that before she left,” Sten says.

“Then make sure you fuck her long enough to put a pup in her, so there’s no choice but for her to ept you,” Christer says.

Thold perfectly still as the door swings open and Sten rushes out the door and down the hall. I feel bile rising in my throat. He not only lied,

he’s going to go force Cyra into a mate bond she doesn’t want so he can be an Alpha.

‘Hey baby. Something hase up. We’ll have to put that make up session on hold until tomorrow. Sorry, baby,‘ Sten’s voice says in the

mind link.

‘Sure. No problem,‘ I say, feeling like my entire world is copsing around me. I’ve been such a fool. He yed me and I fell for it.

I was worried he’d realize something was wrong, but the link is closed before I finish talking.

I hear something crashing against the wall in Alpha’s office a moment before our Beta and Gamma go rushing inside. When the door is closed, I rush out of the hallway, careful not to run into Sten. Then I rush to my room and grab my phone.

I had intended to delete her number, but something inside me, some instinct in Bree, told me to keep her number. I’m d I did.

I dial the number, hoping that she answers. It rings several times, then goes to voicemail. I hang up and dial again. When it goes to voicemail again, I try one more time. If that doesn’t work, I’ll leave a voice message and hope she gets it in time.

This time she answers, sounding aggravated.

“What?” she growls.

“Piper, this is L. Do you remember me?”

I hear her shifting. “Yes, I remember you. Is everything okay?” Her tone is gentle enough and Sten’s betrayal is so raw that my eyes fill with

tears.

“No, but that’s not why I’m calling. You need to warn your friend, Alpha Cyra.”

17:16 Tue, 12 Aug

“Warn her about what?” she asks, her tone turning menacing.

“Something is happening. I don’t know exactly what. Something about some Alpha buying the loan that Alpha Christer and Sten used to ckmail Alpha Arden. The Alpha is threatening toe here tomorrow to get his money or fake our pack. Sten is going to the Academy.

tonight to force Alpha Cyra inte a mate bond. You have to warn her.”

Piper snarls.

“Get up, Zach. We need to warn Cyra and Yorick,” she says. Yorick. That must be Alpha Cyra’s fated mate.

“L, what’s your rank?” she says, and I hear her moving around quickly, probably getting dressed,

“I’m a warrior, why?”

“Don’t fight tomorrow. I’ll let Yorick know that at least one warrior needs to be protected. Hopefully they’ll give everyone a chance to stand

down,” she says.

“Who is Yorick?” I ask.

“Cyra’s fated mate and the brother–inw of the man who is calling the note on your Alpha,” she says.

Holy shit! I know Alpha Christer and Sten don’t know that.

“I have to go, but L?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. If you ever need anything, call me.”

“Thank you.”

I hang up, wondering if I will survive tomorrow. Then I think about Sten’s betrayal, and I wonder if it even matters.

‘It matters,’ Bree says, the ferocity of her tone tainted by the pain of betrayal. ‘He lied to us, but that doesn’t mean that we willy down and die for him. We are stronger than that.‘

Yes. Yes we are.