Page 16 of Flawed Fate
He fills the doorway, every muscle in his body rigid, his nostrils flared. His eyes go from me to Iris to the bathroom door, then back to me. I can see him putting it together. The humidity hanging in the air. The flush on her face. Whatever he can smell in this room—and he can smell it, I know he can. We’re wolves. There’s no hiding this.
“Hallway,” I growl, teeth clenched. When he doesn’t move fast enough, I move him, then close the door once we’re out of the room.
He throws my hands off his chest, snarling. “Did you really just fuck her?” His voice is low. Dangerous. The kind of quiet that comes before an explosion.
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me, Declan. I can?—”
“I said no.” I don’t raise my voice because I don’t need to. “And even if I did, I don’t need your permission.”
Something dark and ugly flashes across his face. “She’s Moore’s daughter. Do you understand that?”
“I know exactly who she is.”
“Then what the hell are you doing?” His voice cracks with rage that he’s barely keeping leashed. “You were supposed to be watching her. Guarding her. She’s a prisoner, Declan, but you—what? You smelled her and forgot all of that?”
That lands closer to the truth than I’d like. I don’t let it show. “Careful,” I mutter.
“No. I’m done being careful.” He steps up to me, close enough that if this were anyone other than my brother, my wolf would read it as a challenge.
“Your alpha is handling it.”
He barks out a laugh that’s more like a threat. “Are you?”
“This isn’t your personal vendetta, no matter how you feel about Addison. I understand your anger, but how I handle this situation, how I handle her? That’s my call. Not yours.”
His jaw works like he’s chewing on words he wants to spit at me. His hands are fists at his sides, and I can feel the anger coming off him. Not just anger, either. Hurt. Like I’ve betrayed something he thought was sacred between us. As if I picked a stranger over family.
I haven’t. But I can’t explain what I have done, because I don’t understand it myself.
“I have final say in all pack matters,” I remind him. Steady. Calm. Alpha, even though I don’t feel calm, and I sure as hell don’t feel steady. “This qualifies.”
“This qualifies,” he repeats, flat and bitter. “Right. Pack matters. Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Zeke.”
“She’s leverage. That’s what you said last night. Leverage.” He jabs a finger against my chest. “And you’re in there?—”
A howl cuts through the air.
We both freeze. It’s distant but clear. A wolf, somewhere in the surrounding woods, the sound carrying through the open window at the end of the hall.
A warning call. Or a signal.
Footsteps pound up the stairs, and Tara appears behind Zeke, breathless, her dark hair wild around her face. I had no idea she was here until now. I’m that far removed from reality. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah.” The argument with Zeke evaporates. That’s how it works. Everything personal gets shelved the second the pack is at risk. “Where?”
“North. Near the border. Kyran’s people are reporting armored vehicles heading toward our territory from the main road.”
My blood goes cold. It has to be Moore.
Iris.
I don’t want to leave her. The thought is immediate and irrational, and absolutely useless right now. My wolf is clawing at the inside of my skull, torn between the threat at the border and the girl on the bed, and I want to tell him to shut up, but he’s right. I can’t leave her vulnerable.
But the pack needs me. My family needs me. That always comes first.
