Page 98 of My Grumpy Alpha

Gabe grabs his phone and looks down at the screen.

“Okay, time to hunt.”

“NO!” Eli screams.

“Don’t do this! I’ll go, I’ll do it!”

"No,” I say with an authority I didn’t think I possessed.

“I’ll hunt. What’s the game?”

Gabe sighs.

“Find one, find just one, find a lost one, a lost one from the pack in the forest and you’ll be okay. Bring them back here. Save one. Save just one, and you win. Save nothing and you lose.”

"And you?” Eli jumps up, then stumbles.

“My brother, what’s your part in this?”

Gabe smiles, then hesitates.

“Bringing it all back together again. It’s been the same since my family took you in. It’s always been this goal. Being whole.”

“At the cost of us!” Eli roars.

Gabe shakes his head.

“No, brother, this is to bring us together again, but in order to do that, you need to face what you fear.”

Eli pauses.

“What the hell do you think I fear?”

Gabe takes a deep breath.

“Yourself, your own power, your own rage, you do not fear others, my friend, you fear yourself.”

He nods.

“You’re right. I use it to protect others. I use it for us. My mate.” I don’t stand down. I get up and I face him.

“So fight me. Fight me now. And we’ll see how this ends.”

He nods.

“Okay, we’ll see how it ends, but know, in the beginning, the only thing we thought was, keep him safe, love him, and teach him, maybe this is your final lesson, brother.”

"You dare call me brother?” I yell.

He smiles and watches Ava.

“You finally found her, and now it’s her time to find someone else, someone else missing in this forest. We’ve been searching for years for the lost children of your pack. If she finds one, is it all worth it? All these years? All the rage? I say yes, I say yes to this fight. And I think if you really thought about it, you wouldtoo. Besides, it’s time to let someone else be the hero, why can’t it be her?”

She’s my hero.

It settles in my soul.

I stare at her.