Page 66 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

“I said I’m fine.” She doesn’t look up. “I’m not leaving him.”

“Salar is two doors away, and I’m right here.” I take her by the elbow to lift her off the mattress, and she comes up because she has nothing left to fight me with. “You’ve been awake for twenty-three hours. Go.”

She goes, swearing at me on the way out, which I take as a good sign. Then I stand at the window with my son asleep behind me, and I watch her come out of the side door onto the terrace instead of going up to her room. Instead of going far, she stops at the second bench along the wall, the stone one, in the cold, in a shirt with nothing over it. She puts her face in her hands.

Reid comes out after a few minutes with a throw over his arm. Without asking her, he shakes it out and puts it around her shoulders. He stands there a while saying something to her and then goes back inside.

A couple of minutes have passed, and the door opens again. It’s the cook who threw a pan at her on her second day in this house and hasn’t said one civil word to her since. She arrives with a mug and makes sure Ariela drinks some of it before she leaves.

Ariela drinks the tea, keeping her eyes on the second-floor window the whole time, which is where I’m standing, and I don’t think she can see me at all. Twenty minutes later, she’s asleep, sitting up with her head back against the bench.

I go down and find Reid on the landing. “Stay with Luca,” I tell him. “I’ll be back.”

Ariela doesn’t wake when I slide my arms under her, only turns her face into my shirt with a small sound of complaint. The throw comes with her. She weighs nothing at all.

Her own room is at the far end of the corridor with the door standing open, and I walk past it. I put her in my bed, pull the covers over her, then sit down on the edge of it and don’t leave.

There are dried tear tracks down both sides of her face. I put two fingers on one of them and follow it from her cheekbone down to her jaw. She doesn’t stir, so I keep doing it. There’s a bruise on the side of her throat that I put there thirty hours ago, half faded now.

Whatever this is, I don’t understand. All I know is that she’s mine. She’s going to stay.

Young madam.

My lips curve. “It suits you,” I murmur fondly. “And I am certain you will hate it.”

I put the back of my hand on her forehead because I’ve watched her do it to Luca eleven times tonight. Then I get up.

Reid is on the landing. “Is the young madam all right?”

“Have someone check on her every hour.” I take my coat off the chair. “I have business to deal with.”

❦ ❦ ❦

The Thorne estate is forty minutes west of mine, and nobody stops me at the gate.

Their man on the door takes one look at my face and steps out of the doorway without asking me a single question. I walk through their hall, a maid leading me to the morning room. I’m not surprised to see Samuel Rook in the chair nearest the fire with a cup balanced on his knee. Samuel had been one of the most vocal elders to try to and get me removed as the alpha when my father passed. He had wanted his nephew, Silas, to take that seat, making claims of new blood and whatnot. Of course when he saw me dragging the beheaded bodies of the assassins sent at me, he stepped back. Silas is standing at the window with his back to the glass. A young woman sits on the sofa, a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. With soft auburn curls and a baby face, she is barely twenty, and yet her uncle wanted to throw her at my mercy.

Corinne stands when she sees me. Unlike her brother and maternal uncle, Corinne is soft-natured. Even her wolf is gentle, preferring not to hunt.

“Alpha Vance, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

Samuel doesn’t stand. “Have you reconsidered?” He sets the cup down. “Corinne is an excellent choice for a mate.”

Corinne turns pale. “What?”

I ignore her. “I’m here to find out why the Thorne family thinks breaking into the alpha’s estate is something I’ll tolerate.”

Silas turns around from the window with his hands in his pockets. “I hardly broke in. It’s not my fault your guards are incompetent.”

I look at him. “Have I been too lenient with you, Silas?” I cross the room. “You dare approach my child’s mother?”

“I just had a conversation with her.”

“Did you now?” I murmur before taking a fistful of his shirt at the collarbone and putting him through the window in one swift movement. The glass shatters on impact. Corinne is on her feet with both hands over her mouth. Samuel comes up out of his chair faster than a man his age should be able to.

“What are you doing?!” he roars.

“Teaching him a lesson about why I’m alpha.” I’m already at the frame. “I’m sure the Thorne family wouldn’t mind choosing you as the next family head if your brother dies, Corinne. I promise you my full support when that happens.”