Chapter 25

SAMANTHA

Luke’s heavy footsteps sounded from the stairs just as I finished plating up our breakfasts.

~The boy shakes the house harder than an earthquake.~ I smiled. ~I’ve missed it.~

“Hey, Luke, eggs and bacon are on the… Where are you going?”

Taking in his backpack slung over his shoulder and a guilty smile on his face, I already knew the answer and braced myself for the argument to follow.

“I thought we’d agreed you would start school on Monday?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I know. It’s just… I really think I should be at school for the next few days.

“Everyone seems to think I’ve only got a few months left before my first shift. I want to be as ready as I can be before that happens.”

I couldn’t blame him. In fact, I hoped he’d find his place among the people here quickly. Since he was the likely heir to the alpha call, it was crucial that he establish himself in the community.

Luckily, he seemed to find every aspect of life with the pack exciting.

His sense of wonder reminded me of when he was small. He was always a happy kid, though he had grown more serious in his teenage years.

Once the newness and magic of the day had worn off, I was sure he would return to his normal self. For the moment, though, I wanted to enjoy his excitement right along with him.

“I was really hoping we could spend the day together. I’ve got this…thing to do with the woman who challenged me, but after that, I wanted to show you around.”

The truth was that I was delaying the inevitable because I was afraid. I wanted to be selfish with my son’s time for a few days before he started an entirely new life as a werewolf.

Plus, I needed a distraction. If I didn’t have Luke to entertain, I’d have to get back to thinking about the alpha ceremony or, Goddess forbid, my love life.

Luke jammed his hands into his pockets and squared his shoulders. It was his tell when he’d made up his mind, and the last thing I wanted to do was come between my son and his wolf.

“Fine.” I sighed. “Let’s at least have breakfast together before you go.”

“Nah, it’s okay, Mom. Pops is already out front. If we leave now, I should make it in time for my first class.”

He was out the door before I could say anything else. Apparently, he was more prepared than I’d anticipated.

I looked down at the two plates of breakfast I’d made.

“Well, Ayisha, looks like it’s a double breakfast for us this morning.”

~With Emilia about to begin her house arrest, I’m going to need it.~

EMERICK

As I pulled up to the pack house, my mind was still on Sam. It had been for the last thirty-six hours.

I’d wanted to call Sam and apologize since our fight, but I wasn’t sure she would answer, and I didn’t want to come off as whiny and desperate. Or at least more so than I already had.

~What was I thinking, proposing the day after Sam found out I had originally planned to use her to be Luke’s beta? Fuck. How did I think that would play out?~

Honestly, I was lucky she hadn’t laughed me out of her life completely.

When I got out of the car, I found a couple of the Enforcers waiting out front. They were huddled around Michael, listening to his instructions.

“Morning,” Michael said, nodding at me.

“Just the four of us?” I came to stand beside them.

“Emilia might be a former luna, but we’ve not heard any whispers of anyone wanting to set her loose. As long as we’re all on high alert, we should get her to her new home in no time.

“You two,” Michael said to the Enforcers, “go and get her. I want a quick word with Emerick.”

He waited for the two men to disappear inside the pack house before saying, “You doing okay? Cassie mentioned you and the alpha had a bit of a fight the other night.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “Heard about that, huh?”

Michael shrugged. “Cassie likes to talk. If I’m going to be the new beta—”

He cut himself off and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Probably a sore subject.”

I slapped a hand on his arm. “Don’t be. If I have to step aside, I can’t think of a finer choice for the role.”

“Technically, I haven’t accepted it yet.”

“I know what you’re carrying, Michael,” I said. “But Alpha Paulson made the right choice.”

He frowned at me. “Look, I’m not trying to pry. What’s going on between you and the alpha is personal. But if it affects her safety, I need to know about it.”

“Why would asking the alpha to marry me be a threat to her safety?”

“Wait”—he narrowed his eyes on me—“you asked Sam to marry you?”

“Uhh…” I scratched the back of my head, looking for a clever response. “I thought Cass told you.”

“She told me you fought, not that…” He swore. “You know what? We don’t have time to get into it right now. It doesn’t matter.

“What matters is that if she’s not in the right headspace going into the alpha ceremony at the end of the week, she’s going to be even more vulnerable to the other alphas. They’ll—”

My heart stopped. “Wait, what? What other alphas?”

Michael adjusted his stance. “You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Almost all the other alphas have responded to the invitations that they’re coming to the ceremony?”

I could feel Zef clawing at me to let him take control. “What do you mean? What invitations? Who sent out invitations?”

Michael’s eyes hardened. “Cassie. As was her responsibility.”

I growled. “What the hell was she thinking?”

Michael reached forward and grabbed me by my collar. “Watch it, Emerick. You’re not the beta anymore.”

I grabbed his hand and pushed my face closer to his, even as his wolf flashed in his eyes.

“Sam is the first alpha she-wolf most of us have ever known. She also happens to be unmated. And Cassie thought it would be a good idea to invite every goddamn male from coast to coast?”

I was ready to explode. As if it wasn’t enough that some alphas had already started to try to put a claim on Sam, we were opening the gates for the rest to come in droves.

“This reaction is exactly what I was worried about, Emerick.”

Michael’s grip tightened. “If you can’t keep it together just talking about the ceremony, how in the hell are you going to cope when the alphas start arriving?”

His blindness was eating me alive. Sam had only just discovered her wolf; she didn’t know the half of what werewolves were capable of, let alone alphas.

Zef started trying to force his way into my consciousness. ~“We have to go to her. I need to protect her.”~

His desperation was enough to zap me back to reality.

~“No!”~ I said to him, ~“Get back. We have to stay calm. We’ll only drive her further away.”~

I didn’t know what to do. My blood was boiling, and I knew if I stayed, Zef would end up taking control. If I went to Sam, we’d have the same fight all over again.

I pried Michael’s fingers off me and pushed him away. “I…I have to get out of here.”

Sprinting as fast as I could without shifting, I ran toward the woods.

“Where are you going?” Michael called after me angrily. “What about Emilia? Dammit, Emerick!”

SAMANTHA

I don’t know who told Jackson about Luke going to school and changing my plans for the day, but I swore I’d make them pay when I found out.

As one of my bodyguards, Jackson was taking my personal security more seriously than most.

So seriously, he probably could have rivaled Emerick for how much he was worrying about me.

If it wasn’t enough that he had wanted to install security cameras in the Alpha Residence—something I’d had to play the alpha card on to get him to stop—he also insisted I needed combat classes.

“We train to defend ourselves from the moment our wolves emerge. You haven’t had that, and you need to learn.”

When I tried to explain that my dad had enrolled my sister and me in self-defense classes when we were little, he’d shifted and made short work of me as if to prove a point.

“From now on, every morning begins with three hours of training.”

I’d managed to dodge him so far as I’d been so busy with other issues. But now that Luke had unexpectedly freed up my morning, Jackson wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Thankfully, Ayisha was a natural, and as our wolves wrestled on the grass outside my new home, I could sense Jackson wasn’t holding back.

During a break, I turned to Jackson and said, “We need to start wrapping up. I have to do a few things for the upcoming ceremony before I see to Emilia’s arrest.”

“Nope,” he responded simply.

“Jackson…” I tried not to sound whiny but failed.

He pondered for a moment. “If you can get me to submit, we can call it a day. If not, we still have another two hours of training.”

~Challenge accepted,~ I thought.

I jumped forward, transitioning in midair, and Ayisha surged to the forefront of my mind, eager to show what she could do.

Jackson followed suit and shifted back into his wolf, Lyall.

We locked eyes as our wolves circled each other, growling and snarling, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Ayisha was studying Lyall’s movements. She was eager for a win and wanted to make the first strike.

Our hind legs tensed just before she lunged at Lyall. He saw it coming but clearly expected her to aim high. When she instead grabbed his front leg and twisted it, he let out a surprised yelp.

He tried to break free, but Ayisha was strong and used her weight to force him onto his back. An instant later, she let go of his leg and pressed her fangs against his throat.

I could feel his pulse quicken as Lyall realized his predicament. When he continued to struggle, Ayisha tightened her grip slightly.

After another heartbeat, I felt him relax.

He was submitting.

Ayisha released him and sat back on her haunches, her tongue hanging out and her tail wagging.

I turned back to see Jackson standing where Lyall had just been. Reluctantly, Ayisha stepped back so I could shift as well.

My cell started to ring, and I made my way over to it.

“Guess we’re done for the day,” I said, feigning innocence.

“Fine, Paulson,” he grumbled. “But tomorrow is a full day of hand-to-hand combat.”

“Hey, that’s Alpha Paulson to you, buddy,” I teased and accepted the call on my phone. “Hi, Michael, is everyth—? What do you mean Emilia escaped? How did that…?”

~Oh no…~

My hand shook, and my fingers became so weak that my phone slipped from my grasp.

“Luke! She’s going after Luke!”