Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“It seems like a simple enough question, Alpha.”
Abel took a breath. “You can’t possibly think that I—”
Cole scoffed. “But I actually do think you murdered him.”
“He was my brother!”
“He was my father!” Cole roared back, and Justin and Narah both scrambled quickly to stand on either side of Abel. “You killed him, and a piece of him had to stay behind to right that wrong.”
I moved then, taking my place at his side.
“I have no idea what prompted you to move the pack here, but thank God you did, because without Merritt and the magic, I never would have known the truth.”
“I did not kill Anson!” Abel yelled. “I would never have been the one to spill my brother’s blood.”
Cole was quiet for a moment before his face crumpled and his eyes filled. “No. You’re too much of a coward for that. You had Matthias Haviland do it for you.”
“You’re speaking blasphemy right now!”
“It all makes sense. You wanted to be alpha and expand the pack. My father wanted the pack to be small, a family. That’s what he wrote in his journals.”
“Your father didn’t understand that without new members, without an influx of money, without pure-blood wolves, we wouldn’t survive. All he ever wanted was peace, but we had to fight for what we wanted. Always.”
“You always believed it was bad for the pack to have him as alpha,” Cole replied, and it hurt me to see him so broken. “He said you did. That’s in his diary too.”
Abel shook his head.
“Your father was weak and concerned only for you and Evan,” Justin shouted. “What was my father supposed to do when he saw threats from all sides, constantly, and all your father wanted to do was keep his head down?”
Cole nodded before looking at Narah. “Did you know too?”
“Honey, your uncle would never have hurt your father.”
Which, to him, answered that question.
“How could you stand to have me and Evan in your home knowing what you did to him? How could you look at us every day?”
“Anson was deluded,” Abel said. “But you and your brother were innocent, and you were my blood.”
“As well as pure blood,” Cole added. “And you needed wolves who could defend the pack, especially the firstborn son of an alpha.”
“You’ve always thought you were so special,” Justin snarled, and all I heard was rage and jealousy. He seemed so different from the man I had first met and, of course, far more reactive without his power to fall back on.
“No,” Cole told him. “I was ready to honor the line of succession, to support your place as heir, to support you as alpha after your father. I didn’t want to cause any of you a moment of pain, even after several members of the pack came to me and said I needed to challenge you,” he whispered, his eyes on Abel. “I appreciated you all so much for taking Evan and me in after our father died in a car accident.”
Abel began pacing.
“But now I know you had my father killed,” Cole said icily. “That’s probably the real reason you moved here, isn’t it? You had to get away from the Haviland Pack because you’ve been paying them back for years for what they did for you.”
Abel was shaking now, still pacing back and forth. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, and I will not have—”
“Enough.” Cole took a deep breath. “I hereby challenge you for your place as alpha. We will meet on Thursday before the feast.”
All eyes were suddenly on me.
“Merritt will not interfere, but he will stand at my side.” Cole turned to look at me. “Won’t you?”
“I will,” I rasped, thinking that I’d only just found him, and now I was supposed to stand there and watch and do nothing? While I knew logically that there was no way a second-born wolf could best the firstborn son of an alpha, and that Cole was the one who should, by rights, be alpha…anything could happen. I’d seen things I’d never anticipated over the long years of my life.
“I request that the challenge not be to the death, but until one of us yields, and if I win, all three of you will be banned from the pack and pack land. The same will be true of Evan and me. If I lose, we will leave the pack.”
“I don’t want any of that!” Abel yelled at him.
“Well, you should have thought of that before you had my father killed!” Cole shouted back.
It was suddenly quiet in the house, the crackling of the fire the only sound.
“The Danton-Steelwater Pack will be here from Morgantown to join us for the feast and a run,” Abel explained. “The alpha’s name is Spencer Danton. He can judge the challenge. I’ll let him know. I’m sure he’ll be all the more eager to join us for your insisted-upon blood sport.”