"I heard about your pack having fewer members than ours, but there was no one among these tigers who could take responsibility for the safety of the pack, in addition to the Alpha’s own blood and flesh?”
“The tigers of my pack have always done everything they can to protect each generation of Valiant!” she growled and Hunter felt faint as he saw her turquoise eyes shine even more brightly, as a reflection of the presence of her inner beast “This has nothing to do with us teaching our cubs to defend themselves…”
“And then send them to war?” he replied “As far as I know, you are not your father’s heir, right? What is the need for him to put you through the kind of training necessary to be on the front lines during a life and death battle?”
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“Hunter! There you are!" Jennifer's scream arrived before her and, despite being slightly uncomfortable at being caught there, Hunter remained exactly where he was, standing in the middle of the grass in his house's back garden, his eyes focused on the view from the window nearby "What are you doing standing here?” she happily reached for him so she could wrap her hands around his arm “If you have free time now, why don't we go up to my room? I know you always refuse, but frankly, I don't know why you think it would be inappropriate if I served you some food there... Hey, what are you looking at so much...?” The cheerful, warm tone in her voice was lost the instant Jennifer seemed to follow his line of sight and realized what, or rather who, Hunter was watching. The window next to the back garden belonged to the library area of his house, which was also the library of the entire city and which Hunter al
Before he could even get close enough to the window, however, someone else arrived first. A large tigress placed herself between Jeremy and the bookshelf, using her paws to push the structure away from the boy while using her body to protect him. With the blow, the bookshelf fell backwards again, hitting the other shelves behind it and starting an extremely loud and chaotic domino effect that only ended when the last shelf in the row fell onto a nearby table, leaving a terrible mess of broken wood and books lying on the floor.“Oh, man…” Jeremy muttered, in a mixture of shock and desolation “My father will even sell my clothes to pay for this… And the Alpha will kill me.”In response, Corinne's bestial form just snorted, as if agreeing with the boy, even worrying about pushing the nearest bookshelf away, to allow the young
As Hunter imagined, some of the bookshelves broken after the library incident had to be replaced, but at least, as he read the papers spread across the kitchen table where he was working that morning, Hunter realized that the town carpenter had been kind and made lighter budgets, after discovering that the teens' parents had insisted on paying for the damage caused by the rebellious cubs, especially Jeremy's father. And, of course, they had also personally apologized to Corinne for those kids' unfulfilled plans and for having saved them from falling off the bookshelf anyway.Gosh, he had piles and piles of administrative work to do that night, but still his mind couldn't rest at peace as the vision of her face, both human and bestial, returned again and again to his mind. Once again, she had caused a pandemonium that normally would have made him furious, but the only thing that had happened was that Hunter
“That doesn’t answer my question… Why would your father bother to train you in this kind of thing, when there are two of your brothers ahead of you in the Tigers’ line of succession?”“It wasn’t my father who taught me these things.” Corinne growled, her jaw clenched “Anyway, it doesn't matter why or how I learned them. They won't do me any good, but I can still use them even if I don't want to. So I say, accept my compensation and end this conversation so I can leave. It was hard enough finding you here in the first place. I never imagined that an Alpha with a house like this and an entire office at his disposal would prefer to carry out his duties at a kitchen table.”“It’s none of your business where I prefer to carry out my duties or not.” Hunter snorted, but continued to ignore
There were dozens of things Hunter could have been doing at that moment. Several daily obligations that he should be fulfilling at that moment. But still, he was there, discreetly leaning against the stable door, as he watched Corinne pet the two small foals with thin, trembling legs that were near Opal. He had already seen that mare almost destroy that entire stable in one of her rages, but now, she looked like an obedient puppy, accepting all the vegetables Corinne offered her and keeping a close eye on her cubs, while enjoying the tigress's cuddles. It was such a sweet and peaceful scene that, for some reason even he couldn't understand, Hunter just wanted to stay there, watching take care of those horses as if they were his own little pack. “If you have something to tell me, then you better say it now, instead of spying on me.” Corinne criticized, without even turning to face him, although Hunter wasn
“And finally, this is my husband’s office.” Corinne introduced, so naturally that no one could have suspected that it was the first time she had set foot there “There are other places I could show you, but since you're tired, Diego, I think we should go straight to the room that Isabelle, the Alpha's cousin, prepared for you…”“What a nice place…” Diego walked calmly into Hunter’s office, ignoring his sister “Could I sit down for a bit? Oh, what a lovely family portrait…” he smiled, his eyes fixed on the huge paintings above the fireplace, where the images of Hunter's father and mother stood, imposing and frozen in time forever “I always told my father that the Wolves had an aesthetic sense as keen as ours. I'm happy that my sister can be living in an environment like this, after our father made her spend so much time tr
“That was just a part of Corinne’s life. Several times, she visited us at the main house and just those moments were enough for our father to decide that isolating her in the country was not far enough away for her to stay from our home.”“So she was able to have all these luxuries on these occasions and your father, the same one who sent her away several times, simply allowed that? Without ever trying to punish her or simply deny her requests?” Hunter continued questioning him, until Diego gritted his teeth.“I came here to try a good deed, Alpha Calibur, but now I see that I came too late. It seems that my sister's theater has already poisoned your mind and is preventing you from seeing the truth.”"On the contrary. No one is more interested than me in knowing every detail
“Uh… Octavia… Is this really necessary?” Cindy swallowed hard, but Corinne couldn't see her face because the desk she was holding blocked her view almost completely.“Of course that is.” Octavia snorted, watching intently as Corinne lifted the desk into the air once again, flexing her legs in the process “She's going to get out of shape if she continues this routine of just walking horses and being locked in this room. Besides, that desk is nothing. If we were at home, I would make her lift weights using fallen pieces of oak, like she has been used to since she was a child, but this will have to do.”“It’s time to stop, I’m already 50.” Corinne snorted, earning only a growl from Octavia.“I only counted 45. Keep going.”