All Chapters of Alpha's Obsession With His Pet: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

(Rene)Cole doesn’t ask who her is when I snarl, “Fetch her,” in passing.Mount your mate. Don't be a fool about the rest.The wolf’s been saying some version of that since I walked out of my father's study.Over and over, until it stopped sounding like advice and started sounding like an order I'd already decided to obey.She's in my doorway in under two minutes, like some animal part of her felt this coming before Cole even knocked on her door.The bond does that to her. I've quit pretending it doesn't do the same to me."Alpha.""Shut the door."She does, and stands where she always stands when I summon her here, hands loose at her sides, chin up, waiting to find out how harsh I’m going to be tonight."Two weeks before I crown Brynn as my Luna," I tell her."I heard. Maliyah made sure the whole house knows, and then Brynn came to tell me herself."I almost think I detect a note of bitterness in her voice.She has no right to it, but I feel the same way.“Then you also know what hap

(Rene)Cole's been talking for ten minutes and I couldn't repeat one word of it."Alpha.""Border rotation. I heard you.""That was three items ago."I look up from the reports I haven't read.He's standing on the other side of my desk with the patient expression he saves for the days I'm being a problem."Say the rest again."He doesn't.He just studies me, and I let him, because snapping at him would confirm whatever he's already concluded."Late night," he says finally. Not a question."Careful.""Wasn't going anywhere with it."He sets the last report on the stack."Your father’s asking to see you. Maliyah's asked twice about the decorations for the hall when Brynn is crowned, and she wants input in the menu for the feast after. And the kitchen wants to know if the boy eats fish.""Why would I know what the boy eats?""You had breakfast with him twice this week."I did.The kid just shows up and looks at me like I’m his hero and refuses to be insulted by the number of times I’ve t

(Maliyah)Victor Beck is sweating through his shirt in my sitting room, and it isn't the tea."He asked the doctor to walk him through it," he says. "Twice. What the heart does. What it should've done. Rasmussen held the line, but-""But what?""Rene kept looking at me while he answered. Not at the doctor. At me."I set my cup down.This is the trouble with using men like Victor.A hammer shouldn’t fret about the nail."You had a cardiac episode brought on by strain," I say."The strain of watching your son shame two packs by keeping his dead mate in his bed. Every wolf in that house believes it because every wolf in that house would find it reasonable. All you have to do is keep being an old man with a weak heart.""I’m not weak and my son isn't a fool, Maliyah.""No. He's a man with a fool's problem, which is worse, because he brought them on himself and he should know better."I refill his cup, and he watches my hands like they might do something else."Stop volunteering details. S

(Angelique)There’s a gray woman standing in front of my bedroom door when I pull it open.Not accidentally in front of. Right there, on the threshold, staring at our room.She's got no business here.Nobody's got business here except me and Zack."Miss Pruitt."She smiles the way some people flick on a light.There’s nothing real about it."I took a wrong turn. This house eats people."I don’t ask how she knows my name. I don’t think there’s anyone here who doesn’t know who I am."The main stairs are back that way."She doesn't move.Zack's on the rug behind me with his trucks, lining them up bumper to bumper the way he does, and her eyes go over my shoulder and land on him and stay there.Stay calm.Rene’s in a business meeting but he'll feel every beat of this and he’ll demand answers when he comes to check.Stay calm, stay bored, stay slow."What a serious little boy," she says. "He organizes. Most children would crash them.""He's four. He does both.""Mm." Her head tips. "Big ha

(Rene)She's barely through the study door before I lock it behind her."You sent Cole to get me at eleven at night."She stops in the middle of the rug, arms crossed.She’s dressed in only a baggy t-shirt, legs bare, hair a mess."In front of the night guards.""We’re werewolves, Angelique. Were you under the impression there are pack members who are in the dark about what we do?""You summon me to your room for that. Not the study. What do you-""You know what."She does.I've been simmering since dinner and the bond carried every degree of it up to her room, the same way it's carrying her answer back to me right now.That low pull in her belly she'd die before admitting to."You're angry," she says."I'm loud. There's a difference."I cross to her."Three days I've had you in my head at full volume. Your temper. Your fear this afternoon. That thing you do at night when you think about my hands on you and hate yourself for it."Her chin comes up."You don't know who I’m thinking abo