Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 95748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Jackson held her gaze. “You really do seem fine that Erik mated Luna so soon after you ended the engagement.”
“I’m thrilled for them.” Her eyes drifted, almost against her will, to his bare chest. Even in a world of wolves, Jackson stood apart with cut muscles and impressive ridges that invited a female’s gaze. She dragged her focus upward, locking onto his blue eyes. A myriad of shades swirled within them, from icy and pale to deep navy, intense yet unreadable. Seth Volk had similar eyes, but Jackson’s held something darker, heavier. Something she couldn’t quite name.
“Thrilled, huh? I guess that’s better than war.”
Emily didn’t have the time or energy for war. Or for mating. “Your pack and mine can create a contract to protect each other even within the coalition. We don’t have to mate.” She probably didn’t have that much time left, anyway.
Jackson waved a hand in the air. “Contracts mean jack shit to wolves, and you know it. Bloodlines matter. Matings matter. My council is on me about finding a mate and settling down, and an Alpha female is needed. There are now two in your family.”
“Nadia? You’d mate her?” Emily questioned, the idea sending a sharp, unexpected pang through her chest. The sudden intensity of it shocked her. The idea of Jackson with her newly found sister made her want to puke.
“No. She’s adorable,” Jackson said with a slow smile, “but my eyes are on you, baby, and you know it.”
Yeah, she did. Probably because she was the only female who’d ever turned him down. Oh, the kiss that summer had been spectacular, and he’d wanted to take it further, but she had said no.
He had rolled his eyes and made some flippant comment about her being cold to his buddies later. It wasn’t the last time she’d been called that, but she blamed him for starting the rumors.
“What’s that harsh look on your face?” he asked.
“When you called me cold,” she said bluntly. “Years ago, at the summer get-together. The nickname stuck.”
His eyes sobered. “If it stuck, I’m sorry. But you’ve rejected your fair share of males throughout the years. If it helps, I find nothing cold about you.”
She didn’t want it to help, but it did. He was appealing and dangerous. And she wanted him. She always had.
But right now, she was the only thing keeping her damn cousin Victor from challenging Philip, and she knew it. She would side with her father, and the pack would side with them both, thinking she would step up or mate somebody who would. They didn’t know she was getting weaker every day from some odd illness that apparently the females in her lineage suffered from. That fact wasn’t common knowledge, and she wanted it to stay that way.
If she left and became a member of Jackson’s pack—her only option if she mated him—it would leave her father alone. Without her here to back him, Victor would attack immediately. Also, it wouldn’t be fair to mate Jackson with her sickness. She’d been getting weaker for more than a month. While Nadia’s arrival was amusing and welcome, she lacked fighting skills and wouldn’t survive as the Alpha.
Victor would probably kill Philip. And Philip couldn’t even see it. Or perhaps his ego was such that he didn’t believe it. She loved her father and wanted to protect him. She was also short on time. If she mated Jackson, would his pack protect hers, even if she died?
It was a fucking conundrum.
A knock came at the door.
“Come in,” Emily muttered.
Caidrik walked in and looked directly at Jackson. “Nightsom reached out to the Ravencall Alpha. Or at least he tried to.”
Jackson stood. The chair protested with a loud creak, but it didn’t break. Emily breathed out a relieved sigh.
“He’s dead already,” Jackson guessed.
“The Volk brothers probably don’t even know that yet,” Caidrik replied grimly. “But there’s more. The Ravencall and Ghostwind Packs are in negotiations to combine forces.”
“Oh, shit,” Jackson muttered.
The two rogue packs had been making inroads with the Stope Packs Coalition for nearly a decade.
“It looks like they decided to attack the Nightsoms and the Slate Pack first,” Jackson noted.
Caidrik nodded, his face grim. “Nightsom just took off to up the patrols and warn his soldiers. Should be back in a couple of hours.”
Silence fell like a dropped stone. Emily crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Jackson ran a hand through his hair, his teeth clenched. When he met her eyes, something shifted in his expression. Maybe resignation. Perhaps resolve.
“Emily,” he said, voice low but steady. “Your pack needs help and your father wants you safe. Mate me and you will be.”
“What’s in it for you?” Emily asked. Seriously. He was hot, dangerous, rich, and an Alpha. He surely didn’t need an unwilling mate.
He took a step forward. “My pack’s running low on Alpha blood. We’ve been holding strong, but the council’s been breathing down my neck since I took over at fifteen. They’ve decreed that if I don’t take a mate with Alpha lineage, they’ll try to remove me. I’d win the fight, but I’d have to put down too many of the pack’s elders.”