Alpha’s Thrice Rejectedd Mate By Ida Rowe

Chapter 41

“You know, usually when I’m received at other people’s castles, we at least have tea,” I said after recovering my composure. I try very hard not to look at Kora. Or Oswald. Hell, I don’t even look at Shawn or Lyle. I keep my focus entirely on Deborah.

“Well, you Hale?”

did sneak in,” Deborah admonished me. “That doesn’t put us at a good beginning, now does it, Alpha

I shrugged. “You’re rather determined to wipe out my pack, so I figured your guards might not treat me too well. Or my friend here. I assume you know Shawn, Alpha Shadowmoon? Seems he sl*pped right through your fingers.”

Lyle bared his teeth, his hand squeezing around Oswald’s throat until the older man coughed.

“Lyle!” Deborah snapped. “Control yourself. Honestly-children!” She fixed me with a sugary sweet smile. “You’ll understand when you have some of your own.”

Н

“My mate and I were working on that until we were so rudely interrupted,” I said.

Kora shot me a look then flicked her gaze back down to the floor,

Alright, so it wasn’t entirely true, but it was entirely possible. It wasn’t as though I’d been wearing a condom.

Deborah’s expression soured, which made it worth provoking my mate just a little bit. “I can assure you, she isn’t pregnant.

“Hmm. Shame. Would have been nice to celebrate that at her Luna ceremony as well,” I said.

“Perhaps that can be arranged for when she ascends as Luna of the Shadowmoon Pack,” Deborah replied, her smile turning evil.

My eye ticked. “Sorry. Not going to happen.”

“Oh, but it is. My Lyle has realized the terrible mistake he made, and didn’t you already reject her?” Deborah asked.

“I realized my mistake sooner. We’re going to be mated before the Fullbright Pack,” I said, folding my arms. “If you’re nice and call off the war, I might even invite you to the ceremony.”

“Generous,” Deborah responded, “but no. As you can see, I have the upper hand here. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get to see Lyle f*ck your maté in front of you before he tears your throat out.”

I growled. “I’d like to see him try.”

“Is that a challenge?” Lyle asked eagerly.

Deborah turned her sour gaze on Lyle, “Don’t be an idiot, Lyle. We hold all the cards here. A challenge would give him a smidgen of a chance.”

“You don’t think I could kick that weakling’s a*s?!” Lyle shot back at his mother.

Even if Kora hated me, even if she rejected me and we were never mated, I could see from the bickering power- bucking feud between just Lyle and Deborah that I wasn’t going to allow Kora to stay in this festering hellhole. “I accept,” I said.

Lyle and Deborah turned to me. “What?” Deborah asked.

“I accept Alpha Shadowmoon’s challenge, I repeated. “He asked if it was a challenge; I’ve decided it is.”

Deborah let out a frustrated sound. “Lyle, this is why you can’t ever be trusted to run this pack. NOW you’ve lost the advantage.”

“I can beat him, Mother, and have him completely out of our hair without us having to dance around with your machinations. Besides, who 1 f*ck MY mate in front of is my business,” Lyle seethed.

“And what do you intend to do with Oswald while you’re having your petty little sandbox fight?” Deborah asked archly.

Lyle ground his teeth together but couldn’t seem to come up with an answer for his mother.

“Exactly. You never think anything through,” Deborah sighed.

“You’re saying you can’t handle him for five minutes?” Lyle grunted.

Deborah scowled. “As usual, making me do all the work to keep your throne.”

“Are we going to do this, or should Shawn and I be asking for accommodations for the evening?” I asked sweetly.

Kora choked on a laugh, and relief washed through me. She couldn’t hate me all that much if she could still laugh. at my jokes.

Deborah and Lyle did not find my words nearly as amusing. “Fine,” Deborah said. “Have your little pi ssing contest. Oswald! Come stand by me.”

With jerky steps, Oswald went to stand by the Luna Regent. I realized then that he hadn’t just been under her spell when my father died he still was under her spell

“Complication,” Shawn noted aloud.

I simply nodded. This was, indeed, going to make things more difficult.

Lyle threw off his robes and shifted, letting out an unholy snarl, coming forward off the dais.

I pulled off the se rvants’ garb and shifted as well.

While I began circling Lyle, sizing him up, Lyle didn’t bother. I was surprised when he simply launched himself at me, jaws open, claws extended.

I danced to the side, and he smacked face-first into a pillar.

“Oh yes, I can see how this is going to solve all our problems,” Deborah snorted.

Lyle roared with anger and launched himself at me again.

As a wolf, he was slightly bigger than me, but as a fighter, it seemed he was completely relying on his superior size. That, and he had an anger problem.

I crouched under his attack and dug my teeth into his flank as he passed.

Lyle’s eyes bulged, and he snarled in indignation. He shook me off after jumping around a bit, but it cost him a fair amount of leg muscle.

“I suppose you’ll expect me to heal that up, too,” Deborah sniffed.

She wasn’t doing her son any favors. The angrier Lyle got, the more sl oppy he became.

Soon, I was spitting out a piece of his shoulder. I pinned him beneath me, aiming my next strike at his throat.

A blast of red light blinded my vision, and the next thing I knew, I was halfway across the throne room.

“That’s enough of that,” Deborah said.

Under normal circumstances, using mommy’s magic would have made Lyle automatically forfeit the match.

As I rose shakily to my feet, my wolf form gone, and leaned against a pillar, I noted Deborah’s hand was still pointed at me with a c rackle of red magic around it. I was never meant to win. I was always meant to die.

A roar erupted from the side, and I saw Kora, in wolf form, streak through the air and clamp down on Deborah’s raised arm.

Deborah shrieked in pain, her magic fizzling out.

Now was not the time for thought. I pelted over to Kora and pulled her back by the scruff of her n*eck, my hand. wound tightly in her fur.

“Move out, you two! Let’s get the F*CK out of here!” I shouted.

Shawn shifted, just as I realized I could not. Whatever she’d hit me with was potent enough to stop my shift, and it was still zinging through my veins. I pulled on the pants I’d shed earlier, my legs shaky.

“Sh it,” I muttered.

Shawn must have realized the problem because he paused just long enough in the hallway to crouch down so I could get on his back. Then he and Kora raced through the castle, back the way we came.

A contingent of guards managed to assemble between us and the exit, but Shawn and Kora made short work of them, even with me plastered to Shawn’s back. Then we were bounding for the woods.

Kora and Shawn didn’t stop, doubling back several times, until we reached the edge of Coswald. Then they shifted, and the three of us walked to Jim’s motel, both of them n*ked.

Jim flicked his eyes up when we entered the motel. His l*ps thinned, and he set his crossword aside, actually coming out from behind the booth. “That’s a rather nasty bite you’ve got on your shoulder there, Alpha Hale.”

I looked at my left shoulder and grimaced. I hadn’t even noticed. “Guess so.”

“You’ve got the magic boggin’ you down, too. Well, guess it’s time to get the kit.” Jim went back into the booth and came out with a large case. “I kept room six warm for you. Figured you’d be back.”

“Smart man,” I murmured.

“So they tell me. Alright, everyb*dy in. Figure Oswald’ll be calling me within the hour, and I don’t want to be missing that call,” Jim said.

That raised more than a few questions for me, probably for Kora and Shawn as well, but we were all too exhausted

to ask them right now.

With Kora and Shawn’s help, I got settled on the bed in room six, and Jim opened his case.

Kora knelt beside me, flitting the back of her hand over my forehead. “You’re a big, dumb idiot,” she whispered.

I smiled tiredly. “I know.”