made my wolf preen at claiming her visibly in front of other Alphas.
“Skye, you look amazing,” Trace started as the car began to roll forward. His gaze turned hungry, and I balled the hand at my side into a fist, cracking my knuckles with the force.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Nikolai chimed in as he smiled at Trace before looking at Skye proudly. “She seems to have found her place with her mate.”
Damien flinched while I hid a smile. Skye and I had filled him in on Damien’s demand on the plane. The cold rage Nikolai threw off at the revelation made me wonder if he would break Damien’s neck the way he had Allan’s.
So far, though, he seemed happy just antagonizing Damien.
“They’re young,” Damien scoffed. “The idealism of children is often broken by maturity.”
“They’re bonded,” Griffin said, frowning.
Damien barely spared me a glance. “A bond that will be broken by the defeat and death of Remy.”
Skye snarled softly next to me, and I stroked my fingers across her shoulder comfortingly. Damien was trying to provoke us.
“Is that how you justify casting your wife aside to take my child as your own mate?” Nikolai countered, the deceptively calm tone sending ripples out into the atmosphere of the car.
Griffin scoffed. “Seriously? Skye’s a kid.”
Damien’s eyes narrowed. “She’s of age. Besides, I’m attempting to forge an alliance.” He looked at Nikolai briefly and then out the window. “One my uncle was supposed to secure between our packs.”
Nikolai grinned back. “Well, you’re failing all over the place, aren’t you? First with your useless uncle, and then with your pathetic attempts at alliances. If your current allies are as strong as Long Mesa, I’m not even sure what chance you possibly have. And that’s not even mentioning the absolute cock-up of your untrained elemental wreaking havoc on a captive female population that you’ve stolen.”
Damien growled back.
“Elemental?” Griffin asked carefully, looking confused.
I sighed and shook my head. “Long story.”
“Maybe if you would have shared your full methodology with my uncle months ago, this entire war could have been avoided,” Damien snapped.
“You’re a liar,” Skye said plainly, her nose wrinkling. “Elias had nothing to do with your greed or you kidnapping women and girls. Or your fucked up auction that you’ve set up to entice men to join you.”
Damien glared at her, the first crack in his armor. “When you’re mine, you’ll learn how to control your mouth.”
“She isn’t yours,” I shot back, barely fighting the urge to shift in this moving cage and settle this now.
“Not yet,” Damien agreed, inspecting his nails for a moment. “Though I suppose you’ve given her free rein the way your father did with your mother.”
I smirked. “Skye’s her own person. She can do what she wants.”
Which apparently included things like letting an elemental tap into her like a well until she collapsed from exhaustion.
“She’s a female,” Damien hissed, derision an oily curse on his lips. “She has no place other than in a bed or raising a child.”
Nikolai laughed loudly, the sound bouncing off the ceiling of the car. “You really are an absolute fool, aren’t you?” He leaned forward, eyes flashing with warning. “This is why the Narodnaya pack and the European packs will never align themselves with yours. It’s why I sent men to decimate the origin pack you hail from.”
Damien glared back, openly hostile. “Then I suppose that puts you in a rather troubling situation, doesn’t it? When I marry your daughter, you’ll have to declare war on her as well as Norwood.”
“I’m declaring nothing,” Nikolai said smugly, inclining his head at Skye. “That call will be my daughter’s.”
Trace chuckled. “Letting her make the decisions for you?”
“It’s her right as Alpha to make her own choice.”
Trace was still laughing, but Damien went utterly still and slightly ashen at the revelation.
Griffin’s jaw gaped open. “What?”
Skye was still and stiff at my side, waiting to see how others would react.
“It’s true,” I said quietly, my eyes on Damien’s. “Nikolai surrendered his pack to Skye days ago. Guess you didn’t hear about that?”
“Not just my pack,” Nikolai corrected, going in for the kill, “but a dozen or so European and Asian packs have also agreed to recognize her as their leader. It’s why Windale is currently being surrounded by an army of our combined packs.”
Trace had stopped laughing and panic was starting to set in. His eyes darted around like he expected the car to be ambushed by our pack at any second.
I loved watching him squirm like the snake