Fated Magic (Claimed by Wolves #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,23

trying to steal the pack out from under Ridge since their father died. I’m not a big fan of Ridge with his serious, holier-than-thou attitude, but I really don’t like Lawson. He’s a sociopath in wolf’s skin, and that ticking time bomb is set to blow at the worst possible time.

The blond man storms into the barn and throws the second figure onto the floor. He crosses his arms over his broad chest before turning to address his brother with a smirk.

“Found your whore trying to sneak away,” Lawson says, his deep voice booming through the room like a gunshot. “Did it ever occur to you when you brought her onto pack land that she might run away to her friends and tell them all our secrets? Since you’re here and I found her trying to run off into the woods a few minutes ago, I assume that means you left this witch alone in your damn house.”

The entire council reacts to that bomb, people surging to their feet as a ripple goes through the gathered crowd. Loud voices rise around me, every face turning to Ridge for answers.

But I exchange glances with Archer, the East Pack’s acting alpha. I may not like Lawson, but I doubt the ass-hat would walk into a council meeting and accuse his alpha—and his brother—of bringing an unsanctioned visitor onto pack lands if he didn’t have proof to back it up. Not to mention the inflammatory implication she’s a witch.

If all this is true, that means Ridge broke the treaty, and now Archer and myself have to clean up the mess.

Fuck, as if having to come to these meetings isn’t bullshit enough, now I have to do damage control?

The grumblings get louder, nearly all of it directed at Ridge, who’s staring stone-faced at his brother. Instead of joining the growing number of dissenters, I level my gaze on the girl.

She’s small and petite, probably a few years younger than I am—all wide eyes and delicate limbs with so much fear rolling off her, you’d think Lawson had jammed a knife against her throat. Not that he’s been anything but a raging asshole since he dragged her in here, but her level of fear makes it seem like she thinks she’s about to die.

The woman looks like she wants to curl into a ball small enough to disappear into the floor. My jaw clenches as Lawson grabs her once more and yanks her to her feet, yelling at his brother about breaking the treaty.

The woman doesn’t just let him manhandle her again though. She gets her feet underneath her and yanks away from Lawson’s iron grip with a low, breathy shout.

“Let go of me, asshole!”

My eyebrows twitch upward in surprise, and even Lawson looks a little shocked.

Huh. Little thing’s got a backbone under all that fear.

Her wide blue eyes are feral, her gaze darting around as if she’s cataloguing every person in the room while also seeking out the nearest exit. I watch her clock the door Lawson left wide open behind them, and how the crowd of council members isn’t blocking her route of escape. She searches the crowd on either side, and I can almost taste the way she’s weighing her odds of getting past us. Can she outrun us? Can she reach the forest and disappear?

Sorry, hot stuff. There’s not a chance in hell you can outrun and outsmart wolves.

I think she knows it too. But before she comes to any kind of decision on whether to try anyway, her gaze meets mine.

The weight of that gaze hits me like a falling boulder off a ravine.

Something pulls hard and almost painfully inside me, and my wolf growls. Beneath the protective snarl, I feel something so raw and visceral that I can’t even believe it’s happening.

Mine.

I shove away from the wall, my eyes widening as my wolf howls inside me.

She’s mine.

“You know the rules. You signed the treaty yourself. She doesn’t belong here, Ridge,” one of the North Pack’s advisors is saying, trying to maintain some semblance of orderly discourse. “She can’t stay here, regardless of what state you found her in.”

“She’s not a witch,” Ridge growls. “She needs help. Are we to just turn our backs on anybody who stumbles onto our land beaten and bloody?”

“We are when there’s an entire race of beings trying to destroy us.”

“The witch needs to be locked up,” another voice chimes in. “We need to make sure we’re safe from her. Then we’ll discuss what to