this? It's not doing you any favors. I don't know what you're planning, but if you cross my lines, you will pay for it. Understand, wolf?"
"Mm," she cooed, shifting her body so we weren't quite facing off. "Do you have any idea how sexy it is when you get all dominant? I think that's what I always liked most about you."
"My last name? Or did you prefer the bank account? Maybe you're just interested in the title?" I taunted. But her lips curled at the last question, telling me all I needed to know. "Do you honestly think that driving away my mate will get you the position?"
"According to pack rules," Karen drawled, "to the victor goes the spoils. That includes the entire pack and the assets necessary to sustain it."
Ah, fuck. I'd forgotten all about that loophole. It was nothing more than ancient history, but tradition was the only real law wolves had. Sadly, that meant she could use it and my hands were quickly getting tied. Shit!
"It's not that easy and you know it," I told her, trying to get her off this insane idea. "You can't challenge my mate if you aren't part of the pack. You aren't strong enough to challenge me."
She just smiled cruelly. "But I am a part of the pack, and your mate is a danger to the stability of Wolf's Run. I will not allow her to ruin everything for us. Sure, maybe I'd be the Alpha Female in name only, but I'd still be the second in charge of this pack - and we both know you'll get lonely eventually."
Somehow, this woman had turned her jealousy over Elena into some preconceived threat to our pack as a whole. Either that, or she was just crazy enough to use an antiquated tradition to get what she wanted. No, not to be my lover, per se. The Alpha Mate was usually the opposite gender leader of the pack, with "mate" being the generic, gender-neutral term. For me, my partner was the Alpha Female. Some alphas weren't straight, so in recent history, it had simply become closer to a vice-alpha position. The second in charge. Regardless, that was a lot of power and prestige within the pack - and the kind of upheaval that Wolf's Run didn't need right now.
Sadly, dredging up some outdated historical wolf tradition from medieval times was exactly the kind of thing this woman would do. Karen was the kind of wolf who'd destroy a pack while claiming she was saving it, and all so she could have her own way. She wasn't interested in me - or my betas - she was merely chasing power. It was the one thing she couldn't get on her own. Sadly, dreams and aspirations didn't always make someone an alpha type.
The problem was that she knew I couldn't kick her out without a good reason. Something like mouthing off wasn't enough. Her family really had been bound to mine for so long that the inter-pack politics would become a nightmare. Challenging me, sure. Ignoring my rules, definitely. Having an opinion? No, I'd worked too hard to convince the rest of my pack that I was a different kind of alpha. So, I decided to make this easy for her to understand.
"Try it and you will regret it." My eyes hit hers and I glared. "In order to get to my mate, you'll have to go through me first, as well as her own friends. Elena may not be able to fight for herself, but we can, and the moment you disrespect my mate, you are disrespecting me. I can and will use that as a reason to kick your ass to the curb. Don't think I won't."
She scoffed at that. "You'd never kick me out. The Greens have run with Langdons since before our ancestors moved to this country."
"Uh-huh." There it was. She was counting on our family ties, so I twitched my face away from her hand. "Because your father respected mine. In fact, your dad still respects this pack's alpha. You? Not so much. This is your last warning. Keep your damn hands off my mate. If you try your melodramatic shit, you will find yourself on the street, looking for another pack. Am I being clear enough?"
"Ian," she huffed. "You're all bark, but I've never seen you bite."
"There's a reason for that," I promised. "Not really my kink. When I use my teeth, there's usually no one left to tell