Chapter 38: Chapter 37

Xander | charged at Lanie.

“You have no idea what the f uck you're talking about, | roared. “I’ve already had to put one mate in her place today, so I’m all warmed up and ready for round two.”

She just stood there with her arms crossed.

Her smugness infuriated me, “Now you're out of things to say?” | asked her, “Come on, | know there’s more groundbreaking wisdom in that pretty |

head of yours.”

Don't ‘t push it, Xander, Zane warned me. You can’t lose it twice in one day.

Hunter pawed at me roughly, pleading with me to listen to Zane.

My wolf was supposed to be a fierce fighter so why was he always backing down in Lanie’s presence?

Except when it was time to mate her.

Hunter hadn’t yielded then.

I shook my head.

The last thing | needed right now was to think of Lanie in bed.

I've got it under control, Zane.

Yeah, he said sarcastically, Sure you do. Don’t forget | can sense when your mind wanders.

F uck.

“When your mind wanders to what exactly?” Lanie asked.

F ucking f uck.

Did she just hear that?

“You...2”

She cut me off. “Heard everything you just said? Yup.”

| glanced at Zane, and his confusion mirrored my own.

| needed to talk to him, but it was impossible now that Lanie was here.

Why the f uck could the hear us and Alice couldn’t?

“You wanna tell me what the hell is going on here?” She threw her hands out. “First Alice says the mate bond didn’t work, and now our minds are connected, but you didn’t claim me?”

Zane shook his head “Honestly, your guess is as good as ours We're the first wolves in our pack to take two mates.”

If | could talk to Zane, | would've told him to shut the f uck up. We had no idea what we were doing, but what good was it to 1/3 admit that to Lanie?

| sighed deeply, my anger suddenly replaced with discouragement.

| scrubbed a hand over my face.

Goddess, how was this all going to work?

“Look, the High Elder has made his du mb-as s decree, and I'd like to keep my pack, so I’ve got no choice but to follow it, and neither do you,” | told Lanie.

| held her gaze, expecting her mind to wander to our night together, knowing what the Elder’s decree meant about us impregnating her.

But | didn’t see desire in her eyes.

Instead, | sensed something deeper, sharper, something like resolve.

It was like | could see the cogs of her mind turning, no doubt about to say something that would pis s me off all over again..

“Sounds like you're in a lose-lose situation, then,” she said.

Yep, there it was.

“Clearly that whole,” she waved her hand between Zane and me, “thing...with Alice has become a sh it show of epic proportions.

And | sure as hell won't be raising the pups you have with her if I’m expected to have little ones of my own.”

Her lips quirked up in a smirk.

Normally that kind of defiance would make me rage. | was her Alpha, and no one spoke to me like that, especially not after what just happened with Alice.

But something about her, the way her lips looked, the way her heady scent still wrapped around me like a vise grip.It made me want to give her anything she wanted.

And give it to her hard.

| cleared my throat. “Fine, then you'll both raise your own pups” | said, trying to be firm and not give away my distraction.

Zane’s head snapped to me.

He could see right through me, but it wasn’t like he could call me out on it.

Thanks to Lanie highjacking our mind link....

She eyed us both before responding. “Something tells me Alice isn’t the most maternal she-wolf who ever lived, but | guess that’s your problem to deal with. Let's hope you're able to convince her to forgive you, otherwise you'll be in deep s hit with the Council.”

| would never admit it out loud, but Lanie was right.

We f u cked up with Alice, we embarrassed an elder, we circumvented the Council with a loophole we barely understood ourselves, and now we had a High Elder breathing down our necks.

If Alice left us now or we tried to undo the decisions we’d already made, we’d look like fools.

I'd look like a fool.

And an Alpha cannot be a fool It hit me then, like a silver bullet to the heart.

| was f ucked.

Iwas f “Why don’t | make you an offer?” Lanie asked, and | wondered if she could somehow sense my distress But she wasn’t our true mate, so it shouldn’t be that way.

She shouldn't have that kind of power.

| was the one with the power.

“What could you possibly offer us?” | demanded.

“| can save both of your as ses from the Council...” she said. “If you let me go