Chapter 30

Chapter 0030

heels himself into the living room.

“Hey sweetheart, what’s today’s offering?” He says with a grin.

I sigh. “I’ll tell you, but we need to talk. It’s really important. You know I wouldn’t interrupt training if it wasn’t, but we need to have this conversation before Alpha Anders comes by tonight.”

“Of course. Let’s go sit in the living room and you can tell me what’s going on.

I sit, and dad wheels himself in front of me to give me his undivided attention. I start at the beginning, telling him about the gift basket. I tell him how the cards. have gotten more bold each day, starting with Monday’s guessing game to today’s professing his desire to be the one who takes care of me.

‘Sweetheart, it’s not uncommon for Guardians to have males attempting to claim their love or favor. Your mother had many men trying to gain her favor in her day and your birthday is in a couple of months. I’m not sure I understand what the concern is.”

“Dad, almost immediately after I opened my gift, Alpha Liam walked into the cafeteria with a huge black bear on his shoulders. He looked like he’d just come from fighting and killing the creature. He even still smelled of blood and fighting. Cyran announced to the cafeteria that he brought the bear as an offering for Artemis.”

My dad whistles appreciatively and starts to speak, but I cut him off.

“That’s not all dad. When Artemis accepted Cyran’s offering, Kai snarled a challenge. I’m not sure why he did it, maybe he felt that Liam and Cyran were being disrespectful to his packmate that is sending me the offerings, but either way, if Chase hadn’t pulled him out of the building and I hadn’t distracted Cyran, they would have fought. Over ME! It was bad.”

My dad looks at me thoughtfully for a minute. “And you don’t know why Kai issued the challenge to Cyran?‘ He asks.

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“No idea. But Liam is serious in his desire to have me as his Luna. We talked about it last week. He knows I’m waiting for my mate, but he also thinks HE is my mate, so he’s perfectly happy to wait. That is, until someone else started putting a claim on Artemis and L.”

“Cara, have you considered that Rik is your mystery man? Maybe he is the one that is staking his claim and Alpha Liam recognized it as real competition.”

“Dad, I hate to break it to you, but Rik doesn’t even know who I am.”

“Why would you say that Cara?”

“Because, he had the nerve to walk up to me in school and ask me my name and what pack I was from.”

My father looks dumbfounded for a minute before regaining his composure.

“So, who else is in the running?”

“I had Jason check the betting pool, since you know there was one.”

Dad smirks, “Of course.”

“So the short list was Rik, Chase, Liam, Trevor and Jason.” I scrunch up my nose when I say Jason’s name.

My dad just raises a brow in question.

“It’s not Jason Dad. He’s my best friend and even he thought it was sort of gross and stupid to be in the top 5.” I sat thoughtfully for a minute. “We can remove Liam, and Rik, so that leaves Chase and Trevor as the biggest possibilities. I’ve never gotten any vibes from Chase, so I honestly don’t see it. That leaves Trevor.”

I look at my dad. His gaze is far away as he looks out into our backyard.

Turning back, he voice is thoughtful when he responds, “Trevor is a good bet. He’s a strong warrior and would want a strong mate. But I don’t see Alpha Rik challenging Alpha Liam because of a perceived slight. It’s common enough for males to fight over Alpha females that it doesn’t make sense for him to act that way.” His focus returns to me. “So, how did it end?”

“Well….” I drag the word out into as many syllables as possible while my father’s face becomes even more inquisitive. “I had to distract Cyran from fighting Kai while Chase and some of the Canyon Ridge warriors pulled Rik out of the cafeteria, so….” I take a deep breath and say it all as fast as I can. “I sort of invited Liam to train with you and I tomorrow and then stay for dinner to have bear steaks or whatever you make with bear meat.”

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I make a face, waiting for my father’s backlash. But instead of him being angry he bursts out laughing.

“You’re telling me I’m going to be training one of the strongest Alphas tomorrow along with the strongest warrior on the planet?” I open my eyes and nod. He rubs his hands together in anticipation. “I can’t WAIT!”

Ok, now I’m shocked. “Really? You’re not mad?”

Mad? The one you should be worried about it is Anders. He’s been trying to get me to train his warriors for years and now I’m going to be training the Alpha of another pack. Yeah, good luck explaining that one tonight.”

“Wait. What? Why do we even have to say anything at all? He doesn’t even have to know!” I’m back peddling and I know it. Of course Alpha Anders will need to know that another Alpha is coming to visit one of his pack members tomorrow, a

My father just chuckles and pats my shoulder as he wheels past me. “Oh I can’t wait to see his face. Tonight is going to be fun. First his son almost starts a war over my daughter and then my daughter invites another Alpha over to her warrior training.”

Ok, when he says it like that, it sounds terrible!

“Um…” I follow my father into the kitchen. “I have so much homework, I think I need to skip dinner tonight and…”

He doesn’t even let me finish. “Not a chance! You’re a Guardian, not a coward. Besides, I’ll be very interested to get Anders‘ take on what is happening and why he thinks his son reacted the way he did, won’t you? My guess is, being the involved Alpha that he is, he already knows, or has a good idea of who your mystery man is.”

I hadn’t thought of that. This could be a good way for me to get the answers I need!

“Fine, what do you need help with for dinner? And speaking of, do you even know how to cook bear meat?”

“I’m guessing Alpha Liam will bring over steaks or ribs. Either way, I’ll throw them on the grill. It’s meat Cara. I can cook just about any kind of meat on the them on the grill. It’s meat Cara. I can cook ju

grill.”

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Chapter 0031