Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Billy pins me with a condemning look.
“Ok fine. Yes, we’re–” My reluctance to define what she is to me makes it impossible for me to complete the sentence. “Stop calling her that,” I snap instead.
“What? The secretary? What do you want me to call her?”
“Call her Madison. Her name is Madison.”
“She prefers Madi,” Eagle corrects me, and I send him a death glare.
Wind whips around us, snow slashing at our faces and wetting our hair. It doesn’t bother any of us, but the reminder that Madi was out in this mess earlier brings an inner cold.
“Did you know?” Billy demands of Eagle.
“No.” He shoves his hands in his pockets. “It would’ve been nice to have a heads up. Especially with your track record with assistants.”
“I’m not firing her,” I growl.
And it’s not because she’s declared herself unfireable.
“How well do you even know her? Is she trustworthy?” Billy asks.
I fix him with a glare that warns him to shut down the line of questioning completely. “Absolutely.” I’m surprised to find the words true. What other human would I trust so implicitly? But Madi would never betray me. Loyalty is in her nature. “Why?”
“What kind of hold does this girl have on–”
“Careful,” I warn. What little good humor I developed after getting naked with Madison evaporates. I stare at him, but he doesn’t drop his eyes.
“You need to find your true mate,” he says, as if that explains everything. “You’re getting too old to be unmated, and your wolf is trying to lock someone down before moon madness strikes.”
I sense my wolf thrash beneath the surface. My nostrils suddenly fill with Madi’s scent. I turn, but she’s nowhere near.
My wolf is telling me something.
He thinks she’s my mate.
Which, of course, should be impossible.
Fate wouldn’t choose a human for an alpha wolf of my bloodline. It would ruin it. But my reaction to Madi’s near-death yesterday was mate-level ferocity. I can’t explain away this obsession I have with her anymore.
That’s the reason my pack brothers staged this intervention.
“Let’s do Christmas in the Alps,” Jake suggests with a false-casual tone. Like I’m supposed to believe he just came up with the idea. “We can combine a ski trip with a visit to the Swedish Winter Pack Games.”
They want me to find an appropriate she-wolf to mate with. My wolf snarls and Madi’s scent fills my nostrils once more.
Fuck. I need to shift and run. Process this on my own. “I’ll think about it,” I growl, pushing past Billy for the door.
He breaks rank and stops me, a hand on my chest. This time, I do growl, sending a glare at his hand then at him.
“She’s not your mate.”
In a flash, I have my hand around his throat, and I’ve slammed him against the mansion’s stone wall. My wolf broke the leash at the threat to Madi.
Billy’s wolf eyes glow bright, but he doesn’t submit. He stares me right in the eye, continuing to challenge me.
My pack brothers grip my shoulders to pull me off. “Or maybe she is,” Nickel cuts in, voice raised.
That verbal acknowledgement–the truth I haven’t even been willing to fully admit to myself–calms my wolf.
“Maybe she is,” Nickel repeats when he sees his words had an effect.
I slowly release Billy’s throat.
“But you can’t mate her.”
I whirl to stare down Nickel now.
“He’s right,” Vance says in a low voice.
“If you do, we lose to the Adalwulfs,” Billy reminds me of my primary purpose as alpha of this pack.
The blackness of the months following my father’s murder return. That driving pressure to keep our pack from falling, to restore us to power and wealth, and eventually, to execute vengeance for their crime floods in. The heavy metal plate that sat on my chest for years afterward returns.
“He’s right.” Eagle’s logical, legal tones join in. “They’ll exploit the weakness. Our pack members will defect.”
My entire body feels like I’ve been dipped in an ice bath. A clanging starts up in my ears. The same noise I heard after my father’s death.
Inside the mansion, Madison stands at the giant picture window and looks out at us.
Can she hear our raised voices?
“And once they’ve tipped the scales,” Sully says, his voice sounding like it’s coming through a storm. The storm inside my head. “--they’ll eliminate the entire Blackthroat line,” Billy finishes.
“My pups,” Eagle growls.
“My sisters,” I murmur, my focus gone dead. My body immobilized.
“Get rid of Madison,” Billy says. “Before she brings this entire pack down.”
A low, steady growl rumbles in my chest as I nod my head. “Fine.” I lift my gaze to Madison’s and hold it as I speak. “I’ll end it.”