Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
But her words ring true. Now that she speaks them, I feel certain that was how it transpired. No wolf could kill her own mate. It’s just so contrary to nature. But if her family had used her as the weapon against my father and she’d been the unwitting pawn, it wasn’t really her fault.
Of course her scent would carry guilt. Of course she would feel responsible.
But she wasn’t truly evil. Not the way I’d feared or imagined.
I want to demand to know why she didn’t try to tell me this before, but I’m painfully aware it was my own fault.
The beautiful middle-aged woman on the couch appears so fragile. Not dangerous. Not treacherous. Just weak and manipulated by her own family members and a powerful pack.
I can’t find anything to say.
It’s a profound sense of loss that settles over me, which is better than the roar of frustration that’s been simmering in my cells since Mad–no, I can’t think about her.
And then for some reason, I see something I’d forgotten or blocked out. Memories of my parents together, fleeting as they are. “You loved him.”
Her face crumples. Tears swim in her blue eyes. “Of course I did. He was my mate.” Her chin wobbles. “They wouldn’t let me have him. He wouldn’t let me have you three. I’ve been… robbed of my due at every turn.”
I want to tell her to lay off the victim horn, but she’s not wrong. She was dealt the worst possible hand for a powerful alpha she-wolf. Her circumstances and the people she loved reduced her to nothing.
And sadly, I’m one of those people.
“I’m sorry, Mom.” I hug her.
She trembles like a leaf, her belly shuddering with sobs.
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I was an idiot.”
“Brick.” She sounds broken. I don’t know whether her grief over me now is for the time we’ve lost or the fact that I may not have a future. Either way, something about this feels like closure. If I am going to lose my pack or my sanity, at least the edges of this gaping wound with my mom have been stitched together.
Ruby crouches beside me, and I open an arm and pull her in for a three-way hug. I kiss the tops of both their heads. “I love you both.”
“Now what is going on with you and your mate?” my mom asks when we untangle.
I shake my head. “She’s human. Getting the pack to accept her may be impossible. Especially after all the stunts Aiden and Odin have pulled recently–first the security breach, then the video leak of me shifting. Word about the Swedish Games hasn’t circulated yet–Fate only knows why. But the pack leaders are questioning my ability to rule.”
“Brick, if you think she’s a weakness, she will be your weakness. You’re missing the same piece your father missed.”
“What is that?”
“Madi is your equal. Fate would not have chosen her for you otherwise.”
I suck in a slow breath through my nostrils.
She’s right.
My mate is already showing me the ways I can be a better alpha.
“Dad never treated you like an equal?”
Pain ripples over my mother’s face. “He and his pack thought I was his weakness at best–a threat at worst.”
“And yet if the two of you had worked together, you could have united the two packs. A true power union,” Ruby muses.
I blink. It’s so obvious, it pains me. Our parents were destined to unite the packs. They came from the two most powerful shifter bloodlines in the country, if not the world. If they’d surrendered to Fate, they could have moved mountains.
My mom is right–Fate wouldn’t make a mistake.
My biggest mistake has been fighting it.
Madi is brilliant. An alpha. A problem solver. She’s been working strategy all along. And, of course, she’s seen what I refused to see.
I need her at my side. Without her, the Adalwulfs will destroy us.
“I need her back,” I rasp. “You have to help me. Tell me what I need to do to get her back.”
Chapter Thirteen
Brick
I stand in the wings of the concert venue. At the edge of the stage, the velvet curtains sway in the currents of air and noise from the thousands of wolves packed into a tight space.
The last Town Hall meeting was nothing compared to this crowd. There are wolves lining the walls, flooding the place all the way to the exits. Their voices rise in a muted roar. And I haven’t even stepped on stage.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nickel asks. He and Eagle hover close, concern etching their faces. They're not convinced of my plan.
Behind them, Ruby waits near the exit, her face serene despite the fear in her scent. She knows I might not survive this Town Hall. None of us might. What I’m about to do endangers me and, therefore, all of us, including her children.