“I could,” said Alex. But he wouldn’t. He liked sneaking onto Phoenix Pack territory and working his way through the network of tunnels within the ancient cave dwelling—no one ever saw him unless he wanted them to. Plus, annoying his sister was a nice bonus.
Dominic shook his head at him. “How the hell do you keep bypassing our security measures and creeping onto our land?”
Alex frowned. “How many times do you need me to say it? I’m a wolverine. We go where we want to go.”
The wolf planted his fists on his hips. “But every time you point out a weak spot in our security, we cover it.”
“You say that like it would ever make a difference.”
Mila all but stomped her foot. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to talk to your mate.” Alex sank further into the chair. “You ever heard of the Silva Clan?”
Dominic pursed his lips. “Doesn’t ring any bells. Why?”
“The hyenas who waylaid Bree belong to the clan. The Alpha’s name is Dale Bray.”
“Never heard of him. I take it they made a reappearance.”
“In a sense, yes, they did.” Alex told them about the incident with Frasier Banks.
“How is Bree?” asked Mila.
“Fine. Fuck all rattles her for long.” Which made Alex proud as hell. “But I don’t want her living with this cloud of danger hanging over her head. I can’t get rid of it until I know where the clan’s territory is.” He paused. “Did you know she was planning on leaving the pride?”
Mila’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Why the hell would she want—? Dani.” She sighed.
“She was part of why Bree wanted to leave. I can understand why. Just yesterday, the bitch went to Vinnie and asked him to strip Bree of some of her omega duties.”
Mila’s jaw tightened. “Dani’s going to push her too far one day, and she’s going to regret it. You said Bree was planning to leave. Does that mean she’s reconsidering it?”
“It means she’s not going anywhere,” Alex stated.
A smile curled Mila’s mouth. “Oh, I see how it is. It’s about damn time you made your move.” Her eyes narrowed a little. “How serious is it? Are you talking a fling, or something more?”
“It’s more,” replied Alex.
“Does she know that?”
“Yeah. She said she’s content to just go with the flow and see what happens.”
Mila snorted. “You don’t go with the flow. You dictate how the flow will go.” She shook her head. “That poor girl has no clue what she’s dealing with, does she?”
Alex gave an innocent shrug. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, yes, you do.” Mila pointed a finger at him. “You don’t waste words, but you can be pretty damn compelling when it suits you—you know just what to say to get what you want. Poor Bree thinks she has a choice on how this relationship will go. But we both know that if you don’t hear what you want from her, you’ll flick that ‘pretty damn compelling’ switch, muddle her brain with steamy make-out sessions, and generally do just about whatever it takes to coax her into giving you your way.”
“Yeah, but she hasn’t considered that yet.” Alex lifted his shoulders. “Is there any harm is letting her believe she has all this under control?”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Dominic. “It’s considerate, really.”
Alex nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Mila glared at them both. “It’s not considerate. It’s manipulative.”
“It’s wolverine-style dating,” Dominic pointed out. “Bree will handle it. She’s tough.”
Mila huffed. “True. Which I admire, because that girl’s been through a lot. I’m kind of surprised you left her side, Alex. Who’s with her?”
“Taryn.”
“As in my Alpha female, Taryn? Why is—wait, you snuck Bree onto our territory, didn’t you?”
Alex shrugged. “It was that or leave her behind.”
“You couldn’t have just driven through the gate like everyone else?”
“There would have been no fun in that.”
Mila flicked a hand. “I’m done here, go.”
“I’m not feeling loved right now.”
“And I’m not giving a hot shit.”
CHAPTER TEN
Tossing a mini pretzel into his mouth a few days later, Alex glanced at the wall clock. It was ten minutes before the store was due to close. There was only one customer left who was taking his sweet time, much to the annoyance of Bree and Elle, who’d joined forces to hurry him along.
Alex exchanged a frustrated glance with Greg and then took another long look out of the store window. He’d escorted Bree to and from work every day since the Frasier Banks incident.
The good news: There’d been no further trouble.
The bad news: There’d also been no success in Vinnie’s plan to track down the hyenas and deal with them personally. It quickly became apparent that there was little information out there on Dale Bray and his clan.
Some of Vinnie’s sources had given him “tips” on where their underground territory might be. Alex had accompanied the Alpha to check out each of those tips, but none had amounted to anything.
Alex knew it was grating on Bree that Vinnie turned down her request to join them on scouting potential locations for the hyena’s base; knew it was hard for her to stand back and watch others deal with the matter. But the Alpha was right—it was best that she stayed close to their pride mates. Why make it easy for the hyenas to grab her?
Nodding along to whatever the customer was saying, Bree nibbled on her lower lip. And Alex remembered how it felt to suckle on that lip. Remembered how it felt to let it slide between his teeth. Remembered how he’d bitten it hard enough to mark the previous night. The imprint of his teeth was gone now, but he could fix that later. Biting his woman had fast become one of his favorite things to do.
“You gonna keep on staring at her while you pretend to listen to me?” asked Greg.
Alex gave him a hard look and ate another pretzel.
“I heard that Mateo approached her in the deli last week and tried to talk to her. Heard she made it clear she had no wish to talk to him.”
Bree had told Alex all about it, though she hadn’t yet told him what the little bastard did that caused the rift between them. Alex could only conclude that Mateo had said something extremely hurtful to her in anger after she rejected him.
“It’s sad to see them so at odds with each other,” said Greg. “He’s probably heard that you and Bree are now together. He’ll be hurting, but he’ll be happy for you once he’s come to terms with it—Mateo’s a good guy. Have the Cages been a problem?”
Alex dipped his hand back into the bag of pretzels. “I thought they would be, but none of them have contacted me or Bree since it became common knowledge that we’re together.”
Just then, his mother came to stand in front of him, looking as elegant and imperious as always. “Why you scowl?” Valentina’s voice was low but all demand. “You have had that look on your face for days.”