Carnage Island (Reject Island)(71)

“Not possessive enough to hurt an innocent child,” she repeats.

“No, you would never do that,” I agree, softening my voice and adding a little purr. “As I said, Omegas love children. Even Gemma is affectionate toward me, despite our fractured bond and whatever my father did to her during his rut. She’s still soft, never cruel. She’s just distant.”

“I wouldn’t be distant. Not if it’s Tieran’s child.” She sounds adamant, almost angry by the concept of disrespecting an innocent. “Nantahala males take harems, Volt.” She presses her finger to my lips, silencing my rebuke to that. “I understand that’s not how things work among your kind—our kind—but I wasn’t raised with Carnage Wolves. I was raised to accept the wills of men.”

My teeth grind together, not liking the way that sounds at all.

“It may not be right,” she continues. “And I may hate it. No, I do hate it. The very thought of sharing any of you has my wolf wanting to commit murder. But under the right circumstances, I think I could accept it. That’s what I’m saying.”

“You won’t have to,” I promise her. “And I don’t think Tieran will ever allow you to accept it, either.”

“From what you’ve both said, he doesn’t have a choice,” she points out.

“Ah, but he does,” I say. “He could abdicate.” It’s a potential scenario none of us have mentioned, but it’s one I know Tieran is thinking about. “He doesn’t have to be the Black Mountain Pack Alpha.”

It’s what he’s been groomed for, what we’ve all been striving for.

But he could choose his clan over duty.

It may not be the best choice. It may not even be a good choice. But it’s still an option.

“I will never let him do that,” Clove vows, making me smile.

“Which is why you’re our mate,” I tell her. “It’s only a matter of time, Clove. You’ll…” I trail off as my inner wolf perks up, going on alert.

I look at the door, finding it empty. But a hint of peppermint touches my nose

Fresh peppermint.

“Caius is here.” Which can’t be good. If he’s here, then something has happened. I scent the air, noting the influx of new scents—scents that are not typical around this estate. “And he’s not alone.”

I push off the bed, searching for my jeans.

“We need to go downstairs,” I tell Clove. “Right now.”





27





CAIUS





“We have a problem,” I say as I enter the kitchen. There’s no greeting required. Tieran would have smelled me coming, just as I followed my nose to him here.

He’s wearing a towel, his damp hair suggesting he recently showered. As he usually stays up late, this doesn’t surprise me. But the three plates of food before him suggest he’s not the only one still awake.

That’s a good thing.

Because I have a lot to say.

Tieran picks up a glass of water and faces me, his gaze taking in the four wolves at my back before arching a brow at me. He doesn’t ask for an explanation with that look; he demands one.

Because I’ve very clearly broken protocol, something we both know I would never do without justification.

“Alpha Kin is working with the Nantahala Wolves,” I say, driving straight to the point.

Alpha Pan growls at my back, still furious by what we overheard. “He’s been taking advantage of his communications role on the island.”

I nod, pulling my laptop from my bag to set it up on the counter. “After seeing you off, I did some rounds, checking in on everyone, and saved Alpha Dirk’s clan for last. But they weren’t in their usual den. So I checked the island surveillance and couldn’t locate them. However, I noticed a weird little ripple in the frame. Which led me to Alpha Pan.”

I wake up my screen to pull up one of the feeds.

“And we discovered the feed was on a loop,” Alpha Pan says.

“No we about it. Alpha Pan did all the work,” I correct him, then show Tieran the loop in question. “He was able to override the glitch, which is what led us to find this.”

The image changes to depict Alpha Kin on a satellite phone.

“That’s not one of ours,” Tieran says immediately.

“No, it’s not,” Alpha Pan agrees. “But we were able to hack into the frequency to listen in.”

“I gave him permission,” I add, meeting Tieran’s gaze. He tasked me with keeping an eye on Alpha Dirk’s clan, but told me not to jeopardize their privacy.

It’s a demand I clearly disregarded when I asked Alpha Pan to hack the satellite phone frequency.

But Alpha Kin’s suspicious demeanor tipped me off.

Coupled with the strange loop in the feed, it was obvious he wanted to hide something. So, as acting Alpha on the island, I made the executive decision to fully monitor him.

I clear my throat. “Normally, I would have called to ask you first, but as Alpha Kin is in charge of telecommunications on the island…”

“You didn’t want to risk him overhearing,” Tieran finishes for me. “A wise decision, one I’m not disappointed about.”