Really, he wasn’t so bloody and dusty that they couldn’t do this, and it really was kind of exciting, knowing there were other people only a couple of feet away.

It wasn’t difficult for Jolie to talk herself into it. She didn’t need much convincing at all. That probably made her something of a hussy, as the elders in the pack would say. “I guess we’re not going to get much private time for the next little while.”

“Which means we should take advantage of our time together while we can,” Liam confirmed, and this time, his growl sent a shiver up her arms. Every hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and the rush of pleasure from that noise alone was enough to make the bottom of her belly melt with warmth and heat.

She wanted him. She wanted him so bad it hurt.

“All right, alpha,” Jolie said. “While we’ve still got the time alone together, rock my world.”

End Chapter 17

Start Chapter 18

"Renzo might've said he wouldn't fight this anymore, but we can bet everything we have that Dempsey won't let this go." Liam's green eyes danced, as though anticipating the thought of a fight. "He'll disobey Renzo if he has to. He's too embarrassed to want to let this drop."

Jolie pushed some of her hair behind her ears. Her normal, human ears. The wolf ears that popped out on top of her head, as if she was a living, breathing, anime character, weren't there. Mainly because she was just barely managing to hold herself together.

The tension of the situation, and watching Liam take charge like this was definitely doing it for her.

"You really think he's going to want to challenge you again?" she asked, desperate to keep her mind off her lust. She couldn't stop looking at the way Liam's already huge arms seemed to flex whenever he reached out and pointed at a spot on the little map he and the five betas around him had made up.

It was pretty good, considering he hadn't spent more than two minutes inside the pack since he'd been kicked out so many years prior. The five betas surrounding the table would have had a hand in that. It had just been there when Jolie woke up from her tent that morning.

The five betas, all men, most of them her age but some younger, looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

"You know this is Dempsey we're talking about here, right?" Mitch asked. "I mean, what the hell do you think he's going to be doing?"

Mitch and Jordan were barely twenty years old. Not that Jolie and Liam were much older and wiser, but it made sense, given the way he just spoke to the mate of his new alpha.

When Liam growled at Mitch, Mitch's eyes immediately widened, and he snapped his mouth shut, shifted from foot to foot, and cleared his throat. "Sorry, Alpha."

Liam nodded, exhaling a gruff noise. "Don't let it happen again."

"We won't, Alpha," Josh said, glaring at Mitch, as if he and the rest of the betas had something to apologize for in the first place.

They used to be betas for Renzo, though they did a lot of Dempsey's dirty work, too. Now that they’d betrayed Dempsey and followed Liam, their fates were sealed. Liam was their alpha now. Liam was the man whose orders they had to follow. Liam was the wolf they'd put all their hopes into for something better.

And they all looked at Liam with a spark of hero worship in their eyes, as if they collectively had man-crushes on him.

Jolie had to admit, she liked that. She liked knowing Liam was so respected by the men he'd taken from Renzo and Dempsey. She liked that everything he'd done to survive after Renzo kicked him out of the pack for killing the alpha who had been hurting Liam's mother, who ultimately killed his mother, had put him in high regard to the men around him now.

Because Liam deserved it. He deserved to be respected. He deserved to be looked up to. He was the rightful alpha of the pack. His father had been a good and fair leader who rarely needed to use any force whenever someone became unruly.

Everyone respected him too much to let it get to that.

Renzo ruined that when he came and made the challenge, he and his alphas overtaking the pack, and in the final challenge, when he'd killed Liam's father and took over, no one forgot about it.

Then Liam's mother had been given as a mate to Renzo's friend, and Dempsey's father, essentially making them step-brothers, though Jolie knew how much Liam didn't like to think of it like that.

It made their hatred for each other all the more poetic.

Dempsey's father had been hurting Liam's mother, so Liam, a teenage boy with just enough confidence to make a stand for himself, managed to kill the man and get his revenge. Not before he could save his mother.

Dempsey always hated Liam for that, and he'd always hated Liam for being Jolie's best friend.

Jolie just didn't understand how deeply that hatred ran until Dempsey tried to take her for his mate several years later. So she ran for it, ran into the woods, desperate to find the best friend who had been cast out so many years ago, and to make what she'd always known about them a reality.

Her best friend was and had always been her true mate. That was why he'd stayed so close to the pack even after his banishment. It was why she could never let herself move on and forget about him, and she needed him to help her. To properly make his claim on her so Dempsey couldn't.

And to get him to take control of the pack that was rightfully his.

Now, Jolie was getting her wish. This was everything she could have wanted, but at the same time, she wasn't happy. This had been the thing she had been pestering Liam for ever since she found him in the woods and mated with him behind the waterfall where he'd made his home.

Now that what she'd wanted was coming to pass, she couldn't help but be sorry for ever having pushed this on him, for constantly badgering him about taking over the pack, about leading the people who were rightfully his to lead.

He could get hurt. He could get killed.

He'd proven himself in a battle against Dempsey, but he hadn't yet fought Renzo, and there was no telling if that would be a fair fight or not.

With Dempsey, the answer seemed to be a definite no. No one believed Dempsey would make a proper challenge, or that if he did, he would fight fairly.

Jolie's guts clenched at the thought of Liam getting hurt. Permanently, or otherwise.

She couldn't even stomach the suggestion that he could be killed.

Dempsey had never killed anyone before, but he'd always made it known how much he wanted to kill Liam. Revenge for the death of his father.

Jolie's heart sank.

Right. She might as well not have bothered to think about this to begin with. It was clear what would happen when Dempsey caught sight of Liam. The guy didn't just have revenge on his mind for his father, but when Liam bloodied Dempsey’s face and body, stuffed a belt in his mouth, and presented him to Renzo like a pig that had just been hunted…

Yeah, Liam was right. Dempsey wasn’t going to let something like that go.

“I’ll make my challenge to Renzo known tomorrow at sunset.” Liam looked up at the sky, as though expecting to see what he was looking for so early in the day.

Jolie knew what he was looking for.

“The moon’ll be nice and full.”

The betas around the folding table nodded, eyes eager. Josh cracked his knuckles, as though he couldn’t wait for a fight.

Any alpha could take over a pack, but there was something about taking it during a full moon that gave a more official feel to the whole thing. It was definitely the sort of thing that other shifters in packs liked to be aware of whenever there was an attempted take-over.

She had no idea why that was a thing. Wolves with their moons could be a little excessive sometimes, as far as she was concerned. Jolie never cared for howling at a full moon, or respecting it as much as the rest of the pack. Then again, she’d never had the undeniable instinct to howl passionately up at the moon until she’d called for Liam. Called to her mate to come for her when she’d been Renzo’s prisoner.

Liam’s powerful hand touched her shoulder. Even with that gentle press of his fingers, she felt the energy of him, his strength, and heat. Jolie jumped.

Liam pulled back suddenly. “Are you all right?” His brows pressed almost completely together, his gaze surveying her up and down, as though searching for an injury.

Jolie shook her head quickly, glancing around at the other betas who were also looking at her. She had to recover fast. “I’m fine. Everything’s great.” Even as she said it, the words came out sounding very much like a lie.

She got the feeling that everyone around the table knew it, too.

“Can I talk to you? Alone?”

Liam didn’t so much as look at the five betas around the table. It was as if they weren’t there. “Of course.”

Jolie smiled, sighing. She couldn’t help but be relieved as she went to him, pressing herself against his powerful body, tucking herself beneath his arm and letting him curl it around her shoulders. She smiled up at him, loving the way his lips pulled back in a grin as he stared down at her.

There was a time when he would not have smiled like that for anyone. Not even her. Things had changed so much since they’d found each other again.

“Not over there,” she said when Liam led her towards the vehicles they’d stolen from Dempsey and Renzo.

Right. There was no standing up in the small tents they’d acquired. Really, those had been purchased mostly for Jolie’s sake, since betas and alphas could handle the outdoors better than an omega could.

Liam blinked. “It will be quiet. No one will see us or hear us in the back seat.”

It was still too close, besides, the betas wouldn’t be able to see or hear them, but they would know what was going on inside those vehicles when they started to rock back and forth.

“Let’s find somewhere else.”

Maybe it was the way she looked up at him, because just then, something in his eyes seemed to click, and she could tell. He knew what she really wanted from him, even if she had no idea what the hell she was going to say to him when it ended.

“All right then, let’s find somewhere private where we can talk.”

“Right. Talk.”

It was the private part of that sentence Jolie was more concerned with.

To Be Continued......

This book was originally published in parts, so I just noticed the hard cut off point right there where there could have been a sex scene. I kind of wish I'd put one in, but maybe when I first wrote the book I was thinking more along the lines of how it would look to immediately begin a serial with a love scene.

I might have to do something about that at some point. Anyway! If you're in Eastern Canada right now, be careful on the roads, bit icy outside at the moment. Thank you so much for reading! Take care, and happy Book Traveling ;)

Mandy Rosko