Marking the Alpha My Cousin Couldn't Tame Chapter 9

Desmond moved first. He grabbed Liora's arm and yanked her close, teeth clenched.

"Watch your mouth." His voice was barely a whisper, but every wolf caught it. "I have a fated mate and three sons back home. Whatever delusion you've built in your head, keep it to yourself."

The menace in his eyes was real. Liora flinched—then did what she always did. She ran to the one man who'd never turned her away.

She spun to face Kaelen, tears spilling. "Kaelen, I'm sorry. Everything I did—the cliff, the lies—it was because I was jealous. Because she got to be with you and I couldn't bear it." Her hands reached for him. "You know it's always been you. Please—"

Kaelen didn't move. Didn't speak. His hand was still in mine.

Then it hit.

Every wolf nose in the clearing caught it at the same time. Desmond's scent—layered deep into Liora's skin. Not surface contact. Not a passing brush. The kind of mark that soaks into someone over weeks and months of closeness.

Liora's eyes went wide. She knew. Every wolf in Cold Moon could smell the truth she'd tried to bury, and no amount of tears would wash it away.

Her legs buckled. Two miles in heels through snow and debris, the stress of the confrontation, Desmond's denial—her body had had enough. She grabbed Desmond's arm to catch herself, face draining white. One of her heels snapped clean off.

She crumpled into the snow. Desmond tried to shake her off, but she clung to his sleeve, shaking.

The pack healer pushed through the crowd, knelt beside her, and pressed two fingers to her wrist. She checked Liora's eyes, then her stomach. Two minutes later, she looked up at Magnus.

"She's pregnant."

Desmond's jaw clenched. He said nothing.

Magnus didn't need him to. The Lycan looked at Desmond the way a man looks at something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

"Strip his access to the western pass. Effective immediately. The transport route goes under pack council management."

He turned to a Gamma officer. "Send word to his home pack. I want his registered mate and family here within the week."

To Desmond: "You brought this on yourself. You hid a family, abused a position of trust, and involved yourself with a woman half your age under this pack's protection. Your Alpha rank is suspended pending formal review."

Desmond opened his mouth. Magnus silenced him with a look.

It was over in minutes. No trial. No debate. When a Lycan speaks, the matter is settled.

The fallout came fast.

Desmond's fated mate arrived three days later with three half-grown sons and enough fury to flatten a mountain. The boys took one look at Liora and decided she was the enemy. Within a week, the shouting from Desmond's compound became background noise for the entire pack.

*The woman who'd pushed me off a cliff to win a man's attention was now trapped with a man who'd denied knowing her in public. Poetic, in a way that I was too busy to appreciate.*

Liora and Desmond were bound by Magnus's order—no pack would take her in now, and the pregnancy tied them whether they wanted it or not.

The transport route, freed from Desmond's grip, ran smoother than ever under pack management. Our southern shipments doubled. The women's crew expanded. Cold Moon's treasury grew fat for the first time in living memory, and the pack council started asking my opinion on trade matters instead of telling me to stay out of them.

I should've felt triumphant. Mostly, I felt tired. The good kind of tired—the kind that comes from building something real.

Two weeks before Christmas, I loaded the truck.

*Last time I drove this road, I was alone. Duct tape on the radiator hose, oil on my hands, diesel in my hair.*

*This time, Kaelen sat in the passenger seat, one arm draped over the back of mine, thumb tracing lazy circles on my shoulder while I drove.*

*Funny how a road feels shorter when someone's next to you.*

We pulled into the Ironveil Pack compound as the sun was setting. I parked. Sat there. Didn't move.

"Roxy."

"I'm fine."

"You've been gripping the steering wheel for four minutes."

"I said I'm fine."

He reached over and peeled my fingers off one by one. "Whether they yell or throw things, I go in first. Deal?"

"I'm not scared of my own mother."

"Your heartbeat says otherwise. I can feel it through the bond."

"Damn soul bond. Worst feature ever."

He laughed and opened his door. "Come on. Before you lose your nerve."