Текст книги "Alphas burden"

Автор книги: Luna lark

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10CADEN

My wolf doesn’t give up his fur right away, plopping down like an oversized guard dog twenty paces from her front door.

He watches for any threats for a while, then marks a perimeter around the place. He’s claiming this as his territory, warning other predators and prey to keep away. I’m rolling my eyes by the time he finishes going over every inch.

At last, I feel the reins fully back in my hands. I remain in my wolf form a short while longer before shifting. I should leave, but I make no move to.

My wolf clearly hasn’t realized I don’t want Avery to be my mate, fated or chosen.

I don’t know what it means for us to be so divided. There are shifters who go rogue, giving over to their wolves fully by staying in fur for too long. Their wolves are wild. Untamable. Then there are those susceptible to moon madness, driven feral, a danger to their pack. Others who are rumored to have lost their connection to their wolf by staying the other way, integrating completely with humans.

I shudder, not enjoying the thought of any of those outcomes. Not when I give every part of myself to upholding my father’s legacy, and his father’s before him. The good parts of that legacy, not my grandfather’s backwards views when it came to females at the time. Blackburn alphas have led this pack since its formation.

Rejecting the gift of a bond is spitting in the moon goddess’ face. It’s taboo, but I had to make the choice. Fate can’t be right all the time. This bond…it’s an insult to think Avery is my destiny after her family’s betrayal.

My chest reverberates with a dissenting growl.

I blow out a breath, raking my hands through my hair. I have no doubt I look insane right now, posted up outside her ramshackle cottage in the middle of the night, cock swinging in the breeze. Nudity is a fact of life for shifters, but this is a step beyond the norm. I’d leave to get clothes, yet I can’t convince my legs to obey my wishes.

I’ve done my duty as her alpha. Checked on her and made sure she returned home safe. No one else in the pack is coming after her.

So why can’t I walk away?

I nudge the deer carcass I took down. She doesn’t even know how to hunt. Maybe that’s why I’m still rooted to the spot because it’s not clear how she’ll fare with her wolf. It took everything in me while watching her pitiful failed attempts to hunt the deer to restrain myself from interrupting to show her how it’s done. I don’t want to examine why else I was inclined to take it down for her too closely.

Everyone believed she didn’t have a wolf. So did I. There’s never been any sign before. She couldn’t shift before tonight. As the alpha, my wolf had to provide for his packmate.

I open and close my hand, scowling at it. The memory of holding her in my embrace is fresh in my mind. Her body is so much frailer compared to seven years ago. How have I not noticed something like that before today?

Because I haven’t wanted to notice anything to do with her.

I shut down the line of thought with a terse sigh. This is ridiculous. What am I doing out here? What are my instincts driving me to defend her from?

Avery Morgan doesn’t need protection—mine…or anyone else’s. My teeth grind so hard at the idea of anyone else my jaw aches.

I distract myself from picturing other males in the pack sniffing around up here by glaring at the squat cabin on the hill ahead of me with the lopsided patched roof and crumbling stone foundation.

Her cottage can barely be called that. My brows pinch and my lip curls at myself for standing guard at such a pitiful excuse for a home.

This is the first I’ve been up here in years. Me and Liam used to come on dares with the other boys to see if the old settler’s cabin was haunted or under a witch’s curse. I’ve had the maintenance and carpentry teams repair and rebuild houses in far less dire condition than this to keep my pack members happy.

The door is barely attached to its hinges.

A chunk of the small porch has deteriorated, leaving a gaping crevice that’s liable to break an ankle if it’s not repaired.

The stones stacked at the foundation are making the house lean, meaning the cabin will eventually collapse when the old support beams give out from instability or age, whichever comes faster.

Two windowpanes in the narrow arched windows at the front spider with cracks in the glass, likely allowing the chilly mountain air to seep in. They’ll need twice as much wood to keep warm throughout the winter.

My heartbeat kicks up and my stomach roils the longer I examine the state of the place.

I did this. I put her here.

Trapped her in this abandoned prison at the edges of pack territory rather than allow my father to send her away.

Breathing becomes difficult for a moment. I scrub at my face, fighting the angry throb in my chest.

What is that? It grows more insistent, jerking me forward a step, then another. Balling my fists, I dig my heels in until they upturn the patchy grass.

The bond. It’s hanging on by a thread, compelling me to complete it. To fix what I’ve broken by severing it with my rejection.

My hand goes to the juncture of my neck and shoulder, tracing the scars. Most shifters don’t scar thanks to our healing abilities. They don’t mature until we do. It’s why we don’t have our first shift until we’re of age. Anything that happens to us growing up can leave its mark if the injury is severe enough.

It was Avery’s idea to sneak out of lessons for the day. I hated to admit it when any elder packmates made the assumption it was the Fates at work drawing me to her, but I liked the funny feeling in my chest when she laughed, so I’d go along with most of her ideas. She had a way of getting everyone to go along with her.

Her giggle lit up something inside me when she peered down from the high branch she climbed. “Aren’t you coming up any higher? You can see for miles up here.”

“I’m three times your size. It takes me longer to climb than you.” I jumped to reach the thick limb above me and hoisted myself up.

“Hurry up,” she teased with another cute chuckle.

“If my dad finds out we skipped lessons, he’ll make an example of me.” I mimicked his tone whenever he was instilling his wisdom to me as his heir. “No one is above the rules. Not even the alpha.”

These games were fine when me and Avery were feisty little pups. We’re getting too old to get away with it. She was sixteen now, and I’d turn eighteen next year. My coming of age ceremony was already planned out. I couldn’t wait to meet my wolf at last.

“He’ll never find out,” she swore.

She was right. The view when I reached the spot she perched was worth the climb. My attention slid from the majestic mountain and the sweeping shape of Crescent Valley to her.

Avery’s focus swung to me and she beamed. “Pretty, isn’t it? Dad said I had to see it from this vantage point to believe it.”

A tingle spread throughout my chest. I licked my lips and nodded.

“Yeah. Beautiful.”

She released another enchanting laugh. I wanted to take the end of her golden brown braid between my fingers. I wanted a lot of things with her that were becoming hard to ignore.

Succumbing to the urge, I played with the end of her braid, curling the soft tendrils around my knuckle. She blushed, peeking at me through her lashes. A strange tingle danced around in my chest, faintly tugging my stuttering heart.

When we made it back to the commons an hour later, something was wrong. A massive crowd was gathered on the lawn, nearly the entire pack. My wolf I had yet to meet was restless behind the veil that separated us, pacing in agitation. I exchanged a confused glance with Avery and pushed through the shouting people to find out what was going on.

When we broke through to the front, I froze. Avery bumped into me, then gasped at the sight of her father clashing with mine.

“Caden!” Liam found us and made his way over.

“What’s happening?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but Clark challenged Alpha Blackburn.”

“What?” I balked.

Clark Morgan was my father’s beta. His most trusted member of his inner circle. There was no way.

My gut twisted watching Clark’s punch snap Dad’s head to the side. Blood dripped from his swollen mouth. He shifted, teeth sinking into the meat of his challenger’s calf. With a vicious tug, he ripped flesh and tendons free. Clark grunted in pain, but instead of going down, he morphed into his wolf form.

They clashed again and again, man against man, beast against beast, taking pieces of each other without either gaining the upper hand. The lawn was spattered in their blood.

Avery grabbed my hand when my father’s wolf pinned her dad mid-shift, releasing a brutal growl that carried his Alpha power, keeping him down. It worked for a moment, seeming like the challenge would end with my father victorious.

Then Clark broke through, managing to get his paws under Dad’s stomach to kick him off. He took advantage of my father’s momentary distraction to launch himself at him, swiping at his stomach with his claws when he knocked him to his side.

The attack slowed Dad down, giving Clark more opportunity to turn the tables on him. He took too long to get up after Clark charged him.

My heart rose into my throat. I’d already lost my mother when I was a pup. I couldn’t lose my father, too.

No one was to interfere with an official challenge against the alpha. I knew that, even as I bolted into the circle on instinct, realizing the next blow would be the last.

“No! Caden!” Avery shouted, trying to hold me back.

I shook her off, pushing my legs to be faster. I skidded across the slippery grass, coming between them. Clark hesitated, but he didn’t stop. His claws sliced through my shirt at my shoulder, ripping through my skin. My collarbone broke beneath the force and I tumbled back into my father’s wolf.

His bark was full of fury. I scrambled to my feet to face Clark, knowing I was breaking every rule of a challenge. I couldn’t just fucking stand there and watch it play out.

Clark’s wolf knocked me out of the way. I gritted my teeth and pressed a hand to my bleeding shoulder. The claw marks left deep gashes and I didn’t have the full strength of my wolf yet to speed up my healing. I spun around, intent on doing something to stop this.

It was over. By the time I was knocked aside and turned back to the fight, my father found the opening he needed and finished Clark. His wolf stood over Clark’s, muzzle coated in the blood of his torn out throat.

Avery’s scream shook me from my stupor. Why would her dad challenge mine? Anger swirled in my gut and the pain in my shoulder made my heart race.

I stalked to the edge of the circle while my father shifted back, dragging her away from hugging Liam.

“You—you’re in on it. You fucking knew,” I seethed. “You lured me out of here so I wouldn’t be around.”

Her amber eyes shone with her welling tears. “I, Caden, I didn’t! I—my father⁠—”

At her hitched breath, I grabbed her by her upper arms and shook her, ignoring the searing pain in my injured shoulder. “What? Tell me right now.”

I might only be the Alpha heir, but I don’t need the power of an Alpha command to make her confess to me.

“I didn’t know,” she swore between hiccuped gasps. “He said, he… All he said to me was that he had to convince Dempsey to listen about my mom.”

My eyes narrowed dangerously. “He made you an enemy of the alpha clan, Avery.”

My jaw clenches as I bury the memory in my mind. I was right to reject Avery.

I have to be. Because if I’m wrong about any of this…I’m no better than a monster for condemning her to the fate of living with a broken mate bond.

She’ll never feel complete with anyone else, enduring a lifetime of longing never fulfilled.

An uncomfortable burning sensation grows in my chest. I ignore it.

It’s near dawn when measured footfalls approach. I angle my head to the side just enough to see Liam without taking my attention completely off the cottage. His hands are in his pockets, pace slow and unthreatening.

“You stayed out here all night?” he observes in an overly neutral tone.

I grunt. He offers me the pair of pants folded over his arm. I accept them and yank them on.

“I tried to come over a few times to report on the run, but you were growling loud enough I couldn’t get close,” he says.

I pass a hand over my mouth, grounding myself with the scrape of stubble. Was I? Shit.

Clearing my throat, I turn my back on the cabin. It takes far more effort than it should. I blink at the blinding rays of sunlight rising above the treetops.

“The run?” I prompt.

“All good. A few curious about following you, but they were easily steered away.” He rubs at his nape. “By the way, I put Taryn Barnes in the hold last night for stealing.”

I huff. “What else is new? Put her on the usual punishment duty.”

“Your sister, too. Callie was the distraction.”

“Of course she was.”

I press my thumb and finger into my eyelids to alleviate the dull throb building there, an echo of my father’s admonition surfacing from my memories. I did the best I could raising Callie once he passed, yet still I feel like I’m failing him.

“Anything else to report?”

“The liaison from Timber Hollow Pack arrived this morning. I put them in one of the guest rooms in your lodge. You have a meeting scheduled with her at eleven.”

Right. She’s going pack to pack to review preliminary planning for the upcoming summit.

I glance at the dilapidated cabin. “I’ll be down in an hour. My wolf’s still a bit, ah…”

“Out of sorts?” Liam suggests with a hint of amusement.

He can laugh all he wants. I don’t have time for this shit.

“Sure. Let’s go with that.”

He claps me on the shoulder. “So if you’re not around in an hour, I should come up to drag you down to the commons for work?”

I rumble in response. He takes it as a yes before leaving me to wrestle with my wolf to let me walk the fuck away.

11AVERY

As if last night wasn’t bad enough, Caden’s standing proud in front of my house for some unknown reason, every inch of his carved body giving off an undeniable vibe of raw Alpha power. Every inch, because he’s stark naked.

A noise sticks in my throat when I catch myself staring at his huge—I snap my gaze away with a huff. He has every she-wolf in the pack panting after him whether he notices their rapt attention on him whenever he’s around or not. I won’t be lusting after him, too.

He’s fixated on the cottage. I watch him until the sky begins to lighten with the impending sunrise, frowning when he remains a still, muscled sentry.

The broken bond is less raw this morning. I’ll live with it. It just means ignoring the twinge of what I imagine a hot poker to the chest would be like every time I look at him.

This is fine. Totally fine.

An absolutely manageable pain screaming in every movement.

I’ve survived the worst things imaginable, what’s one more gash to my heart at his hand?

I first spotted him through the window when I got up with the sun to check on Lena, not liking the hacking sound of her cough. His surly growling must be what made the windows rattle in the early hours before dawn. I’m so used to the wind knocking the loose panes around in the rotting frames, I wrote it off, too drained from my first shift to bother stuffing rags against them to muffle the noise.

My wolf seems pleased by his presence, though she’s content as she is, stretched out and licking her paws. The only indication she gives that she’s aware of him are her pricked ears poised to listen for him.

Rolling my eyes, I pretend he’s not there. He’s ridiculous, probably suspicious enough of me suddenly finding out I have a wolf and the ability to shift, that he’s come up here himself.

A thrill swoops through me. I have a wolf. I bite my lip around a smile, marveling at the new sensation of my connection with her. She preens, tail wagging.

I’m so lost in thought over it, I drop the pot of honey I want to add to Lena’s tea on my foot. Cursing, I bang my fist on the counter.

An answering growl sounds from outside, loud enough to wake my sisters when it grows closer, as if Caden took several strides towards the cottage. I glare at the wall as if I’ll be able to burn a hole straight through it.

“Go bark up some other tree,” I mutter while picking up the sticky, broken pieces.

This was my last jar. I got a whole crate of it in town from a beekeeper the baker knows because the price is too high at the commissary on the ground floor of the bunkhouse. For the likes of me, anyway. It was a big enough pot to last us through winter.

Lena’s scratchy cough draws my attention. She rolls over with a feeble murmur and Beatrix automatically rubs her back in sleep.

The kitchens have honey in their stores. If I butter old Alma up with an anti-inflammatory paste for the arthritis she’s developed in her hands, she might look the other way. I’ll have to hope the head cook is feeling as doting as she used to when I was a pup, or that her hands are beginning to ache more with the cooler weather.

I salvage what I can of the spilled honey to add to the rusted tin kettle, then clean away the rest. By the time I’m finished preparing the girls oatmeal with dried wild raspberries I foraged over summer, the sun has risen above the trees, shining through the narrow windowpanes. Dust motes dance in the spotlight.

With my enhanced senses, my vision is sharper, allowing me to see much more detail than I previously could. I thought it was only last night while I was running in fur for the first time, everything appearing so new and vivid. If I concentrate, I can hear a bird making a nest beneath the eaves of our roof, a family of mice chittering in my herb garden, and the rasp of mucus in Lena’s chest. I swallow, hoping it’s not turning into pneumonia again.

This is the full strength I was born to have as a shifter, and it means I’ll be able to use my heightened senses to forage better for plants that can be difficult to find.

A thump at the door startles me out of my thoughts. My wolf lifts her nose with an interested sniff. I smell it, too. Cedar, though the warm comforting scent is more like it’s been heating for too long over a fire. Caden, and he’s not happy.

“Let’s get this over with,” I say with a resigned sigh.

I open the door, steeled to face the alpha along with the pain of rejection all over again. The overpowering scent of Caden all around the cottage weakens my knees. My wolf rolls on her back, mewling.

Except he’s not there. I blink, searching the sloping meadow.

He’s left a deer on the stoop. My mouth hangs open when I realize it’s the same one I tracked and failed to take down on my own last night.

I scan the area again, wondering why he’d bother bringing me meat. Especially after he made it clear last night by rejecting me in front of the entire pack that he wanted nothing to do with me.

Hesitation stops me from kicking it off the porch to the ground. Meat’s hard enough for us to come by. I can’t afford to be picky about where it comes from just because I would rather ingest poison foxglove and chew on the rusty nails holding this place together before eating anything Caden provided me.

Good mate, my wolf pipes up. Provider.

I bare my teeth at nothing since she’s inside me. She’s wrong. I’m the one that provides for my sisters. I don’t need his charity handouts.

I don’t know what she’s in such a great mood over. By rejecting me, it means he rejects her, too. She gives a nasty yip, snapping her teeth. Whatever, she’s on her own to figure it out.

Still, I’m not turning down the offering. Meat is meat, and to get it I didn’t have to listen to vulgar suggestions about how I could earn an extra helping of food from pack males like Lorne and his brothers, Dane and Weston, trying to show off their superior rank to the cohorts that hang around them.

I just needed my fated mate to reject me, and then, I don’t know, feel guilty enough about it to leave me with this consolation prize. Sorry I don’t want you, the least I can do is offer you a meal. Asshole.

My lips thin into a line before I haul the carcass into my arms, mildly appeased by the fact I’m strong enough to do it now.

Once I take care of the deer, I grab my clipping shears and a basket before strolling the rows of my herb garden. I reach the candleflower, glad it’s still in bloom thanks to the tricks Jade the traveling witch taught me to make my herbs last past their blooming seasons in the high altitude of Silver Mountain. This will help soothe Lena’s coughing and hopefully open her lungs.

Beatrix is up when I come back inside. She prods at the oatmeal with a wooden spoon.

“Do you ever get tired of oatmeal? I’d much rather have bacon.”

“It’s good for you.” I pull her hair from her sleep-mussed braid and redo it for her. She allows it, swatting me off only when I fuss with the ends. “They don’t serve anything this packed with nutrients down in the dining hall. Only greasy bacon, eggs, and sugared cornbread.”

She mumbles a complaint, rubbing her stomach. “But it’s bacon.”

My lips twitch. “Fine. I’ll snag you some if Alma has any left. I have to go down there to talk to her. Make sure Lena finishes the whole teapot, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Thanks.”

She snatches my hand before I move away, pulling me back in with a curious sniff. “You smell different. Wait, no, not different. More you, but also something else.”

My stomach clenches, worried her stronger nose can pick up remnants of Caden from when he had me in his arms before he shoved me away.

“I shifted,” I explain. “I’m not sure how it happened so late, but I have a wolf. Is that what you smell?”

“Avery!” Her eyes widen and she throws her arms around me. “This is amazing. What was it like? Is she beautiful? Tell me everything.”

“Later,” I say with a laugh.

I lay out the candleflower on my workbench and make quick work of stripping the yellow blooms to brew in tea, the leaves that are still perky with life to make a syrup with, and save the stalks to dry out by hanging them from the rafters overhead with the rest of my dried herbal collection. When I’m finished, I set it aside and mix up a paste for Alma’s arthritis.

The routine brings a moment of normalcy to ground me. Lena and Beatrix chat softly while I work, sharing a bowl of oatmeal. It allows me to push down the ever-present ache in my chest until it’s bearable. I don’t know how long it takes for a rejected bond to fade since there’s no one in recent memory in our pack to compare this experience with, but I hope it’s soon.

I give both of my sisters a kiss on the head before leaving for the commons. The dining pavilion is packed outside the hall. Small pups chase each other between the outdoor seating and two stone fireplaces with excited squeals, much to their tired dams’ annoyance as they call after them to come eat. Fresh brewed coffee and the delectable scent of bacon makes my mouth water.

For a moment, I’m struck by a pang of longing to be part of the laughter over shared baskets of steaming cornbread and platters of fried eggs.

Shaking it off, I bypass the doors between the fireplaces that lead inside to head around back. The kitchen is bustling with the morning rush for breakfast by the time I poke my head in.

Alma’s barking orders while mixing the next batch of cornbread batter. I hurry over with a full pitch prepared, only to be cut off by her before I open my mouth.

“Oh! Good, you’re here,” she says.

“Uh, yes?”

Is she psychic in her old age, too? She’d better watch it, or the pack will start calling her the next witchling. I fight to keep a smirk off my face.

She waves me off. “Well, don’t just stand there, pup. I need someone on bacon at the far burner. Don’t gape at me, go before it burns.”

I open and close my mouth, brows pinched. I want to point out to her that I haven’t been a kid in a long time, but she’s dismissed me, groaning when she bends to load a pan of batter into the oven.

“Welcome to kitchen duty,” Taryn says as I pass her.

“What?”

“I know. It sucks the most, definitely more than maintenance or laundry. At least on those rotations you get breaks. The kitchens are grueling work.” She frowns, waving a spatula. “Liam knows I hate cooking because it’s so much standing around waiting, so naturally I get assigned here every time I’m caught. That uptight bastard thinks it’s funny.”

I shake my head. “I’m still not following. Why does Alma think I’m also here to work?”

“You didn’t see the new rotations posted this morning at Alpha Blackburn’s lodge? You’re on it.”

“Great.” Air gusts from my lungs.

Caden can take that deer and shove it up his perfectly toned ass. This is yet another way for him to punish me for things that aren’t my fault. I didn’t pick for us to be fated anymore than he did.

I’m usually left off the shared job duties. In the first few months of Caden’s reign after Alpha Dempsey passed away, every job I was put on ended up causing a disruption because people either didn’t want to be around me or they got aggressive to assert their dominant rank over me so I’d known my place was at the bottom of the hierarchy. I didn’t dare go to Caden to tell him how the workloads were dumped on me or that I never received my cut of payment. Eventually, my name stopped appearing on the roster.

“Enough yapping, get to work or you’ll be explaining to Alpha Blackburn why breakfast is delayed,” Alma grouses.

I sigh, taking over the abandoned pan of sizzling bacon. When the rush slows down, I’ll talk to Alma about the honey I want. Taryn chats my ear off. Despite being one of the few packmates to remain friendly, it’s more than she’s spoken to me in seven years. I don’t hate it.

“You’re burning that,” I point out.

She spares the charring eggs an uninterested glance. “Feed them to Tobin. He’ll eat anything.”

“Can I just—?” I take her spatula and scrape the well-done eggs into a serving dish.

Unlike times in the past where it was clear all the work was being forced on me, this isn’t so bad. She’s still helping, I just take over when she loses track of the task.

“Avery!” Alma calls after I’ve cooked two platters and saved Taryn’s batches of eggs from getting too crispy.

I turn off the burner and jog the last few steps when Alma beckons me impatiently. She shoves a large serving tray packed with food into my hands.

“Take the cornbread to the head table for a refill, then these other dishes go to the elders’ tables and this one can go to the unmated males and females at the back.”

Despite my best efforts to keep my face neutral, my expression gives me away.

“No pouting, now. Serving’s part of duties here. Get used to it.”

She nudges me and returns her attention to a male leaning against the counter talking to Emily, a she-wolf who usually comes to see me after she’s fooled around with whoever’s caught her fancy. She hasn’t acknowledged me once since I’ve been here.

“How many times do I have to remind you not to stand around? If you’ve got time to stand, you’re not working hard enough,” Alma blusters.

If either of them had time to idle, they could’ve served this food instead of me. I glance at Taryn and she gives me a thumbs up. She’s not the one who has to go serve her jerk of an alpha fresh off a mate bond rejection.

Rolling my shoulders back, I brave the swinging double doors with my chin held high. The din of chatter pauses. Caden’s blue eyes snap to me for a beat, then slide past me as if I don’t exist. Callie and Liam glance from me to Caden between them, then to each other. Everyone else resumes eating, but I feel the weight of their gazes following me as I make my way to his table first.

The closer I get, the more the bond acts up to remind me it’s there, throbbing in my chest. As though proximity will somehow magically knit the spurned connection back together.

He’s deep in conversation with Liam while I plop the cornbread baskets in front of him. He doesn’t pause, though the corners of his mouth turn down. A sharp pain twinges in my nerve endings and I stifle a gasp, refusing to allow him to see me hurting.

My wolf’s not impressed with the ignoring act. She also wants to steal the bacon off his plate, and I need to focus on standing still instead of darting my hand out. My mind stutters over the division of my own complex emotions and her baser impulses.

Liam clears his throat when I linger. I jolt, ignoring the snickers from Lorne and his brothers at the other table full of Cormac’s side of Blackburns nearby.

Lorne’s grating laugh cuts off when I move to the other table of elders before serving Cormac’s. He strides over, leaning over me to grab the platter of bacon I set down.

“That goes to my father’s table,” Lorne corrects.

A cup slams down on the head table hard enough to break something, possibly the table going by the violent crack of wood echoing through the room. It’s followed by a harsh snarl from Caden that makes Lorne stiffen. He steps out of my space, but still blocks my way once I’ve given the table the other plate.

An irritated rumble sounds in my chest. I should shift. Charge Lorne and knock him down. Make him submit to me with my teeth around his neck. I pinch my thigh to anchor myself before my wolf makes this situation worse by challenging him.

“There’s an order to these things, little witchling. Get it right.”

Rather than take the food he wanted first so badly, he dumps it on the floor. The room is silent except for Cormac’s husky chuckle.

Lorne lifts a brow. “Well? Clean it up.”

His brothers can’t contain their laughter any longer. I don’t dare look to Caden, though his presence suffocates me from several feet away, eyes boring into my back.

“Enough. Sit down, Lorne,” Caden bites out.

He ignores the order for a few seconds, holding my gaze. Then he backs away, tracking me as I finish handing out the remaining dishes on my way back to the kitchen to look for a broom and dustpan.

The whispering’s worse when I return. I set my jaw and silently clean up Lorne’s mess as my stomach burns. Part of me wants to dump it in his lap. It’s what he deserves, but I’d rather not paint a bigger target on my back than there already is.

Without a word, I leave the hall and almost collide with Taryn. She eyes the dustpan in my hand curiously.