The Broken Wolf
Chapter 110

“What?” I say breathlessly.

“That’s the other wolf I smell,” he says with a smile, gently caressing my belly. “It’s not ON you, it’s IN you. I’m so sorry, Molly. I should have known. I probably would have noticed this morning if I hadn’t been in such a rush.”

He gently releases me and helps me sit up, straightening my shirt and reaching up to wipe the tears from my cheeks.

“You scared me,” I say, trying to calm myself as I reach down, placing my hand over our growing pup. “You’re sure?”

“I’m positive, Love,” he says, holding me against him. “I’m so sorry I acted like that. I… I’m so, so sorry. I should have known.”

“That’s why Sage has been tired,” I whisper, more to myself. “She said we couldn’t shift the next moon, but she didn’t tell me.”

He smiles, pushing my hair behind my ear and kissing my forehead. I look up at him and see that a few tears have escaped his eyes. “It makes sense now. Oh, Molly. It’s a boy, I can smell it, and he’s strong.”

“Really?” I ask with a smile, not even feeling a little disappointed that it’s not a girl. “A baby.”

I wrap my arms around him, finally calming down from being so scared. He could have acted better, but I understand, too. If he smelled like another wolf, I would scratch his eyes out.

“You probably need to finish your meeting soon, huh?” I ask and he sighs.

“Unfortunately, but it is useless. Neither of them is willing to yield,” he tells me, releasing me slowly.

I reach over and pull the tray with his food over for him. “I still think we need to go look at the land, alone. I think there’s something on it that they’re fighting over.”

“There could be,” he says, sitting and taking a bite of food. “I don’t want you to walk that far, though.”

“Seth,” I say, smiling at him. “I’m perfectly fine. I assume that this isn’t going to be a great six months, so let me walk while I can.”

“Fine,” he says, taking the food back to his original place at the head of the table. “Gus!” he calls, and he opens the door to stick his head back in, a giant smile on his face as he tips his head to me. “How much did they hear?”

“Nothing,” he tells him. “They went to the end of the hall, terrified. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, Gus. You can send them back now.”

“Yes, Sir,” he says, nodding his head to me and exiting the room.

A moment later, the two men return to the room. Both of them looking straight at me, probably checking to see if Seth had beheaded me in his anger.

“Alphas,” I say with a nod of my head and I walk towards the door.

“You’re not leaving,” Seth says, his voice deeper than when he normally speaks to me. “You’ll be staying with me all day?”

“Seth! All day?” I ask and he nods, holding out a piece of bacon to me. “I already ate. When do you expect me to meet any of the members of the packs if I’m with you all day?”

He shakes his head at me, still holding out the bacon. “Sit down,” he says, pulling one of the chairs that the Alphas had been sitting in next to him and patting on the seat. “You’re with me, now.”

I sit down, realizing that there’s no chance I’ll be leaving his sight for the foreseeable future. He holds the bacon to my mouth and I roll my eyes, but I take it from him and eat it. Both Alphas look at me, waiting for me to be punished for my eye roll, but it never comes. The men both move to sit down, Stephen moving another chair to where the one I’m seated in previously was.

I turn to the man I haven’t met yet. “You must be Alpha Thomas,” I say to him and he bows.

“Yes, Princess Molly. Thank you for joining us,” he says with a small bow.

I laugh. “We all know I didn’t really have a choice.”

Seth glares at me, but I can see the smile in his eyes as he tries to hand a piece of toast to me. “Really. I ate downstairs while they were cooking yours. I swear.”

“Fine,” he says, taking a sip of the coffee I had brought up. “So, are we actually going to get anywhere? Or are you two just wasting our time?”

“With all due respect,” Alpha Thomas says, “You are the one that required this meeting. I’m ready to get the challenge over with and assume the pack.”

“As am I,” adds Stephen.

Seth sighs. “You’re both ready to die for just a bit of property. Are you really willing to give your life, and your pack when you die?”

“I don’t plan to lose,” Thomas says and Stephen nods.

“You can’t both win,” I say and Seth looks at me. “You can’t. You’re both sure you’re going to win, but one of you won’t.”

Seth nods. “Have you considered what will happen to the members of your packs upon your defeat? Realistically, you’ve both got a 50/50 chance of a win, or of a loss. Those aren’t good odds.”

“You both have packs depending on you. If you lose, do you really trust the other to care for them?” I ask and notice they are both looking down at their hands.

“It’s my land,” Stephen says quietly, and I feel like there’s more to this than he’s told Seth.

Thomas slaps his hand on the table. “It is NOT!”

“Fine. Get out,” Seth growls out to them. “I have better things to do today.”

They both leave us. I notice Stephen stops and turns to say something to Seth, but stops himself and continues out.

“There’s more to this,” Seth says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re right. We’ll go look at the land. Are you sure you ate enough?”

His concern makes me smile. “I’m sure, Sugar Plum.”

“Sugar Plum?” he asks with a chuckle.

“Yes. I’ve decided that you need a nickname,” I tell him. “You always call me Love. I think you’ll be Sugar Plum.”

He shakes his head at me. “You’d better be sure no one ever hears you say that.”

“I’ll take your request under advisement,” I tell him as I stand, grabbing the tray off the table.

He stops, taking it from my hand with a sigh. “I assume we’re stopping to return this instead of letting one of the many omegas who work here do it?”

“Of course!” I tell him and walk out. I note that both Gus and Albert are following us. I guess they’ll be joining us.

We start down the stairs when we pass an omega who bows quickly. “Princess Molly, I can take that,” she tells me with a smile.

“I’ll drop it off on our way out. I don’t want to be a bother,” I tell her, feeling bad that I caused us to oversleep, and then a whole series of people having to do extra work.

“Princess, it’s not a bother. I’m honored to be able to serve you,” she says with a smile that seems genuine.

An honor? Oh gosh, that seems so odd. Seth reaches out and takes it from my hand, giving it to the girl.

“Thank you,” he says to her. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Lauren, Sir… oh… umm.. Your highness,” she says, quickly correcting herself.

He nods at her and places his hand on the small of my back. “What is it that you do here?”

“Mostly Laundry. I help out wherever needed, though,” she tells us.

“When you take this down to the kitchen, could you please let them know that Princess Molly requires the rest of her meals to be high protein while we’re here?” he asks her and her eyes widen in understanding as she nods. “It’s very important that this remains quiet for now. Can you pass along the message for me?”

“Would you like me to place some vitamins in your room?” she asks me with a smile.

I nod to her slowly. “Thank you. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“It’s alright, Love. You’ve only known for an hour,” Seth says, pulling me to him. “Thank you, Lauren. We are grateful for your discretion.

“Thank you for trusting me,” she says with a bow. “Congratulations!”

Seth takes my hand and leads me down to the next staircase but I see Reginald outside having what appears to be a heated conversation with Alpha Thomas. I notice a window that’s cracked open and I walk over to it, putting my finger to my lips and looking at Seth. He looks outside and sees them, and pulls me close as we try to listen.

“I don’t care whether you live or die,” Reginald says. “I have myself set either way. Stephen is so afraid of the truth coming out that he will do anything, ANYTHING that I tell him. I expect to run my business through the border no matter who is running things.”

“When I win I’ll be taking over your dealings. You won’t be running anything,” Thomas tells him in a threatening tone. “If you fight me, I’ll take your wife.”

“You can have her,” Stephen scoffs. “Marking her was just the first move to take control of the pack. If you control the sister, you control the Alpha.”

I look up at Seth and he’s ghostly white. I know he was heartbroken when she left him. He must still care, to some extent. It’s only natural.

I take his hand and pull him away, worried that we’ve been visible for too long. We turn the corner and he stops me, his eyes turning glassy as he links, I assume, Stephen. He nods to me and leads me to the front door where Stephen is standing.

“Not one word,” Seth says lowly to him and he slowly nods, clearly not knowing what is going on. They both look around and I can feel Seth’s relief through the bond when he sees Lydia approach us. “Take us to the land in question.”

Stephen nods and leads us, Seth holding my hand tightly. As we begin to get into thicker woods, Seth looks at me a few times, checking to see if I’m alright. “Is there any path that would be easier to navigate?”

“There is, but it may not be safe,” Stephen tells him.

Seth c***s his head to the side, unhappy with that answer.

“Listen, Seth. I know you know something. We need to get somewhere that is safe to speak. Where you want to go isn’t it. Just please, trust me,” Stephen says and from the look on his face, I know that he’s very serious.

Seth looks at him, and then Lydia, unsure of what to say. “And here is not?”

Lydia shakes her head and looks like she may cry.

Seth sighs deeply, looking all around us. He reaches out and gently grabs Lydia’s arm to get her attention and releases her, moving his hand and placing it gently over my belly. Her eyes widen in realization and she nods, tilting her head, an indication for us to follow.

We walk towards the south, and I realize after a bit that we’re walking near the road we drove up to get to the pack house. Gus seems to realize this as he’s looking in the same direction . Finally, we reach an old wire fence, the kind of fence that we only use to mark boundaries between us and humans. Lydia reaches up and unhooks an old rusty part and steps over, Stephen following her.

Gus steps over but motions for Albert to stay on this side. Seth looks between the two men as Gus is looking around and turns back to shrug. Seth looks at me, a pained look in his eyes as he struggles to decide what to do.

“I cared for you Seth, truly,” Lydia says quietly. “I’d never do anything to hurt you, or your mate.”

Seth takes a deep breath and looks up at the sky briefly, clearly struggling with what to do. He looks down at me and nods slowly, stepping forward to pull back the fence and holds out his hand to help me step over, onto the side that belongs to the humans.