Bound to Enemy

13

I mean, she was, but Jason was most certainly not needed here. He carried no real rank in my pack. This meeting was only for my beta and my highest-ranked generals.

When they stared into each other's eyes, my wolf all but lurched forward and caused me to slam my hand on the table.

The table shook under my heavy hand, and all pairs of eyes looked to me. But my eyes were focused on a singular pair of blue-grey orbs.

"Umm..." Elliot looked over the table nervously, "alpha? Is everything okay?"

I wanted to simply swallow my pride and allow the meeting to continue, but I had seen enough. I was tired of being disrespected.

"Care to share your thoughts, Alessandra?" I stared her dead in the eyes. "Seeing as both you and your friend here are having a more intriguing conversation. Would you happen to know how to stop the possible rogue attacks that are likely to heighten within the next two weeks?"

We stared at each other with heated and hard gazes. She ground her teeth together in annoyance; it was so loud that I could hear it all the way across the large table.

"We were actually discussing how my pack was able to deduce this information weeks ago. So, all that you are revealing to us is already known information due to our intelligence." She straightened her back and folded her arms over her chest. "Our borders are in the south. We get hit with far more rogues than you, alpha. So we tend to know more about their movements and how they go about with their tactics. And while your attempt to interpret their movements is cute, you are all wrong."

"Wrong?" I scoffed. "You think we are wrong? Need I remind you that we have a stronger army and more advanced skills than your pack."

The rage brightened her eyes to an electric blue. "And yet you are still all so embarrassingly wrong. If you had just stopped to think for a moment and take your head out of your ass, you would know that they are trying to find the crater."

"Crater?" What the hell was she on about?

She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes as if to try and breathe through her annoyance. "How stupid are you people? But what am I to expect from a knucklehead alpha."

The silence in the room was so deafening that I could hear the steady heartbeats that surrounded me. All my generals looked between me and my betrothed.

No one, and I mean no one, in the history of my leadership had ever dared to speak to me that way. And those who even attempted to be that foolish quickly found my iron fist.

With lightning speed, I rose from my chair and stormed toward my mate. But before I could get anywhere near her, the little mutt rose from his seat and intercepted me.

"I think you may want to calm down a little, alpha," he had the nerve to press his palm against my chest. "I'm going to need you to take a few steps away from my alpha."

My nostrils flared, "Do not forget whose pack soil you stand on, mutt."

That word cut through him like a bitter knife. "Who are you calling mutt? I owe you nothing, Daxton, remember that. I am here to protect her, and right now you seem like a threat to her well-being. So I will not ask you again. Step. Away."

I took two steps closer, bringing me toe to toe with that little clown. He had been getting on my nerves from the moment I had set my sights on him.

"She's my mate, you're on my soil, so unless you want me to throw you into a cell, I would suggest that you move aside so I can have a word with my wife."

I had no idea where all of this anger had come from. Usually, I was calm and collected, especially in the eyes of my leadership. I never wanted to seem out of control or on edge. I always needed to have my wits about me. But seeing him hold her in ways that she would never allow me, did something to my brain chemistry. I still didn't want her; she was not the bride that I would have chosen for myself. But still, no one else could have her.

"Okay, enough," Alessandra came to stand between me and her little pet. She pressed her palms on both of our chests and shoved us apart. "You two are acting like dogs trying to piss on a damn fire hydrant. Stop."

I was about to say something, but then Jason had the nerve to place his hand on top of hers and thread his fingers through hers.

What. The. f**k.

He was touching her again, and this time there was no defending that as simply being friendly. This man was teetering on the line very finely, and I would not stand for it.

Red, that's all I could see. f*****g red.

The rage roared into my bloodstream. All I could see, feel, and think of was the anger. I shoved Alessandra to the side and grabbed her friend by the neck. I slammed his back against the wall, causing the room to shake a tad due to the pressure I had inflicted on it.

Jason clawed at my hand, but my grip only tightened until his face started changing color.

Kill him. My wolf egged me to finish the job, but I had to keep my composure.

My mate still liked this one, and I couldn't afford to piss her off that much. We were barely on speaking terms as it was. The last thing she needed was me taking away one of her closest friends.

Jason's eyes cut to the floor, and they widened. I snapped my neck in the direction he was looking at and stilled.

On the floor was my mate with a big gashing wound on the side of her head, blood dripping down the side of her face.

My stomach dropped.

Elliot was at her side, trying to help her center herself as she blinked her eyes from the floor.

I had hurt her.

CHAPTER 8

ALESSANDRA

T

he first thing I felt was a piercing pain on the side of my head. Then it was the loud throbbing of a vein that hit against my skull repeatedly. When I finally was able to sit up, the world felt like it was tilted on its axis.

It was incredibly disorienting, if I was being quite honest.

The room spun from the force of the impact. When I withdrew my hand from the side of my head, I noticed blood coating my palm.

Great.

"Alessandra?" A voice that I recognized as Elliot's penetrated through the ringing in my head.

It took me another second or two to finally come back to the room.

I shook my head and nodded to whatever he had said. I felt like my equilibrium was completely off.

"Ale? Are you okay?" Jason's face came into view. "Can you stand?"

I blinked, my vision coming into better focus. It was then I noticed the large bruise around his neck. "Me? Are you okay?"

Jason opened his mouth to speak, but then he was pulled from where he was crouched down in front of me. He was soon replaced by Daxton, who wore an expression of both shock and regret.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.