Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

I stood there, simmering in my shame as Mahlan glowered at me. Not that I could blame him. He could separate my head from my body, and that would be a reasonable response to me mating his sister without her permission.

But I hoped that somewhere within him, he knew that I had done it for her. For him. And I would do it again if it meant Emma was safe.

“Alright everyone, I understand this is a complicated situation,” Lyssa started slowly. “Believe me, if anyone knows, it’s me.”

She had a point. It wasn’t even that long ago when Lyssa had been forcibly mated to save her life. Funny how that kept happening, except it wasn’t really funny at all. More like heart-crushing, life-ruining.

“Emma, how about I help you into something clean and you can let Savannah give you one last look over?”

Emma nodded, letting go of her brother and letting the women guide her on either side. She still g*****d as she limped along, and I couldn’t just stand there and listen to her be in pain.

“Here, let me help,” I said quickly. Mahlan could kill me if he wanted to, but he could wait until after I made sure Emma wasn’t in unnecessary pain as they walked her to the changing rooms.

Approaching her, I swooped her up in a princess carry. She let out a tiny m**n of pain that made me freeze, but within a moment, snuggled to my neck, sniffing gently at the bite mark where our scents were merging.

I stood there a moment, dazed by the incredibly intimate gesture. That was most likely why I didn’t realize that everyone was watching us.

Well, I supposed it was quite a shock to see the two of us acting like mates, but that was our world now. I just gave our spectators a shrug, as if I was daring them to say something about it.

But none of them did, and I ended up following Lyssa and the Alma not to the dressing rooms but rather Emma’s office, from where the witch had bolted. I could still smell the powerful attacker’s scent lingering in the air, and my l!ps pulled back from my teeth in a silent snarl.

I managed to get myself under control despite the protectiveness welling up in me, and set Emma down on her desk.

“I’ll be right back,” Lyssa said. “I’m just gonna go find some clothes.”

Emma nodded, looking truly exhausted. I felt so bad for her. I had basically swept in and completely derailed the life she’d worked so hard to build. Sure, I saved her life, but at what cost?

Sure, I would be the bad guy if I had to be, but I wished I didn’t have to. I didn’t want Emma to hate me. I’d been in love with her since I was a kid, and the idea of being some terrible specter who destroyed her future was soul-crushing.

“Are… are you alright?” I murmured to Emma, almost dreading her response.

“I’ll survive,” she answered, equally soft. “Thank you, I guess, for saving me.”

Her tone was flat and I couldn’t get a read on her emotions. Every time I tugged at the bond between us, I was inundated with such a strong swell of emotions that it was indecipherable.

I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like there was a handbook on how to progress when one forcibly mated their best friend’s sister to save her life. That would be a real one to find on the shelves of Barnes and Noble.

It wasn’t what I had planned. Sure, I’d daydreamed about a future with Emmaline, but in a hazy sort of way. Like a fantasy that would never come true, but kept me company on lonely nights.

“Okay, I found something comfortable,” Lyssa said, returning. “Theo, do you mind waiting outside the door?”

I nodded. I wanted to protest, sure. My inner wolf was screaming with all that it had that I should fight tooth and nail to stay right by her side.

Thankfully, I had at least some manners left and escorted myself out. But I didn’t go far, standing out of the way on the opposite side of the door.

It wasn’t much later when I saw Mahlan approaching me out of the corner of my eye, which made sense. Of course he would want to approach me when I was alone rather than when I had his traumatized sister right next to me.

“Theo,” he started. Was this where he told me that I’d violated his trust? Would he exile me? Order my execution? “Thank you. I know what you did was difficult, but you made the right choice.”

Oh?

That certainly wasn’t expected. But Mahlan went right on talking, continuing the theme of the day that I had no idea what was going on or what was going to happen next.

“I know this complicates your life a lot, but I am glad you chose to do whatever it took to save my sister. She means the world to me, to Lyssa, to most of our pack. My family will be forever indebted to you.”

I didn’t know what to say, but thankfully I didn’t have to end up figuring it out, because Savannah opened the door.

“Mahlan, your sister would like to speak to you. And I would like to talk with Theo for a moment, if that’s alright?”

“Of course,” we said at the same time, Mahlan slipping inside while I took another step to the side to allow Savannah to join me.

“How are you holding up?” she asked. I gave her a nondescript answer while I strained to hear what was going on in the office. While it may have been rude, my inner wolf was going crazy at the thought of being separated from our new mate.

Emma kept her voice down, but I could hear Mahlan asking the same question Savannah had leveled at me. I wasn’t exactly surprised by how pissed Emma sounded, but it still stung.

“I’m alive, so that’s something,” I heard her growl. “I’m not exactly thrilled at this whole situation or that I was targeted.”

Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled about it, either. In fact, it was taking all of my wolfy control not to rip apart the witches that had hurt both her and Kaleb. But I fought to calm myself, knowing that Emma could likely feel my anger through our bond and didn’t need to deal with any of that.

“Emma, why didn’t you tell us about this woman that you saw twice? We could have maybe prevented this.”

“Because I just thought I was being paranoid with everything that had happened, and you all already have so much on your shoulders!”

I couldn’t have agreed with Mahlan more. It was tempting to go in and thoroughly chastise Emma for keeping it a secret, but I recognized that she didn’t need that. Not when she was healing from almost dying. As much as I loved my inner wolf, I was often grateful that I had such a good grip on his white fur. If he had his way, I’d be in there snarling, shouting, and no doubt making Emma feel even worse.

“I’m sorry, Emma, I realize what’s done is done, but you have to tell us these things in the future.”

“You don’t think I get that? I’m mated now because it was the only way to save me! You think I wanted that for a second?!”

Again, it was everything I already knew, but it still hurt to hear it. Savannah was continuing to talk, but I excused myself and stepped back into the office. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t stand to hear Emma so incensed when I was close by.

“What are you doing in here?” she snapped at me, her voice much more heated than I had expected.

“You know why,” I answered simply, because she did. We were drawn to each other, connected in a very sacred way that couldn’t be replicated through any other means.

But something in Emma seemed to boil over. “Get out! Just fvckin’ get out of my face!”

It was strange to hear such a violent outburst from Emma, but we were certainly in strange circumstances. I didn’t know what to say without angering her further, but fortunately, Mahlan was there to intervene.

“It’s getting more and more dangerous with all these silent attacks by whoever’s trafficking us. There’s got to be someone who’s heard at least something.”

I nodded slowly, trying to keep all my emotions in check. Easier said than done.

“This is too coordinated and planned out, so clearly they’ve been watching us. We need to disrupt our habits. Theo, can you take Emma home with you?”

“What?! No! I’m going to my own house!” Emma objected, her voice still vicious. The strength I normally admired so much within her now made me want to sink inside myself and stop existing.

“Emma, you really think your alpha will let you be alone after everything you’ve gone through today?”

“Lyssa can come over! Or I can go to your house!” Emma snapped.

Before I could pitch in that those would be perfectly fine options, Lyssa cleared her throat. I’d almost forgotten that she was even there.

“Uh, I’ll start cleaning up where that explosion was while y’all figure this out.”

“What?! Explosion?” Emma blurted, her eyes going wide and her cheeks losing all their color.

“Yeah, didn’t you see it when we were helping you over here?” Lyssa asked, clearly equally surprised.

“No,” Emma said, getting to her feet. “Show me.”

“But—”

“Show me!”