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We’re not ready. We don’t have enough in takings or savings to cover what he’s going to demand.
Vito’s breathing is ragged with terror. “Dad’s here.”
CHAPTER TWO
Dough Knot Bakery, Haven
“Up,” Dad commands like the slash of a knife. His voice is smooth, sharp, and deadly. “The Snake pack don’t laze around, holding hands. You look like prey, when we’re the predators. Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten that? What is this shameful display?”
Dad swaggers into the kitchen of my bakery like he owns it.
Unfortunately, if you’re a member of the Snake pack, everything is owned by the Head Alpha.
Dad demanded a key to the property when Vito and I moved in. Vito scowled but he had no choice but to hand one over.
My chest tightens.
I’m struggling to breathe in my panic.
The burned coffee stench of angry Alpha, even with my scent patch, is overwhelming.
I whimper, scrambling to huddle under the counter.
The purple floor is cold underneath me. The shadows curl around me.
But I’m not safe.
No one’s safe once Cesare Snake is in a room with you.
You’re not safe once you’ve gained his attention.
Once you’ve made him angry.
Since Vito and I are his son and daughter who rejected the Snake family, legacy, and business and have been trying to make our own way outside his influence, we have no choice in that.
From being kids, we never had any choice.
I’m shaking.
I wrap my arms around my knees. I slam my hand over my mouth and nose, trying to block out Dad’s smell.
Dad’s dressed in a navy suit with a wide belt, which has a snake’s fanged head as a buckle. He looks slick and well fed with severe gunmetal gray hair and a thick beard.
I hate that his dangerously narrowed eyes are the same blue as my own.
Wide-eyed, I watch in horror, as Vito pushes himself to his feet and straightens to his full height. He throws back his shoulders.
He doesn’t bare his neck in submission, as Dad viciously expects, but instead, tilts up his chin in clear defiance.
Vito always stood up to Dad, when he should have meekly obeyed.
It’s what I admire most about Vito.
It’s a characteristic that I respect in Alphas.
Having an Alpha like Vito around me has stopped me from judging them all to be as terrifying and abusive as Dad and the rest of the Snakes are.
Plus, Dad did say that he wanted Vito to act like a predator.
