Page 12 of The Alpha’s Heir

She was right.

The room we entered was vast with high glass ceilings that gave a sort of false grandeur to the sterile room as the blue skies shone above. The air felt fake and recirculated. Tainted somehow, as if too many people breathed it at once. The pristine white floor we stood on was beneath a row of benches and tables where the humans sat elevated, as if they were above us.

It isn’t safe. My wolf growled and paced. Aunt Coral, Kera, Alec… They’re all too exposed. Need to protect my pack. Need to get us out of here.

I tuned out the very real worries of my beast as I looked around the room, making note of any more exits while guards holding weapons piled in after us and formed a semi-circle at our backs.

I don’t like this, my wolf snarled.

Even Alpha Kera was tense. She moved closer to Alpha Jareth. Skoll bared his teeth in a grimace as he stepped in front of Coral.

Only Morrigan seemed unaffected by the tension growing in the vast room.

“What is the meaning of this?” The human woman seated at the center bench stood. Her voice rang out stronger than her thin frame suggested.

Something in her tone had the guards all moving into formation, training their weapons on us.

It’s a trap!

Silently, I cursed the goddess for getting us into this mess. I turned, giving the humans on stage my back, and using my body as a shield to protect Alec from the guards.

She growled and pushed me aside. “Told you this was a bad idea.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Morrigan waved her hand in the air. “Everyone drop your weapons.”

The sound of metal clinging against the tiled floor reverberated through the building before the goddess even finished her command.

By the looks on the guards’ faces, I assumed they hadn’t willingly disarmed themselves.

“Who are you?” the human woman asked.

Morrigan didn’t deign to answer as she continued her march up to the stands. We hung back, wary about what she’d do next.

Aunt Coral recovered quicker than the rest of us. “This is the ancient goddess, Morrigan,” she introduced her. “Thank you, Councilwoman Troy, for arranging this meeting on such short notice.”

Alec growled again beside me, and I knew she was frustrated at hearing our aunt seem to make herself more pleasant for the humans. That was Coral, though. The Beta peacekeeper.

Something my sister couldn’t understand.

“This is the goddess,” the human woman repeated. I guess she hadn’t been expecting her to be real.

Welcome to the party, I thought to myself as I looked over the other humans at the table.

My eyes locked with the male beside the councilwoman.

The breath left my lungs.

It’s him. My wolf was as stunned as I was. We took in the rugged outline of the large male who stood, raising his arm in front of the councilwoman as if to protect her from Morrigan.

His brown hair was shaved short, and a haunted look radiated from his dark eyes, making him appear older than he seemed. The uniform he wore clung to his massive shoulders and tapered down to his waist. He wore it well. That uniform—unlike the rest of the council—did something to his persona, making him powerful. Commanding.

Mine.

I forgot how to breathe, but that didn’t stop the air from rushing past my ears. My heart beat frantically in my chest.

My mate.

As adult wolf shifters, we knew when this happened. There was never any doubt. One meeting of the eyes. One whiff of each other’s scent. And that was it. In strange situations like Trish and Jaxon, they’d been too young to know for sure.