Page 68 of The Alpha’s Heir

And why is it so hot in here?

I tugged at the neckline of my shirt, almost missing the air-conditioned houses in the city. Roman must’ve been burning up.

See if he wants you to take off his pants.

I ignored my wolf as I went to open my bedroom window. The cool night air kissed my skin and I sucked down greedy gulps of it. At least the moon was out tonight.

A lone howl raised the hair on my spine, and the she-wolf stepped out from the cover of the trees.

“Finally.” Alec spoke through our pack mindlink as her wolf pawed the earth. “Were you planning to come say hi?”

My sister didn’t wait for me to follow. She’d have known I was coming anyway. And she was fast. By the time my wolf shifted and took off through the forest, Alec was already gone.

My wolf trotted a slower pace, heading to the old alpha’s mansion and looking over her shoulder every so often. The last time I’d run my own woods, a goddess messenger had descended on me. This time at least we made it where we were going without incident.

I still don’t like leaving Roman.

We’ll be right back.

Alpha Kera had refused to stay in the old alpha’s mansion, preferring the castle Uncle Jareth had built her just at the edge of our territory. Our uncle—her father—used to live in this house. The ‘Mad Alpha’ they’d called him.

After the renovations, visiting dignitaries would stay here sometimes if there wasn’t enough room at the inn.

They said the ghosts of our pack still haunted these grounds. So, of course, Alec had decided to live here by herself, away from me and Tisiphone.

I’d tried not to let on how much I hated it—how much I hated how far the three of us were drifting apart. But Alec was a sigma wolf, so she was always going to need her space, and Trish was now Luna of Cadejo Pack, and I…

I was still figuring my life out.

My wolf came to a stop in the front yard by the refurbished fountain that still gave me the creeps.

Alec had changed and turned on the lights. Music drifted outside from the record player Alec had scored at the market on one of our trips to Anubis Territory.

My human skin was still on fire as I shifted and grabbed an oversized soft cotton t-shirt from the bin by the front door.

Alec wore a loose-fitting dress that hung onto her shoulders by strings, swaying her hips to the music as she uncorked a bottle of wine with her teeth.

“Took you long enough.” She spit the cork on the coffee table, pouring us each a glass of wine before looking me up and down. “Did the humans poison you or something? You lost weight, and you look like shit.”

“Nice to see you too.” I grabbed a glass and downed it quick, hoping to soothe the heat in my throat, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

It didn’t help.

Alec didn’t look so great either. Her long hair couldn’t hide the quickly fading bruises on her skin or the mending cut just above her eyebrow. She wasn’t human, so the injuries wouldn’t linger like hers did, but it felt very déjà vu after seeing Katrina marked up like this.

The other difference was that I knew Alec had done this to herself.

“Alec…” I scolded.

“You should see the other guy.” She smiled.

I growled as a flash of heat raced over me again. “You promised.”

My sister shrugged with one shoulder, hiding her smile behind the wine glass. “You weren’t here, so why does it matter?”

I grabbed the bottle of wine. “My bad. I was busy doing the bidding of the goddess in order to save us all from the other gods waking and taking over the world. Speaking of which, you haven’t seen Morrigan lately, have you?”

Her cryptic warning hadn’t left me, but if anything, it made me want to abandon this plan so much more. The goddess had to know I was an alpha wolf that couldn’t back down from a challenge.