Page 175 of Dead Girls Don’t Forget

Tina’s eyes burned. “She’s a cougar, Jackson! They’re our enemies!”

“She’s my mate.”

Uneasy voices spread through the hall.

Tina’s eyes widened, disbelief giving way to horrified laughter. “Your mate? A cougar? You’ve lost your damn mind, Jackson!”

“You can smell it,” Jackson said. He gestured toward me. “Our scents have combined. We are marked and bonded.”

I stood tall, chin lifted, letting my gaze sweep across the room. Ignoring the hostility around us, my cat purred at Jackson’s protectiveness. I met every stare without flinching.

Tina’s face twisted with revulsion. “That’s sick,” she spat. She turned sharply on her heel and stalked toward the hallway leading to the alpha’s office. “I’m getting your father.”

Jackson sighed as he watched her disappear.

Moments later, Thomas appeared in the doorway. He looked worse than I had ever seen him — exhausted, worn thin, with dark circles under his eyes and hair disheveled from repeatedly running his hands through it. A permanent scowl seemed etched into his face.

I allowed myself a small, quiet moment of satisfaction. Our plan had already taken its toll on him.

That was… delightful.

Thomas’s eyes locked onto me with pure, venomous hatred. The room was watching. His authority was bleeding out in front of everyone, and he knew it. Cornered alphas were dangerous.

“Enough,” he snarled, voice carrying the full weight of alpha command. “This ends now.”

He pointed straight at me. “That cat is an enemy of this pack. She has infiltrated our territory, seduced my son, and brought nothing but death and division. By pack law, she is to be put down. Now.”

The command hit like a hammer. Several wolves stiffened, instincts kicking in. A few took actual steps forward, lips pulling back from teeth.

My cat bristled inside me, every instinct screaming to shift.

Jackson moved like lightning. He shoved me behind him, his broad back a solid wall between me and the rest of the room. A deep, warning growl rolled out of his chest.

“No,” he said, voice low and lethal. “No one touches her.”

Thomas’s eyes narrowed. “You would defy your alpha? For a cat?”

“She is my mate.”

Thomas looked around the room, face twisted with fury.

“What are you waiting for? Kill her!”

“No,” Jackson roared, putting the full force of his own alpha command behind the word. The wolves who had been creeping closer froze mid-step.

For a long second Thomas just stared, chest heaving. Then fury flooded back in, ugly and desperate.

“You—”

Jackson lifted his chin and spoke the words that changed everything.

“I challenge you,” he said, voice ringing clear through the hall. “For the position of alpha.”

My breath caught. This wasn’t the plan. We’d come to observe, to talk to the elders — not to ignite a challenge tonight.

Across the room, Thomas stared at his son as if he'd never seen him before. "You'll regret this, boy."

Then the hall exploded into chaos. Voices rose. Wolves shouted. Some looked furious, others stunned, a few almost relieved. The elders moved fast, clearing the center of the room in minutes. Tables and chairs were shoved aside until a wide circle of bare floor remained. The pack pressed in tight around it, shoulder to shoulder, eyes bright with anticipation and bloodlust.