Page 198 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

“What’s your name?”

“Maya.”

A knock came at the door, and Nelly’s eyes went wide.

“Nelly can stay here until you finish your shift,” I said, quieter. “Make yourself comfortable on the bed.” I looked at Maya. “Give me a couple of minutes to leave. It’s probably my husbands knocking.”

I put my finger to my lips for Nelly. She copied me with enormous seriousness. Then I slipped out of the room and stood in the hallway, thinking about the woman and child inside. Maya looked terrified.

A footstep came behind me. “You’re–”

A callused hand clamped over my mouth. “Not a sound,” my father breathed against my ear. “Not a single sound or I start with the little girl you left in there.”

He dragged me backward. I stumbled as he pulled me into a room with three zero three on the door. He kicked it shut and it clicked behind us.

“Sit.” He pushed me on the bed.

My legs were shaking. He stood between me and the door, his face exactly as I remembered it. The same cold eyes. The same mouth that only ever curved when something was going wrong for someone else.

“You cost me three million euros and my reputation,” he said. “Three million. My own daughter. Do you have any idea what I had to do to fix that hole?”

I couldn’t speak. My throat had closed.

“Nothing to say?” He paced in front of the door. “I thought you were the one I could manage. And yet now you’re bonded to two alphas and you think you’re invincible. You think their claiming marks make you untouchable.”

“I don’t think that.”

“Don’t lie to me.” He walked forward, looking at me but saying nothing more. I hated it when he got quiet because that was normally the calm before the back of his hand. “I raised you. I know every cowardly thought in that head of yours.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed. One hand stayed near his belt. I knew a gun was tucked there.

“Bring the car to the back entrance and keep it running. And be careful, the Russians are here.” He paused. “I don’t care how. Figure it out.”

He hung up.

“Please,” I said. The word came out smaller than I wanted. “Please just leave me alone.”

“Leave you alone?” He laughed. The sound of his voice scraped over every one of my nerves. “You’re going to do exactly what I tell you. You’re going to walk back down there, and you’re going to get Violet and Mila, and you’re going to bring them to this room. You’re going to smile and nod and tell anyone who asks that the girls need a nap. And if you say anything to anyone, if you so much as look at one of your alphas the wrong way, everyone at that wedding dies.”

My lungs ceased and my heart dropped to the floor. I couldn’t breathe or speak.

“You think I came alone?” He laughed as he walked to the window and looked down at the garden. At the lights strung between the trees. As the wedding guests danced, no doubt. Or was he looking at Mila and Violet? “The perimeter is surrounded by my men. One word from me and this wedding turns into a funeral.”

He didn’t turn around.

“No, when you have the kids, bring them to the rear entrance, not the room. The car will be waiting. Remember, Mary. One wrong move and everyone dies. Your sister. Your alphas. Your precious little kids.”

His back was still to me as I reached under my dress and grabbed the gun strapped to my thigh.

He turned.

He saw the gun. And he laughed.

“Do you really want to do this, Mary?” He tilted his head. The same way he used to look at me before he unbuckled his belt. “Do you really want to risk everyone’s lives? Including your alphas? You’ve never had the stomach for anything that mattered. You think a claiming mark changed that?”

My hand wavered. The gun felt heavy as I kept the aim over his cold, dead heart.

He saw it and smiled. Then he stepped forward. “You wouldn’t have the stomach to kill your father.”