Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 61468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
The room ripples with murmurs. For a moment, my heart leaps. Surely they can’t argue with that! Surely they’ll have to let him go—
But then another Alpha steps forward, dragging a reluctant Dr. Elizabeth with him.
“Tell us what you found in Poppy Hayes’ last ultrasound,” he orders.
She shoots me an apologetic look.
“I really don’t think—”
“Just answer the question, Doctor.” The Packmaster glares at her, his piggy eyes narrowing. “And remember this is a Pack Court—if you lie, you can be sanctioned or even expelled from the Pack.”
Dr. Elizabeth clearly doesn’t want to answer, but she has no choice. She twists her hands together as she talks.
“Poppy Hayes is carrying two babies. One is a female Were child and the other…well the other is an Alpha pup.”
There’s a low gasp from the people around me and several of them shoot me some extremely unfriendly and judgmental looks.
“Indeed.” Townsend pounces on her words. “Since Logan is an Alpha and his brother Dirk is a Beta—and a Beta cannot sire an Alpha pup—the second child must belong to Logan Hayes.”
“Yes…unfortunately.” Dr. Elizabeth’s shoulders sag and this time she can’t even look at me. I would feel bad for her if I wasn’t so worried about Logan.
“Thank you. That will be all,” the Packmaster says, dismissively.
But she resists when they start to drag her away.
“Wait—I have something to say! Poppy Hayes was entering her Secundus Calor when she first came to me. For those of you who don’t know medical terminology that means her Second Heat. This happens sometimes with a first Were pregnancy and it can be very dangerous for the expectant mother. I advised Logan to knot her and breed her often—she needed it for the pregnancy to stay healthy!”
Gasps ripple through the crowd, even louder than before.
Townsend glares daggers at her.
“And did you know then that he wasn’t her true mate—that in the eyes of the Law he was her brother?”
“No,” she admits miserably. “But in the absence of her true mate, Logan did what he had to do. He shouldn’t be punished for giving her what her body needed when her true mate abandoned her.”
Logan lifts his head and looks at the Packmaster.
“Just let us leave. I’m not part of your Pack. Poppy is about to get a divorce on grounds of abandonment anyway—”
A new voice cuts through the air like a knife.
“I never abandoned her. I just left for a little while…so I could make a better home for our little family.”
The crowd starts murmuring, looking over their shoulders.
I whirl and it feels like my heart has frozen in place.
From the shadows steps the man I thought I’d never see again.
Dirk.
51
LOGAN
“You did abandon her!” I roar, straining against the silver chains biting into my wrists. The metal burns, stealing my strength, but rage powers me enough to glare up at Dirk as he slinks out of the shadows like the snake he is.
I turn my fury on Packmaster Townsend.
“My worthless little brother married Poppy for her money. He convinced her to sell her grandmother’s house, and then once they had a joint account, he cleaned her out. He stole half a million dollars from her and left her without even enough money to buy groceries or pay the rent!”
Dirk just smirks, making a “take it easy” gesture with both hands.
“C’mon now, big bro. I never meant to stay gone forever. Like I said, I had to make a home for my wife and our little family. And that money? I invested it. I knew Poppy could never handle it on her own.”
My vision goes red. My Wolf claws at me from the inside, howling for blood.
Dirk turns smoothly to the Packmaster, trying to sound reasonable.
“I’m sorry this ugly mess fell in your lap, Packmaster. But I’m back now. And I’m willing to take Poppy back as my wife—even after she cheated on me with my own brother and broke the Unbreakable Laws.”
He shoots Poppy a judgmental look. As if he can judge anyone after how he abandoned her—the little bastard!
“You can’t have her! She’s mine!” I roar, my voice half-human, half-Wolf.
“Enough!” Townsend barks from the dais, his pudgy face purple with self-importance. He points a pudgy finger at me. “She is not yours! You stole your brother’s wife! Can you not see how wrong that is?”
Before I can snarl a reply, Poppy’s voice rings out, trembling but strong.
“I have something to say. You’ve all been talking about how Dirk left me and Logan took me in—which is true. But I’m not just some object you can fight over—I’m a person!”
Every head swivels toward her and I hear the audience to this little farce murmuring to each other.
Townsend sneers.
“Actually, by Pack law, a pregnant female is the property of her rightful husband. And he is the male you’ll be leaving with today.”