The Pack Girl's Retribution (Sequel to The Pack's Girl)

A Suggestion

It wasn't long before I asked Racer to go.

He was quiet, hesitating a long moment.

He doesn't want to go. Doesn't want to leave me alone. And I felt the hint of tenderness toward him that he was so worried for me.

But in moments I felt the bed dip and he rose. I saw his silhouette in the darkness of my loft as he collected his clothes in the blackness. Slipping his tunic over his head before heading down the ladder to his own bed.

***

I heard floorboards creaking down below a while later and then the rungs of the ladder.

"Racer I'm fine. Please go back to bed."

"Bit fiercer than that." He rumbled in a laughing voice, and I could tell from the more confident note in his voice who he was.

"What do you want, Vanquish?" I refused to roll over to talk to him. Sensing he stood behind me at the edge of my bed.

He spoke to my back, nonetheless. Refusing to take the hint. "Hunter told me what you asked him earlier."

I groaned. "Of course, he did. I was rather hoping he could keep it between us."

He flopped onto the bed behind me. Positioning a palm behind his head to lean up and stare at the ceiling. Knowing he was intruding but heedless.

He's determined to say his piece, whatever it is. I truly was in no mood to hear it right now.

"If you're going to caution me about the dangers of hunting NightHunter Packs, I'm in no mood to hear it."

He scoffed. "I know you too well to dissuade you from whatever particular trek you've gained trajectory on."

I twisted to peer at him over my shoulder in curiosity.

"Why's that?"

"Because I know you." He chuckled. "You play meek when it suits you but you're fierce. And stubborn as an old mule."

I snorted. "Well, thank you for that charming compliment."

"That's me." He murmured. "Filled with the compliments."

When I was only quiet in return, looking back at the wall, he sobered.

"Seriously, My Dear, you do know it's unlikely Draven will allow him to go on that hunt."

"I know." I sighed heavily. Feeling sorrow wash over me.

"If he were to defy the alpha or go on an uncondoned hunt, the punishment could be death."

"I know. I was thinking about trying to speak to Draven. To see if I could persuade him to let Hunter go." But that thought made my stomach tighten.

Draven scares the hell out of me. When he stood over me it made me want to whimper and back up.

A natural response to his power.

And the Asara Alpha was awash with it.

"Might I offer some advice?" He turned his head to the side and waited for me to respond.

Sensing he wouldn't let this conversation lie, I rolled over to face him, still curled into a ball.

He looked at me unblinkingly. Awaiting my answer.

"What should I do, Van?"

"If you approach the Alpha, he'll see it as a she-wolf stepping from her place in the hierarchy and he'll consider it an annoyance when a she-wolf dares approach him when he's an already-mated male."

I nodded slowly. Recalling his claiming of Lyra Lani at Declarations. The same one where it was announced the Haydens had claimed me.

I grimaced. I hadn't considered that my approaching the Alpha could constitute a forward threat to his mate.

Lyra Lani might take it that way. Even if Draven did not. And Lyra Lani had never been anything but kind to all the younger females. That wasn't something I wanted at all.

"Shit." I murmured under my breath. Wondering why I'd not considered such things.

But the answer came quickly.

Because I was a wolf princess once. And it was others worrying about offending me, never I offending, them. I sighed. Feeling utterly deflated.

Vanquish rolled to his side to lay on his side facing me. Putting his knees against mine as if he merely wanted the contact. But his voice was unusually commanding toward me. "I am not encouraging you to give up so wipe that look off your face, Lover."

I lifted my brows in surprise.

"You're forgetting the benefits of the Alpha possessing a mate. It is an advantage not a hindrance. It gives she-wolves a recourse to approach issues with the alpha."

"You said I couldn't speak to him!" I objected.

"You can't." He nodded. "You speak to her."

"Lyra Lani?"

He blinked at me waiting for understanding to dawn.

It did soon enough.

"I should ask her?"

"Why not?"

"Would he listen to her?"

"He's been hanging on her every word for years."

Vanquish laughed. "Don't tell him I said that. Nor that I told you he followed her like a lost pup."

"You think she has that much sway over

him."

"Probably more." He snorted. "You have that much sway over us."

"But the other wolves don't know that."

"Because the males still must have a strong face. Especially the Alpha. It doesn't mean she doesn't know precisely how to melt him, to use her wiles to persuade him for whatever she desires."

"So, you think persuading her to my cause, would persuade him?"

"I think she's very kind and holds much affection and protectiveness toward all you younger females."

"Sometimes, Vanquish, your wisdom overrides your terrorism."

He chuckled. "Don't go telling people."

He slid his hand from beneath his cheek and reached over to stroke his knuckles along my cheek nearly reverently.

I sighed at the pleasure of the simple touch. It seemed as though he sought nothing more than to offer me the suggestion and soothe the pain which had been washing through me in rivers.

He looked at me a long while before saying perceptively, "When you tire of abusing Racer to soothe the burn in your soul, come to me and we'll talk."

"Talk?"

"Talk about the things tormenting you."

He seemed so genuine I couldn't resist asking, the thing I'd feared for several weeks.

I need him even more than the others.

"Will you help me avenge my family, Vanquish? If

Draven says we may."

He sighed and gave me a half-hearted grin. "I'd help you even if he did not."

My eyes widened in vague surprise.

"You'll learn one day, Vanna...What we truly are..." With those cryptic words he rolled off my bed and strode to the stairs without any push toward making love to me.