Twice Tempted: Between Two Alphas (Mia and Cameron) novel Chapter 10

Chapter One Hundred and Four

ERIC

I’m in a foul mood when we reach the packhouse. The storm blew the supply jet off course. One of the wings was damaged and they had to reroute to Yukon Territory in Canada to avoid a crash landing.

My Beta and I were in the midst of a logistical discussion about how to get them back on track when Philipe’s wolves showed up.

After Ashley and Mia disappear with Merilee, I fill Cam in on the finer details of what happened at the gas station.

“Philipe is taunting me,” I say. “He’s letting me know that he’s got eyes on me all the time. I don’t like this, Cam. It feels like a trap. I don’t trust Philipe, and I trust Cassian even less.”

“Nah, I trust Cassian more than Philipe,” he argues. “Philipe wants revenge. There’s no telling when he’ll decide he’s gotten enough of it. What Cassian wants is a lot more concrete.”

The hair on the back of my neck bristles.

“He wants to change your daughter. To make a hybrid. It goes against every instinct I have. We should be putting distance between our packs and the vamps, not getting more tangled up in their business.”

“It’s not my favorite thing in the world, obviously. But I can’t let my daughter die,” Cam says.

He’s got the same desperate ferocity in his eyes that I see in Ashley’s when she talks about Merilee. Like her, I know he’ll do anything for his child, and that it’s a bond I don’t fully understand.

Cam’s just decent enough not to rub my face in it.

“I’m committed to it now,” I concede. “Figured I’d make everyone aware I’m not happy about it is all.”

“Thank you,” Cam says seriously. “I realize things didn’t turn out the way you expected with Mia…but for what it’s worth, Ashley wasn’t a bad mate. She was a good Luna for the most part—other than bewitching me into mating her and stealing millions of dollars from my pack, that is. She’s a good mother, Eric. You could have done worse.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Cam, but I don’t want to hear it,” I say. “You were in New Orleans. You saw what she did…what I wasn’t there to stop. Maybe she was a good Luna for you, but there are some things I can’t look past.”

Just thinking about Corinne’s death makes my wolf, Duncan, howl.

“Fair enough. I’m going to go check on Mia. She’s resting now,” Cam says.

He leaves the kitchen, and I ought to as well. I should check on Ashley and Merilee. It’s what a good mate and husband would do. It’s what I would do for any member of my pack, as their Alpha.

But I need a moment to collect myself.

All of this is pointless.

It’s too late to make that choice.

Too late for my mate to be a real partner to me, or a mother to my children.

Too late for me to have the life I’d always expected.

I walk through the packhouse toward the room Ashley and Merilee are in. I can smell her, feel her, long before I reach her. She’s my future now.

But I don’t trust her.

I hear her voice from down the hall. At first I assume she’s talking to her daughter. Then I hear a male voice, much fainter, but there. She’s on the phone with someone, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess who.

I walk faster, hoping to catch more of the conversation, but she falls silent right as I reach the door. I open it without knocking, and she freezes, phone in her hand.

“Who was that?” I demand, even though I know the answer. What I really want to know is if she’s going to lie to me again.