Read Online Claiming His Mate by M. Limoges - Free Book Online Page B

appreciate your concern. I really do. But I got this.”
    She huffed. “No, you don’t .”
    With her final proclamation, she took off running in the opposite direction. He watched her long brown ringlets sway as she disappeared into the distance. Someday, she’d grow up to be quite a beauty.
    He shook his head. Sentimentality couldn’t have a place in his heart today, and Tasha made him too calm. Colt needed his anger to face his uncle. The man was old, but not so ancient he couldn’t still put up a good fight.
    Colt picked up his pace as he got closer to the barn Magnum and his cronies had turned into their personal lair. Once upon a time, the place had actually been a functioning building, filled with horses, hay, and other tools they’d used to help keep their town self-sufficient.
    Red with white shutters and a giant door that had to be yanked open before he could go inside, the barn no longer housed anything but greed and corruption. Anything that happened within its walls spread out into the pack, mimicking an infection Colt wanted to kill.
    He pulled open the door and stepped inside without knocking. The sounds of the rowdy party that never seemed to cease were not present. Instead, he immediately scented his uncle and the pack enforcer, Ryker, inside.
    Magnum looked up from his reading when Colt entered, but Ryker didn’t turn around. The enforcer stared out the window, and Colt wondered, not for the first time in his life, what the scariest member of the Black Hills Wolf pack thought about during his perpetual silence.
    “Do you think you can come in here without knocking because you’re my sister’s boy? Because I’ll kick your ass from here to the other side of tomorrow for barging through my door as if you own the place.”
    Magnum’s scorn struck like a million bee stings assaulting Colt’s body all at once. He gritted his teeth against the pain. No matter what happened, he couldn’t back down from what had to be done. Too many people depended on him and, as Tasha had pointed out, with so many dominant males being shoved out every day, there would soon be no one left who could make things right.
    Not even Ryker, who still hadn’t looked at him, could stand against Magnum. The enforcer’s blood oath prevented his interference
    Well, Colt had no such problem. Alpha or no Alpha, uncle or no uncle, he couldn’t allow Magnum’s evil to fester any longer. He’d stop it.
    “Uncle, my Alpha.” He wished he didn’t have to use the Alpha phrase, but Magnum still held the title. If Magnum could be reasoned with, then none of this had to progress any further. He deliberately didn’t answer Magnum’s remarks. He had to speak with the Alpha whether the Alpha wanted to be spoken to or not.
    “What?” Magnum turned his head to Ryker. “Can you believe the balls on this kid? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me from this kind of nonsense?”
    Ryker turned around, one eyebrow raised. “I will protect you from all threats that are unacceptable. Right now, the inconvenience of your nephew is not really a concern.”
    Colt fumed, hands fisted. Ryker didn’t think he could be a threat? Damn, Tasha hadn’t thought he could be either. Fuck Ryker. He could handle himself.
    “Careful, pup.” Ryker’s voice traveled across the barn, and the sound fueled Colt’s anger even more. He wasn’t a pup anymore. Nor a juvenile. Hadn’t been for over a year. Why would they treat him the way they did? It was so unfair.
    “Magnum, Uncle, Alpha.” He cleared his throat, starting again, “I want you to stop harassing the older juvenile females. They’re not ready for you. We need to protect them, not parade them around in an unacceptable manner.”
    There. He’d said it. His uncle would have to listen. Certainly, the man could be reasoned with. Maybe he simply didn’t understand how creepy what he had been doing had become.
    “You want me to stop?” Magnum snarled, stalking forward until he grabbed the