Read Online Reflected (Silver Series) by Rhiannon Held - Free Book Online Page A

and drinks, then chase people out of earshot,” she told him. He bobbed a nod and bounded off. She had to call the rest after him. “Including you!” He waved to acknowledge it without turning around, and she had to laugh.
    They all sat and Silver and Portland made strained conversation about the weather and how it was affecting the prey populations in Portland’s territory until Tom had set down the food and drink and disappeared. Silver only sipped at her drink, but Portland nibbled and nibbled, probably not even realizing how much she was eating.
    Silence fell, compacting under the weight of important things to follow. Craig broke it first. “I have a petition for you, Roanoke.”
    Portland jerked straight backed. “You said that you wanted to discuss it, not—” The rest of her words trailed off into a rolling growl, and her wild self bared its teeth and snapped at Craig’s.
    Silver straightened too, stalling through her assumption of a formal expression. She and Dare had continued a tradition of Roanoke under other alphas: A Were of any rank could formally present them with a petition and be heard in full, their alpha barred from making any arguments until the petitioner was finished. It had come up only a few times, and she’d never before felt so biased. She’d much rather believe anything Portland said than Craig, but that didn’t matter. She needed to hear him out. “Do you wish to make your case privately?”
    Craig hesitated and glanced over at his alpha, who didn’t give him time to answer. “You mean for a formal petition I can actually be kicked out?” Portland glared first at Craig, then at Silver.
    Silver wanted to grimace, but she kept up her formal mask. “If the petitioner requests it. Or if keeping silent proves difficult for you at any point.” She pressed her lips together, then unbent as much as she dared. “It’s to keep low-ranked Were in a bad situation from being intimidated out of getting help. Obviously, there’s no intimidation here.” She raised her eyebrows at Craig for confirmation, and he dipped his head in a nod and even exhaled on a note of humor.
    “She can stay.” Craig waited as Portland crossed her arms and settled back, scent indicating she was seething inside. He grew even more expressionless in his own version of formality. “I am petitioning to have Michelle removed from the position of alpha.”
    Death laughed. Silver closed her good hand into a fist in her lap, hidden from view. Oh, how she’d love that fist to connect with his square jaw. “What?” She didn’t growl, but she put that vibrating rage into her tone. How dare he ask such a thing? “Why?”
    Craig set his hands flat on his thighs. “Alphas come under a great deal of stress. Stress that could trigger an unwanted shift and harm the child.”
    Silver could see the thought so plainly on Portland’s face she voiced it for the other woman, though with less anger. “Stress like having an unsupportive beta?” Death’s smugness deepened so markedly that she examined the words and winced internally at how badly she was doing at listening as an unbiased alpha. When she shoved emotion aside, this did not seem to be as similar to his opinion of her in the past as she’d thought. She’d supposed his suggestion to kill her had been laziness and a wish to avoid trouble, unleavened by empathy. This wasn’t avoiding trouble, it was causing it—in pursuit of what goal? Was Craig really motivated only by worry for the safety of his alpha’s cub?
    “Are you trying to say that no woman can be alpha without choosing between the position and having cubs?” Silver spoke quickly to dispel her last jab with a more logical argument. Female alphas were clearly the real issue here.
    Craig drew in a deep breath and glanced at Portland with a flash of concern so deep and surprising that Silver reevaluated her earlier assumption of his lack of empathy. “That depends if the other female alphas have lost