Read Online Taken By The Alpha (Timber Valley Pack) by Georgette St. Clair - Free Book Online Page B

rack.  There were red blotches on her skin where the soup had burned her.
                  “She attacked me!” The woman wailed. “She dumped scalding hot soup on me and burned me on purpose!  I have the right to defend myself! I issue a challenge.”
                  “Bring it!” Katrina snapped.
                  Maddox let out a snarl and both of them fell silent. Katrina could have kept arguing, but she didn’t want to challenge his authority in front of everyone and put him in a bad spot.
                  Wait, why not ? She wondered.
                  “I saw what happened, Lula,” Maddox said. “You walked right up to her and bumped in to her on purpose. There will be no challenge. Understand?”
                  She hung her head sullenly and nodded.
                  “She doesn’t belong here. She’s not one of us,” she muttered, her voice angry and rebellious.
                  “You don’t get to make that decision. Pack up and move to one of the cabins in the far north section, and if you come near her again, you’ll be moving off the property. Do I make myself clear?”
                  Her lips parted and she stared searchingly at Maddox, with an expression of yearning that somehow raised Katrina’s hackles. Katrina felt fur rippling down her neck and back, the way it would when she fought in wolf form. She didn’t want any other females looking at Maddox like that.  Her wolf howled inside her, wanting to be freed, wanting to stake it’s claim.
                  My wolf is a dumb animal, Katrina reminded herself. She had no claim on him, nor did she want one.
    After a long moment, Lula turned and walked away without answering Maddox.
                 

Chapter Seven
     
                  Everything was falling perfectly into place. Of course, it always did for him.
    “You hear that, father?” Roman asked, his lip twisting in contempt. “I win again. I always win.”
    His father stared back at him with glassy eyes. Literally glassy eyes, because after Roman had him killed, he’d had him stuffed by a taxidermist.
    He kept him in a secret room that he visited often. Every time he dominated someone, every time he humiliated someone, he came to remind his father how wrong he’d been about him.
    Roman kicked the big stuffed wolf, and as he did he felt a sharp twinge in his side and grimaced; a wolf had used a silver knife on him in an assassination attempt a few weeks earlier, and the wound still hadn’t healed properly. It might never heal all the way; he’d brought in a healer to try their magic, and the healer had failed. He’d arranged for the healer’s fatal accident immediately afterwards, of course; he couldn’t risk the secret getting out.
    “You think this makes me weak? Do you?” he yelled at the wolf. “What the hell do you know? If you’re so smart, why am I standing here and you’re a giant Beanie Baby? Answer me that! No answer? I thought so!”
    His injury wasn’t even putting the slightest crimp in his plans.
    He’d just manipulated Roman into meeting him in the Death Arena – and ensured that Roman would lose. 
    He’d also kidnapped Tristan’s family, and ordered Tristan to bring him a member of the Killingworth pack if he wanted to see them alive. He’d known Tristan would fail – and now Killingworth could walk right in and take over.  There were no other Alphas in Tristan’s pack. 
    Tristan had been on the verge of challenging him, and with the injury, Roman would have lost – but he’d outsmarted his opponent and forced him to commit suicide by wolf.
    Roman lashed out at his father’s stuffed corpse again, kicking him in the face. “How’s it feel to be on the other end?” he jeered.
    Patrick Coffman had been more than old school in his parenting methods - he’d been vicious.  As far back as Roman’s memory reached,