Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Oh, for fuck’s sake. He must be joking.
“What? Now that I have money, I’m worth something to you?” I saunter out from behind the desk and then lean casually against it, folding one of my legs across the other. “Or is it Brick’s power you want to use?”
“Brick is not as powerful as you think,” my dad sniffs. “That human mate of his will be his destruction. You should jump ship before it’s too late.”
My dad despises humans. He has made a powerful place for himself as the leader of hate-mongering focused on humans. I was raised completely apart from humans. I never mixed with them, never interacted until Brick, Nickel, Jake, and I had to live amongst them in boarding school and later at Yale.
My father taught me at a young age to fight for my survival, so that’s what I did. I latched onto the bluest blooded wolves on campus and made myself indispensable. During our first year at Yale, Brick’s mother poisoned his dad, and the Adalwulfs ripped his wealth from him. He needed a right-hand man to help him exact revenge and fight to regain everything the Adalwulfs stole. I had enough vengeance within me to power all the electricity in Manhattan.
I now know we all trauma-bonded. Nickel–a royal wolf from England–had also been escaping family trauma and political machinations. Jake was a quiet loner who’d never had a pack to rely on until Brick brought him into the fold. The four of us became a found family, united around a single cause–to rebuild the Blackthroat pack’s wealth and status, so Brick could maintain leadership.
“The pack has accepted his luna,” I say stiffly.
Granted, I wasn’t exactly in Madi’s court, and I fought Brick on his decision to mate a human, but I’m not about to tell my dad that. I would never let him see any chink of weakness in my pack or my alpha.
My dad watches me closely. “I heard it was a bloodbath. He had to kill hundreds of his pack members to maintain dominance. His pack will organize the next coup better.”
His words send a chill up my spine. If I were in wolf form, my hackles would raise, but I’m careful to show no emotional response. I don’t like that he’s given so much thought to our pack’s defenses. I don’t like his cruel attention shining on the Blackthroat pack in any form. My dad is dangerous and unpredictable. I’ve spent a lifetime learning to control myself and my surroundings to prevent the destruction he wages.
“I expect I’ll have a chance to assess things for myself at the wedding,” he continues.
What? “You’re not invited.”
“Not yet.” My father fiddles with his cufflink. “But I expect you can put a word in with your alpha to change that. I am a blood relation to his second, after all.”
Figures my father would spend the first half of a conversation tearing my pack down, and the second half angling for an invite to what he sees as the most prestigious event in our pack’s history. I shouldn’t be surprised at the hypocrisy. In my father’s eyes, the Blackthroat are the wealthy bluebloods of the shifter world, and he wants proximity to all their wealth and power.
I raise a brow, acting cool. “I’m surprised you want to be there, since he’s marrying a human. I know what you think of them.” He drilled that hatred into me as a pup.
For a moment, I’m back in Maine, standing with the pack on our land. I can hear my father shouting, “It’s time to hunt the human.” I remember how my sister held me tight, as if trying to protect me from the wolves around us and the violence they would wreak.
My fangs grow sharp in my mouth. The thought of allowing him near my luna makes my blood run cold.
But I keep my expression controlled. Never show weakness.
“It’s the wedding of the century,” my father is saying. “Surely you can swing an extra invite—”
Fuck this. I’ve got to shut him down. “Don’t hold your breath.” I match him, sneer for sneer. “I can tell you now–there will not be another coup. Madison Evans isn’t just a human mate. She’s a true luna. She claims and holds a power that the pack recognizes. No amount of hate-mongering can override nature’s law.”
It’s true. Even I have conceded her position and power at my alpha’s side.
I’ve accepted my punishment for trying to keep them apart. A punishment that now involves me playing fucking ambassador to the humans.
This reminds me–I should visit Cafe Girl to discuss those duties.
Bill White II lets out a derisive scoff. “My own son is now a human lover.”
His words knot and twist in my gut. One part of me snaps and roars at the implied weakness he projects at me. The other part hates any of it that might be true.