Mal stiffened.
“Putting yourself in danger, real danger, is selfish. And you know it.” Finn’s gaze shifted to Anders. “We are a pack. What one does affects the others.”
&n
bsp; Her heart ached as Finn voiced what she’d been thinking.
Mal’s voice was low. “We have an opportunity to get information—”
“Information? Is that all you’re after?” Finn cut him off. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not going to pick a fight. That if you see Byron or Cyrus, you’ll be able to walk away.”
Olivia looked at her mate, the struggle on his face making her heart hurt.
“You and Anders?” Finn shook his head. “No lookout? No backup?”
“We can do this,” Anders argued. “Ellen told us—”
“Stop.” Finn held his hand up. “We need to get one thing straight. I am Alpha. If I say we’re waiting on something, we fucking wait.”
Mal stared up at the ceiling, the muscles in his neck and arms clenched tight. If she weren’t mad at him, she’d go to him. But she was. Her wolf might want to nuzzle in and offer comfort, but she wanted to…to yell at him. He knew what could happen to him if he and Anders failed. Death wasn’t the worst thing the Others could do. Coldness seeped into her bones, smothering some of her fury.
“I talked to Ellen this morning, and I agree that there is an opportunity here.” Finn sighed. “Dante, Brown, and Gentry are ready to go.” He paused. “Dante will make contact with Chase. I need you to go, take point, and have their backs—in case something goes wrong. Not that I expect it to go wrong. This should be easy, right?” He looked at Mal. “Can you do that? Or are you too close to this.”
Mal blew out a long, slow breath, his posture easing.
“Anders?” Finn asked.
Anders nodded. “Definitely.”
“Mal?” Finn asked.
“I’m in.” Mal nodded. “We should have talked to you. It was a dick move.”
“It was,” Finn agreed. “But it won’t happen again?”
“No. It won’t.” Mal’s promise rang hollow in her ears. Finn might be satisfied with that, but she wasn’t. He’d said he needed it to be the two of them, that he’d never leave her, and he wanted her to be strong. His plan to go after Chase with Anders while leaving her safely with the rest of the pack was not only a lie, but an insult.
I never lie. Those words had made it easier to trust him, to let him in and believe she could do this whole new werewolf-life thing. And later, when she’d learned the whole horrible truth about his family, he’d promised never to lie to her.
Her heart twisted sharply, the urge to cry and lash out warring for control. Forgiving him wasn’t an option yet, no matter what her wolf—or his—wanted.
Not that he’d asked for her forgiveness, or acknowledged he’d done anything wrong. Instead of wasting all this pent-up frustration, she might as well find a way to let it out.
“And me? What am I doing?” She looked at Finn.
But his gaze bounced to Mal before he said, “You sit this one out.”
She did her best not to glare at Mal or Finn, or throw her cinnamon roll. He—they—expected her to sit by and do nothing? No matter what they said, she wasn’t part of the pack—not yet. Why else would Finn keep her here? Or was it for Mal, some sort of ridiculous “protecting the mates” thing? Whatever the reason, it hurt, and deeply wounded her wolf’s pride. She stared at her cinnamon roll. “We’re done here?” she asked, her voice hard. Space—she desperately needed space. Now.
“Yes.” Finn’s answer felt final.
“Great,” she said, turning on her heel and carrying her breakfast back into the kitchen. She wanted to run, to shift, or bite someone. Biting someone sounded extremely gratifying. Instead, she threw her cinnamon roll into the sink—hard.
The normalcy of Jessa winding up Oscar’s swing, talking softly to the smiling baby, grew stifling. Tess’s silence was deafening. How could she sit there, flipping through a nature magazine, tracing the pictures with her fingers, when the house was buzzing with energy? The pack was excited about their hunt.
A hunt she wasn’t allowed to join.
“You okay, Olivia?” Jessa’s brow creased.