years to come to the understanding that some men needed to have the truth beaten into them with a blunt object. She’d hoped Logan was smarter than that.
“Being an alpha is about a lot more than just making sure no one runs amok through the local human population, or convincing young males not to kill each other over some female’s first heat,” he argued.
“Oh, really? How nice of you to tell me that. Because as a young female pack beta, I didn’t ever have to fight a grown male to make him submit to my dominant position in the pack. And I’ve never stood at my father’s side while he negotiated a territory dispute with the Riverside Clan to the north of our territory. And I’ve never had to help figure out if the businesses my dad ran were going to provide enough meat to feed the males, females, and cubs in the pack who couldn’t find jobs out here in Northeast Bumblefuck to sufficiently feed themselves. Thanks so much for pointing out all the other jobs that I’ve been doing or helping to do here for … oh …
“Do you need a napkin,
“Fuck you.”
His hand slid from her shoulder to her wrist and gripped firmly. “Been there, done that. And trust me, mate, we’ll get to it again real soon.”
She saw the promise in his eyes and really wished her brain would talk some sense into her other parts and let them know that this was the time to be angry and disdainful and offended, not horny.
“Look, I’m not trying to dismiss what you’ve accomplished in the past, or the status you’ve held in this pack as its beta,” he said, obviously struggling to keep his tone reasonable. “But the fact that you saw your father run this pack for your whole life should tell you that stepping from beta to alpha isn’t like moving up a year in high school. Not every beta is cut out to be alpha. You don’t get there just by being stronger or more experienced than everyone else. You have to be
“You think I don’t know that?” She waved her free hand at the rows and rows of pack members ranged about the room in front of them. The ones currently pretending they weren’t straining to listen to the conversation between their leader and the strange Lupine who had invaded their territory. “You said you were going to take a look around and talk to the members of my pack before you made a decision about me. You go right ahead and do that. You go try to find someone in this pack you think can lead it better than I can. Then you come back and tell me what you find. Or let me save you the trouble. If you’re looking for a male among the White Paw who you think can be a better alpha than I can, you won’t find him. This is my pack, Hunter. I know my pack.”
“Stop acting like I’m just looking for an excuse to unseat you,” he hissed, never bothering to look at anyone else. “Yes, that could happen, but I didn’t come here with my mind made up. There are any number of ways this could go, Honor. If you’d climb down off your pile of righteous indignation, maybe you could see that.”
Wow, was he really that naive? She shook her head. “No, this is a true or false question, Hunter, so there are only two possible answers.
“Option one: you take your time looking around, poking your nose into my business and feeling out all the members of my pack, and it finally sinks in that I was right and this was all just a big waste of time. You’ll decide that I am the alpha of my pack, and you’ll go back to New York and tell your boss exactly what I told you in the beginning: Honor Tate holds the White Paw Clan. True.”
He growled at that, and the deep rumble tickled the hairs at the back of her neck. “If you think I’m going anywhere without my mate, you’re operating under some serious delusions, Honor Tate. You can’t get rid of me that easily. You can’t get rid of me at all.”
“Which brings us to answer number two.” She wanted to believe him. Hell, part of her did believe him. Her wolf knew Logan wasn’t lying when he said he was her mate. Her nose wasn’t broken. She could smell the truth for herself. What she couldn’t do was see any possible way in which the two of them could end up with a happily ever after. Some things just weren’t meant to be, and she’d given up on happy a long, long time ago.
“Two A goes like this,” she continued, shoving back a pang of grief she had no right to feel. “You decide I’m not fit to be alpha of this pack. If that happens, you undermine everything I’ve spent the last decade of my life establishing. You tell the males in my pack that you think one of them can challenge me and win, which means they will likely all challenge me. One at a time, I can defeat any male in this pack. I’ve already done it with two of the strongest, and I’m not going to back down from any of the rest. But, if they all come after me at once, there’s no way I can win. Even if they come at me one after the other in honorable challenges, eventually I’ll exhaust myself, and one of them will be able to get through my guard. Either way, I’m dead, so the White Paw Clan really would get itself a new alpha. I just wish I’d be around to tell you I told you so when that new alpha leads the pack down the road to hell within the first three months. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be able to haunt you.”
She saw the roar building up behind his expression and raised a hand. She needed to make him understand what she was saying. She didn’t have time for knee-jerk denials or macho possessive-mate bullshit. This was too important.
“Two B is the one where I don’t die, but listen for a second and then tell me if you really think it’s a better choice. Listen carefully.”
She leaned in close, so close she could see tiny pinpricks of silver in the brown of his eyes where the gold had not completely taken over. Even as she watched, they disappeared, his wolf steadily eroding his control and rising to the surface.
“This is the one where you get your wish.” She twisted the arm he still grasped until her own fingers could curl around his wrist, clasping him in return until his eyes flared an even brighter gold. “In this one, I admit you’re my mate. In fact, I proclaim it in front of my whole pack. Anyone who steps up to challenge me is forced to realize that they can’t try to harm me without my mate stepping in to defend me. Since I would only agree to call a male my mate if he supported me in everything I do, I’d still be alpha of this pack, because even though you had called me unfit, your presence at my side would keep me in the position simply because no one would be willing to challenge both of us together. Which would make you, as the mate of a female alpha, not the beta of the Silverback Clan, but the White Paw Clan’s Sol.”
She paused and watched the truth begin to dawn on this stubborn, arrogant man. Her lips quirked in a bitter half smile.
“So that’s false, Hunter. Now which one is it going to be?”
Seven
Sol.
Male mate to the female alpha.
The title had every one of Logan’s instincts rebelling in an instant. How could she ever imagine he would accept a position as any pack’s Sol? Unlike the Luna of a pack—the mate of a male alpha—the Sol lacked any power or authority. Sure, he was allowed and expected to defend his mate against a direct physical threat; he was still Lupine after all. Outside of that, though, he had no place in the clan’s hierarchy. He was not considered his mate’s beta, he wasn’t an elder, or even a storyteller or lorekeeper, since those were positions requiring age in the first case, and specialized knowledge and training in the others. He’d be the Lupine equivalent of a boy toy, with no power and no identity outside that of his mate.
He’d sooner suffer some sort of comic book–style radiation mishap and wind up a cat. At least then he could pretend to have a little dignity.
His mate’s soft snort brought him back to reality.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought you’d say.” Honor eased her wrist from his lax grip and pushed back her chair. “There’s only one easy way out of this, Hunter, and that’s to name me alpha and then get on with your life. In the city. Keep that in mind while you go around asking questions. Sometimes there aren’t any good answers.”
This time he didn’t try to interfere when she thrust to her feet and addressed the crowd.
“White Paws.” Her voice rang out in the large room, quieting the conversations and drawing all eyes her way. Their way. He saw plenty of curious glances darting toward him, but they all eventually settled on Honor. “I have an announcement to make. I’m sure some of you have already noticed that we have an unfamiliar male in
