Alpha Divided (Alpha Girl Book 3)

He sat back in his chair. “You wouldn’t eat on our run again. You’re still going too long between meals.”


Ripping into a live, fur-covered Bambi wasn’t something I wanted to do, no matter how natural everyone else thought it was.

I kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”

Meredith plopped down next to me. “Hey, Imogene.”

“Hey.” She drew out the word a little too long for it to be mistaken as anything nice. “Well, I’m going to get going. Good to see you Dastien.” She put her hand on his arm again and squeezed. I wanted to rip her hand off her body.

I shoved a giant bite of omelet in my mouth to keep from talking to her.

“See you, Tessa.”

“Mmm-hmm,” I said around my bite.

Dastien leaned back in his chair. “You’re kind of adorable when you’re jealous.”

My cheeks heated. Shut up, I said through the bond. I glanced over to Meredith, who was nodding and staring off into space. “How’s Donovan?” I said when I was done chewing.

She jumped a little in her seat. “Oh. He’s fine. He’s on his way. Sorry, was I doing it again?”

“Yeah, but I’m just as bad.”

“He wants to talk to you two.”

I dropped my fork. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Anything bad?”

“He didn’t say.”

Perfect. The way the last twenty-four hours had been going, chances were on a scale from one to ten the news ranked somewhere around fifteen, a.k.a. mega-terrible. I just knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say.

Before I could worry too much, Donovan appeared at the table and settled into the chair next to Meredith. He didn’t say hello. Instead, he put his arm around her, drawing her close. “How’re you two doin’ today? Feeling okay?”

Dastien stiffened beside me, and I put a hand on his leg. “We’re going to be okay, provided that we don’t have the same problem next month.”

Donovan sighed. “I can’t promise anything. What I can say is that Luciana’s up to something.”

I clasped a hand against my chest. “No! You don’t say?”

The side of his mouth tilted up. “All right. I get it. But I want you to be prepared for what may come. Don’t be afraid of fighting for what you want.”

I met his gaze and couldn’t look away. “Even if it puts other people in danger?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head. No way. “That’s too selfish. I don’t know that I could do that.”

The only sign that Donovan was pissed was the sudden glow in his blue eyes. “Fine. Don’t completely ignore the good of others, but don’t be a martyr either. I’ve seen that look in Luciana’s eyes before. Seen it in others, too. I know this is going to come down to a fight. It’s just a matter of how big.”

I broke his gaze. Not because it was too intense, but because I was confused. How was I supposed to know what move to make when he was contradicting himself? What was right? “You really think it’s going to be a fight no matter what?”

He settled back in his chair. “There’s a delicate balance between us supernaturals. Any one gets too big for their britches and it’s bad for the lot of us. Last time it was us who were in the wrong. We wanted too much control. Too much power. An evil wolf came to rule all the packs, and it went downhill from there.”

“What about the Seven? Didn’t they do anything about it?”

“That’s exactly why the Seven were formed. One person can’t know everything. One person shouldn’t be able to make a choice for a whole. It’s the individual that can be corrupted, but by conducting open discussions between equals, we can decide what’s best for all packs.” He blew out a breath. “It works better this way. Trust me.”

That sparked something. “Mr. Hoel wanted to do away with the Seven.”

“That’s right. And I’ll not be surprised if he’s working with this local coven.”

More fantastic news. “So worst case, we fight with my coven and whoever is still backing the Ass-Hoel. Some stand against us. Some don’t. That’s that.”

“Not quite. You see, we did some bad things to the witches before. We attack one group, they’ll all come calling. And they won’t be thinking rationally. We’re sending messages. Some will believe us. Some won’t.” He paused. “One fight, one little misstep, and the balance will be thrown off.”

This sounded way more tenuous than I’d thought. “You say not to give up and be selfish, but how am I supposed to do that and keep it from being a fight?”

“I’m not sure there’s a way.”

Great. Let me work up a miracle. “I thought you were supposed to be in the all great and powerful Seven. Don’t you have a plan? Shouldn’t you…I don’t know…figure something out?”