Cassandra’s hand halted in midair. I still had trouble reconciling that this woman was the same one who’d set me up on dates through a fake escort agency. The same way I had trouble coming to terms that my cousin had allied himself with her and pinned Liam’s father’s murder onme.
“I was gonna pick my daughterLori. . .”
The thin woman, who bore the same narrow facial structure as Cassandra, seemed to stand a littletaller.
“But I’m tempted to go with one of my new wolves.” The Creek Alpha raised her gaze to the deck where Sarah stood, her straightened blonde hair gusting around her tautshoulders.
As much as I wanted to spare Sarah the perils of being involved in a duel, if she became Cassandra’sSecond—
“Better not pick me,” my friend yelled. “I’d let them killyou.”
Hand coming back down to her side, Cassandra grinned. “Dear Miss Matz, I don’t believe you’d let them kill me. I believe you’d do ityourself.”
“You’re right. Iwould.”
Liam’s best friend loomed closer to Sarah. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but Lucas, who’d always abhorred the pack that shared our land, had decided Sarah wasn’t hateful, or at least, notashateful as non-Boulders.
“Are there any volunteers who’d care to duel at my side?” Was this her way of testing her new wolves’allegiance?
For a long moment, no onespoke.
But then, a voice I despised more than the Creek Alpha’s rang across the blue summer air. “I’ll do it, Alpha Morgan.” Justin Summix stepped away from his two buddies, his white wifebeater and the skin around his nostrils still speckled with blood from the beating August had delivered after the creep insultedme.
As he approached, Cassandra sized him up. “And youare?”
And here I thought she’d done her homework on all foreign packs . . . Justin Summix must not have been of much interest to her. Hewasa petty and vile shifter who’d insinuated more than once that being the pack’s only “bitch”—however biologically correct, I hated the term—meant I was a Boulder slut. He’d touted this barely an hour ago when I strolled up to the inn in August’scompany.
“Justin Summix, ma’am.” He palmed his brown scruff that was the same length and shade as his buzzedhair.
Her gaze halted on the blood splatter before rising to his pulsing nostrils. “Why do you want to duel at my side,Justin?”
“’Cause I know how the Boulders operate.” One side of his mouth curled in a sneer. “And I’d really enjoy bringing these two to theirknees.”
All three Morgans surveyedJustin.
I glanced up at my Alpha, whose lips had arched into a smile. I sensed the turn of events pleased him. Was it because he felt like he knew how Justinoperated?
“What happened to your nose?” Cassandraasked.
Justin locked eyes with me. “Like I said, I know how the Bouldersoperate.”
Did you dothat?
I didn’t answer Liam’s question, busy pondering what Justin was hinting at. Was he saying he knew about the mating link? That he would go after August to get to me? My navel tightened from this conclusion, or maybe my navel tightened because August was contemplating wringing Justin’s thickneck.
Cassandra licked her lips, removing some of Julian Matz’s blood. “Mr. Summix, a duel isn’t a settlin’ ofscores.”
I blinked. Was she turning himdown?
Justin’s yellow-brown eyeswidened.
“However,” she continued, “I’m willin’ to accept yourcandidature.”
Of course shewas.
“Are we good,Kolane?”
Liamnodded.
