Clayton scoffs and takes another step forward. His quaffed hair is blowing in the breeze. He’s wearing a white suit jacket over a crisp button-down, with pants a deep shade of navy, and shiny boots. An undone bow tie hangs loosely around his neck.
“Me?” he says, grinning snidely. “I belong here. This… All of this”—he throws open his arms as if he’s gesturing to the entire world—“is my birthright!”
“Oh yeah, then why are you hiding on the roof?”
He hisses and his lips curls back, his grin becoming a snarl.
“I know why I’m up here,” I say, thinking I’m onto something. “Because you’re right: I don’t belong down there. That isn’t my world. But that’s all you have, it’s all you know. And yet you’re up here with me all the same.”
His snarl becomes a growl, and the wind picks up, throwing a lock of hair across his face. I don’t know if he’s drunk or just mad, but I know I don’t want to spend any more time up here than I have to. Unfortunately, Clayton is standing between me and the door. I may be fast, but there’s no way I’d make it before he could get to me. And if I run I might provoke him. Better I try and keep him calm. Only, from the way his growl is turning into a manic laugh, I don’t think I’m doing a very good job.
“You think you’re so important!” he yells, spit flying from his mouth like a rabid dog’s. “You think you’ve got it all figured out. You’ve managed to brainwash Jasper, and now you think you have a place in society—that you’re worth more than me.”
I shake my head. “That’s not what I think.”
“You think you deserve the life that was supposed to be mine!”
“No, Clayton. I’m not trying to take anything from you. All I did was show up.”
Clayton takes another worrying step toward me, his hands at his sides, fingers splayed.
“You’ve done a lot more than show up and you know it. Don’t deny it! But only an idiot would think I’d give up the life I was born into, the life I was destined for, without a fight.”
He’s lost his marbles, gone right off the deep end. I’ve done literally nothing to this dick, but for some reason he’s interpreted my existence as a slight against him.
“I don’t want your life, and I don’t want to fight you.”
“The fight started the second you sank your claws into Jasper.”
Speaking of claws…Clayton’s have started to extend from his fingertips.
“The day you showed up thinking you could have even a sliver of my birthright.”
Man, he is obsessed with his birthright.
“But what you don’t understand is you can’t win.” His maniacal smile is back. “Not against me or my family. We have been the real power in this pack for centuries, and now because of you, we’re finally going to show just how powerful the Bridgerses are.”
Is he talking about using Jasper and me to help overthrow the alpha?
“You think outing someone is going to give you power? You think this pack will just roll over and let archaic bigots like you win? You’ve got another thing coming.”
Okay, Max, you were meant to be keeping him calm. Don’t poke the bear!
Clayton raises a clawed hand as his fangs extend, his eyes glowing like a wolf’s at midnight. “Maybe you need a taste of my power to believe me.”
The metal rail is solid and cold against the small of my back. The door is impossibly far away and blocked by the approaching figure before me. There’s nowhere to run or hide. I could try to shift, but even in my wolf form I’m no match for Clayton.
“If you hurt me, Jasper will tear you apart.”
“Well wouldn’t that be a shame… At least then the pack will know what sort of wolf their future alpha is. You think people will fall behind an alpha pathetic enough to love someone like you?”
“Yes! And not just because he’s the alpha’s son. Because he cares, because he’s worked hard to be the sort of wolf that’s fit to lead. He’s made sacrifices.”Lordy, do I know he’s made sacrifices.“He’s made the hard choices an alpha has to make. He isn’t content to sit around and claim his family’s power just because he was born into it. He isn’t lazy or entitled like you.”
Clayton’s lips curl back again as his unleashes a fearsome growl, bending at his knees and preparing to strike.
“You want to know the truth?” he asks. “You’re right. If I try to hurt you, Jasper would probably give up everything to save you. But what if it’s already too late?”
Huh?
