Chapter 42

Kyp

The other Alphas and Betas took the news better than I’d anticipated. There was some swearing, a lot of shock, and one broken decorative dish that had been knocked off Dominic’s desk after my confession.

“You’re sure, absolutely sure that Victor is your father?” Austin asked again.

“I felt it. Wolf felt it. His smell is familial, even with my mixed blood. And it’s him. It matches the picture of him. Unless he’s got a twin, it’s him.”

“Unreal,” Sam murmured.

Sarah’s eyes narrowed predatorily. I swallowed. Rachel wrapped her hands around my arm, staring Sarah down.

Dominic looked hard at me. “What are you thinking?”

Rachel wasn’t going to like this.

****

“Kyp, I hate this,” Rachel said late that afternoon once we were back at the house and I’d had a nap. Mom hated the plan as much as Rachel and was processing by taking a walk near Jonathan’s house. Rachel paced the living room.

“I’m not wild about it either. But I think this is the best shot we have of getting the upper hand.”

“I know. I just hate that it’s you.” Her jaw set. “What if it ends badly?” she whispered, glancing up at me through her lashes. I felt her fear and Wolf rose protectively. Mate.

“I’m going to be fine.” I wasn’t sure I was going to be fine, but I was hopeful. Victor was egotistical. He’d be flattered that I wanted to join his pack. At least I hoped so. I was an Alpha coming to him under the guise of reconciliation—submission. I knew very little about the man who fathered me, but I knew he lusted for power. And the submission of another Alpha, son or not, would be a significant stroke to his ego.

Rachel covered her mouth with her hand, her jaw still clenched.

“Come here,” I whispered. “The hardest part of this is going to be keeping my distance from you.”

She looked up at me, her heart in her eyes.

“If you don’t come back, I’ll kill you myself,” she threatened.

I smiled at her. “Noted.”

I dipped my head and caught her lips. She reached up on tiptoe, pressing against me. We’d kissed enough to know how we fit together. My hands came around her as her fingers snaked into my hair at the base of my neck. It sent goose bumps shivering over my shoulders and I think I groaned when I felt the tip of her tongue against my lips.

Confident enough at last, and tinged with desperation, I let myself kiss her the way I wanted to. My tongue slid into her mouth and my heart thundered in my chest as I let my hands trace where her waist met her hip in that delicious curve that made my blood race. I touched Rachel in a way I’d never touched a girl. It was all innocent enough, but it made the blood pound through my veins. Wolf was aware of every feather of feeling from his mate, responsive to every place her hands fell. Though innocent, it made me feel things—things that were infinitely more intimate. A taste of things to come once Victor was dealt with and Rachel was mine for keeps.

I kissed her jaw, her neck, let my hands tangle into her hair, listened as she sighed against my ear, and sent heat sizzling through every cell. Her chest rubbed against mine as she reached up to kiss my mouth again and I grunted. I was getting close to the point where I needed to stop. My hands were going to be all over her curvy bits where they shouldn’t be just yet. Even as I thought it, my hand slid up her ribs, stopping millimeters away from off-limits territory. Wolf was nearly frothing.

“I hope your parents believe in short engagements,” I growled as I locked my hands together behind her back and rested my forehead against hers. My chest heaved. It didn’t help that hers did, too.

“I suppose we could always elope,” she teased with a smile.

“I want to be married right now,” I confessed. As if she couldn’t tell already.

“I’m a willing party. Although I don’t have a dress.”

“I’d marry you in jeans and a t-shirt.”

She smiled.

“There is one other thing I want to do before I leave tonight,” I told her. She sobered.

“Anything,” she whispered.

“I want to formally Claim you.”