Chapter 130 Where Am I Going Wrong

Chapter 130 Where Am I Going Wrong
Aphrodite 

I told Valdus to go upstairs. The room at the far left end of the hall still held the old Alpha’s clothes; he could at least cover himself with something that fit.  

I turned and hurried back down the stairs. Ekon stood at the bottom, looking up at me with wide, uncertain eyes. The second my feet touched the floor I dropped to my knees and pulled him into the tightest hug I could manage. I held on until I felt his small arms begin to loosen, only then easing my own grip.  

“How are you?” I asked, smoothing a hand over his hair.  

Behind me I heard Valdus’s bare feet on the steps, but I did not turn.  

“Good.” Ekon’s answer came with a forced little smile. Whatever sat behind that smile, he looked past me instead of explaining. Valdus reached my side and stopped, staring down at the boy with his arms crossed and his expression unreadable. I pinched his side hard enough to make a point. He still said nothing.  

I sighed. “Ekon, this is my mate, Valdus. Valdus, this is Ekon.”  

Valdus’s hazel eyes stayed locked on the child. His arms remained folded.  

I don’t like him.

Ekon’s soft “Hi” hung in the air. I swallowed the urge to growl at Valdus—or slap him—and kept my voice even. “Listen, Ekon. I’ll catch up with you in a bit. You can go play again or go outside, okay?”  

“Okay.” He turned and bolted through the back door into the grass without another word.  

The moment he was out of earshot I spun and slapped my palm against Valdus’s chest. “What the hell, Valdus?”  

“What?”  

“What do you mean ‘what’? You know exactly what.”  

He shrugged and started toward the kitchen. “Okay, and? I don’t like him. Just the vibe of him. Messed-up kid, if you ask me. And I can say that because I know one—I was one.” He threw a wink over his shoulder and kept walking.  

“Valdus!”  

“Sure, he’ll be your pup, but not mine. I’m just a figure in the background while you raise him for the Alpha title.”  

I followed him into the kitchen, heat rising under my skin. He turned, leaned back against the counter, crossed his ankles, and folded his arms again.  

“Aphrodite. I just have a bad feeling about the kid. I don’t know if it’s because you like him so much or because I know he’s going to be my replacement. I don’t have a clean reason. My wolf is saying the same thing. I’ll be there. I’ll help. But I won’t like him. And don’t you dare think I’ll turn into my father.” The last sentence came out in a low growl. “I’ll take care of the kid.”  

Anger still burned, but it had nowhere useful to go. I was the one forcing this arrangement on him—asking him to call another male’s child his own blood. The fight drained out of me.  

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.  

One corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s shocking—you apologizing.”  

I rolled my eyes. “So you’d rather I keep yelling at you?”  

“Well, no. But sometimes it turns me on. Sometimes.” He pushed off the counter, closed the two steps between us, and cupped my right cheek in one warm hand.  

“Yeah, right. We’re always arguing.”  

“Yeah,” he murmured, voice dropping into that rough purr that always found the soft places under my ribs, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to pin you against a wall and fuck you until the only sound you can make is a scream.”  

My heart skipped hard. My mouth went dry. I pressed my palm flat against his chest. “Stop.”  

“It’s true though.” He rested his forehead against mine.  

“Well, don’t think that.”  

“I’ll try.” He brushed a quick kiss across my lips, then wrapped both arms around me and pulled me tight. I let the tension leave my shoulders and held him just as tightly in return.  

A month later the two packs became one.  

We held the ceremony on my old ground. Valdus sliced his palm open beside mine so the blood link could reach every wolf that had once answered only to me. The moment the bond settled, the territories fused and the combined pack mind stretched wider than either of us had ever known.  

Zeke and Cadmar stayed. Angelia and Helmer chose to remain as well. Wilson was allowed back only after Valdus looked him in the eye and made the terms brutally clear: one more betrayal and he would either die where he stood or run for the rest of his life with Valdus on his heels.  

Zeke and Cadmar threw themselves into training. My old warriors and Valdus’s trained side by side until the ranks looked twice as large and twice as dangerous. Helmer joined the sessions whenever he could; the old passion for teaching still lit his face.  

Ekon went to school in the mornings and trained with the warriors every afternoon. Wolves watched him with quiet curiosity, but no one asked questions. Confronting either Alpha about the boy who would one day lead them was a risk no one wanted to take.  

Valdus spent long hours catching up on the Alpha meetings he had missed and on the stacks of paperwork he preferred to handle alone. I had not even known those meetings existed—quiet alliances with neighboring packs that preferred cooperation to war. I left him to it. Paperwork had always been my least favorite part of the title.  

The new territory felt enormous. Some nights I lay awake wondering whether a ten-year-old boy would ever be able to hold two packs this size. My own pack had grown by absorbing weaker ones until it became the second-strongest in the region; the weight of that history now rested on Ekon’s small shoulders. We would stand beside him when the day came, but we could not baby an Alpha. The title had to be earned, and once it was, the pack would be his to protect.  

A year later my blood was already boiling when I left the estate.  

My steps struck the ground hard and fast. Claws pricked the insides of my palms with every swing of my arms. This was the second time. I knew exactly which classroom to head for.  

I slammed the door open hard enough to rattle the frame.  

Ekon sat in the chair nearest the window, head bowed over his hands. Fresh and dried blood coated his fingers and the sharp points of his still-extended claws. Another fight.  

“Let’s go,” I growled.  

I turned and walked out without waiting. Behind me I heard a quiet sigh, then the scrape of chair legs as he followed. I did not head toward the estate. I led him straight into the trees until the school and every listening ear were well behind us.  

Only then did I stop and face him.  

“Why?” The word came out rough.  

He looked up and actually smiled. “He didn’t take me seriously. So I slashed him.”  

A fresh growl tore from my throat. “Where? Where did you slash him?”  

“Maybe the side of his face down to his neck?” The smile turned almost shy, as if he expected me to be impressed.  

“This is not funny, Ekon.”  

“I had to prove something to him, Mom.”  

“Slashing him across the face is not going to prove anything except that your wolves should be afraid of you.” I dragged in a long breath and shoved a hand through my hair. “Never mind. You’re getting a punishment. I don’t know what it is yet, but go home. I’ll meet you there. You had better be there when I arrive. If you’re not, I’ll have the entire pack looking for you. Got it?”  

“Yes.” His eyes dropped to the blood drying on his hands.  

“Go.”  

He turned, shifted in a quick ripple of bone and fur, and shot into the trees at a full sprint.  

I stood alone in the quiet woods, the scent of his blood still sharp in the air, and the same question turned over and over in my mind.  

Where am I going wrong.