The Tracker's Rage (Mate Tracker #3) - Ingrid Seymour Page 0,1

sitting areas and modern art. This section of the house felt nothing like a home. Instead it made me think of an office building, though I suspected that, deep in the bowels of the house, Eric kept a lair much different than this. I had seen a hint of it in his study the day we’d met. The place had been warm and inviting with a massive fireplace and tons of books.

A couple of minutes later, Eric appeared through a door in the back. He wore a pair of blue pajama pants and a gray T-shirt. His bare feet slapped against the polished concrete floor. His brown hair stood on end, and two-day stubble covered his jaw. Piercing blue eyes stared at me, cold and cautious.

“You are part of a bargain I shouldn’t have made,” he said tiredly. He had agreed to train me to pay a favor he owed to Damien Ward.

“Am I an alpha?” I expected him to laugh in my face, but he only continued staring coldly. “ANSWER ME!” I demanded.

“Ask your wolf, not me. She knows the answer.”

I shook my head.

He sighed, scrubbed at his face, and sat on the nearest sofa, a leather number with slick lines and stainless steel framing.

“The two times you’ve trained with me,” he said after a moment, “you’ve always heeled to my commands, though you fought me every step of the way. I thought you might be a beta, a strong one at that, but now I know I was wrong.” He glanced up. “Yes, you’re an alpha. I heard your thoughts clear and strong.”

I took a step back, the horror of this revelation hitting me full force. “No,” I whispered, wishing it weren’t true, but knowing deep in my heart that it was.

“No?” Eric asked, puzzled. “In case you don’t know, being an alpha is a good thing when you’re a werewolf, especially if you’re female and packless like you are. You should be glad.”

His words registered at some level, but all I could do was think of Stephen and Blake. It couldn’t be true. Stephen couldn’t be responsible for... for what? The rhabo? The unrest in the Skew community? His own kidnapping?

Eric stood and took two steps in my direction. “What’s going on, Sunder?”

I stared at my hands while my lungs pumped air in and out as if they were getting paid for overtime. Could I trust Eric with what I’d discovered? At his party, the day I met him, he had been serving rhabo, then that vampire girl had shown up at his door, demanding more of the glittery, deadly liquid. Did that make him a provider? A dealer? Jake thought so. He had warned me to be careful. But I didn’t know for sure, so telling him what I knew could turn out to be a huge mistake. Still, there were other things I could discuss with him, things that terrified me.

“I feel I’m changing all the time,” I said.

He nodded. “It might take some time for your wolf to settle and reach her full potential.”

“I’m afraid I will become a different person, someone I won’t recognize.”

Eric huffed. “You don’t have to find out you’re a werewolf for that to happen. You’re young, Sunder. You haven’t lived enough to know, but there are many things that can alter you. Time doesn’t pass in vain.”

I sank on the sofa Eric had just vacated. “I don’t want any of this. I want to go back to normal.”

“Stop whining,” he spat, his voice cutting, unsympathetic. “You’ve nothing to complain about.”

His expression had turned hard as if etched in rock. I swallowed the lump in my throat. If I wanted sympathy, I was barking up the wrong tree. I suspected Eric had lost his heart when he’d lost his family.

“You haven’t lost anything,” he said. “You have instead gained what many others would kill for. You have no idea how many young werewolves would move heaven and earth to have what you have.”

“I would give it to them gladly.”

“Don’t be pathetic.” His voice boomed through the large room, startling me.

I slowly rose to my feet. “Stop yelling at me.”

To my surprise, he threw his head back and laughed. “Few would dare talk to me like that, and I only allow it because of your ignorance, but let me make it clear now, alpha or not, you will follow my lead if you want our little arrangement to continue.”

He stared me down until I looked away. I wanted him to keep