The Tracker's Rage (Mate Tracker #3) - Ingrid Seymour Page 0,2
teaching me—now more than ever. I needed to know how being an alpha changed things for me. Would it make it easier or harder to remain packless? Did it make a relationship between Jake and me impossible?
At the thought of Jake, I grabbed my head, feeling the world around me falling apart. He was engaged to Allison Blackridge. Their relationship was nothing more than an arranged marriage meant to make the Knight pack stronger. He didn’t love her. He loved me. He had said so himself. And yet, he was going along with it, hadn’t even had the balls to tell me about it himself.
“You were right,” I said. “Jake is getting married.”
Eric grunted. “Not this again. I’m not a relationship counselor, so please, spare me.”
I didn’t care if he didn’t want to talk about it. He was supposed to be helping me. “Jake loves me and not that simpering blonde his grandfather is forcing him to marry. I don’t have a pack to help them grow their numbers, but could being an alpha make a difference?”
His mouth twisted to one side. “If anything, it makes things worse. I already told you that the Knight pack is old-fashioned. They want their females submissive. As if that weren’t enough, alpha and alpha don’t always mix when it comes to mating. You can’t have two werewolves trying to lead. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about Jacob Knight and find you a nice weak beta to keep you warm at night.” He sighed tiredly. “Look, it’s been a long week. Go home, Sunder. Come back tomorrow, and just know that this whole ordeal could be a lot harder for you. Be grateful for the strength you’ve inherited.”
“Inherited?” I echoed, my thoughts racing. “Does... does that mean my father was also an alpha?”
One of his eyes twitched, almost imperceptibly. “Most likely.” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand that seemed forced.
“You’re hiding something.” I didn’t know why I was so sure, but Eric knew more than he was letting on.
He didn’t deny it. He simply went on staring at me.
“You know who my father is,” I said.
He nodded. “Damien told me.”
Of course the mage knew. That bastard.
I turned my back on Eric, anger digging its claws into my heart. I struggled to breathe. My chest felt tight as if ready to burst with the well of emotions raging inside of me.
I hadn’t wanted to know who my biological father was. It had felt like a betrayal to Dad. But not just that, learning I was a werewolf had been enough of a disruption to my life. The knowledge would’ve been something else to upset me and distract me, more fuel to an already raging fire.
Did I still feel the same way? Or was I ready to learn who he was?
“He left,” my mother had said, which had made me wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t. Maybe my parents would have divorced and my youngest sister would’ve never been born. Maybe I would’ve grown up in a pack as a werewolf. The idea made my head spin.
“Who is he?” I found myself asking without thinking.
“You have to ask your mother about that. I don’t get involved in family dramas.”
I still wasn’t talking to my mother, so that wasn’t an option. “Do I want to know?”
Eric said nothing.
I turned and faced him. “Do I?”
“Leave me out of this, Sunder.”
“Is he in St. Louis?”
“Dammit! How do you want me to tell you I don’t want to get involved?”
Weirdly, I was suddenly glad that he hadn’t answered my questions. Gah! I grabbed my head, feeling so confused. I both wanted and didn’t want to know, though the latter option seemed to be winning the race.
“I didn’t ask for any of this,” I said. “I don’t want to change, but I feel it in my blood, and I can’t stop it. I’m afraid of what I’ll become.”
Eric’s heavy expression lightened a fraction. “You’ll be all right,” he said, though there wasn’t any conviction in his voice.
“You’re lying.”
He made a gesture toward the door, then turned and walked away. “I have three more sessions with you. Make sure you make the most of them.”
He left me standing in the dark room, my anger subdued but still simmering.
Jake was getting married.
Stephen might be the one behind all the unrest in the city.
And I was the daughter of an alpha werewolf whose identity was starting to make me curious.