Thrown to her Wolves by Margo Collins (korean novels in english .txt) 📕

of the pack is there. I want everyone to hear what I have to say.”

Chapter 8

This time, when I strode downstairs in my third bright red dress, I didn’t pause in the kitchen to see what I could smell or hear. Instead, I stepped out into the main part of the Moon Moon.

James, the pack historian, was waiting on the dais, but of course Dean wasn’t there.

I stepped up next to James and spoke. “Thank you. I’ll let you know when we need you again,” I said. “After we bring my mate home.”

James tilted his head at me. “He’s not entirely your mate until after the ceremony,” he began.

I didn’t let him finish. I spun around and faced him, eyes blazing.

“I don’t care what anyone else says or what this ceremony might or might not add to it. Dean is my mate, and I will find him.”

James fell back from the intensity in my eyes, and I turned to face the pack again, swept along by the energy of my potential loss.

“I need everyone to listen to me,” I said, my voice cutting through the chatter in the room. “The Winter Queen has taken Dean. I don’t know what she intends to do with him, or how she plans to use him, but whatever she wants, we will not allow it.”

I spoke the word we as if were an indication of my will and the pack’s will—and for the first time, I understood why queens used “we” instead of “I.”  My will was the pack’s will.

“Owen and Liam will be breaking all of us up into search parties. I’ll be leading one group.”

“It’s customary for the alpha to remain behind —” James began.

Without looking at him, I threw my hand out to one side and pointed directly at him. “Hush. I will help find Dean.”

“And if he is somehow under the Winter Queen’s spell?” Liam asked quietly from beside me. I clenched my teeth. I didn’t want to think about that possibility.

Owen and Liam started step down to begin sorting the rest of the wolves to search groups. They hadn’t taken more than a couple of steps, however, when the front door of the Moon Moon blew open in a gust of cold wind, slamming against the opposite wall.

A tall, thin, white-blonde fae woman—one who was not the Winter Queen—stepped into the room, bringing little eddies of what looked like snow with her.

“My Queen has a message for you,” she announced, staring straight at me.

I growled. I could feel my canines lengthening, sharpening. For an instant, all I wanted to do was rip this creature into pieces.

That’s when I realized for the first time that I shifted when I got truly angry.

“Don’t kill the messenger, Sienna,” Liam said, his voice low and calm and soothing.

I needed the reminder not to rip into this fae.

I needed to save that for the one who had taken Dean from me.

Liam was right. I gathered myself together and faced the messenger. “What does your mistress have to say?”

“She says that she will release your wolf into your custody. But only if you will swear that the SoMa pack will support her when the time comes for her to break away from the Winter King and his court.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because otherwise, your beloved will die.” The little smile on her face, almost a smirk, made me want to damage her. However, I managed to refrain.

“What should we do?” I whispered to my two mates.

“Don’t do it,” Owen said, sounding more strident than I had ever heard him before.

“The fae are tricky,” Liam agreed. “You can’t trust anything they say.”

I stared at the messenger for a long moment, and then I asked, “Can your mistress speak to me like she did last night?”

The fae woman nodded her head once.

“Then tell her that I will speak to her in my room upstairs in one hour.”

I hated to leave Dean under the fae Winter Queen’s control one moment longer than necessary—but I wasn’t about to try to work out a deal of this magnitude through an intermediary.

No. This had to be done face-to-face. Or at least, face to holographic-style image.

The fae woman swirled out into the night, and Liam and Owen followed me upstairs, obviously worried.

Periodically during the next hour, they tried to explain why making a deal with the fae was insane.

I didn’t care. I wanted to get Dean back.

Besides, I was the alpha. I was in charge.

This time, when the ghostly lightning seemed to hit the floor, I ignored it, waiting for the Winter Queen. When she finally resolved herself into a complete figure in front of me, I nodded my head gravely.

I had chosen to sit in a chair with a straight back, as if I were sitting on the throne and she had to stand. Otherwise, I would’ve felt at too much of a disadvantage. She was much taller than I was, after all.

“I understand you wish to negotiate?”

It wasn’t exactly a question, but it wasn’t exactly rude, either. So I didn’t complain about her opening.

“Yes,” I said. I do.”

“You heard my handmaiden’s offer?”

“I want to hear it from you.”

The figure in front of me shrugged. “It’s simple. I will return your wolf to you unharmed if you will swear to support me when I break with the King of the Winter Court.”

I considered for a moment. “I have a counteroffer,” I said.

“Yes?”

“I will agree to your offer if you will return Dean to me unharmed and also unchanged in mind and body.” I began counting off my points on my fingers. “And if you will also swear that, should you prevail in the battle against the King’s Winter Court, that you