The Alpha's Other Woman by Vielle Nye (best ereader under 100 txt) 📕

The hateful alpha didn't seem too smart. He was staring back stubbornly, unwilling to back down as if daring the Glen-something alpha to attack him. Did he have a death wish?

The hateful alpha was lucky—or maybe unlucky, if his goal had really been death by angry werewolf—that he wasn't instantly murdered. Pretty sure my alpha from my birth pack would have murdered him if he had said something like that about my luna. Maybe he wasn't just bored after all, but I couldn't figure out what he could possibly be hoping to gain.

I was distracted from trying to figure it out when the Glen-something alpha spoke clearly, his voice impressively powerful.

"As neighbors, I expect that you will treat my mate, Luna Carrie, with the respect due any luna and a fellow wolf. What happened in her past—which was far from entirely her fault—is no concern of yours."

Well, I liked that. It was nice to see any male defending his mate so clearly, even if that mate was impossible-standard Carrie. Dane had not impressed me when I found out the way he had been treating her, so I was glad she'd found her mate and that he seemed to be treating her well.

Plus, a little voice in the back of my head added helpfully, if she was happy where she was, she wouldn't be back to cause more tension between my mate and I. We definitely didn't need that now that Dane seemed to be finally cluing in. I'd waited so long, and I'd tried explaining what was wrong a hundred times, but it seemed he had just needed to get there on his own like the stubborn alpha he was.

More things were said that I couldn’t remember later, and then they voted on the fate of the pack. I waited on the edge of my seat, feeling nervous for the sake of Glen-something. I had been planning to give Dane a piece of my mind if he didn't support them, but there was no need, because he voted against dissolving Glen-something. I approved of that choice.

I was relieved that the majority of the alphas were sane enough to leave the pack be, along with my mate. The Glen-something alpha was positively triumphant that they'd won, and I curiously watched him stride back down to his pack mates. They greeted him with obvious excitement, and his mate beamed at him, her joy obvious.

Well, that was nice to see. I glanced back at Dane. She'd apparently gotten past the mess of the past, maybe we really could, too.

The assembly continued, and the droning quickly sapped any relief that I'd gained from Glen-something's exciting victory by the time the day's issues were dealt with.

There were so many, this pack was in an argument with that pack over a territory dispute or something. This alpha didn't want to let a mate transfer to be with their mate or maybe wouldn't let the mate transfer in, it was all very confusing. This small pack was having rogue issues, which actually did sound serious. This other alpha was...I didn't even know what his problem was. My best guess was that he was permanently stuck on his serious and overbearing setting and needed help with the repair costs to dial it back to normal. My heart went out to him if that was the case.

I could have cried out of pure relief at the end when Dane helped me stand up by offering me his hand when it was finally over. I enjoyed the warmth of his skin on mine, as well as the momentary relief, even though there were four more days of these tedious scheduled meetings still to go and I wasn't sure I would survive them.

We walked from the assembly hall. "I need to go and talk to her," Dane said through the pack link, instantly pissing off my wolf because it was obvious which her he was talking about.

I didn't snap at him with my wolf's displeasure, since I was trying to be more understanding. Maybe he wasn't actually trying to ruin my hope of a decent future with him this time. I tried to sound unbothered. "Oh?"

"You know I treated her...poorly. I need...to apologize."

My anger dissolved at his obvious reluctance. This wasn't a man excitedly going to talk to his ex; this was an alpha with too much pride going to admit he had been wrong. As he should. I actually thought she deserved one. I mean, I wasn't thrilled about the whole challenge on my luna title, but I somehow won and no one got really hurt, so no harm done.

More importantly, maybe this was another step for us moving past the past. "Okay. I'll go with you."

He didn't argue, just nodded. We went back to our room, ordered room service, and changed before Dane sent out a couple of our people to look for the Glen-maybe-shadow party. I was a bit nervous about it, but I was also morbidly curious. They were located and along with a few of our fighters we made our way to the hotel bar. Dane had a definite fixation on keeping me well guarded, even when we weren't getting along. I doubted he would have brought so many if I wasn't there.

The group was clearly celebrating, but tension ran over them once they noticed our presence. I stayed a bit behind Dane, both because the group sort of intimidated me and because this really was up to Dane. I listened while he spoke to them, and I was proud of him because I knew it wasn't easy. Luna Carrie even apologized to me for the challenge, which I did not see coming.

We walked out of there and he tentatively took my hand. I was surprised, since he wasn't really one for cute PDAs, but I wasn't complaining either. This might have been the first time he hadn't messed up one of our truces. I smiled at him, and he returned it, as we walked back to the elevator towards our room and towards something he probably wasn't expecting.

Maybe it was time to take a chance and risk moving forward.