All Chapters of The Tyrant alpha: Chapter 321 - Chapter 330

My wolf relaxes, dropping all her wariness, and she begins to prance and dash, whining for me to let her out to explore. There are amazing scents in here. Fresh water and cool earth and mellow sunshine, and layers upon layers of wolf. Old wolf. Ancestor wolf.I look up at Alec. I don’t know why.He’s already looking down at me, his face stern as usual, but I see his wolf in his eyes. He wants to dash around and roll on his back and poke his nose in corners, too.I smile.A flicker of something like pain flashes in those dark eyes, and it’s not his wolf. It’s gone in a split second. I don’t have a chance to wonder at it before a voice calls “ho!” and boots stomp in the entrance tunnel.Alec pushes me behind him as he pivots toward the sound.Two familiar males stride into the cavern. Well, one strides. The other struts, kind of like that cartoon tiger with the bouncy ears and the long chin. The striding one is Seth Rosser, Cadoc Collin’s right hand. The strutting, bouncy one is Bevan N

It’s Pritchard who breaks the silence, slapping his thighs. “All right, Cameron, since you’re here, and since we’ve got to wait for Cadoc and Rosie to come back before anything gets decided, you might as well come with me and take a look at the demon clog from hell. See what you think.”Alec winces at “demon clog.”“I’ll show Flora around,” Nia offers quickly.Alec glances over and checks with me. I lift a shoulder. A tender, scared, weak part of myself doesn’t want to let go of his hand, but I need to get things back on track. I came here for me, to find myself a new home. I can’t lose track of that. Alec isn’t on my side.He’s proud to be seen with me now, in a strange pack, when he has no choice but to claim me if he wants his pup. I can’t let a kiss erase years of hiding me like a dirty secret or sucker me into forgetting everything that happened before he caught up to me on the trail here.I drop his hand and go to Nia. “I’d like that,” I say, offering her a tentative smile.I le

“Back home, he runs the crew that fixes things. He’s good at that.”Nia’s nod is a little more speculative this time.“He doesn’t get into fights or beat on people.” He cracks skulls when the males play sports, but he doesn’t throw his weight around at other times like Bram and Leith do.“You ever consider that your standards are low?” Nia raises her palms and flashes a disarming smile. “No offense. We’re working on raising our own standards around here on the daily. But if the best you can say for a guy is that he works hard and doesn’t beat on people, that’s not much, right?”I know she doesn’t mean to be unkind, but still, my hackles rise. I didn’t even know I had hackles. “Well, he killed a feral for me.”“No shit.” Nia’s whole demeanor changes, her eyes lighting. “How’d he do it? By himself? No shit. Where were you? Oh my god, did you know it?”I tell her, and by the time I’m done, my hackles are rising for a whole other reason. Nia keeps shaking her head and saying, “Damn, what

He really isn’t a talker. I’m quiet, too, but it’s more because that’s what’s expected of me. If no one better’s around at the laundry, I’m the listener, and if a higher ranking packmate shows, I’m supposed to fade away into the background. Only Miss Nola’s interested in what I have to say, so I’ve become accustomed to just thinking my thoughts.Folks listen when Alec talks, but he rarely does. He doesn’t deign to. Or does he suck at it?I smile to myself. Oh yeah, he sucks at it. The only time he seems comfortable with words is when we’re alone, and he’s growling orders. Orders? Or requests? I can replay things he’s said to me in the heat of the moment, word for word, but for the life of me I can’t be sure of the tone anymore.I heard them as demands. Because I saw him as the one in control and myself as—well—as the one on her knees.What if I read it wrong?The sound of Alec’s bare feet hurrying back to me on the stone floor distracts me from my thoughts. He’s got a big terry cloth

He fetches my towel, and after I wind it around myself, he hovers as I pick my way back to the ledge. Then he stands guard, blocking me from view while I dress. He tugs on his sweatpants over his wet legs while I comb my clean hair with my fingers, tie it back into a ponytail, and clip a rabbit barrette above each ear.As a cacophony of feet sound in the entrance tunnel and the Old Den pack spills into the cave, loud and happy from their run, Alec draws me close. He peers down at me and adjusts each rabbit a bit with the tip of his finger.“You miss Harriet?” he asks.“Hey, you remembered her name.” I smile up at him, teasing, but his eyes are dark and worried and waiting for an answer. “Yeah. Of course. She’s been a good friend.”He nods, and then I hear Pritchard call, “Cameron, come over here and meet the alpha.”The change is instantaneous and so subtle that I almost don’t notice. The dark in Alec’s eyes that has been swirling with feeling becomes cold and impenetrable. The tensio