Cyrus took a deep breath. If his idea didn’t pan out, he was royally screwed. He’d have no choice but to shift and end all of Beaux’s guys where they stood. For the sake of peace, it was worth a try.
“She’s my mate. My pack objects to their Alpha’s woman being discussed at all.”
Beaux crossed his hands over his chest. . “She didn’t identify herself as such.”
“Betsy wouldn’t know to do so. She’s new to this. It’s a very long story and one I would be happy to share with you if you would let me go”
Beaux shook his head. “I never would have imagined it. What happened? Did you need a new political alliance now that someone finally took out Lucian? Is her family well connected? Isn’t that what you guys do? Take over packs for political reasons; marry to assert your power? Act more human than the humans themselves?”
The dig at Lucian’s death had clearly been meant to raise his ire. But Betsy stood outside at risk. He couldn’t afford to give into temper. Not yet anyway.
“Actually, we’re true mates. I found her in a coffee shop.”
Beaux opened and closed his mouth. So he’d finally managed to stun the man. Good, then they were moving in the right direction.
Beaux hissed out his breath. “Are you telling me that the moon gifted you with a true mate? How could that be? You’re so undeserving.”
“And you’ve always managed to be holier than thou, haven’t you?” Cyrus shook his head. “Regardless of whether or not I’ve earned a true mate, I got one, and I’m going to call on you to give me mate protection. She is not to be touched, molested, or in any way harmed in whatever is going on between us.”
Beaux groaned. “You played me like a fiddle.”
“Do I have your word, Nelson? You won’t harm one hair on her head and neither will any member of your pack?”
The other man nodded. “You have it. The true mate of an Alpha is always exempt from any Alpha challenges.”
“I don’t want your damned pack, man. I don’t want anything to do with it. That isn’t why I’m here, and had I known you were now Alpha of Montana—something I couldn’t possibly have foreseen considering: a, you never announced it and b, are from Ohio—I would have made a proper request for travel over your lands.”
“Then what are you doing here? I know your games. I watched Lucian play them, and I saw through them even then. I won’t be used as a ploy, and neither will my pack. We will not submit to another Alpha Prime and certainly not to you.”
Cyrus shook his head. “Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I am not looking to be Alpha Prime. I never wanted it, and I never will. I do not desire that kind of power. I am Alpha of Manhattan. I have enough on my plate, and I would not abandon my pack to go running around taking care of hunting rights in Iowa. I don’t want Montana. I want to do what we came here to do, and then I want to get out of here, never to return or to look at your ugly face again.”
“I might almost believe you if I didn’t know what a manipulative bastard you are.”
Cyrus had enough. He’d tolerated more than he ever would have in the past for Betsy’s protection, but if he took any more of the werewolf’s puny excuses for abuse, he would look weak in front of his pack and feel pathetic as a man. Neither of those things could be tolerated.
“Let me out of here, and we’ll talk like men. Or you could continue to act the coward. I suppose it’s up to you.”
Beaux growled, and Cyrus suppressed a grin. Sometimes it was too damn easy.
“I have never been a coward, and I took you in a fight. You’re my prisoner.”
Cyrus shifted into his wolf form. Really, enough was enough. His pack responded in kind, filling the room with the sounds of their tempers and excitement. He had one moment to see Beaux’s eyes widen with what amounted to respect before he himself shifted into his werewolf form.
Well, maybe the son-of-a-bitch really is an Alpha. Only an Alpha could shift like that outside of the full moon.
He snarled, letting his wolf take over. He didn’t need reason and logic, not when he meant to tear the asshole’s face to shreds. Cyrus leaped forward, knocking Beaux backward onto the ground.
No one fucked with him or threatened what was his. No one lived who harmed his pack. Cyrus sniffed the air. He’d bloodied Beaux. There would be more where that had come from.
Beaux lunged toward him, and Cyrus ducked right but not before Beaux got a swipe at him. It burned, but who cared for small pain when there was death to doll out?
“Stop it.” Betsy’s soft smell drifted over him as her words filled the room. “Don’t hurt each other. We need to work together on this.”