Page 35 of Ember's Claim

God, what a dick. His hand rests on my ass, under his shirt, while his kid tries to negotiate his mate’s release from what amounts to a dog kennel.

“Let his mother out. Are there any other females in there?” I stare straight at the guards to make sure they know I’m asking them directly.

“No,” the guard on the right says, shaking his head. “Four prisoners. Three of them may have earned their way in there. Sofia isn’t one of them.”

“Then release hernow,” I growl.

My patience is running very thin, and the radiating pain in my chest still makes it difficult to take an entire breath.

The guard who answered me spins around, unlocking the exterior door and heading inside, while the other stands with his arms crossed. Something in the way the second man watches me sets my wolf on edge. She doesn’t like him, and she’s sure he’s judging how weak we currently look.

I bare my teeth, and he finally looks away. It’s a good thing for him that he did. If not, my wolf was about to force a partial shift.

“Put me down, Anders,” I say as firmly as I can.

The infuriating man doesn’t comply.

“No.” His nostrils flare as his eyes glow with the same unnatural illumination.

I don’t think he’s only a wolf. There has to be some other kind of supernatural mixed in there.

I wiggle in his hold, but the feeling of warm blood trickling down my side stops me. Or it could be the way Anders growls. Yeah, I’m like ninety-seven percent sure he’s not just a wolf.

“I’m taking the alpha home,” Anders says. “Wait for your mom, Kent. When she’s out, come straight to my house.”

“Got it,” the kid—Kent—replies.

Anders takes off through the trees down a gravel-lined path. He stomps at a rapid pace toward a row of small houses, but he does his best to keep from jostling me around in his hold.

I haven’t spent any time in this area of the pack lands, but if I had to guess, I’d say we’re on the outskirts of the small town.

“I can walk.” My teeth grind together as his hand tightens on my backside.

“Kent wasn’t joking when he said your ribs are visible.” He continues walking in the same direction without even considering my request.

“I’ll live, but you should be back there, waiting for your mate to be released.” I hiss as fire licks down my side.

Okay, new game plan—do not tense my muscles.

“My mate?”

“Yeah, is that not your son’s mom?” I know someone said her name, but I’ve already forgotten.

Hell, maybe they aren’t actually together. My head is a fuzzy mess, and I’m barely keeping my eyes open.

Normally, I’d sleep to heal.

What I really need to do is call my brothers.

This is a cluster of a disaster that I don’t have the first clue how to fix.

My wolf growls in my mind. She doesn’t want to think of ways to fix the problem. She’s quite smug that she took down that alpha male, and she fully intends to defend her right to run her newly acquired pack.

“Sofia is my sister, which makes Kent my nephew.”

“Oh,” I say, finally relaxing back into his strong form. There’s a small possibility I could have assumed that from his implication that they live in different houses, but I got stuck on my first impression.

“Yeah.” His amber eyes stare down at me as his head tilts. “Why did you intervene?”