Bound

Chapter 9

As if already anticipating Nyah's reaction, Simon stepped aside to allow her leap from the chair.

"You want me to bear your pups? You think that I'd let you. . .touch me?" Nyah collided with the waste bin by his desk. With a stumble, she changed course. "No. Absolutely no way. You're not coming near me. I won't let you."

"You can't stop me. I'm your alpha."

"I am not mating with you!" she yelled. "I will not carry your pups!"

"What about the future of our pack?"

"No! You're crazy! I won't do it. I'll bear pups for my true mate, no-one else, especially not you!"

"You will do as I order," Simon warned.

"Not in a million years!" she cried. "No—never!"

"I refuse to allow you to diminish your bloodline by mating with a mongrel."

"Mating with you would do just that! You have no power in your bloodline."

"Yes I do!"

"No you don't. And even if you did, I wouldn't want a single drop of it!"

Simon's eyes widened with outrage. "How dare you speak to me with such disrespect. I am your alpha!"

"Only on paper." Nyah stood her ground as he approached. "Not in one single other way." He grabbed her as he had done on the night of the Pack Welcoming, but this time, Blake and Michael wouldn't be coming to her rescue.

"My bloodline entitled me to this position," Simon's spittle flecked her cheeks. "And you will respect me."

"You didn't get your position by entitlement. You got it by foul means!"

Simon's enraged expression faltered with a single flinch.

Nyah wrenched herself free of his clutch. "I know how you got here."

"And how was that, Miss Morgan?"

"Murder!"

Simon's entire being shifted. Like a reptile shedding its skin, he straightened, rolled out his shoulders and drew in a slow, satisfied inhale. "And there it finally is." The caring, pleasant alpha had crumbled and the real Simon Northfell now stood in his place. "There it is," he repeated, "I wondered how long it would take before the elephant in the room would be acknowledged."

"You killed Alan," she ground out, voice trembling as her wolf keened in fear. "I saw it on your face that night. You thought you were alone in the room with Alan's body, but I saw, I saw your look of satisfaction. You killed him!"

"I most certainly did not," he replied with such conviction, Nyah realised she had simply worded her accusation incorrectly.

"You ordered his death."

"And can you prove it?" When she didn't answer he flashed a short sneer. "I thought not." Simon rolled out his shoulders again, clearly relieved to be free of the weight of pretence. "Sit," he ordered with a flick as he returned to his chair.

Nyah obeyed, but only because her shaking limbs threatened to crumple her onto the floor. This was what she had wanted; Simon dropping his fake persona and admitting to what he had done, but now it had happened, she didn't feel the vindication imagined. Instead, fear had her heart thumping and palms sweating.

"Clearly, being nice was a waste of my time." Simon gathered the papers on his desk and slid them into a drawer. "I should have known. You're as stubborn as your damned father was." The drawer slammed shut and Nyah flinched. "Let me tell you how it will be." Simon leaned back in his chair to steeple his fingers. "This afternoon, I shall announce to the pack how you and I have decided to form a union. I will inform the mongrels of how we both want what is best for this pack, and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. Anyone who questions our bending of Lycan Law will have me to answer to."