Free Wild Card by Mark Henwick, Lauren Sweet Page A

pack and you owe me no obedience.”
    There were other choices, like leaving Denver or being killed, but we were keeping quiet about those.
    “But I’m a hybrid,” I said, trying to feel some flexibility.
    “For the pack, it comes down to Were on one side and everything else on the other.”
    “What about Alex?” I could feel the tension soar again. Felix didn’t want to explore this. Alex and Ricky were friends and senior pack members. If Alex came down on my side, Ricky would be pack-bound to oppose him. It dawned on me that Felix had to be thinking that however this turned out, it weakened the pack. “Hold on,” I said, before he could respond. “First things first. We were supposed to say what we wanted. What is it you want, Felix?”
    He stirred in his seat. “Of course, no alpha wants any member of the pack to leave, and that goes double for someone like Alexander, at a time like this.”
    “His marque’s changed and it doesn’t seem like it’s going back.”
    I could see I was displaying a real talent for picking the topics Felix didn’t want to talk about.
    “That’s the reason for my orders to stay apart. Whether or not you’re conscious of doing it, you’re having an effect on Alexander. His marque and his mental state.”
    “But if we’re mated…” Alex said.
    “Then you’re both pack,” Ricky replied before Felix could say anything.
    But that could just mean we’re a pack together, without necessarily being part of the Denver pack.
    “Alex is kin,” I said, “does that count?”
    “If it counts, then you’re still subject to pack law,” Felix said. “Alexander can’t mate outside the pack. Splitting a pack is an attack on the whole pack and I would treat it as such. Exerting Athanate control over Alexander would come under that as well. Another reason for you to stay apart until I’m sure that’s not the case.”
    Athanate and kin can’t split like that. I might be a very young Athanate, but I knew that already. And I felt it too; it’d be like ripping my arm off.
    As for the exerting control, I’d freaking bound him. Yeah, that would probably be classed as influencing him. And however right it felt to me, if Felix realized it, did that mean I’d signed my own death sentence?
    I shook my head. We were at a dead end here. Figuratively, I hoped.
    But underlying all the arguments was the sick sensation deep down inside that this just didn’t feel right. I’d called him alpha in the barn when I’d first met him, but Felix as the alpha of my pack didn’t sit well with me at all. I had no idea what my relationship with my alpha should be, but I was damn sure it shouldn’t feel like this. Something very fundamental was going on inside me, and it didn’t want Felix. It felt like he had no right to give me orders, and my wolf was driving me to disobey him in a game of dominance.
    My surface attitude; that I could change. I’d spent a long time in the army where sometimes I’d just saluted the uniform and carried out the orders.
    Couldn’t I manage that here? If my life depended on it?
    But underneath. Had this sudden surge against him been triggered by his behavior toward me, or did it just mean he should be my alpha and this feeling showed I was already on the road to turning rogue?
    “Are you claiming to be part Athanate, Alex?” Noble asked, breaking my chain of thought. “Your change of marque has all of us concerned.”
    “No. I have no feeling of affiliation with Altau,” Alex said, and a little of the tension reduced when Felix nodded satisfaction. That was a huge point for them. I could understand that. The thought of a senior, trusted member of the pack actually loyal to Altau rather than the pack would have had my paranoia fired up too.
    “We should put the Athanate issue aside,” Alex said, “and concentrate on the pack.”
    Noble nodded.
    Felix folded his arms. “You’re implying that you remain a loyal member of the pack,” he said, “and yet