Free Alpha Rising by Rebecca Royce Page B

be good. The firebombing, someone trying to frame Travis for hurting Cyrus’ pregnant females, and Lucian’s death? Someone was playing a dangerous game.
    No one would hurt Travis to win whatever this was. Not as long as she lived.
     
    ****
     
    Travis grinned, watching Lilliana across the room. She said something, and Beth, one of the Beta females, laughed. It was hard to make Beth laugh since her mate died, but Lilliana did it on a regular basis. In the six weeks since he’d brought her home to Philly, his whole world had lightened up.
    He stroked the new ink on his chest, a giant lily. The beautiful flower had been etched in right over his heart. He strode to the other side of his office. Before he could overthink it, he picked up the phone.
    Cyrus answered on one ring. “What?”
    “Meet me in Jersey tonight. I want to blood oath. You and me. No war. I’ll defend you; you defend me.”
    Cyrus sucked in his breath. “And?”
    “And nothing, man. I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you. You don’t want jack shit from me. Nothing but a promise not to bother each other and to protect each other. In blood.”
    Because that kind of oath called for blood. The safety of his people required no less. Lilliana’s life would be protected by an oath he couldn’t break.
     
    ****
     
    Cyrus held out his hand, and Travis took it. Together, they held on until their joined blood slid out of their hands onto the ground beneath their feet. Matilda, working in the diner right then, shouldn’t know what went on outside her restaurant, and yet in the way she always knew everything, he suspected she did.
    “I swear to you, Travis, that as your cousin and as Alpha of the Manhattan Pack, I will not attack you unless you attack me first. I swear to come to your aid if someone else attacks you.”
    Travis nodded. “You know we’re not really cousins except really, really distantly. Like our grandmothers were cousins.”
    “Are you going to swear it or not?”
    He grinned because he couldn’t help himself. “It would be a really dick move, wouldn’t it, if I brought you out here to swear, got you to do it, and then didn’t do it myself?”
    “I’m standing here bleeding.” Cyrus growled.
    “Squeamish? All right already. I get it. I swear not to attack you unless you attack me, and I swear to come to your defense if someone else attacks you. Cousin. I, Travis Michaels, the Alpha of Philadelphia make this vow to you.”
    They waited a beat and then separated their hands. Travis took a handkerchief out of his pant’s pocket and wiped away his blood. “This is how it starts, you know?”
    Cyrus nodded. “Look. I don’t intend to make this oath with a whole bunch of people. Okay? I’m not going to go around swearing blood oaths with people until I’m Alpha Prime. I have to assume you’re also going to limit who you do this with.”
    “Yeah.” This was why he’d hesitated, and he knew it was why Cyrus had too. They had a lot of assuming to do with each other.
    A lot of trust.
    He could let Cyrus in, or he could end up losing everything, and that was no longer an option.
    He wouldn’t break; he wouldn’t fail.
    Travis turned his back on Cyrus. A scent wafted through the air, and he knew immediately Lilliana was there. How had she known where he’d be?
    She leaned against a car he’d seen in one of his shops earlier that morning. Had she borrowed it?
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Well…” She grinned, the wind whipping her hair around her face. “It’s not every day my mate takes a blood oath. I thought perhaps you might like some company after. Besides, I hear this place has a great meatloaf.”
    He pulled her into her arms and sighed when her scent enveloped him. “You were worried I might go and have a real freak-out the whole way home. Beat myself up over it and generally assume I’d done the wrong thing bringing Cyrus this close to us.”
    “Yes.” She kissed him. How could she