Free The Captain's Challenge: Alpha Werewolf Erotica (Smut-Shorties Book 10) by Mina Carter Page B

the alphas were present. Just Cyan’s brother, Nick, was absent. Not a surprise, since Jace himself had escorted Cyan to her old pack-house last night for a family dinner. She was due to return sometime this afternoon.
    Jacob turned wild eyes on him, and to Jace’s surprise, they were filled with panic and fear. “My sister, he has my sister in there!”
    “Your sister…Vanessa?” Just the name was enough to send a warm burst of sensation through Jace’s chest. He’d not seen her for a week, all her text’s assuring him she was fine, just suffering her, uh… monthlies. He had thought nothing of it. Some lycan women preferred not to be around people during the full moon, especially if they weren’t mated. It got too uncomfortable for them.
    “Yes! Vanessa! He took her last night!” Jacob tried to push past, but Jace caught him, restraining the smaller man with ease. Worry threaded its icy tentacles down his spine as he turned his head to look at the ruined door. Scents wafted through the gap. Veyr’s was predominant, as was the steam-warmed smell of shampoo that told him the Master was or had just been in the shower. Cyan’s scent was fading, to be replaced by another. Light, delicate and haunting…his heart stuttered in his chest…one he knew.
    “Shit.” He shoved Jacob at Simon to his left and pushed open the ruined wood of the door. It fell off its hinges, allowing the crowd behind him a clear view of the room just as Veyr walked in from the shower, a towel around his waist.
    No one was looking at him though. Instead, every pair of eyes turned toward the bed, and its sole, slender occupant, her delicate nightdress ripped and covered in blood.
    “Vanessa…”
     
    ***
     
    “So it is agreed, then?” Jacob looked around the council chamber. “Veyr is to put aside his dalliance with the Trevais woman, and will mate my sister since he has now ruined her.”
    Jace stood to one side of the room, his fists clenched into hard balls as he told himself that launching across the council chamber and punching Jacob in the nose would not help matters any. He didn’t know how the little asshole had done it, had gotten Vanessa into the palace, let alone into Veyr’s chambers like that, with no one seeing.
    “It’s a matter of pack honor.” Alex Kingwood nodded as the rest of the alphas looked toward him. “The Master must not be seen to bring dishonor on any of the packs.”
    Veyr sat at the head of the table opposite Jace, his face set like stone. Jace didn’t believe for a moment he’d ever laid a finger on Vanessa. The pain in his eyes at the moment was almost a physical thing. Jace swore to himself and clenched his hand until he felt something snap in his fist. Didn’t matter, his wolf would heal the damage.
    “Indeed,” Jacob nodded, his manner bright and chirpy. And why wouldn’t he be? He’d gotten what he’d been after all along. His sister mated to the Master, regardless of how many lives he destroyed in the process. “I shall make arrangements for the ceremony immediately.”
    “Ahh…” Alex held up his hand, his eyes narrowed. “Wasn’t Lady McCauley…hurt? We should give her some time to recover her strength before the ceremony. You know how women are. They like time to organize clothing and hair and whatnot.”
    Anger flashed in Jacob’s eyes, but he seemed to recognize that Alex’s words were more an order than a suggestion. “Very well, I will arrange for the ceremony to be held tomorrow.”
    “You do that… Now, perhaps we should leave the Master to collect his thoughts?” Alex rose, his arm outstretched as though to put it around Jacob’s shoulders. Jace, however, caught the flash of fury buried deep in the Kingwood alpha’s eyes and knew he wanted to tighten that arm around Jacob’s neck until the little shit couldn’t breathe. The alpha gave Jace a little nod as he left, trailed by the rest of the council.
    After the door had closed, leaving the two of them alone in