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77 Desperate Men Do Stupid Things 

Sera 

The ground underneath me was solid, but I wasn’t cold. I woke up to the steady, heavy thud of a heartbeat directly against my cheek. 

kept my eyes closed for a long moment. I inhaled slowly. The air around us was thick with the humid heat of the hot springs, but right against my nose, the scent was pure Fenris. Sharp mountain pine, cold iron, and that dark, spicy musk that belonged entirely to him. 

I realized I was lying completely flush against his side. We were still in the hidden garden. He was stretched out flat on the thick grass, and his massive left arm was wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling me tight against his broad chest. 

I didn’t try to untangle myself. I didn’t pull away. A quiet, genuine smile pulled at the corners of my mouth. I liked this. I liked the heavy, grounding weight of his arm pinning me to him. 

I thought about Kane. Whenever Kane finished fucking me in the Blackwater guest rooms, he never stayed. He rolled over, pulled the heavy blankets up to his chin, and went to sleep on his side of the mattress. He never pulled me against his chest. He never just held me in the dark. I didn’t read much into it back then. I thought Alphas simply didn’t do things like that. They were too busy, too important to hold a girl while they slept. 

But experiencing it firsthand, right now, the feeling was on an entirely different level. It felt incredibly secure. It felt possessive. 

Someone cleared their throat loudly. 

I opened my eyes instantly. I jerked my head up. 

Yvara stood three feet away. She had her hands planted firmly on her leather belt, staring down at us with a flat, completely unimpressed expression. The morning light filtered through the green canopy above her head. 

I gasped and tried to spring up. I couldn’t move. Fenris’s arm didn’t budge an inch. His grip around my waist was completely solid. It wasn’t painful, and it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was just a firm, immovable weight holding me exactly where I was. 

His chest rose and fell in a slow, deep rhythm. He was still asleep. 

I looked up at Yvara. My face flushed hot. 

Yvara let out a loud, dry scoff. She rolled her eyes toward the canopy. 

I twisted my torso and grabbed Fenris’s shoulder. I shook him hard. “Fenris. Fenris. Wake up. 

His eyes snapped open. There was no grogginess. There was no slow transition from sleep to waking. He went from completely unconscious to fully alert in a fraction of a second. 

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He looked straight down at me. Our faces were mere inches apart. 

I stopped moving. I was completely lost in his gaze. I had never been this close to his face in the daylight. His grey eyes were much paler up close than they looked from a distance. They looked like chipped winter ice. I saw the dark, messy stubble covering his strong jaw. I saw the white patches on his white beard. 

My fingers twitched. I felt a sudden, intense urge to reach up and run my bare hand over the rough skin of his face. I wanted to tangle my fingers in his beards. 

Yvara cleared her throat again, louder this time. She let out a sharp, snide comment. “If you two are finished staring at each other, we have a massive problem.” 

Fenris finally broke eye contact with me. He looked up at his second-in-command. His thick brow furrowed deeply. 

“What?” 

Yvara glared at me. She clearly didn’t want to speak pack business in front of a southern outsider. 

“You can speak,” Fenris told her, reading the hesitation instantly. He sat up, finally pulling his arm from around my waist. 

I sat up next to him, brushing the damp grass off the knees of my leather pants. 

Yvara dropped her hands from her belt. “Kael called a closed meeting.” 

Fenris stopped moving. The relaxed, quiet energy of the garden vanished completely. “How many of them are present?” 

“Five of them,” Yvara answered. Her scarred face was entirely serious. “The inner council. And that includes Chief Vane.” 

“Fuck,” Fenris cursed. 

He pushed himself up from the ground. He stood at his full, massive height, brushing the dirt from his dark tunic. I stayed seated on the grass, watching him pace two quick steps to the right, then turn back. 

“Why are they trying to make my life so difficult?” Fenris snarled, cursing under his breath. “I gave them the timeline. I gave them the terms.” 

“They do not accept the terms, Fenris,” Yvara said flatly. 

“When this treaty is sealed, I am going to break Kael’s fucking neck,” Fenris said, cracking his heavy knuckles. “He is actively stepping past his boundary. I should have gutted him yesterday in the yard.” 

Fenris started walking toward the exit of the garden. He moved fast, his heavy boots tearing up the wet 

grass. 

Yvara stepped directly into his path. She held her hand up, pressing her palm flat against his chest to stop him. 

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“Calm down,” Yvara ordered. E 

Fenris glared down at her. “Move.” 

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“If fixing this pack was as easy as breaking all their necks, we would have been done with this problem three months ago,” Yvara argued, holding her ground fiercely. “But we need these idiots. They control the eastern hunting grounds and the lower watchtowers. You slaughter the council, you fracture the entire army. Use your head.” 

Fenris stood there. His chest heaved with angry, rapid breaths. 

I sat on the grass, absorbing the interaction. The picture became completely clear in my mind. The elders were actively moving against Fenris. They were meeting in secret to undermine his authority. 

I remembered the conversation I overheard in the kitchens days ago. The servants gossiping about how Fenris was unfit. How he was just a blunt instrument meant for war, not for ruling. 

“The best way to curb them is to make them believe they are in charge.” 

The words left my mouth before I could stop them. 

Fenris and Yvara both snapped their heads toward me. The silence in the garden was heavy and immediate. 

I felt my stomach drop. 

“I… no, wait,” I stammered, scrambling up to my feet. I held my hands out nervously. “What I meant was, in the South, when the nobles try to rebel, you don’t fight them directly. You give them a false choice. You make them think the decision was theirs all along.” 

Fenris stared at me for a long, calculating moment. He didn’t yell at me. He didn’t tell me to shut up. 

He pointed a thick finger at the dirt. “You are coming with me.” 

Panic spiked directly in my chest. “No. I don’t need to follow you to a council meeting. I need to go freshen up. I slept in the dirt.” 

Yvara stepped around Fenris. She walked right up to me and grabbed my upper arm. 

“After your fight with Taya yesterday, Kael has been actively trying to sabotage the throne,” Yvara said. Her grip on my arm was tight and uncompromising. “Right now, there is a meeting going on that I guarantee is a plan to overthrow Fenris.” 

I stared at her. 

“Overthrowing an Alpha happens all the time in our history,” Yvara continued, her voice entirely grim. “But if you know anything about wolf packs, you know what taking an Alpha off the throne actually means.” 

My throat went dry. It meant killing the Alpha. A peaceful transition of power did not exist for wolves. To take his seat, they had to take his life. They wanted to kill Fenris. 

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I shook my head. I forced a nervous, completely fake smile. “Who in their right mind would want to draw a knife on Fenris? Look at him. It’s suicide.” 

“Desperate men do stupid things,” Yvara said. She pulled my arm. “I am done having this conversation. Let’s go.” 

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