Confirmed? As in someone had called him and told him flat out that Liam was…dead?

That terror-stricken panic took hold of her heart once more, and it was sure as hell hard for her to pretend to be confident about anything when Renzo spoke like that.

“Jolie! Hey, snap out of it.” Renzo actually snapped his fingers in front of her face, and that was all she needed to be yanked out of the trance she was in.

And Renzo was right there, looking at her as if he had no idea he’d just devastated her. Or as if he didn’t care that was what he was doing.

Jolie shook her head. “He’s not dead. They didn’t kill him.”

She would have felt it. She was sure of it. That was the point of being mated. To have that connection to another person, to trust and love someone so completely and totally that her senses were consumed by it. If Liam’s soul had left the Earth, then Jolie would have known about it. Her spirit would have registered the loss. She was sure of it.

Renzo crossed his arms. “Dempsey called me and gave me the news himself. It’s for the best. He was living in squalor that entire time and there’s no telling how it could have affected his mind, or what it made him want to do. You and the rest of the pack are far safer now that—”

Renzo stopped abruptly. He didn’t scream, but he did jerk his body back hard and fast when Jolie’s claws came out as she reached out for his eyes. Just as Liam had told her to do if she was ever backed into a corner.

She wasn’t about to let him get away. As she flew forward, he fell back, the instinct to protect his eyes too strong for an alpha to ignore, even when the threat was coming from a weak little omega, it seemed.

He fell backwards into the coffee table. The glass shattered into a thousand glittering pieces both large and small. It was dangerous, but Jolie wanted to go down with him, roll around in the glass and make sure she sliced his face and body everywhere that she could. She had the alpha on the ground in front of her, who cared if she was cut up a little by the glass, or if he was trying to get to his feet so he could properly defend himself?

Red wouldn’t let her. He grabbed her just as she fell onto Renzo, before she could slam his head down into the broken glass, and he yanked her clean off her feet.

“Whoa! Jolie! Knock it off!”

She ignored him. Jolie hardly heard a word Red said after that as she screeched like a wild animal, her small claws and teeth out, red hot revenge clouding her judgement as she struggled to go up against a creature that was way more powerful than she would ever be.

Renzo calmly pushed himself to his feet, glanced beneath him to the broken glass, and the fact that there was no blood on him made Jolie go that much wilder as she desperately struck her claws out again and again.

The hard smack across her face slapped the wild animal out of her mind. Jolie’s entire body stopped. She paused, breathed, then looked back at the alpha.

Renzo lifted a single dark brow as he looked at her. “Don’t know whether to beat some sense into you or be proud of you. I’ll figure that one out later.” He nodded to Red. “Take her to my guest room, and then you and I are going to have a little talk.”

Jolie felt the throb of Red’s heart against her back. Yeah, he was in trouble, and he knew it.

“Yes, alpha,” Red said, his voice wobbling only slightly as he carried Jolie towards the guest room. One of the room’s Jolie had stayed in as a child when she’d lived here with Liam.

Before her rightful alpha had been killed and Renzo took over.

Red put her onto her feet in the bedroom. It was obvious just from looking around how it had been prepared for her. Pretty much anything had been stripped out of the room that could be used as a weapon, or broken and made into one, with the exception of the glass window.

And she didn’t think she’d get very far if she tried smashing it.

“Let me guess, there’s someone outside my window making sure I don’t try to leave?”

“Probably,” Red said. “Just don’t cause any trouble, please.”

Jolie looked at the man, and she looked hard. Red seemed to have trouble holding her gaze, but that wasn’t Jolie’s problem. In that moment, felt as if she was looking right through him. And she felt something for him she’d promised herself she wouldn’t feel when he took her off the side of the road.

Pity.

“I don’t know when Renzo turned into a complete dictator, or if he always was and I just never noticed, but Liam is coming back.”

Red made a pained face. “Jolie.”

“And I don’t care if Renzo is listening to this. I hope he is listening,” Jolie snapped, letting her voice get louder and louder with every word she spoke. She looked passed Red and down the hall, as if Renzo was standing right there, because she knew he could hear her. “Because when Liam gets here, he’s going to kick Renzo’s ass and take back his pack that Renzo stole from him, and I’ll be cheering him on the entire time.”

Jolie returned her heated glare to Red. His eyes were so wide she could see the whites all the way around the blues.

“So when he gets here, you, and everyone else who’s sick of Renzo’s bullshit, better make a decision about who you would rather follow, and you’d better make it fast.”

As if to accent her words, a howl sounded in the distance. Jolie’s wolf ears had popped out without her even noticing, though they flicked at the noise.

The familiar noise of her mate.

She smiled.

To Be Continued.......

I decided to upload the second half of this chapter as its own chapter just because the character limits were being overdone by way too much each time, which is why this is being posted on the same day :)

Anyway, sorry about that. I really hate those character limits, though I guess it's to keep people like me from rambling too much -_-

I really hope you liked these chapters so far, thank you so much for reading :) I really appreciate that, and big thank you to everyone who has hit the like buttons, commented, added a tapas tip or even become a Patron over on Patreon.

You guys are amazing :D

Hugs and happy reading!

Mandy