My Sister Couldn’t Tame Her Alpha? Fine. I’ll Do It! Chapter 08

My Sister Couldn’t Tame Her Alpha? Fine. I’ll Do It! Chapter 08

The gossip about Auriel and Vance spread faster than my frostbloom shipments.

I didn’t have time for it.

Business was rolling-orders hadn’t stopped for three weeks the southern supply chain was running smooth, and the pack’s women showed up before dawn to work. Wintermaw hadn’t seen this much money in years.

Then the blizzard hit.

Drying racks buried. Warehouse collapsed. Three weeks’ worth of stockpiled herbs frozen into mush. I stood in front of that wreckage before sunrise, snow still coming down hard, staring at the mess.

Just another setback. Last life I’d rebuilt bigger operations from worse ruins.

I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. By noon, half the crew showed up without me even calling. Edith brought hot soup.

Two old she-wolves dragged a backup tarp out of the armory We cleared debris, salvaged what herbs we could, moved them into the main house to keep drying.

My hands were covered in cuts, back aching, boots soaked through hours ago. But orders don’t fill themselves, and I couldn’t tell the southern buyers that Wintermaw couldn’t handle a little bad weather.

That’s when Auriel showed up.

She was wearing patent leather heels and a fur-trimmed coat, picking her way across the rubble. Middle of winter, wearing those shoes, walking two miles through snow and broken stone-just to stand in front of my collapsed warehouse.

Her ankles looked swollen already. She didn’t seem to notice

“Well, well. If it isn’t Thera.” She glanced at the wreckage, smiling. “Is it all gone? Want to know what a real Luna’s life looks like?”

She did a slow turn.

“I used to be stupid too. Thought an Alpha like Corvax who’d been to war was the best you could get. Now I get it-women need to find a man with real power. The kind who controls the things that matter.”

She wobbled across the ruins like this blizzard was just a minor inconvenience for her fashion show. I stood there in work boots, sleeves rolled up, hauling burned herb bundles with the rest of the crew.

And she thought she’d won.

“You walked two miles through snow in stilettos just to tell me this?”

Her smile got sharper. “Vance controls the western pass. Every shipment you send has to go through his checkpoint. One word from him, and your herbs rot in the warehouse.”

She stepped closer. “Your little business? Done, Thera. And tell Corvax to forget about getting into the alliance council too.”

“So you just traded one man’s name for another man’s name” I looked at her. “Last time it was Corvax, this time it’s Vance. Is there anything you do that doesn’t need a man backing you up?”

Her face flushed red. “How dare you-”

“I dare plenty. You want to be some kept woman, that’s your life. But if you touch what I’ve built for this pack-the problem between you and me won’t be solved by your sugar daddy’s mountain pass.”

“That’s right. This trade project benefits the entire western alliance.”

The voice came from behind us. The kind of tone that made every wolf instinctively lower their head.

I turned around. Fenwick Bloodtide-the western alliance’s top dog, the Bloodtide pack Alpha-stood at the edge of the clearing with a few of his people.

Corvax was next to him, face unreadable. They’d come to see the trade project. Looked like the frostbloom business had caught the whole western alliance’s attention.

Perfect timing.

Fenwick’s eyes locked onto Auriel. “Who the hell are you to threaten this project?”

He turned toward Vance-who’d apparently materialized from behind a tree somewhere, looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole. “And you. What’s your relationship with this Omega?”

Vance’s face went gray. “Alpha Bloodtide, I have no idea why she’s dragging me into this. I have nothing to do with her. Absolutely nothing!”

Auriel stared at him. The color drained from her face.

“Vance…” She choked out. “How can you say that? I’m carrying your-”

She slapped her hand over her mouth.

The entire clearing went dead silent.