The Alpha's Little Slave

Chapter 165: Darach

"Excuse me?" Darach exclaimed, affronted. His glasses glinted ominously. "What on earth did you just call me?"

Oops. Guess my brain-to-mouth filter wasn’t working too well after my emotional turmoil.

"In my defense, it was Damon who called you a nitwit first," I said, diplomatically tipping him under the bus. "But now I see that he had a point. If I were a hunter, I would have simply freed myself from your hold before stabbing you. I wouldn’t be here, still arguing with you like this. Have you ever met a hunter?"

Darach didn’t seem to be a werewolf used to combat. With his wire-rim glasses and the slightest hint of baby fat still on his cheeks, he seemed more like a nerd attending university than the son of an alpha. Unlike his sister whose entire body seemed to be honed as a weapon, Darach seemed... normal enough. I couldn’t tell what his musculature was like underneath his tweed sweater.

"Damon Valentine. Of fucking course," Darach muttered bitterly to himself before flinging my arm away in disgust. "That man has been a menace since he was a boy. Small wonder he’s still spreading rumors about me as an adult. You’re a mere human, how did you know him? Did he kidnap you? Are you in his harem??"

"I am Blaise’s fated mate." I decided to tell him part of the truth since he would find out anyway when he asked his family members.

Speaking of family members, he was going to get a new one soon.

"That menace might become your brother-in-law," I couldn’t help but add, delighting in the way his entire face seemed to pale and redden at the same time, as though he couldn’t decide whether to be horrified or angry first.

"What?"

"Wait, did you not know?" I asked in confusion. Would Alpha Thorton keep such a big secret from his own son?

Strangely, his son wasn’t in the earlier meeting with us despite the subject matter concerning his immediate family. Did Alpha Thorton not value his son enough to bring him into the fold regarding pack matters? ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Darach’s next words seem to prove my point.

"Of course I don’t know this!" Darach all but yelled in surprise. "How could Father do this? This is utterly insane! Damon is nowhere good enough for my sister. Last I heard, he had an entire harem of women from other packs at his beck and call," he said, incensed at the very thought. "If he wants my sister to be one of his bed warmers, over my dead body!"

I could only snort. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"Your sister didn’t seem to mind," I said. "When she greeted us, she seemed very enthusiastic about joining Damon’s supposed harem and bed."

"Dahlia is blinded by infatuation," Darach barked back sharply. "She had fallen in love with Damon as a child and that stupid crush persisted till now, despite my best efforts to cajole her. It got to the point where she had rejected her own fated mate for a chance to marry Damon instead."

"She did what?" My mouth fell open in shock. Oh god, Dahlia was walking in Suzie’s footsteps. I had to tell Damon this later.

"If it makes you feel better, Damon dismantled his harem already," I said. Even though I might shoot insults at Damon, I didn’t want him to be insulted by someone else for flaws he had already fixed.

"It does not make me feel better, since this meant that he had a harem to dismantle," Darach said stonily, unimpressed in the least. "How can I entrust my sister to him? What’s stopping him from rebuilding his harem one year after their marriage?"

Well. My existence as his fated mate would stop him, but I couldn’t tell Darach that.

"If we didn’t need food from Thunderstrike, Damon wouldn’t marry your sister," I said. "So I guess you and Damon are both equally unhappy with the idea of this marriage."

"Food? That’s it?" Darach raised an incredulous eyebrow.

"What do you mean ’that’s it’?" I asked, rankled by his dismissive tone. "The town nearest to us has decided not to supply us with food, and we have vampires and hunters milling around. It’s a crisis! Your father basically threatened us with starvation if we did not comply."

Darach sighed. "You fools shouldn’t have visited us first. Thunderstrike might be the biggest, most prosperous pack, but we are far from the only ones in the region. There are countless other packs nestled deep in the grasslands and more forested areas; they would be more inclined to trade food for other things Fangborne can provide, even with my father’s interference. He can’t stop them all."

Suddenly, I could see a way out. There was a tiniest ray of sunshine through the dark stormy clouds. While Alpha Thorton did threaten to stop other packs from sending us food, surely there would be one that was willing to help. His own son said it was possible.

"Thank you!" I grabbed his hands and shook them fervently,beaming. Darach’s face was now a blooming red, and that flush had also spread down his neck, as though someone doused him in hot water.

Huh, maybe he was allergic to humans. Or he was one of those werewolves that didn’t like humans touching him. I quickly removed my hands from him, just in case.

"What is your name?" Darach asked suddenly. "We’ve been talking the whole time, but I realized I have no clue how to address you."

"I’m Harper, nice to meet you." I smiled at him, but Darach took one look at my face and looked at the spot above my head.

So he didn’t like staring at humans either? Tough luck, because what I had in mind would have us spending a lot of time together.

"Darach, do you have time tonight?" I asked, and Darach spluttered.

"What― What do you― Why?" he asked, his eyes frantically darting to me and the space beside my head, his pupils seemingly shaking. I wanted to laugh; from the way he was acting, it was as though I was the werewolf and he, the poor powerless human.

"I’ll need you to bring me around," I said. "If you don’t want your sister to marry Damon, you’ll have to help me find another pack willing to help us!"