The Alpha's Call Book 2

Today was the most important day of my entire life...

It was a day I thought would never come, and honestly—I still didn’t believe it was happening.

My heart was full.

Like I said, today was the most important day of my life...

The string quartet began to play as I took my first step onto the rose-petal-covered carpet.

Skye beamed at me as she spread the flowers on the path that led to the stage...

Where my mate was waiting for me.

Smiling at me like he’d just won the lottery.

But it was me who couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

I had a man who would always be at my side, no matter what challenges we’d face.

Our love had only become stronger through the unexpected, through the twists and turns of life.

And they had brought us to this moment...

I could feel the gazes of all my friends and family as I passed them. I saw my mom in the front row, tears of happiness spilling down her cheeks. I blinked fiercely.

And then I was at the altar, standing before the love of my life. My heart felt like it would explode as he reached forward to lift the veil from my face. My gaze rose with it, and I looked at my mate.

I saw our future shining in his eyes.

It felt as though time was standing still as the council stared me down from behind their crescent-moon-shaped table.

Each set of eyes watched me intently, waiting for my answer to their question.

I turned my gaze to Sebastian, and my heart began to race.

His eyes were filled with a deep sadness—I knew exactly what he was feeling...

Because I felt it too.

We were connected by our mating bond. We felt each other’s pain.

But I was feeling more than just Sebastian’s pain…

I felt Caspian’s as well.

I couldn’t bear the thought of breaking my mating bond with either of these men. To cause that much agony to someone I loved…

No matter what choice I made, someone was going to get hurt.

“Lyla, please answer the question,” Tiberius said, tapping his fingers on the table. “We don’t have all day.”

I had to be sure I was making the right choice.

“Lyla, your decision,” Tiberius said, more pointedly this time. “Now.”

My lips parted slightly, and I began to stammer.

“I…I…choose…”

I honestly didn’t know whose name was going to come out of my mouth.

My mind had gone completely blank, and my body was on autopilot.

My heart and my head had been disconnected, leaving me a sputtering mess.

But I had no other option.

I’d reached my final destination.

I had to make my choice.

“I choose—”

“STOP!”

Sebastian shot out of his chair, and I instantly swallowed my words back into my throat.

“This is insane,” he growled, looking around at his council. “How can you possibly expect her to make this decision when we’ve only known each other for two weeks? Or when we’re still reeling from what happened with Silas?”

“Silas is precisely why you should commit to this now,” Tiberius said. “Show your strength to the pack.”

“This is the way it’s done,” Caius said. “It’s tradition.”

“Well, fuck tradition!” Sebastian said, jumping over the table and joining me by my side.

I couldn’t help but smile at the way he was standing up for me.

But there were no smiles on the other side of the table.

“Don’t be childish, Sebastian,” Tiberius said. “This isn’t just about the two of you. It’s about the pack.”

“Then start acting like it,” Tiberius snapped back. “Until you’re officially mated, you defer to us on pack matters.”

I’d always thought of Sebastian as the wolf in charge—the alpha who you didn’t want to cross—but this council meeting was putting his position in a new light.

Sebastian’s uncle looked just as intimidating as Sebastian in that moment. He meant business.

Tiberius stood up and glared at me. “She needs to give us her answer so that we can put all this nonsense behind us.”

“No, this meeting is adjourned,” Sebastian said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door.

I took a deep breath as I led Lyla out to the pack house porch. We collapsed next to each other onto a rickety wooden swing.

Lyla rubbed my back as I placed my head in my hands.

“Tiberius doesn’t know his own ass from a full moon,” I said, frustrated. “Who the hell is he to tell me what to do?”

But I already knew the answer to my question.

Tiberius, being my blood relative, was in charge of the council until I became mated to my luna in an official ceremony.

I knew the council wanted to hand the reins over to me—to finally see me fill my father’s shoes—but the fact that they didn’t think I was ready felt like a slap in the face.

I hated that Tiberius treated me like a child, always trying to control me—ever since Silas murdered my parents he’d been hard on me.

“Sebastian,” Lyla said softly, pulling me from my thoughts.

I turned to look at my mate; her eyes were filled with concern.

“What’s going to happen between us,” she asked. “I know the council wants an answer, but—”

“Don’t say another word,” I said, taking her hand. “I meant what I told you before.”

“What do you mean?” she said, her fingers interlocking with mine.

“I want you to feel comfortable when you make this decision,” I responded. “I don’t want you to choose just because the council is forcing you to make a choice.”

“Don’t worry about the council,” I said. “Take all the time you need.”

I tried to sound confident, but truthfully, I didn’t know how long I could stall them.

She looked up at me with her big, beautiful doe eyes, and I found myself lost in their innocence.

This couldn’t be easy for her—feeling the mating pull for two men.

I leaned in close and placed my hand on her face, my thumb brushing her lips.

Her cheeks instantly flushed red.

“Sebastian, wait… I shouldn’t…”

Her words sounded hesitant, but as I placed my other hand on her waist, I felt her body relax into my touch.

“I don’t want you to think about anyone else right now,” I growled softly in her ear. “Only me.”

Now that we were alone, the pull of our mating bond was intensifying, and I wanted to make Lyla forget that she even had a choice to make.

My body pressed into hers, and I felt myself hardening.

The porch swing rocked back and forth creakily as my hand moved up her body and grasped the back of her neck.

I began guiding her face toward mine as her lips parted—

“Caspian,” Lyla said breathily.

“What?!” I growled, but then I saw that Lyla was pointing behind me.

I whipped around to find Caspian glaring at me. “Hope I’m not interrupting,” he said, trying to keep his tone stable.

Lyla scooted away from Sebastian, and tried to smooth out the creases in her clothes.

She looked at me guiltily, but I wasn’t mad at her. Not in the slightest.

Lyla had been given two mates—she had no control over that.

Sebastian shot me a smirk, as if he knew what I was thinking.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked, taking a seat on the bench across from Sebastian and glaring at him.

“Knock yourself out,” Sebastian growled.

It looked like he wanted to knock me out himself.

It only took a quick glance at my surroundings to answer that question.

Sebastian’s sprawling estate.

His Royal Pack House that felt more like a palace.

Servants milling around, waiting on him paw and claw.

There was a part of me that had thought I’d never live up to Sebastian.

He had it all, including Lyla…

But then that fateful moonbeam hit me at the second-chance ceremony.

And Lyla was no longer just Sebastian’s…

She was mine too.

We all sat in silence on the porch, chirping crickets filling the emptiness.

The tension was awkward, hanging in the thick, humid air.

Lyla looked up and parted her lips like she was about to say something, but instead just gave me a faint smile.

It wasn’t much, but it still made my heart skip a beat.

The sunlight was hitting her red hair just right, and it looked like she was on fire.

I smiled back, doing my best to avoid Sebastian’s death glare that I could see from the corner of my eye.

Nothing would stop me from appreciating the beauty of this goddess in front of me.

Lyla’s smile faltered after a moment, and I snapped back to reality.

Lyla had told me that whatever happened between us, we’d figure it out together.

I just had to trust that she’d stay true to her word…

Because I had no intention of leaving her side.

I glanced back and forth between my mates—the two men who each held a piece of my heart…

They’d both continued to stand by my side through my uncertainty.

And they’d both put themselves in danger when Silas had tried to hurt me and Skye.

I knew I’d have to make a choice about who I wanted to spend my life with, but…

Losing either one of them felt like too much to bear.

At that thought, a darkness filled my mind, and though I tried to fight it, I lost the battle.

I wondered if my dark thoughts held some truth.

I was hurting two people I loved by not making a choice.

But I would be hurting myself by choosing the wrong mate…

I didn’t know what was worse.

I just needed space to think.

“Oh good, you’re all here.”

I turned around to see Tiberius stepping onto the porch.

He looked at us one by one, unable to hide his disapproving expression. “The council needs to confer with you immediately.”

“All of us?” Sebastian asked, surprised.

I stood anxiously between Sebastian and Caspian as we faced the council.

Tiberius was flanked by Caius and Magnolia on one side, and by Titus and Tonya on the other.

In the center of the crescent moon table was a thick, dusty book. It looked like it could’ve been hundreds of years old.

I was beginning to feel like I was on trial.

Magnolia moved around in her chair uncomfortably, while Tiberius continued. “By that I mean having a destined mate and a second-chance mate simultaneously. It’s simply unheard of.”

“Well, except for one case,” Tonya chimed in. Titus nodded as she spoke.

“Yes, I was getting to that,” Tiberius said, annoyed. “Since you three seem dead set on giving this mating decision all the time in the world…”

“This has happened once before in the Royal Pack,” Caius explained. “And the resolution…well, it’s a bit unorthodox.”

“Just spit it out,” Sebastian growled.

“Yeah, stop beating around the bush,” Caspian said, agreeing with Sebastian for the first time ever.

Tiberius cleared his throat, then flipped open the heavy book. Dust flew everywhere.

His finger ran across the weathered page as he read aloud.

Tiberius’s eyes flicked to me, and my heart leapt into my throat.