****
“If your sister doesn’t leave soon, we’re going to have problems,” Dwight warned, keeping his voice even.
He was doing his best not to demonstrate his extreme irritation at this unexpected development. Aiza never talked about her family. She was like Dwight—alone, without a pack, without burden. That had made her ideal for his purposes. And now some stranger was mucking up all his plans, causing ripples and pissing people off.
Even worse, she couldn’t take a hint. He’d tried twice to scare her out of town, and it seemed to have the opposite effect. She finally fled Portland, but Dwight had the feeling that the bitch wasn’t done sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.
“Why? You made it look enough like an accident, and you said you had friends in the sheriff’s department and the coroner’s office,” Aiza pointed out.
“I don’t think she’s going to uncover the plan or expose you. But…”
“But what? What are you worried about?”
“I want all of this to die down,” Dwight said reasonably. “We need the Brotherhood to forget about you, forget about Paul’s Tavern, and forget about the whole situation. They can’t forget about it if she keeps telling people all over town that she thinks they murdered you.”
Or, as it happened, if she continued to tell everybody around town that he was involved in her untimely death. He liked to keep a low profile anyway, but in this delicate situation, a low profile was absolutely paramount.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it,” Aiza said with a sigh. “I just want her to go home. I just want her to be safe.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Dwight promised, with the same tone of reassurance and confidence he used since the whole nightmare started.
Ultimately, he intended for Aiza to accept him completely and without reservations as her Alpha. When she did, her regular note of contrariness would dissipate and he’d be able to guide her without resorting to planting a suggestion. But she hadn’t accepted him yet, and so sometimes he had to take extra steps.
“C’mere, Baby Doll.”
Dwight loved the way Aiza felt when he held her in his arms. He loved the way her curvy body fit against his. He loved the shape of her mouth and her eyes and her unbelievable spirit. He loved her body, loved fucking her; loved having her to himself. And he loved the way she gave everything over. All he had to do was look her in the eyes.
In fact, when he looked her in the eyes, he could make her do or say or think nearly anything he wanted. There were many things she didn’t know about being a made wolf, though she thought she had an understanding of their new dynamics. He answered her questions and told her mostly the truth, but it was best if she didn’t know it all. Best for him, at any rate.
With her gaze locked on his and his arms wrapped around her in a tight cage, he said, “Your sister is in the way.”
She raised an eyebrow but then a blank look suddenly filled her eyes. “My… my sister is in the way,” she repeated in a monotone voice.
“She needs to be removed.”
“I don’t want her to be removed,” Aiza protested, her voice gaining strength. Despite himself, he felt a twinge in his chest. She had such a strong, beautiful will. She was one of the few people who challenged him and had no fear. Subduing her spirit and making her into his wolf had been all the sweeter for that. “I want to see her. I want to tell her the truth.”
“You can’t see her,” Dwight said softly but firmly. “If you see her, you’ll know she needs to die. You’ll want to kill her.”
He didn’t feel a twinge of guilt at planting the suggestion in Aiza’s mind. Sera Simpson was a complication Dwight hadn’t counted on when he cooked up his plan to have both Aiza and Paul’s Tavern completely under his thumb.
And now Sera had an unlikely ally in Seth Longtail, a tenacious Alpha from a rival pack. In his gut, Dwight knew that bringing Seth into the situation was a critical flaw in his master plan. The rival wolf Dwight chose to sacrifice to the Brotherhood—in exchange for his own punishment by death for turning Aiza—belonged to Longtail’s pack, which meant that Seth wasn’t going to stop sniffing around until he found the body or until Dwight took his life. One more death on his conscious would make no difference to him at this point, but as a matter of pure practicality, he didn’t want to add the death of a powerful Alpha to his plate.
“I...I don’t…”
“You want to kill her,” Dwight repeated firmly, looking deeply into Aiza’s eyes. “When you see her, you’ll know she is trying to take it all from you. When you see her, you will remove her.”
“But she’s my sister.”
“She wants to hurt you. She wants to hurt me. She wants to take me away from you. She doesn’t want you to be happy and so you will remove her.”
“I—I will remove her,” Aiza repeated slowly.
“And when she’s gone, we can be happy together,” Dwight added. “When she’s gone, you can go home again.”
“I can go home again,” she said faintly.
“Now, Baby Doll, do you want to please me? Do you want to make me happy?”
Aiza nodded, eyes blank, face open, her mind ready for more suggestions. Dwight hesitated, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options. He made a wolf once before, and he used her until he literally broke her. He wanted things to be different with Aiza. He wanted to groom her and mold her into the perfect mate for him. He wanted to have her at his side, tucked away in his secret haven, for years to come.
He hadn’t anticipated things turning into such a shit-show. He had no idea Franklin had his own designs on the goldmine that was Paul’s Tavern and never expected him to send his henchman, Butch, to muscle in on Dwight’s territory. His plan for Aiza was slow, designed for the long-game, meant to work past all of her defenses and shields until he was completely inside of her life, her head, and her heart.
After that point, she would be easy to control. Easy to exploit. But of course, an idiot like Franklin wouldn’t appreciate a plan as subtle as Dwight’s; he wouldn’t be able to understand that it was better to have constant and open access rather than a tiny portion of the bar’s income.
“She’s going to come here, Aiza. She’s going to try to take you away from me.” He touched the side of her face. “Do you want to leave me, Baby Doll?”
“I don’t want to leave.”
“Good.”
He kissed her, breaking eye contact. He couldn’t keep her under suggestion at all times—not yet, anyway. The more he reinforced the bond between them, the easier it would be to keep her enthralled, but if he pushed for too much, too fast, he might cause damage. And he had absolutely no intention of harming his beautiful Aiza. Not when she was worth so much to him intact.
“Okay, Baby Doll, I’ve got to go. I have some business to take care of tonight. You stay here, and remember what I said.”
She blinked at him with confusion and then nodded slowly. “I’ll remember.”
“What will you do if you see your sister?”
“I’ll kill her,” Aiza stated.
Dwight gave her a brief hug and another kiss on the top of the head before leaving. Once she killed her sister, she would have no strong ties to anyone except him. He had to admit, that was quite the unexpected boon. He’d been irritated ever since Sera arrived in town, but he couldn’t complain about his opportunity to fully secure Aiza in his grasp—and due to Sera’s unexpected involvement, he’d be able to complete his plan far sooner than he ever expected.
Dwight stepped outside of his cabin and inhaled deeply, catching the scent of an unfamiliar wolf floating in the wind. The hair on the back of his neck rose and his fangs emerged. Longtail had been there, and was most certainly still in the area.
Whistling to himself, he crossed the yard to the two-ton pickup truck he rarely drove. He preferred his bike to any other mode of transportation, or barring that, running freely as a wolf. But he needed something a little bit bigger than a motorcycle to get this job done.
With a cigarette clamped between his teeth and music blasting from his speakers, he put the truck into gear and roared into the night. With the window down, his sensitive nose guided him through the forest. Even with the stench of the cigarette, he wouldn’t miss the smell of two wolves and one delicious human. He would know Sera was Aiza’s kin by her scent alone.
He wondered if Sera would taste like her sister, too.
If he played his cards right, he’d have the chance to find out. Maybe he’d even have the chance to make Sera and keep her as well. Two sisters to do his bidding and serve his every need? Dwight’s grin turned wicked, his thoughts turning feral as he descended upon his prey.
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