Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 08 - Revenge by Bailey Bradford Read Free Book Online Page A

came to and realised I was different. I hated him.” Ryder took a deep breath and exhaled. “I hated him so much. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Marcus understood that. There’d been more than one shifter he’d had to kill that he couldn’t regret causing the death of. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to leave the details to the guards. I’d love to get out and do some hunting, but after the attack on our other compound, the pack needs to have me here.”
“That’s what I keep telling you,” Nathan piped in with. “I’m so glad it’s sinking in. It’s perfectly fine to delegate.” Nathan tipped his head towards Ryder. “Don’t forget that. Otherwise you will be ruling with an iron fist before you know it.”
“Right. Delegate, got it.” Ryder beamed as if he’d had an epiphany. “We aren’t quite a democracy, but not a dictatorship either.”
“The packs would, for the most part, be fine with a dictatorship, as long as their leader wasn’t a murderous bastard,” Nathan pointed out. “I kind of think that’s the direction we lean, although Marcus tries to take into account other shifters’ requests in regards to certain things. If he can’t work them in, then it’s his way.”
“Or your way,” Marcus said, teasing his mate.
Nathan scowled then blew him a kiss. “Well, yeah.”
Ryder chortled and Marcus decided it was time to wrap the chat up. “Ryder, loyalty— it’s a very important trait as an Alpha Anax. You’ve only been a shifter a little over a year, and you were turned into one without your consent. You have a wolf in you that wants to live a certain way, and a more developed human nature that possibly fights the wolf’s intuitions. It’s a battle inside of you that is bound to cause conflicts.”
“Especially since I was such a shitty human,” Ryder added. “Being stoned all the time, I didn’t have morals, not any more than the ones that kept me from hanging around Harley and getting him all fucked up like I was. But I’m learning,” he said earnestly, raising his gaze to Marcus’. “I even think I could stay here and just be a part of your pack.”
Ryder’s answer assured Marcus more than anything else could have that he had been right about Ryder all along. “You’ll be a great Alpha Anax—in South America. I’m not giving up my position any time soon.”
Ryder waved a hand. “I wouldn’t, not ever—”
“I was teasing,” Marcus said, chuckling a little. “But the South American packs are really suffering under the AA there. Dirk is a dictator to the extreme. He doesn’t hesitate to slaughter entire families of those who’ve offended him.”
“Dirk?” Ryder repeated, looking confused. “Seriously?”
Marcus knew how he felt. “Yes, seriously. Whether that’s the name he was given at birth or chose later on, I don’t know. He has flowing blond hair and a stocky build. Keeps a harem, I’ve heard. Young women, although I haven’t heard of any of the women being underage. Rumour is he forces abortions on them when he impregnates them as he doesn’t want any competition from his offspring, especially once he’s older.”
Ryder’s lip was curled up in a sneer as he listened. Marcus continued talking. “He’s in his mid-thirties now, so close to your age. He’s been leading the South American packs for some time—fourteen years, I believe. It seems the shifters there first bought into his beauty and welcomed him after he killed the prior Alpha Anax. Then they learnt what a bastard he truly is.”
“Does he have family?” Ryder asked. “Anyone we can get to who might be able to give us some more information, like if he has a routine or favourite hangouts?”
Marcus was impressed. “He has a sister and a brother. Neither live with him, though. Supposedly he had more siblings, but they all died under mysterious circumstances.”
“So where are they?” Ryder’s enthusiasm had him rising up, rolling to his toes in a jaunty bounce. Marcus hated to knock