My Stepson Is a Bully

Chapter 1 - Georgia

I knocked on the door

uneasily.

“Enter,” the commanding

voice behind the door said. I took a deep breath and turned the knob.

“You wanted to see me, Uncle Callum?” I asked.

Uncle Callum was a big man. Even

sitting behind his desk, he seemed to take up half the room. His muscles

rippled beneath his shirt, and every step he took screamed “power.” His

brown hair was graying, and his face

was wrinkled, but his dark eyes were as

sharp and intelligent as ever. He

regarded me with a cool indifference

that I pretended didn’t make my hair

stand on end. Something about the situation spelled “danger,” but I wasn’t sure why.

“How are you doing, Georgia?”

he asked. It was perfunctory. I knew

he didn’t really care.

“I’m fine,” I said. “And

yourself?”

“Not good.” He stood up and stalked over to the window, looking

out at the town square below, where

people ambled about, enjoying the warmth of early summer. But his next words drew my attention back to him. “I’ve gotten word that there’s a group of ferals nearby.

A large one.”

My stomach clenched. Ferals were dangerous shifters who were wild and erratic, unable to even shift back

into human forms. They were usually loners and easy to take out. But when a

pack got together, they were

dangerous and would destroy everything that got in their way, including an entire village.

But confusion pierced through the cloud of horror even as I

absorbed the information he had just given me.

“That’s terrible,” I

said slowly. “But…I’m sorry…why are you telling me this? I’m not exactly…” I trailed off. But I

didn’t

need to finish the sentence. Uncle Callum already knew what I’d been about to

say.

“No,” he said. “You’re not important. You’re about as low in the hierarchy as

you can get, save maybe your child.” He sniffed

derisively. “Normally, I wouldn’t tell you anything. I’d tell your father out of courtesy and

loyalty to blood, but that’s it.”

I shifted uncomfortably, looking down at the wooden floorboards.

He was only telling the truth, but the blunt nature of his statements still

stung, and the jab at Elle made me bristle.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. But I swallowed the temptation

to snap back at him, knowing it would only get

me in trouble, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of

knowing he had gotten to me. Besides, there were more important things to deal

with at the moment. I looked back up at him.

“Then why are you

telling me?” I asked.

He came up to me, towering a good foot over my head. “There’s

a small pack that moved into the

mansion by the lake, up in the hills. Do you know the place?”

I nodded. I’d gone

swimming there before and had always

admired the grand house standing above the lake, with a path from the back leading down the slope to the water’s

edge. I still had no idea where this

was going, though. “I think I heard

something about a pack moving in. What about them?”

“Their alpha introduced

himself when they moved to the area,” he said. “I was able to size him up: young, strong, dangerous-looking, and he seemed the type of man

who could keep his wits about him. He said they didn’t want to cause trouble or

friction and would keep out of our way.”

“So?”

“So that is no longer an

option,” Uncle Callum said. “If we’re to kill the ferals before they get to us,

we’re going to need their help.”

“I still don’t

underst—”

“Are you really this

dense?” he snapped. I flinched backward. “You

know who the alpha is, don’t you?”