Healing the Clan: Alaskan Tigers: Book Ten Read Free Page A

vowing our commitment to Tabitha and the Alaskan Tigers. Once I do that, I’ll inform the clan and Tabitha will send some support to assist us. Guards to begin training the selected to secure our compound. Our enemies will see our supporters and will back off.”
    “You’re doing this just to keep the clan free of others who wish to overtake you and make the clan their own?” Heidi questioned.
    “You already know that my sister, Mira, is a supporter. It’s why everything happened as it did.” He paused for a moment, remembering pushing her toward the door and begging her to run. There had been no doubt in his mind that if Frank got his hands on her, she’d have been killed. David wouldn’t risk her, but he didn’t realize getting her out of harm’s way would cost him so much personally, or have such an impact on the whole clan.
    “Finding out she supported bringing a better future to our kind was the final break in Frank’s sanity.” Ryder shook his head. “It was only a matter of time, but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”
    “He was becoming more paranoid by the day. Members were brought in for questioning because he felt like they were turning against him. He tort—” David stopped himself before he finished the word torture and glanced at Heidi. Brad had been one of the people Frank had begun to turn against, and the day before his death, he’d been tortured with the hope that he’d reveal whatever information Frank was looking for.
    “You don’t have to censor yourself. I know.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Brad was a good man. He tried to shelter me from what was happening within the clan, but when he was brought back to our room, there was no hiding what had happened. I doctored his wounds the best I could. I think that was the first time I realized how dangerous things were getting. I begged him to let us leave before something worse happened.”
    “He told me, but leaving would have signed your death warrant. Frank would’ve had you killed.”
    “Styx…” She swallowed and regained her composure. “He’d have come after us just like we’d been warned.”
    “That’s another thing.” He glanced to the end table where a family photo was displayed, the last one of them all together. Instead of looking at the false smiles spread across their faces, his gaze was on Mira. “Styx isn’t the assassin he once was. He’s now a guard for the Alaskan Tigers’ Elders…and Mira’s mate.”
    “You can’t be serious.” Shocked, Ryder leaned forward. “What, now he’s killing for the opposing side?”
    “Killing isn’t the right word.” David chose his words carefully. There was no doubt that Styx would kill someone in the line of duty or to protect those he cared about, but he was no longer the paid assassin he had been. “He’s the second in the Lieutenant’s mate’s guards. Styx is no longer an assassin. That is another thing we will have to help the clan to adjust to, because eventually Mira will visit and her mate will no doubt escort her.”
    “After years of everyone being brainwashed to believe he would come after them, that might be more of a struggle to overcome than the clan accepting your commitment to the Alaskan Tigers.” Heidi looked between the two before her gaze settled on Ryder. “You’ve been here your whole life. What do you think? The threat of Styx was never used against me by my former Alpha.”
    “She’s right,” Ryder agreed before David could answer her question. “It’s hard to believe someone who’s had such a career as an assassin would ever settle down to be a second in the Elder guards. He’d have to report to the Captain, the Lieutenant, and the Alpha. It’s too much hierarchy for someone with his past.”
    “Be that as it may be, it’s still the truth. I’ve spoken with him myself, and with his Elders. He’s a changed man.” David glanced back at the family photo. “Maybe Mira can help convince those who have