Alpha (2 page)

Fred followed Wolf James further inward to the where the main
houses were. They passed a few small houses on the outskirts of the territory where
some wolves had greenhouses and some had planted small gardens. The pack was
fairly self-sufficient. They had their own doctor, grew their own food, and
hunted for their own meat.

Here and there, houses seemed to sprout from the woods. Small
cabins and larger homes were just far enough apart to give privacy to the
wolves that lived there. Fred knew they had running water and electricity
hooked up several years ago, but some wolves still refused to use either.
They’d rather freeze in the cold river and cook food in wooden stoves. He
hadn’t minded living like that when he was very young, but the older he got,
the more he had appreciated hot showers.

“Guess it hasn’t gotten any better out here,” Fred said. “There
are still jerks who attack anything that moves in these woods.”

Wolf James shook his large head. Fred knew the wolf wanted to
talk to him but couldn’t. Not for a while. Only the wolves communicated
telepathically. James would have to shift to talk to Fred. He probably thought
it was safer to stay in wolf form in case something else attacked Fred. Maybe
an alien or a witch or one of those sparkly vampires.

“I wouldn’t mind a sparkly vampire,” Fred mumbled to his feet.
“I bet he’d share his glitter blush.”

Wolf James kept walking, watching around them for any hint of
movement. He took Fred to his house. Or The House, if you were pack. Fred
thought of it as the Alpha’s castle. It was two stories tall and made of brick.
It used to be made of wood before a rival pack had set fire to it. Now it was
brick. Much harder to burn.

The door opened as though someone had sensed they were coming.
They probably had. Stupid wolf magic.

Angel Ross and Gavin McKenzie stood in the doorway. Angel was James’s
beta who had joined a year or so before Fred left. He wasn’t as tall as James
or Gavin, but he had very wide shoulders. His skin was darkly tanned and he had
a small Van Dyke beard. Rumors had flown when Angel chose to join their Pack
instead of staying with his pack in Brazil. He’d seemed okay to Fred, but then
he had never socialized much with many of the wolves.

Gavin had a face like a thunder cloud. His skin and hair were
both darker than his brother James’s. His eyebrows were thick and stark, drawn
in an ever-present frown.

“Penny, I see you’ve returned,” Gavin said.

He’d often told Fred he was a bad penny that they were all
forced to tolerate. Fred swallowed at the look on Gavin’s face and his angry
tone. He made a step as if to go back and leave.

Wolf James pushed him forward with his snout, past the two men
and into the living room. Fred had forgotten the pain in his arm until Wolf
James made him lie on the couch. Now it came back with vicious pangs. He
groaned, rolling his face to the back of the cushion facing him. He knew
showing weakness in front of wolves was bad. Maybe they’d eat him and he’d be
out of his misery.

Wolf James licked his arm before disappearing into the back of
the house.

Angel knelt next to him. “Your dad is coming soon to patch you
up. Want any water? Something to eat?”

Fred tried to crawl deeper into the couch.

“Well okay then,” Angel said.

He was trying to be nice, which was a pleasant change from how
wolves usually treated Fred. He wanted to thank Angel, but he wanted to curl up
in the fetal position much more.

James came out wearing sweatpants and an angry scowl. He’d
changed into a man after he’d put Fred on the couch. Fred closed his eyes but
could still see James’s bare chest. His abs would be enviable if not for the
scars that marked the top of his chest and lower abdomen. There were new scars
Fred didn’t remember. New tattoos that snaked around his chest and arms.

“Thomas will be punished,” James said.

Fred opened one eye. “Thomas being the red wolf who bit me?”

James nodded. He sat on the end of the couch nearest Fred’s head
and stroked his hair. Fred tried not to shiver under those big hands. He should
tell James to stop. Any time now he should tell James to stop.

“I’m sorry. I know you came home to heal. Thomas is…difficult.”

Fred made a noise in his throat. “I’d say so. I told him who I
was, but that only seemed to make him angrier.”

James shook his head. “He knew who you were before he
approached. You smell like your father.”

Fred made a face. “Old Spice?”

James leaned in to sniff Fred’s shoulder. “Vanilla and spice.
Your father has just a hint of vanilla.”

“Am I a flower now?”

James licked the side of Fred’s neck. “More like candy.”

A voice made a coughing sound from behind them. Fred’s father,
Doc, stood in the doorway carrying his medical bag. Fred blushed and tried to
push James away. It was like trying to move a slab of concrete with a
toothpick.

“Hey, Dad.”

Doc was tall but had shrunk due to the stoop in his shoulders.
His hair had mostly gone to gray with a few strands of brown. His face was
broader than Fred’s. His nose was crooked from being broken a few times. Wolves
were not the calmest of patients and human painkillers tended to be ineffective
at best.

“Got yourself bitten I see, son,” Doc said. He took off the
bandages, examining the ragged wound. “Not too bad. Didn’t make it to the
bone.”

He took a syringe from his bag and inserted it into Fred’s arm.
After a few seconds Fred could breathe again. The pain became dull and
throbbing. Fred’s eyes started to droop. He felt the tug of a needle going
through his arm but couldn’t raise his head.

His father examined his ribs next, clucking over the bruises and
prodding for broken bone. He wrapped Fred’s ribs when he was done.

“Get him to sleep. Make sure he takes his pills,” his father
said. He kissed Fred on the top of his head. “Glad to have you home again.”

Fred felt himself being lifted in the air. He rubbed his mouth
against James’s collarbone.

“You smell good too,” Fred said. “Like pine and honey.”

James’s chest rumbled against Fred’s as James laughed. “You’re
going to regret this once the drugs wear off.”

“Lovely drugs. Lovely James. I wonder if you taste like honey?”
Fred could hear himself talking about things he’d rather keep quiet. He tried
to stop but couldn’t. He floated in James’s arms as he was brought into a small
bedroom and placed gently against the pillows.

James tucked the blankets around him. “Warm enough?” he asked.

Fred nodded, yawning. He was so tired. He’d close his eyes for
just a minute. Then he’d be fine.

He dreamed an alarm was going off over and over. He heard James
come in, cursing at something. Then the alarm turned off. James fed him some
pills and he slept again.

Fred was in a furnace, burning up. He tried to back away but
couldn’t move. When he opened his eyes, he saw James’s bare chest. The heat was
coming from James.

“Hot,” Fred mumbled.

“Yes, you are,” James said. He nibbled on Fred’s ear, biting
hard enough to sting.

Fred’s arm and ribs still hurt but not nearly as bad as the day
before. He lifted his injured arm, wrapping it around James’s broad back.

“We shouldn’t do this,” Fred said. “We never work things out the
way we should.”

James kissed the bandaged wound on Fred’s arm. “You came home.
You’re mine now.”

Fred tried to get free. James wouldn’t let him.

“You let a few wolves chase you away from me. I tried to be
patient. I waited. It’s always been you for me. You know that.”

“And when you have to have puppies? Will I be yours then?” Fred
asked.

James closed his eyes. “That is not for a long time.”

Hurt bloomed like a fresh wound in Fred’s chest. He took a
breath and even that hurt. “I can’t be your secret. I can’t be your mistress or
your manstress or gigolo or whatever you call it.”

James rested his head against Fred’s. “You can be my mate.”

“No I can’t. Human, remember? And a man.”

“I don’t want to argue with you. You’re injured. I do want you
to stay this time. Can you at least promise not to leave without telling me?”

Fred sighed. He’d left home the last time without a word to
anyone, afraid that his father or James would convince him to stay. He’d called
his father after a day and felt horrible when his father yelled at him about
being worried.

“I promise,” Fred said.

Fred had never felt so hungry in his life. He ate almost as much
as James and Angel did. Both sat across from him at the table in the kitchen.
James had tried to bring him to the large dining room where most of the wolves
ate, but Fred had felt his skin crawl at the suggestion. He’d almost died when
one wolf attacked him. What if they all decided he was breakfast?

As he was bringing the last forkful of omelet to his mouth, Fred
paused. James was watching him oddly.

“What?” Fred asked.

“Good to see you eating,” James said.

Fred rolled his eyes. “Just because I can’t eat three thousand
pounds of eggs like you wolves do doesn’t mean I’m anorexic.”

Angel grinned. He really was handsome. And he didn’t seem to
dislike humans. He’d tried to make small talk about Fred’s time in the city.
Fred wasn’t sure of him yet. He’d fallen for such a trap before. Wolves who had
pretended to be his friend only to hurt him or use him to hurt James.

“We wouldn’t eat a thousand pounds of eggs. Maybe a thousand
pounds of chicken,” Angel said.

James licked his lips. “Those chickens are oh so tasty.”

“Yeah, right until their owners shoot your butt with buckshot,”
Fred said. He remembered that day. When he’d thought James was really hurt.
He’d moaned and rolled around on his back until he’d finally let Fred take a look.
Stupid wolf.

“It may not have killed me, but that buckshot hurt like hell,”
James said.

Fred brought the fork to his mouth again and this time James was
watching him an entirely different way. His eyes were low and hooded as if he
remembered what they’d done after Fred had cleaned the buckshot out.

Angel fanned himself. “It’s getting a little hot in here.”

Fred blushed and finished his breakfast. He was helping the men
clear the table when he heard a terrible noise coming from the front of the
house. His eyes widened. He knew the voice that was shouting the loudest. No
one else sounded that annoying.

He ran towards the front of the house with James and Angel right
behind him. James grabbed the back of Fred’s shirt, pulling him so James was in
front and Angel was behind him.

His roommate Kyle Laughton stood red-faced in front of Gavin and
five other wolves who looked ready to eat him.

“I know he’s here! I tracked the GPS signal! You’re all
kidnappers!”

Gavin looked down at the smaller man. Kyle was really short for
a man. Five foot nothing, Fred called him. Kyle had this red hair that seemed
to stand up on its own and a pointed chin that he frequently led with.

“Don’t know who you’re talking about,” Gavin rumbled.

Kyle reached up and poked Gavin in the chest.

Fred put his hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh.

“Fred is my friend. He’s not someone you can kidnap and keep for
your filthy orgy sex games. People care about him and what happens to him. You
bring him out right now or I’ll call the cops!”

Fred rubbed his hand over his face. Filthy sex orgies? Okay,
most of the wolves walked around shirtless, but they weren’t nude. Kyle seemed
really upset. Fred felt bad about that. He knew Kyle had no real family and his
last boyfriend had disappeared without telling anyone where he was going. Kyle
had been inconsolable. Of course then he’d milked it for weeks after, but Fred
knew he’d been really hurt.

Fred stepped up to intervene and bounced against James’s back.

“Let me through,” Fred whispered. “He’s my friend.”

Gavin growled and picked Kyle up as if to throw him out the
door.

Fred made an annoyed noise  in the back of his throat, and did
what he always did with an immovable object. He went around it. Or in between James’s
spread legs in this instance. He dropped and crawled before James even noticed
he’d moved.

“Gavin, you let Kyle loose!” Fred shouted. He was a little
afraid but his anger overcame that fear. Kyle was a good guy and no wolf was
going to treat him badly.

Gavin didn’t drop Kyle so Kyle kicked him in the shin. Gavin put
him down, though it looked as though he let Kyle loose more out of surprise
than pain. Kyle ran over to Fred and looked at him from head to toe. He paused
on the bright white bandage covering Fred’s arm.

“What did they do to you? What kind of weird sex games are they
into? I told you never go for knives. No matter how careful the Dom is, he can
always make a mistake.”

Fred rolled his eyes. “You’ve watched too many porn movies. I’m
fine. These are my friends.”

Kyle made a huffing sound. “That looks like a bite on your arm. You
came here to escape those werewolf-hating bastards, not to turn into one of the
furries.”

“It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just turn anyone into a
werewolf,” Fred said.

“And what do you know of it?” Gavin asked.

James stepped in front of Kyle and Fred, a silent barrier.

“I’ve lived here ever since I was five. I didn’t spend the whole
time with my eyes closed and my ears shut,” Fred said. He’d frequently helped
his father in the infirmary and knew more than he probably should just from
eavesdropping on other wolves.

“So they didn’t kidnap you?” Kyle asked. “I got home and there
was this strange note that you were leaving and not to worry. I called and
called and you never answered.”

“Sounds familiar,” James said.

“Quiet, you,” Fred said.

“I tried to call the police but when they heard you were heading
towards wolf territory they hung up on me!” Kyle ran his fingers through his
red hair, making the strands stand straight up.

“I told you not to worry,” Fred mumbled.

“Oh, that always works,” Kyle said.

“I’m sorry?”

Kyle narrowed his eyes.

“Super super with glitter sparkles sorry,” Fred said.

Kyle gave him a tight hug in response. “Okay, then. But don’t do
it again or I’ll tie you to the bed with my silk scarves and make you watch all
of Supernatural while I talk about incest.”

“No, not that. Anything but that. I promise to talk to you next
time,” Fred said.

James coughed and Fred looked up into his twinkling eyes.

“James McKenzie, this is Kyle Laughton. Kyle, James.”

Kyle gave James a nod and a sniff. Fred knew Kyle still wasn’t
sure about this place or the wolves. He didn’t blame him. Fred wasn’t sure of either
himself.

He introduced his friend to Angel next. Gavin and the other
wolves had left once he and Kyle had started to talk.

Guess human interaction is just too boring.

“You hungry?” Fred asked Kyle. He was sure he’d seen some fruit
in the fridge.

Kyle bit his lip. “Can I stay here? I didn’t just leave because
of the note. I saw some guys with shaved heads hanging around our house.”

Fred wanted to say yes, but it wasn’t his house. Maybe his
father would let them both stay in his house. It was a little small though.

“Angel, show Kyle to one of the rooms next to Fred’s,” James
said before Fred could decide on a response.

“But…” Kyle spoke as Angel dragged him away.

“Don’t worry, little man, I will get you some mangos and some
milk. Maybe some cookies, yes?” Angel crooned.

Fred watched as his friend’s face froze.. Kyle didn’t seem to be
resisting as Angel dragged him along.

“I think you kidnapped my friend,” Fred said.

“Can’t kidnap the willing,” James said.

“I’m not sure we should stay here. That wolf who attacked me
yesterday seemed mad enough with one unfamiliar human.”

“Thomas has been taken care of. He won’t be bothering you or
your friend,” James said.

Fred sighed. “I suppose that will have to be all right.”

James hugged Fred to his chest. “Now, about these skinheads the
kid mentioned?”

“There’s nothing much to tell. A few of them asked me about you
and the wolves. When I wouldn’t tell them, they beat me up.”

“Your ribs still hurt?” James asked.

“A little.”

“What did they ask?”

“Where you were. What kind of defenses you had. Did I like
having wolf spit in my mouth,” Fred said. It had been scary, but in James’s
arms he felt some of the fear melt away. Something about the way James smelled
comforted him. Fred wanted to pour sugar on him and lick him clean. He felt his
eyes go a little unfocused.

James grinned, sniffing at Fred’s collarbone. “Naughty.”

Fred groaned as he heard his father’s voice coming down the
hallway. Doc always knew the worst time to interrupt them. He pushed James
away, finding a nearby chair to sit in. Innocently.

His father didn’t buy the innocent pose if the coughing laugh he
made was any indication. He looked at Fred’s arm again and made sure the
wrapping on his wounds was tight.

 “No strenuous activities,” Doc said firmly.

James held up his hands. “I wouldn’t dare.”

Doc shook his head. “Why is it that I don’t believe you? Make
sure he gets plenty of rest.”