Bride of the Alpha (11 page)

Her jaw dropped. “Seriously?” she demanded.

“Well, Bess, you and Corwin are going to get married, travel for a while, then settle down…”

“I thought you could come with us when we travelled!” Bess protested.

“Oh, come on,” I said, laughing. “That sounds like the worst honeymoon ever! For both you and for

me – I’d be a third wheel the whole time.”

“No, you wouldn’t. We’d have a great time,” Bess protested, but I shook my head. She sighed. “I guess

you’re right, I hadn’t thought about it from your perspective.”

“I don’t know what Maxwell will want in a few weeks. I don’t know what I will want. I suspect that he

will do the smart thing and end the marriage, and find himself a bride who actually brings some political advantages. I mean, he doesn’t love me, I know that, and I don’t love him. Although I am turned on by his incredibly hot body. Sorry, big brother Corwin, but it’s true,” I said at his pained wince.

Was that the truth, that I didn’t love him? I missed him when I wasn’t with him, I loved having sex with him, I enjoyed his company 99 percent of the time, I was coming to believe that he was genuinely a very good person…but I couldn’t possibly be in love. We’d just met.

Also, when I’d pointed out to Max that he wasn’t in love with me, he hadn’t argued. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t love someone who didn’t love me back.

“I understand if you don’t want to feel like the third wheel in this relationship. You aren’t, but I get that you would want to seek out your own partner,” Bess said. “I just want you to know that from what I’ve

seen so far, Max Battle is living up to the bad reputation of the Timber Valley pack, and I think you are being abused, and I agree with Corwin. I think you are staying with Max because you are putting Camille’s happiness ahead of your own. I’m sorry, but that’s what I think.”

I tried very hard not to get pissed off. I loved my friends, but this was starting to border on insulting.

They were treating me like some weak, fragile, desperate moron with no self esteem.

“Listen. You have made your feelings on this matter very clear,” I said. “I will tell you one last time that Max is not abusing me, and if he were, I would leave. Are you still staying in the area? You are, aren’t you?”

“We’ve been camping out in the woods, yeah,” Bess shrugged. “We took some time off from work.”

“You two need to go back to River Run. Go back to work. I will call you soon. Do not worry about me.

Do not try to interfere. I’m an adult, I’m fine.”

“Fine,” Corwin muttered, and stalked back to his car. Bess shot me an unhappy look, threw her arms

around me, and hugged me.

“I hope you’ll be all right,” she said. “Call us any time if you need extrication.”

I nodded, and waited until they pulled out of the parking lot. Jeez. Thank God they were getting out of here before they started a full-scale war.

I started to head in to the diner to grab some lunch, and my phone rang. It was my Aunt Prudence.

“So, what’s new, dear?” she asked when I answered the phone.

“Nothing. I haven’t heard from you in a while. How have you been?”

“I should call you more often,” she said. “I’m sorry about that. Are you all right? Is everything all right with you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, I got a call from your friends today, and…”

I glared at Bess and Corwin’s retreating car. Great. Just great.

“You always have a place here with us, you know,” she said.

Thinking about it, I realized that it didn’t actually feel like that. What place would that even be? I’d stayed in a whole bunch of houses while my mother was off on her benders. If I went back to Fool’s Gold Gulch, I could crash at anyone’s house, but I’d feel like a guest, not family.

That was why, after I graduated from college, I didn’t even think about returning to California. I found a job in Colorado, and an apartment near Bess and Corwin’s house, and slowly started letting my old ties die out.

“Thank you,” I said, to be polite.

“I’m worried about you, Josephine. Bess is telling me that you just up and ran off with an Alpha who’s

an abuser. Is that true?”

OK, now I was officially really, really pissed off. I realized I didn’t like anyone bad-mouthing Max. He didn’t deserve it. If anything, out of the two of us, I was the one who had behaved badly.

I appreciated that Bess hadn’t told her the part about how I was protecting Camille, but this was still unacceptable.

“No, that is inaccurate,” I said. “My friends tend to be overprotective of me. A little too much, in this case. I am married to Maxwell Battle of the Timber Valley Pack. He is not at all abusive.”

“She told me that he left bruises on you,” Prudence said. “Our Alpha could challenge him, you know, if

you wanted to leave the marriage and come back here.”

I sucked my breath in sharply. Yes, there were bruises – because Maxwell and I had been engaging in

very, very consensual kinky sex play.

“Aunt Prudence, I grew up with you, so I don’t know if you want the details, but this has been my honeymoon weekend, and I have been having sex. Lots and lots of sex.”

“Goodness.”

“It is possible that I got a little banged up during sex,” I said. “That is more than I ever wanted you to know, but I am telling you so you understand, I am married to a good man and I am very happy. Maybe

someday we’ll come out there and visit you. In the meantime, do not worry about me. If I needed help

from my pack, I promise you, I would call you.”

I rang off, and called up Bess, red hot with fury.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I screamed at her. “You called up and told my pack that I was being

abused? You are risking starting a war between my family’s pack and Maxwell’s! Do not ever do that again, and stay out of my business!” Before she could answer, I hung up.

I forced myself to calm down as I walked in to the diner. Everything would be fine. They were leaving

town, they wouldn’t be around to interfere any more, problem solved.

“Morning, Josephine. How are you enjoying Timber Valley?” Sheriff Battle was sitting at the counter.

“I’m loving it,” I said, and I meant it.

“Have a seat,” he said, and I sat down next to him. As I did, I realized that a voluptuous redhead was

headed our way, but when she saw me sitting there, she pouted and walked off.

“You did that on purpose so she couldn’t sit next to you, didn’t you?” I said, as the waitress set a cup of coffee down in front of me.

“I plead the Fifth,” he grinned.

“I’m sure it’s tough being you,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Girls do love a man in a uniform, don’t they?”

A wry smile tugged at his lips. “You can’t always get what you want,” he shrugged, and turned back to

his lunch.

Now what did he mean by that? I wondered. He could have any single woman in Timber Valley, I was

sure of that. If I weren’t with Maxwell, I’d be melting all over him myself. Being with Maxwell acted like an anti-aphrodisiac for all other men, though. I could admire the sheriff aesthetically, but he didn’t turn me on any more than a beautiful statue carved my Michaelangelo would.

I was halfway through lunch when my phone rang, and when I saw who it was, my heart skipped a

beat. Camille!

I glanced around me. She was in hiding, and I didn’t want anyone to overhear me talking to her, just to be on the safe side, so I quickly tossed a ten dollar bill on the counter and headed outside, leaving my plate unfinished.

“Camille, what’s happening? I thought I saw you in Timber Valley the other day,” I said.

“Good God, of course I’m not there. I’m not suicidal,” she said. “Listen, where are you right now?”

“Timber Valley. I’m still here. It’s a long story. It turns out that Maxwell isn’t that bad, he’s actually incredibly hot, and-”

“Where are you specifically?” Her voice was urgent as she interrupted me.

“A restaurant called Flapjack Fannie’s. Why?”

“Leave. Go home. Do it now, don’t stop for anything.” There was naked fear in her voice. “Kray found

out what happened, and he’s on the warpath. He’s headed your way. I’m so sorry I got you involved in this, Josephine.” And she hung up.

How did she know that, if she wasn’t in town? What was happening here?

I felt my blood chilling in my veins as I headed back to my car, which I’d parked under a big, shady

tree at the far end of the parking lot so I could yell at Bess and Corwin in privacy.

Then I stopped in my tracks.

Kray was there, blocking my path. He had Kimball and two other wolves with him, and he was headed

my way, and he looked very, very pissed off.

Chapter Eleven

I was too far from the diner for anyone to hear me if I screamed. I grabbed my cell phone and pulled it of my pocket book, but before I could finish calling Maxwell, Kray had rushed forward and slapped it out of my hand. It fell on the asphalt and broke.

He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me over to a pickup truck while I shrieked and struggled, and

he slammed me in to the truck so hard my ears rang.

“Get your god damned hands off me! I’m not in your pack!” I yelled at him.

“You think you can make a fool of me?” he yelled, his fingers sinking in to my flesh. His face flushed

red with rage.

I tried to yank away from him, and he just held on tighter. My arm throbbed with pain. Behind him, his

men growled menacingly, partially shifting, black lips wrinkling back from their fangs.

“You will pay for this, and so will Camille.” His voice was deep and rumbling with rage. “Who the fuck

are you?”

“I’m her friend from college,” I said, my voice shaking.

“College,” he sneered. “I’m glad I made her leave school the second I took over the pack. Women don’t

need to go to college. It teaches them to be disrespectful bitches who think they can talk back to a man. No woman in my pack will ever leave pack territory again without a male escort.”

My God, I thought. It’s like he’s with the Taliban. Would he force them to wear burkas next? He’d gone

completely mad.

Surely the Elders wouldn’t tolerate this – would they?

The more pressing problem, however, was that I needed to get out of here without him killing me. Then

I could worry about how to help the women of the Iron Claw pack.

“I am married to Maxwell Battle,” I informed him, my voice shaking. “I am under his protection.”

“Bullshit you are,” he snarled. “He can’t be married to you unless he wants to go to war, because he

made an agreement to marry a bitch from my pack. He’s going to honor it. He’s going to void the marriage with you, and marry whoever the hell I send him. You are going to come with me, and I will make you tell me where she is.”

“No, I won’t,” I said through gritted teeth. My arm pulsed with pain under his brutal grip.

His laugh was an ugly thing, more like a combination between a bark and a snarl. “Trust me, when I’m

done with you, you’ll be begging to talk. Then I’ll declare war on your family pack, and we’ll wipe out the males, and take the females for my men. When I find Camille, I’m going to drag her back by her tail and-”

“Let go of her, now.” An angry voice cracked through the air. It was Sheriff Battle, and he had half a

dozen shifters with him.

“Make me,” Kray snarled.

While he was distracted, I shifted. Kray’s hand slipped from my furry leg, and I pulled away and

tripped, rolling over on the dirt. I scrambled to my feet and ran behind the sheriff and his men as fast as I could.

There were more men coming, people pouring out of the restaurant, both men and women. “Get away

from her, and get off our land!” one of the women yelled. “You’re not welcome in this town!”

Kray stood there, glaring, fists bunched. He had three men with him. There were about forty men and

women facing off against him now. The diner had emptied out, everyone had come running to my defense.

If he started a fight, he risked being defeated and killed, or having to submit. He’d lose an incredible amount of face.

Sheriff Battle pushed forward, grabbed Kray by the collar, and threw him up against the truck.

“I’m up for a challenge,” the sheriff snarled. “Right here. Right now. Are you?”

There was a moment of silence, the air crackling with tension. Kray stepped back, and bowed his head.

The crowd broke into a chorus of howls of derision.

Kray climbed in to his truck, and his men scrambled in after him. As they pulled out, he stopped the

truck for a minute and stuck his head out of the window. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear there were tears of rage and humiliation glittering in his eyes.

“I am not submitting, and this is not over!” Kray screamed.

“Sure looked like submitting to me,” Sheriff Battle shouted after him. “Maybe they call it a different

name where you come from.”

Kray screeched out of the parking lot, and roared away down the road as if the hounds of Hell were on

his tail.

I didn’t get it, I thought, staring after him. He really didn’t seem all that Alpha at all. How was he

winning all these death challenges? He seemed like a typical bully to me, a wanna-be. He seemed like the kind of guy who pushed it too far and then got killed by an Alpha. Maybe he won because he was only

challenging the Alphas of smaller packs. I was just surprised to see that he was winning any challenges at all, seeing the way he carried himself, the way he bullied and terrorized those weaker than him but backed down the second an Alpha offered to fight him.

With him gone, I shifted back to human form and stood up, stark naked. Someone rushed over to me

with a sheet, which I wrapped around myself.

“Maxwell is on his way,” the sheriff said to me. “Are you all right? Let me look at your arm.”

People were crowding around me. Someone thrust a cup of coffee at me.

“I’m fine,” I said shakily, holding my arm out. “He didn’t hurt me.”