Falling for the Alphas: Part One (4 page)

Leave Fort Brixton? She'd
dedicated her life to making it here. To clawing her way up the
ladder, to proving herself, to establishing a community, friends,
the cutest apartment you'd ever seen, everything. But more than
that - she couldn't leave this enigmatic, intoxicating, utterly
delicious and arousing man behind, not like that, not so
easily.

"But if you stay." Dylan
took her other hand in his. "If you choose to be my mate. If you
bring Illixy to the Silver Song pack, then I will fight with every
ounce of my strength to destroy Stark, to push back the evil that
is drowning our city, and give you everything an alpha's mate
deserves."

Naomi couldn't think. She
was drowning in his golden eyes. She wanted to kiss those lips. Be
his mate. Dylan leaned down, and their lips touched. Naomi's knees
went weak. One arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to him,
the fingers of his other hand were in her hair. His kiss shook her
to her core, weakened any resolve she might have mustered. She
wanted to pull him to the bed. She wanted to tear off his jacket,
unbuckle those jeans, reveal the hard cock she could feel pressed
against her, feel her naked skin against his -

The door slammed open.
Dylan tore himself away from her with an inhuman growl, and for a
brief moment she saw fur thicken along the edge of his jaw and
talons begin to grow from the tips of his fingers. The girl from
the kitchen stood there, eyes wide with alarm.

"Dylan. Stark's leading a
band of dark spirits and Fallen into the woods."

Like that, the fur and talons were
gone. She could sense his frustration mount, peak, and then be
ruthlessly suppressed by his will. "Fine. Gather the pack. Have
them meet me outside."

The girl nodded and
disappeared, leaving the door open. Dylan turned back to Naomi. "I
have to go. Stark's never been bold enough to come into the woods.
He has to be stopped. You need to rest. I - we'll talk.
Tomorrow."

Naomi nodded breathlessly. "Yes.
Tomorrow."

"Good." He hesitated,
clearly wanting to say more, but then he grinned, leaned forward
and kissed her full on the lips, turned and was gone out the
door.

Naomi listened as he took
the steps four at a time, then the slam of the front door, and all
was still. There were voices briefly from outside, then a howl rose
to the moon, a mournful cry that was quickly joined by a half dozen
others, some close, some much deeper in the woods. Naomi shivered
and hugged herself, and peered down through the window. Outside
fleet shadows raced away into the forest, and were gone.

Chapter 3

Naomi opened her eyes.
Sunlight spilled across the quilt, bringing out the rich hues and
depths of the multicolored patches. Not wanting to think, to
remember anything just yet, she combed her hair away from her face
and ran her fingers over the fabric. Hand stitched. It was
beautiful, a work of art. She looked up and across the room.
Everything here was handmade. Built to last. She snuggled her face
against the pillow. Dylan's smell enveloped her, clean and
masculine. She thought of him awaking here each morning.
Stretching, his potent body at ease. Sunlight glinting in his
copper hair. Skin warm, firm over his sinuous muscles. Possibly
with a packmate beside him, some lean and athletic
she-wolf.

With a sigh she sat up.
She was a mess. Before she could begin to lament her lack of
toiletries, everything started to click into place. She was in
Manistee National Park. Anna's House. Dylan's bedroom. Councilman
Stark had tried to kill her. Was a werewolf. Dylan had saved her,
summoned by Illixy. Alpha of the Silver Song pack. Which lacked a
totem spirit. Which she could provide - if she chose to be his
mate.

A powerful urge flowed
through her like a sweeping river, a yearning she had never felt
before. Irrational, physical, instinctual: the idea of abandoning
her carefully structured life for Dylan and his primal, mysterious
world was shockingly appealing.

Naomi shook her head.
Madness. She barely knew him. Yet last night she had been open to
his touch, eager for his lips, wanton and aroused like never before
in her life. She blushed furiously as she remembered her response.
Even now, the thought of his tanned skin, his simmering eyes, his
alluring mixture of assurance and pain, dominance and desire set
her pulse racing.

Someone knocked
tentatively on the door and then pushed open it open. A young blond
woman peered inside. "You're up."

"Yes." Naomi pulled her mind back from
thoughts of the alpha and tried to smooth back her hair. Swung her
legs over the side of the bed and stood. "I arrived last night.
Have you heard from Dylan?"

"Yeah." The girl smiled,
and that smile changed her mousy face to something alive, almost
mischievous. "His pack drove Stark off, and they're out patrolling
the woods. They should be back this afternoon to rest." She paused,
suddenly shy, "You're all everybody's been talking
about."

"I am?" Naomi felt her heart sink.
"Oh. Great."

"No, don't be like that."
The girl stepped inside and closed the door. "My name's Lacey. Kin
to the Silver Song through my mother. My grandfather was a
full-blood." She said this with a touch of pride, and then shrugged
one shoulder. "But that probably doesn't mean all that much to you
just yet."

"I'm Naomi." She found
herself warming to the girl. "Dylan told me all sorts of things
last night, but it still all sounds a little crazy." She paused,
reflected. "No, make that very crazy."

Lacey laughed. "I'll bet. I've known
about our family since I was little. To just find out all at
once..." She gave her one-shoulder shrug again. "It's never easy on
Lost Kin."

"Lost Kin." Naomi tested
the name on her tongue. "No. Not easy. I keep wanting to pinch
myself."

"Well, I wouldn't bother.
It won't help any, and you'll just get bruises." Lacey grinned
widely at her own joke. "Are you hungry? You must want to wash. Did
you bring any clothing? No, stupid question. Um." She tapped her
lips. "OK. I'll find something for you to wear, and show you the
shower.

"That would be fantastic."
The first steps to feeling human again. Though she was nervous
about Lacey's finding the right clothing. She was a slender girl,
and nearly two inches shorter than her.

"Okay! Shower, some clean clothes,
then breakfast, and I'll introduce you around. If you
like?"

Naomi smiled. Lacey was so nervous and
eager at the same time. "Sure. That would be lovely."

"Great! This
way."

The shower was quick,
powerful, and very, very cold. Gasping, shaking, Naomi grabbed the
clothing that Lacey had left folded for her over the toilet seat. A
large, plaid button-up shirt. Jeans so old and worn they were
softer than cotton. No bra, of course, and no panties. Shivering,
she shrugged her way into the shirt, and found that while it was
tight across the chest, it was otherwise a great fit. The jeans too
were perfect, wide enough around the waist to not bother, though
taut about her thighs. She appropriated a pair of moccasins, and
then hesitated at the top of the stairs and listened to the sounds
coming up from the kitchen.

Tinny music was playing on
a radio, and voices murmured in an easy, companionable sort of way.
She could hear the clink of dishes, and then the steaming cry of a
kettle which was promptly cut short. It was the smells, however,
that drew her down: sizzling bacon, eggs maybe, and strong
coffee.

Naomi descended nervously.
The ground floor of Anna's House was brought to life by the
sunshine which poured in through the wide open windows. She stepped
into view of the open kitchen and four people stopped to turn and
look at her.

Lacey was perched on a
stool like a squirrel on a stump. Jeb was seated at the narrow
kitchen table in a pair of jean overalls and a white cotton shirt,
his face as lined and seamed as a brown paper bag that had been
scrunched up and then smoothed out. A tall, matronly woman was at
the stove where she had been cooking eggs, her eyes clear and sharp
as the winter sky, and a third young woman stood before the open
fridge, her braided blond hair so pale it was almost
white.

"Good morning." Naomi resisted the
urge to tug on the hem of her shirt.

"Well, good morning to
you, Naomi. And welcome to Anna's House." The older woman set the
pan aside and walked over. "I'm Laura, and you must be half
starved. Take a seat. Shania, pour Naomi a mug of
coffee."

Naomi let herself be
ushered to a chair across from Jeb, and then smiled her thanks as
the other girl handed her a heavy mug. The thick, rich aroma of
freshly brewed coffee did more to ground her than anything else
thus far, and she inhaled deeply.

Laura turned back to the
eggs. "You must have a whole heap of questions, and so do we, but
let's start with the basics. Why don't you tell us a little about
yourself?"

Naomi nodded. Held her mug
of coffee close and took a sip. She decided to skip the trauma of
her childhood, and started with how she'd attended the University
of Chicago for journalism, then accepted a position as a fact
checker at the Fort Brixton Post, and worked her way up to
journalist.

"You written any big pieces yet?"
Shania didn't sound impressed.

"Oh hush." Laura set a heaping plate
of bacon and eggs before Naomi.

"What of the totem-seed?" Jeb's voice
was a dry drawl. "It true you brought one with you?"

Naomi hesitated, fork
halfway to her mouth, and then nodded. It was so strange to discuss
Illixy openly. To not face hostile skepticism. To not be told she
was mad. There had been no sign of him this morning thus far. "I -
yes. I guess I have." She looked from Jeb's dour face to Laura to
Lacey. "Um, maybe you guys could tell me a little more about that.
Dylan told me a little, but..."

Lacey squirmed eagerly on
her stool. "It's everything. The spirit and soul of the pack. But
more - its power fills the land where the pack lives. Turns it into
a real Cairn, a magical place where the spirits walk and evil
cannot enter. And it gives the pack powers, too - all sorts of
powers that make them as tough if not tougher than the bad
guys."

Naomi absorbed all this. Thought of
the pain in Dylan's eyes. "What happened to the old
one?"

"We don't like to talk
about that much," said Jeb. "But, seeing as your new, we might as
well grab the bull by the horns. It was killed." His voice grew
heavy. "Last year. A surprise attack by Stark. He lured the Silver
Song pack into the city, and then killed Gerard, the old alpha, and
destroyed the totem." Jeb's voice shook as he strove to relay this
information as matter-of-factly as he could. "He's got himself his
own totem, Stark does. An evil, evil thing. It killed ours, and
it’s been killing Fort Brixton's soul ever since."

Lacey nodded somberly.
"Since then, things haven't been the same. The Silver Song pack
split, with Kayden taking almost a third of the full bloods into
the city to try and hunt down Stark. They call themselves the
Vengeance Pack now."

"Oh." Naomi once again
felt out of her depth. "But if the Silver Song pack has a new totem
spirit, will this Kayden come back?"

The four kinfolk exchanged
dubious glances, and Laura shrugged. "We don't know." There was a
depth of emotion to those three words. Longing and loss. "Gerard
was like a father to Kayden. Since his death, Kayden's become
bitter. He turned his back on us, on the Cairn, to live and fight
all the time in the city." Laura took a deep, steadying breath, and
gave Naomi a bright, unconvincing smile. "Which is why we're so
happy you're here."

Shania's voice was dark.
"Dylan's going to have to kill him to re-unite the pack. It's the
only way."

"Shania!" Laura whipped around to
glare at her.

Naomi stared in horror. "Kill
him?"

Jeb nodded gravely. "Most
like. Once those two were like brothers. They were pack. But Kayden
won't return. Not since he got a taste of being alpha."

Lacey wrung her hands. "And there can
be only one, you see, only one alpha in a city. It's a wolf thing,
it's all about territory."

Jeb stared at his gnarled
hands. "Dylan don't have a choice. He's got to unite the pack to
defeat Stark. If he don't, Fort Brixton's lost. And then nothing
will stop Stark from hunting us down and killing us
all."

The eggs tasted like ashes
in Naomi's mouth. Laura's lips were pursed tight, her eyes
glimmering. Lacey looked out the window. Only Shania and Jeb stared
stonily at her.

Shania gave her a pitiless smile. "So
that's the way it is. They'll have to fight. And you'll have to
mate with the winner."

Naomi dropped her fork
with a clatter. "What?" Shania's eyes shone with cruel pleasure.
"I'd have to mate with this Kayden if he kills Dylan?"

Jeb nodded. "Of course, girl. How else
would your totem-seed adopt the pack?"

Naomi laughed deep in her
throat. "Oh no. I just met Dylan. And, while he's a very - well -
attractive guy, this isn't the Middle Ages. I don't just get
married off. Not like that."