Her Forbidden Alpha (6 page)

“You said she was on her way fifteen minutes ago.”

“It’s a big castle,” Killion said. “Surely you know that.”

Lidano mumbled something that even Darius’ wolf hearing couldn’t make out.

The door to the war room opened, and two young pups, Heath and Zack, led Aislinn inside. As soon as he saw her, Darius’ skin felt hot and tight. The urge to go to her felt almost overwhelming. He contented himself with gazing at her as she walked to the table where Darius and Killion sat next to the speaker phone, the rest of Darius’ top wolves arrayed around them. Aislinn said nothing, just looked around with a question in her eyes.

“She’s here,” Killion said. “Go ahead and talk to her.”

“Ash?” Lidano said.

Aislinn stepped closer and rested her fingertips on the edge of the table. “Gideon?”

Lidano’s voice sounded breathy. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”

“I’m fine.” Her eyes met Darius’. “They’ve treated me very well. What’s going on?”

“I’m going to get you back, honey. Just hold tight. I’m going to figure this out.”

Rage shivered through Darius’ body, his wolf pushing to the fore.
Honey?

Aislinn winced.

“Honey?” Killion snapped. “What’s your relationship?”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Lidano said.

In the same moment, Aislinn said, “Ex.”

“Come on,” Lidano said. “You can’t hold last night against me. Not at a time like this. I’m going to save you, Ash. Just hold on.”

Darius growled. Not a human growl, either. He’d changed to the point his vocal cords emitted a purely wolfish warning.

“What was that?” Lidano’s voice sounded a little high. “Aislinn?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said. “Don’t worry. They won’t hurt me. And you won’t hurt them. Don’t make this an excuse to start a war, Gideon. I mean that.”

The wolves around the room shifted, eyes a little wide. Darius felt his change recede, just a bit. From the most powerless position in the room, Aislinn argued for peace and mercy instead of pleading for herself. He’d never felt more proud.

“You’re too soft-hearted,” Lidano said. “If they won’t give you back, war will be the only option.”

“No!” Aislinn leaned toward the speakerphone. “Don’t let Father drag us into war. I’m not worth it.”

Darius ground his teeth together. He hated hearing her say that. She was worth it, no matter what she thought. He motioned to Killion with a slash across his throat.

“You’ve got our demands,” Killion said. “We’ll call you in an hour.” He hung up.

Aislinn straightened. “What demands?”

“Cease-fire.” Darius’ voice felt unused, so soon after changing back.

“They’ll never agree to that,” Aislinn said.

Darius stood. “That’s the idea. I told you I wasn’t letting you go.”

The wolves around the room again shifted in their seats. Darius knew they didn’t agree with his decision. Even those who sympathized thought he had to give her up.

“You can’t keep me,” Aislinn said. “You heard him. They’ll start a war if you don’t give me back. I can’t be the cause of all those deaths.” Her eyes filled with tears.

Darius steeled himself against his immediate urge to comfort her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be fine, that he’d never let anything hurt her, ever. Except she was going to get hurt either way. And so was he.

“Do you really think the General won’t attack us as soon as we give you back, just to get back at us for taking you in the first place?”

She bit her lip, reaching out for him then letting her hand fall before she touched him. “I’ll convince him not to.”

There was one man she had that kind of sway over, but it wasn’t her father. He lowered his voice, stepping a little closer to touch her arm. “If you had that kind of influence, this morning would have gone very differently. No. He’ll attack us no matter what you say.”

She placed one hand over her solar plexus, glancing to the side. “I’ll think of something. I can’t let a war break out just because of me.”

He couldn’t take it anymore. Taking hold of her arm, he led her toward the door. As he passed Zack and Heath, he said, “Follow us, but stay far enough behind that you can’t hear us.” What he really wanted to do was to hold her but that would have to wait until they were away from prying eyes.

As they passed into the hall, he moved his hand from her arm to her back. “Sometimes we have to make the best of a bad situation.”

“You think I should give in,” she said. “You’re asking too much.”

He slid his hand to her hip, pulling her against his side. “I know exactly what I’m asking. I want you to leave your family, your whole life, and be my wife. But do you understand what you’re asking from me?”

Her brow furrowed. “I…”

They swung around a corner to see three wolves coming toward them. Darius held his tongue until they were well past. “Once we find our mates, we need to stay with them. Our sanity depends on it. Finding our mates is something like love at first sight, but deeper, stronger. I have to stay with you. Not just because I want to, but because I need to.” And even though he’d done his best to explain it, he felt he’d done an inadequate job of describing the bone-deep yearning he had for her, or the craziness he felt at just the thought of giving her up.

When they reached her door, he opened it and followed her inside. As soon as the door clicked shut, he did what he’d been longing to do and pulled her into his arms, tucking his face into her neck.

“Darius.”

“Everything will be all right. It seems chaotic now, but I’ll work everything out. I promise.” As he held her, her body slowly relaxed into his. At length, she slid her arms around him and pressed her cheek against his chest.

This was all he’d wanted–his mate, in his arms, trusting him.

He pressed his lips against her throat and then the underside of her chin and then her cheek. “Aislinn.” She turned her head just enough and he took the opportunity to cover her mouth with his own.

She stiffened, holding back at first. He cupped the back of her head, pulling her into him. With a soft gasp, she opened her mouth.

His heart raced as he slipped his tongue inside, tangling it with hers. His mate, her taste, her scent.... Without thinking he walked her backward toward the bed.

Mine.

***

Aislinn had never been kissed like that before. Oh, the mechanics, sure—but not the sensations flooding her, the emotions that welled up and drowned out every thought. She held onto Darius as tight as she could and kissed him back, forgetting who he was, who she was, and all the reasons they shouldn’t be doing this.

He tipped her back onto the bed, holding her gently so she eased onto the mattress rather than hitting it. Then he loomed over her, his lips never leaving hers as he settled on top of her. His hands stroked her cheeks before moving lower over her body, setting nerve endings on fire and making her want him more than she’d ever wanted any man in her life.

Then one hand slid between them, settling over her breast. She blinked to see him gazing at her with eyes turned a tarnished gold. Wolf’s eyes. That’s when she remembered.

Aislinn broke their kiss. “We can’t.”

He didn’t stop kissing her, just moved on to other facial features…her temple, her cheekbone, her forehead. “Course we can.”

“Darius, stop.” Her voice sounded full of breath, as though she’d been running a race.

He finally stopped, resting his forehead against hers. “Why not?”

“You know why not.” Why did men become so obtuse when it came to sex? “You have to give me up. This will only make that harder.”

“Is that it?” His voice grew sharp. “Or is this about Lidano?” Darius pushed off the bed to stand beside it.

“Gideon?” Aislinn sat up.

“Yes,
Gideon.
What happened last night that he wants you to forget?”

Should she tell him? If he thought she loved Gideon, would he let her go? Probably not. Plus, she didn’t want to lie to him. “He dumped me. That’s what happened last night. And as usual, he thinks he can wipe it clean and we’ll just get back together again.”

Darius had grown still. “Do you want to?”

“I should say yes, shouldn’t I? Would that make you let me go?”

“No. Just tell me the truth.” His voice sounded harsh, almost like someone else’s voice.

She could still lie. Or would that be crueler? Would Darius handle it better if he gave her up to avert a war rather than because she’d rejected him for someone else? She thought so. “No. I don’t want to get back together with him. We’ve done this over and over—break up, make up, break up. It needs to end.”

“Damn right it does.” Now his voice had a definite rumble to it, the words a little garbled. “You’re mine. Right now, my wolf wants to find Gideon Lidano and tear him limb from limb so you never think about him again.”

Aislinn let out a breath. Good thing she hadn’t lied. “That isn’t necessary. Gideon and I aren’t right for each other. But I would grieve him if he died.”

Little creases formed between Darius’ eyes. “Would you grieve me?”

The pain that flashed through her chest tore a gasp from her throat. Darius, dead? “Don’t even talk about that.”

He advanced on her until he leaned over her. She eased back to keep some distance between them. “I saw that. You feel it. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t feel it too.”

“What does it matter?” Her voice came out soft, so soft she could barely hear it. “We can’t be together, no matter what we might want.”

He groaned and closed the distance between them to rest his face against her neck. “We’ll find a way, little one. I can’t live without you.”

She didn’t see how he could solve this. They’d gone over it already—people would die if they stayed together, people on both sides. She couldn’t have their blood on her hands. And so she couldn’t stay with him. She didn’t even need to figure out what she wanted or didn’t want. She couldn’t stay either way.

She let him stay in that position for what seemed like a long time before pushing away from him. With her hand on his cheek, she looked into his eyes. “We can’t. There’s no solution to this. We just can’t.”

Darius thrust away from her with a growl. “I need you behind me.” He stalked to the door. “I will figure this out. How about instead of thinking about all the reasons we can’t be together, you think about ways to make this work instead?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond, and slammed the door behind him as he left.

Was he right? Was she being negative? Aislinn pulled her knees to her chest and tucked her arms around them. Less than a day ago, she’d been at home, where she’d grown up, where she’d lived her whole life except for the few years she’d spent at college. He’d ripped her away from all of that. He wanted her to give up her family, her people, everything she knew—and to do it happily, to support him in finding a way to keep her away from her life.

And what kind of life had it been? She’d always disagreed with her father. And since everyone around her worshipped the ground he walked on, she’d disagreed with them, too. She’d learned very early to keep her mouth shut because when she expressed doubts about the group’s cause, she got verbally abused or in extreme cases, hit. Not by her parents, but by her peers.

No one had hit her in a long time, but she knew that was because she kept her thoughts to herself. If they knew how much she hated their ideals they would have ostracized her years ago.

She didn’t really want to go back to that. But she didn’t know if she wanted to stay here, either. She’d seen the way Heath reacted when he found out where she was from. She’d seen the expressions of the wolves in the conference room, ranging from cold to disdainful. She couldn’t expect to build a life here; they’d hate her for what they thought she was without ever getting to know her.

But in the end, it didn’t matter what she wanted or didn’t want, or what Darius wanted or didn’t want. What mattered was that her father would slaughter the wolves if she didn’t go back. And she could never live with herself if she caused their deaths.

Chapter 6

After Darius left Aislinn, he wandered the halls. He didn’t want to go back to the war room, where the people who were supposed to support him would tell him to give up the other half of his soul. He couldn’t go back to Aislinn, either—not right now. They should be celebrating their mating, but instead she couldn’t stop telling him how it could never be. She should get together with his council. At least they all agreed.

He’d walked as far as the turret in the far corner of the castle when his cell phone rang. It was Killion. Apparently there was no where he could go where they couldn’t find him.

“We have news,” his brother said. “Where are you? We need you in the war room.”

Darius changed direction. “I’m on the way. What’s the news?”

“Ollie is patrolling in the woods.” Killion meant the woods that stood not more than a mile from the castle. “He called in to say there are soldiers infiltrating the woods. They look like Humans Firsters.”

Darius swore. “They didn’t waste any time.”

“What should we do?”

He didn’t know, but he couldn’t say that. Alphas had to appear to be in control at all times. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. We’ll talk about it then.” He hung up. Maybe that would be enough time for him to figure something out.

Would the General really attack the Holding while his daughter was inside? It might make sense if he thought he could rescue her that way. But it was dangerous—she could easily get caught in the crossfire. So what was he up to?

They needed more intel. And he knew just who he wanted to talk to.

Darius reached the war room and burst inside. “Send more wolves to patrol the woods. I want to know who’s down there, how many, and what their intentions are. Don’t engage unless they shoot first.”

Two of his wolves hurried off to set his orders in motion.

“Now.” He reached the table and rested his hands on it, leaning forward. “Colonel Lidano told us they weren’t readying an attack. Let’s call him up and find out why he lied to us.”

Several of his council smiled toothy grins, fangs showing. Colonel Lidano was lucky he wasn’t in the room.