My Alphas: The Complete Series (29 page)

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, intent on heading to the shower and stifled a scream when she saw Vara sitting on the sofa.

She had the phone in her hand.

Vara looked up at her and smiled.

“We need to talk, Pack Mate.”

*

It was late afternoon by the time Rey returned to the den and he found Vara waiting for him, sitting on a rock outside, a short distance from the entrance.

“Greetings Alpha, how goes things?” she said, nodding.

Rey shifted, feeling his bones creak and muscles stretch as he fit back into his human form. He’d spent most of the day as a wolf and it was always hard to shift back after so much time in the form he preferred.

“I found two more dead Turo pack werewolves stacked in a bloody pile so that was pleasing,” Rey replied, walking over to sit beside her.

“How many now?”

Since the scouts had started finding piles of dead werewolves they’d been keeping count as best they could. Sometimes there were missing heads or limbs and it was little hard to count a hill of ruined flesh and muscle.

“Must be up to twenty werewolves now.”

“Do you love Cass?” Vara asked abruptly.

Rey looked sideways at her, sensing this was one of those conversations he’d rather not be in.

“I am the Alpha. I will protect her and our cubs,” he said.

“But do you
love
her?”

Rey almost snorted and it was sitting on his lips to demand “what does that matter?” but that impulse vanished as quickly as it came.

Making sure there were no werewolves around to hear their conversation, he lowered his voice and dipped his head toward Vara. He was not ashamed but the Alpha kept his own counsel.

“She is my mate. I love her.”

Vara smiled at him and then unexpectedly reached up to stroke his face. Rey stiffened before relaxing. It was so… motherly and caring and if he closed his eyes it could have been his mother Elise stroking his face.

“And what if you find she has done something you don’t approve of?” Vara asked, her voice almost a whisper.

The easy answer for disobedient werewolves was punishment of some kind but the Pack Mate was no werewolf. Besides, how could he punish her and say he was there to protect her too? Violence and love mixed together. It was a ridiculous idea.

“What has the Pack Mate done?” Rey answered, avoiding the question.

“You, Edon and the Pack Mate are to have a meeting now and you must remember you love her and she is possibly carrying your cub. She needs your love, not your anger,” Vara replied.

Rey blinked in confusion as she stood up and walked away.

What the hell was she talking about?

*

Edon rubbed his eyes and studied at the map of their territory as Cass laid out colored stones atop it.

“Another one there and two more over here,” he said, tapping his finger to it.

Cass placed the colored stones and Edon saw a pattern emerge. He yawned and looked at his mate, watching her.

Only a short while ago, Vara had awoken him and declared there was a meeting between the Alphas and the Pack Mate and he must attend. She’d then asked if he loved her and he replied without hesitation he did. It had been an altogether odd conversation and now Edon was watching Cass, trying to work out what was happening.

They were in the meeting room waiting for Rey and after a brief kiss on the lips, Cass had asked Edon to tell her where he’d found dead werewolves while he was away.

“And one more there,” Edon said, touching his finger to the map.

Rey entered and Cass walked over to kiss him on the lips before returning to the table to place another colored stone.

“Could you tell me the locations of dead Turo wolves?” she then asked him.

Rey had the same kind of look Edon knew he was wearing and so he surmised Vara had spoken to him too and had probably asked the same questions. What had Rey answered? Yes, he loved her? Or had he scoffed at such foolish human questions?

Edon suspected he might have answered the truth. Since Cass had arrived, Rey had been changing.

The stones now all in place, Edon expected Cass might start talking about the dead werewolves but instead she walked to a bag in the corner and brought it over.

Cass took out a phone and placed it on the table. He noticed her hands were shaking and as she spoke, so was her voice.

“I lied to both of you,” she said.

*

Having been raised by parents who answered the slightest problem with violence, Cass had physically cringed when Vara had stood up to hug her in the cabin earlier in the day. She’d tensed, stiff as a board before relaxing.

“It’s okay,” Vara whispered and then directed her to the shower. Cass washed herself, feeling a strange mix of anxiety and relief, comfort and calm. Vara had found the phone which meant she didn’t have to hide it any longer. She could tell her about Melanie. But lurking behind that were lessons long ago learned: they might be smiling at you but that’s to hide the blow that is coming.

Cass emerged from the bathroom to find Vara sitting at the table, a plate of hot meat sitting across from her. Cass breathed it in, her stomach rumbling.

“Come eat,” Vara had said.

Cass sat and ate rapidly, her appetite overwhelming her anxiety. But the meal was soon over and Vara held up the phone, showing Cass the screen.

“Tell me about this, Pack Mate,” she’d said, smiling at her.

Cass had seen the same behavior from her mother over and again. Smile and be friendly and then erupt in a screaming whirlwind of violence and shame. But this… it felt different. Cass realized she was seeing a shadow in the woods and assuming it was wolf come to hurt her when in fact it was the opposite.

And so she’d told her about Melanie, the lying liar from Werewolf Safe World and how Cass had taken her phone, keeping it turned off under the fridge and sometimes checking the messages. She showed Vara the photos of Edon and Rey tearing apart humans and told her everything Melanie had said.

Then she confessed she’d lied because she thought Rey would kill Melanie if he knew the truth.

“That was a very good decision,” Vara had told her and then winked. “The Pack Mate is honest and forthright in all things… except when she needs to be balancing for the good of the pack.”

“And about those photos…”

Vara told her two years ago Edon and Rey had received word a group of humans were on their way to attack a small pack to the west of them. By the time they arrived they found the entire pack slaughtered and the twelve men who had done it were laughing amongst the dead bodies. They’d opened fire on the Alphas but even twelve men with guns were no match for the two werewolves.

“It is true they killed the humans but not without good cause,” Vara told her.

As Cass spoke with Vara she felt invisible weight falling away. She still didn’t know why she’d kept the phone - perhaps some security fallback - but her guilt about it lessened.

They kept talking, moving away from the Alphas and the phone and to the dead werewolves found on their land. The conversation moved all over the place, Vara encouraging Cass to tell her what she thought they should do about it all.

Initially Cass had said she didn’t know but that was the habit of the past holding her tongue. The pattern of reveal your thoughts only to have them smashed down.

“Cass - tell me what a human would do!” Vara had demanded, still with a smile on her lips.

“Argh, we’d… track all the werewolves with maps and make an alliance with one group to kill off the ones who were attacking us. Then we’d dissolve the alliance and see what happened!”

It had all come out in a half-frustrated burst and Cass was shocked when Vara grinned and clapped her hands together.

“Yes! That is what we must do. You convince the Alphas.”

Cass had looked at her dubiously. Convincing Rey of anything seemed to be an impossible task. Edon perhaps but even he’d a dark side (as she’d witnessed). Besides there was the little problem that any time they got together all the words vanished and the language used was fingers, lips, body.

“Trust me. They love you and you can balance them,” Vara had replied.

Then Vara had smiled and hugged her and told her they would meet later that afternoon and then left the cabin, leaving Cass to look at the phone and the hateful messages Melanie had sent.

The day had passed and despite Vara’s assurances, Cass felt a growing anxiety at telling the Alphas the truth. What if Vara was wrong? What if they declared she’d put the pack at risk and dumped her back at Hinton?

And so she’d swum and spent time with the werewolves, listening to them talk about Edon’s return and soon Vara had approached, telling her it was time for her to meet with them. Cass had retrieved the phone, hiding it in a bag and then carried it to the meeting room, her stomach churning.

“I lied to both of you.”

Cass looked across at Rey. He’d leaned against the wall, crossing his arms in the usual pose he took during meetings but he was looking back at her, an expression of curiosity on his face.

Edon looked grim but then he yawned and Cass realized maybe he was tired.

Cass swallowed, feeling her heart fluttering and then took a deep breath.

“The girl the scouts rescued was a spy or something from Werewolf Safe World. She was put out there deliberately to come here to convince me to leave. I told her no and took her phone. She also lied and said you two had murdered an entire pack and then the humans who came to stop you. I didn’t believe her-”

Cass abruptly stopped as Rey stood up straight, away from the wall, dropping his hands to his side. He was frowning at her.

Averting her eyes, Cass looked down and kept talking, speeding up.

“I lied to you both because I thought you might kill her if you knew the truth and more dead humans is bad for the pack. I hid the phone because… I don’t know. I was unsure. I was scared maybe. I can’t explain it. But then I got to know you both and you weren’t like I imagined and I knew you probably wouldn’t have killed her andI feltsobadandthenthethrallcame and I couldn’t tellyouthen and-”

Cass jumped as she felt a touch on her shoulder.

Rey.

A moment after his hand landed she felt Edon touch her waist, moving to her other side.

Cass sniffed, tears trickling down her nose to splash on the map.

“The human thinks we don’t love her,” Rey said.

“The human thinks we don’t trust her,” Edon replied.

“The human thinks there is not endless time to learn about each other.”

“The human thinks we don’t know who she is.”

“What should be do with our Pack Mate?” Rey asked.

Edon didn’t reply but instead ducked his head and kissed away the tear on her cheek. Rey followed in perfect timing and kissed the other side and then nuzzled her ear.

“You are ours,” Edon said.

“And we are yours,” Rey finished.

Cass felt the collapse coming an instant before it hit. Love, too strong, too much, too painful to bear hit her and broke away her barriers. She started sobbing, her nose blocking up and face turning red.

“I’m sorry I lied, I just… I’m sorry, it’s-”

A babbling torrent of apology and sadness overwhelmed her and she would’ve fallen to the floor but then Rey hoisted her up off the ground, jolting her tears out of her.

“Oh you’re in so much trouble,” he said, a grin on his face. Cass looked up at him, shocked and then he kissed her before flinging her across to Edon. He caught her with no effort at all, pulling her close.

“Pack Mate you’re in
serious
trouble with your Alphas now,” Edon said, a smile on his lips. He kissed her and then Cass was aloft between the two Alphas as they lifted her up above their heads. She could almost touch the stone ceiling.

“Stop it!” Cass called out, still half crying but now half laughing.

“Sorry, we have to cook you for dinner unless you stop crying,” Rey replied. They took two steps toward the door before Cass started laughing, unable to stop herself.

“Do you taste good with pepper?” Edon asked.

“Stop… please… my sides…” Cass laughed, gasping for air.

The Alphas relented and lowered her to the ground.

“Shall we get back to the map now?” Edon asked Rey.

“If the Pack Mate has finished laughing,” he replied.

They walked the short distance back to the map and slipped into playing serious generals at war.

Cass stood there, her mouth open before she saw Rey slyly glance across at her and flicker an eyebrow.

“Come join us, Pack Mate.”

Cass walked over to the table, feeling a new game starting. It wasn’t like the one her parents had taught her. The one where love was met with pain, where asking for forgiveness was met with punishment. In this game, forgiveness was handed out easily. Love came and didn’t carry a sharp sting.