My Alphas: The Complete Series (5 page)

Edon told her about Rey acting more moody than usual and then coming down the hill, catching the girl’s scent and immediately facing off against Rey, both ready to kill the other.

“I managed to step back though and then Rey snarled at her and ran away. He is obviously enthralled.”

“And so are you. Will it be a battle to the death?”

Edon didn’t bother contradicting her. He’d accepted he’d imprinted on Cass and was under the same thrall or curse as Rey.

“I suggested Cass chooses. The other leaves, taking five females.”

“Then the Turo pack will kill the one who leaves and get to work on the one who remains. We will be at war, probably on two fronts.”

Edon knew she was right. The Turo pack was larger than theirs, pushing seventy werewolves and had increasingly been cutting in on their territory. On the other border was the Utson pack. They had gained their power by waiting and exploiting weakness in other packs. If he or Rey fought the Turo pack then they would face Utson striking when they were at their weakest.

“And if you fight, the victor will face Turo and Utson within days. What a mess.”

She stared into the middle distance before recovering and smiling at him.

“Well, at least there is a possible Pack Mate for us. She will provide many cubs.”

“If she decides to stay. I think she will but she is very uncertain.”

Vara appeared to think this over and then her expression became serious.

“Edon, she must choose you. I love Rey but he would drag us into open war without hesitation.”

Only in privacy with him would Vara speak so openly about Rey. Edon appreciated her honesty. In the very early days of the pack, they had once been arguing and as soon as Vara got them in private she’d cracked their heads together and told them to stop fighting. They were Alphas and she’d never done anything like it since but it was sometimes there lurking under the surface she might.

“Take her some boar and rest with her but do not mate. Then tomorrow you will take her for a walk in the woods to the cabin. Yes, that will work.”

“If I mate with her today though then she has accepted my claim.”

“Yes, but then Rey will be forced to fight you. We must let her choose. Human girls sometimes need a slower approach.”

Edon looked at her doubtfully. He’d been prepared to wait a day or two for Cass to make her choice but he wasn’t sure if he rested with her he would be able to hold back from mating with her. He didn’t get to express those sentiments however.

“What are you waiting for? Get the boar! Now, now, now!”

Vara hustled him out of his own room and toward the fire pits.

Nia was already there, loading up a plate of succulent roast boar.

“Hello Alpha,” she said brightly, licking fat off her fingers.

“I will take the plate to her,” Edon said.

“Wonderful idea! She will very much like that,” Nia answered, beaming at him.

Edon took the plate and left the main cavern, walking through the darkness, the rich scent of the boar filling his nose. It was delicious and he resisted taking a bite.

He breathed in, savoring the meat and then caught another scent.

Blood.

Human blood.

*

Rey appreciated very little from the human world but he did like one of the phrases Edon had told him: there is no time like the present.

It appealed to the sense of power and decisiveness he possessed as an Alpha. Make a decision, take action. It was how he lived, leaving no gap between thought and movement.

As soon as he’d seen Nia collecting meat, he knew the human was alone and decided it would be the perfect time to kill her. He left the main cavern and took the longer route to her room, making sure he didn’t run into Edon.

He would kill the girl and then go to Edon, his teeth still dripping with her blood and tell him she was gone and they wouldn’t have to choose.

He’d stepped into her room and although he could move quietly, he’d deliberately made noise so the girl would turn and see him. He would get to savor her fear before he killed her.

Then she’d dropped a glass and it had shattered on the floor. Instead of being paralyzed with fear she’d knelt down and started babbling apologies at him as she picked up the shards. Predictably, she’d sliced her weak flesh, spilling her blood on the ground.

At the sight of her cowering in fear and apologizing over and again, Rey had felt a rising sense of satisfaction. He was Alpha and she was rightfully terrified of him. With that feeling came another: protect her. He had the strange desire to shift and bind her wound, help her pick up the glass.

This desire collided with his plan and he stopped still, long enough for Edon to pull the door pelt aside, almost ripping it off and then come rushing into the room carrying a plate of sizzling boar meat. He looked at Cass crying and bleeding on the floor and then at Rey as though
he
had something to do with it.

“What are you doing?” Edon demanded.

Rey didn’t answer. Edon would be leading the hunt tonight and he would return then to kill the girl. He stalked out of the room, ignoring the whispering voice to help her.

He was Alpha. He wasn’t at the command of such foolishness.

*

It had all happened in a flash. The black werewolf in the doorway. Her fingers dropping the glass. Apologizing and picking up shards. The sharp sting as it cut into her hand. Edon bursting into the room and then Rey marching out.

“What are you doing?” Edon had said and she knew he’d been speaking to Rey but the question should apply to her.

How could she explain what she was doing here? Edon seemed so at home in his skin, perfectly in place, comfortable and secure. All the werewolves did. How did you explain to such a creature what it was to be out of place, to be disjointed, the essential
wrongness
of it all? Of relationships fizzled and burned out because he was a man and not more? Of dreams that plagued her nights and idle thoughts that possessed her days
for the last decade
?

Of knowing the way you were living was wrong and it didn’t matter if you died walking out into the wilderness to find werewolves because if you didn’t do it, you’d die anyway.

As soon as Rey left, Cass stood up and, seeing no trashcan, placed the broken glass on the shelf next to the remaining three glasses. Her hand was throbbing in pain but it was trivial compared to the agony inside her.

“I had to come here because I couldn’t go on living the way I was,” she told the wall, wiping away tears.

She heard Edon put the tray down and then he stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened and then relaxed into the gentle warmth of his body. The serenity, the comfort, the
rightness
she’d been searching for since she was fifteen years old rushed through her.

Close behind that feeling was another that made her knees go weak. Could she turn around, pull herself close to him? Would he bite her?

“It was the same for me,” Edon said.

She waited, resisting the urge to jump in with questions like she normally did and after a moment he continued.

“I was raised by humans until I was sixteen. They found me as a cub. No one knows who my parents were. All my life I was suppressing the wolf and then letting it burst out. When I was human I was too wolf. When I was wolf, I was too human. I couldn’t fit in either world. Then there was a girl… her father caught us together and tried to beat her. I nearly killed him. I fled town and that was when I met Rey. He was smaller then but had just taken down a full-sized boar by himself. Covered in blood he invited me to join him and so I did. He-”

Edon paused then and Cass felt the tension in his body. He let out a breath and relaxed.

“He showed me how to be a wolf properly and I showed him how to be a man. I found somewhere I fit. Then we rescued you and we must have imprinted on you but been too young and stupid to realize. Now you’re here, I feel like I have been holding my breath my entire life and have finally let it out.”

Cass looked at the floor, flushing red as Edon spoke her thoughts aloud. She knew about imprinting - it was common in not just werewolves but other species too - but had never considered it as the source of her feelings. After all, she was a human and humans made choices about things like falling in love.

But imprinting wasn’t love. Love was a human word. Imprinting for werewolves was much more serious. It was an unbreakable connection. A promise made in flesh. And if Edon and Rey had imprinted on her, they had no choice now. They had to have her.

Edon let go of her and then led her to the bed. She was half expecting him to strip her clothes off and pull her down on to the soft surface. She wasn’t sure she’d resist. Cass sat down and then felt a mixture of relief and disappointment when Edon picked up the tray of meat and gave it to her. On the tray next to the pile of roasted boar was a knife and fork and even a pile of salt. At the rich scent of the meat, Cass felt saliva squirt into her mouth and her stomach growled so loud she was sure the werewolves in the main cavern must have heard it.

Edon laughed and waved at her plate.

“Please, eat,” he said.

He left the room while Cass scoffed down the tender meat, unable to eat delicately. It was rich and tasted like slow-cooked pork belly she’d had once. Edon returned a few minutes later carrying a packet of band-aids designed for children. They had little rocket ships and dinosaurs on them. Once she was finished, he took the tray from her and then after examining her wound and proclaiming it clean, covered it up.

Cass found herself looking at the Alpha werewolf, unsure of what to say.

Something had happened all those years ago between the three of them. But she’d been injured and scared and they had been young. And so…

What other way could it have gone? They fight off the werewolf together and then one kills the other before taking her away?

At the time it would’ve been terrifying. Although, the idea of escaping from her parents at fifteen wouldn’t have been such a bad idea, considering what the next three years had in store for her before she escaped on her own.

And then what? Be a Pack Mate, pregnant at fifteen just like half her class at school?

And what now? Be a Pack Mate and fall pregnant to one of the Alphas because… she just couldn’t fit in back in her old life? It was a dizzying prospect. Edon was kind and strong and commanding, everything she imagined an Alpha werewolf to be, but Rey seemed outright feral. He scared the living hell out of her and yet, as she’d stared into his eyes before he’d snarled at her, she’d felt an intense attraction to him. He wouldn’t be warm hugs and kind words. He’d be the type to rip her clothes off and do what he wanted.

“We’ll go to bed now,” Edon said, pulling her up off the bed and lifting her shirt up over her head in one movement.

Cass covered her breasts and looked up at him in shock. Holy crap, was he the same as Rey after all?

Seeing her look, he added, “Just to sleep. You need some rest.”

He pulled his shirt off and Cass felt her body start to tingle at the sight of him. God, the lines of his chest were like a work of art. She turned red a moment later as he stripped off completely and then with deft ease removed her pants, boots and socks in twenty seconds flat, leaving her in her bra and underwear. She was still muddy and sweaty but he didn’t seem to care.

He pulled her into bed, lifting her into position as if she weighed nothing. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her into him, molding her into the shape of his hard body.

Cass tried to keep breathing and calm during all this but being stripped off by the Alpha had set her afire. Everywhere he touched produced a burst of heat and it seemed her skin was all nerve endings, sensitivity turned up to maximum. When he pulled her close, a deep lethargy welled up inside her. The moment was perfect.

Well, almost.

Feeling sleep creeping near, Cass decided to remove the last barriers between them. She wriggled out of Edon’s grasp for just a moment and slipped off her underwear and bra, dropping them on the ground beside the bed. He made a noise of approval and then pulled her close to him again, fitting her soft body against his.

He was asleep in an instant, his warm lips touching her neck and she felt deep parts of her relaxing. She’d been holding her breath for years too and only now was finally releasing it.

*

Cass awoke groggy and disorientated, feeling somehow worse in the way only a short amount of sleep can produce. It was still daylight, though late in the afternoon. Edon’s form was a comforting presence behind her, although in her sleep she must have moved away from him.

She wriggled back, pushing herself into him and felt… softness.

Cass rolled over and squealed. It wasn’t Edon behind her but Nia.

“Nia! What are you doing?”

The werewolf woke up and stretched, looking very much like a cat and smiled at Cass.

“Edon was called away. I helped keep you warm.”

Cass blinked her eyes at Nia a few times.