Owned By The Alphas: Part Three (5 page)

The food in her hands forgotten, Ali leaned forward, rapt. “What didn’t last? For me or the other human? What do you mean?”

“For the other human. The light I saw indicated something very rare. But then it vanished.”

“What was it? Is something happening to me? Is that why I could see the glow? Am I a healer like you?”

Shaynah’s gaze was distant as though she was no longer in the room with them. After a few moments, she returned and murmured, “You are not a healer, Ali. But you do have magic in you. How it will reveal itself is up to you. That is all I am willing to say, for now.”

“Oh come on! You can’t do that. I have
magic
in me? I’ve never done anything magical in my life!”

Shaynah glanced to Lorn because she felt an awe-filled gaze boring into her profile. “I didn’t know you could see people’s light! What color is mine?”

Shaynah smiled tenderly, cupping her hand around the young wolf’s cheek. “Light blue. Yours is almost always light blue.” She let her hand drop, but the smile remained.

“What about Ali?”

Shaynah turned to survey Ali. “Ali’s color is bright again. Hers is primarily red most of the time. What do you want to do about your mates?”

The change in subject made Ali’s throat dry up. “Could you hand me that watermelon please,” she croaked. It was the only thing bearing any resemblance to liquid, other than the petal water and she wasn’t drinking that.

“Calt is her mate!” Lorn exclaimed as she reached for the bright fruit, handing it to Ali. “Of course she’ll choose him.”

Ali couldn’t meet her eyes as she took it, the vision of Calt looming in her mind. He was a very powerful being. She hadn’t expected the impact seeing him again in person would cause. As she’d ridden Red to the pack’s den before they found them missing, she’d felt she would choose Red. Even with his annoyingly dangerous, jealous antics, she felt connected to him in a way that she wouldn’t be able to walk away from. She’d known she’d had to face Calt to make a choice, but now that she had, the choice was even harder.

Calt wanted to fight for her. The raven-haired gorgeous beast of a man, holding a torch literally and figuratively for her, had been a truly earth-shattering sight. Not only that, but he had spared the pack. Had he killed them, she would have hated him. He hadn’t. He showed them mercy like a true leader would.

With the faces of both alphas haunting her, she mumbled, “I don’t have a mate.”

A
s Tawny
and Red walked out to talk, Calt lost his devil-may-care smile and stared at the door a second too long. Borhan coughed and Calt looked over at him, straightening his back and walking to his friend. Lucin sat to the left of Borhan, chewing off the remnants of a crunchy, breaded chicken breast.

From Borhan’s face, Calt knew he’d showed too much of how he felt about the Tawny situation, that he wasn’t hiding anything with his teasing, in fact, probably the opposite. As he squatted down on the pelts, he handed his second in command a chunk of watermelon, surveying the room. All the members of the other pack were watching him from the corners of their eyes as they ate. No one was talking. Pelts lined the floor on either side of the tree’s high round walls and in the center was gravel; that way they were saved from the problem of splinters. Lit torches shoved into the ground were safely away from wood walls and ceiling. It was a well put-together set-up, he had to admit.

He called over to Kyren, “Will he accept her?”

She was sitting on a pelt on the opposite wall with her legs crossed and her black hair so long that, hunched over like that, it covered her sex. She shrugged. “Do you think he would just send her away? How could he?”

Calt brought his knees up, his forearms rested on them. He wanted to explain he’d had no choice but to send her away, but was that true? He wasn’t sure it was. He hated this whole situation. And then there was Ali…

He looked down the south end of the tree at a wall of stacked rocks that hid who-knows-what. The sleeping quarters, he guessed. He craned his neck and saw gravel and sticks keeping it together, privately enclosed so no gaps existed between the stones. There was an empty floor-to-ceiling space to the right that served as a door, and it was dark. He couldn’t hear anything. They had to be far back near the roots of the tree if his ears couldn’t reach them. He stifled a growl.

“Could you not find a cave to dwell in?”

Motis stood up and Dak and Calus stiffened, but Calt held up his hand to calm them. Motis eyed them wearily as he walked to pick up a cupcake from the table. He picked up two and tossed them to the great wolves. They caught them with raised eyebrows. Motis smirked and grabbed one for himself and one for Gypha, tossing it to her as he met Calt’s stare.

“The ones we found were small, or too close to where the tourists go. Gypha fell in love with the trees; this was her idea.”

“Gih-ffa,” Calt sounded out, looking at the dark-skinned wolf as she peeled back the cupcake’s wrapper and eyed it. She glanced to him and paused as she caught his stare.

“What? You don’t like trees?” She took a bite.

Thanot piped up from where he was gnawing on his third biscuit, “We all put it together.”

“We work as a team,” Gypha announced, throwing the paper wrapper into a pile headed for burning at a later date. Calt’s pack had one of its own; it was how they dispensed with garbage or the remains of the kill they couldn’t finish.

Bloo stood up and announced, “So do we. We work as a team,” walking to the table, her eyes on Motis. She picked up a couple cupcakes and tossed them to Jal and Thanot, the latter of which did not catch his.

He struggled to reach where it had fallen, and victoriously held it in the air, calling over with a grin, “Thanks!”

She couldn’t help but flash a real smile, but her eyes were puzzled. Exchanging a look with Calt, she tossed him a cupcake he caught easily with one swift swipe.

He handed it to Borhan, who was quietly taking everything in, chewing the watermelon down to the green rind. He silently told Calt he still had no idea what to make of this new group. Calt gave him a look that he agreed. Borhan nodded and passed the cupcake to Lucin.

Motis asked, “What happened to your leg?” but received no answer as all eyes turned at the new arrival.

Tawny ran in with a huge smile on her face, and at the sight of it, a headache lodged itself behind Calt’s eye socket.

She reached the table and searched it. “Aha!” Snatching up a container, she threw him a sneer and ran back outside.

“Looks like that went well,” Borhan said under his breath, his gold eyes on the doorway.

Calt watched the doorway, too. “It appears so.” He let his glance skim the room, thinking about the choice before him. This pack was not a danger after all. They were not only out-numbered, they weren’t as strong, either. Even with Tawny, they were the weaker of the two.

Now how to get Ali out of here without causing a scene. If the other alpha challenged him, he would have to accept. His pack would then have to back him up. The two would battle, and he did not fight unfair battles. But there would be no other choice. It was a shame, too, because the other alpha was evenly matched with him. He would have enjoyed the fight had things been different.

He wondered if Red’s pack was weaker because most wolves would not want to be led by a former human not conceived with an ounce of wolf blood. Calt had never known another alpha like that. But Red was without a doubt alpha, born differently but born just the same, his destiny set in his frame, strength, and magnetism.

He called to Bloo who was sucking pink frosting off her fingertips, “Throw me another one of those.” She picked up a chocolate one with sprinkles and tossed it his way. He caught it and headed for the wall of rock.

Gypha hissed to Kyren, “Get Red!”

Calt’s head swiveled to look at the she-wolves, both of them warily watching him in return.

Motis stepped forward. “If you are going to talk to the human, Red should go, too.”

Calt chuckled, heading onward. “I do not think so. Dak. Calus. Watch them.”

But Red’s voice called him back. “Going somewhere?”

Calt gnashed his teeth and turned to find Tawny standing beside the alpha, near the doorway. “I am bringing this to Ali. It is time for us to go home.”

Red growled, “She gets to decide where she goes.”

Calt sucked on his teeth and walked back toward the other alpha. All the wolves rose up, ready. “She’ll want to be with the stronger pack.”

Red’s knuckles twitched and he took a step forward. “The pack who doesn’t mind murdering humans you mean? What if she makes you angry? Would you take her life, too?”

“He deserved to die,” Calt threw back. “I sniffed him out, found him staying in a shack outside of Yosemite. I knocked on the door and when he answered, I was no longer standing on two legs.” Calt watched Red’s eyes flicker with an emotion he didn’t expect to see: pain.

“Did you torture him?” Red croaked.

Calt paused and narrowed his eyes. “I am not perverted, so no. I would never. But I do believe in the death penalty and he killed my father. I returned the deed, and I did it quickly. Not that he deserved a hasty death. What I want to know is, why you did not do it yourself, for all of us? I will tell you what I told my own pack: if I had let that
monster
live, he would have returned to kill another. And then another. And another.
How
do you not see this? Why protect him over your own?”

Red’s deep voice was quiet, the words a struggle. “He was my own. That man was my father.”

Calt stared at him as the wolves around them shuffled and whispered. “Enough!” he called, with a rise of his hand. Silence was had by all. “Let us talk alone.”

Red nodded, his eyes liquid, turning so no one could see.

A
li chewed on the watermelon
, shaking her head. “Look, I really don’t want them to fight over me. I bet a lot of women would, but the idea makes me ill, sad, upset, scared, and…I think I’ve lost my appetite.” She tossed the rind to the pile they’d created. “What do I do, Shaynah? You too, Lorn, if you have any ideas–I need your help.”

“I have an idea,” a voice said from the doorway. All three turned to see the black-haired, buxom she-wolf standing naked in the shadows. She stepped forward. “May I?” She was looking to Shaynah with respect. The elder wolf nodded and gestured for her to enter. Her gaze returned to Ali. “I am Kyren.”

“Ali. Have you met Shaynah and Lorn?” She nodded. “What’s your idea?”

“I do not want them to fight either. None in our pack does, because your pack has proven itself stronger. We want to find a harmonious answer, though Red won’t admit that. He just wants you. I can see it in his eyes. It will be the ruin of us all if he fights the other alpha.”

A disbelieving snort escaped Ali’s lungs. “I can’t believe my life has taken this dramatic a turn in only two days.” Kyren lowered herself to sit near Ali’s feet. “And look at you! You’re gorgeous. Why hasn’t Red chosen you as his mate?”

She smiled. “I do not wish for one mate. I like having more than one male at a time. Red knows that. Besides, he and I do not feel that way about each other.”

Ali glanced to the other she-wolves to see if they were as taken aback by the admission of wanting multiple partners as she was, but neither lifted an eyebrow, their faces passive as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Ali repeated on a gulp, “You had an idea?”

As Kyren looked to the entrance, her jade-green eyes caught in the fading light of the torch, sparkling mysteriously. Satisfied they were alone, she turned back and leaned in. “If they want to battle, there are ways to do so other than fighting. They can battle for you in bed. They can battle by showing you who is the better lover; who can satisfy you best.
He
will be the winner of your loyalty.”

Ali’s jaw slackened and her heartbeat picked up to a nice clip. “Say that again.”

Kyren smiled and continued, “If you truly cannot choose which alpha you want…” she waited until Ali shook her head that she could not. “…then their egos will
need
to win you. They will
have
to fight for you. If you do not give them this honor,
this chance
, you are robbing them of their manhood. Their wolves will be weakened, angry, and no one wants an angry, weakened wolf.”

Ali looked right. “What do you think?”

Shaynah considered the solution. She nodded. “It could work. If it did, no one would be hurt. That would benefit us all.”

Ali laughed incredulously, clasping her head and looking around. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s too late. I’ve already had sex with both of them.”

The three she-wolves smiled, and Lorn said on a laugh, “We know. We could smell that when you arrived.”

Color rose in her cheeks. “Yikes. You can’t hide anything from you guys.”

Kyren countered, “It doesn’t count. You will have to bed them together. That way they will be able to witness who has the greatest effect, for themselves.”

Ali was stunned. “Together?” Both men on her, both cocks throbbing for her, yearning to give her unimaginable pleasure. Her stomach clenched, arousal hitting her so hard it made her dizzy. “Oh my God. Can I do that?” She was asking herself more than them. The more she thought about it, the more she got excited. “So, um, how will I be able to tell who I want, when it’s done?”

They exchanged looks like Ali was incredibly naïve and wasn’t that sweet. Shaynah’s soothing voice informed her patiently, “You’ll feel it in here, here and here.” She pointed to her gut, her heart, and her head.

“And one
other
place, too,” Ali mumbled. She straightened up and announced with a nervous smile, “I’m in.”

“Good.” Kyren exhaled, looking back toward the door again. “Maybe this will take their minds off the recent news.”

Kyren explained what had happened between the two alphas, about the hunter and his real identity. Ali made a rush for the door, but Kyren could move faster, and she blocked her way.

“They aren’t here, Ali. They went to talk alone.”

The information only fueled her. “Get out of my way. I know about his father. He came here to kill Red! I have to talk to him. This is awful. I have to be there.” She didn’t see Lorn and Shaynah exchange a look behind her.

Kyren quietly reminded Ali, “They’re not here.”

“I don’t care. I’ll be able to find them. I don’t know how I know I will, but I will.”

The black-haired beauty stepped aside and Ali rushed out into the long tree. It was like a dark, circular hallway, and the light faded behind her, and was then replaced by a warm glow coming from far ahead. As she rounded a hole in a rock wall that separated sections of the den, she saw several torches, the table now with empty food containers and unused silverware, and the remaining wolves resting in tension-filled air.

Tawny stood with her back to Ali. She turned and her eyes flashed loathing. “Where do you think you’re going?” She blocked the way, but Ali didn’t slow.

“Dak! Calus! Lucin! I need to find them. Help me with Tawny!”

The light blue eyes filled with horror as the males rose, the stronger two in wolf form. “Unbelievable! Fine. No need. I’ll step aside.” She thumbed her chin at Lucin’s smile.

Ali grabbed a torch. “Do you mind?” The three brothers sitting nearby shook their heads, the dark-skinned female merely watching as though she was gathering information about the now-conscious human. “I need it more than you guys. Great, thanks. I’ll bring it back.” She yanked it out of the ground and held it low as she left, looking up at the wood ceiling. “I’m sorry, Tawny. I don’t mean to piss you off this badly. But you give me no choice.”

“Fuck you.”

Ali made a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a snort. “Nice.” She walked out into the night, brining up the torch.

Lucin’s called out, “I’ll go with you!”

“No!” She stopped and looked over her shoulder to find he and Calus standing in the entrance door. “Not you either, Calus. I’ll be fine. I need to do this alone.”