Scarlet - Alpha Marked, Book I (2 page)

“
Scarlet?”

“
Shh… It’s okay. We’ll
figure it out. If it’s a mistake, I’ll beat the shit out of the
Ruling Alphas for upsetting you.” She would. Without a doubt. “If—”
She licked her lips, mouth dry. “If they’ve somehow changed things,
we’ll find you the best set of furries out there.” Scarlet took a
deep breath. “Or, we can try and hide you. Whatever you decide,
Whit.”

Her sister sniffled. “It
says I have to go.
Have to.
There’s punishments and stuff.” Just like there
were punishments for exposing werewolves to the general public,
there were consequences for refusing an order from the Ruling
Alphas.

Scarlet sighed, ran a hand over her
face and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I hadn’t read that far
yet. I sort of tried burning it once I got past the first line.”
Whitney giggled. “The damn things found us, so there is probably a
lovely bunch of witches involved in the whole thing. Which means
that if we don’t show, the punishment will probably kick in.”
Scarlet swallowed past the lump in her throat. “So, yeah, we gotta
go. But I’ll take care of you Whitney. No matter what, nothing is
gonna happen that you don’t want. I promise.”

She stroked her cat, taking comfort in
his gentle purr. “Okay, I’ve got Gabby on the other line. Lemme do
a three-way call, and we can make plans. We’re going to the damned
Gathering whether we like it or not, so we might as well go
all-out.”

If Scarlet had known wolves were chock
full-o-hotness, she would have hunted them up long ago. Or, at
least, she wouldn’t have been so cranky about attending the
Gathering. Yum.

With her sisters huddled against her
back, she led them through the growing throng. Male wolves
meandered amongst the women, and she saw more than one set of
Alphas lean toward a female for a discreet sniff. Based on what
she’d been told at check-in, their “conference” consisted of four
thousand attendees from around the world. That was a lot of Marked
chicks and Alpha pairs.

One such pair stepped into her path
and blocked their passage. She glared at the men. Both were large,
well over six feet, gorgeous…and in her way.

“
Excuse me.” She stepped to
the right, only to have her path obstructed once again. She gritted
her teeth and smiled. “Excuse me, I’d like to get by. I have to
speak to the Ruling Alphas.”

“
Well, we need to see if
any of you belong to us. All of the Marked must submit—”

Oh, so the wrong thing to say. Her
sisters had been giving themselves pep talks from the moment their
plane left Atlanta. No letting Alphas walk all over
them.

“
Submit? Belong to you?”
Gabby’s voice was way too quiet. She stepped up and stood beside
Scarlet. “You want to know if one of us belongs to you, that
it?”

“
Gabriella…” Her sister’s
voice had taken on the brittle tone she knew all too well. It
usually came right before…

Gabby kept on going. “Should I bend
over so you can sniff my ass? That’s what dogs do, right?” The
man’s face turned a blazing shade of red. Alphas, as a rule, didn’t
like people talking back to them. It was a control
thing.

“
If you were my
bitch—”

Scarlet waited to see if the vein in
the wolf’s temple popped. That’d be fun.

“
If I was your
bitch,
I’d carve the
Mark from my flesh and fuck the consequences. Listen, asshole, I’m
here because I don’t have a choice. So,
fuck
and
you.
” Gabby spat the words at the
giant wolf. The giant wolf who looked about ready to tear her limb
from limb.

“
Is there a problem?” The
most seductive velvet voice overrode her sister’s next words, and
Scarlet suddenly felt the need to melt into the floor. A heavy wave
of dominance far superior to that of the men they’d been arguing
with, blanketed her. This guy was definitely stronger than the
other two men. Dominance came on a sort of sliding scale, some
wolves more powerful than others. This speaker was seriously
dominant, and it made her wonder what it’d feel like to be in the
Ruling Alphas’ presence. Their strength would probably drop her to
her knees.

She turned her focus to the
newcomer. Scratch that,
newcomers.
If she’d been a cat, she would have rubbed
against them and begged for their touch.

While his companion was bulky, the man
who’d spoken was tall and lithe. He had the body of a swimmer,
accentuated by lean limbs that appeared to pulse with strength.
Power surrounded him like a hidden shroud, and the jerk they’d been
arguing with immediately fell silent. She let her gaze travel over
the wolf, noting the pale brown hair with a hint of a curl, his
long lashes and hazel eyes. His patrician nose had a bump along the
ridge, attesting to a past break. His lips looked insanely
kissable, yet furrowed lines surrounded them. The man frowned
entirely too much. Like now.

“
Garron?” He focused on the
jerk who’d been giving them a hard time. “Quentin?” His attention
went to the other wolf.

“
Of course not, Alpha.”
Garron, or “Asshole” in Scarlet’s mind, tilted his head. Showing
deference to the new wolf, as well as exposing his own neck,
confirmed Scarlet’s suspicions. The sexy wolf was definitely more
dominant than Asshole. “We simply requested that these Marked
submit, per the law of the Gathering.”

Scarlet seethed. First, at his wording
and second, because the man didn’t know what the hell he was
talking about. No idiot should try quoting the laws when he
couldn’t tell his asshole from a hole in the ground.

When the powerful Alpha opened his
mouth, Scarlet cut him off. “Alpha, if I may?”

That drew the attention of his
companion, the larger presence she’d been trying to ignore. Where
the first Alpha was lean, this one was built like a tank. Hell, his
neck was nearly as thick as her thigh and her thighs weren’t small.
But those eyes… Those sparkling blue eyes lured her. They called to
her and beckoned her a little closer. She leaned toward him. What
would it be like to—

“
Of course, Miss…” The
first Alpha let the word trail off, and she filled in the
blanks.

“
Wickham. Scarlet Wickham.”
She shook her head to clear the burgeoning arousal from her mind
and focused on the less dominant wolf, Garron, ignoring the
asshole’s partner, Quentin. “It’s your belief that the Marked who
attend the Gathering must submit upon your demand? That is your
understanding of the laws?”

Gabby had learned all of the laws.
Every. Single. One. And had then drilled them into her and
Whitney’s brains. Her sister figured if they were gonna be forced
into the dog (heh) and pony show, they needed to be as
knowledgeable as possible. Plus, Gabs had been hunting for a
loophole. Scarlet had simply paid attention long enough to get the
gist of things. Of course, it’d probably come back to bite her on
the ass. Much like tuning out her mother had done with the whole
“forgetting about the Gathering” thing.

Garron snorted. “Of course I know the
law. I—”

“
It’s not your turn to
speak, Garron.” The Alpha quieted the man, and her attraction to
him and his partner increased.

She was suddenly not quite so pissed
about being summoned. Her Mark tingled, heating and pricking right
below her right shoulder.

Her mates were near. Not the two guys
who’d blocked them. The new Alphas? Regardless, she’d found her
mates. Portions of her raged against fate. She’d have to uproot her
life. Move. And there was the fact that they could be total dicks.
Who was to say they wouldn’t be like Garron and Quentin? They could
treat her like shit.

Unfortunately, her other half, the bit
that’d been lonely, rejoiced.

She had a guy to smack down
first.

“
Miss Wickham?” The
hazel-eyed devil raised a single eyebrow.

The puny asshole, Garron rolled his
eyes. She ignored him. “I’m assuming you know the first law. That a
Marked shall never be harmed. Now, the second addresses a Marked’s
submission.”

“
See? You must—” A
half-shifted claw wrapped around Garron’s throat. Way to go, badass
Alpha.

“
The first clause of the
second law does say that each Marked must submit to the Test of
Proximity.”

A gurgling gasp came from Garron, and
the Alpha turned to her with a wide, toothy smile. “Continue Miss
Wickham.”

“
The law governing the Test
of Proximity indicates it is the Marked who initiates and concludes
the test. An Alpha pair may request the test, but, outside arranged
Gatherings, no Marked is
required
to submit.” She glanced back at her sisters. “I
didn’t agree to anything, did you?” Both Gabby and Whitney shook
their heads, wide smiles in place. “So, my sisters didn’t agree to
the Test of Proximity. I didn’t agree to the Test of Proximity, and
I know for damned sure this is time set aside for registration.
Thus, no required submission.”

She tilted her head to the
side. “In fact, I do happen to recall that direct violation of
Gathering laws in relation to the Marked, and their treatment,
results in immediate expulsion. The laws are in place for
our
protection, not so
you can come in and be a dictator. We are balance. We are your
cherished. We sure as hell aren’t here to get barked at and
sniffed.”

Garron’s reddening face paled, and the
other wolf, Quentin, growled low. Apparently the other half of
Garron’s pair didn’t care for what he heard. Well, she didn’t like
being around assholes, so they were even.

The stocky man tensed, hands flexing
and then they became claws. A rolling growl overrode Quentin’s, and
the wolf quickly quieted.

“
Thank you, Madden.” The
lean Alpha’s voice was calm, smooth and not hinting at the tiniest
bit of stress from holding Garron still. “Miss Wickham is correct.
She asked you to move. Twice. You made demands of her and her…” He
glanced at her, eyebrow raised in a silent question.

“
Sisters.”

“
You made demands of the
Sisters Wickham.” The unknown Alpha pushed Garron away and, for the
first time, Scarlet noticed the guards surrounding them. “Have this
Alpha pair escorted from the grounds.”

Way to make an entrance.

Snarls and growls filled the air as
the two asshole Alphas were drawn from the area, the guards doing
their jobs as ordered. Which left Scarlet and her sisters with a
thinning crowd and two massive, fuck-me-now Alphas.

“
Um, thank you?”

The leaner of the two smiled, a slight
quirk of his lips. “I’m sorry it was necessary. Unmated Alphas can
come on a little strong and push the laws a little, but those two
are too aggressive to remain. Apologies.” He bowed ever so
slightly, bringing him nearer, and it took everything in her not to
reach out and run her fingers through those slight curls. “I’m
Alpha Keller Aaron, and this is my partner Alpha Madden
Harris.”

Gabriella gasped, but Scarlet ignored
her sister. She was too interested in the gorgeous men before
her.

Keller continued. “We welcome you to
the Gathering. If there’s any assistance we can provide, please
don’t hesitate to ask.”

Keller glanced at Madden, and their
gazes remained locked as if they fought in a silent battle.
Finally, Alpha Keller’s attention returned to her. “At this time,
if you are amenable, we would like engage in a Test of
Proximity.”

Scarlet blinked. Then blinked again
before turning her head to look at Gabby. “Do you want to go with
them?”

Her sister’s expression went from a
mixture of wide-eyed fear and surprise to completely blank and
devoid of emotion. She’d have to ask Gabby about that later. “They
don’t want me, hon.”

“
Whitney?”

That sister raised her
brows. “Dude, I don’t even
have
a Mark.”

She stood there, stunned.
Okay, her Mark was doing a happy little pulsy thing and the
tingles
were
traveling on to her pleasurable pink bits, but…
Her?

Scarlet turned her attention to Keller
and Madden. “Me?”

Keller winked and Madden…smiled? Sort
of a mix between a grimace and a smile. A smilace? She saw the
vulnerability in his eyes, the wariness and unwillingness to let
her in. In one sweeping glance, she caught it all. This was the
big, bad pack protector who probably didn’t let anyone in. Keller
would be the politician. Granted, the man could probably tear off a
wolf’s head without hesitation, but Madden would be the one
knocking heads around first and asking questions never.

At least Garron and Quentin were able
to walk away.

“
Yes, Miss Wickham,
you.”

She looked to Madden for confirmation.
His nod didn’t do anything for the butterflies in her stomach. “Um,
okay. I don’t know how… Do I… Like, lean forward and you can sniff
me or…”

Scarlet waved her hands,
gesturing between them. She so wasn’t knowledgeable about wolf-land
specifics. Sure, she’d absorbed the laws Gabby had spouted, but she
hadn’t bothered with the rest. Hell, she didn’t even know who the
Ruling Alphas
were,
hadn’t seen a picture or learned their names. She just knew
that they were their starting point in Operation: Help
Whitney.