ONE
Rebecca
“That looks painful. How bad did it hurt?”
I smile at the expense of the shifter in front of me. Now that his life is no longer in peril, I can laugh at his pain. He deserves every second of it. Though, I do hold a smidgen of pity because of the angry red lines on his face. Those won’t ever go away. Like Jasper’s scars from his early days in captivity, the silver that tore through his skin left behind a mark that an ordinary shifter can not heal from.
He was injured for a week– I fully recovered from the poison in two days. One, if I’m being honest. Jasper wouldn’t let me up from his lap for an extra day just to be certain I was okay. Ever since, I might have been exacting petty revenge for our very first encounter. Where he called me ignorant and an abomination in the span of minutes.
Vadik levels me with a subtle glare and curl of his lip. That’s as brave as he gets with my mate standing behind me. “How bad do you think, Rebecca?”
A low growl at the use of my name sends shivers across my body, and Vadik rolls his eyes. “Excuse my disrespect, Alpha Jasper,” he says. “I meant to say, Luna, how bad do you fucking think it hurt?”
I laugh out loud and Jasper’s voice drifts through our mental link. Say the word and he will lose his head this time.
Cringing, I try not to let the mental image make me squirm. After witnessing him put those scars on Vadik’s face during the challenge for his title as Alpha, I don’t think I could stomach the sight of a decapitated head. Much less the smells that would follow.
That’s one thing I struggle with as a werewolf—a beast in comparison to the wolf shifters at Wild Ridge. And not to forget, according to Vadik, an abomination. Everything is heightened now, all of my senses and emotions. The good and the bad.
I turn around in Jasper’s arms and meet his somewhat calm, golden gaze. “I don’t want him dead,” I speak aloud on purpose, listening to the immediate change in Vadik’s heart rate. “Despite being an asshole, he’s honorable, remember?”
He could have fought Jasper and inadvertently weakened him before the Commander showed herself. He also could have done what Thunder Ridge’s champion had and attacked him when he had his back turned. Instead, he was brave enough to submit despite that costing his life in every sense of the word.
His Alpha, Luther, has not come to collect him. His guards left Wild Ridge along with the pack members who went out to warn the other reigning packs of the Commander’s attack here. It could be that he isn’t willing to leave Legacy Ridge at such a dangerous time, or that he doesn’t care enough to come for our pack’s territory or his Beta. I find it hard to believe, as did Jasper when we discussed it. An Alpha’s Beta is not easily replaceable, and are usually close members of the pack.
Vadik doesn’t appear on edge or ready to leave Wild Ridge at all. If anything, he seems quite at home. He’s been forced to remain sleeping in the tent he showed up with and even socializes with pack members who speak with him. Not many see him as a threat anymore, his submission was a big deal. Some give him the cold shoulder for it as well though.
Does his presence bother you still? I ask Jasper, pointedly. Peaceful time has passed since that day but I can’t blame him for holding a grudge when I still harbor a small one myself. No matter what, he still came to Wild Ridge with the intent to kill my mate, nothing could make me forget that.
He is a threat, he says. Which means, without a doubt, he still wants him dead. But I do see what you do, mate.
“So, we’re not going to execute him?” I ask.
The floor creaks under the shift of weight on the other side of the room. “You can try, beast one, but I won’t go down without a fight,” Vadik murmurs.
At the slur, Jasper lunges and through a bout of laughter I successfully keep him back. He’s joking! I take no offense. Please, don’t kill him.
If he did, my fun would be ruined. Tormenting Vadik has become a fun pastime, and admittedly, an excuse to further punish him when he retorts back. A friendly game of cat and mouse, but while I am the cat, Vadik the mouse, Jasper is the wolf waiting in the corner to devour the mouse if he attempts to escape.
The flicker of fire in his eyes slowly dies down. “I will not kill you, Vadik,” he says to him. “But I can make you wish I did.”
Warmth spreads inside my chest at his protectiveness. I bite my lower lip and look up at him again in admiration, he’s such a beautiful being. From the wildness in his eyes and soul to the harsh scars that decorate his body and mind.
I love you, mate, I tell him in that primitive way he’s so fond of. My fingers wander over the exposed plain of his chest, dancing over every ridge of his muscles. It’s innocent, my touch. My mate, however, sees it differently.
His chest dips sharply as he takes in a deep breath. His eyes flare to life and his rath returns to the other male in the room that’s the only thing keeping him from taking me now. He growls.
Vadik makes an annoyed noise under his breath but leaves without a word.
Hot breath suddenly fans against my shoulder, and I fight the urge to writhe and rub against him. Always, I am a touch away from being ready for him. His lips are rough against mine and the scar down the center turns me into a puddle of need. He steals my breath until I force us apart.
“We have to be there today,” I say. There’s a thrum throughout my body that seems to be in tune with the power in his eyes. At my resistance, they always burn brighter. As I’ve learned, if you fight an Alpha, you better be ready for the fight of your life because it only makes them more determined to conquer.
“They could use the extra day to heal,” he says in a low voice.
“They’ve had weeks. They saw you once outside of battle, Jasper. They need you. Deckard can’t go on like he has, it’s not healthy.” Jasper’s uncle has been guarding the rogue pack as they recover and gain strength. It brings everyone in Wild Ridge a significant amount of relief to have the other Alpha present. Now that they are strong enough and growing restless, it’s time for Jasper to step in.
He’s been a little distracted with scouting for hunters and me, and if I thought he was possessive before, I was dead wrong. Something about having so many dangerous and unmated males just outside our front door is messing with his instincts. Every chance he gets he claims me and it’s to the point my mark looks and feels some days, brand new.
He’s honestly reminding me of Gemini Ridge’s second Alpha as of late. More beast than man. The way Lior looks at you is a bit more uncomfortable as if he’s looking at you through the eyes of a wild wolf and ready to attack at a moment’s notice. His… bond mate? Is still recovering but almost ready to leave Wild Ridge at long last. That I look forward to.
Jasper’s eyes narrow at me. So once more, the primitive side of him that yearns and needs me has won over the Alpha inside him. His next words carry an edge. “You care more about their needs than your mate’s?”
His arms tighten around me as I breathe out, “At the moment? Yes.”
Slowly, like he’s restraining his movements, he backs me against the nearest wall. The next sound from his mouth is not in words but a visceral growl that speaks beneath my skin and to the creature hiding there.
Anyone else would submit, but not I. With his need to dominate and Alpha every minuscule aspect, one of us has to be controlled and level-headed when it comes to leading the pack.
Deckard was once the voice of reason, but ever since the attack of the Commander and subsequently his nephew’s abduction, he’s been off. Throwing himself into watching the rogues seemed normal at first until he became obsessive. Unhealthy. Like he has a vendetta or something is bothering him. He was close with Chace and is taking his absence hard. The entire pack hasn’t been the same, so maybe that isn’t quite as strange as I’m making it out to be.
Squaring my shoulders and fighting a shiver, and my own need to bare my teeth, I speak words he needs to hear. I will always be his mate first and Luna second, but he will always be Alpha. It has to be that way. If I failed my duty to him he would crumble and fall apart, leaving the pack to do the same. If not worse. “Your pack needs you, Alpha.” I keep my stance and make a show of bearing my mark to him in submission.
His eyes blaze hotter and he purposely moves his head in search of my eyes. The response is instinct. And a mistake. In the back of my mind, I wonder if he’s done this on purpose to bring out the dominant part of me that can’t help but answer his challenge. The second I blink, I’m seeing through the beast.
