Betrayal
Find me on Tiktok @authormarissarivera
Find me onInstagram @authormarissarivera
This is Book 3 of the Kona Series. Please begin with the first book: Alpha Kona.
Violent warning for the book. There will be a little bit more bloodshed but you all should be used to it by now. :)
Book 3: Kona: Gods be damned
Tally was on his feet, squatting, waiting, sparking his wolf to life. The caravan had stopped. HIs heart pounded in his chest. His wolf snarling, scratching beneath the surface, preparing for a fight. It didn’t matter if he was chained or drugged or malnourished. He’d fight until there was nothing left inside him.
“I don’t why you bother.” Leylanni sneered beside him. She clenched a shiv behind her back, always ready for the worst.
Ciara shifted closer, a small whimper, a silent plea to keep her safe.
As the only man in the back of the truck with fifteen women, Tally’s obligation was clear. He had already failed once and Nadia and Hera laid out on the ground, curled around each other wrapped in blankets. His wolf couldn’t handle failing again. They were his clanmates. Failing them meant he failed his Alpha and that was a hard pill to swallow.
A voice from outside the tent hollered, “What are we doing?”
Tally shifted the weight off his left foot. He was still injured from the last battle. The injection had been long ago and he could almost pull from his wolf’s strength.
“What’s going on?” The voice of their driver sounded. “Who are you?” His scream followed and then sound of his body hitting the ground sparked a jolt in the cab. .
Tally tugged on the chain on his wrists but he knew how hopeless it was. These Lycan hunters knew how to render any Lycan powerless. He sniffed the air but his senses were dull.
“What if it’s Alpha Kona?” Leylanni hopefully whispered.
It was a thought in his own head but he doubted it. She would have reached out to them through their mental connection. But that did lead to a question, where was Kona? Why hadn’t she come after yet? It’s been too many days. She coud have found her mother by now, and turned around to come back for the rest of the pack. A pack she should have never left behind to begin with. If he had been with her, he wouldn’t have allowed her to make such a grievous mistake. But Kona was new to Alpha status. She didn’t know what she could and couldn’t do. It’s why he always needed to be with her.
But because of Leylanni, he was taken away from his Alpha. The bitterness felt like bile in his stomach.
“If I were you,” Tally sneered. “I’d be afraid to ever be in front of Alpha Kona again.”
She giggled, resting her head back against the wall, “Oh, are you mad at me?”
“For trying to kill me? Why would I be mad?” Tally kept his eyes on the entrance. He wouldn’t be caught off guard again.
“I’m a victim of the gods, Tally. Just like you.”
Five days since he last saw Alpha Kona. Seven days without her. Ever since he was born, Tally was in her life. Now he was going through withdrawals. Constant worry about where she was, what she was doing, if she was happy or sad, if she was hungry or tired. Who would care for her? Who would know how?
The curtain slapped open.
But the person before them was not the man they’ve been dealing with.
“Come out. Line up.”
“Who are you?” Tally questioned.
With large bolt cutters, the man snipped the line and the chain link weakened. Tally pulled and it slid off.
“Come out. Line up.”
Though grateful, Tally was skeptic. No one helped without wanting something in return. He took the lead, jumping down to help the women out. He lifted Hera in his arms, walking toward the crowd. The body of their Lycan Tracker laid in shreds beside the van. Tally wasn’t sure that was a good thing. There were five caravans full of Lycan. Men, women, and children spread out in three lines, half of which had once belonged to Kona. What confused him were the people surrounding them with their phones out. Were they videotaping?
“Can you stand?” Tally set Hera gently on her feet and steadied her before he took a place in line.
Ciara clung to his other arm. “I’m scared.”
“Keep your head down.” He instructed.
In front of the group of Lycan, seven men stood. They were Alpha. Tall, athletic, dominant in their stance. He hadn’t seen very many Alphas over the course of his life trapped in a compound of a hundred people but Alpha Leo, his first Alpha painted the pathway of how they presented. They were intimidating, just from a look.
Maybe because he was gamma, he felt that intimidation strongly, to a point that he wanted to put his head down. But the only person he allowed to rule his world was Alpha Kona. No one else would ever make him submit.
Behind each Alpha stood their Lunas on the right and their Betas on the left. Though one didn’t have a Beta and another had no Luna. They would want to fill those spots as quickly as possible and quite possibly from the crowd before them.
The Alpha in the center stepped forward. He was Japanese. Black hair, black eyes, white skin. Despite being thin, Tally didn’t question his strength. A person with a phone ran out in front of him.
“You got the shot?” Goro questioned him. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Plastering on a proud smile and puffing out his chest, Goro began “You thought you could run.” He snickered. He had a slight accent but he spoke English well. “But there is no where you can hide. In case some of you are confused, I am Goro. We are the Seven of the South. We came here five years ago for a better life. Isn’t it funny that even Lycans believe America is the land of the free? What’s even funnier is that we are not free!” He laughed, pointing back to the caravans. “Humans cage us. Humans hunt and kill us. Humans hate us. Yet we listen to their rules, we obey their laws, we pretend we are not superior. We pretend we are weaker. We pretend we are dumber. Why? Why haven’t we fought back? Why isn’t this world ours?”
Movement in the line broke his monologue. A wolf jumped on Goro so suddenly he hadn’t been able to transform. A lycan was a massive animal weighing nearly three hundred pounds, gammas were as big as deer.
At first it looked hopeful, the wolf’s jaw was locked around his arm. Goro’s free hand shoved into his chest and ripped out his heart. The wolf fell lifeless to the floor, shifting back into his bioform. Goro held the heart with no indication he had done what he did. “Did you get it?” He asked the cameraman.
Goro walked the line with the dripping red organ clenched between his fingers. “I don’t care if I have killed your entire family. I don’t care if we killed your brother, fucked your sister, tore your father to pieces or fed your mother to my dogs. I don’t care. I am not your enemy. They were killed because they refused to submit. I don’t want to kill you.” He dropped the heart. The sickening splat made Ciara jolt against him. Goro pointed to the dead man on the floor, “His death was pointless. Your death would be pointless. I need your strength to build my army to take this world that should be ours! We are your saviors!” He screamed.
A woman shouts, “You tore into my pack in the middle of the night.”
Goro holds up a bloody finger, “Your Alpha was warned. We sent out orders and warnings. It is your Alpha’s fault for refusing to give up his rule.”
“So it’s your way or death.” Tally found himself speaking. Goro snapped his black eyes towards him. “Either a human kills us or you do, what’s the difference?”
Goro slowly walked toward him, waving the cameras away. Ciara tucked into his back. Goro glanced at her behind him and quickly, Tally latched onto her hand, pulling her closer. “Beta or Gamma?”
“Gamma.”
Goro nodded, studying him, “A gamma born couldn’t understand.”
“I can’t understand or you can’t explain it?”
Goro smirked.
Ciara hissed, “Tally, be quiet.”
“I’d listen to your woman, Tally.” Goro stepped forward, coming face to face. “I’m not here to get you to understand why I’m waging a war. I’m here to get you to understand that submitting is the only smart choice.”
“I already have an Alpha.”
“Oh?” Goro excitedly looked around, “Is there an Alpha, here, hiding like a coward?”
“No.”
“Then your Alpha has abandoned you. In which case, your loyalty is up for auction. Or” Goro stepped up to him, “You have abandoned your Alpha. In which case, you are defective and need to be put down.”
“She abandoned us.” Ciara quickly revealed.
Tally snapped his head. She shrunk under his scrutiny.
“She?”
“He.” Tally corrected. “She meant ‘he’.”
Goro knit his brows, “Are you...part of her pack? The Echidna?”
Tally didn’t move.
Goro looked around him, “Anyone else a part of her pack?” When his answer was revealed he laughed, a hand on his mouth, “She left the entire pack? At least now I know she’s not only a bitch but a stupid one. I’ll start with you lot then. Submit and I will avenge you.” Goro held out his hand and waited.
Ciara shifted behind him.
Tally gripped her arm, “What are you doing?”
“I don’t have a choice.” She hissed.
One by one, they all touched their forehead to his hand.
Leylanni was the only one left beside him. Tally hated her but he wasn’t surprised by her loyalty.
Goro turned to his brothers and spoke something in Japanese. A shorter one came forward, “This is Denji. He’s in need of a Luna.”
Denji walked around Leylanni. Her face fierce and unthreatened. At seventy, she could pass for a twenty year old but one thing gave her away. The hundred odd scars over her body were a sign of Cave Pack Lycans. Denji buried his nose in her ear before he sneered, “She’s barren.”
“You have six offspring. What do you need more for? She looks fierce enough. You afraid?” Goro taunted with a smirk.
Denji looked around for another. Every pass over a woman, a man stood beside them. Others were too young. Some too ugly. His options weren’t plentiful. He flicked his attention to Tally’s clanmatesm, his gaze landing specifically on Hera.
“They’re taken.” Tally vouched, “We were separated.”
“Or left.” Goro reminded, his eyes shifting behind him to Ciara. She hung her head, shivering.
Denji grumbled something in another language and grabbed Leylanni’s arm. Her fight began then, violently and terrible to witness. She would have defeated any Gamma in front of her, but Alphas have a power that cannot be overcome. One hit and she was barely standing. Tally struggled to stay still. Even if he hated her, he’d never want her to suffer in such a way. He stepped forward, desperate to stop it but Goro was quick to put his bloody hand on his chest. Tally closed his eyes, panting, fighting his wolf. Only a few seconds later in the back of the truck could they hear her scream.
Goro stepped closer, whispering in his ear, “You will tell me all about your Alpha.”
“Why would I?”
“Because I have your mate.”
Tally regarded Ciara as she silently pleaded with him to do as Goro asked. If Tally revealed that Ciara was not his wife, what would happen to her? How long would she last in the brutal world of Lycan? Could he allow anything to happen to her or to the others when he had the potential to stop it?
If he surrendered, gave up his loyalty to Kona, and submitted to another Alpha, who would he become? Would all his love for Kona fizzle out? Who was he without Kona?
And perhaps the worst question yet, when Kona finds out, would she be understanding? Or would she see only betrayal?
Goro held up his hand.
