Page 7 of Sold to the Alpha Wolf

But we all knew it. Deacon’s color had faded so damn quickly, and that fresh mountain scent of his evaporated into the air, whisked away by the breaths of those who remained living.

“No.” It was a whisper at first. “No!”

Screaming it now, I looked around the room at the stricken faces. My pack, my family, was one short and dwindling by the second. Fucking hell. How do I…dammit.

Turning back to Grayson, I chewed out an order through gritted teeth. “You find who did this. You end them where they stand. I don’t care if it means all-out war with the entire Collins pack. Someone is going to pay for this.”

Grayson’s eyes flared at me, and I jabbed a finger in his direction. “I said go! You tell the Collins pack I’ll see their alpha’s head on a pike for killing one of ours.”

He stumbled to his feet, shaken by the force of an alpha demanding something from him. “Of course, Jet. I’m-I’m on it.”

He ran off, and I was left holding the weight of Deacon’s cooling body in my arms. Kaiden put a hand on my shoulder, silently offering his strength, and then Kenzie was around at my side doing the same. The twins being there was the only thing that kept me from tearing the room and its contents to pieces.

“You’ll be given to the ancestors, friend. I assure you. You…” I hovered my hand over Deacon’s face before closing his eyes with my fingers. “You’ll be fucking avenged, brother. So long as I draw breath, not a single member of the Collins pack will sleep until this is made right.”

Chapter 3 - Senna

The house was in a state of frenzy, wolves running this way and that to get to the entry hall. I could barely track what was happening. Everyone had just rushed toward the front of the house, and I followed on instinct.

I’d been shoved out of the way more than once as I made my way here, and I had to circle around through the hallway to the dining room, where it connected to the front entrance again. The wood of the entire house was creaky and loud as we all moved.

And the sight at the door slapped me in the face.

Reginald stood before our alpha, and Terrance looked down at his beta. Reginald’s naked skin was covered in fresh blood, and my alpha glared at him with a cold expression drilled into his features.

Oh, hell. That’s far more blood than a small creature, or even a deer, would have.

Worse, I knew that Reginald had been drinking before he slipped out of the house to go for a run. He’d been at it for hours, and I’d had the misfortune of running into him in the kitchen when he’d gone for more of his stash.

He wasn’t supposed to have it. All that stuff was supposed to go to Terrance, but Reginald was just as bad as he was about staying sober. I’d learned my lesson enough times to ensure I gave him a wide berth when he was drunk. Getting beaten or groped had burned itself into my memory as a cautionary tale.

“You fucking reek. The fuck is the matter with you?!” Terrance shouted.

Instinctively, I closed my eyes, pulling on my heightened sense of smell that was better than humans' but lightyears shy of the pack's. Reginald stank of the forest, sweat and dirt covering him, but behind that was the rough, icy smell of wolven blood.

All of us could identify it, even me, and killing another wolf was the most severe offense one of us could make. There was no way the owner of that red liquid was still breathing. I didn’t know much about healing or anatomy, but there was just so much. No one could survive losing that amount.

“He’s killed another wolf.” My voice was hushed as I spoke from my distant position.

Still, one of the others turned her angry glare on me, her lip curling in a snarl. Another omega, Gabrielle, turned her attention my way for only a split second. But I felt the sting of her growl rake over my skin.

She hated me only slightly more than the others, but she had no need. I wasn’t about to take her place as a breeder. No one here would risk another wolfless pup being born. Gabrielle would be the alpha’s top bitch for as long as she wanted the title.

Or until he found a true mate.

But something told me that day would never come, considering how rare it was. At least, that’s what I hoped. After all, fate had a way of mucking things up, didn’t it?

Terrance was a cruel bastard, though. He’d stolen his claim as alpha by killing our previous leader—and his wife and child, from what we all understood. The Collins pack had been born out of bloodshed and horror, and we were never to mention the events of that day or the name of the previous alpha again.

“I said, the fuck did you do, whelp?!” Terrance roared into the crowded entry hall, and everyone flinched back.

A few of the other lowly members of the pack and I whimpered slightly as he let the power of his alpha claim sing through the bond that united us to him. It singed, making my nerves ache like I’d burned them.

Our mate bond was a gift—or, in some cases, a curse—given to all wolves. But when Terrance had demanded we enact the blood binding of alpha to pack, it had been wholly one-sided.

When he was “crowned” leader, no one had been brave enough to stand up to him, least of all myself, considering I was already hated at that point and a small child.

“I only hunted! You demanded a catch for the pack! I didn’t…” Reginald struggled to find the words, and I tracked the growing contusions across his skin. “I didn’t know I’d gone onto their land. Not until that fucking wolf was at my throat.”

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