Page 2 of Redeemed Wolf

While I stomped through the bush, branches slapping my bare thighs on the way by, I thought of the Grim Wilds pack’s dynamic. I couldn’t really figure out what exactly about it drew me in. Maybe it was because their Alpha, Shan, was everything my own Alpha had never been. He was kind and fair, and while he instilled loyalty, it wasn’t through the use of threats or violence.

My eyes strayed down to where my own body bore the scars of my ex-Alpha’s brutality.

Thorn had been vicious and cruel, and for some reason, I’d gotten it in my head that if I could challenge him to leadership, beat him in a fight according to our pack’s laws, that I would run things differently.

Well… needless to say, I hadn’t won, but it was close. The fight had been over quickly, lasting all of two minutes, but neither of us came out of it unharmed. Thorn ended up with a limp from where I’d torn up his leg, but my injuries were far more severe, leaving me scarred for life. His claws had gone so deep that even with my increased healing, there was no coming back from it unscathed. He’d left me there, bleeding out, overnight. And when I was still breathing the next morning, he’d laughed. Laughed! He decided it would be a fitting punishment to keep me as his Beta, forced into servitude for the rest of my days,a constant symbol to anyone else who might’ve considered making a play for Alpha.

When I saw my opportunity to have Shan take care of him for me, of course I took it. Tristan might have sneered at my lack of pack loyalty, but I thought we could agree, we were all better off without him.

I’d taken over as the Overlands Alpha, undisputed, but that didn’t mean things were better. Under Thorn’s rule, the alphas had his permission—hell,encouragement—to be abusive to their mates, and that had drawn in a certain type of shifter. It had infected us, spread until it was a large part of what made the pack. They followed me out of fear, out of habit, a learned resentment for authority, but whenever I tried to suggest there was another way of doing things, I was met with distrust, and ultimately, disobedience.

When I’d dreamed of being Alpha, it was nothing like this. My pack didn’t need me as their Alpha, and they sure as hell didn’t want me. It was no wonder the pack despised me, since they saw me as too weak to finish the job myself. I couldn’t even blame them.

And when Shan and his pack came to ask for my help last year, and I’d seen what a real pack looked like, it had kindled something new inside me. Something… surprising. It felt an awful lot like camaraderie. Like friendship.

So, as much as I would deny it if asked, my wolf and I agreed about one thing. I would be willing to give up my place as Alpha if it meant following someone like Shan.

But would they ever accept someone like me?

I saw a brightening through the trees ahead, and my pace increased to a jog. I could hear children laughing, and an involuntary smile broke out on my lips. The kids were fun to have around. Mal was the oldest, destined to be Alpha after his father one day. His little brother Wynn was a hellion, alwaysgetting into trouble, but Tristan’s son Pax seemed to balance him out. The two of them were inseparable. Pax had a destiny of his own playing out, as the pack’s next shaman, gifted with foresight and who knew what else. For now, he was being trained by Vesta, but she was older than any of us knew and seemed to be wasting away by the day.

The most recent addition to the pack was a sweet little girl, Jesse. She was Jude’s daughter, and she was already crawling around, trying her best to keep up with the boys. The whole pack was so full of life and energy, and no matter how I tried to resist, I couldn’t help but be drawn in.

But when I stepped through the trees into the clearing, the laughter died off as eyes turned my way. I swore the temperature dropped ten degrees. Even my wolf shivered.Brrr.

My stomach dropped straight down to my toes. This was going to be an uphill battle. They weren’t going to let me into their little club, not for one deer. I needed something bigger to show them that I’d changed.

Tristan met my eyes from across the camp. His arms were crossed, a scowl twisting his mouth as he leaned in to whisper something to Jude, standing at his side. Jude was by far the most intimidating of their pack, even more so since he mated with a fragile human. He saw protecting his mate as a full-time job, and he’d long ago decided that I was threat number one.

At whatever Tristan was saying, Jude looked my way, his eyes flashing green, his teeth sharp as his lip curled up.Well, shit. This isn’t going as well as I’d hoped.

I could feel their distrustful gazes searing into me, and even as my skin crawled with a warning about walking into a den of wary predators, the yearning to earn their respect won out. It was an unfamiliar emotion, this need to belong to something, and I wasn’t entirely sure I liked it.

I slapped a smile on and sauntered across the clearing as if all their shitty attitudes washed right over me, like water off a duck’s back.

Not a duck. Wolf.

It’s just an expression, I told my beast. Always so literal.

“Howdy, boys,” I said, hefting the deer off my shoulders and dropping it at their feet with a heavy thud. “Dinner is served.”

They both looked down at it, matching frowns on their faces. “The least you can do is cook it,” Tristan said, smirking.

“Great idea,” Shan interrupted, stepping out from his cabin and joining us. “Jude, why don’t you start field dressing the deer, and Tristan, you can make a salad.”

“Wha—” he started to argue, but Shan cut him a glare, and Tristan’s jaw clamped shut with a click, before he stomped toward the kitchen building in a huff. Jude didn’t argue, but I couldn’t miss the way his eyes tightened at the corners as he reached down and grabbed the carcass in one hand, dragging it back out to the woods to clean it.

“What about me? What should I do?” I asked.

“You are going to come with me. We need to talk.” His tone was light enough, but there was a heavy weight to it that pressed down on my shoulders, tempting me to bare my neck to him. I might’ve had the role of Alpha in my pack, but he embodied it in a way I never could.

He slapped a hand on my shoulder and steered me down the dirt road, away from camp.

Chapter 2

Silas

Neither of us spokeuntil we were out of hearing distance from the pups. It was warm enough that I didn’t mind the breeze on my bare skin, the gravel biting into the soles of my callused feet, but since I was the only one naked, I felt at a disadvantage. I couldn’t decide if this was a power move on his part. He didn’t strike me as the type.

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