Page 6 of Cruel Alpha

I fumbled with the drawstring on the sweatpants, putting it as tight as it would go and tying it off in a double knot. The pants hung off my hips, but they stayed up, just.

Embarrassed, I glanced back to Alyssa, expecting to see her hiding a laugh. Instead, her eyes were wide, pupils blown huge and black, with her mouth hanging slightly open. There was a sound coming from her chest: nowhere near a growl—perhaps something more like a purr. Clearly, the sight of me in her clothes was doing the same thing to her wolf as it was to mine.

She shook her head, blushing, before grabbing a bag out of the back seat of her car. Shoving it into my hands, she went to retrieve the now grumbling toddlers from the front seat, bending over to whisper more comfort and platitudes. When she rose, she had one on each hip, and she looked between them with a frown.

“Take Emmy,” she said after a couple of seconds, nodding her head at the little girl. I reached out for her, but the kid only leaned closer to her mother. For a second, my temper flared—we needed togo—but it wasn’t Emmy’s fault. She was only a kid, and she’d been through enough this evening already without some strange dude taking her out of the comfort of her mother’s arms.

“It’s okay,” I said, as low and as soft as possible. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want to help you and your mom and—” I paused, realizing I didn’t know the little guy’s name.

“Jack,” said Emmy, and I smiled at her.

“And Jack. Will you let me?”

She considered me for another long minute before she reached out her tiny, pudgy hands, and I hoisted her into my arms.

“You ready?” I asked Alyssa. She blinked a few times—she seemed a little spaced out, and I worried that she had a concussion—before she said,

“As I’ll ever be.”

If someone had asked me that morning how I’d imagined the night playing out, I would have told them that Leo and I were gonna crack open a few beers and shoot the shit. Instead, I’d found the mate I thought I’d lost forever, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her go now, even if it meant making an enemy of Arbor, even if it meant raising another wolf’s pups. With the dark forest stretching out in every direction, the distant howling of wolves tainting its quiet, the two of us began to walk.

Chapter 3 - Alyssa

Caleb had not reckoned with how much longer the journey would take with toddlers on our hips, but we made it over the bridge in just under three hours. Mercifully, both the twins fell asleep within the first half hour, but they were still weights in our arms, precious cargo that made our steps slower and more deliberate. I tried my best not to look too hard at Caleb with Emmy in his arms; he was gentle enough with her, careful, but her presence seemed not to affect him at all. She might have been anyone’s child.

It was better this way, I told myself; if he’d been sweet and attentive—if he’d shown any emotion at all when presented with the children he’d rejected—I might have fooled myself into thinking he wasn’t going to dump us again the moment he thought we were safe. His biology and his honor might demand that he defend us from predators and ensure we had a safe place to sleep, but I’d be an idiot to think I’d get anything more from Caleb Thorne. I might have been hopeful once, but I was a girl then: stupid and naive. I’d thought perhaps things could be different if I only wanted it enough.

If it had been an option, I would have left him in the Arbor forest, even if I’d had to drag Jack and Emmy and our bags down an eight-mile road in the rain. I would have walked eighteen miles, eighty miles, if it meant I could leave him behind, but fate had other plans. My vision had shown me as clear as day what would happen if I tried to go it alone, and the memory of it made my stomach turn. It would have been nice if fate had intervened a little earlier, but I’d never been able to control my visions; they came when they came, and this was my first since I’d left Lapine. I tried not to think about it as I picked over tree roots and rocks, staring at the shape of Caleb’s back in the darkness.

My first view of the bridge was like water in the desert, and I sighed out loud. Caleb glared at me: we weren’t supposed to speak or make any unnecessary noise. In less dire circumstances, I might have hoped that Emmy had one of her trademark tantrums just to see him try to tellherto be quiet. With every step I made across the steel and brick structure, Jack felt heavier in my arms, the adrenaline finally beginning to wear off after hours of keeping me going and going and going.

Argent had sentries posted at their end of the bridge—they were a wealthy Pack, and their land was well guarded—but they showed us no aggression or suspicion. They might have looked a little perplexed, but they greeted Caleb warmly and with the deference owed to a shifter of his rank. He might not be their Alpha, but his presence had an undeniable authority, and he used it to his advantage.

Soon, we were sitting in the back of a Jeep, the twins in our laps, while one of the sentries drove us into town. The streets of Argent were clean and wide, its people dressed in richer fabrics than I was used to seeing on shifters. Arbor was one of the poorer Nightfire islands, and while Lapine did well enough, they’d never been interested in human luxury. If the twins had been awake, they would have had their faces pressed against the windows, smudging the glass with unidentifiable gunk. I stroked Jack’s soft hair, and he nestled unconsciously closer. He certainly had a more comfortable seat than Emmy; she was asleep against Caleb’s chest—and that was fine, it wasfine—but his hard muscles must have made a poor pillow.

“Where are we going?” I asked, figuring I was allowed to speak now.

“The Argent Alpha is a friend. We’ll stay with him tonight,” Caleb said in a whisper, looking at Emmy as though she was a bomb about to go off. I huffed a laugh.

“You don’t have to whisper. She could sleep through a rocket launch, and they’ve had a long day.” I kissed Jack’s head, and Caleb nodded, turning stiffly to look out of the window as if the sight of his own child offended him.

The rest of the car trip was conducted in silence, and I was almost nodding off to sleep when we pulled into the driveway of a tall stone building. It wasn’t extravagant by human standards, but few shifters lived in places like this.

As soon as the engine cut off the door was opening, and a tall figure rushed down the steps to meet us.

“What the entire fuck, dude?” he said as he approached. I couldn’t make out his appearance in the dark, but he was of a height with Caleb, if not quite as broad.

“Can this wait until we’re inside?” Caleb grumbled.

“Sure, but all I’ve got is beer and pizza in there.” He turned to me: “I wasn’t expecting such elegant company.”

I wanted to bristle, but there was no hint of mockery in this new Alpha’s voice. Caleb, however, growled low in his throat; it was a threat, but the other Alpha only laughed.

“Do you wanna cool it down a little, Cal? Message received.” He gestured for us to follow him in, and I was so desperate to be somewhere warm and comfortable that I followed him without thinking, not waiting for Caleb to give the okay. I was so used to living outside of Pack life—I’d never been truly accepted on Arbor, and if I was outside the Pack, then I was outside its hierarchies too—that I’d forgotten I should have waited for Caleb—for my Alpha. I tensed but kept walking. There was no growl of command from behind me, no hand on me to stop me in my tracks and remind me who was in charge.

Inside, the house was light and warm, and Arbor’s Alpha came into view properly. His features were a little softer than Caleb’s, with twinkling green eyes and a head of auburn curls. He smiled as Caleb followed me into a comfortable room, open and easy in a way I didn’t usually associate with Alphas.

“Sit down, sit down,” he said, perching on the arm of a leather couch. I slumped gratefully into an armchair. “Someone tell me what is going on before I explode.”

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