Page 48 of Cruel Alpha

“And will we be safe when he’s dead?” I demanded, but Ethan refused to hear me.

“He’s strong, Alyssa. He might still make it—” he began, cut off by my shout of frustration.

“No! You cannot tell me the contents of my own vision,” I insisted. “He will die if I don’t go, and I’m going whether you like it or not.”

“Alyssa—” Ethan started, but despite the heaviness of the authority in his voice, I paid him no mind. I was the Alpha female of Lapine Pack, and I was not beholden to him. Yanking my arm out of his grip, I crossed to Julia, who was sitting on the cold ground cradling the twins in her arms. Kneeling to look at the three of them, I felt suddenly the enormity of the task I had taken upon myself. I might not come back from this.

“Go get your man,” said Julia, sounding far more confident in me than I’d ever been. “And then punch him for being such an idiot.”

That forced a laugh out of me.

“I will,” I told her. “I promise.”

“I know you will,” she replied.

I could hardly bear to look at the twins in her arms. I loved them so immensely; they’d been my whole world since the moment they were born, and I’d thought it would only ever be the three of us. We’d been a perfect trio, but in the last few weeks on Lapine, I had begun to dream of another future for us; I would be doing them a disservice not to try to bring that future to them. They deserved their father’s love.

They deserved mine, too, and I knew the danger I was running into, but I didn’t need a mating bite to feel the bond pulling me back toward Lapine. A mother with a dead mate was no kind of mother: they would lose me either way. This was the only choice, the only way I could give them the future they deserved.

I reached out to stroke Emmy’s ruddy little cheek.

“Mommy’s got to go, Sweetheart. You be a good girl for Auntie Julia, okay?”

“No, Mommy,” she said. “No go!”

“I’ll be back soon. You’ll see me tomorrow.” I wanted to tell her it was a promise, but I couldn’t promise that she would see me tomorrow, and my eyes grew misty as I drank in her wide eyes and her perfect little button nose. She would be alright. She was the feistiest little girl I’d ever known, and Julia would make sure she stayed that way.

Jack, on the other hand—Jack’s little face was already streaked with tears, and I wiped them away with my thumb.

“You’re a brave boy, Jack,” I told him. “Real brave. You just keep on being brave until you see Mommy tomorrow, okay?”

Jack only nodded, fresh tears spilling from his eyes, and I leaned in to press a long kiss to his forehead. I repeated the motion with Emmy, trying not to let them feel the way my body was shaking with unreleased sobs.

“Mommy loves you both so much,” I whispered.

I wiped away the tears that had fallen as I stood, shaking myself back together as I turned back to Ethan.

“You can get Julia into the harness?” I asked. It wouldn’t fit her well, but it should be serviceable enough. He nodded.

“You’re sure I can’t convince you to stay with us?” he asked, but we both already knew the answer. I managed a weak smile as I replied,

“Not a chance.”

Shifting was as easy as breathing. My wolf howled for her mate, and I set off at a sprint, following our tracks back towards Lapine town. I might be weak, I might be a half-breed and an outcast and a freak, but I was going to save my mate. When I was eighteen and pregnant and alone, I was strong because I had no other choice. I could be strong like that again. If I had to claw through twenty Arbor fighters, then I would. I had no other choice.

Chapter 22 - Caleb

The smell of blood was in the air. The shifters of Lapine might not have been keen on the cause, but by the time I returned from Julia’s cottage, Leo and Xander had managed to whip the younger wolves into a frenzy of bloodlust. Chomping at the bit to prove themselves, to advance in rank, to sink their teeth into enemy flesh, they had gone eagerly and easily to their stations.

Leo and I had stayed with the main force of the Pack, blocking the route from the bridge to the town. Meanwhile, Jace and Noah took a smaller party to skirt the edges of the town, keeping an eye out for any attacks from unexpected directions, and Xander took a third contingent into the woods, ready for an attack from the flank. Ethan was supposed to have gone with him, but I knew Xander could handle it alone: Ensign Pack’s hunters were the strongest and most disciplined in the Nightfire archipelago.

I would be indebted to my friends for the rest of our lives. Leo, Ethan, and Xander risked the stability of their own Packs by engaging in a conflict that could cost them their lives, while Noah and Jace had both ignored their fathers’ commands to return home. I wouldn’t have blamed any one of them for leaving, yet every one of them had stayed at my side.

I hoped the same would stay true for the shifters in my own Pack. As eager as the young wolves were for bloodshed, the idea of glory and the reality of battle were starkly different things. Would the lower-ranking males keep their nerve after the first Lapine wolf fell? There hadn’t been a conflict on Lapine since my father took power from the previous Alpha, and many of the males had yet to wet their muzzles with the blood of other wolves.

My father’s Betas and the other older males were a different story altogether. They were tougher, more experienced, but they knew exactly what they were risking, and they were far less eager to do so. Few of them were interested in climbing the ranks, too set in their ways, and many had attitudes to magic that were closer to Arbor’s than to mine. I’d sent most of them with Noah and Jace, positioning them on the outskirts of town to keep them away from the action, only to be called in if our need was dire.

Only once everyone was in place did I finally let my wolf take my skin. It was bliss to give over to him, to let his bloodlust overtake my fear. It was difficult to be afraid of the Arbor wolves when I towered over the rest of the shifters in my vicinity—only Leo was beginning to approach my size—and dug my claws into the frozen earth beneath me. My wolf didn’t like waiting, but he didn’t have to wait for long. The first howl went up mere minutes after we made it into position, and then the Arbor hunters were on us.

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