Page 19 of Alpha's Claim

“Have some dignity, Preston, Jesus.” I said, and he spun me to face him as he dragged me to a halt. His face was a mask of fury and I froze in place. Nobody would find me out here. That wasn’t true- someone would. My mate or my father would. Someone who loved me with all their heart would find me, alone, murdered, decomposing in the woods. My heart sank at that. It was the last thing I wanted either of them to have to witness. And my death would start a war. Whoever found me first would lead the attack against the other pack. Neither of them would stop to ask questions. Or would Preston take my body back? Pretend he found me like that in the forest? It must have been that Wesley from the Silverstreaks, he would say.

“This is all your own fault, Cora.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “You have to know that. It’s your own damn fault.” He shoved me away from him without letting go of my arm. I felt it twist in a way it really shouldn’t have been able to twist.

“Why? I did nothing to you, Preston. I only ever wanted what’s my birthright!” I cried out, anger mingling with the pain in my shoulder. “I only want what’s mine! Being a woman is such a lowly, last-century reason that a woman can’t be in charge. If I don’t fight for this pack to move into this century then who will? You’re proving me right at this exact moment, Preston. Your ego is so small and so fragile that you genuinely feel you need to hurt me- to kill me- just to shut me up because you think if I’m not around you’ll get to lead the pack when my father dies. You’re so weak and pitiable that you genuinely think that you’re winning right now, don’t you?” I spat. “You’re lording physical strength over me because you attacked me when I was vulnerable so you could do this now. Pathetic. I’m not the weak one, you are.” I glared at him.

“You can say that all you want, but it’s not me who is facing my own mortality tonight, Cora.” His voice was icy and monotonous. “And all of this could have been avoided if you had just accepted my advances. We could have been married and had children, Cora. It would have been easy and bloodless and we both would have gotten what we wanted.”

“I absolutely would not have gotten what I wanted. You have never been what I’ve wanted. Being with you would be worse than giving up. Having to be an incubator for an heir you approved of would be worse than death. I am choosing right now to die rather than accept that fate.” I was shouting now. It wasn’t as though I thought I would be heard by anyone, but I wanted Preston to know that he was less than nothing. That he was taking the coward’s way out and that he would have to live knowing I’d rather die than live with being with him.

“That’s a very narrow way of thinking.” I could tell I had hit a nerve with him and I couldn’t help but be smug about it. I was getting to him and he couldn’t hide it. Who cared if I was upset and he was getting to me? I was dying tonight. Faced with my own demise I refused to be subjugated.

“Go ahead and explain to me how being your wife would have ever benefitted me? Because I’m the one with status. I’m the one with wealth, family ties, and direct lineage. I have everything you want. It must just burn you up inside.” I spat venomously.

“Shut up, you bitch!” He backhanded me, the knife hilt making a heavy impact on my cheek. I spat at him instead. His plan was to kill me anyways- I might as well make him feel as small as he actually was. In spite of his much taller form he was such a tiny little fragile man. “You had everything handed to you. I’ve worked my entire life to lead this clan!”

“You can’t even argue; you have to use violence. Look how pathetic you are. As if I would ever submit to you. You’re wrong, by the way. I have scratched and clawed and bled for every inch I’ve gotten because of you. I’ve learned everything I know because I had to prove you wrong at every corner because you were in my father’s ear the entire time I was learning to take over once he died. My father- not yours. I have spent my entire life fighting for his favor.” I said, letting out a small sound of pain as he jerked on my arm again.

“I’m not killing you. The forest is going to do that for me.” He said, his voice low and furious. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what he meant before he suddenly started moving, dragging me behind him. “You probably already know about the magic, don’t you? You always seem to know more than you should.” He sounded so annoyed by me even as he dragged me to my grave. “The magic has a curse too, you know. And if I take you out there and provoke the magic it’ll turn on you for all the reasons you think you should be in charge. Your lineage, Cora. It’ll take its revenge on you and I’ll get what I want. I don’t even really have to lift a finger to harm you. It will do it for me.” I yanked to get out of his grasp again, but he only stopped and dragged me closer.

“Do it, you coward.” I spat.

Chapter nineteen

Weston

Iwoketoavery normal day. It was a nice, cool morning and I went to do my morning routine. As sleepy as I was I was still excited to see Cora. Soon I would have her in my arms to reassure her that everything would be okay. Of course, there was still that weird little thing, the connection to the grove and the experiences that were there. The memory card would be safe with me, I would make sure of it. My need for her to understand she could trust me to protect her, no matter what that looked like. The memory card was important to her, so it was important to me.

As I went about my daily routine I was starting to feel slightly uneasy. We hadn’t had a hard and fast time that she would be here, but it was still unnerving that she hadn’t shown up yet. While I worked that little tingling feeling of wrongness grew in the back of my mind. As I typed on my computer I wondered if she was hung up because of something that had to do with her family. Maybe there was an innocent reason that she wasn’t here yet.

I just couldn’t get the sound of her voice out of my mind. The fear in her hushed tones had affected me. She was so strong when we were together. Her personality was a force to be reckoned with. I knew that she was frightened after the attack near her home, but that tone with that kind of information had been nagging at me.

Where was she? It was noon and she wasn’t at my home. Maybe she had told her father. It was possible that she was dealing with something at home. I kept reminding myself of that as that soft voice in the back of my head whispered horrible things to me. I began to call her as my stomach sank. I called and texted her over and over as the worry grew in my mind.

I called Yari. I needed her help at that moment more than I ever had before. She would be able to focus me. She could calm me down. Probably. Before she even came into the room I was talking to her.

“Something is wrong. She should be here by now.” I looked at Yari as she walked into the room., She seemed to match my worry with her own. “I’ve called and texted her over and over and nothing. She’s not responding. I just feel like something bad has happened. You know, like the night she got attacked. It just felt like I had to go. I don’t know, Yari, something has to be wrong.” I started pacing, and she put her hand on my shoulder, catching my attention. “She was scared last night when we talked.”

“She was scared?” Yari asked, furrowing her eyebrows. “Of what? Being attacked again?”

“I think so, yeah. But she was telling me about this place in the forest where there’s like actual magic or something. We went there, I think. She said there might be some kind of curse? She didn’t want anyone to know she knew.” I explained as best I could, but my concern outweighed my ability to focus on talking or memories from last night. “She put it all on a memory card for me. That’s why she was coming today. She wanted to keep it here to keep it safe with us until she could talk to her dad.”

“You realize how this sounds, right?” She asked, but she wasn’t messing around. I could tell she was genuinely concerned for me. Yari was probably actually worried that I had lost my mind, or Cora had.

“I know it sounds nuts, Yari. I really do, but I swear to you I’ve seen a place I think she meant. It’s that grove with the fireflies I told you about- the magic is what keeps it from fading into fall. It felt magical there, but I thought it was just the romance. I don’t think that anymore. I trust her.” I said, desperately hoping that she would believe what I was saying.

“Okay. If you believe it so do I. I’ve got your back. Now go, Weston. Don’t overthink it. Your instincts are telling you to go.” Yari said, and I nodded. “I’ll help however I can. Whatever you need you’ll get.” I nodded at her and turned toward the door.

“You’re right.” I snagged the strap of my backpack and started sprinting. I didn’t say goodbye or wave, I just ran all out until I was in the woods and shed my clothes as fast as I could. It was practiced and perfect at this point- I shifted and ran out into the woods, making my way to Cora. I had to find her. I still had that heavy feeling in my chest, something just telling me in the back of my mind that she was in danger. I had to go to her. She was injured and vulnerable- she might need my help. I had to be there. It was so important that I found her and brought her home, even if it was her home. I didn’t care about that, I only cared about how.

My heart was in my throat as I ran, desperately breathing in everything I could to try to catch her scent. It would be hard for us to pass one another and not know it because one of us would smell the other, but it was possible. I wanted to make sure that I could find her with every sense I had. Why had I ever only run like this with her? I had never felt so alone and vacant. Like I was half empty without her. Before I met her I was so unaware of what it meant to be missing half of my soul. I couldn’t live my life without her. Not since I had met her.

Every fear I had had about announcing our union seemed so unimportant and useless in this moment. If we had just told her father I could have called him when she didn’t answer. We would know so much faster if we had to maneuver our forces to find her. Everything seemed so pointless without her. The idea that I could lose her because we hadn’t spoken to her father yet was so fundamentally, deeply horrific to me.

I skidded as I smelled her. I stopped dead in my tracks, trying to source it, but it seemed to come from everywhere. The ground in front of me was where it was heaviest. It took me a couple of steps back to see that there had been some kind of a scuffle here. I smelled a scent I vaguely recognized and it just drew up a bad feeling in me.

It took everything in me to stop. My entire body screamed at me to keep running, run to her. Save her and take her in my arms and protect her. I needed to see her. But I wasn’t stupid enough to just jump into this without backup. I didn’t know what I was running into. I shifted and dropped my bag, digging frantically for my phone. Once it was in my hands I took a deep breath when I realized that I had left my phone behind in my panic. I had to turn back. I couldn’t go into this without backup- that could end in both of us being dead.

In seconds I had shifted back into my wolf and took off toward home. As I ran, focused in on my goal, I wondered why I had never run like this until her. Though I was running toward home this time, it felt like hours before I got home. Once I made it I ran directly up the porch and shifted back and ran into my house without redressing. I didn’t even need to call for Yari, she was in the room in seconds.

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