Page 2 of Wolf Unleashed
“She’s not a prostitute. She’s ourmate. Our blood-bonded mate.”
He scented Rafe this time. “Your scent hasn’t changed. You’re not blood-bonded. Thankfully.” Soren scowled. “Don’t get any stupid ideas in your head, Rafe. You will not blood-bond her, do you hear me? She’ll weaken you.”
Alyssa’s face dimmed. She didn’t even fully understand the blood-bond yet, but she’d blood-bonded both Tiernan and Maddox and knew it was the ultimate commitment for a shifter. Rafe had told her he couldn’t blood-bond her, but with the way his father was ranting, he felt inclined to do so. But that would be a child’s response.
Rafe had to keep his pack’s best interest in mind. But he had two packs now. His birth pack and his newest pack forged through necessity, then respect, and ultimately love at the DSA’s training facility. Tiernan, Maddox, and Alyssa had become his pack, and he’d become their alpha. It’s the reason he’d brought Tiernan and Alyssa home to the outskirts of Custer National Forest, Montana. If his father accepted them, it would solve some of their problems.
“I have no intentions of blood-bonding her,” Rafe announced, hating how the light in her eyes dimmed further. Tiernan’s arm curved around her waist, giving her the emotional support Rafe wished he could provide right now. More than comforting her, he wanted to apologize to her for everything he and his father had said. But more than anything, he wished he could make Alyssa understand he wanted to blood-bond her, but he couldn’t leave his pack without an heir.
“That’s the first smart thing I’ve heard out of you today,” Soren said, relaxing his stance.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Alpha. Sheismy mate, even though we’re not blood-bonded. And yes, I share her with Tiernan and a white wolf, Maddox from Drake Novak’s pack. In fact, Maddox is a Novak, related to Drake.”
Rafe couldn’t seem to stop himself from spilling everything, laying every dirty piece of information out there that would enrage his dad. All except one. Alyssa’s father, the murderous, sadistic Woodrow Monroe, one of the top anti-shifters at the World Shifter Suppressor Organization, aka the WSSO.
“They are my responsibility, and I will not let you or anyone else demean or threaten them.”
“This pack is your responsibility,” Soren said, his eyes darkening.
“Which is why I’ve already decided I won’t blood-bond Alyssa and risk weakening my abilities. If you accept them into our pack, there will be no issue.”
“No issue? My son can’t share a female. What would that look like to the shifters in our pack? Especially the children? They need to see and understand the sanctity of the blood-bond, starting with their alpha heir. You’ve brought a human wh—” Rafe’s father stopped himself just short of calling her a whore, but they all knew what he was thinking, especially Alyssa, who pulled away from Tiernan.
She marched up to Soren and lifted her chin high in the air. “I’m not a whore, Alpha. I didn’t set out to fall in love with three shifters. Or even one. But I did. This is new to me, to all of us. We’re still trying to figure it out. I blood-bonded Tiernan and Maddox because of what it meant to them. I’d do anything for them. All of them, Rafe included. I’d blood-bond him too if he asked, but he’s made his position clear. He won’t risk this pack, but you have to understand that this isn’t some casual fling between us.”
Rafe felt proud of her for standing up to his father. Few talked so directly to Soren Anderson, not because the shifter was intimidating, but because he left no doubt that he alone made the decisions in his pack. There was no counsel or top advisors he relied on. He briefed Rafe, but that had always been to keep him informed in case he should suddenly have to take over the pack. Soren never solicited Rafe’s advice and rarely took his suggestions. Eero had been the one Soren listened to. That was before the SEV, the Shifter Elimination Virus, claimed Eero’s life. Rafe still debated if he should tell his father that Alyssa was the daughter of Woodrow Monroe, the bastard responsible for creating the deadly virus.
“Two males?” Soren said. “That’s impossible. A blood-bond can only exist between one female and one male.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Tiernan said. “Maddox and I both blood-bonded her. The bond took for both of us.” Except Tiernan could not feel his bond with Alyssa and Maddox could. Rafe noted how Tiernan omitted that piece, probably because he still felt like he had less of a claim on Alyssa because of it. It wasn’t beyond Soren to kick Tiernan out and let Alyssa remain if he thought that would keep Rafe content, and making Tiernan’s blood-bond appear like a failure would give Soren additional justification to do just that.
“Two males blood-bonding a female… Growing up, my grandfather told me stories of such a bond when the Origination Virus first created shifters, but I thought they were just that. Stories. I must say, it’s unique. And very foolish, Scout. Nothing good can come of sharing a female.”
“What stories?” Rafe asked.
“Stories not worth repeating. More likely myth.”
“And yet two shifters have blood-bonded a female,” Rafe countered.
“So you say,” Soren challenged.
“You’re a hypocrite,” Alyssa said, pushing past Rafe until she stood inches from Soren. “You trust him to be your heir, to lead your pack one day, but you’re calling him a liar because it justifies you maintaining control over him. You don’t want an heir, you want a yes-man.”
“In my office, now, Rafe! Gunnar, watch them,” Soren ordered the tall, brawny guard who’d been standing on the outskirts of their conversation, trying to be discreet and not listen in.
“I’m sorry,” Alyssa whispered to Rafe. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I was trying to help.”
Rafe stroked Alyssa’s cheek with the back of his fingers. “There was no good way of telling him. I expected this, but I need to speak with him privately. You and Tiernan will be safe.”
Alyssa’s eyes moved to Gunner, just as her hand moved to her hip, where she holstered her gun.
Rafe slid his hand over hers, pulling it away from her gun, and kissed her palm. “You will be safe. Gunnar won’t let anyone harm you.”
“And Tiernan?” she asked, her voice not as steady as he was used to hearing from her. She was out of place here, among his pack. She didn’t trust anyone. Only him and Tiernan.
He understood her fear. She’d been through a lot at the DSA, with both the DSA and her fellow agents turning on her. They’d revealed her identity and used her as bait. Artemis, the codename by which he’d first come to know Alyssa, loved so easily but had trouble trusting given her history.
Rafe nudged her toward Tiernan, who took her hand again. He’d watch over her, explain shifter hierarchy and life even though he didn’t know the nuances of Rafe’s pack.
