Page 1 of Beta Hybrid

Chapter One

Zenna

I gently brush Cai’s black hair out of his eyes as he snores. Though the sound is soft, it rumbles deep in his chest. A wolf’s snore, not a man’s. I smile at him as he sleeps, a sense of peace filling me. Now that I’m sleeping outside, the only confines the thin material of our shared tent, I can’t imagine sleeping anywhere else.

I never want to sleep inside again.

Or underground.

The thought fists my stomach, breath shuttering from my lips.

A hand reaches out for me. ‘Hey, are you okay?’ Cai brushes my belly as though he can feel the tension there. I can, he says down the bond. What’s wrong? He tugs me closer.

I close my eyes, shaking my head. It feels silly to talk about. Instead, I lean over and kiss his temple. Nothing, don’t worry. You’re very cute when you’re asleep, by the way.

Cai’s silver eyes are serious for a lingering moment. He decides to let the subject drop. I am cute all the time, aren’t I? He pulls me deeper into the blanket, wrapping his arms around me. Sleep, Zen. He kisses the top of my head.

Buried against his chest, I inhale, calming. He smells of damp earth and vanilla-moonlight. The knot in my stomach eases, but I cannot sleep. I nuzzle into his bare chest, resting against him. It’s kind of amazing how calm and safe he makes me feel.

Where did those last five years go? The ones where I was betrayed, rejected? They haven’t disappeared. The deep, mortal wound of that word ‘no’ had nearly killed me. Now, that wound has healed, and Cai himself has helped ease the pain he caused.

I finally close my eyes again, the warmth of my wolf lulling me to sleep. I’ve trusted him more than I imagined I could.

He came to get me from the vampire’s underground prison. The Tomb, they called it. And Goddess if it didn’t feel like one. My mate has finally accepted me. Risked his life to ensure my safety. Then he healed me with his magic-tongue. Okay, that’s not what I meant, but he does have a magic tongue when used between my legs, too. My cheeks heat slightly, but against Cai’s skin, I can barely tell.

We finally mated.

Had sex.

A lot of sex, actually.

His soft snoring resumes, the reverberations tingling from his chest through to my cheek, my jaw. I love laying here with him, but I need to get up. Walk around. Get some air.

Somehow, I disengage myself from the big, sleepy alpha and climb quietly out of our tent. The wall of fresh air hits me, and I let my eyes fall closed, mouth parted in bliss. I inhale greedily. The fresh air on my body is bliss, it caresses my exposed skin, as though to reassure me; there are no walls here. No prison.

All is still and quiet, and it feels strange. I’d like to say peaceful, but after everything I’ve just been through in the Tomb, quiet is usually the foreboding preamble to attack.

My eyes dart around, finding only the encampment, trees, a burnt-out campfire. No enemies here. Right? Well, except for Callen. I hope he’s locked up properly.

I wiggle my toes in soft dirt. Not long ago I would have wished for shoes, even flats not made for this terrain. Now, I tilt my head back. The sky lightens in the early hours of dawn, licking up the darkness, leaving hues of indigo and rose behind.

I glance around my new home. I use the word ‘home’ loosely, as I don’t have one anymore. My last home was the apartment I shared with Jana, but even there, it was hard to feel relaxed, at peace, when my being there was a result of Cai casting me out of Wolf Grove.

The mountainous clearing is nestled into a steep cliff that pierces the sky to my right, grey and white with jagged rocks and bits of snow caught in smaller nooks. Down here, the space is flat and even for the most part.

Cai’s cousin, Noah, picked a good place for his pack. Safe. Hard to get to unless you know the right way in. Easy to defend. The clearing is sprawled with tents, varying shades of green, one larger than the others. I think Noah’s wife’s name was Alexa, but I’m not sure. I’ve never met them.

I move in a slow circle, revelling in the clean, crisp air. I turn from the face of the mountain and follow a little path down a slight incline. My feet catch on a few loose rocks, but, to my surprise, my heels are well-calloused and hardly sting.

The area is a combination of rock and tree unlike I’ve ever seen. Then again, I’ve never been up a mountain. I wonder how far we are from the Tomb. From Wolf Grove. From anything familiar. I reach a hand out to brush the bark of a towering willow tree, its roots dug deep into the mountain, claiming it.

The thought jars me, and my hand immediately goes to my left butt cheek. A light sting passes through me at the touch, where Cai’s teeth had so sensually dug into me. I’m in shorts. I try to turn to see if the mark is visible beneath the denim, but it’s difficult to see.

Pausing on the path, I go over the experience in my mind. The burning pain of those wicked teeth piercing my skin—if someone had described it to me, I might have been very afraid—but with everything else going on, the trust and arousal crackling between me and my mate… it made the pain into something else. My lips twitch into a smile as a tingle forms between my legs. The bite, his claim turned into something beautiful.

I wish I could text Aidan and Will. To apologise. I guess now I understand.

I would leave out the part that being fed on still didn’t seem great, though.

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