Page 26 of The Alpha's Mates

Someone decided it was. That they had the numbers to win, because a large brown wolf lunged at Reese, starting the fight again. It didn’t take him much time to realize he was wrong. Reese shifted to human and caught his jaws in her hands, pulling opposite directions she tore his head open and flung the lifeless corpse back at them. “Who’s next?” she dared them.

Lust pulsed through me at her words. She was fucking beautiful, standing there with blood running down over her bare body. I was also impressed. I’d never seen that before, fighting wolves in human form. Shifters rarely fought as humans and the few times we did we tended to wait for our enemies to shift back as well. It was stupid, but we always went to our wolves when we should be fighting in whichever form was most useful in the moment. It was just a natural instinct for us to shift. Watching her fight this way inspired me to give it a try.

The next wolf charged. I shifted to human and bore down on him, grabbing him by neck and tail. I pulled. His flesh ripped apart as easily as tearing a rag. Never in my life had I felt this sort of power, and certainly never in human form. I dared to glance at Reese, the wild empowerment in her eyes told me everything.She was feeling it too. Somehow we were making each other stronger.

She caught me looking at her and her return smile was quick and sharp. “Play time.” She wanted to make these wolves regret coming after her pack. That would help us keep them safe in the future, so I had no problem unleashing my feral mate on the males who’d made the stupid decision to test us.

We shifted back to our wolves and charged in opposite directions. It was an absolute blood bath. We tore through them like hot knives through butter. Their bones held no resistance to my teeth. I crushed skulls and tore flesh with ease, all the while becoming more ravenous. No amount of flesh could satisfy this blood lust that rode me.

The red mist of rage was replaced by an energetic, almost pup-like desire to hunt and kill. For as angry as I was that they had dared to attack my mate, I was so overjoyed at the power I was feeling from her presence it was hard to resist. I wanted to disembowel the whole world and present the innards to her as a gift.

I killed the last of the attackers and turned to Reese. She was playfully pulling the intestines out of a wolf, tugging on them like a rope. I nudged her and started up the hill toward the rest of the females. She let go of her toy and took her place next to me. We ran uphill, following the scent of the women. It didn’t take long to find them.

There were only a few of the Fenhall pack left, when they saw us closing in they took off. If twenty of their clan couldn’t stop us what chance did they have? I would gather Soren and Atlas later, and we would go to the heart of their territory to exact vengeance on their alphas. Right now we had more important things to do. We had to get the women home.

Soren and Atlas had picked up on the change in me. Though the blood lust and euphoric high were diminishing, they stillknew something was going on. It took some convincing to keep them from leaving their duties back home to come for us. The danger was past, and we were heading their way.

In order to save time,we left behind all of the women’s belongings. Our alphas would come back for them later. We ran as wolves through the forest, wild and free, and a hell of a lot faster than walking on two legs.

It still took hours of running, especially having to slow our pace for the youngest omega, but we didn’t run into any more trouble. I let out a mournful howl as we approached the village. My ears pricked as I caught Soren’s reply.

I slowed, Reese by my side, and her females behind us. Soren and Atlas’s wolves reached us, materializing in the low light like smoke.

What the hell happened?Soren asked, his eyes raking over the group, lingering on Reese.

The Fenhall Pack found them.I ignored my cadre mates unhappy growls. Most of the women nearby pinned their ears back to their heads at the sound and lowered toward the ground.Knock it off. You’re scaring them.

Shame crossed both furry faces as they realized the same thing and reined in their tempers. They were pissed that one of the mountain packs had gone for the females, but really, who could blame them? Most of the packs left on Elaria would have done the same. They were so far past using logic it was almost as if they were sinking into the baser nature of their beasts.

We need to talk about what happened while Reese and I fought.I quickly explained what we’d both felt and how it had affected our fighting because I knew Soren was itching to get thewomen inside the village and settled in. He didn’t want to be standing around in the forest when we didn’t know who could be lurking nearby.

Maybe Vera will know something about that, Atlas offered.I’ve never heard anything like it.

Me either, but that’s enough. Let’s get the females inside and safe.Soren let out a series of yips and barks that our wolves understood and I waited while the women followed my mates. I fell in at the end of the line, watching their backs as we brought them into our home. Our house would hold them all until we were able to find cadres for each of them and release them into the care of their alphas.

An hour later, the females were tucked up into five separate rooms, fed, warm, and mostly happy. Reese kept going from door to door, checking on them all, making sure they didn’t need anything.

Atlas and I were stationed in the hall while she did so, waiting for her to finally settle enough that we could bring her to Soren’s office. We were meeting Vera there. All of us were curious about what had happened out there. How we seemed to amplify each other’s strength somehow.

All my wounds had healed with the exception of my leg. There was still a small scratch there that shifting hadn’t fully healed. It’d be gone in a day or two. That first pair of wolves had managed to do the most damage to me during the fight. After Reese and I had come together it was like no one could touch us.

“You alright?”

I glanced over at Atlas and nodded. “Just thinking. She handled herself well. Better than I expected. We could still teach her a few things, then she’ll be even more deadly than she is now.”

“Not a bad idea. Just in case she’s ever separated from us,” Atlas mused.

I laughed and he grinned in answer. The odds of Soren ever letting her out of his sight again were slim to none. You never knew though. It was a good idea to help our mate fight to the best of her ability. All three of us could teach her new things, just as she’d taught me the fighting in human form trick.

“You finished, Little Minx?” I asked as Reese stopped in front of us.

She nodded. We could see she was exhausted. She’d been fighting the pain of being away from us for days. Add in the physical exhaustion from the fight and she was drained. But we needed to do this.

“Yeah. Soren mentioned a meeting?”

“Come on,” Atlas said, dropping his arm over her shoulders. The fact that she didn’t pull away, in fact snuggled into his embrace, made me grin. She’d truly come to the conclusion that we were mates. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight us tooth and nail on certain things. We’d have to take our time with her. We needed to continue to win her over, but we were through the first hurdle.

CHAPTER 14

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