Alpha's Regret: His Wrongful Rejection

Smith takes a few steps further into the box, closer to Mari. My whole body primes. “You think you can hold out four whole days, Conan?” He grabs Mari’s wrist and drags her arm to her side, baring her breasts. She tenses all over, but she lets him. Why? She’s stronger than he is. I…

When I come to, I’m lying naked on cold steel in a metal box. It’s moving. I push to sit up, and my stomach lurches. Every bone in my body aches, especially my skull. My head throbs. My wolf is awake, but she’s confused and scared, too. I go to push my curls out of…

We’re fucked. Darragh is the only thing between me and them, my only chance of getting out of this alive. The thought should push me closer to the edge, but it doesn’t. Maybe because my wolf isn’t freaking out. She’s watchful, too, or more accurately, she’s enthralled by the male tied up in front of…

“Mari?” Darragh says my name again. It sounds strange on his lips. “Gimme a second.” I suck down a big breath. “Okay. On the count of three.” His forehead furrows. I don’t think he expected me to take the lead. “On the count of three, we both pull. Okay?” I feel better being the boss….

“Okay. See, there’s this one with a man and his nephew. And they journey to the center of the earth. And there are dinosaurs. And a tornado? Shit—” The brow furrows again. “It might have been a tsunami. Something like that.” “A tornado in the center of the earth?” “Yeah.” “How was there enough air…

I promised myself that I’d never let it happen again. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t something I could make promises about, though, didn’t I? I could only pray, and what good does that do? My temples start to ache. “Mari?” Darragh says my name so low, I almost can’t hear it over the dull…

But then why are we stopping in the middle of the woods? Lenox and the gray-haired man squat beside me. He’s older—in his late fifties—and he’s got a close-cropped gray beard and a thick gold ring with a red stone. He shoves my curls out of my face. I jerk my head away. He laughs….

Even though I can’t get enough air, and my sides are on fire, and my shoulder bones are being slowly ripped from their sockets by the weight of my body, I’m scared to look inside. What if it isn’t there anymore? My wolf glances over her shoulder at me and whines again. I have no…

“I’ll let Dermot take a few males with him.” “Not too many.” Killian nods, humoring me. “Of course.” I sigh again. “I better get the chains.” I give the bog worm one last prod just to see it jiggle, and then I head to the structure I’m building in the elms on the northern edge…

Killian chuckles like he’s been given a compliment. “You just stared death in the face, kid. I bet those yips are gone. Ivo and Tye don’t look so scary now, eh?” Lucan looks completely unimpressed by his logic, which amuses Killian even more. “Come on.” He claps the kid on the back. “Let’s go back…