Filed To Story: Alpha's Regret: His Wrongful Rejection
Leith is unconcerned. There’s no tension in his stance, no shred of anxiety in his scent. He knows, as we all do, that we’re no match for him.
His back is turned toward you.
He flashes the female wolves his eerie fake smile and coos to Efa’s wolf where she pokes out her head. “Come out, come out, little lady. Don’t make me come through your dams to get you.”
Nessa’s wolf snarls and glances over her shoulder, gauging the distance between her and her pup, weighing the danger of breaking the line to protect her.
Leith snarls back, louder, longer, with all the force of an alpha at the height of his powers.
Efa’s wolf whimpers and hides her muzzle in Lilliwen’s skirt.
That won’t save her.
Efa’s terrified, shivering, her fur bristling.
She did nothing to deserve this.
She’s going to remember this forever.
She’s going to wear this fear, from this moment, like a second skin. It’s going to burrow into her brain and torment her, dogging her steps, stealing her peace, tainting every good thing that will ever happen to her until she runs away from hope. From love. From life.
And this male doesn’t care. He’s smirking. He wants her to be afraid.
For all of us to be afraid.
He snaps his fingers. “Send the pup to me now, or I’ll come get her myself.”
He’s a male, and we are nothing to him. Nothing.
No.
Not again.
Never again.
The needles. By the chair.
I see them, the two medium needles I absentmindedly left stuck in a ball of orange yarn the day before my heat. They’re sticking out of a burlap bag beside the place the rocking chair had been before it became a barricade.
I can’t. I’m too scared.
Yes, you can. You can run.
“Now!” Leith barks.
Now!
I shift. No bones break. No muscles tear. I lift my paw and my bare foot hits the ground. I blink and the grays and browns of the sycamore turn bright, spring green. It’s not a shift; it’s a flip. Like a flip of a switch.
I stumble, but I don’t lose momentum. The voice is right. Ican run.
The females notice me, see where I’m heading, and they break into a single-throated cry of deafening howls that shakes the ground. They lunge forward and scramble back, distracting him. Nessa dashes for Efa, throwing her body of top of her pup.
I’m close. So close.
My fingers wrap around the needles, one in each hand, and I whirl, setting my sights on the enemy. He still has his back to me.
I’m small. Weak. Not a threat.
Aim for his throat.
I break into a sprint, and when I’m just close enough, I leap, my wolf powering my legs, and I drive a needle into the place where his shoulder meets his neck, sinking it all the way to the acorn carved on the top.
He spins, blinking in surprise.
I raise the other needle.
Stick it right in his eye.
A male roars behind me. Bloody arms wrap around me like a vise, the scent of earth and copper surrounding me.
Justus.
Other howls ring out, other scents descending from all directions, mixing with the smoke from the dwindling fire.
Killian. And Tye, Ivo, Gael. Khalil, Alroy, Max.
Justus shoves me behind his body, the other Last Pack males rushing to stand at his left and right, blocking me from the Salt Mountain alpha swaying on his feet.
He didn’t even go down.
He bares his fangs, yanks the needle from his neck, and blinks at it, bemused.
“Did you stab me with a fucking knitting needle
?” He holds it up. Blood oozes from the wound, dripping down his bare chest. I didn’t even hit an artery.
Justus snarls, squaring his shoulders and bending his knees, readying himself to attack. Every inch of his body is covered in mud and blood, gashes and purpling bruises. White bone shows through a jagged slash on his forearm.
A male coughs, clearing his throat. “Can we just take a beat?” Killian raises his hands, raw flesh where his nails should be.
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he’s as battered as Justus, and he seems to be favoring his left leg, like his right can’t hold weight. Our males spar constantly. I’ve seen all of them beat up at some point, but I’ve never seen any of them mangled this bad. I can’t believe either he or Justus are still upright.
“That bitch stabbed me.” Leith points at me with the knitting needle.
Justus howls and steps toward him. Khalil and Alroy grab his arms. He shakes them off like flies.
I dart forward and snatch his hand. He glances over his shoulder at me, his wolf blazing gold in his eyes. A snarl rattles his chest, but he stays put.
“That’s Annie Murphy,” Killian says to Leith. There’s a note of exhaustion in his voice that I’ve never heard before.
“The female we’re stealing back?” Leith’s lip quirks. He’s amused.
My wolf growls. The Quarry Pack males gape at me in surprise. The Last Pack wolves add their growls to mine.
“Can I ask what you were doing?” Killian asks Leith.
“Taking the opportunity to get a little of our own back.”
“Efa isn’t yours!” I shout. I have to be loud in order to be heard over the female wolves howling their own objection.
Justus tightens his hold on my hand, and I realize I’ve stepped forward, lifting the needle still clasped in my fist. He lifts his chin and growls at Leith in a register I’ve never heard before from any male, any alpha. It’s wolf and man, a resonance that’s both and neither and something else besides, a rumble that’s more thunder than voice. I catch a whiff of singed air.
And I realize that while we were speaking, the Last Pack wolves have been stalking closer and closer. All of them. Griff and Elis and Rodric and dozens of others, old and young, big and small. Somehow, Leon snuck from behind Lilliwen and circled around everyone so that he’s now approaching our rear with the others. The Quarry Pack and Salt Mountain males are outnumbered easily twenty to one.
And when my eyes dart to Killian’s face, I see that he realizes it, too. His gaze meets mine, and for the first time in my life, I hold it without flinching.
“You’re not stolen, are you, Annie?” he asks.
I shake my head.
He blows out a long breath before turning his attention to the female wolves still bristling in a line, defending the pups huddled under the sycamore.
“None of you were stolen, were you?” he says to them.