Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (5 page)

“Please,” I said, waving her off.
 
I stomped down the turmoil that was swimming
through my stomach and smirked.
 
“Tell
Dominic?
 
Not a chance.
 
You know I won’t say a word.”

The blare of a car horn made Marcy jump.
 
We both looked up to see Mom’s blue minivan
pulling up in the driveway.
 
She waved at
us and turned off the engine.
 
“Hi,
girls,” Mom said, as she opened the door.
 
She jumped out and then reached back into the car, pulling out two big
brown paper bags.
 
When she turned back
to us, she was smiling, but I thought it looked too big and too nervous.
 
Or maybe that was because I felt so nervous
that everything around me was suddenly looking … wrong.

“Hi, Mom,” we said in unison, both jumping
up from the swing.
 
Marcy gave me a
pointed look, as if to say
Not
a word.
 
I grimaced at her, and then rushed over
to help Mom with the bags.
 
Marcy was
right on my heels.

“Dad’s busy tonight so it’s just us
girls.”
 
Mom grinned, letting us take the
bags, which smelled deliciously like fried chicken, and then she reached back
into the car and produced an armload of movies.
 
“I brought home KFC and movies.”

~ AIDAN ~

Steam curled around
me.
 
I stood rigid on a platform of rock,
looking down into a pool of black.
 
The
hot spring fed the air with a misty fog, effectively reducing visibility for me
as well as my challengers.
 
Tonight was
not just about strength.
 
It was about
the ability to fight with what you had around you.
 
And I was ready, kind of, sort of, maybe.

The night air was cool but far from cold,
and the canopy of trees blocked out any moonlight from above.
 
I looked out over the crowd of twenty-nine
werewolves standing just on the edge of the challenger’s ring, defined by
blazing torches which lit their faces.
 
They
all watched me with
leery
eyes.
 
All but one.
 
Dominic.

He stood in the center of the ring, and
nodded to me for the second time, a clear indication that it was time to start,
and I gritted my teeth.
 
Even when he was
on the verge of trying to overthrow me, he still felt the need to act as my second
and feed me cues.
 
It was positively
infuriating.

I moved to the side, stepping around the
pool of water, and started down the carved rock staircase.
 
“All of you who wish to challenge me, step
forward,” I said, my voice strong and firm and cold, not giving any indication
to the fury that was brewing within me.
 
For a moment, I’d thought that maybe, just maybe, Dominic and I would be
a great team.
 
Too bad the thought didn’t
last.

I continued downward, keeping my chin even
and my shoulders back.
 
Dominic held my
eyes and a smirk grew upon his face.
 
I
smirked back, and raised an eyebrow.
 
What was he playing at?
 
Surely,
he had to be a little bit nervous, but if he was, he wasn’t showing it.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and
stepped onto the damp grass.
 
I paused
for a second, scanning the crowd, and as I did, most of them cringed back or
dropped their curious gazes to the ground.
 
The only ones that stayed firm were the pack enforcers, but they were
the least of my concern.
 
Enforcers
rarely challenged for alpha.
 
For the
most part, they were more than content with the power they already held over
the pack, and I was sure that I wouldn’t be going up against anyone from that team
of five tonight.

I
laughed,
a deep
and belting sound that echoed through the clearing.
 
I couldn’t help it.
 
My nerves were jumping like grasshoppers in
my belly.
 
All these
people watching me.
 
It kind of
sucked.
 
I could fight.
 
I could be a leader, but public speaking was really
not my thing.

“Is no one going to step forward?” I asked,
as I made my way into the center of the circle, feeling more confident with
every step, and I took my place in front of Dominic.
 
Part of me was hoping someone else would step
forward.
 
If I had to fight tonight, I
seriously didn’t want Dominic to be the only person I fought against.
 
I wanted … no, I needed a warm-up.

Dominic’s grin widened, and he took a step
closer to me.
 
And that’s when I noticed
it.
 
There was something in his
scent.
 
Something … not
right.
 
Everything was too calm
about him.
 
No trace of adrenaline.
 
No anger.
 
Nothing.

He took another step.
 
He was close enough that I could feel his hot
breath puffing against my face and his hazel eyes shimmered with flecks of
gold.
 
He held my stare for a long
moment, his muscles taut and his stance ready, and just when I thought he was going
to attack, he asked, “I didn’t fool you for a second, did I?”

“Nope,” I lied, keeping my face hard as
stone.
 
I felt a sigh of relief inching
up my throat and I quickly swallowed it down.
 
Relief washed over me in hot waves.
 
From what I knew of Dominic, if he had wanted to fight, it would have
been a fight to the death, and in that moment, I was shocked at how much I
didn’t actually want to kill the jerk.

He clasped me in a hug, smacking my
back.
 
“Now the fun starts,” he
whispered, except the tone he used made me think of anything but fun, and I
stiffened slightly.

Dominic stepped back from me and looked out
over the crowd once more, checking for anyone to step forward.
 
When no one moved, he pulled the short
wrought iron branding stick from his back pocket and walked over to one of the
torches, holding it in the flame to heat.
 
My jaw twitched.
 
I could already
feel the pain and it hadn’t even been done yet.

I turned to the crowd, a touch surprised at
the silence.
 
They were all watching me
expectantly, waiting for me to speak.
 
I
swallowed hard, and said, “You all have spoken by staying silent.
 
Today marks a new day for this pack.
 
New leadership and some much needed
change.
 
Together, we will bring balance
back into this pack.”

It all felt too easy.
 
All of it.
 
What had Ray done to these people?
 
The silence was deafening and for a split
second, I thought that someone might step up.
 
Surely at least one of the males wanted to try to take the pack.
 
They didn’t even know me.
 
I just couldn’t believe that they would allow
some new blood to walk in without a fight.
 
But then I heard it.
 
A soft clap.
 
Just one.
 
And that
one was followed by another and another, and soon the clapping was louder than
the silence.

I smiled and warmth rushed through me.
 
Acceptance.
 
I hadn’t let myself think that it could
happen this quickly, but it was.
 
Whether
it was because they actually wanted me, or because they were too scared to
cross me, I didn’t know, and right then, I didn’t really care.
 
This was mine.
 
All of it.
 
My life was changing and morphing before my
eyes.
 
In just a matter of hours, I had
gone from a lone wolf, running from my father, to an alpha.
 
It was a rush.
 
Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my
smile grew wider.

I stripped off my shirt, turning my back on
the crowd, and closed the distance to Dominic.
 
He held up the branding iron, the ‘A’ on the end glowed, burning like
embers.
 
This was the last step to
claiming my new rank.
 
The branding irons
had been created long ago, back when werewolves ran wild, and killed innocent
people recklessly.
 
They were infused
with magic from the first pack, and were distributed as new packs formed.
 
When an alpha was branded with it, the magic
bonded with their skin and bones.
 
It gave
them the power to use their scent, channel it, enhance it, and call upon it, in
order to control their wolves.

He mouthed,
‘You ready,’
which turned out to be a pointless question, because
he didn’t wait for my answer before he stabbed my right pectoral with the magic
infused, burning metal.

I locked eyes with him.
 
My skin sizzled and my jaw clenched, but
somehow I managed to stay still and not make a sound.
 
It hurt like hell.
 
The metal burning and
melting my skin.
 
Leaving the
alpha’s imprint on my chest, but I didn’t flinch.
 
I wanted this too much.
 
Craved it.
 
Needed it.
 
I could already feel the magic seeping into
my bones as my flesh melted around the smoldering metal.

When he finally pulled it away, my skin
stung as it quickly stitched back together, leaving a raised scar that looked
as if it had been there for years.
 
Dominic dropped the branding stick to the ground and snagged up a bottle
of rye.
 
He handed it to me, straight
faced, with awe shining in his eyes, and gave me a firm whack on the back,
before moving back into the center of the circle.

I quickly twisted the top and took a deep
swig from the bottle.
 
The rye burned
down my throat, and warmed my belly.
 
My
skin still stung, but the pain was tolerable.
 
The soft buzz of the crowd drifted around me and it grew, louder and
louder.
 
I turned back to them just as
Dominic raised a hand, silencing them.

The crowd inched forward, moving in closer
to the edge of the circle, and I cringed on the inside as I watched the
females, shuffling in, snapping and growling at each other, even in their human
forms.

Dominic stood still, waiting for them to
settle, and as I watched him, I was certain that this was not the first time he
had made this announcement.
 
He waited
patiently, playing his role of my beta perfectly.
 
And right then, I got the feeling that Tammy
may not have been the first alpha female Ray had had.
 
Dominic seemed … practiced.
 
Sure of himself, and what needed to be said.

“Ray’s death has not, and will not be
leaked,” Dominic said, belting out the words so loudly it was as if he had a
microphone.
 
“As you know, Tammy has left
us, and with her gone, a new alpha female must rise up.
 
So tonight not only marks the night of a new
alpha male for our pack, but it also marks the start of the games for a new alpha
female.”

Hoots and hollers rang out through the
night, and Dominic smiled, patiently waiting for them to die down before
continuing, “Once the alpha pair has been established, we will let the news
travel.
 
You all need to be vigilant with
your patrols.
 
If any of you pick up the
scent of Bruce’s pack, we need to know immediately.
 
He can’t know that the females don’t have a
leader.”

“You sound pretty cocky there, Dominic,”
someone shouted.
 
“Last I checked
,
you lose your status when a new alpha male takes over.”

Dominic
laughed,
a
cruel sound.
 
“You want to fight me for
it, Joe?”
 
Everything about him was
relaxed as he spoke, his shoulders loose, his smile easy.
 
He waited for a moment before another laugh
fell out and he said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
 
Then he turned to me and said, “You want to
settle this, Aidan?
 
Are you going to
appoint a new beta?”

The pack erupted in a mess of noise.
 
“Enough!” I yelled over the chaos.
 
“Dominic will remain as my beta.”
 
I paused, waiting for any objections, but
when none came, I said, “Let the games begin.”