Gabriella - Alpha Marked, Book II (3 page)

He wasn’t part of an Alpha Pair.

And Gabby was definitely not his mate.

Too bad his wolf disagreed.

*

Berke sensed Jack’s approach, recognizing the
emotions clouding his friend’s mind. Rage roiled within the other
man, the feeling overriding everything he’d experienced in the last
ten minutes.

Apparently his friend wasn’t going to follow
orders and was hunting him down immediately.

He’d left the Lieutenant with his command,
but had hung around long enough to see Jack find their mate’s
scent. He’d stumbled along and located their Gabriella, and that
was when he’d made his retreat. The other wolf needed the
opportunity to face what he’d been denying since they were
young.

Jack was an Alpha and meant to be paired with
Berke. History be damned and end of story.

Finding Gabriella was simply an “in your
face” way of being hit with the truth.

Rage pounded at Berke, shoving at his
control, and his wolf jumped to the fore, sensing imminent danger.
They knew it was Jack, knew that the two of them would be well
matched, but it’d end up bloody.

Pushing away from the wall, he turned toward
the source of the fury-tinged emotions, intensity growing as Jack
closed the distance between them. He tracked the other wolf’s
progress, noting the disturbances in the crowd while Jack pushed
and shoved other Alpha Pairs aside. Growls preceded his friend’s
advance, snarls joining in with the sounds until it seemed a mass
challenge was inevitable.

Aw, shit, the Ruling Alphas really were gonna
kick his ass for this. Maybe shoving Jack at Gabriella had been a
mistake. Just then his friend burst through the crowd at a run,
gaining speed with every step, and Berke spread his legs, waiting
for Jack’s attack. It wasn’t long in coming.

In two massive strides, Jack was upon him,
fist colliding with Berke’s jaw in an echoing crack of bone against
bone.

He stumbled back under the force, shoes
sliding over the polished marble floor. Warm wetness coated his
chin, and he wiped the throbbing skin. Pulling his fingers from his
flesh, he found exactly what he’d been expecting.

Blood.

Berke straightened, facing his best friend
and Alpha partner—whether he accepted it or not—and waited for what
came next. He didn’t raise his fists to retaliate or allow his wolf
free to tear into the man. No, he stilled and waited.

Jack shook out his hand, redness from the
strike already blooming across his knuckles. “You fucking
dick
.”

Another punch came, aimed at his head once
again, and Berke ducked, dodging it easily. All the while, his
friend’s emotions pummeled and pounded against him. Anger was
readily recognized, the fury written over Jack’s features. But
beneath the rage, hidden under the swirling hints of red and black
that lurked within his best friend, there was pure unadulterated
fear. That stark emotion sent a shiver down his spine, his body
reacting to his partner’s feelings. Adrenaline unrelated to the
fight poured into his veins. Fight-or-flight beat at him, yet the
emotion was anchored in the past, their combined history, and had
nothing to do with today.

“Now, Jack…” The next strike collided with
his stomach, forcing him to double over. Jack took advantage,
clipping his jaw once again.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Jack’s chest heaved
with a combination of rage and alarm.

“Yeah.” Berke blocked his friend’s next
attack.

“We’re not—”

He cut off Jack’s words with a hit of his
own, fist colliding with the other wolf’s kidneys, first one and
then the other. The guy would be pissing blood for a little while.
Good thing wolves healed so fast, otherwise it would’ve been days.
“We are. You know it. I know it. The fucking Ruling Alphas know
it.” He ducked and danced aside. “You just need to accept it,
Jack.”

“I won’t be like him, asshole.” Jack spat the
word “him”, the single syllable a curse. “I won’t claim a Marked
and do that. I won’t…”

A hint of regret tinged his emotions and his
feelings intertwined with his friend’s. Neither of them wanted to
be like
him
. Neither of them wanted to be a mate like
him
. Or lead their Pack like
him
. The ephemeral ghost
still lingered and blocked their future after all these years.

“Jack…” Berke glanced at the crowd they’d
attracted with their confrontation. Alpha Pairs and Marked alike
had formed a circle around them. The wolves’ eyes held a glowing
blood lust while the females looked on with hints of fear and
worry. He sighed and slumped forward, letting his hands rest on his
knees while he dropped his head. “It’s time, Jack. Now. Today. This
second.”

The other wolf shook his head, his terror
assaulting Berke with every beat of his heart. It pummeled him with
its intensity. “I won’t do it. Ever. Find some other woman—”

“Don’t worry, it’s a nonissue now.” The voice
struck Berke’s heart, sinking into his soul like every other word
Gabriella had ever spoken. He found her amongst the crowd,
bracketed by her livid sisters with the Ruling Alphas standing just
behind the three women. “The last thing I want to do is tie myself
to two men who don’t want me.”

With that, Gabriella spun and pushed past her
family, shoving aside even the Ruling Alphas in her haste to leave
them behind. Her eyes glistened in the light of the hallway, and he
fought to deny that they were gathering tears. Pain unlike he’d
ever known beat at his heart, threatening to crush him in its
intensity. She’d walked away, run, due to Jack’s absolute terror of
turning into his father.

Berke felt Jack’s regret push into him,
overtaking the lingering remnants of the man’s rage and fear. He
swung his attention back to his friend. “Damn it, Jack.”

The wolf opened his mouth, but words never
came forth.

“You two, with us.” Garron, the larger of the
Ruling Alphas, broke through the growing tension.

“Now.” Keller was smaller yet no less fierce
than his partner, and his order brooked no argument.

Straightening, Berke took a step toward the
retreating wolves, his training overcoming his dread at what was to
come. They’d crushed Gabriella and deserved whatever justice Keller
and Garron decreed.

Striding past Jack, he paused at his friend’s
words. “I’m sorry, Berke. I really am. I never meant—”

He sighed and stared into eyes he knew better
than his own. “I know, but apologies and ‘never meants’ aren’t
going to do anything to help us when we claim Gabriella.” Berke
glared at Jack when he opened his mouth to speak. “And we
are
claiming her. Whether she likes it or not.” Moving past
his best friend, he called to him over his shoulder. “Jack, I
suggest you learn how to grovel. I know I will be.”

Gabby wasn’t going to stop until she got to
her sister’s penthouse suite. Well, Scarlet was sharing it with her
mates and Gabby and Whitney, but she still felt like it wasn’t her
place. Especially when the Ruling trio got busy, and those moans
could be heard in nearly every room. She knew (conceptually, not
actually) that sex could be fun-times, but she didn’t want to
hear
her sister getting it on.

Ick.

Gabby embraced the silence of the elevator as
it ascended, but anger and indignation still thumped through her.
She didn’t imagine she’d be left alone for long, and her
insecurities and humiliation poked and prodded her through the
interminable rise.

God, not only did they not want her, the
Lieutenant seemed disgusted by the idea of mating her. Oh, he’d
growled and done the wolf-y “mine” thing at the table, but the
moment his human half regained control he’d run.

A low
ping
announced her arrival, and
Gabby slipped through the doors the moment they opened enough for
her to pass. She stomped into the suite, ignoring the regular
guards stationed throughout the penthouse as she traveled deeper
into the space. With every step, she took a breath and released it
slowly, fighting to regain her composure before she blew her
top.

She hadn’t asked to be Marked when she was
born. She hadn’t asked to come to the Gathering. She hadn’t even
asked to find her mates. Nope, none of it. But since she hadn’t had
a choice in the matter, she’d resigned herself to mating two
wolves. Two wolves who, by all accounts, would love and cherish and
boink her from this day forward ’til death did them part.

She strode into the living room and chose to
ignore the sight of her sister’s bra tossed over the back of the
couch as well as a pair of boxer briefs forgotten beneath one of
the club chairs. Apparently Scarlet and her mates had a little fun
while Gabby suffered through the Tests of Proximity. The clothing
served as a tangible reminder of what Gabby would never have.

She wasn’t sure how long she remained locked
in her mind, but eventually the soft shuffle combined with wheezing
gasps told her that her sisters had finally made it up the stairs.
Part of her felt bad that they’d been forced to make their way to
the penthouse on foot, but the rest of her was too wracked by
anguish to worry for too long.

Huffing out a breath, she spun and faced the
crowd that’d followed her. The nearby guards’ expressions shifted
from piteous to speculative and on to confused. And her sisters,
her loving, amazing, best sisters ever, looked ready to go
homicidal on someone. Well, someones.

“That happened, right?” She directed the
question to the room at large, not expecting an answer. But she had
to ask just the same. “I mean, based on his behavior, I’m
ninety-nine percent sure the Lieutenant is one of my mates. I
figure the Captain is the other, since I got all hot and bothered
and my Mark reacted at breakfast. But the whole rejection thing
downstairs… That wasn’t some nightmare like when I used to dream
about going to school naked?” Gabby spun away from the group.

“Um…” Whitney. Poor Whit wasn’t big with
confrontation.

“I wasn’t just embarrassed in front of the
entire fucking Gathering
and rejected by my mates in front
of the
entire fucking Gathering
or anything, right?” She
took a slow breath. No sense in screaming the roof down. “Because
the point of the
entire fucking Gathering
is for wolves to
find mates!” So much for not screaming.

“An Alpha Pair rejected you?” There was a
tone of utter disbelief in those words, and she swung her attention
around to a wide-eyed guard stationed along the wall.

“Ixnay! Ixnay!” Scarlet half-whispered,
half-yelled at the guy, but Gabby had already heard him.

“Yes!” She marched up to the wolf in
question—whom she decided to call Hello Sexy—and his eyes grew
wider with every foot closer she got to him. Cupping her breasts,
she jiggled the mounds. “Are my boobs too small? Is that it?” The
guard remained silent, and she looked over her shoulder, trying to
see her butt. Spinning, she presented him with her backside. “Maybe
it’s my ass. Is it too small? Or big? I bet we could bounce a
quarter off that shit.” She wiggled her ass and focused on Scarlet.
“Hey, gimme a quarter and give it to tall, furry, and silent here.
We’re gonna see if it bounces off my ass like peanuts bouncing off
of that wrestler’s man-titties when he did that pec tightening
dance thingy in that movie.”

Whitney raised her hand like they were in
school. “Pec Pop of Lurve.”

“Yes, that’s it! We’ll call this the ‘Butt
Bounce of Gabby Getting Rejected in Front of the
Entire Fucking
Gathering
’.” She forced a grin to her lips, ignoring the
thumping pain in her heart.

“Uh, I’ve got a quarter.” The deep, rolling
voice coming from the man behind her sank into her bones. Damn, if
she hadn’t found the two assholes she was meant to be with, she’d
throw herself at the altar of Hello Sexy.

She peeked over her shoulder and flashed the
guard a smile. “Perfect. Get to bouncing, baby.”

A deafening roar, followed by a snarl, echoed
off the walls, and she tore her attention from Hello Sexy to the
entryway.

“Touch her and die!” The words came from a
half-shifted wolf with dark hair. His green eyes sparkled with
rage, those orbs the only hint as to the man’s identity. His mouth
had formed to a wolfen maw, and deep silver fur covered each inch
of his exposed body.

“Mine!” Another beast stood beside the first
intruder, just as shifted and deadly looking as the other, with
dark hazel eyes and amber blanketing him.

Great, it was Tweedle-Find-Some-Other-Woman
and Captain-Dick-Head. Obviously they’d escaped the Ruling
Alphas.

The two man-beasts came toward her, lumbering
steps bringing them closer with every passing heartbeat. She
released her breasts, holding her hands out in an effort to halt
their approach. Tension, rage, and fury battered at her, the
wolves’ anger palpable in the room, nearly choking her with its
power.

“Nu-uh, furballs. No interrupting the
BBGGRFEFG.” At their confused looks, their bushy eyebrows lowering
and wolf lips dropping into a frown, she elaborated. “It’s the
‘Butt Bounce of Gabby Getting Rejected in Front of the
Entire
Fucking Gathering
’. You know, because the two of you
rejected
me. In front of the
entire fucking
gathering
.” Low growls were their only response, but it was the
third throaty sound behind her that drew her attention back to
Hello Sexy. “Uh…”

“Gabriella, tell the wolf to back off before
we do it for him.” Amber guy bared his teeth, snarling in
warning.

Lovely.

“Mine!” The silver wolf took a step forward,
flexing his claw-tipped hands.

She reached behind her and patted the guard.
She may nearly hate (okay, dislike a lot) her mates, but she wasn’t
willing to risk another’s life. She knew how protective and
possessive wolves could be. As evidenced by the fact that Garron
and Keller had killed an Alpha Pair the previous night, when two
idiots threatened both their position and mating to Scarlet.