Gabriella - Alpha Marked, Book II (5 page)

The amber wolf leaned toward her, eyes
lightening with every breath. He paused inches from her, motionless
and silently asking for permission before moving farther.

She couldn’t have held the single word within
her had her life depended on it. Arguments could come later. Right
now she needed what he offered. “Please.”

The Lieutenant struck like a snake, slamming
his lips against Gabby’s in a fiercely possessive kiss, capturing
and holding her tight within his grasp. He forced his way into her
mouth, plunging and sweeping into her depths without hesitation.
His taste exploded, bathing her with his masculine heat and warm
sweetness. She twined her tongue with his, giving and taking in
equal measure.

He pressed against her, molding his front to
her side, crowding her as the Captain’s arms remained around her
waist. The heat from their embrace seared her very soul, and she
was weak from their dual assaults. Teeth and lips explored her neck
while another set ravaged her mouth.

She sucked and flicked the amber wolf’s
tongue, teasing him and urging his passion higher. Another arm slid
around her back, a third joining the Captain’s to touch and stroke
her. Sexual heat slithered through her veins, sending her blood
boiling.

There was no doubt that she wanted these two
men, these two wolves, but there were still so many unanswered
questions. Her body begged her to relent, sink into them and damn
the consequences. Except the rational side of her, the bit that
realized that if she gave in right now, knew they’d be tied
together with no way to part.

Easing back, she pulled from the kiss,
struggling to end the enticing torment of his lips. A second longer
and she’d beg them to take her, bite her, and claim her.

With one last burst of self-restraint, she
wrenched her mouth from his. There. It was over. His tempting mouth
was no longer firm against her lips, and she was able to breathe
once again.

Gabby pushed at the wolf holding her, easing
him away, and she stepped out of their combined embrace. Growls
rolled after her, but she held up her hands, forestalling their
approach.

“No.” She shook her head. “Fifteen minutes
ago you,” she looked at the amber wolf, “didn’t want me. Five
minutes later, you scared another wolf from my side. As far as I
know, you aren’t even an Alpha Pair. How did this happen?”

Their muscles bunched and tightened, pressing
starkly against their tanned skin. She turned to the Captain,
admiring his closely cropped black hair and glittering green eyes.
Like the Lieutenant he was heavily muscled, tall and filled with
barely constrained power. She fought against the need to go to
them, mold herself to their bodies and beg for their touch once
again. There were too many unanswered questions and too much
standing between them. She needed answers before submitting to
their claiming.

“Hell, I don’t even know your names!”

The two men looked to each other, their gazes
communicating something she didn’t understand, and then the Captain
turned to her, his stare intent. “There are things that need to be
said, and we can proceed as you wish.”

As she wished.

As you wish.
Uttering those three
words took every ounce of Berke’s strength. He didn’t want to give
her a choice, just as he didn’t want to give Jack the option of
walking away.

“I’m Berke Davis, Captain of the Ruling
Alphas’ Guard, and this is Jack Wright, my Lieutenant.” He took a
deep breath, begging his wolf to remain calm. The beast was
fighting to break free, dispense with human speech and jump ahead
to the claiming. “You are correct that we aren’t an Alpha Pair, and
yet we are.”

Gabriella’s brows lowered as her lips
puckered in a small frown. His hands tingled with the need to wipe
away the expression. Nothing but smiles should ever grace her
features.

Reaching for her, he snared her wrist in a
gentle hold and tugged her toward a nearby couch. Thank goodness
they had somewhere to sit other than the bed. He settled her onto
the plush surface, sitting beside her as Jack slumped into a nearby
chair. Trepidation poured from his friend in never ending waves.
There was no gentle ebb and flow, merely an ever-pounding surf of
emotion.

Silence remained heavy, circling them in an
undulating current. So many words in the English language, yet he
couldn’t find a single one.

“Jack?” He looked to his friend, not sure
what he was asking, but he asked just the same.

“Yes.” Jack nodded, shoulders slumped, and he
could feel the heaviness of the other wolf’s heart.

Yes to their history then.

Berke twined his fingers with Gabriella’s and
squeezed her hand gently. He frowned at their conjoined hands,
hunting for the place to start their tale.

“The beginning usually works.” Her tone was
wry, and a glance at her face showed a smirk decorating her
lips.

Apparently he’d said his thoughts aloud.

With a sigh, he began…

“Jack and I were born into the same Pack, a
small one tucked up in the Georgia Mountains.” He let his mind
drift to his childhood, remembering the scents of earth and trees,
of stone and sunshine on the mountain. “He’s the only son of the
Alpha trio, and I’m just a regular wolf who happened to be born a
bad ass.” He puffed out his chest, grinning, and both Gabriella and
Jack laughed at that.

“You wish, asshole.” His friend snorted.

“When we were kids…” He furrowed his brow,
thinking back. “What, we were five? Six?”

Jack shook his head. “Try four. We were
precocious, Mom said.”

Damn, they’d been younger than he remembered.
“We’d been listening to adults talking after the run about how
Alpha Pairs were together forever and that they’d never be apart,
right?” A sharp, jagged shot of agony pierced him, the emotion
assuredly coming from Jack. “We were best friends,
are
best
friends, and we didn’t want anyone to separate us. We thought if we
became an Alpha Pair, they couldn’t tell us we couldn’t play
together.”

This time it was Gabriella who snorted.

“Yeah,” he smiled ruefully. “Precocious,
right? We snuck away that night and crawled into the tree house
that we were
definitely
not allowed to be in, and tried not
to cry when we…”

“Formed your bond.”

Berke shook his head. “A pretty way of saying
two four year olds cut open their hands on a rusty nail and pressed
our palms together while doing our damnedest not to burst into
tears. We were Alphas. Alphas don’t cry.”

“I wasn’t the one crying ya big baby.” Jack
smiled wide. “You should have seen him, Gabby. Big, bad Berke with
tears in his eyes and telling me that we could be Alphas next year
when we were ‘this many’.” His friend held up his hand, fingers
spread wide.

Berke snagged a pillow and flung it at the
other man. A bit of the pain traveling over their connection
lessened and allowed him to take a deep breath. “Ass.”

Gabby stroked the back of his hand with her
thumb. “So, you two put on your big boy britches and blood
bonded.”

He nodded. “Yup. Four years old and we’d tied
ourselves to each other. Any other boys would have simply gone home
with cuts on their hands. Maybe a few bruises.”

“But you two are Alphas through and through,
so it worked. And it was never finished because…”

There were two stages to becoming a true
Alpha Pair. First, they had to live through being bloodied in front
of another wolf equal in strength to their own. Had Jack been even
a hint weaker than him, Berke would have instinctively taken out
the perceived threat to his life. Being injured before another made
a wolf jumpy, prone to violence. Because they were evenly matched,
their wolves hadn’t gone on the offensive, recognizing that a
battle between them would only end in pain with no victor. A
werewolf version of “you can’t kick my ass and I can’t kick yours,
so let’s grab a beer.”

So, they’d gotten the hard part out of the
way first. Two four-year-old boys who’d decided that they didn’t
want their moms keeping them from playing together.

Berke opened his mouth to respond to
Gabriella’s unfinished question, ready to hurry through his
explanation as quickly as possible, only it was Jack who stepped
into the silence.

“Because one of my fathers murdered my mother
and my other dad the day before I turned sixteen.” Jack’s voice was
quiet, but the words sliced through the room. Gut-wrenching
heartache shot at Berke from his connection to the other wolf. The
feelings nearly had him doubling over in pain. “He said that Berke
and I were too strong. He wasn’t going to lose his Pack to two
snot-nosed teenagers.”

Berke replayed the words, the horror of
finding one of his Pack’s Alphas covered in his mate’s blood,
grinning and exposing red-hued teeth, and the bodies on the floor
barely recognizable. He clenched his fist tight, barely noticing
the sting of his nails digging into his palms. It’d hurt him, sure,
to lose their leadership like that. But Jack…

“He said the Ruling Alphas could take over
for all he cared, but he’d be damned if some other man’s whelp
would push him out of his place at sixteen.” Jack’s voice was
hoarse and stretched thin.

“But…” Gabriella shook her head, brow
furrowed. “But any children in a triad belong to both men.
They’re—”

Burke tightened his grip, taking comfort in
the feel of her skin beneath his. “It was obvious that Jack was
genetically Arthur’s, and the two of us together were easily
stronger than Jack’s parents. Even in our teens. So, Walter thought
that Jack and I wanted the Pack.”

“In his twisted mind…” Jack’s eyes drifted
closed. The agony was evident, not just in their bond, but also on
his features. “There was just so much fear. Fear that the bond
would be complete and that we’d suddenly decide we wanted to take
over. Everything.”

*

Dear God. She’d never heard anything
so…heartbreaking. The thoughts of what these two men experienced at
sixteen sank into her heart and tore it to pieces.

Squeezing Berke’s hand gently, she released
him and rose from her seat to go to Jack. She wasn’t connected to
them as she would be once they mated, but his blazing anguish was
easy to see on his features. His eyes glistened, light reflecting
off the tears forming. He blinked away the moisture upon her
approach, but she’d already caught sight of his vulnerability. And
it touched her like nothing before.

Berke, with his blatant sexuality and
interest, wanted her. There was no doubt. But Jack… He needed her.
Berke had been right in that. She could heal him, could show him
that being an Alpha didn’t mean heartache and loss. It was about
love. Love of his Pack, his mate, and any pups that came along the
way.

Sliding her hand into Jack’s, she forced one
arm aside and then slipped onto his lap. He didn’t grunt or groan
under her plump weight. He simply allowed her do as she wished
while she got comfortable. Laying her head on his shoulder, she
placed her other palm over his heart.

“It isn’t like that. Not truly.”

Jack’s arms wrapped around her waist, holding
her close as he laid his cheek atop her head. “I wish I could
believe that. I wish I could go to the Ruling Alphas and complete
my bond with Berke and then claim you, Gabby.”

Such a stark wistfulness in his voice brought
tears to her eyes.

“Jack—”

“No. Even if something like what happened to
my parents never occurs again, there are still challenges. Look at
yesterday. The Colson Alphas Challenged Keller and Garron for their
place
and
Scarlet. They died for their mistake.” His voice
held a grim tone.

Gabby closed her eyes, remembering the bloody
fight. Had it only happened last night? Being Marked meant that she
was taught about werewolf life, and she knew that the beasts were
an aggressive group. She’d just never been faced with the truth
before. And she had to admit that, in part, being an Alpha meant
facing challengers to their position.

“So you won’t ever claim a mate? Claim
me?”

“Gabby…” Jack’s heart stuttered beneath her
hand, his pulse tripping.

“You can become an Alpha Pair and face the
threat of challenges someday, or you can stay in the Ruling Alphas’
guards and deal with any threats to Keller and Garron.” She pulled
away from him, a sob sticking in her throat. She knew he meant
every word, knew his resolve to never complete his bond to Berke
was rock hard. “Every day you face death, Jack. Every. Day. You
just need to accept life.”

Rising from his lap, she turned toward Berke.
Two steps brought him within reach and she leaned down, brushing
her lips across his. Her tears were no longer willing to be held
back and cascaded down her cheeks, sliding over her face in thin
rivulets. “I’m sorry I’ll never get to love you. More than I can
ever say, I’m sorry.”

With that, she straightened and spun, keeping
her gaze averted as she padded to the bedroom door. She didn’t look
back, unwilling to return to them and beg Jack to reconsider. He’d
made his choice long ago. He’d forced back the bone-deep need to
complete the bond between him and Berke out of pure fear.

Unfortunately, the prospect of happiness
wasn’t strong enough to break through that barrier.

Unseeing, she shuffled through the suite,
blinking her eyes in an effort to slow her tears. Three steps into
the living room, she ran into her sisters, the two of them laughing
and chatting as they watched TV. As if sensing her presence, they
turned to her, and their smiles slipped from their lips.

“Gabby?” Whitney rose from her seat, concern
in both her tone and features. “What…”

“Gabs?” Scarlet popped up and strode toward
her, Whitney hot on her heels. “Who do we need to kill? The guys
will do that for me. Totally. It’s a perk.”