Gabriella - Alpha Marked, Book II (6 page)

Just another reminder that wolves were a
bloodthirsty, deadly race.

Gabby shook her head, and when Whitney
reached for her, she went willingly into her sister’s embrace. “No.
It’s fine. It is what it is and—”

“What’s with the tears?” Scarlet stroked her
back, comforting hand tracing her spine.

“We’re mates, but we won’t be mating. Ever.
They,” another shake of her head. “They’ve chosen not to claim me.”
She closed her eyes and tears still leaked from beneath her lids.
She ignored the shocked gasps of not only her sisters, but the
guards surrounding them as well.

God, could her embarrassment get any
worse?

She practically felt Scarlet’s glare around
the room. The wolves stationed throughout the room quieted
completely until not a sound could be heard. “Come on, Gabs. We’ll
go chill in my sitting room and order enough chocolate to send us
into a diabetic coma.”

Scarlet’s grin was infectious, forced or not,
and Gabby felt herself nodding in response. Chocolate fixed
everything. Hopefully, even a broken heart.

Allowing her sisters to lead, Gabby followed,
eyes pinned to the ground. She didn’t want to see their pity;
feeling sorry for herself was enough. In moments, they were
ensconced in Scarlet’s bedroom and snuggled into a collection of
chairs and a couch that mirrored those in Gabby’s room.

Slumping onto the couch, she hugged a pillow
to her chest and curled into herself. She didn’t have any words to
express her pain. Nothing. Not a syllable or sound to release the
agony in her chest.

She’d be the first to admit that she hadn’t
been thrilled about having to attend the Gathering. The idea that
magic would determine her husbands grated on her, and the fact that
the Marked had to follow wolfen law scraped against her nerves. It
took seeing Scarlet with her new mates for her to realize that her
situation might not be
all
bad. But the moment she spied
Berke and briefly met Jack changed all of that.

Gabby glanced around the room, noting the
scattered clothes and personal items that decorated the furniture
and floor. She wanted this: a messy room that came from three
people being so wrapped in each other that everything else fell to
the wayside.

But she wouldn’t have it, would she?

Scarlet huffed, and Gabby could see the fire
kindling in her eyes. “So,” she cleared her throat. “Lemme get this
straight. They know you’re their mate and
don’t
want to mate
you? I mean, I don’t get the whole non-Alpha Pair-slash-Marked
mating dealio, but it’s there for you three.”

“Yup.” Gabby sighed and laid it all out for
her sisters, explaining the situation in broad terms and leaving
out what bits and pieces she thought should stay between her,
Berke, and Jack.

Silence reigned at the end of her speech,
enveloping them in an oppressive blanket until Scarlet shattered it
with a few words. “Was Jack dropped on his head as a kid?” She
raised her eyebrows. “Really. That wasn’t a rhetorical question. Or
maybe,” Scarlet sat up straighter. “There’s a history of Acute
Stupidity Disorder in his family tree. I bet if we shake it, it’d
pop out.” She tilted her head to the side as if pondering the idea.
“Do you think they have pills for that?”

Gabby fought against the giggles forming in
her chest, pushing them down with all her might, but she wasn’t
strong enough. First a snort escaped. Then a chuckle. A combination
of the two pushed past her lips then. (A snuckle?) And then a
full-fledge attack of the laughs hit her.

Whitney soon joined in, her tinkling giggles
adding to Gabby’s. “At least it’s not Erectile Dysfunction. Or is
it?” She waved the question away. “If it is, you’re better off
without ’em. I mean, ED in their thirties? How much use will you
get out of them long term? What if they become immune to the little
blue pill?” Whitney shuddered. “Can you imagine a life without
sausages?”

Gabby threw her head back and laughed.
“Sausages? Really? You can call them dicks, hon.”

Whitney wrinkled her nose. “That seems so…
So
.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Whatever
Whit-prude.”

Relaxing into the couch, some of the tension
of the morning drained away. God, she loved her sisters. Her
annoying, infuriating, loving sisters.

Except… A flash of bright red caught her eye
and she narrowed her eyes.

Gabby needed to amend her thought. She loved
her sisters except when they stole things. “Scarlet, is that my
Favorite Top of all Time
?”

“Uh, well…” Scarlet cleared her throat. “I
think we should focus on Whitney now, don’t you? I mean we need to
find the Wardens for Whit and figure things out and—” A soft knock
interrupted her sister’s obvious attempt at changing the
subject.

With a glare at Scarlet, she sprung from the
couch and stomped to the bundle of red in the middle of the room,
snatching it up and shaking it out to get a better look. Yup. Hers.
Scarlet normally did
not
wear red. Too many people use to
joke about “Scarlet wearing scarlet.” Apparently her newfound mates
gave her the confidence to bust out with the cherry red.

A low, “saved by the knock” drifted to her,
and she glared even harder.

“Bitch.” She grumbled and returned to her
seat. Hopefully it was the guards with mounds of chocolate-covered
heaven for them. Okay, it was for Gabby, she could admit it.
Chocolate cured everything. Including heartache over mates who were
so frozen by fear that they couldn’t see beyond their past and into
their future.

A low murmur of voices drifted toward them,
but it was Scarlet’s screeches that snared Gabby’s attention.
“Excuse the fuck outta me?”

She let out a relieved sigh. She could
definitely go for dealing with someone else’s drama right then.
Focusing on another wolf would let Gabby wallow in her own
chocolate coated misery. Well, as soon as the sugary sweetness got
into her grubby hands.

“Tell the two-bit whore that she can fling
herself off the building for all I care. Hell, I’ll help her. Lemme
open a window.” Scarlet flung the door open wide, and Gabby caught
site of a very uncomfortable looking guard. Her sister nudged the
poor guy before her.

“Alpha Mate, please.” The wolf held up his
hands as if to stop Scarlet, but Gabby knew that wasn’t about to
work.

“Please my ass. If some butt-sniffing—” A
feminine shriek came from the other room, but Scarlet continued.
There was no stopping her once she got going. “Slutty, dog-whore,
cum bucket who can only get a mate by trying to take someone else’s
wants to try and come in here…”

Gabby looked at a pale-faced Whitney and
lowered her voice to a whisper. “Cum bucket? Someone’s been reading
some hard core erotica.”

Whitney leaned close. “She claims it
miraculously appeared on her e-reader.”

She snorted. “
Right
. You think some
bitch is trying to take Keller and Garron?” She continued with a
sing-song voice. “Scarlet’s gonna kick the chick’s ass. Doo-dah.
Doo-dah.”

Suddenly the door was flung wide and a woman
barreled into the room, pushing past Scarlet and heading straight
for her and Whitney. The female’s face was contorted, mouth in a
half-muzzle and sprinkles of blonde fur coating her skin. The
crunch and crack of bones reforming reached Gabby’s ears, and more
of the change washed over the stranger.

She jumped to her feet, unwilling to meet the
psycho sitting down. Who the hell knew what the chick’s problem
was, but it seemed to have something to do with either her or
Whit.

The female stopped in front of her, lips
pulled back in a snarl as she bared her fangs. “Gabriella Wickham,
I claim right of Mate Challenge.”

Well, that answered
that
question.

Gabriella’s words were merely a distant hum
in Berke’s mind, swirling around like ghosts but not truly forming
into anything he could understand.

“
I’m sorry I’ll never get to love
you.”

They’d sat there, watching her walk from the
room, their lives, without a look back. But he couldn’t blame her.
Marked spent their lifetimes waiting for this moment, this second
in time when they’d form a triad and live happily ever after. True,
it hadn’t worked out with Jack’s parents, but Berke had been so
sure…

Like a puppet, Jack had risen and fled the
room, and Berke couldn’t find it in him to care where the man went.
It’d all come crumbling down. He hadn’t expected things to bloom
into happiness in a blink, but…it was over before it began.

Even his wolf was quiet, not a growl or snarl
to be heard, as if it’d given up.

Pain, both physical and emotional, wrapped
around his chest, tightening and squeezing until he could hardly
breathe or think. He gasped for air, fighting to remain conscious,
begging his body not to betray him.

It was over. Truly.

Berke bent over and then crumpled forward
onto the carpet. He gagged, bile rising in his throat, and he
dashed away the tears in his eyes. He could die now; right now he’d
welcome eternal rest. He wanted to be released from a lifetime of
suffering. He wouldn’t have Gabriella or Jack with him, so what was
the point of continuing?

He could go to the forest, shift and let the
wolf take over. Eventually a hunter would find him. Yes, that would
work. He just needed to resign first.

Pushing to his feet, he stumbled toward the
door, ignoring Gabriella’s scent as it grasped at him like a
physical thing. It clawed at his clothes, holding him tight and
threatening to keep him trapped in the room.

No, that couldn’t happen.

He broke free of the temptation and stepped
into the hallway. Jack’s scent drifted to the left, telling Berke
the wolf had taken the back stairs that led to their shared suite
on the floor below. So he would go right, into the center of the
suite. He couldn’t be around Jack right now, not with what lingered
between them.

The moment he stepped into the central room,
low growls assaulted him and battered him from all sides. A quick
glance around the space revealed that every guard exposed their
fangs to him and their faces were peppered with fur. He could
retaliate, censure them for the insubordination. But why bother? He
deserved their scorn and more.

He’d…
They’d
hurt Gabriella.

The ding of the elevator announced a new
arrival, but Berke couldn’t gather the energy to care. At least,
not until a guard entered, leading a smiling Hannah toward the
Ruling Alphas’ bedroom. When the woman caught sight of him her
smile turned evil, a glint of hate tainting her eyes along with a
flash of victory.

The sound of a scuffle and yells from the
suite had him striding forward, but he was quickly cut off by his
own subordinates, their eyes glowing yellow. He nearly bared his
fangs, his duty burned into his very soul demanding that he respond
to the threat to the Alpha Mate.

“
Gabriella Wickham, I claim right of Mate
Challenge.”

Hannah’s voice rang high and clear, and
another part of Berke shattered, his soul splintering into a
thousand pieces.

He had to find Jack. Now.

* * *

Jack settled on the bar stool and leaned his
forearms against the shined wood, letting his weight slump forward
as his shoulders drooped. He’d left his heart on the penthouse
floor, its broken pieces scattered within Gabby’s room and blowing
through the space.

He’d gotten what he’d wanted, hadn’t he? He
was still a single wolf and not part of an Alpha Pair. He didn’t
have to worry about the blood and gore that could come from taking
his position. He was alone.

Raising his hand, he caught the bartender’s
attention and ignored the sway of her hips as she approached. She
was probably trying to entice him. Too bad he and his wolf only
wanted one woman—ever—and the bartender wasn’t her.

“Shot of Johnnie Walker Blue and leave the
bottle.” He let his gaze turn to the polished wood of the bar top,
and he brushed the lingering woman from his mind. Gabby was all he
needed, and his wolf agreed. The beast hadn’t stopped howling
inside his head since Gabby walked away from him and Berke.

God, Berke. He’d never seen or felt so much
pain. Jack was used to having a sore heart, but Berke… He could
feel the man shattering, and Jack wasn’t sure if the other wolf
could live through the loss of Gabby.

Jack had forced one foot in front of the
other after Gabby left them, only waiting around long enough to
confirm that she’d been whisked away by her sisters. Which meant
he’d had to listen to the anguish that laced her words. Then he’d
faced the countless wolves that served under him growling and
snarling as he passed. There were no words said, but their message
was clear.

Jack had found his mate, a female that wolves
searched for from the moment they came of age, and had rejected
her. Bile rose in his throat, burning him from inside out.

A single amber-filled shot glass was placed
before him, a bottle filled with the same liquid just beside.
Without a glance at the bartender, he grasped the glass and tossed
its contents down his throat, not even noticing the burn of the
alcohol. He didn’t miss a beat as he poured himself another and
gave it the same treatment. He prayed he’d be able to drink enough
to get drunk and forget for a while. It was unlikely given his
werewolf metabolism, but he could hope. Hope for oblivion was all
he had left now.

“You need anything else, gorgeous?” The
female purred the words, and all it did was infuriate his wolf,
sending the beast to the edge of his control.

Growling, he stared at the woman. His eyes
stung, fingers ached with his impending change, and he knew his
other half was stalking a hairsbreadth beneath the surface.