My Alphas: The Complete Series (16 page)

Edon moved close to Cass and bent down to whisper in her ear.

“I believe she was lured into the territory by humans working with the Turo pack. She would’ve been killed if our scouts had not found her. Could you calm her and see if this is true?”

Cass blinked a few times as he stood up, trying hard not to breathe in. Just the nearness of him was enough to derail her thoughts and then his scent completed the job.

“Yes,” she managed to answer at last.

He slipped her the black cabin key, the cool metal feeling heavy in her palm.

She stepped away from him to walk to the girl and then felt her hips swinging more than they usually did. Cass mentally told herself off and then made the mistake of looking back at Edon. He was looking down at her curves and when she looked back he glanced up and she saw the invitation in his eyes.

She hastily turned around to face the girl, feeling her cheeks must be turning red.

“I’m Cass. Come with me. You’re safe.”

She took the girl’s trembling hand and led her down the path to the forest. Edon and Nia followed behind, Nia carrying the red glitter bag and looking like a catwalk model for a particularly adventurous naked fashion show.

“What is your name?” Cass asked but the girl didn’t answer. She seemed terrified into silence by the werewolves around her.

Despite the girl practically shaking herself to pieces they were soon at the cabin. Cass opened the door and led the way in.

Edon followed them inside, taking the red bag from Nia and placing it on the floor. Nia stood outside, looking anxiously in. Cass had come out to the cabin twice in the week but Nia refused to come inside even when invited. It seemed werewolves didn’t like enclosed spaces - at least not buildings - and so Nia would wait for Cass to come out, wandering off to the edge of the forest and shifting to wolf form to snooze.

The girl turned and saw Edon standing in the doorway. She gasped and let go of Cass’ hand, rushing past her and into the bathroom.

Cass turned around to look at the Alpha. He was a spectacular figure of a man but gawd was he big. In the small cabin he seemed to loom and his shoulders looked like they’d barely fit through the door. Cass moved closer to him and tried not to breathe in as she whispered to him.

“Perhaps you can go outside and take Nia away with you? She’s not going to calm with werewolves around.”

Edon seemed to consider it, looking across at the open bathroom door and then back at Cass. He reached down and stroked his hand under her ear, touching her neck.

“Very well. I will be nearby. Find out what she knows.”

Then he kissed her, a peck on the lips that lingered and threatened to become more. When they broke apart Cass found herself almost panting.

“Okay, go, go,” she said, pushing at the Alpha.

The immovable object smiled at her and then left the cabin, closing the door behind him. He and Nia walked to the edge of the glade, Nia shifting as usual and settling down. Edon vanished into the trees but Cass knew he’d be there, watching.

With the werewolves gone, Cass turned around to focus on the girl.

“Hello? Are you there?”

She waited but there was no response. Then she heard a huffing noise from the bathroom. The girl was crying again.

“It’s okay. I’m human. You can talk to me. The werewolves are gone.”

After a moment she heard padding footsteps and the girl emerged from the bathroom, looking around fearfully.

“Are you really a person?” she asked.

Cass felt a spark of annoyance at the prejudice built into the question.

“They’re people too. But yes, I’m human like you.”

“Can you… can you ask them to go further away?”

Cass looked out the window. Nia was already on the perimeter of the glade. Any further and she’d be back at the den.

“They can’t hear us. They won’t come back unless I call them.”

“Oh.”

“Come sit at the table with me.”

Cass sat down, not waiting for an answer. Soon the girl shuffled over and sat down, frequently looking out the window.

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Melanie.”

“How did you come to be out here?”

Melanie wrung her hands together and Cass noticed despite how disheveled she looked, her nail-polish was near perfect.

“I was in town and I met these guys…”

She frowned and swallowed, wetting her lips. Cass thought they must have been salty given all the crying she’d been doing.

“They seemed fine and they told me I could meet a werewolf Alpha and so I-”

Cass nodded, understanding the story. But then Melanie cut off abruptly, her tears vanishing almost as quick.

“Cass, I’m here for you. Don’t react, pretend you’re calming me down.”

Cass frowned at the sudden change in her demeanor.

“Sorry, what?”

“Werewolf Safe World keeps a watch on the border. They know a wolf-crazy girl. The clerk at Wyatt’s told them you came in to buy supplies. Then you vanished before they could contact you. I work for them. I’m here to bring you back. You need to tell the werewolves I’m so terrified you have to escort me. Once we reach the town, you don’t return.”

Cass blinked as the world rearranged itself. Melanie, if that was her real name, wasn’t a girl found in the wilderness and saved from death by Arctos scouts. She was sent to fetch Cass and take her back to town. The world finally stopped spinning.

“Sorry, what? You want me to leave my Alphas?”

It felt strange to say it and even with the bizarreness of the situation crashing down on her, Cass realized it was true. They were
her
Alphas.

“You have to come with me. This pack is dangerous. Look.”

Melanie retrieved her bag, shuffling over to it and putting on her scared act all the way to it and back. She pulled out the latest in smartphone technology and turned it on.

“Two years ago your so-called ‘Alphas’ attacked a pack while their Alpha was away. They killed ten females and three children. Then, when human hunters arrived, they killed them too.”

“But how do you know this?”

“You saw the plane last week? We’ve had the Arctos pack under surveillance for years.”

She passed Cass the phone. There they were, her two Alphas, covered in blood standing in a clearing with dead bodies all around them. Cass flicked through the grim images. In one Rey was a blur but there was no mistaking his size and shape. He had a man’s arm between his jaws, torn free from a body. Cass flicked through the photos. Edon and Rey. Dead werewolves. Dead humans.

“They’re dangerous and if you had any sense you’d leave right now.”

“I can’t leave,” Cass replied automatically.

“I know they’re possessive but we can get you to safety. When we get back we’ll put you on a plane across the country and they’ll never find you.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Cass said. “I’m not leaving them. All these photos show are my Alphas amongst dead bodies. This one shows them fighting humans who have guns. I don’t believe it.”

“And women who are beaten by their abusive partners believe he’s a good guy, deep down, and he does love them.”

Cass stared at Melanie, what she’d said resting uneasy on her mind. She didn’t believe Edon and Rey would slaughter an entire pack. Well, not without good reason….

No. They wouldn’t kill
children
would they?

Cass frowned and tried to think through this. The Arctos pack were being attacked. Maybe this was another form of it? If it was Melanie’s plan to have her questioning her Alphas then it was working. Cass was letting her take up mental real estate she didn’t deserve.

But how could she bring it up? Hey Edon, um, you and Rey didn’t mercilessly slaughter a pack of werewolves did you? Kill ten females and three children plus a bunch of humans who then showed up? Could you check out these photos and give me an answer?

No, she decided. She couldn’t believe it of them.

Well, of at least one of them. The other she was not so sure.

It didn’t matter. If she told Edon or Rey what Melanie was actually doing here… well, Edon might take her back to Hinton. Rey would kill her.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Cass said, feeling like she was talking to herself of one week ago. “Walking out into the wild, hoping to find a werewolf pack? The only reason you’re still breathing now is you found the right ones.”

“So you won’t come back?”

“You need to tell your group, Werewolves Across America or whatever the hell you are, this pack is harmless. They’re not to blame for the dead humans that keep getting dumped here. There is another pack called Turo who are doing it. We think to bring Arctos under suspicion.”

Cass felt amazed to pull out such complete sentences. She must have picked up more in the last week than she knew. She was even more amazed to be using
we
instead of
they
.

“Please come back to Hinton. If you tell them who I am, they’ll kill me.”

“They won’t kill you. I’ll tell them to escort you back and you’ll keep up that terrified act. And I’m keeping this,” Cass added, slipping the phone into her pocket.

“There’s a charger in there too,” Melanie said. She reached into the bag and passed it to Cass. “If you change your mind, text anyone on there.”

Cass sat there looking at “Melanie”. She’d gone from sobbing lost girl to calm in record time. It was weird and unsettling.

“What is it you want?” she asked her.

“For you to come back with me. For you not to ruin your life - if they even keep you alive. Do you know what werewolf babies do to human mothers?”

Cass had read about werewolf mating but as there was very little in the way of field reports she considered most of it conjecture.

“They get born and grow up I expect.”

“One-third of all human mothers die in childbirth. If you stay, it could happen to you.”

Cass’ mind shot back to what Nia had said about Rey’s cubs. Their mother had died in the wilderness, frozen to death. She pulled herself off that and reassembled her thoughts.

“This is crazy. You’re out of your mind coming out here. I’m not leaving. I chose to be here and I’m staying. Don’t send anyone else. In fact, if you want to do everyone a favor in Hinton, convince them to legally make this werewolf territory and stop humans coming out here.”

“Look at the way you’re talking.
You’re
a human. You don’t belong here.”

Yesterday, Cass had found a plastic chip packet bouncing its way across the landscape, riding on the breeze. Even here in the middle of nowhere Cass came across junk. The werewolves collected it and buried it, doing their best to keep the territory clean. Every time she saw a werewolf returning to the den with a plastic bag of empty beer cans or some other piece of trash she felt a twinge of guilt, as though she were personally responsible.

Although a fully paid-up member of Team Human she wasn’t proud of it and getting less so by the day.

She looked at Melanie, studying her garish nails and red lips, her plunging neckline and ripped stockings, breathing in her overpowering perfume. Everything about her seemed artifice and this person was here to rescue
her
? From what? Swimming in a warm spring and eating fresh fish and roasted meat? Spending her days and nights with two amazing Alphas?

“Go back to acting scared. I’ll get them to take you back. Go outside now.”

Melanie looked at her and Cass felt she was being examined and judged. Then, like a skilled actor, she burst into tears, her eyes turning red and nose blocking up almost instantly. She picked up her bag and shuffled to the door, her hands trembling. Once she was outside, Cass closed the door behind her and slipped the phone out of her pocket. There was one flickering bar of signal. She turned it to silent and then switched it off before grabbing the charger and looking around for a hiding spot. Under the refrigerator. She ducked down and slid the phone and charger beneath it.

Outside on the porch Melanie was working herself up into a sobbing storm. Cass looked at her dispassionately and then across at Nia. She was sitting up in wolf form, watching them. Cass took a breath and steeled herself for the lies to come.

“You’ll be okay,” Cass said, rubbing Melanie on the back in fake sympathy. She left her there and walked across to Nia. As she arrived, Edon stepped out of the forest.

“You were right. She was tricked. Thought she was meeting an Alpha werewolf and got dumped out in the woods. Best to take her back to town.”

Each word hurt as the lie spooled out of her. Edon watched her, his face grave but Cass kept up her front. She had many years of practice lying to her parents. The secret was short answers. The truth was often boring and needed no embellishment.

“Very well,” he finally said.

He waved his hand and two werewolves appeared on the other side of the glade. Cass wasn’t sure who they were. They approached Melanie and then one knelt down in front of her. Melanie, shaking so much she looked like she might collapse at any moment, climbed up on its back. Once she was in place, the werewolf took off at a run with the other one close behind her.