My Alphas: The Complete Series (9 page)

Entering the main cavern, Edon came to a sudden stop. Rey was waiting, in human form, Cass’ scent radiating off him.

“I have mated with the human. She is mine. You will take five females and leave. Or you will die.”

Edon breathed in, the scent of Cass’ sex stabbing into his mind like a knife. All around the pack were watching, aware this was no ordinary confrontation between their Alphas. Since the human had arrived, they had been waiting for this moment.

“I am not leaving. I challenge you for Alpha.”

Edon spoke through gritted teeth and then his human side vanished under the red mist of rage that filled his mind. He shifted and leapt at Rey.

*

Cass hurried down the tunnel, clutching a blanket around her. She’d bolted up when she heard Rey roar but her rush was halted by realizing it would be naked unless she improvised some clothing.

Her backpack was still full of mud, the clothes she washed were splayed out on rocks near the warm spring and despite delivering her tea candles, the werewolves hadn’t thought to bring her something to wear. Cass settled on a blue blanket, pulling it off the bed and wrapping it around herself. It hugged her body, giving her some ridiculous cleavage but it would have to do.

Cass hustled as fast as she could to the main cavern, feeling an icy anxiety rushing through her. One werewolf was going to kill another and it was her fault.

She turned a corner and collided with Nia, the shorter girl’s lips hitting Cass on the chin. Nia didn’t pull back but instead hugged Cass and then sniffed her all over.

“You have mated with Rey! You have his seed inside you!”

There was a another vicious roar from behind her in the main cavern and Cass didn’t get a chance to answer Nia’s bubbling joy.

“Edon has refused to leave. They’re fighting to determine who will be Alpha. It is very exciting,” Nia said, stepping from foot to foot. She grabbed Cass by the hand and pulled her back with her.

Cass stumbled out into the light and then crashed into the back of Nia as she halted, getting a faceful of brown hair. She stepped away from her and looked around to get her bearings. All around the area the pack was gathered. Many of them were in wolf form and some kept shifting back and forth, stepping and pacing.

Down below, Edon and Rey faced off against one another. They were both far larger than any other wolf in the pack. Rey was pure black, the red of his mouth and the white of his bared teeth standing out in stark relief. Edon was copper, his coat catching glints of light and brightening as he moved from shadow to light. His fangs were bared and as Cass watched he snapped at Rey, the black wolf avoiding the bite.

Edon snapped again, almost catching Rey as he was forced to step over a log intended for one of the fires. Rey leapt past Edon, shoving him with his shoulder but the copper wolf swiftly recovered and soon was forcing Rey toward the log once more. Cass watched, hardly breathing, as Edon again snapped at Rey, forcing him over the log. As soon as Rey lifted his foot, Edon lunged, ramming the black wolf and flinging him across the room. Rey crashed into the wall and was instantly on his feet. Cass blinked and in that moment of darkness Rey attacked. He was so fast it was like watching a film with frames missing. One moment he was near the wall, the next Edon was flying through the air to crash into the far wall himself.

The assembled werewolves barked and yipped as Edon moved back toward Rey, stepping softly down the stone platforms. Cass saw Nia wringing her hands together, still moving from foot to foot.

As she’d been running through the tunnel, Cass had thought perhaps she could somehow come between Edon and Rey like she had yesterday. Seeing them fighting now had frozen her to the spot. To come between those two would be to risk death. Both of them were growling, a mad bloodlust in their eyes.

Edon reached Rey’s level and moved forward and Cass clenched her hands on her blanket, waiting for the next blow.

Suddenly, Edon and Rey both shifted and turned toward the main entrance. All around the room werewolves shifted to human form. A moment later a dark-haired woman stumbled in the door, blood pouring from a wound on her arm.

“Attack!” she yelled and toppled down the steps.

The room broke out into a pandemonium of noise. Nia shoved Cass back through the door and then rushed her upwards so fast her feet barely touched the ground. They didn’t return to her room but kept moving up until they reached a wooden door braced with iron. Nia flung it open and pushed Cass through, finally letting go of her. A woman with dark hair and dark eyes shoved past Nia and then turned to face her.

“Go back! I will defend the Pack Mate.”

“Shut up Kale!” Nia yelled and pulled the door closed. The woman leapt forward and slid into place an iron bar the thickness of an arm.

She then stepped back and stood facing the door, her fingers curled into claws, ready to strike down anyone who entered.

*

With Cass in Nia’s care, Edon rushed outside, Rey close behind him, to defend the pack.

They’d left only two scouts outside and now one of them, Wolma, was unconscious and bleeding on the cavern floor. Although they were nocturnal, some werewolves still came and went during the day so there was always a greater presence outside than the two scouts. Edon knew this had been their mistake. As he and Rey had started fighting, the pack had gathered inside, leaving the scouts outside alone.

Edon burst out into the early morning light and shifted. Even as he did, he assessed the situation. Eight werewolves in sight, two near to the entrance and the rest running toward them, coming out of the forest. He tackled the first one head on, grabbing the wolf with his jaws and flinging him over his shoulder. He heard but did not see the blow Rey landed, which practically tore the werewolf in two.

As one they moved toward the next werewolf. He was a giant brown wolf with white streaked through his coat. Rey circled around behind him and Edon approached from the front. The wolf couldn’t focus on both and the moment he turned his head, Edon ripped his throat out. The wolf took two steps and collapsed, his hot blood pumping out into the soil.

Edon howled, his mighty voice echoing over the valley. The fury of battle throbbed in his bones, filled his muscles with fire.

This was their power - his and Rey’s. Separately they were powerful but together they were unstoppable. This was what had grown their pack from the two of them to the forty they were today. They didn’t need to speak to communicate and appeared to move as one, as though they were one mind sharing two bodies.

Three more werewolves were swiftly torn apart, their eerie connection presenting a greater force than any group could hope to overcome. Around them the pack fought the remaining three and Rey howled, Edon joining him, the joy of their bloodlust piercing the air.

At the sound of their combined voices, two of the werewolves nearest the edge of the battle turned tail and ran. The pack knew better than to chase without their Alphas permission and so turned their attention back to the remaining werewolf.

He was a giant, pure black like Rey but even wider, his form layered over with muscle. Edon leapt on his back, sinking his teeth into the back of his neck. Taking advantage of this distraction, Rey attacked from the front, snapping the wolf’s two front paws off between his jaws in a brutal twist of teeth and bone.

The wolf toppled to the ground with Edon atop him. Edon shifted and reached down, digging his fingers into the open wound on its neck.

“Shift!” Edon roared.

The wolf shifted into a man with black hair, still trying to fling Edon off him.

“Why did you come? Who sent you?”

“Fuck you-”

So fast he was a blur, Rey tore his head off with a swipe of his paw. It bounced away, rolling to a stop in the dust.

Edon looked up at his friend, their almost supernatural connection broken. He saw Rey look across the valley at the two fleeing werewolves.

“No. Don’t chase!”

Just what they needed - an attack to draw them out and be counterattacked. He saw Rey’s ear twitching, a sure sign of tension. He wanted to chase the fleeing wolves and run them down into the ground. A few years ago, Edon would’ve joined him but they couldn’t be so foolhardy now.

The battle over, the werewolves walked around barking and panting. Some were injured but it appeared none had been killed. Many kept looking across at the fleeing werewolves and back to Edon and Rey, hoping to be given permission to pursue. Although many of them had been out hunting all night their blood was boiling to chase the attackers and kill them.

Edon gulped air and felt his heartbeat slowing. As it did, he became aware of another sound. A motor.

Nia appeared beside him, her naked body splattered with droplets of blood.

“Look,” she said, pointing up.

The assembled werewolves looked up. Above them, twinkling silver in the morning sunlight was a light aircraft, flying low, circling their den. It was so low that for an instant Edon considered climbing up the bluff in an attempt to leap down upon it. A man with a large black camera was leaning out the open door, photographing the massacre.

“Get these bodies into the trees,” he commanded. “We’ll deal with them tonight.”

The werewolves dragged the dead bodies out of sight and kicked dirt over the bloodstained ground. Edon knew the people in the plane were photographing the entire thing but there was nothing to be done about it. Within moments the den was clear - at least to a distant photographer in the sky.

The plane circled for another minute before turning and flying back toward Hinton.

Edon looked at Rey and together they shared the same thought: we need to find out who is behind this attack.

Rey moved past Edon, stopping only to touch his nose against his hand and then he was gone, vanished into the forest.

Edon turned to watch him go and then saw the small shapes of the fleeing werewolves high up on the ridge. He snarled at them, holding himself back from joining Rey in the hunt.

Rey would find and kill them. He was needed here.

*

Cass watched out the high window clutching her blanket around her like armor as the battle unfolded below. Rey and Edon, so fast, moving like liquid lightning, one anticipating the other before they’d even begun to move.

She saw eight werewolves bounding down to the den, sprinting on giant paws, seemingly unstoppable and then saw them torn apart. Edon flung one over his head without looking and Rey swatted him out of the sky like he was playing baseball. Blood burst out above him in a cloud as the wolf almost tore in two.

It was vicious and violent but Cass couldn’t look away.

The two Alphas who only minutes ago had been fighting to the death swiftly destroyed the invading werewolves. From her high vantage point she could see them clearly, moving in a perfect harmony.

When they’d howled together, she’d shivered. There was fear, yes, at these great and brutal beasts but the howl also called to her blood, made her want to run down there, to fight, to rip the invaders apart.

It was over quickly, the two werewolves at the rear of the battle fleeing away across the valley. Edon and Rey working together to take down the largest werewolf, Edon shifting into human form on his back and shouting at him. Then Rey swinging his paw, tearing the werewolf’s head off. It bounced to a stop against the base of a tree and Cass felt her stomach swirling, her desire to see vanishing.

She turned away, the dark-haired werewolf behind her, still standing facing the door, her fingers out in claws, ready to leap on anyone who came through.

“It’s over. They killed them and the rest are running away.”

“I won’t leave my post until
my
Alpha tells me too,” she replied tersely.

“And who is your Alpha?”

“Rey and Edon are Alpha.”

“Yes, but who is
your
Alpha?”

“I favor Rey,” she replied after a short pause in which she seemed to consider the question.

“Why?”

“I don’t have time to answer your foolish questions. Be quiet so I can hear attackers.”

“What is this room for? Why do you have wooden door that you can lock?”

“Sometimes werewolves need to be locked away. Now be quiet!”

Cass was almost tempted to keep talking but decided there was little gained in antagonizing the werewolf.

Soon there was a knock on the door.

“It’s Nia. Open now. It’s over.”

“I won’t leave my-”

“I said it’s over!”

Cass jumped at the sudden anger in Nia’s voice. It seemed to pierce through the door like a knife.

The werewolf slid the iron bar back and only just managed to jump out of the way as the door swung open like it had been kicked.

“Watch it!” the werewolf said to Nia.

“Shut up,
Kale
,” Nia replied.

“It’s Ka-lay!”

“Get out!”

Ka-lay or Kale as Nia called her stared back before walking off, her head high and shoulders back, like she was marching.