Dean stood there in the damaged cottage that belonged to Kiera. He held the phone out to Oli, completely distracted by his thoughts after he’d heard James make his demands. The land or Kiera, it should be a straightforward decision but his mind rebelled.
There was no way he would give up the land. That would give James the last thing he needed to drive Dean and his pack from his territory. No one could live without water.
So, the other possibility was Kiera. Find her and hand her over to James. His mind hated this idea. In a protective and possibly territorial way. Why? He thought his attraction to her died the day that they returned her to them changed. How could he feel the hollowness in his soul now, after all this time?
There was no way he could explain it. No way he could give into this either. The backlash of mating with a monster was impossible to contemplate with several pack members opposed to her living within pack territory.
“Oli, what do you think? What is James up to? What use is Tara to him?”
“I haven’t got a clue. But if he’s admitted he had Trisha and demanded the delivery of Kiera, it didn’t bode well for recovering his sister because Kiera was still missing. So, who kidnapped Kiera?”
“But it feels wrong to search for her, only to pawn her off onto James and his pack.”
“It doesn’t feel right abandoning your sister either because you have what? The hots for a Lycan? That is what the problem is, right?”
“What? No. She was part of the pack, and we all grew up together. James always made her life harder by getting her involved in our issues with each other.”
“Dean, you messed with her as well to foil James’ plans. Yet, you’ve always had a soft spot for her. I’m not sure why you didn’t pursue her. At least, date her for a while.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I would never have dated her, and I’ve never shown her any special interest. She was a means to an end back then.”
Oli snorted while he put away his phone in his back pocket. “If I’m so wrong then, why are you bulking at giving her to James? How would that play out with the pack if they found out about your obsession with a Lycan? You’re their alpha and you’re the example of everything they are supposed to strive for. Mating other species isn’t on the list of acceptable practices.”
Dean glowered at the four walls in contemplation. The frustration and he wouldn’t admit this to Oli, the anguish over this, kept his thoughts to himself. “Maybe it’s time for their baseline expectations of the perfect example of being a wolf shifter change? It could be time to change the bar on what’s acceptable and what’s not.”
“Dean, Alpha, you’re my friend and my leader, I would fail you as both if I didn’t point out to you that what you’re saying is insane and would have severe ramifications like losing your position as their alpha and possibly your life as well. Dean, you need to see things in an illuminating light. She’s not your fated mate, and you’re talking out of guilt when you weren’t involved in what happened to her. She’s no longer your concern, and if you insist on not minding your position, then it could come back to haunt you.”
“Really Oli? What am I hearing from you right now? Are you threatening me? Are you telling me that if I don’t find her and give her up like some sacrificial lamb, you’ll come after my place as the alpha of this pack?” Dean glared at Oli, and he couldn’t believe how angry it made him to think his friend and Beta would say and mean that. It felt like such a betrayal to him it jarred him out of his musings.
“I never said that, and I most definitely didn’t mean that. Dean, you must believe me. That was never my intention. I have only given you the worst-case scenario and sadly, that’s also the most likely scenario out there. The Ruling Council has never failed to remove an alpha whose pack can’t accept their choices. They’ll send candidates to remove you from the position.” What Oli meant was the Ruling Council would send potential candidates for the position of his pack to challenge him to a duel to the death for the position of alpha of the pack. There wasn’t a lack of alpha male wolf shifters, what there was a lack of was territory and packs. It wasn’t all magic and politics that created a pack. There was the land and the wolves as well.
Dean still didn’t like it. Over the last month or so, Oli’s words were suspiciously negative toward Kiera and his choices about her. He’d all but celebrated her leaving the territory.
“I’m not saying that we don’t search for her. Someone needs to find her, but she doesn’t belong here with our pack. There are several within the pack who aren’t comfortable with her around, and it’s not fair to them to force her upon them.”
“Good grief, Oli, can you hear yourself and your entitlement? Kiera is alone. There’s nowhere else for her to go. Those pack members have an entire pack to fall back on. Their fears have no basis in anything other than rumours, speculation, and stories about other people. The attacks from the Lycan were all from one or two individuals. No one knows them. For all we know, they had the same anger issues before they were tortured and experimented on.” Dean threw his hands up in the air and stomped toward the door.
He turned back and waved a finger toward Oli. “For all we know, those attacks may never have happened. The pack members you’re speaking of should have come to me and I would have set them straight long before this. But no, they lied to me and told me what would keep them from being embarrassed or punished. This is serious how hypocritical they are. This happened to our ancestors, and they are acting no better than the humans that hunted our ancestors and killed them for being violent monsters. I think it’s time I addressed this with them. Arrange for someone to come out here and clean this up. Make the necessary repairs as well.” Dean turned back to the door and left the room. “I’m going to figure out how we’re going to search for Kiera.”
Oli made the arrangements to get the neutral zone cottage fixed. It was more difficult than first thought. He needed to find tradesmen who would work for a Lycan and then assign a security team because of the neutral zone’s lawless reputation. It was all a pain in the butt. What if she was dead? Or they never found her? It was better to find a way to force the Jasper Sounds Alpha to hand over Trisha. Oli was completing the work orders when an enforcer entered the study. “Aren’t you supposed to be on front gate duty, Joe?” “I drew the short straw. This was delivered to the front gate a few minutes ago.” Joe held out an envelope and a dagger to Oli. “You can give it to Alpha Jonas.” The enforcer seemed eager not to be the deliverer of this news. “What’s with the dagger?” Oli took the two items from the dark-haired enforcer with his confusion clearly clear on his features. “We figured the mode of delivery might be important. A silver SUV stopp
Kiera came back to consciousness slowly. Her headache ached like it rarely had in a long time. Alcohol didn’t hurt like this. When she touched the back of her head, she winced and frowned. There was a weight around her wrists, which could only mean one thing. Handcuffs. Sure enough, she was chained to a wall in a room with a small, barred window near the ceiling. Other than the light coming in through it’s grimy panes the room she lay on the cold hard floor. Then she remembered vaguely the open back door, and the broken glass on the floor. She might have shot at something, but she didn’t know if she hit anything. Then a sharp pain in the back of her head… Someone knocked her out. How? She would have had to pass them if for them to hit her from behind and there wasn’t any place within her small cottage to hide like that. Who did this? Dean? James? She wouldn’t put it past either of them. Well, stuck to the wall as she was and sensitive to the dull light
Dean and Oli looked at each other over the phone in horror. “Keith, you have to get him calmed down. We didn’t send that message. In fact, we have one here right now. It says we have to take our copy of the deed to, and get this it’s weird, Elderswoods. We wouldn’t have called it that. It’s Jordan’s Run these days, not Elderswoods. I think we have a third-party trying to force a war between us.” “Oli, I’m his Beta and I can’t get near him. Look, it’s chaos over here. I have to go. I don’t know what’s going on, but Trisha is down here. I need to go intervene. If I can, I’ll call you later to tell you what happened.” Keith hung up there, leaving Oli and Dean in a state. Go find out who sent the note? Or rush in to save Trisha? * * * Keith dropped his phone on his desk, and it bounced before it landed on the floor. He didn’t care. He could hear the woman’s voice as James, and she yelled at each o
“James, you don’t want to do this. You’d be forcing yourself on me. That’s not what you want, is it?” Trisha found herself backed up against the back of a love seat by James. His gaze now showed his hunger. Trisha couldn’t hide that fact that in this enclosed space with her secret desire for him. His scent was the tipping point for her. Clearly, he’d hit his tipping point a while back. His growling revealed his need to fuck, and he stalked her, hunting for a willing partner. Trisha couldn’t deny she’d secretly dreamed of passing her time making out with him. Heck, not just making out with him. She’d woken several times as her body orgasmed at the thought of fucking him. “By the time I fuck you, you’ll be begging me to finish.” She had to think of something to bring him to his senses before she lost hers. He was right, he probably could get her to a state she’d beg him to fuck her. “Well, do a good enough job and I’ll think about keeping you. Never m
Sure enough, the old man came back. However, he was upset to see that Kiera hadn’t eaten any of the food. She wasn’t a fool. Kiera was experienced in this situation. It wasn’t her first rodeo, and she wouldn’t risk being drugged, either. Henry was so furious he kicked the tray aside against the stone and grout wall. The plate shattered, where the shards and food scattered over the grimy floor. “I gave you peace and quiet to eat. This is how you thank me? Ungrateful wretch. I am the father of many alphas, and they will not defy me. You want to go hungry, then fine. No more food for you.” He was livid, his over reaction was to an extreme Kiera hadn’t expected. Though it was very revealing to her. He was obsessed with his sons being alphas and he claimed at least two as his blood. He wasn’t an alpha himself, so he lived his rank through his sons. He was a sad creature, and she expected the more she learned, the more disgusting she would find it. The man was deluded an
Dean and Oli called in all their enforcers, and he had everyone getting ready to beef up their territory’s protections. That’s when Oli’s phone rang. “It’s Keith.” “Answer it.” Dean needed to know what was happening to his sister. Actually, she was his half-sister. They shared a mother, but he knew they had different fathers. She never spoke of either males. Dean didn’t know either males’ names, and she’d not left the information with anyone or written anywhere. “Keith, what’s going on? It sounds like the yelling has stopped.” “It’s only just stopped and one of them barricaded the door. We still can’t get in and they won’t respond. But you won’t like this. I still don’t know if he’ll go through with any attacks, so I don’t know if he’s accepting the threat of war. But I can’t say whether they’re mated either. It was brutal listening to whatever happened in there.” “Well, that was the last thing I expected to hear from you. Will we be seeing you at Jordan’s
Dean was torn between his sister and Kiera. How was he supposed to choose? How could he not choose? His sister was clearly pack, Kiera was once pack as he’d been told several times now. Dean reminded each person who dared to remind of this, that he never gave her permission to leave the pack. He’d at least admit that he didn’t just say it, but growled at them, annoyed in a way he didn’t remember ever being before. His mood wasn’t improving, either. Dean struggled to keep his head on the more pressing issues. Trisha was under the thumb of James, but her life wasn’t threatened in any way. This had never happened before in all the years they’d known each other. He must get and keep his head in the game. His territory was at stake and his people were in danger of attack from the Jasper Sound Pack. It was his job to lead these people, and he was the one who’d protect them from anything and everything. Kiera needed him just as much as the rest of the pack. The differenc
Kiera sat there silently and glared at the old man. “You realize if I was one of their mates, I would be mated for a long time. Listen, this is crazy. Nothing you’re saying is true. You can’t even make your beliefs fit together. Just unlock the handcuff and I’ll leave. You won’t need to worry about me talking to anyone or interfering with it. I’ll disappear completely.”Kiera didn’t have any reason to stay. She’d just had no pressing reason to leave. Kiera wasn’t expecting the old man’s reaction. “How dare you seal one of my sons’ fate to be a horrible nightmare. You are a monster.” He spit his words out in her face before he returned to pacing. “You’re so selfish. I believe you were better than that.” Kiera snorted and shook her head. “You clearly don’t know either of those alphas. I’m nothing but a pawn in their competition to one-up each other. Heck, Dean waved goodbye to me when I left, and James… James made sure I knew his pack wasn’t an option. I just