Wolf Untamed by Alexis Calder

9

Kyle was holding out another sandwich as soon as I walked in the door.

“You were watching?” I grabbed the sandwich and took a bite. This time, I was going to make myself actually eat it.

“I didn’t listen, but I kept an eye on you,” he said.

I probably should have been upset, but it was oddly comforting knowing someone had my back. Sure, things with Kyle were weird, but if he wanted to cause me harm, he’d have done it already.

“You okay?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Kyle knew more than he’d shared and largely because I’d asked him to keep it that way. If he was being honest about not listening, he didn’t know what our conversation had been about. For all Kyle knew, it was a lover’s quarrel.

My stomach tightened and the food in my mouth tasted like ash. Was it ever going to get easier to sort out my feelings about Alec? Did it matter if I was just going to return to Wolf Creek, anyway?

“Do you think I have what it takes to be alpha?” I asked.

“You can’t be any worse than the alpha we were raised with,” he said.

That was probably true, but it wasn’t reassuring. Almost anyone would be better than Ace. Or Tyler. Knots formed in my stomach as I contemplated what I was going to have to do.

“It’s not going to be easy. Once I show my mark, they’re not just going to hand over control,” I said.

“I doubt it. That’s why I think we need some help. Probably more than just Alec, too,” he said. “You’re probably going to have to challenge Ace. Or Tyler, if Ace stepped down and let him take over.” Kyle sighed. “Be realistic, Lola. Could you hurt Tyler?”

I wanted nothing more than to see Tyler pay for what he’d done to me all these years. I tried to imagine the two of us facing off in an alpha challenge. Every time I pictured myself going in for an attack, I stopped short. Frustrated, I visualized myself as a wolf, going after Tyler’s wolf. I met the same resistance.

“Fuck.” Even in my head, I couldn’t hurt Tyler. I looked over at Kyle. “We have to break that bond.”

“I know. And we will. But I don’t think we can do it alone,” Kyle said. “What about the shifters here? Would they rally for you? Could you convince some of them to follow you?”

“There’s one I wonder about, but I don’t know about the others. They live here for a reason. They want to be without a pack. I can’t ask them to risk their lives to help me gain power over a pack I don’t even like,” I said. “Am I doing the right thing? If I’m being honest, I hold no love for Wolf Creek.”

“You weren’t the only shifter being terrorized in Wolf Creek,” Kyle said. “Other students were threatened, bullied, and pushed around. Even adults were told what to do, where to work, who they could be with… It’s broken.”

“I’m broken. Because of that place,” I said.

“You were chosen for this. Probably because of what you experienced. They need someone like you who knows what it’s like to be on the outs,” Kyle said.

“If I do this, I’m tearing down that barrier,” I said.

“Good.” Kyle’s jaw was set and he looked more deadly than I’d ever seen him. “That barrier almost cost my sister her life. We couldn’t take her anywhere to get help. She was trapped inside because of that stupid age rule. We had to rely on the charity of Ace Grant. I don’t have to tell you what that costs someone.”

“So, we need help,” I relented. “What about my father? How does that play into all this? Alec said I was in danger. Was he being dramatic? Do you really know who he is?”

“I do,” Kyle agreed.

“Do I need to know? Can I just pretend nobody knows and move on with all the other complications in my life? It’s a lot already to deal with a mating bond I don’t want and an alpha to take down.” Did everything in my life have to be difficult? It felt like I should get to take the easy way out once in a while.

“You probably need to know before you move on since you’ve decided to challenge for alpha,” he said.

“What does my dad have to do with that? Is he from Wolf Creek? Or is an alpha? I don’t know why he’d care,” I said. “He’s never bothered to show up and if you believe my mom, he didn’t even know I existed before Alec got involved.”

“It’s complicated,” Kyle said. “I won’t tell you until you’re ready, but I think you aren’t going to have a choice.”

“That makes no sense,” I said.

“It’s hard to explain without telling you his name,” Kyle said.

“I still don’t know if I want to know,” I said.

“I get that.” Kyle took a deep breath. “Alright, let me see if I can explain without telling you. So, shifter politics 101: The alphas are linked with the higher alphas, right?”

I thought back to my high school Shifter Politics class and tried to recall the structure. “Shit. I’m going to need a crash course in all this. I don’t remember this stuff and if I do it, I’m going to do it right.”

“That’s not why I’m telling you this. You think Ace is doing anything by the book?” Kyle looked skeptical.

“Probably not,” I agreed. “But I’m not Ace. I will do it correctly.”

“I know you will but here’s the thing, Lola. If you are alpha, you’ll be connected to the higher alphas.”

“You mean the king.”

He nodded.

“So?” I wasn’t following why any of this would matter. “It’s not like I’m the one who made the toxin or was cursed. They can’t punish me for what my grandfather did, can they?”

Kyle blew out a frustrated breath. “Lola, you have to hear this eventually. Sooner rather than later. I wish I could shield you from it until you were ready, but you dad knows you’re alive. And I have a feeling even if you don’t go looking for him, soon enough, he’ll come for you,” Kyle said.

“Well, that’s fucking ominous,” I deadpanned.

“Please don’t make me keep this from you anymore. You need to know this.”

“How bad is it?” I asked.

Kyle whistled.

“Wonderful.” I took another bite of my sandwich. I wasn’t feeling hungry anymore and the sandwich might as well be made of sawdust. But it gave me something to do.

Still chewing, I wandered over to the little table and sat down. Kyle joined me, taking a seat on one of the empty chairs. I continued to eat, sure that Kyle was going to blurt out the name of my father. Would I even know who he was? I was so isolated in Wolf Creek that I didn’t know of many shifters outside the barrier.

Oddly, that gave me a little bit of hope. It was likely I wouldn’t know who he was or why he was so terrible. Maybe he was alpha of another pack and had a bad reputation. If I’d never heard of him, it wouldn’t matter. I’d know so when alphas gathered, I wouldn’t be caught off guard. If we were both alphas, we’d have to meet eventually. Or maybe he was wanted and I’d be responsible for reporting him if he crossed into our territory. Sure, that would be awkward, but it wasn’t like I actually knew the guy.

As I chewed the last bite of food, I wiped the crumbs off my fingers. Then I looked at Kyle. “Okay, lay it on me. Who is this big, bad dude who is so awful that I had to avoid him at all costs?”

“You sure?” Kyle asked.

“Two minutes ago you were begging for me to let you tell me,” I blurted out.

“You can’t un-know this,” he warned.

“Kyle, how bad can it be? What is he a gangster? A murderer?”

Kyle looked a little green.

“What could be worse than that?” I asked.

“Well, let’s just say that if you try to overthrow Ace, you’ll be following in the family tradition of challenging an alpha,” he said.

“Enough, Kyle. Spit it out, already,” I snapped.

“Your dad is Spencer Lupton,” Kyle said.

I blinked a few times as the name rolled around in my mind. Spencer Lupton. Even I knew that name. Shortly before I was born, the wolf shifter king’s brother, Spencer, tried to take the throne. He was detained and as far as I knew, he spent the rest of his life in exile or jail or something. The details were fuzzy because I never gave a shit about the royal family. They never did a thing for me. Why would I care if some rich asshole’s brother wanted some shiny crown for himself?

“I’m sorry, it sounds like my dad has the same name as the traitor who tried to take the throne. But that’s not possible.” I waited for Kyle to explain that he just shared the name with the famous traitor.

“He was barred from having offspring by the king,” Kyle said. “Any child of his would be killed.”

“So you’re saying that if the shifter king finds out about me, I’m dead?” It didn’t seem possible. I was nothing. Nobody. At least I was right now. If I moved forward with the plan to take on Ace, I would be an alpha and then I’d be connected to the king himself. If I didn’t end up dead in the process. “This whole thing is insane, you do realize that, right?”

“It sure seems a lot like fate, if you ask me,” he said. “Maybe you’re supposed to help right his wrong of something by making your own pack better.”

“Fate is making a lot of mistakes lately. Giving me an alpha mark and a bond with Tyler come to mind.” I ran a hand through my hair.

“What am I supposed to do with this information?” I asked.

“Well, now you know why Alec said he was dangerous,” Kyle said. “And you know that we have to be careful.”

My brow furrowed as I thought about all the new information and what it meant for me. “I can’t be alpha, can I?” It surprised me how much that hurt. Until that moment, I wasn’t aware of how badly I wanted to help the people of Wolf Creek. Even if they never did anything to help me.

I looked up at Kyle. “If I won the challenge, the king would feel me. He’d know, wouldn’t he? He’d know we were blood. I’m guessing that’s what all this is about.”

“There’s a way to fix this,” Kyle said. “Your father is willing to help.”

“Why would he help when he could turn me in to get on the king’s good side? Or kill me himself, even? I remember my history classes well enough to know how murderous and dangerous Spencer was. You think a man like that cares about his kid?” I tensed. “Holy shit, you said he already knows about me. Alec told him about me. I’m already screwed, aren’t I?”

“Calm down, Lola. Alec’s already fixed this,” he assured me.

I wasn’t listening, though. My mind was overwhelmed with far too much information. I stood, knocking the chair to the ground in the process. I ignored it and walked to the center of the room. This was far worse than I expected. My mom had said she wouldn’t let me shift to keep my father from finding me and now it made more sense.

Aside from alphas connecting with the king, parents were connected to their children. The only thing that broke that connection was a completed mating bond. Which I was not going to do. Some stupid protection kind of thing. If I was in wolf form, and my father was in wolf form, he’d be able to feel me well enough to know where I was. Without a completed mating bond, my dad could track me down the second I shifted. All he’d have to do was be in his wolf form himself. Which, he was very likely to be tomorrow night since it was a full moon.

“I can’t shift tomorrow.” I turned to Kyle. “If I do, he’ll know where I am.”

“He already knows,” Kyle said.

“So what, that’s it? I shift tomorrow, and the king’s guard comes and takes me out?” I blew out a frustrated breath. “How is he going to help us if I’m dead?”

“First of all, the king doesn’t know about you and he won’t know about you since you’re not yet an alpha,” he said.

I knew the mark wasn’t enough to take the title, but it still made me nervous. “What about my father? How can Alec be so confident that he won’t turn me in or harm me?”

“He’s agreed to break his claim on you,” Kyle said.

“Can that be done?” I asked.

“With enough money, you can pay a witch to do anything,” Kyle said.

“And he’s willing to finance that?” I asked. “And don’t get me started about how I feel about getting a witch involved.”

“Alec took care of that part. That’s what he used the money from Ace for,” Kyle said. “The witch is already paid and your father already contributed his blood for the spell. It’s done. As soon as you’re ready, you can break the claim.”

I stared at Kyle in stunned silence.

“Don’t be so hard on Alec. He didn’t think he had a choice and Ace told him you’d be safe. Alec thought he’d have you out of there by the next day. The spell isn’t cheap and Ace paid well,” Kyle added.

“He knew all this and he didn’t tell me?” I asked.

It was Kyle’s turn to be silent.

“I don’t understand. This is crazy. Why would my father agree to this? He’s never even met me. And everything we’ve ever heard about Spencer Lupton paints him as a scary mother fucker.” I wasn’t going to lie, I was a little worried about what might happen if I ever met him.

“You’ll have to ask Alec that. I guess he wants to help you but I don’t know the details,” Kyle said. “You know what I know.”

I felt shaky and unsteady. Slowly, I righted the upended chair and sat down. This changed things but I couldn’t wrap my head around what it all meant. Alec was trying to help me. My father was an outlaw. I was supposed to be dead.

How the fuck was I supposed to overcome all of this and somehow take the alpha title from my old pack?

“If it helps, I think everything is happening as it should,” Kyle said.

“Easy for you to say,” I snapped. “My life has been a living hell. And now I find out that if I had shifted so I could fit in, I’d have been killed. How am I even supposed to process that?”

“The choice is yours now, though. You and me, neither of us had options or freedom to decide while we were in Wolf Creek. We can change the path, we’re not stuck doing the wrong thing in order to survive.”

“What if we’re still doing the wrong thing?” I asked. “What if the king finds out I exist even with the broken claim?”

“Then we figure it out together,” Kyle said.

“Who knew the outside world would make Wolf Creek look like the easier bet,” I said with a laugh.

“The right choice is rarely the easy one,” Kyle said.

“When did you get so wise?” I teased.

He smiled. “When I got a new alpha who was willing to let me be myself.”