Fated to the Alpha by Jasmine White

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

We spent a couple weeks living like that, living among Jeremy’s pack, pretending I was someone I wasn’t. And for the most part, no one seemed to be the wiser. Most of the pack welcomed me as one of their own; as far as anyone was concerned, I may as well have been a Morgandorf now. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that. It made me wonder if I would ever be welcomed back among my own.

For that matter, why did I have to carry any kind of a label at all? Why did I have to identify as Caldour or Morgandorf or anything like that? If I were completely honest with myself, this wayward Elena with no pack affiliation anymore felt more like me than my true identity. Who was Evelyn Godfrey of the Caldour pack anyway? That name felt like the name of a stranger.

So it took hardly any effort on my part at all to embrace my ruse. Especially when I had the likes of Tara and Andrea to make me feel right at home using it. My days would be spent wandering the village with Tara, getting to know the ins and outs of the place, swimming in the lake with Andrea and her friends, gathering herbs or hunting in the woods, exploring the surrounding forest, trading stories (slightly edited for content), and just generally being friends together, as much as I had with anyone from my own pack.

Andrea in particular became interested in learning more about my life with my old pack. As long as I didn’t mention any names, at least no real ones, I felt like I could be as honest as I wanted to be. I told her all about how my parents raised me, particularly about how controlling my dad was, since that seemed to be what interested her the most. She also wanted to know about things like my first time with a guy, how old I was, and what it was like, and all that. While she admitted she still didn’t think she was ready to try it for herself yet, she was still fascinated with the idea of it, and I could tell she was thinking long and hard about when she would be ready to let it happen for her.

I ran with Jeremy’s pack, I hunted and howled with them, I ate with them, sang with them, and traded stories and jokes with them. Even if I wasn’t a Morgandorf in name, I felt like I had a pack again.

And unlike before, no there were no expectations put on me. Everyone accepted that I was with the guy I wanted already, and no one was trying to pressure me to marry someone else. I didn’t have my dad expecting me to fulfill his ambitions for him, or a slick alpha claiming me as his. If anything, the alpha here seemed like a better father figure than my own dad.

The only thing that did anything to crack my happy illusion was the ever-looming presence of Lucius hovering about, always watching me. So far, nothing had happened; he obviously hadn’t mentioned anything to Ricardo or anyone else. Maybe because he couldn’t prove anything. He knew I’d shown up that night, and he knew he attacked me and that Jeremy fought him off, but that didn’t necessarily follow that I was a Caldour.

But I could tell he was suspicious; it was all over his face whenever I saw him. And whenever I did see him, his eyes were always on me, carefully watching my moves. I would be huddled over some little project that Andrea and her friends were guiding me in, and I would get a cold shiver down my spine, and lift my head to see his hard-lined face watching me from across the way. I would be going for a dip in the lake, and when my head came up above the surface, there he would be back atop the hill, paying attention to nothing but me. I would be on a hunt with some others, chasing down a deer and catching its neck in my jaws, and as we all started to feast on the kill I would catch his scent, and find him lurking about among the trees. Any time I felt like I was enjoying a pleasant day, just doing simple things with good company, sooner or later he would always be there, casting his shadow over me.

I kept wondering, why didn’t he just make a move already? If he suspected I was a Caldour, why wasn’t he trying to prove it?

Maybe he was just trying to stalk me until the psychological pressure got me to crack. I wasn’t completely prepared to say it wouldn’t work, either.

I confided in Jeremy one night while we were curled up in his bed, his arms around my naked body, his fingers lazily strumming my hair while my head nestled in the crook of his neck. “I don’t think I can take much more of Lucius lurking around spying on me,” I said. “Part of me wishes he would just rat me out and get it over with.”

“You know he’s not going to do that as long as he can’t prove anything,” Jeremy tried to reassure me.

“I know,” I grimaced. “I have a terrible feeling he’s gonna do something much worse.”

“Something worse?” he said. “Like what?”

Frowning, I brought a hand up to my shoulder, which still sported the evidence of what Lucius had already done to me. “He’s already scarred me once,” I said. “Something tells me he doesn’t plan to stop there.”

“He can plan all he wants,” Jeremy said, “but I’ll rip his throat out before I let him lay a paw on you.”

“You know you can’t watch me twenty-four hours a day,” I said. And then almost under my breath I added, “Unlike him.”

“Hey, don’t be so sure of that,” he said. “You want to know something about that night of the attack?”

“What?”

“The whole time the attack was happening, it never occurred to me that you might show up. I was just trying to hang back and avoid the fray. But then I got some kind of… spine tingle, I guess you could call it. And then I just sort of knew to move to the edge of the village, and I found you with Lucius’s jaws attached to you. I don’t know how, but it was like I just knew the moment it happened.”

“So what, you’re saying you’re psychic or something?”

“Maybe when it comes to you and trouble,” he said. “I’m betting if Lucius tries anything with you again, I’ll know. And then I’ll rip him apart.”

I rolled my eyes slightly, grinning. “You say the sweetest things to me,” I smiled, and then kissed him.

We made love tenderly that night, which made me feel better and safer like it always did. For a time, I was able to feel reassured again.

And then the next day came.

 

*

For the most part, it was a day like any other. We joined Tara and some others for some breakfast. Maggie came along and started whispering very suggestive things to Jeremy, even going so far as to blow lightly on the back of his neck before I shooed her away. Everyone around us had a bit of a laugh at Jeremy’s discomfort. After that, I joined Andrea for a little run and a few more friendly games with her friends. I got lunch with her, and then rejoined Jeremy later in the afternoon. Everything seemed to be fine.

And then, around the early evening, we heard the howl.

Any wolf would recognize it. It was a howl of distress, calling for help. As everyone turned in its direction, about a dozen members of the pack immediately started running for the tree line, stripping their clothes off and shifting to their four-legged forms. Impulsively, I started going with them, and I heard Jeremy following close behind.

We reached a clearing in the middle of the woods, where four wolves were keeping guard around two others currently in their two-legged forms. One of the two was a guy named Russell, who lay on the ground, gasping for breath, while his packmate named Shane knelt over him, pressing his hands over the bloody wound in Russell’s neck.

One of the rescue party named Daniel shifted to his two-legged form to ask, “What happened here?”

“It was the damn Caldours!” Shane spat. “Surprise attack!  They came out of nowhere! We didn’t even smell them coming until they were right on us!”

Another one named Beverly shifted to two legs and hurried to take hold of Russell’s ankles. “Someone help me carry him!” she said. “Let’s get him back to the village, quick!”

Several more of the party shifted as well, gathering around Russell to lift him up, never letting the pressure off his wound as they carried him back to the village with us.

All of the pack was gathered to greet us when we got back, seeing us carrying Russell with hands stained red covering his neck. “Somebody get Leonard,” Shane shouted, calling for the village doctor. They handed him off, carrying Russell away to the infirmary.

Ricardo and Laura were quick on the scene, seeing the blood on the hands of Shane and the others who carried him. “How bad is he?” Ricardo asked.

“I was afraid the Caldours might have taken his whole head off,” Shane said, shaking his head. “I could swear they were laughing when they did it, too. More like jackals than wolves,” he added, his voice dripping with venom.

“That settles it,” someone said. “We were stupid enough not to hit them back when they invaded our village before. Now they do this! How much more do we stand for?”

“We gotta go to them!” someone else shouted. “Show those Caldour bastards who’s boss!”

Several of the pack roared in agreement. It was just like before my own pack launched their attack. The whole pack was crying out for blood, and if something wasn’t done to stop them, they would get it. The last thing I wanted was to see another full-on battle.

“Now hold on, everyone!” Jeremy called, stepping into the middle of the crowd. “We should be more focused on helping Russell than getting revenge. What’s more important to us: our packmate alive, or our neighbors dead?”

“You really want to let them get away with this?” somebody spat.

“Is this attack really any different than the things we’ve done to them?” Jeremy asked.

I tried to throw in my two cents, stepping up by Jeremy’s side. “This isn’t what I wanted when I came to this pack,” I said. “I wanted to find a safe place to live, and you all promised you’d give me that. Is this how you’re going to do it?  By dragging me into a war?”

“If we don’t do something, none of us will be safe,” someone else said. “Those Caldours would kill us all if they could!”

“Is violence the only way to keep us safe?” I asked everyone. “There’s got to be other options!”

“You’re awfully soft on the Caldours,” said a voice. Turning to its source, I found Lucius stepping forward, regarding me suspiciously as always, with the subtle hint of a grin on his face. “Why is that, I wonder?”

I looked back at Lucius, not answering at first. I knew he was baiting me. I didn’t want to say anything that I thought might incriminate me.

Fortunately I had Jeremy there to come to my rescue. “Can you blame her for not wanting her new friends, which a lot of you are to her now, to fight and kill, or be killed in a bloody war?”

Tara stepped forward, trying to be as frankly nurturing as she could. “Elena, I wish it was that simple. I wish we could just sit down and talk this out with the Caldours…”

“Well why can’t we?” I asked.

“You don’t understand,” she said. “It’s just not that simple.”

“Yes it is!” someone interjected. “It’s perfectly simple! They’re filthy Caldours! They only understand blood! We gotta speak to them in their language!”

Ignoring her less tactful packmate, Tara went on, “There’s just too much bad blood between us. This conflict isn’t going to go away just by talking it out.”

“And who’d want to share breath with those Caldour scum anyway?” said someone else.

“All right, everyone, let’s settle down,” Ricardo said. “Elena, I get what you’re worried about. I wouldn’t wish for a war either. But making peace with the Caldours isn’t an easy prospect.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to keep waging war!” I insisted. “Where does it end if we do?”

Ricardo paused, and finally said. “We’ll leave it up to Russell. If he lives, we’ll hold back from any retaliation. But if he dies, then we make the Caldours pay!”

Several groans went up at that decision. “That’s my order!” Ricardo barked. “Jeremy was right about one thing. Our priority right now is making sure our packmate lives, and as long as he still does, that’ll stay our priority. No vendettas without my approval! Is that understood?”

The pack generally seemed to accept Ricardo’s command, but they didn’t look like they were very happy with it. The assembled throng started dispersing, going back to whatever business they had, but several of them were whispering among themselves, and I could tell what they were saying was not nice.

I was relieved at least that Ricardo had stopped them from going for blood immediately, but I knew it was far from a lasting solution. And the fact that it all hinged on Russell pulling through was all the more reason to hope for his recovery. But there had to be something more I could do than just wait and hope.

Jeremy put a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go see him—”

But I was already marching toward Ricardo and Laura, who no longer had anyone standing around them. “Ricardo,” I said, “isn’t there anything else we can do to end this? I didn’t leave my old pack just to see my new one and another one slaughter each other.”

Ricardo sighed. “Elena, I wish it were that easy. But I can only lead my pack where they want to go. And if what they all want is to fight, what can I really do to stop them?”

“Maybe there’s something we can do,” Jeremy said. “We all keep telling ourselves there’s no hope of peace with the Caldours, but when was the last time anyone tried?”

“I don’t think anyone here wants to,” Laura said. “There’s too much hate to set aside.”

“Maybe not as much as you think,” Jeremy said. “I can tell you that not everyone hates the Caldours as much as you think. I’ve never felt any hatred for them.”

“And they’ve definitely got no reason to hate me,” I said, though I wondered to myself if that was really true. “What if we tried reaching out to them?  Jeremy and me? Wouldn’t it be a start?”

Ricardo and Laura looked at each other uncomfortably. “It would be a dangerous start,” Laura said. “You can’t be sure they won’t just kill you on the spot. Especially you, Jeremy. Just for being a Morgandorf.”

“It’s certainly what a lot of us here would want to do if a Caldour showed up here.”

A knot tightened in my stomach. If he only knew…

“That’s a chance we’re willing to take,” Jeremy said. “Even if they do try to attack us, it’s worth the chance to avoid them attacking all of us again.”

The two of them regarded us for a while. “This is a very risky thing you’re suggesting,” Ricardo said. “I can’t give my blessing for this… but I suppose I can’t stop you either.”

That was enough for me. Before I knew it, I had jumped forward and thrown my arms around Ricardo’s neck. He grunted slightly, and patted my back. “All right, now,” he said. “That’ll do.”

I blinked my eyes open and got back down on my feet, blushing slightly. “Um, sorry.”

“Come on, Elena,” Jeremy said, taking me by the arm. “If we’re going to do this, we ought to get going. We need to decide what we’re going to say.”

The true meaning of that was not lost on me. We were in fact talking about going back to the pack I had abandoned, with a Morgandorf in tow. And if they asked, I was going to have to tell them I’d spent the last couple weeks among the Morgandorf pack. I could definitely see this going very badly.

Jeremy and I spent the better part of an hour discussing how we were going to approach this, never quite coming up with any one perfect plan that we were completely happy with. It was getting full on dark by the time we finally decided the only thing to do was to go there and just make the best of it.

Once we’d made that decision, I slumped my shoulders with a sigh and accepted it, absently turning my head to look around. And in so doing, I happened to notice a small circle of pack members gather around, whispering conspiratorially amongst each other. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but by the looks on their faces and the way they kept looking toward the woods in the direction that the Caldour village lay, I got the impression they had trouble on their minds.

And leading the group was Lucius.

“What are they up to?” I wondered aloud.

Jeremy turned his head to look in their direction. “No good, I’d say,” he said.

“You think they’re planning to go behind Ricardo’s back and attack the Caldours anyway?”

“I wouldn’t put it past Lucius,” he said.

“We should tell Ricardo.”

Before we could do anything else, though, the group of them were already starting to head for the tree line. “I think we might not have time for that,” Jeremy said. As they disappeared into the woods, Jeremy and I went hurrying after them, knowing that if they got to the Caldour village before we did everything would quickly go to hell in a hand basket.

No sooner had we moved out of sight of the village, than we were each grabbed by two figures appearing from our sides. I was suddenly being held by the arms by one of Lucius’s cronies named Brock, while another one named Regan got hold of Jeremy. And then Lucius appeared from around the trees ahead of us, flanked by his followers Riley and Ennis. “Going somewhere, newbie?” he asked, directed mostly at me.

“We could ask you the same thing,” Jeremy said. “You’re not planning to attack the Caldours, are you?”

“Maybe we are,” Lucius said, folding his arms. “You got a problem with that?”

“Ricardo does!” I reminded him. “Or did you sleep through the part where he told us all not to do that?”

“Ricardo is a pushover!” Lucius spat. “He would’ve done the sensible thing and let us get justice for Russell if you hadn’t whispered in his ear and told him not to. Which I find interesting.”

“Why do you care so much about the Caldours?” Riley probed. “It’s almost like you’re worried about your own pack.”

“But the Caldours aren’t your own pack… are they?” Lucius said, looking me in the eye, daring me to admit that they were.

I said nothing, keeping my jaw set.

“Go on,” he said. “Keep pretending. Keep your secrets.”

And with that he nodded to the two guys holding us, who started pushing us along in another direction. “Brock and Regan are gonna keep you two company while the rest of us pay your precious Caldour pack a little visit they won’t soon forget. Enjoy yourselves while we’re gone.”

“Come on,” Brock said, shoving me along.

“Let’s go, Caldour-lover!” Regan spat at Jeremy.

“Make sure they don’t let anyone know what we’re doing,” Lucius commanded. “Now or later.” And then he and his goons were gone, into the woods to wreak their havoc.

I didn’t know where they were taking us, and I had no intention of finding out. I tried opening my mouth to howl for the pack, but I only got a brief hoot out before Brock clapped a hand over my mouth. “None of that, Caldour trash!” he said.

Fortunately, his bringing a hand to my mouth forced him to release my other arm, allowing me to shove an elbow into his gut. He gave out a winded grunt as I started wrestling myself out of his grasp.

But Brock wasn’t one to back down. Even as I started wiggling away, he kept fighting to regain a hold on me, grabbing at my wrists and arms while I tried to kick him away. And out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Jeremy was not remaining idle either, fighting against Regan just as fiercely.

We remained in a holding pattern with no one gaining the upper ground, until a small feminine voice said, “What’s going on here?”

Everyone looked up to see Andrea standing there, looking at us wide-eyed. But Jeremy and I only remained idle for a moment, before we each jumped our would-be captors, pinning them to the ground. “Andrea, get your father!” I told her. “Lucius is going behind his back! He’s gonna attack the Caldours!”

“What?”

“Just go tell him, quick!  Jeremy, come on!”

Jeremy and I bolted off, quickly shifting to four legs as we dashed into the foliage. I didn’t stop to listen if Brock and Regan were following behind us; I had other things to worry about. A bloodthirsty Morgandorf was headed for my pack with murder in mind, and I had to stop him.

I had no time to think about what would likely happen when my pack saw me again.

*

We didn’t stop running until we reached the edge of the forest, where the trees opened up into my old village. So far, nothing appeared to be wrong. But Lucius’s scent was here, clear as day.

I spotted Leon out near the edge of the village, looking across the pack. Lucius only had two helpers backing him up, and with an attack force of only three, it stood to reason that he would be trying to go straight for the jugular by taking out the alpha. Moments later, I located Lucius and his goons, creeping along on four legs downwind of Leon, slowly advancing on him, their tails twitching in impending attack.

Jeremy and I came rushing out of the woods to intercept them. Leon spun and noticed the attack just as Lucius came leaping at him with fangs bared. But he only had time to get Leon down on his back before I barreled headfirst into him, knocking him away before I bared my own fangs to growl at him.

Unlike the last time I had fought with Lucius, this time I wasn’t trying to just be defensive when we reared up on our hind legs and started biting and clawing at each other. For the first time I regretted the fact that I’d never taken part in the ring fights in either my pack or Jeremy’s; a little experience could’ve gone a long way right about then. Lucius was fierce and aggressive, and I found myself dodging from his attacks more often than I wanted. Jeremy couldn’t help me either, being too busy trying to ward off Riley and Ennis.

But then I got help I never saw coming. Another lupine shape came rushing in, jumping into Lucius’s side with teeth bared. A smaller, thinner lupine shape, not yet fully grown. With a scent I had become very familiar with over the past few weeks.

Andrea.

Lucius had time to reel in shock from the fact that his alpha’s little girl had just attacked him, before Leon suddenly stepped in, having shifted to his four-legged form and lunging at him, his fur bristling and his ears flattened back as he growled through his fangs. And by now the rest of the pack had noticed the commotion and was on their way to find out what was going on or protect their alpha, half of them already four-legged and rushing forward.

I could see Lucius looking around and taking stock of the situation. This was supposed to have been a quick there and gone job; he hadn’t counted on it getting this complicated. He turned to Riley and Ennis with a quick “buff,” and the three of them hurriedly began retreating back to the forest.

I looked to Jeremy, contemplating whether we should go after them, when the question was taken out of our hands. Members of my former pack suddenly surrounded us, teeth bared on all sides. At first I thought we were about to be jumped, when somebody finally recognized me.

Charlene stepped forward out of the throng, eyes wide as she looked down at me and gasped, “Evelyn? Is that you?”

My gaze turned in the direction of Andrea, who had just heard my real name spoken by a Caldour. I was so screwed.

Resigned, I shifted form, rising up on my two legs. Jeremy and Andrea followed suit behind me. “Yes,” I sighed. “It’s me.”

“‘Evelyn?’” Andrea echoed.

My father suddenly came forward out of the crowd. “Evelyn! Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you for weeks!”

“Elena, what’s going on?” Andrea asked.

“‘Elena?’” Charlene said.

“Who are these?” Leon demanded, after shifting back to his two-legged shape. “Tell me they’re not Morgandorfs!”

“You’re bringing Morgandorfs here?” old Tobias demanded.

“Yes,” I admitted. “They’re Morgandorfs.”

Leon grabbed me by the arm, pulling me away. “Move aside, Evelyn!” he commanded, while most of the rest of the pack advanced growling on Jeremy and Andrea.

“No, I won’t!” I shouted, throwing off Leon’s hand and pressing myself to Jeremy.

“Evelyn, what are you doing?” my dad demanded.

“I love him, Dad,” I said. “If you want him, you have to go through me.”

“‘Dad?’” Andrea echoed. “This is your dad?”

I blinked, my heart sinking. “Yes.”

“You’re a Caldour?”

I lifted my head from Jeremy’s chest to look at Andrea. “I told you to go back to your father! I didn’t want you following me!”

A hand grabbed me by the shoulder and jerked me around, bringing me face to raging, venomous face with my dad. “Tell me this isn’t true!” he demanded, practically foaming at the mouth. “We’ve been worried sick about you all this time, and this is where you’ve been? With them?  Letting this… Morgandorf filth violate you?”

A lot of angry grumbles and curses started coming from all directions, and I heard the word “traitor” flung by a few of them.

I ignored all the barbs, and focused on my father. “At least he respects me and what I want, which is more than I can say for you, Dad.”

Dad’s eyes went wild and his nostrils flared, and he raised his hand up to bring it down hard across my face. Leon stepped in, catching his arm by the wrist before his hand could touch me. Leon looked me over disapprovingly, and then looked to Andrea. “The girl can go,” he said.

“Leon!” James protested.

“She’s just a kid,” Leon said. “We’re not barbarians.” He looked to Andrea again and told her, “Run back where you belong, kid.”

Andrea looked to me again, too many thoughts and emotions playing across her face for me to peg any one down. But finally she shifted to her four-legged shape and dashed through the crowd surrounding us, which parted to let her disappear into the woods.

Then Leon’s attention turned to Jeremy, whom he pointed a finger at. “Lock that one in the shed until we figure out what to do with him.”

“No!” I shouted.

Leon’s gaze whirled on me, and his hand lashed out to grab my arm, yanking me away from Jeremy. “You are going to stay in your house until I say otherwise!”

“Let go of me!”

“If I have to have somebody nail your windows shut I will!” He lifted his head and pointed to Jeremy. “Take him away!”

A couple of my packmates came and took hold of Jeremy’s arms and started pulling him away. I continued fighting against Leon’s grip—and when he didn’t release me, I suddenly turned vicious.

With my arm still in his grasp, I shifted to my four-legged form right there, lunging up and clawing at him, very nearly getting my jaws around his face before he recoiled and released me. As soon as I had four paws on the ground I turned and leapt for the two holding Jeremy.

I knew these two guys. I’d known them all my life. Dane used to play with me when I was little, and he always made the best steaks of anyone in the pack. Garth liked to serenade us all with the sweetest music on his guitar. But right then none of that mattered, so long as they had their hands on Jeremy. I jumped on Garth, locking my jaws around his neck just enough to draw blood; if I’d closed my teeth any tighter I could’ve ripped his throat out. When Garth dropped on his back, I lunged and snapped at Dane, who backed away, letting Jeremy go.

As soon as Jeremy’s arms were free, he dropped to all fours and grew out his fur, snapping at Dane’s leg and bringing Dane crashing to the ground hamstringed. With that the two of us ran toward the wall of teeth and fur surrounding us, and leaped into the air, jumping clear over the impeding lupine shapes before making our mad dash for the woods.