Her Arranged Alpha Husband by Alicia Banks
Chapter 27
Ben
Ben was mad at himself for getting caught, getting hurt, and having to be saved by the women in his life. Teri had endangered herself by going for him. She was carrying his kids and his mom was with her. It was all too much, and he hadn’t been able to deal with it all at first. He felt like he had failed to keep her safe. That was his duty, so there was nothing else that he could do to make it right.
Teri didn’t seem bothered by it. They were at the cabin, a tiny affair in the middle of a freezing winter that still had months until it ended. There were also several people that were going to be after him. Ben didn’t know if his father would lie and say that he was dead, or that he needed to be found and brought to justice. It would be a lot to convince all of the people that were in the village that he had turned bad. Ben didn’t know what to do, but he had a feeling that letting the stones go would be a start to something new for his people. That was what they needed.
Teri woke up with a grin and she stretched for a moment, then saw that she was being observed and turned red-cheeked. “You are staring.”
Ben admitted it without another thought about it. He had the biggest grin on his face and Teri wanted to know what he was so happy about. “After finding you like that, I didn’t know if I was ever going to see you happy again,” Teri relayed to him with a sad face. She was going to change the trajectory of his thoughts if he let her get anymore out.
“I am really happy to be here with you. I didn’t know what was going to happen with dad and Mark, but it wouldn’t have been anything good. I don’t think that they were going to kill me, but I bet they would have left me in there until I keeled over. There is so much that I didn’t see. I see it now though and I hate to say it, but I wish that I didn’t. It would be easier if I didn’t see it and could pretend.”
Teri knew what he meant and when he was getting all cozy with her, she told him that they had a lot to talk about and do. It wasn’t the time for shenanigans, she insisted, but Ben didn’t want to hear that at all. It was literally the last thing that he wanted to hear. He didn’t want to talk. It would be worked out and he would likely have to kill or maim both men that meant so much to him. He was going to have to betray a vow that he would have to make about being Alpha and protecting the stones. Everything that Ben planned to do was going to change everything dramatically. He hoped that it was the right move. It felt like it could go either way, which was a lot to think about.
Before he got too stuck in his head, Ben told her that it didn’t matter what happened next with his dad and Mark.
“It doesn’t?”
Ben agreed that it didn’t and when she asked why that was, he took her into his grasp and rolled her underneath him. It was done in seconds, and she was panting hard, eyes alight when she looked up at him. It was obvious to Ben that Teri was more than he could have ever wished for. He knew that there was something perfect between them, and when her legs opened up to take him and she made the sweetest moan, Ben knew that whatever happened next didn’t matter. Teri was wrecking his way of life and he knew that one day he was going to thank her for it. His life needed some wrecking.
Seconds later, he slipped inside of her and there was nothing more that Ben needed. Everything he wanted was right there with him and before he could do much more, Teri was pulling him in for a kiss with her desperate lips. The two of them wasted away the morning. Ben took it all as his recovery. He had a lot to forget about, but when he was with Teri, everything faded away until it was just the two of them. Ben needed that now more than ever.
***
When they pulled away from each other, Ben had a grin that was from one side to the other. He knew that he could feel as good as he did, had always known that sexual pleasure was the best, but with Teri it was even better. She took sex, like his feelings and everything else that she touched, to another level to be enjoyed. Ben couldn’t stop kissing her, diving into her, it was all he could think about. The more Ben was with her, the more desperate he was for her.
“So, what are we going to do?”
Teri wasn’t on cloud nine anymore. She wanted to talk about what was going on and what the plan was. Ben admired that about her, the focus that she had and all of that, but at the same time, he had no idea what he was supposed to do.
“I am going to get together those loyal to me, after I dig up the stones and destroy them. The magic and power will go back into the world where it belongs. There will be no reason to seek us out any longer because we will not have the Pearl and their power. This is how it will be from now on. We are going to work it out to be just another shifter clan. There doesn’t have to be anything special to bring more enemies.”
“What about your dad and Mark?”
Ben sighed. He had thought about it naturally. What was he going to do with his father and his best friend? He felt like they had failed him in so many ways. It was all he could do to bring himself to think about it. There wasn’t much else that he could do but commiserate. “We will deal with them when the time comes to do so. I don’t really know how that is going to play out.”
Teri wanted to know what that meant, but Ben didn’t have an answer. He didn’t want to talk about worst-case scenarios. That wasn’t what he wanted at all. Instead, he was looking for the easy answer.
“It just means that we are going to be fine. We are going to be the ones that end up on top. I have faith in us, and I wish you did as well.”
Teri sighed and said that she was trying to. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you. Maybe we should wait until the babies are born, and then I will be able to help too.”
Ben kissed her and shook his head like that was a funny thing that she was suggesting. “It must happen now, before the cubs are born. I want them to grow up safe, not in this cabin, hiding. I won’t let that happen.” His tone was dark, and Teri stopped asking all the questions. She said she was ready to do what was necessary, and Ben wasn’t sure what that was going to be exactly, but he knew that he had no limits either.
***
After a midday romp, Ben took off while Teri was sleeping. He was the only one alive that knew where the stones were. He didn’t know where all of them were, but over half of them had been taken into his custody and hidden by his own hand. Ben had to get close to his village and he couldn’t do that with Teri right there. He also wanted to talk to his mom. They had a lot to say to each other, many conversations to have all over again. He wanted to take her from his father and the danger, but she knew about it and went right back into it. Ben didn’t know what for, but he knew that there was some kind of reason.
When he got to the spot where he had buried the stones everyone called the Pearls, he immediately felt the power course through him. The feeling only got more intense as he got deeper into the dirt. He had been in a sort of frenzy when he had buried it and it was way down deep. By the time he had clawed his way to it, Ben was feeling the same frenzy that he had before. The power of the stones was the sort of dark power that made him wonder if he was doing the right thing. He didn’t feel like he was. It felt like he was making a big mistake to even think about destroying them.
Ben had to shake the feeling out of it. He knew that he was there to destroy them, so no one took in the power. He could use it to take down his dad and his friend, but he didn’t know what it would do to him. Ben worried about his soul as well. He didn’t want to think of the horrid things that he would do to get his way. He always knew that he could do it, he just didn’t want to know what it was all about.
Putting them into a bag that he brought for the occasion, Ben stopped when he heard a twig snapping. Mark was there in seconds, and he was already shifted into his large wolf form. Ben had always seen him as a friend, so it was hard to see him as an enemy. He didn’t want that to be the case, no matter how badly he knew that it was.
“Brother, what are you doing out here?”
Mark paused with the new title, and he sneered. “Half, and I think that you got the weaker half of dad’s DNA. Your mom is weak, so it really messed with how it all came out. She was too soft, just like you are too soft now. You could have killed me several times. You’ve known what this is between us and instead you what, get the stones? Where were you going to take them?”
Ben sighed. He didn’t want to show Mark that just because he hadn’t killed him yet, that he wasn’t able to. He wanted answers more than anything else. He wanted to know if Mark had known about it the whole time, the plot against him. Why did Ben want him to be in the dark like he was? Ben knew that the possibility of that was pretty bad. It was easy for him to not hate his best friend, if he didn’t know the whole time that they were brothers. If he did know, then Ben was just the idiot that was the last to know. That made him feel bad enough. What if they were both taken off guard?
“You are too damn naïve, Ben. I knew the whole time what you were to me, but I also knew that I was the strong one and the throne was mine.”
Ben sighed and didn’t want to think about what came next. He didn’t want to fight his brother, but the writing on the wall was clear. One of them wasn’t going to walk away. Ben had to make sure that he did, so that he could be with his mate and their children coming so soon. His brother was going to make him do things that he didn’t want to do. He and his father were going to force Ben’s hands and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“I was really hoping that wouldn’t be the case.”
He smiled. “What does it matter what you want, brother? You have lost. Are you too stupid to see it?”
Ben felt himself changing. One of them wasn’t walking away and he would be damned if it wasn’t him.
