Beta’s Challenge (5 page)

Gabriel stood there making sure he heard the lock on the door then the window upstairs being closed and locked before heading back to his car. He started the engine, backed out and headed home. Once he arrived back home, he walked in, locked the door, then went into the living room. He sat heavily on the couch, laying his head back and covered his face with his hands. Sensing Tomas standing in the door, Gabriel exhaled dramatically.

“What am I going to do, Tomas? I have to protect her because you and I both know Mikal is not going to stop until he has proven his point. I cannot ask her to give up her life to become a fugitive with me. We all know it’s just a matter of time before they close in on us. We aren’t that far from the pack and depending on who he is using to track us, it won’t be long before they find us. We may have to relocate farther away to make sure Mikal doesn’t find out about Tara. I can’t ask you and Adrian to traipse across the country following me. You didn’t ask for any of this and neither did Adrian nor Tara. I have really messed up.”

 Tomas pushed away from the doorframe and walked to Gabriel. Laying his hand on Gabriel’s, he said, “Isn’t that exactly what you are doing my friend? Look, Adrian and I knew what we were getting into when we left the pack to follow you. Don’t you know we will follow you anywhere we must? Having Tara come into the picture only strengthens our resolve. We would die to protect her, as well you know.”

Lowering his hands and raising his head, Gabriel looked Tomas straight in the eyes and said, “Yes, and I pray to Mother Earth and all of her servants that I have not doomed her nor either of you.” Gabriel said, grasping Tomas’s hand in a show of brotherhood.

Mikal walked into his bedroom and looked at the most beautiful she-wolf he had ever laid eyes upon. Of all the women he’d fucked in his life, Sasha was the only one he’d ever loved. He undressed, climbed in the bed and mounted her prone body. In one massive push, he seated his hard dick to the hilt. He pumped in her five or six times then stopped.

Letting out a sigh, he said, “Is the thought of my touch so bad that you would deny me the pleasure of your passion? You once freely gave your passionate fire during lovemaking. I would get rock hard just thinking about you. Now, you just lie there as if in a trance, oblivious to my presence. Nothing I do brings about that passion I seek.” Sasha was the only member of his pack whose opinion of him truly mattered. “Why must it be this way, Sasha? I would give you the world if only you would love me again like you once did,” Mikal said as he lay upon her, dick still inside her, still rock hard.

“You took my passion when you gave the order allowing any male breathing the freedom to use me as they saw fit,” Sasha all but spat back at Mikal.

“I could not show favoritism towards you. That would have weakened me before the pack,” Mikal said.

“You are weak, Mikal. Only a weak man would need to rape and beat a female to have her,” Sasha ground out thru gritted teeth.

Feeling his rage crawling near the surface, Mikal’s stare bored a hole into her. For her, he fought his true nature and barely tamped down that rage.

“All of this would have been so much easier if the pack had just tried to understand. No one would even try. Everyone just looked at it as barbaric. No female would have had to experience mistreatment if only she gave willingly. What if I had left the old laws in place and your chosen Primale was unable to give you young?” Mikal inquired of Sasha.

“I would have loved him the same and helped the other pack females rear their young. That is what pack does, Mikal,” Sasha said, not trying to hide the venom in her words.

“Bullshit. You would feel less of a female and the pack would have shunned you. No one ever thinks the male is at fault in such matters. It is always the female and I would not have put you through that,” Mikal roared in response to Sasha’s words.

“That would be my shame to bear, not yours. Your only fear is that you would not have been my chosen Primale and there would have been nothing you could have done about it,” Sasha said and turned her head, dismissing him as much as she could with him lying atop her.

“Not true, my Sasha. I would have had your Primale killed then claimed you as my own. No pack member would have disagreed,” Mikal stated as casually as if her were talking about the weather.

“Then you would have had to keep me shackled to the bed as you do now and my lifeless, soulless body would have been your only consort. You can use my body forever, but you will
never
again have my heart, Mikal. And the really sad part of all this is at one time, I would have literally killed to be your Prima and stand at your side,” Sasha said with all the finality she could muster.

“Fine, Sasha. If that’s the way it must be,” Mikal roared as he pulled out of her body, dressed, and stormed out the door slamming it behind him.

Marcus and Vonn, two of Mikal’s officers, jumped up as Mikal stormed into the living room of the alpha house.

“Would you like us to take her back to the pack now?” Vonn asked in a voice just above a whisper.

“NO!” Mikal roared. “She is not to be released until her heat is over. Any young she births will be mine. No other is to touch her.
IS THAT CLEAR
?” Mikal said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Vonn and Marcus looked at each other and took a step back.

“Mikal, wouldn’t that cause unrest among the pack?” Marcus tentatively asked.

“I am the alpha of this pack. I am the absolute law. If any wishes to challenge me, he may step forward.” Mikal paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists. He was pissed; more so at himself for turning Sasha against him than at anything else.

How could he win her heart? He didn’t want a lifeless body in his bed. He wanted passionate nights and words of love and loyalty. He now knew that any hope he had of having this with Sasha was no more and that pissed him off even more.

Both Vonn and Marcus fell to one knee, presenting their throats as a show of complete respect and loyalty.

“Good,” Mikal barked as he walked around his desk. Just as he sat down, the phone rang. “What?”

“Mikal? We have found them,” Valeen said into the other end of the line.

Mikal listened to everything Valeen said, writing down the necessary information. “Well done, Val. Well done.”

Mikal hung up. Feeling a little better with the news he’d just received, Mikal decided he didn’t need Sasha’s passion or her words of love. He just needed to get a nutt and an heir and she would provide both.

“Vonn,” Mikal said, “go to the meeting room and gather the camcorder and other equipment. Make sure the batteries are fully charged.  We have a movie to film.”

“Yes, Mikal.” Vonn left to room to do as told.

Smiling from ear-to-ear, and chuckling to himself, Mikal walked back into his bedroom. The thought of finally exacting revenge on the one person he felt deserved it more than any other being on earth had his dick suddenly hard as steel.

Closing the door, he started undressing as he walked toward the bed. Sasha lay there stoically. Mikal said, “Unfortunately for you, Sasha, I have just received news that has me so excited, I feel I will explode if I don’t release some of this excess adrenalin-laced energy.”

“I hate you, Mikal. You’ll never be half the man Gabriel is.” Sasha spit the words out like acid.

That comment cut Mikal’s soul deeper than he thought was even possible. His gut felt like it had been ripped to shreds, gasoline poured on it, and lit with a struck a match.

 “You will regret that comment, Sasha, and for that, I am truly sorry,” Mikal said as he once headed to the bed. This time, no matter what, he would do what he came to do.

He walked to the bed and untied her ankles. Sasha kicked and squirmed, trying to keep Mikal away from her but he flipped her onto her stomach and easily retied her ankles. Walking to the head of the bed, he grabbed three pillows and jammed them under her belly, raising her ass high in the air.

He removed the remainder of his clothes and climbed onto the bed between her spread legs. His seed from their earlier session leaked from her slit. He grabbed the base of his cock and rubbed it up and down her slit, using the moisture to slick his cock in preparation for what he was about to do. Once his cock was slick enough for his liking, he positioned the head at Sasha’s asshole.

Sasha went ramrod still. In one violently forceful jab, Mikal bottomed out in Sasha’s ass. The scream that ripped from Sasha’s throat was one of ultra agony. The forcefulness of Mikal’s invasion in her ass was more than her body or mind could handle and as darkness met her, she passed out cold. Mikal, unaware that Sasha had passed out, pummeled her ass as if his dick was a jackhammer and he was trying to break through a ten-foot thick concrete wall. Her words ringing in his ears like a mantra.

“
You will never be half the man Gabriel is.”

How dare she. He was twice the man Gabriel could ever dream of being and he would prove that to not only Sasha, but the entire pack.

He pounded Sasha for what seemed like hours. When Mikal felt the familiar burn signaling his orgasm was upon him, he pulled out of her ass and shoved his dick into her pussy. He began stroking harder and faster until his orgasm crested and he shoved into Sasha farther than any man had a right to be inside a woman’s body. He threw his head back and howled his release.

After the sensations of his orgasm calmed and his breathing was back to normal, Mikal got off the bed. “Can Gabriel give you that, Sasha?”

No answer. With the blind rage now dissipated, fear gripped Mikal in a vice around his heart. Moving closer to the bed, he pushed Sasha’s hair clear from her face. She was out cold.

“What have I done to you my love?” Mikal knelt down by the head of the bed and pushed Sasha’s hair from her face. Panic began to set in. Mikal ran his fingertips over her cheek. He went into the bathroom, gathered oil, washcloths, towels and a bowl of soapy water. Coming back in the room with his supplies, he untied Sasha’s wrist and ankles. Gently he bathed her, taking extra precautions between her legs and at her breasts. Once he finished cleaning her, he massaged her entire body with the oils. Leaning down, he placed a soft kiss on Sasha’s forehead. “Why can’t you love me the way I love you?” Mikal whispered in Sasha’s ear.

Sighing in defeat, he took all the supplies back into the bathroom. Mikal quickly showered and dressed. Heading to the door, he glanced back at Sasha.

“Why can’t you love me the way I love you?” Mikal whispered again.  “Gabriel, this is entirely your fault. It’s time to face your demons, boy, and I am going to be the one to bring them to you,” he said as he gently stepped through the door, silently closing it behind himself.

Chapter Four

After Gabriel had dropped Tara off at home, she showered then called Toya and Tia on three-way. She asked them to come over because she had to talk to someone and could count on them to be bluntly honest. Toya and Tia were the only
true
friends she had. She knew she could trust them with her life.

 “You slut! Talk about me. How could you sleep with a man that stalked you home from the club last night? Even I wouldn’t be that dumb,” Tia yelled at the top of her lungs.

“For once, I have to agree with Tia. Have you lost your damn mind, bitch? We prosecute scum like this all the time and here you are dropping your drawers for one. Not bright, Tara,” Toya said indignantly.

“I know, I know,” Tara said to both of them, burying her face in her hands.

“What were you thinking, or were you thinking at all?” Toya asked Tara.

“Honestly? I thought it was all a dream. I was so fucked up when I got up this morning, I had to crawl into the bathroom and pissed in my panties sitting on the toilet because I couldn’t get them down.” Tara relayed to Toya and Tia.

Tia spit coffee across the table and all over Tara and Toya.

“Bitch,” they screamed at Tia in unison.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Tia said as she grabbed napkins from the stack they’d set on the coffee table and started blotting up the spit coffee. “But to hear Ms. Girdle-Too-Tight talk about how she pissed all over herself because she couldn’t handle her liquor is hilarious.”

Tia got up and grabbed a dishtowel from the counter. “Personally, I say it’s about time Ms. Uptight got her groove on. I know lack of sex makes you sharper in the courtroom, but damn! You can’t hold that shit in forever. Eventually it will blow the top of your head off,” Tia said, now finish cleaning up her mess and retaking her seat.