Fated for Forever [Kindred of Arkadia 3] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (20 page)

our boys safe when we couldn’t. Are you saying now that you aren’t willing to defend his mate?” Kate

demanded, tapping her foot.

“No, lovely baby, we would never turn our back on Liam that way,” Caleb said, taking one of Kate’s

clenched fists. Bran grabbed the other.

“We’re just worried about a new threat to the town, that is all,” Bran explained.

“Good, for a moment there neither one of you was going to get any sex for at least a month,” Kate said,

eyeing her men who paled under her gaze.

Rebecca looked around the apartment and down at the bloody floor.

“You know what, I’m freaking starving. Let’s go to the diner, I’m craving steak and eggs.” Rebecca

smiled and Ashby chuckled wickedly. Together they walked toward the door and headed down the stairs.

Caleb and Bran turned a little green and Kate patted them on their shoulders.

“You boys can’t hang with the big girls.” She laughed and followed Rebecca and Ashby out of the

apartment.

Bran turned to Caleb.

“Never, ever,
ever
piss off those two women.” Caleb nodded. They quickly followed the other three to

the diner.

* * * *

“Liam wait up!” Aleks yelled as he marched down Market Street after his friend. Liam turned, hissed

and kept walking. Aleks rolled his eyes.

“Dammit, Liam, hold up!” Aleks yelled as they passed the diner. Behind him he heard gasps but he kept

walking. Fuck them if they didn’t like him cussing. Finally he added a little speed and caught up to Liam.

“Fuck off Aleks!” Liam said through clenched teeth.

“Can’t. Rebecca sicced me on you. So here I am standing in front of you, when I would rather be

stripping my mate naked and inspecting every inch of her body. I almost lost her
again
today. Am I with

her? No! I’m with your flea-bitten cat ass! So you better spill your guts and cry or whatever shit you need

to do so I can tell Rebecca I was there for you, so I can get back to my plan of stripping her naked,” Aleks

bellowed.

In the background he heard children begin to cry. He frowned.
OK,
he admitted to himself that he

needed to watch his language. Liam stared at him blankly.

“You’re totally scared of her adorable psychotic little ass,” he said.

“I am not! And she isn’t psychotic. She’s brilliant,” Aleks protested. Liam nodded.

“At least she never denied you,” Liam said brokenly.

“No. But I denied her, remember?” Aleks said bitterly and Liam winced.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with the little guy, but he looked scared as hell when he shifted

back to human. You don’t look that scared when you can shift into a fucking saber-toothed tiger without

some major trauma somewhere in your past,” Aleks said, taking a deep breath. Then he stopped and his

eyes went wide.

“He’s a he. I mean he’s a guy. He’s your mate. Oh my God you’re gay!” Aleks exclaimed. Liam slapped

himself on the forehead.

“You are just sick!” a woman on the sidewalk hissed at them.

“Fuck off you close-minded bitch, we don’t choose our mates, they are chosen for us,” Aleks growled

at her. Her mouth worked like a fish’s before she went running down the street calling for Ma Arkadion.

Aleks looked at Liam, his face scarlet.

“Look man, I don’t care who your mate is. I just want you to be happy,” he said in a gruff voice. Liam

wiped his eyes from laughing too hard and shook his head.

“Doesn’t look like that is going to happen anytime soon.” When Liam looked up at him there was a new

depth of sadness that wasn’t there this morning. Aleks opened his mouth to reassure his friend when he

heard something that chilled him to the bone.

“Aleksander Aaron Arkadion! What in the hell is wrong with you! Why are you dragging that mangled

corpse through town? You traumatized an entire first-grade class on a field trip to the town center,” Ma said,

striding up to them pointing down to the body that Aleks still had a hold of.

He looked down at the ankle he was holding.

“Fuck my life.” Aleks looked behind his ma at the trail of blood heading back to the ice cream parlor.

Liam laughed, his arms wrapped around his waist holding his sides. Aleks had a feeling that Liam was

laughing to keep from crying.

Chapter 17

“You know what this means Ashby?” Rebecca said, wiggling around behind the counter as Ma walked

into the diner muttering about dense sons. Ethan, Gina and Cecelia were giggling at Aleks’s gaffe from a

table by the door.

“What does what mean?” Ashby asked, picking apart a muffin.

“It means that you can go be with Gabriel. The threat was from his crazy-ass stalker, not the drug ring.

Speaking of crazy stalkers.” Rebecca rummaged around in different containers before holding up her gun

triumphantly. Connor paled as she tucked it into her purse. She returned to her table as Caleb and Bran eyed

her warily. She resumed eating her steak.

“Oh my God, you’re right. I can go back!” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hate to lose you little buddy,” Mojo said from a side table where he was having breakfast with a much

smaller man who kept looking around nervously. Ashby identified one of his shirts and smiled.

“I’ll figure out a way to get you your sundaes. Is this Peyton?” Ashby asked, smiling at the twitchy man.

Mojo nodded.

“Yup, this is Peyton Miller, my new employee at the bar. Say hello to everyone Peyton. It’s OK,

everyone here is real nice.” Mojo waved to everyone who smiled warmly and waved back to the small man.

Slowly a shy smile appeared as he gave a small wave before ducking his head.

“He is so cute!!” Rebecca gushed. Peyton looked up blushing and looked back down again.

Ashby was about to comment when the door swung open and three strange men walked in.

Immediately the shifters in the diner went on alert. Ma stepped out from behind the counter.

“Can we help you gentlemen?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Normally Ma was very

welcoming to everyone, but there was something off about these three. Ashby shuddered. He wanted to get

as far away from them as possible. The man in front looked around the diner and gave an oily smile. His

eyes went from Peyton to Kate then back to Ma.

“I’m looking for Bran McGregor,” the seedy-looking leader said. Kate stood and began to growl loudly.

Bran and Caleb stood in front of their mate.

“I’m Bran McGregor,” Bran said, frowning at the rough-looking man.

“I challenge you to become Alpha of the Arkadian wolf pack,” he said and Ashby gasped.

“You can’t do that,” Rebecca said calmly between bites of steak.

“It’s a dominance challenge, no one can interfere. I’m simply reclaiming what is mine. My brother

promised me a piece of that bitch there,” he said, pointing to Kate.

“Once I’m Alpha, she’ll be my bitch. I’ll also be taking that twink off your hands. He belongs to my

pack,” he said pointing to Peyton. Ashby felt the air move as Mojo took up a position in front of him and

Peyton. Out of the corner of his eye Ashby saw Ethan slip out of the diner and take off down the road.

“You son of a bitch, why can’t you just leave us alone!” Kate demanded.

“Who is he, Kate?” Ma asked.

“He’s the brother to my old Alpha,” Kate growled.

“Interesting, so your parents failed on two occasions.” Rebecca looked up at the wolf and scrunched her

nose before shaking her head.

“Like I said before, you can’t challenge Bran. And even if you could, you can’t just own people. That’s

just rude,” Rebecca said, chasing the juice from her steak around her plate with what looked to be her last

bite.

“Rebecca he’s right, no one can interfere with a dominance challenge,” Bran said, cracking his knuckles.

Caleb bared his canines at the man.

“Except when that challenge is issued to a pack that is under the protection of the Alpha Mother in an

Arkadian town. In the Shifter Council bylaws the only time such a challenge is recognized is when

approved of by the Alpha Mother. So like I said…again. You can’t do that,” she said, sweetly smiling up at

the man. He growled and knocked the table away from Rebecca to leave her sitting in the chair before him.

The entire diner began to growl as Connor jumped the counter and stood directly behind Rebecca.

“Fine. Where is the Alpha Mother? Bring her to me,” he demanded. Rebecca stood.

“I’m right here,” she said, placing her hands on her hips.

“Where? Where is the Alpha Mother?” he demanded, ignoring Rebecca. She growled her tiny growl at

him.

“I know you’re not growling at me puny human. What could you possibly do to me?” He reached down

and squeezed her cheeks together. Her eyes flared with anger before two deafening shots echoed through

the diner. The skeezy wolf Alpha howled and dropped to the floor clutching at his knees.

“I got it back just in time.” She grinned, waving her gun. Aleks and Liam entered the diner at a dead

run.

“We heard gun shots,” Liam said, eyeing the man writhing around in pain on the diner floor.

“Becca, baby, what’s going on?” Aleks asked as the two other wolves that had come in barred the way

to his mate.

“I shot their Alpha in the knee caps,” she said calmly.

“What did that bastard do?” he asked, his hands shifting as he and Liam faced down the two wolf

shifters.

“He grabbed me,” she said then stepped forward before kicking him in the face. Blood and teeth

skittered across the diner floor. The Alpha began to laugh.

He wheezed and said, “You broke Arkadian law. You hurt a shifter within the town’s perimeter.” The

Alpha forced each word out between painful breaths.

Ashby froze. Rebecca had. She had shot him. Oh God, what if she had to leave Arkadia?

“Bitch, please. I know every law, bylaw and Council suggestion that’s been enforced or documented

since Arkadia was created. It states that any town member is able to defend themselves against physical

harm. You laid your hands on me and caused me pain. I was simply defending myself.”

Aleks growled and stepped forward to go after the wolf on the floor.

“You dare touch my mate!” He stepped right into the wolf shifter’s chest that still stood between him

and Rebecca.

“I only grabbed your face, you shot me. It’s completely different. I’ll take my case to the vampires.

They will destroy your town.” The Alpha growled up at Rebecca. Ashby smiled and stepped forward to

stand next to Rebecca. He put on his haughtiest expression and looked down at the man on the floor.

“I am Prince Ashby, mated to Prince Gabriel, who rules over all vampires. I can with utmost certainty,

unequivocally advise you that we will never rule in your favor, nor will we ever attack any Arkadian town.

This I can swear to you.” Ashby looked at him in disgust.

“I will take my case to the Council. This isn’t over!” The two wolves stepped away from Liam and

Aleks and helped their leader to stand. Rebecca frowned and stepped forward.

“For your transgression against my person as Alpha Mother of Arkadia, I am hereby issuing you this

final warning. Do not seek to harm what is mine or I will ban your pack from Arkadia. If you succeed in

harming what is mine, I will destroy you. Not kill. Destroy. I will systematically and painfully rip you apart

piece by piece.” Rebecca stared at them coldly.

“As prince of the vampire race I also give you warning. If you ever harm so much as a hair on my

Alpha Mother’s head, I will set every vampire on the planet against you. There is no place on earth where

you could hide from my wrath.” Ashby stared at the man in disgust.

“I don’t believe a twink like you rules the vampires,” the Alpha spat out. Ashby calmly pulled his

cellphone out of his pocket and dialed Gabriel’s number.

“
Mon Ange,
is something the matter?” Gabriel’s melodic voice was heard by every shifter.

“There is a wolf shifter here that doubts that a twink like me could be a prince to the vampires. He is

threatening my Alpha Mother,” Ashby explained coolly.

“How do we know that is the prince?” the wolf Alpha demanded.

“Step forward and know my claim to be true.” Gabriel’s voice was heard, but it was through Ashby that

his pulse of power was felt. The three wolves standing in front of Ashby were nearly driven to their knees.

“My prince, can you please confirm to this wolf Alpha that I speak with your voice and through you I

represent the vampires?” Ashby asked.

“Prince Ashby, as my mate you speak with my voice and represent every vampire created who has not

lost their soul. I pity any creature that doubts your claim,” Gabriel said, his voice turning dark and cold.

“Thank you, my prince.”

“I am waiting for you my love,” Gabriel said before Ashby ended the call.

“Peyton, you better come with me if you know what’s good for you!” the wolf Alpha screamed,

reaching for the small man in a last-ditch effort as they made their way out of the diner. Mojo simply

stretched his large hand forward and snapped the leader’s arm with as much effort as he would in snapping