Fated To The Alpha: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (14 page)

“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.