Heart of the Unknown Alpha (17 page)

“Aryana, it would appear you no longer have a front door and as such you’re not safe here until we can get it repaired. You’re going to come to Alpha House with us until we can get things settled down and then you can return home. OK?”

Aryana didn’t believe him. She didn’t know why, she didn’t even know the man but she KNEW he was lying to her. She was done with kid gloves stuff. She was tougher than that and it’s about time people started treating her like it. “why don’t you try telling me the truth and then maybe I will say yes?”

Samuel blinked. He wasn’t normally nonplussed but she had him, and for some reason he found he couldn’t lie to her. “Fine. The truth is the other person that was here is a wolf like the rest of us. The wounds on Darian are showing that the other wolf was trying to kill him. There is a chance the other wolf will come back. He may try to kill you just so Darian can’t have you. With your door busted in your not even safe from human predators let alone a Werewolf bent on murder. For your safety and Darian’s peace of mind you and the pup need to come to Alpha House.”

Aryana looked at the small pup in her arms. She didn’t think Stephen would come back nor would he hurt her. But would he hurt the pup? What did she know? She knew that when she had told Stephen to stop he had stopped. When she had told him to go he had left. But he had attacked Darian, tried to kill him. Could she take being away from Darian knowing he was hurt so badly? She thought of how she had felt over the last almost three weeks they had been apart. No she didn’t want to be separated from Darian. She wanted to be there when he woke up. “Very well. I will go with you but I want to stay with Darian and I need to pack some things first.”

Samuel nodded his assent and left to inform the others. Aryana hurriedly packed up the things the puppy would need and then raced upstairs to gather up her clothing. On a whim she grabbed her laptop which all her current projects were loaded onto, including Stephens.  Tossing all of her stuff into a large duffle bag she descended the stairs in time to see 2 large men carry Darian out the door followed by the medic. Samuel turned and looked at her in surprise.

“You pack fast for a female and a human.”

Aryana narrowed her eyes at the man. That was not the first time he had referred to her as being human and it was honestly starting to piss her off. Bracing her feet apart and cocking on hands on hips she stared the man down “Look Mr. Big and Bad, I don’t give a shit if you’re a wolf or not. Stop speaking about me being human like it’s a bad thing. You keep it up and Darian won’t be the only one needing medical attention though I can assure you yours will be more in the form of a surgical reattachment…”

Well, well, so she had some spunk to her after all. Interesting. Samuel mused. Apparently she was a lot tougher then she looked and if the look in her eye was anything to go by she was also deadly serious. Since he was rather fond of staying in one piece he nodded he understood and resolved to keep his mouth shut around the girl. He turned and walked out the house not bothering to see if she followed.

Aryana let out a angry huff. MEN!!! For some reason they seemed to think they could just walk all over her and it was ridiculous. She wasn’t a weakling and wasn’t a push over.  Time these wolves started realizing that. She hoisted the duffle bag and the one containing the puppies stuff over both shoulders and scooped little Renie up and headed out the door.

One of the male wolves took the bags from her as she got outside and stowed them into the back of one of the black SUVs out front. Aryana and Renie were placed in the back between two rather large men, squished wasn’t accurate enough of a description.  After about 5 minutes of squirming trying to get some room to be comfortable she had finally had enough. “Can you two big brutes PLEASE scoot over so I can at least have room to breathe?”

Surprisingly they did she asked without complaint. Squashing themselves up against the passenger’s doors. The rest of the ride was done in absolute silence.

Aryana sat in the overstuffed chair next to the window. She had been ushered into a room upon her arrival and basically dismissed. One of the guards had brought up her bags and left them on the floor by the door. She hadn’t bothered to unpack yet. The room itself was large and comfortable with lots of natural light pouring through the large windows. She wanted to find someone and ask about Darian but she figured her wandering around wasn’t going to be welcome besides which Renie was making noises about being hungry.

Forty five minutes later she had Renie settled and sleeping in his bed in a sunny spot. She had had enough waiting and wondering, she was going exploring. Swinging her door open carefully she was surprised to find that it swung silently on its hinges and that there was no guard stationed outside her door.

She crept out and quietly closed the door behind her. Making her way down the staircase she started wandering around the downstairs looking for anything that could lead to a medical room. She came to a large heavy wood door and pushed it open, it swung on silent hinges. She followed down a series of steps and found an opening that led into a large game room of sorts. There were lots of seats and pool tables, large screen TV’s with game systems, games lined the areas in between the TVs, there were arcade style games and a bar at the opposite end. She continued down the stairs and came to another opening inside were lots of boxes and things covered in dust. She was about to retrace her steps when she saw the floor. There was a path through all the dust where the floor was bare. It almost looked like something had been dragged through it.

She followed the path until he came to another large wooden door. Like the other doors it swung open silently on well-oiled hinges. She gasped as she took in what was behind it.

Stone walls lined the entire place. She couldn’t tell what kinds of stone they were because they were stained red and she didn’t think they were stained by paint. The first part of the room was an open space but hanging from the walls and ceiling were chains with handcuffs at the end, whips, Branding irons,  what looked like pointed spears, and other devices she had only seen in ancient text about the inquisition. There was a rack on one side of the room.  Beside the rack was a pit that held coals that glowed a dull orange. All in all it was what she had always pictured a medieval torture chamber to look like the kind she used to dream about as a child. The part that made her throat catch though was in the back walls of the room where what resembles old jail cells or more like cages. In one of the cages, propped up against the side wall and the front bars was one of the men from Stephens pictures..

From where she sat she could see his chest barely rising and falling other than that he didn’t move. She slowly crept closer unable to fathom what this man could have done to end him up in what looked like a cage made of stone on three sides and bars on the front. She got within three feet of him and choked back a sob as she saw his face and upper body. What once had been beautiful unblemished skin was now covered with burns, bruises and wounds. He was covered in his own blood and barely recognizable as the same man in the pictures. Aryana’s eyes widened and she started to actually feel pain like she had broken bones and burns just like the man in front of her. She hurried up and ran from the room before the man regained consciousness, confused and frightened..

Back in her assigned room Aryana lay on the bed and sobbed. The horror of what she had seen down there was just to much. What kind of world was this that Darian lived in? How could he expect her to want to live in it? What kind of society treated another with such hatred and contempt simply because they couldn’t change? And how could they torture and treat another member of their own like that? Weren’t wolves supposed to be pack creatures? How could a world based on strength in numbers do something like that? For the second time since she had been pulled into this world Aryana cried herself to sleep.

Chapter 20 Waiting game

She woke to the puppy whining and before she could even get up from the bed to tend to him there was a loud knock on her door just moments before it crashed open. Aryana let out a loud scream as a large man came through the door. She dashed off the bed and scooped up the pup holding him close to her chest. She eyed the distance from the man to her and the distance from herself to the window trying to judge if she would make it in time. Guessing she didn’t she quickly tucked the pup behind her and faced the large man. She wasn’t going to go down without a fight. If this jerk thought she was going to be an easy target he was gonna find out otherwise. Suddenly Samuel came rushing into the room behind the large man.

“WHAT is going on here?” He demanded. Turning he grabbed the large man by the arm and forced him to look at him. “Why is she screaming? What did you do?”

“Didn’t do anything just what you told me.” Came the large man’s reply.

“TOLD HIM??? YOU TOLD him to break into my room and threaten me?” Aryana started yelling. She picked up a nearby vase and threw it at both men.

Samuel ducked as the vase came near his head. It narrowly missed his ear and crashed on the floor behind him. Dang this female had a temper almost as bad as any she-wolf. He was so busy looking at Chris to figure out what the man had done wrong he missed the book flying at him and got nailed right in the eye. “OWWW. Hey stop that!”

Next Aryana threw a plate and nailed the large man in the head. She then picked up another large heavy book and threw it. Just as it sailed past the men Juliana appeared in the door way and caught it one handed. Setting it on a small table she surveyed the scene around her.

“Now what did you two do to this girl?”

The large man turned and looked at Juliana just as another book caught him behind the ear. “We didn’t do nothing. I just came to get her like he told me and she went nuts, screaming and throwing things.”

“LIAR!!! You BROKE INTO MY ROOM you giant idiot!!! I have every right to be screaming and throwing things!”

Juliana let out an exasperated sigh. Trust her husband to send an idiot to screw up a job she guessed. “Chris did you break into her room?”

“No, I knocked first then I came in. She just went nuts.”

“You knocked about a split second before you came crashing through my door! How the hell do you expect someone to respond moron?”

“Chris, did you wait for her to answer the door or did you just come in on your own?”

“I just came in..”

Juliana smiled and shook her head. Men, they would never learn. Then she laughed out loud as another book clocked Chris upside the head and another caught her husband both men were going to be seriously bruised and with major headaches in an hour. She adored Chris but he was slow sometimes when it came to females. “Chris she isn’t a female wolf. She is human, you have to wait for her to answer the door, you can’t just come in whenever and not expect her to have a bad reaction.”

“Oh.” The look of surprise on the large man’s face only lasted a minute as a large vase came crashing into the back of it and he winced in pain “OWWWWW, Cut that out!”

“THEN GET OUT!!!” Aryana had had enough. People talking about her like she wasn’t there. Dragging into the middle of nowhere and into the middle of something she had no clue over and expecting her to just be ok with it all.  Either they could start treating her as an equal or they could return her to her life and get lost for good. To her surprise the large man silently turned on his heel and left the room. 

Samuel and Juliana watched him leave stunned into silence. Chris never really did anything anyone told him without question unless it was Renault or Samuel. Juliana gave her husband a meaningful look and left the room leaving the door open.

Samuel sighed, this situation was becoming more and more complicated and he wasn’t liking it. When was Renault getting back??? He watched Aryana tend to the puppy and wondered how such a human female could act so much like a she wolf, right down to the temper. “Aryana would you join me in my office? I need to ask you some more questions.”

“No.” Aryana didn’t even bother to turn around when she answered him.

“Excuse me?” Again, she had caught him off guard again. How the hell was she doing that? She was HUMAN she shouldn’t be able to do that!!! His wolf huffed in indignation.

“I said no. I am not going to your office. If you want to talk to me you can do so right here.” She rose with the pup in her arms and plunked down in the overstuffed chair nearby settling the pup in her lap.

Samuel felt himself want to growl. DAMMIT this human was infuriating. She clearly wasn’t going to do as she was told and that meant he had to do as she wished if he was going to get answers. Settling into a chair opposite her he relented. “Fine, we will do this your way. So tell me everything that happened start to finish. I need to know who said what, every detail.”

Aryana sat there for the next hour answering Samuels questions and clarifying things and repeating things she had already said. She surprised herself with the clarity with which she could recall everything down to the exact wording and who had swung when.

When she was done Samuel got up from the chair and paced back and forth. Clearly he was bothered by something what it was she didn’t know but she watched him waiting for an explanation. Finally he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion in his mind and sat back down. He steepled his fingers in front of his face as he watched her for a few moments, she never broke her gaze from his.

“Are you certain the man you have told me about is named Stephen Kingly?”

“Yes I am certain. Just as much as I know your name is Samuel Night.”

“Are you certain he said the exact words Challenge for Rights?”

“Yes. His exact words were ‘Consider this your Challenge of Rights notification’  whatever that means”

Stephen rose and walked to the window staring out unseeingly. After long tense moments he finally turned and spoke. “I do not know what all Darian has told you. But Stephen Kingly is the son of a local Pack Alpha. He has already attacked Darian at least once and we suspect twice.  It would seem that he also wants to claim you as a mate. Since you now have two male wolves wanting to claim you for their own Pack law is now involved.”

“I don’t get it. Darian told me it was against pack law for a human and a wolf to mate. Is that true or not?” Aryana was quite puzzled by this turn of events. How could two of them want her if it was against everything they believed? “What is a Challenge of Rights anyway?”

Samuel let out a heavy sigh and reclaimed his chair. His face was grim and he looked like the weight of the world had just been dumped on his shoulders. “It is illegal unless the wolf agrees to live in exile from the pack and to never produce a child. Exile for a wolf is often a very difficult existence and over time the wolf becomes more and more despondent. Ultimately unless the wolf gives up his human mate and returns to the pack it is a death sentence. If he refuses to leave or produces a child with the human mate then the pack is obliged by law to carry out a death sentence upon the family to protect the purity and stability of the pack.”

Aryana nodded her understanding and encouragement to continue.

“Challenge to Right notification is a very old law within the wolf world. When wolves want to claim the same mate either one can initiate a challenge for the rights to claim the mate. It often is a very bloody and too often fatal challenge.  If my son had accepted being the heir to the Supreme Alpha before this Stephen issued his challenge then Stephen would be unable to issue it. It is forbidden to challenge the Supreme Alpha or his heir to a Right to Mate Challenge. Just issuing the challenge involving the Supreme Alpha or his heir is punishable by death.

Aryana sat there and just blinked. So these two idiot wolves were going to fight over who got the RIGHT to date her??? How stupid was that? Like she would date either of them afterwards. It was totally archaic. “How freaking stupid are you wolves?”

Samuel cocked his head, had she just insulted him and his kind? And what did she mean by stupid? Didn’t she get how serious this was? “I beg your pardon?”

“Seriously this is just like high school where two guys duked it out over a girl they both wanted to date and in the end she chose neither. All that happened is both boys ended up bloody and bruised and looking like total freaking idiots.  I mean are you seriously going to sit there and tell me you wolves haven’t evolved beyond the mentality of teenagers? I mean just how stupid are you?”

Samuel chuckled. She truly DIDN’T get it. “They are not fighting for the right to DATE you. They are fighting for the right to MATE you. Wolves mate for life. Think of it as the right to marry you. The loser, if he lives, must stay away from you forever. We are not stupid at all my dear. We have this Challenge to make sure that the strongest and best of us procreate and help strengthen the future generations of pack members.”

Aryana sat up at this suddenly realizing how grave the situation was. “So your telling me their fighting to decide who will have the right to marry me and have a family with me? They can’t do that! Darian is still far to weak from what happened. How is he going to be able to fight? I can’t let this happen, I will have to move away. If I move away and can’t be found then there won’t be any challenge right?”

Samuel sat back glad to see she got how serious it truly was. “Unfortunately Darian is VERY weak. He has yet to fully regain his wolf, if he had it then taking Stephen would be no issue. As it stands given some of his wounds and previous events, it looks like Stephen has already tried to kill him. They will meet in the ring to fight over you, nobody will stop the challenge once it has begun, so it is very likely that Darian is going to die. As for your moving, well, once the Challenge is issued the ONLY way it can be rescinded is if the female dies. So unless you’re willing to die….”

Seeing she was in shock and feeling rather sorry for her he squeezed her shoulder and left closing the door gently behind him. Poor female. She was human and didn’t really know about their laws or way of life. It just showed that Pure Mate or not she wasn’t going to be of any benefit to Darian. Samuel walked back to his office. He had a phone call to make. If this didn’t qualify as an emergency he didn’t know what did. Darian was meant to be Supreme Alpha, of that Samuel was certain and there was no way Darian could do it if he was killed.

Two days later Aryana noticed activity in the back of the Alpha House grounds.  She went to investigate. She hadn’t seen Darian since the fight with Stephen. Samuel had kept her updated with how he was but she wasn’t allowed to see him. When asked why he had been blunt with his answer. Darian was mildly sedated and had to rest at all times so that he could recover his wolf as much as possible for the coming challenge. Walking out onto the back grounds she watched as several men, werewolves she assumed, were erecting some kind of stage inside a large circle. Overhead were four large stadium lights. She watched as the men connected boards to each other and then began laying what seemed to be flooring and placing stairs.

She sat and watched them absent mindedly she was so engrossed in what they were doing that she started when Juliana sat down beside her.  Both women watched the men work for a while without speaking. Juliana was the first to break the silence.

“Tonight’s the challenge. Their building the stage for the Council to sit on.”

“Council? What council and why would they need a stage?”

Juliana sighed. “I see my husband has failed to fill you in on everything. The Council is like an overseer committee.  It is made up of our oldest and some would say wisest wolves but I beg to differ. Anyway, normally the Supreme Alpha would be overseeing the Challenge but since he is away it falls to the Council to proclaim a winner. You will be sitting on the stage with the council since you are the prize.”

“I am not a prize, I am a human being with a mind of my own.”

“I know dear but it is our way. I won’t be there tonight. Those not involved are not allowed to be present. You must keep your calm. If you become a distraction it will be even harder for Darian to fight to his best. Whatever happens do not leave your seat.”

Aryana nodded her understanding but remained silent. As the men were erecting the chairs that more or less resembled thrones she rose to leave. If she was going to be a prize tonight she might as well look decent for it she mused.

The sun had set when there was a knock at her door. Checking to make sure the pup was fed and settled for the night she rose to answer it. She found the large man from before standing outside. She thought his name was Chris.

“Follow me.” He said turning and walking away not even bothering to check to see if she was.

Aryana slipped out of the room and gently closed the door behind her. She hurried after the large man and followed him in silence to the area that had been prepared for the challenge. Her eyes widened as she took in the bright floodlight that were lighting the area with the platform set off to the side. The platform had been draped in a white cloth with pennants strung along the front making it resemble more of a medieval stage than anything else. On it were 6 chairs that resembled thrones, 5 sat more towards the middle and the last off to the side. The behemoth in front of her led her to the chair that sat off to the side and pointed for her to sit. He waited and watched till she did so and then turned and left.