Red Ridge Pack 1 Pack of Lies (19 page)

“Competition? What? You don’t seriously think you have what it takes to be alpha of this pack, do you? The elders would eat you alive, not to mention Marcus. You probably wouldn’t even be able to get your hands on Cade.”

“It’s not Cade I plan to get my hands on,” he said cryptically as he moved in even closer.

He was now standing so close that I could actually feel the heat coming off of his perfectly ripped body, and… well, he was quickly beginning to change my mind about him not being my type.

He leaned down and I thought for a second that he was planning to kiss me. But he didn’t. Instead, he whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry, honey. I have big plans for you too.” Then he handed me the towel and turned to walk out into the rain.

Chapter 44

Cade

“Alli, baby, wake up,” I whispered as I ran my fingers through her silky, blonde hair. Without opening her eyes, she stirred just a bit, wrapped her arm around my waist, and cuddled up against me. It would have been so easy to just lie back down and drift off to sleep, but Alli’s parents would worry. Not to mention the fact that when my dad finds out that I disobeyed his direct orders and that Alli and I are true mates, he was going to come unglued.

“Come on Alli we need to get back. Your mom is probably worried about you.”

“Is the storm over?” she asked sleepily.

“Yeah, we really should head back. I have to talk to my dad,” I said.

A distressed look came over her face, and it just about broke my heart. I leaned down and kissed her cheek.

Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her closer, hoping to ease some of her tension. “It’s going to be okay, baby. There is no one, not even my father, who can keep us apart now. We are mated,” I said with a smile that I couldn’t contain.

Looking up at me, Alli asked, “What do we do now?”

My life had never been more perfect and screwed up at the same time. Here I was with the one person that was made just for me. It may sound unbelievable, but it was true. She was now a part of me that I couldn’t be without. Finding your true mate these days was practically unheard of, but here we were, and I knew it was the real thing.

Tonight was the single best night of my life. It wasn’t just the sex either. Being with Alli was different. Something about her made me feel more… more aware, more alive. More like me, and not who everyone expected me to be.

What do we do now?
I didn’t have an answer for her. Only time would give us the answer to that. The one thing I did know for sure was that no one could keep us apart. Realizing that I didn’t have an answer for her, Alli looked away, and I took the opportunity to slip my alpha ring off my finger without her seeing.

I could hardly stand to see the disappointment on her face after what we had shared together. I wanted to make it better… no, I
needed
to make it better. “Alli, look at me,” I begged as I pulled her a bit closer.

“I love you, Alli. I’ve never felt like this before, and I never what to lose you. Please don’t let my father or pack politics come between us. I love you more than anything. You know that, right?”

Tears formed in her eyes as she stared at me like I have completely lost my mind. Then she pulled me into a hug and admitted in my ear, “I love you too, Cade.”

“I want to give you something.”

Alli pulled away and asked, “What? What could you possibly have to give me?”

I opened her hand, knowing my ring would be far too large for her finger, and placed my alpha ring in her palm.

“Cade? Are you serious?”

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “Of course I’m serious. I want you to have it. Just put it in your pocket for now. But after we announce that we are true mates, I want you to wear it around your neck. Please, put it in your pocket.”

As she tucked the ring away, I leaned down to kiss her perfect lips, the lips that were created just for me. She pressed her body against mine, and I suddenly wanted her all over again.

She pulled away for moment to say, “I think we can keep everyone waiting for a bit longer, don’t you?”

***

We finally forced ourselves to leave the cabin, and as my house came into view, I felt tension building in my body. My insides seemed to have formed a Boy Scout knot, and out of nowhere, it became hard to breathe. Alli stopped walking and pulled me to a stop.

“Maybe you should do this alone,” she suggested timidly.

I truly wanted Alli to come with me. I thought with her standing by my side, I would be a little braver, but I completely understood why she would be apprehensive. Who in their right mind would want to face my father and tell him that they went against his orders?

“You know, that’s probably a good idea. Do you want to wait here so I can walk you home?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said. She placed the palm of her hand on my cheek and wished me luck. I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave Alli, but even more than that,
really
not wanting to go and confront my dad.

She took a seat on our porch swing. I gave her one final kiss, said a quick, silent prayer, and walked through the front door.

“Where the hell have you been?” my father’s voice boomed from the kitchen.

I hung up my coat and headed that way. I expected to find my dad in the kitchen ready to let me have it, but I wasn’t expecting to see the worried look on my mother’s face. As soon as I stepped into the room, my mom diverted her eyes to the floor, as if she couldn’t stand to look at me. I felt horrible. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, or piss anybody off, for that matter. I did what I did because I had to, and I knew that I needed to be strong and hold my ground. I did nothing wrong and what I needed to say to my parents was too important to wait.

“I… I need to talk to you both,” I said trying not to stumble over my words. I needed to sound confident, not like a little boy making excuses to his father for misbehaving.

“What is going on Cade? I’m not an idiot. It’s quite obvious from the smell of you that you have been consorting with the Wright girl, though I expressly forbade you to be in contact with her,” my father declared as he moved toward me like a madman.

I stepped back, both out of instinct and respect for his position. “I am sorry for disobeying you, but I am not sorry about being with Allison. It could not be avoided.”

“Excuse me?” he barked as he looked at me like I had just slapped him in the face.

“Maybe we should do this in the morning, give everyone a chance to cool down,” my mother suggested.

“No, Mom we have to talk now. Allison is outside waiting for me. I asked her to stay so I could walk her home,” I replied.

I took a deep breath and continued, “I’m sure you noticed how sick I had been this past week.”

“Sick? Cade, we don’t get sick. You know that,” Mom said.

Unbelievable! How could neither of them have noticed? Well, apparently, they hadn’t. How sad was it that my own parents don’t pay enough attention to realize that their only son, who “can’t” get sick, was sick? Good to know.

When I didn’t respond to my mom, Dad asked, “Why on earth would you think that you were sick?”

“Because I was, Dad. Fever, nausea, body aches; I thought I was dying. And then Mrs. Wright called me. I thought it was to yell at me for breaking things off with her daughter, but instead she asked me how I was feeling. When I told her that I felt ill, she asked me to come over. She asked me to come over because she
did
notice that her daughter was sick.”

“What are you getting at Cade?” Dad interrupted.

The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. “We are true mates,” I admitted.

“Bullshit!” Dad yelled.

“What? How can you be sure, honey?” my mother asked.

Dad turned his attention to Mom and protested, “Seriously, Noel. Tell me you aren’t buying this crap! True mates? You have got to be kidding.” He turned and faced me once more and continued his rant. “This is complete and utter bullshit, Cade! I can’t believe you would think I would even entertain the idea that you and Lily’s half-bred daughter are mates. She’s not even really one of us.”

I just stood there baffled, unable to find the words that I needed to respond to his tirade. I never thought of him as… what would it even be called? Prejudiced? Did he really believe that because Allison wasn’t a full-blooded were that we couldn’t be mates?

Mom placed her hand on my dad’s shoulder and said, “Marcus! Please calm down. Insulting this girl is not helping matters.”

“I’m not concerned about her feelings right now, Noel. I’m concerned about the future of this pack and the future of our only son.”

“Allison is my future whether you like it or not, Dad,” I yelled as I turned to leave the room and this conversation.

“We are not finished,” Dad said as he grabbed my arm and forced me down into the chair next to my mother.

My father stood above us, only a foot or so away, but continued to shout just the same. “Cade, let’s face the facts. Allison doesn’t love you. She is only using you to raise her family’s position in this pack. Lily screwed up all those years ago, and her family has never lived down the disgrace she brought on them. It’s hard to believe that Lily would use her daughter to strengthen her family, but it is the only explanation. You’re young Cade. You don’t know what people are capable of and what they are willing to do for power. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Allison is just sleeping her way up the ladder, son.”

I felt my fists clinch. I knew that I couldn’t afford to lose my temper with the alpha, but to accuse Alli of sleeping her way to the top was asinine.

“If you are so worried about the future of this pack, you need to be careful what you say about my mate. You raised me to take over as alpha one day and that day is not far off. Allison will be by my side, so you’re going to have to get used to it,” I declared as I stood up, pushed passed him, and left the room.

My father started to say something, but I heard my mother, gentle as ever, ask him to leave me be.

I wanted to barge out of the house, grab Alli, and leave this place, but I couldn’t let her see me this way. I needed a minute to calm down. Instead of walking out the front door, I darted up to my bathroom to splash some water on my face. A few minutes later, I went to get Alli, but when I walked out to the porch, she was gone.

Chapter 45

Allison

I could hear Marcus yelling at Cade on the other side the door, but it was difficult to understand exactly what he was saying. My curiosity obviously got the best of me since I found myself inching closer and closer to the door so I could hear what was going on. I knew it didn’t sound good, but I was completely taken aback when I clearly heard Marcus shout, “…You’re young Cade. You don’t know what people are capable of and what they are willing to do for power. Allison is just sleeping her way up the ladder, son.”

I backed up, unable to believe that anyone would think that of me and immediately felt blood rush to my face and tears welling up in my eyes. Thoughts of storming into their house and exploding on Marcus were running through my mind. Each scenario I thought up had one thing in common; they all ended badly for me and Cade, so before I did something I would later regret, I turned and walked away.

There was no way I could have stood there on that porch, waiting for Cade to come back out. Not with his family thinking that I was using their son to get to the top of the pack. I needed to get home, and as much as I would’ve loved to have Cade take me there, I needed to be alone. I couldn’t face him; not after what his father said about me.

The walk from Cade’s place to mine wasn’t far, but it was long enough to make me feel desperately lonely. Halfway home, I wished that I had stayed and waited for Cade. I wished that I could have held my emotions in check so that I could have confronted Marcus and called him a liar to his face. I wished that Cade and I were still in the hunting lodge together and I hadn’t heard his father’s angry outburst, but none of that was going to happen.

The only good thing that came out of this whole debacle was that now I was completely convinced that Cade and I were true mates. Almost immediately, after being near him, I had felt better. Healed, as if I had never been sick at all. And the way Cade looked at me, touched me, and held me in his arms, made me forget the world around us.

I didn’t understand why Marcus didn’t believe Cade and me to be true mates when it was so obviously true. You would think that finding a true mate would be something to be celebrated. Where was our balloons and cake? Where was our fucking piñata? No, instead, Cade gets yelled at, and I get called a slut. Somewhere in the middle of my internal rant, I realized how alone I was.

The forest can make some ominous noises when you’re walking through it during the night all alone. It’s like the woods are purposely trying to scare the hell out of you so that you never walk alone again. The tree branches cast the most frightening shadows, and the insects seemed to chirp in surround-sound.

As fear took hold of me, my steps quickened. To add to my paranoia, I could now hear heavy footsteps to my right, and I would have sworn that only a moment ago, they weren’t there. I took a deep, bravery-building breath and looked in the direction of the noise, hoping to find Cade. But it wasn’t Cade.

I saw a shadowy figure heading toward me. I saw a gun. That was the last thing I saw.

Chapter 46

Kendall

I couldn’t sleep. How could I? Not after my little run in with that wanna-be alpha. Who did this Dylan Christianson dip-shit think he was? Did he really think he could just wander through and take over this pack?

I turned over on my side, trying to get comfortable, but there was just no way I was going to sleep anytime soon. I needed to talk to Cade. I couldn’t let Dylan do this to our pack. If he really was determined to challenge Marcus and Cade, then that meant that my position was being challenged as well.