The Wilder Alpha (8 page)

Kristi couldn’t stand the blank stare that crossed Jay’s face. She forcefully shoved him out of the way as she made her way out of the familiar trailer she had never set foot in. Her feet carried her down the hall, through the living room, and slammed her out the front door.

Outside, the refreshing air licked at her sin and the full moon beamed down on her. The light was soothing. Subtle pains, thanks to her connection to Jay, dissipated. She crouched down in the grass facing the trailer, leering at the lights inside.

The metal can embodied everything wrong with domesticated packs and the town below. Anger lit through her thoughts as her fingers dug into the dirt beneath her. This was her pack’s land. Hundreds of her people had died protecting it and hundreds more died to win it back.

Suddenly, she realized couldn’t do this any longer. Kristi closed her eyes and forced herself to wipe all thoughts of him from her head. The world warbled around her as she sliced the connection. A sense of nothingness consumed the air around her.

By the time Jay follow Kristi out of the trailer, her scent had faded completely. He didn’t bother glancing hopelessly around. The pain snapping at his heart told him enough: Kristi was gone. He wandered out into his moonlight-soaked yard, the same place where he had caught her scent on the breeze, and stared out over the lights of Goldbridge.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Days passed by and Kristi tried to forget about Jay. The phantom pain that had infected her body didn’t return, but it didn’t completely fade. Likely, Jay was still healing, but the time it was taking made Kristi itch with agitation, but he couldn’t help it. His regeneration abilities were damped down from lunar separation. Still, Jay was due for a visit from Alpha Gavin. Her heart ached at the thought, knowing the next time Jay wouldn’t get away with mere dislocated shoulders.

Kristi shook the thoughts away. Whatever they had, it was over. Jay didn’t believe in Mates and he wouldn’t talk. Alpha Gavin would eventually kill him. A prisoner of no value wasn’t worth keeping around. If the agony of Jay’s death echoed into Kristi, she would swallow it down and deal with it.

In the meantime, Kristi attempted to focus on her life in the pack – hunts, battle plans, training. She immersed herself in her community and it muted the insidious, blunt pain in her heart.

Maybe that’s why, when the Alphas announced a pack assembly, Kristi thought nothing of it. She trudged through the corridors that led deeper into the cliff. Eventually, the corridors opened up into a natural arena. Red walls stretched into the sky, ringing around a patch of sand. Long ago, flat surfaces had been carved into the walls, making a bowl-like shape. Overhead, the sky flamed from the setting sun.

Her pack mates gave Kristi a wide berth as they made their way to assigned sections. As a beta, Kristi sat in the first section, nearest to the Alphas. She sat herself down on the rock, her eyes drifting over the massive pack. The land Goldbridge had been built on used to be communal land between five different packs. Originally, they had converged into one pack with a committee of equal alphas. Each of the ten alphas represented the individual clans. Now, only Selene and Gavin existed as alphas, thanks to the clans mixing and overachieving alphas taking on more positions of power.

Kristi wondered how it was done in Goldbridge, before she caught her mind attempting to delve into the forbidden part of her knowledge. She inhaled sharply and slammed down mental barriers. No, she wasn’t going to explore that area of her mind – for the sake of herself and for Jay.

“Beta Kristi.” Alpha Gavin’s beckon tugged Kristi from her mind.

She glanced up at her alpha, before respect kicked her into standing. Averting her gaze to the floor, Kristi murmured, “Yes, alpha?”

“Tonight, we deal with the Sentinel.”

Kristi’s gaze snapped to his face, her head listing to the side in uncertainty. “Sir?”

“He refuses to offer any information of worth.” Alpha Gavin folded his arms behind his back while standing tall. His gaze flicked over the growing crowd, as if seeking someone, “He’s worthless to our pack and guarding him takes needed bodies away from worthwhile pursuits.”

“I see. Well, sir, if you feel it’s in our best interest.” Kristi’s own gaze flicked down to her feet again. As much as she tried to avoid thinking of Jay, her thoughts swarmed around him. The ghost of his scent weaved through her thoughts, along with residual of Jay’s body heat. She suppressed a shudder, the strong urge to see him overtaking her immediate thoughts.

Alpha Gavin, yet again, interrupted her thoughts. “I want to speak to you about something else, though,”

Kristi was on autopilot. She tilted her head toward Alpha Gavin, squelching down the resentment bubbling inside of her. “Yes, sir?”

“A traitor managed to get into the prisoner’s cell,” Alpha Gavin barely kept the growl out of his voice. Kristi’s heart skipped, wondering if her alpha knew of her association to Jay. She tensed, preparing for her alpha’s rage. However, Alpha Gavin’s words came out angry, but without a hint of accusation toward her, “The last time I visited the Sentinel, I dislocated both of his arms. Today, they were back in their sockets.”

Kristi gently stated, “Relocating your own shoulder isn’t impossible.”

Alpha Gavin paused for a beat, leering at Kristi. She snapped her lips shut and her gaze dipped toward her feet. The alpha cleared his throat, continuing with a distasteful tone, “Yes, well, after our first meeting, I found his wounds tended to and the deeper gashes stitched up.”

“What would you like me to do, Alpha Gavin?” Autopilot took the reins again. She needed all conscious effort to keep the bitterness out of her voice. Her fingers clenched at her sides and, to hide them, she folded her arms behind her back. There, her digits flexed in agitation.

“You know our pack very well, Beta Kristi.” The warmth in Alpha Gavin’s voice made her stomach twist into a knot. Before Jay, she would have felt an ingratiating sense of pride. Now, she could barely bring her eyes to his face to see the grin on Alpha Gavin’s lips. “You’ve always been very attentive.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The guards were dismissed early the night his wounds were tended to,” Alpha Gavin’s green eyes shifted toward the members behind Kristi. She half-turned, watching the smiling features and roughhousing that came with being a beta. “Other than myself and Selene, only a Beta would have that authority.”

Kristi remained silent, her stomach knotting further with fear.

The alpha didn’t seem to sense Kristi’s discomfort. “I’d like your opinion on who would be the most likely to commit such an infraction.”

She swallowed a lump in her throat. Her leader was asking her – the one who committed treason – to give her opinion on other potential suspects. Conflict of interest didn’t begin to describe her situation. Her fingers flexed harder, her nails digging into the palm of her hand. “Al-alpha Gavin, I couldn’t string up any fellow wolves without further investigation.”

He pinned Kristi with a hard glare. Her heart thrummed hard and heavy against her chest. Kristi averted her gaze as displeasure radiated from her alpha. Even if her connection to Jay was non-existent, her words were true. There was no one, no Beta or lower-ranking member, who would defy the alphas in such a flagrant way – except herself, apparently.

“Gavin, the preparations are in place.” Alpha Selene called from the center of the arena.

Alpha Gavin turned away briefly, waving toward his mate. Kristi dared to look up, her gaze flickering from alpha to alpha. In the distance, she noticed Selene’s eyes flicker to her. The female alpha turned sharply away.

Alpha Gavin swiveled back to Kristi. His large hand weighed heavily down on her shoulder, “We will continue this discussion later. Thank you, Beta Kristi.”

She watched Gavin stride away as nausea clawed at her throat. Her inner-wolf snapped and snarled, wanting to pounce on the alpha. He was, after all, the one who dealt so much damage to Jay. The urge itched over her arms. Her fingers clenched tightly, drawing blood on her hands. The pain jolted her from angry thoughts. Hastily, she wiped her blood off on her pants and returned to her seat.

No one seemed to notice Kristi as she forced herself to breathe slowly. Her eyes stared at the center as the Alphas waved down the chatter to a dull whisper. She couldn’t focus on Selene or Gavin, though. Terror and fury gripped at her heart. Her hands clenched at her knees, fingernails growing and hardening into claws.

Kristi tried to shove her ridiculous reaction into a box and steal them away. She knew, since she had left Jay in the dreamscape, it would come to this. Hell, she half-expected it would’ve before the consummation of their connection, though she hadn’t expected a public execution. This had to be a move to boost morale. Many sour rumors were growing on the lupine grapevine. Nothing boosted the spirits like good, old-fashioned blood sport.

“I know the rumors that sift through the pack have been running rampant recently, especially with our capture of a Sentinel, but, sadly, many of those rumors are overblown.” In the lull of sound, Alpha Gavin started his speech. His voice carried over the arena and a Silent Howl accompanied his words. The more rowdy of the pack calmed down as soon as he began to speak. Kristi stared out over the assembled wolves. She didn’t want to focus on Gavin, though his words drilled into her head, “Despite our best interrogation tactics, this mutt has refused to speak of his precious Goldbridge.”

On cue, Jay was dragged to the center of the ring by two burly guards. They wore thick gloves as they handled the silver shackles that bound his wrists and throat. As the metal shifted, Kristi caught sight of Jay’s singed skin where the silver touched. Her stomach lurched and her ire raked her senses. She, somehow, managed to swallow the red-hot sensations down.

“We can no longer support this worthless loner with generous offers of food and shelter.”

Jay’s shoulders shook from the force of his derisive snort, though it felt damned good to be out in the open air again. His lungs drank in the fresh oxygen as the warm twilight turned to chilly evening. His nerves were on edge, waiting for the first rays of actual moonlight to reach him. As Gavin blathered on, Jay scanned the arena. The sting from the silver was minor compared to the headache Gavin’s voice induced.

Goldbridge never had an exact count of the feral pack. Standing in the arena, Jay realized how immense of a job that would be. Hundreds of lycanthropes packed the bowl-like arena, seated on flat expanses of levels, akin to a rice field in Japan. Shock tickled at his thoughts and a string of envy curled around his thoughts. So many wolves with more community, more attachment, than he could ever hope for.

Kristi inhaled sharply as Jay’s gaze turned toward her. Over the wide expanse, electricity snapped between them. Alpha Gavin droned on and the rest of the crowd chortled or whooped at his words. Kristi sat there, heart pounding and thoughts frozen. Jay looked immensely better than last time. His black eye and the cuts that littered his body had mostly healed.

Jay swallowed bile down in his throat as he and Kristi locked gazes. He tore his eyes away, clenching them shut as the urge to talk to her grew. He had done so well in his dark abyss of a cell. Between sleep and pain, he had very obstinately ignored thoughts of Kristi. But, with her present, a backlog of feelings slammed into his chest and flooded his thoughts.

Even among the backdrop of her pack, she stood out. Her yellow eyes glowed through the mounting dark and her rich olive tone glistened in the moonlight. Just feeling her eyes on him made Jay shudder. Suddenly, the burning weight on his wrists alleviated.

His eyes snapped open, finding the gloved guards removing his shackles. They hastily backed away as soon as the restraints were removed. Jay rubbed his wrists, backing away from the center of the arena. It was a foolish movement. He was already surrounded.

“Your alphas shall tear this domesticated dog apart under the light of Luna!” Whatever long-winded speech Alpha Gavin had delivered came to an end with a roar of the crowd.

When the words registered in Jay’s mind, he snorted and rolled his eyes. Oh, yes, they would allow him a few minutes of basking in moonlight. That wouldn’t be enough to charge his seriously dwindled battery. It was a farce to give Alpha Gavin some credit. The pack didn’t care, as long as they got their blood.

Jay turned his eyes to Gavin and the female who joined him. The two stalked toward him, their pupils slit and claws out. Jay continued to back up until he was dead center in the moonlight. His nerves writhed in pain and delight in the lunar rays. The starved wolf inside of him drank in all it could. Jay wasn’t sure how long this would last.

***

Gavin was the first to pounce. He launched himself the remaining distance, claws extended and teeth growing with every second. The she-alpha stormed toward Jay. He ducked Gavin’s leap while blocking the redhead’s movements. Gavin landed behind him heavily, grunting as he spun around to dish out his own blows. The Sentinel grunted as he ducked, dodged, and blocked. He managed to parry a few strikes, but an onslaught from two extremely healthy and exceedingly strong werewolves pressed strain on his already damaged body.

With every passing second, the wolves inside of them sunk through their DNA. Hair bristled, spittle flew, and snarls lit into the air. The two alphas timed their hits just right so both blows slammed into Jay at the same time. He yelped and flew back, skidding on his back across the dirt. He scrambled to his feet just as the redheaded alpha slammed her fists down. An indent in the ground pinpointed where his head would have been.

As Jay tried to catch his breath, a snarl shrieked behind him. Weight slammed onto his back and thick arms clamped around Jay’s throat. He gasped, clawing at Gavin’s arms as he backed up against the dirt wall. Jay slammed the alpha into the wall, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Gavin’s sneering chuckle rattled in Jay’s ear.