by Raven Willow
“True mate or no, I want her. I want her to be mine! But if you betray me...”
“Do you trust me, old friend?” The wolf shifted before Cinead.
“Well? Do you trust me?”
* * *
Days later, he was finally here, only now seething as his bitter rival lifted her onto his cock and fucked her in the river. She held onto him as he penetrated through her inner walls, clawing at the pleasure he was meant to give her. Whether she chose pleasure or pain would be up to her. Either way she would have been thrown on the cold ground and taken mercilessly and filled with his seed until she learned to obey him.
Soon, little girl... soon.
Chapter Eleven
Alistair’s head lifted up as he heard what sounded like someone else in the forest, a familiar scent, but not quite what he remembered reaching his nose. He exposed his teeth, holding his mate tighter as his eyes quickly scanned the area. Alistair could see nothing, but his heart skipped a beat when he managed to piece together in his mind the scent he dreaded. It had been shrouded, but not well enough.
Cinead had returned.
Chapter Twelve
Red. Something red. Shiny and bright. The focused rivulet of red traveled upward toward an unknown object. It moved with intensity, with purpose. Every second it seemed to move faster, as if more was to come. Now the red was joined with white. Something powdery and thick.
Snow. It was snow. Wait. The red was now brighter, mixed with the snow. It stained the perfect texture of the snow still falling from the sky, continuing to cover the already coated ground. The smell of something metallic made its presence known as the red soaked through the snow, slowly making its way further around the object sprawled on the ground.
Wait. What is that? Crunching feet moved closer toward the figure lying on the snow. The metallic smell grew stronger, almost too much. But closer, just had to get closer.
Dark hair now became visible. It was wet from the snow, beginning to frost, as well as the flesh that also came into view upon further inspection. The red... the red now enveloped a body. A female body. A female body with long dark hair.
No. Something was wrong. The female was not moving. She was cold. It could be felt without touching her. She was turning blue. What once looked to be supple pink flesh was now dying before a pair of amber eyes.
Riona’s corpse lay sprawled in front of him. She was stiff, her forearms bent upward to reveal frozen hands. Her fingers curled in a grotesque fashion only to bring his attention to her nails. They had turned dark blue.
Her once beautiful face was now frozen in a permanent state of shock and fear. No... she was still beautiful. Miraculous. Riona’s eyes had retained their gold sheen, but her plump rosy lips were now a sickly blue color.
The blood now formed an imperfect shape around her body, staining the dress that had stretched over her burgeoning belly.
It had once. The gold eyes moved down her body reluctantly, his feet so badly wanting to turn and run away, but they remained planted firmly in the snow. There he found the source of the blood. A single opening down her stomach. He could see where teeth entered her body and violated a safe space. The one place in the whole world he thought they would be safe.
Riona’s womb... where his pups would have been nestled soundly.
No cries, no indication the pups were anywhere near. Not even bloody footsteps.
“Alistair... why?”
Where are they...
“Why did you let him do this to us...?”
Where are my pups, what has happened to my mate...
Wake up.
* * *
Alistair jumped from his bed, his first thought to reach a hand to his right. Much to his relief, she was there, sleeping peacefully, unaware of the horrific nightmare he had just endured. His hand had instinctively grasped onto her braid, clutching it in his fist. But she did not wake, or even stir. Her hands rested on her pillow and stomach.
Her stomach. Alistair sat up on his haunches and gently removed her hand, inspecting her. No sign of injuries, her flesh was warm as ever, even warmer due to being covered in furs.
Alistair dipped his head inches away from her nose, where he was elated to hear soft breathing.
Alive. She is alive. It was a nightmare. Nothing more.
He only allowed himself to relax to a point, scanning the dark room, which was perfectly visible to a wolf’s eyes, but there was not a thing to be seen or heard, no matter how hard he strained his ears. Alistair’s teeth had been bared in the darkness, the angry snarl nearly waking his mate.
Alistair had a final look around them before stretching back in their bed. He had nightmares in the past, but never anything like this one. It was vile. Too real. Harm to a wolf’s mate or their pups was their worst fear. The intensity of the love for one’s true mate had manifested itself tonight, and showed him exactly what he was afraid of.
But the pups... there were no pups, at least not yet. They had not been to see Elspeth in some weeks for a restorative visit. He made a mental note to have it done within the next coming days.
Elspeth preferred to see each member of the pack once a month to insure health and well-being; should anyone become ill or injured, it was a deep, personal loss to everyone. Their numbers were already so few, and Alistair could not afford to lose any more pack members. He forced himself to not think about how many they had burned at the pyre this year alone.
Not Riona, it would never be Riona. Not while he lived.
Alistair turned over, wrapping an arm around Riona’s waist and slowly pulling her into his chest, where she quietly moaned in her sleep as she snuggled in his embrace. He breathed in her scent repeatedly for what seemed like hours on end until he noticed the sun coming up. Even then, he wouldn’t be closing his eyes. He needed to see for himself that her eyelids would flutter open and that she would look up at him. She could merely blink at him; any sign of life would be welcome.
I will not let Cinead hurt you, little one.
Chapter Thirteen
“What is happening? Why will no one tell me?” Riona crossed her arms as she sat on the bed, glaring at Alistair as he meticulously went about his home, checking every window and doorway.
“You must trust me, I have reason to believe that there is someone here in these woods. He lived in the pack long ago, before you would have even been born. He is not safe and we are not safe unless I take precautionary measures. Ceardach! Ceardach, come here!”
Alistair called out to his beta, who immediately came running into the cottage.
It had been weeks since he sensed Cinead was near; he had even sent Elspeth after the trail, but it had gone cold. Even her advanced nose could not detect him.
“Have you picked up the scent?” Ceardach ran his hands through his red hair, worrying his lip.
“No, but he was here. He was right here! How did we miss this?”
Alistair gestured to the clearing, growing more upset as the nightmare continued to plague him. It seemed to get worse, allowing more information each time it returned to him. Alistair knew the fear of Cinead would only further play games with his mind, but now he had too much to lose. He had a mate and soon they would be carrying pups. He was not sure yet but they were close, he could feel it.
“Do you think he figured he was clever by trying to veil it? If a challenge is what he wanted then he should have come here and faced you instead of being the coward he always was.” Ceardach fidgeted with his crystal, avoiding looking at Riona, which only agitated her more.
Alistair shook his head.
“Ceardach, it isn’t a challenge for being the alpha he wants...”
It’s Riona... he wants Riona.
He knew he should not have ignored his scent on her when he first brought her home. Why else would he have returned?
Alistair used his eyes to point to her still sitting on the bed, only his silent communication did not work.
“Who is this person? Tell me now!” Riona fi
nally stood up and moved in front of Ceardach, firmly staring him down.
Alistair couldn’t help but smirk as her authority was put into use for the first time. It looked so natural on her.
“Now, Riona, this is not my place to discuss this. Perhaps if Alistair spoke with you on this?” He whipped his head toward Alistair as his crystal swung.
Alistair sighed and hung his head. Ceardach was right; it was unfair for her not to know.
Chapter Fourteen
The two men explained their story to Riona, all of Cinead’s habits and traits slowly becoming familiar to her. She learned of the challenge with Alistair’s uncle, and while he ultimately lost, they always feared he would return, whether for revenge or simply to wreak havoc.
“So you see why we would naturally worry for your safety. You are a new female to this pack, and my mate, and he will distinguish your scent among the others’ right away. In the battle for dominance... you would be the ultimate prize for him. In the event that he does show himself, we must be ready to kill him at all cost. I will not risk your safety, Riona.”
Riona hated it; being stuck in the middle of an age-old feud. She wished she could scream and stomp off, but it was no longer up for debate.
Riona did not respond. She hugged herself as chills spread across her whole body. She had read about this behavior in old texts, how wolves would issue challenges with their alphas. But ultimately, either one could be killed. Her heart wrenched at the thought of Alistair bleeding out at her feet, but she shook her head and dismissed it. While reading these books, she never thought for an instant that she would be thrust in the middle of this.
“K-kill him?” Riona wrung her hands as she covered her mouth in an attempt to keep from vomiting; she had been sick to her stomach lately.
“Yes. Even if he is one of our own, he is an outsider, and a danger to this pack and everyone who crosses his path,” Ceardach gently explained and reached out for her hand, but she pulled back.
Riona looked up, anger masking her normally calm demeanor.
“This man... what did he look like when he was... not a beast?”
The men described Cinead’s features in detail, which Riona attempted to place. She had recalled the man in her tavern; the man who came several nights a week it seemed just to see her. He would order the same mead, and simply stare at her until she was too uncomfortable to be near him any longer. She always avoided him, but wherever she went it seemed the man would follow. But it dawned on her, the night she swore she was being followed home...
Riona’s anger turned to dread as she covered her face with her hands, realizing they were indeed speaking of the same man.
“Riona? Riona, what is it? Tell me!” Alistair took her by the shoulders.
“I saw him.”
Alistair’s eyes flashed before her own. She looked away in anticipation of the anger-fueled shift she had witnessed when she had run from him.
Seeming to understand, she heard Alistair take a deep breath in. When she deemed it safe to look at him again, his eyes had returned to their normal entrancing color.
“You... saw him?”
“At the tavern. I-I think he began following me some months ago... he had these... terrible green eyes.” Riona brought a hand to her neck, rubbing the almost completely healed bite marks from the mating. They pained her when she became upset or came close to a shift. She was getting closer now to completion, her mate would explain to her.
“He just... sat there. Long scraggly hair that looked unwashed, jagged nails, he frightened me whenever he looked at me. But he never said a word, Alistair.”
“He was stalking his prey. The prey that belonged to me.”
Riona studied the silent communication between the two men. They looked at one another with intensity as their facial expressions matched whatever it was Riona was clearly not privy to hearing. The mental communication she could not summon yet.
“It’s him... isn’t it?”
Ceardach looked away, unable to answer her. Alistair silently watched her piece together the chain of events in her mind. A deep sense of terror burned in the pit of her stomach. A lump formed in her throat as she imagined what could have been.
“He followed me home one night! It is him!”
“I’m sorry... I’m so... so sorry, my love.”
His plea did nothing to calm her. Riona wrenched herself away, shoving his chest and ran to the bedroom. The loud slam of the door made both men flinch. She threw herself on the bed, burying her face in a soft pillow that smelled like him. Not caring how much it hurt, and not caring in the moment who heard, Riona unleashed her emotions and tears.
Chapter Fifteen
Alistair’s anger surged through him, coursing through every vein in his body until he thought he was going to explode. He would never forgive Cinead for this. Riona had just begun to acclimate to life in the pack, he was slowly gaining her trust, only now to let it slip through his fingers.
“Why? Why her? He is coming to claim her...” Ceardach solemnly mumbled as he rubbed his temples.
“Impossible. She is mine and he would never be able to establish a bond with her. Riona would not accept him. She is just beginning to grow comfortable here... it would fail... he would fail...”
Alistair tried rationalizing it, but no matter what, Riona would not be safe.
“Cinead never strayed from what he believed he was entitled to have. You know as well as I that he is too dangerous to leave alive.”
Ceardach’s jaw clenched as he tried reasoning with his alpha, which was no easy feat when he was angry, Alistair would admit.
“He has come between me and my mate. This ends now.”
* * *
Alistair slowly opened the bedroom door, anticipating yet another physical attack. But he found her instead curled up on the lounging chair across from the bed, weeping as her entire body shook.
“Riona...” Cautiously, he approached her before sitting down beside her, where much to his surprise she jumped up and threw her arms around him.
“I am so afraid... Gods, I’m so afraid...” she sobbed in his arms, unable to catch her breath as her nose ran and her tears dropped on his sleeve.
“He will not harm you, my mate. On my life, he will never harm a single hair on your head.”
“No... Alistair...” Riona let go of his tunic, pushing him hard and getting up to pace around the room.
She held up one of her shaking hands to reveal brand new elongated nails, with parts of the chair fabric and cotton stuck underneath them. His eyes widened as he looked down to see that in her distraught state, she had indeed clawed through the chair.
Closer examination revealed her eyes were flashing as well.
“Oh, my sweet, it is alright, it is a natural progression of the shift, and we knew that this was coming.” Alistair took her small face in his hands, which she swatted away.
“No! You did this to me! You! You made me a monster, look at me!”
She screamed at the top of her lungs as her eyes began flashing bright amber, her teeth he could actually see beginning to break through her gums as she shouted. She ran her now talon-like hands through her tangled hair as she hyperventilated. The panic was welling up deep inside her, and Alistair felt a single tear run down his face as her emotions mixed with his own.
“No, Riona. Not a monster.” Calmly, he took both her wrists in his hands, extracting them from her scalp as he held her.
“But what you were made to be.”
“I was born a mortal woman and I intended on dying as one until—”
Alistair was shoved away, feeling her insult on the tip of her tongue.
“Until you did this to me!” Riona gestured to her body, ripping at her dress until Alistair could see the red bite that was visibly throbbing.
“You made me a hideous monster!” She continued to scream in his face until she turned red, her eyes now brighter than ever before. Riona reached up with clawed fingers, punching Alistair�
��s chest until exhausted as she sobbed.
“How could you do this to me! I hate you! I hate you!” She struggled as Alistair grabbed her by the arms and held her still, his own resolve beginning to dissipate.
“You hate me, yet your mark is pulsating, your body is accepting the beast that it will become, Riona.” He squeezed hard as he backed her up into the wall harshly.
“What you call a monster is what you will soon become, my mate.” Alistair spat, baring his now stinging teeth.
“I would rather die than be bound to you.” Riona let out a grunt as Alistair marched her to the bed. She had not looked up quick enough to notice that in his rage, Alistair had shifted and was now snarling from above her.
All nine feet of him towered, his breathing seeming to come from deep within his belly as his clawed feet curled into the wood floor so hard he began scratching into it. It had not dawned on his beastly mind that Riona had never seen him in a completed shift this close. Previously, he had held back in his shifts as not to frighten his poor little mate.
But not on this night.
“You say we’re monsters? I can show you a monster, mate.”
Alistair’s clawed hands gripped her body as if she were a little doll, flipping her onto all fours.
“Let go!”
Alistair ignored her as his saliva dripped in ropes onto her back, which unconsciously arched for him.
“What? After everything I have done to you, you still believe you have even a semblance of control here, do you?” His paw dug into her burning skin, creating indentations.
“You are a fucking bastard!” Riona turned around and continued to curse him, only fueling his rage. With every day that passed she was getting stronger, almost matching him in brawn and temperament.
“The beast building inside of you at this very moment is one of ancient lore, you stubborn little female!”
Alistair grabbed her by the hair, pulling her up against his furry chest, causing her to grunt as she tried to pry herself away.