Now he was a man.
He wouldn’t make excuses for himself or his leadership. It infuriated him that he might be on the verge of losing control of his own pack. He needed to get his shit together, and every minute the solution became more and more clear. Nova had to go. She’d been a distraction at first, but now she was a threat to his status as alpha. And Ryder was all he had left.
He was about to shift when he saw a shadowed figure about twenty feet ahead. Ryder. Disappointment and betrayal assaulted him. His younger brother was his rock, the only reminder of who he was and where he came from. To know Ryder was ready to throw Corbin aside for a piece of pussy was the worst insult imaginable.
“Did you hear my order to gather the humans? Or have you developed selective hearing?”
“Do what you want with the other two,” Ryder said.
“Oh, I plan to,” he said. “But not until the other one joins them.”
Ryder exhaled, his usual confidence faded to near nothing. “I can’t give her to you, brother. Why can’t you understand?”
“And what am I supposed to understand?”
“She’s different.”
Corbin frowned, disappointed by Ryder’s weaknesses. “How is she different? She’s a human. Do you not remember what they’ve put our family through?”
“If we’re ever to take a packmate, she’ll be human. There’s not exactly a choice in the matter.”
“And for some reason you think I’ll choose your little toy to be my life mate? Ryder, that will never happen.”
“Why? Why the hell not?” Ryder raised his voice, anger coloring his words. “Because you’re incapable of love?”
Silence rained down on them, thicker than a blanket of snow. Some topics were better left ignored.
“I love you,” Corbin said honestly.
Ryder spun away, his emotions so potent that Corbin had trouble keeping his own thoughts together. Their lives were a tangled war of pain and old wounds verses the power and dominance of their species. Corbin refused to let the modern world control or define him. He also wouldn’t let any human have power over his heart.
“Then you can love a female.”
Corbin shook his head. “That’s different, and you know it.”
Ryder threw up his arms in exasperation. “How? You were ready to claim Cassidy less than a year ago. If it wasn’t for Scott, you’d probably still accept her.”
“Not for love. For power.” The Gregor Pack were mated males now, successfully claiming Scott’s half-sister. The only reason Corbin ever considered mating Cassidy was the fact that she had shifter blood in her veins. He wanted his pack to have the purest offspring possible. As for the female, he couldn’t give a shit about her if he tried. Maybe he was incapable of loving a woman. It never mattered before, but Ryder was forcing him to consider things he’d rather leave in the dark.
“Because Cassidy wasn’t the one. Nova is.”
Corbin chuckled. “You sound so confident, brother. I’d swear you were telling me a fact.” Ryder was acting like a lovesick fool. Corbin wasn’t sure what the fuck it meant. Cassidy’s scent had lured male shifters like honey to a bear due to her unique blood. What was so alluring about Nova? He was certain she was one hundred percent human.
“It’s not just me. Shade feels the same thing.”
“What does he feel? Does he want to fuck her? Hell, he can play with her, too.” Corbin was tiring of this game. “Or are you both considering breaking pack law for a female you didn’t know existed a day ago? Is that how deep your loyalties lie?”
“I’m not trying to be an asshole. It’s the mating call, Corbin. I know it! It’s calling to both of us.” He tilted his head slightly. “Did you feel nothing for her?”
Ryder didn’t have to spell it out. In their world, there was one female per pack. The renowned mating call was supposed to affect all males within the pack without exception. The call left no room for argument. It was perfect. Flawless.
Corbin was alpha, responsible for choosing and marking the future Rockford female—if there was to be one at all. Since he felt nothing for Nova, what did it mean? Was there something wrong with him? Or was his brother bewitched? He had to assume the latter.
He narrowed his eyes, holding back his wolf as he directed all his energy toward Ryder. There was no point in talking sense into his brother. As alpha, he could sense Ryder’s resolve, his complete devotion to this worthless human. It only made Corbin hate her with the intensity of the sun. Ryder was the one male who understood him, standing by him through the good and bad. Now he was acting just as fickle as Scott had been a year ago. Without loyalty, they had nothing.
“Do you think you can overthrow my power, little brother?” Corbin scoffed. “If you believe I’ll accept a mate because you demand it, you’ve never been more wrong. Brother or not, if you can’t follow orders, you’ll be cut from the pack.”
Corbin wasn’t afraid to lose shifters. Any male to show weakness or fail to obey pack law was banished from Rockford territory—or worse. He had no tolerance for bullshit. Yes, he loved Ryder, but the more he pushed him, the more Corbin closed off his heart.
“You touched her, kissed her. You promised her the world.”
He smirked. “As I do every female I plan to bed. I thought you knew me better than I knew myself. Maybe you don’t after all.” He could feel the rift developing between them as if it were a physical presence.
Ryder crossed his arms over his chest. “This is the one time I can’t obey. You’re wrong about this, Corbin, and you’re too hot-headed to consider the possibilities.”
It felt as if they were in a vacuum of time and space. The only sound was their breathing. He was being torn down the center.
“I’ve always trusted your counsel.”
He didn’t know what else to say. Corbin felt betrayed and cornered like a feral wolf. He wanted to find the little bitch and tear her apart with teeth and claws.
“You still can—”
“No. Not this time.” Corbin glared at his brother before shifting into his wolf. Fuck diplomacy and fuck playing favorites. If Ryder didn’t want to follow orders, he’d learn what it meant to cross the alpha.
* * * *
“Shit.” Ryder watched his brother disappear into the forest. Corbin would track Nova and Shade, and Ryder had no doubt he’d kill them both when he found them. How could he explain something like the mating call to his brother, a male broken by humans from such a tender age? It wouldn’t surprise him if Corbin was incapable of real love, but he had hoped the mating call was strong enough to cut through the barriers.
Now he was forced to choose between his alpha and his fated mate. It wasn’t just him either. Shade felt the same pull. Would Scott and Bray confirm it was indeed the mating call, that Nova was the one female destined for their pack?
Right now he had to focus on the task at hand—protecting her. Corbin was capable of taking on a small army. He was the essence of an alpha—strength, power, and viciously lethal. Even Shade wouldn’t be able to stop him once he had his mind set.
Ryder shifted into his wolf, taking a short cut toward the cabin. He was so worried about Corbin’s wrath he hadn’t considered the fact that Nova might not accept him as a mate. She was human, lacking the deep-seated insta-bond shifters experienced from the mating call. He had way too much on his mind.
He ran at a punishing pace, determined to beat Corbin to the cabin. If he couldn’t talk sense into his brother, he’d do everything in his power to protect Nova. Corbin was sadistic, lacking the usual human qualities such as empathy and pity. He was more feral than any shifter Ryder had ever known, making him all the more dangerous.
Relief flooded his system when the cabin finally came into view. It wasn’t as small and rustic as their rival Garret Gregor’s cabin. Although Corbin savored his wolf and time connecting with nature, he also enjoyed the finer things in life. Their home had all the modern comforts even though it was set deep in the northern
Rockford-owned forest.
All was silent, no screams or sounds of a struggle. It could have been any normal night, the owls and insects creating his favorite nocturnal melody. Only it happened to be the most fucked-up night of his life. He shifted into his skin as he approached the door. When he found it slightly ajar, his hackles went up. He had to force it open, and the heavy weight pressing against it gave a guttural moan.
“What the fuck?”
Shade sat up, rubbing the back of his head. There was blood on his fingertips when he withdrew his hand. He looked like shit, dazed and confused, and another trickle of blood escaped his swollen nose. “Nova?”
Ryder narrowed his eyes. “Where is she, Shade?”
His packmate rose to his feet, shaking off his confusion. “Shit, Corbin must have her. I told her to run.”
“He’s lost his fucking mind.”
Shade had been part of the pack for as long as he could remember. It surprised him that Corbin would turn on him so viciously. Or maybe it didn’t. He did know his brother better than he knew himself. Right now, he’d feel betrayed and rejected, a dangerous combination for a male like Corbin.
When human explorers found his brother as a young child, he’d been a feral wolf pup in the form of a non-vocal human boy. Ryder had been younger, staying safely hidden, watching from the brushwood. Child protective services took Corbin away.
The horrors his brother were subjected to were barbaric and inhumane even for an animal. He was passed from foster home to group home, never wanted or accepted. He wasn’t seen as a child but a paycheck. His shifter side remained hidden, but his volatile nature made him different from other human children—rages, violence, and non-compliance. By the time he escaped the group home as a teen, he’d already spent time in and out of jail. The human world made him cold as ice, full of hate and anger. When he returned to the pack, their mother had already died at the hands of human hunters. That was decades ago, the scars and resentment still remaining.
Ryder was the only one he trusted. Now that the mating call had Corbin questioning his loyalty, he’d kill Nova. Maybe it was already too late to save her.
He stood outside the house, listening and testing the air. Where would he start? Should he track Nova or Corbin? Or the scent of blood?
“I sent her out the back door. Told her to run from Corbin and not look back.” Shade ran a hand through his hair. He looked torn, his dark eyes losing their human quality. “He knocked me out before I had a chance to react. I would have fought him, would have fought our alpha for her.”
Ryder shook his head. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“I don’t know what’s worse—that I didn’t get the chance to fight back or that I would have.”
He had to find Nova and had to open Corbin’s eyes for the sake of the pack. Without wasting another breath, Ryder said a little prayer to the gods and shifted into his wolf.
Chapter Seven
Nova’s nerves had fired hot and ragged. She’d been ushered through the dark forest, darting around trees and being lifted over large obstacles as if she weighed nothing. It had been complete chaos, all a blur, and she half expected to wake up from some twisted dream at any moment. When they’d finally arrived at some sort of civilization, despite the lack of electricity, she’d thought the nightmare would end. But minutes after being in the safety of a house, Shade had scooted her out the back door. He said Corbin would kill her if he caught her, which didn’t make sense when she felt such a connection with him. She didn’t want to run off into the pitch-black forest. She wanted to stay with Shade.
Nova blindly hiked into the unknown, her arms outstretched as she felt her way forward. The moss covering the trees was cold and damp, making her think of every type of creepy crawly. She never understood true fear until being alone, surrounded by nothing but darkness. Every time she’d trip over a fallen branch or root, there was another tree to lean on. The underbrush pricked and poked her, even through her jeans. Her hands were raw from the cold, and she’d blow hot air into them every few steps to keep frostbite at bay.
The worst part of being night blind was her imagination. There could have been anything stalking her, watching her every step, and she wouldn’t be the wiser. Every time she heard a creak or rustle, adrenaline would surge through her veins, making her lightheaded. She was traveling through such dense forest, where all the man-eaters were supposed to thrive. Humans were smart and stayed in the cities, keeping the two worlds separate. Why did she agree to come on this damn trip?
She remembered the wolves attacking Craig, the blood, and the vicious sounds they’d made. She wasn’t even sure if Roger was alive or dead. They could all be gone. If she ran into a wolf, she was convinced she’d die from fear itself. Can’t they smell fear?
Her legs began to tire, her body shivering uncontrollably. How far was she supposed to travel? To what end? Was Ryder or Shade going to find her, rescue her?
Despite her predicament, she’d also experienced some of the most exhilarating moments of her life. She still remembered the way it felt to be ravaged by Corbin—his forbidden touch, his kiss. Or the way her body heated being sandwiched between Ryder’s and Shade’s warm, muscular bodies. Oh, how I crave that warmth right now. Although brief, it was the most sexuality she’d shared in her lifetime. And she couldn’t get the possibilities out of her mind.
It was as ridiculous as her situation, but she wanted them to love her. All of them. She wanted to be worthy of their affection, to prove she was more than a one-night stand. Or wanted to be. But if she couldn’t snag a decent boyfriend in the city, why did she think one of these masculine gods would want anything to do with her? They could get any woman they wanted, including Bethany, who practically threw herself at Corbin after one look.
Nova was an educated woman, overly educated, and fiercely independent. So why did these men make her feel like a damsel in distress? Why did they make her eager to submit and beg for their affection?
She heard something move ahead, so she froze, hoping to be invisible. Please don’t be a wolf. Or a bear. Or anything bigger than a chipmunk.
It moved again, coming toward her. She could see only blurred shadows under the faint light of the moon. But the sounds were very human-like footsteps. Maybe it was Ryder.
Paralyzed with fear, she waited with bated breath—hoping and praying it was her knight in shining armor. There was nothing she could do to save herself regardless. She had no weapon or pepper spray.
“How convenient to find you alone. Foolish of them to leave you unprotected.” The male voice roused a mix of emotions inside her. She was thrilled he wasn’t a wild animal, but his tone wasn’t friendly or familiar.
“Who’s there?” she asked. “Are you one of Corbin’s friends?”
He chuckled. “Can’t say I’ve heard of him.”
When his hand wrapped around her upper arm, she gasped and tried to bolt away. He held her too firmly, and she quickly realized she was probably better off with the wolves.
“Let me go!”
“Finders keepers. We’re taking a little trip up north.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She continued to struggle for all she was worth. Where were all these strangers coming from? They were deep in the forest, away from civilization. This was supposed to be a simple expedition to advance her career. If she made it out of this ordeal alive, she was never entering a forest again in her lifetime. She’d even toss her houseplants.
“Be quiet or I’ll make you be quiet. I don’t need any more trouble tonight.”
There was a distinct difference between this guy and Ryder, Shade, or even Corbin. This man gave her the creeps and made her nerves run rampant. Visions of rape and murder nearly made her sick. The thought of this guy touching her sexually forced her into a panic, her fight-or-flight response racing off the charts. The other men had the opposite effect on her, arousing her effortlessly.
He tugged her along like a ragdoll. She wanted to dig in her hee
ls and refuse to allow him to take her to a new location, but she was scared he’d hurt her—or worse. He could be capable of anything. If it was daylight, she could attempt to run, but in the old growth forest she wouldn’t make it a few feet in the dark before being caught. The sky was lightening a degree, morphing shades of blue, the promise of sunrise not too far off. What she wouldn’t give for daylight right now.
“Faster,” he ordered when she couldn’t keep up. His fingers were no doubt creating bruises.
“You’ve got the wrong person.” She was pulling at straws, anything to try and gain her freedom.
“You’re of fertile age. Our alpha insists there’s no difference from one breeding vessel to another.”
“That doesn’t sound good at all.” This time she dug in her heels.
He snarled, an animalistic sound that made her heart skip a beat. “One way or another, you’re coming with me.” His voice held a distinct threat she wanted no part of.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
* * * *
Unwanted visions clouded Corbin’s sight. Even in his wolf form, memories clung to him like an unwanted scent. Usually shifting mercifully dulled his emotions. Not now. He was torn between duty and revenge, love and hate. How could he put the past to rest when it had shaped him into the devil he was today?
He’d been dealing with a drop in production at the mine and stiff competition from his rivals at Gregor. Then, to top it off, there was a threat moving in from the north. He could have handled everything on his plate, but not this. Not mutiny from within his own pack. From Ryder.
The Rockford Pack [Wolves of Climax 8] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 5