Defying the Alpha

by Emilia Rose

  Cayden and Kylo had mentioned that this part of the forest was at war with each other, but this looked far worse. With land scarce around these parts, entire packs of wolves wouldn’t just abandon a perfectly livable village because of conflict.

  I sucked in a deep breath, kept my claws drawn in case someone attacked, and walked farther into the village, scanning the area. Scarlett had to be here somewhere. By the looks and scent of the place, she had come here alone.

  Walking into the pub—the only place that hadn’t been boarded up—I inhaled the thick, repulsive scent of blood coming from the stairs. It flowed from the first stair and created a pool of fresh blood at the bottom.

  Someone’s here, my wolf said in my mind.

  Instead of just looking for Scarlett like I should’ve been doing, I walked up the creaking stairs, doubled over when I reached the top, and puked into the flow of blood. Bodies were littered around the room, eyes dug out of their sockets, slashes in every one of their necks, limbs hanging from the ceiling fan.

  “Fuck,” I whispered to myself, spitting out the rest of the vomit.

  Across the back wall, the words, Corruption is here. Run for your life, were written out in blood. I thanked the Moon Goddess that Isabella had willingly stayed behind with Kylo because I didn’t want her to see any of this. While I didn’t like the idea of them being together, he would keep her safe, no matter the cost.

  “Roman,” Scarlett said, pushing me into the room and shutting the door behind me, “you made it.”

  “I’m not here to fool around, Scarlette. I’m looking for Derek.”

  She laughed in my face; evil eyes fixed on me. “Derek? He’s the reason?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, Romie, it’s going to be a few long days, if you just wanna talk about him.”

  “Few days?” I asked, stepping away from her. “You have an hour.”

  She smirked even wider. “An hour of your time? That may be all you’ll give me, but I’ll take more. I have my ways with you, Alpha. I know what keeps your attention.”

  Chapter 32

  Kylo

  I wasn’t supposed to ever feel this way about Isabella.

  Sunlight flooded in through my bedroom window, fanning over Isabella’s face. Bluebirds perched on the branches right outside my window and glanced in on us, chirping away like they did every morning.

  When I’d marched into the Lycans’ pack house, my plan was to tear Roman and her apart, so he’d be weak, and I could destroy him. It was funny how life worked like this because, now—less than two weeks later—I wanted her.

  Curling my arm around her waist, I pulled her closer and inhaled her overwhelming scent of vanilla. I stuffed my nose deeper into her hair, wanting to accustom myself to her and to burn her smell into my memory forever.

  Though I expected her to still be sleeping, she sucked in a breath, her smaller body tensing against mine. She readjusted herself, so her ass brushed against my throbbing cock. I woke up hard every morning, but I hadn’t had another woman in my bed, especially like this, for years now.

  I exhaled deeply through my nose, trying to control myself and not wanting to overstep her boundaries. Yet she continued to tease me by arching her back, as if she were stretching, and pressing her ass harder against me.

  Moon Goddess, I tried to ignore it. I really did. I thought about Roman, how we’d made up, how I didn’t want to hurt him the way he’d hurt me, how—

  Again, she pushed her ass against me. I inhaled the scent of her sweet, dripping cunt and curled my fingers around her waist harshly. My wolf wanted out to touch her, to see her, to claim her. And if I wasn’t careful, he’d take control of me and take Isabella in the most animalistic way possible.

  Instead of turning around to face me, she grabbed one of my hands, interlocked my fingers with hers, and tugged it between her breasts. After she let go, I brushed my thumb over the thin material of the T-shirt that covered her breasts, feeling the soft, tender flesh underneath. My cock swelled in my shorts, and I pressed it lightly into her.

  Her breath caught in her throat, a breathy moan passing through her lips. I continued to brush my finger over her breast, each time getting closer and closer to her hard nipple that I wanted to tug on until she came.

  When she pushed her hips against mine again, I flicked my thumb over her nipple. She sucked in a sharp yet quiet breath and tensed. I paused for a brief moment, feeling my wolf rave inside of me.

  Control, Kylo. Control.

  But she didn’t want me to control myself. She bucked her hips back and forth once more, grinding her ass against my swelling cock. I grasped her breast in my hand, feeling her hard nipple press against my palm, and thrust my hips against hers, taking complete control.

  She whimpered, and I did it again. Loving the sounds she made for me.

  Instead of stopping me, she dug her fingernails into my thigh and arched her back even more to let my cock thrust against her pussy. Even through her underwear, I could feel how wet she was for me.

  I rested my forehead on her shoulder and continued, slowly at first, but when she didn’t tell me to stop, I picked up my pace and thrust my hard cock against her ass, listening to her moans fill the empty pack house.

  All I wanted was to rip both of our clothes off and take her. Make her mine too.

  She slipped a hand between her legs and touched her clit, rubbing herself in circles. When I pinched her nipple between my fingers, she jerked into the air with her back arching hard. I curled my hand under her thigh and pulled one of her legs into the air, giving me better access.

  While she didn’t say anything, I continued to pound myself against her and watched over her shoulder as she rubbed her sensitive little clit through her panties. “Fuck, princess,” I growled into her ear. “Just like that. Make yourself feel good for me.”

  Suddenly, she stiffened. I thrust against her harder, knowing that she was moments from coming. She threw her head back, legs shaking, and slapped a hand over her mouth to scream into it.

  I slowed to a stop behind her, my cock so incredibly hard. I needed a fucking release.

  Before I could stop myself, I rolled out of bed and mumbled a quick, “I need to use the bathroom.” I rushed into the bathroom connected to my bedroom. I shut the door, placed one hand on it, pushed my other down my pants, and stroked my cock.

  Imagining Isabella’s pussy wrapped around it instead of my hand.

  Imagining how tight she was, how she’d clench when I pounded into her.

  Imagining her moaning so much, unable to stop herself.

  Digging my claws into the door, I closed my eyes, came on my hand, and pretended that my cum was filling Isabella’s tight little hole instead of coating my palm. It felt so fucking good; I couldn’t stop myself from groaning.

  After washing my hands, I sat on the closed toilet and rubbed my temples. Moon Goddess, our connection became more intense with every waking moment that I spent with her. One day, this feeling would kill me. I could just feel it.

  Isabella knocked on the door and, a moment later, her fingers peeked out just beneath the door. “Kylo,” she whispered.

  I sat down on this side of the door and brushed my fingers under it to touch hers. “Yes, Isabella?” I asked, heart pounding in my ears.

  “I think I love you.”

  When the words tumbled out of her mouth, I tensed. Everything slowed down, and all I could focus on was her ragged breathing on the other side of the door. My heart beat a bit faster, heat crawling up my neck. Surely, she had to be lying.

  She couldn’t love me.

  After Scarlett had torn me to pieces, I hadn’t thought that anyone could love me. Yet seconds passed, and Isabella hadn’t taken it back yet.

  Could it really be true? Could she really love me after spending the night together?

  But when she said, “But that can’t ever happen again,” my chest tightened in pain.

  From inside the bathroom, I heard her whisper those fe
w words to herself over and over again, as if she was trying to convince herself.

  “Tonight, I have to sleep in another room. I … I can’t sleep with you. This can’t happen.”

  I hesitantly opened the door to see Isabella on the ground, almost in tears. Her wolf purred, just not as loudly as she had done this morning in my bed. Doing what we had done seemed like it calmed both her and my wolf.

  But the difference between our wolves was that I wanted to do it again.

  Crouching down beside her, I cupped her face in my hands and drew her closer to me. She placed her hands firmly on my chest to keep me away, which felt like rejection itself. Yet my wolf couldn’t deal with another rejection, so I pretended like it hadn’t happened and smiled at her.

  “I love you too,” I whispered, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “And if you don’t want that to happen again, then”—I gulped, knowing that it would be damn hard to stay away from her now that I’d had a taste—“I respect your decision.”

  She furrowed her brows, as if she didn’t want me to say what I just had. After five minutes of sitting in complete silence, a tear fell from her eye. “You don’t deserve this,” she finally said. “You don’t deserve to be a second choice. You deserve someone who is going to choose you time and time again.”

  I brushed my thumb against the corner of her lip. “I don’t mind being your second choice,” I said even though it killed me on the inside. I just didn’t want her to leave me, not after she’d admitted that she loved me.

  “I do.” She grasped my face in her hands and gave me a forced, tight smile. “Maybe if I’d met you before I met Roman, things would be different, but this is how things have to be right now. I’m committed to Roman.”

  I laid my hands over her smaller ones and leaned into her touch. Parting my lips, I pressed them back together. I didn’t know what else to say to her to get her to stay without stepping between her and Roman.

  But I didn’t want to try again with someone else.

  “Maybe you should try to find another woman who makes you happy, someon—”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “But—”

  “We already talked about this with the Moon Goddess, and you heard my answer.”

  “Kylo, I … we … this can’t happen again.”

  “I’m happy as I am, Isabella.”

  “But don’t you want a mate to spend your life with?”

  “Goddess, I’ve spent centuries with you.”

  She playfully shoved my chest, her wolf purring for me. “I’m being serious.”

  “I am serious. I’m happy where I am. I haven’t been with another woman for a long time, and I don’t particularly want someone else right now. My pack is strong. My mom comes over to visit me every day. Things are good.” Warmth spread throughout my body. “You just make them better.”

  “I make things better for you?” she whispered.

  “You do,” I whispered back, and then I leaned in and kissed her on her perfect, soft lips. “You make everything better for me.”

  Chapter 33

  Isabella

  My wolf anxiously paced around inside my head, lingering close to the surface but never speaking to me once. From afar, I watched Raj train Naomi with my stomach in tight knots. This morning hadn’t gone how I’d planned. I never meant to tell Kylo that I loved him. Hell, I hadn’t even known I did until it came out of my mouth.

  After glancing down at my phone for the fifteenth time this morning, I blew a deep breath out of my nose. Roman hadn’t answered any of my calls last night or this morning. It continued to go to voice mail, and most of my texts hadn’t even been delivered.

  “Is everything all right?” Raj asked me from across the field. When I didn’t answer, he whistled to signal for every one of the Lycans to get a drink, and then he jogged over to me. “Roman is still out, looking for Derek, isn’t he?”

  I tossed my phone into my bag and crossed my arms. “He’ll be okay,” I said aloud, mostly for myself. I walked over to the training area, where Naomi was talking with some of the other Lycans.

  No matter what happened out there with Roman, I still had responsibilities here. If we were going to win this war, I had to start training Naomi the way I did every Lycan and teach her the rules we lived by.

  Fight without emotion.

  Know your enemy.

  Business before pleasure. Always.

  “How is your experience with defensive techniques?” I asked her, tugging off my T-shirt and standing in a black sports bra and some pliable leggings in front of her. There were many things she had to learn about defensive and offensive tactics and strikes.

  Naomi placed her hands on her hips. “I’m more on the offense. I don’t like to be put into situations where I have to defend myself against someone stronger than me. I can do it, but I prefer to get the fight over with sooner rather than later.”

  I stepped toward her and tried to intimidate the human. “And what would you do if someone attacked you?” I moved closer to her, my canines lengthening from under my lips. “What would you do?”

  Moving back, she analyzed my body movements. “Typically, I’d use wolfsbane against a stronger opponent. Shove a bottle of it right into their mouth to kill them instantly.”

  “And when you don’t have the wolfsbane?” I asked as my nails lengthened into claws.

  Before she could answer, I lunged at her to see how she’d react. To my surprise, she leaped back almost as quickly and immediately lowered into a fighting stance, cheeks flushing pink. Instead of lunging back at me—which most wolves did—she stayed back and let her eyes linger on my hips.

  I stood back up, watching as she never took her eyes off me once, and walked over to my bag. “Trick is”—I pulled out a necklace with a tiny bottle-like pendant that had a few drops of black wolfsbane inside of it, and I tossed it to her—“always have wolfsbane on you.”

  “This is wolfsbane?” she asked, tilting the pendant to the side and staring at how the few droplets moved inside the bottle. “Will this kill a wolf instantly? I usually use more.”

  “The wolfsbane that most packs have weaponized is diluted, so they can buy more of it at a cheaper price,” Raj said, pointing to the necklace. “That’s the real thing. Don’t go using it on just anyone unless you’re in danger that you cannot get out of. Otherwise, fight.”

  A cold summer breeze drifted through the forest, making the hairs on my arm stand straight. I looked at Raj. “Work on her defense for today. In the meantime, I’ll find a witch who uses corrupt magic similar to Dolus’s. We can have them use their magic against Naomi, so she can build up her resistance.”

  Us wolves could build some of our resistance, too, but we didn’t have as much mental strength compared to humans, and magic required so much mental capacity. While werewolves were physically strong and brave and courageous, we acted off of pure, animalistic instinct. Naomi—and other humans like her—could resist that innate, wolfish urge to kill ruthlessly, instead thinking a situation through before attacking.

  After Raj nodded, I sat at the edge of the field and scrolled through my list of Contacts for anyone who might have relations with witches. Every so often, I glanced up at the Lycans who hadn’t practiced late last night, watching them practice now. Even Kylo practiced with some of the stronger wolves today, yet my wolf wasn’t really bothered by the way every one of his muscles flexed with ease as he fought mercilessly.

  All she could think about was Roman.

  So, I called him again. His phone rang and rang and rang and then went to voice mail.

  I sighed deeply through my nose, trying not to be too upset, and scanned through more of my Contacts. There weren’t many witches or sorcerers around this part of the forest, but there had to be a couple. When I found a few people who might know someone, I sent their contact information to Raj’s phone.

  What scared me the most about this entire ordeal was that we had a mole in Roman’s pack—some
one who’d helped kidnap Derek—and whoever it was seemed perfectly healthy. It could be Derek himself or Vanessa or even Roman.

  After an entire day and a half without hearing from Roman, I sat across from Vanessa at The Night Raider’s Café. Though dark and stormy outside, the coffee shop was bustling with people picking pine needles out of their wet hair and shaking off the rain.

  Vanessa had basically dragged me here, telling me that I couldn’t just stay in the house and sulk all night. My knee bounced under the table as I glanced at my phone every other minute, hoping that Roman would call me. We were too far apart for the mind link to work.

  Neither my wolf nor I liked that we couldn’t contact our mate. It reminded us of all those late nights when we’d lain in bed at the Lycans’ pack house, wondering if Roman was okay without us—because we weren’t okay without him.

  My phone lit up.

  Raj: Just finished practice with Naomi. It’s only been a couple days, but she’s made significant advances in her fighting skills. I’ve contacted some of the witches and sorcerers. I’m waiting to hear back and preparing her mentally until then. Have a good night. Contact me if you need me.

  I pushed my discouraging thoughts away and told myself that if Roman were in danger, he’d call me to help him. But Roman was the dominant, do-it-all-myself type of alpha. Part of me believed that he wouldn’t even want my help in trying to defeat his ex-girlfriend and finding Derek.

  Vanessa wiped some strawberry ice cream off my fingers, which had dripped down from my cone. “Come on, Isabella. Relax,” she said to me. “Why have you been so worried these past two days?”

  I licked the ice cream. “Roman went to find Scarlett.”

  She slammed her hand onto the table, her bronze rings clattering against the wood. “What the fuck? I told him to stay away from her.”