Sold to the Alpha

by Cara Wylde

  “All right,” he said. He leaned down and captured her chapped lips in a delicate kiss. He kept his mouth pressed to hers for a long minute, then caressed her cheek and looked deep into her eyes. “I understand. We’ll talk later. I’m sorry… for all this. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find a solution.”

  “There is no solution,” Christine whispered. She looked like she wanted to say more, to get closer to Avelyn and tell her everything that was in her mind.

  Max straightened his back and smiled as best as he could. “Now, I don’t want to hear you say that. What’s done is done, and there’s nothing we can change now. All that matters is what we do next. We have a month at our disposal, let’s make the best of it. Jocelyn? Are you with me?”

  Avelyn had almost forgotten about Jocelyn. She hadn’t said much, and she had been silent and brooding the whole time. She saw her cross and uncross her legs.

  “Yes,” said Jocelyn, although she sounded reluctant. “I’ve no idea how you think we might find a solution, but yeah… I’m with you.”

  “As long as we stick together,” continued Max, a gleam of hope in his eyes, “we have a chance.”

  Avelyn didn’t say anything. She avoided Christine’s eyes, and wrapped the covers tighter around herself, hoping they’d get the message that she was waiting for them to leave her alone. She didn’t have the power to hope. Actually, she didn’t even know what to hope for.

  “Let’s give her some space.” Of all people, Jocelyn was the one to say the words. She rose from the sofa and headed for the door. Christine sent Avelyn a last look which remained ignored, and followed her. Max leaned down to leave a kiss on her forehead, and did the same.

  The door closed behind Max, and Avelyn let out a long, shaky breath. “My God,” she whispered. She couldn’t think past those words. Her brain simply refused to process anything else, so she lay in bed, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. The headache was completely gone, and her neck and shoulder didn’t throb anymore. She almost wished the wound hurt, so she could feel something, but either the painkillers had done an unexpectedly amazing job, or the werewolf venom had finished healing her. She felt like she was floating. No direction, no purpose. She just was. And, for a split second, she wished she were no more.

  ***

  “What was that all about?” asked Max while he, Jocelyn, and Christine were walking towards his office.

  Christine sighed. “She will tell you herself.”

  “Should I be worried?”

  “No.” She smiled.

  “You know I trust you, Christine.”

  They stopped in front of the door and the old woman squeezed his arm gently. “And I’ve never betrayed your trust. Have a little patience. She is too shaken to tell you now, but she will. I did what I thought was right at that time.” A flicker of sadness crossed her eyes. “It… it didn’t work out very well.”

  Max studied her suspiciously. Christine had been like a mother to him, especially after Maria, his father’s second bride and Max’s mother, died. The woman was the elder of Clan Blackmane, and for good reason. She was wise, calculated, and completely devoted to the family and the three packs. He knew without a doubt that she would never hurt Avelyn, just like she never hurt Sabine.

  “You have to promise me something, though,” Christine continued.

  Max heard Jocelyn sigh in frustration. She opened the office door and went inside.

  “Anything.”

  “Don’t be too hard on her. Think about her when she came here the first time. Remember those long days she spent locked in that room. Promise me that once she starts talking, you’ll let her finish and you’ll take at least two minutes to think about it before you say anything. All right?”

  He stared at Christine dumbfounded, unsure if he should start freaking out. A few minutes before, he had thought things couldn’t possibly be worse, but now he wasn’t so sure anymore. “All right…” he said reluctantly. She gave his arm another firm squeeze and smiled reassuringly. He knew that smile. It had always been Christine’s way of telling him everything was going to be fine, and it was more powerful than words.

  “Are you two finished?” yelled Jocelyn from inside the office. “Kevin just texted me. He’ll be here in five minutes.”

  Christine nodded, letting him know he’d better listen to his sister. She turned to leave, and Max watched her as she crossed the corridor and went down the stairs. There was nothing he wanted more than to go back to Avelyn and check on her, make sure she was fine, and maybe try to find out what he was dying to know. But that had to wait. Sabine’s escape had caused so many other complications, and if they weren’t careful, it could set in motion a terrible chain of events. He went inside the office and closed the door behind him.

  “Did he say anything else?” he asked.

  “Nope. I take it as bad news. If he had found her, he would have texted that instead of ‘be there in 5’.” Jocelyn was cleaning his desk, sorting out some papers and throwing them in two different drawers according to their contents. Max sat down on the sofa and watched her work. It wasn’t real work, obviously. She was just trying to keep busy. Normally, he would have told her to stay away from his things, but right now he couldn’t care less. He had nothing to hide from her, and all the documents and reports were related to the construction company and the fox-shifters.

  “How do you even work here?” She tore a sheet of paper into pieces and threw it in the bin.

  “Hey! What was that?”

  “Matt’s illegible notes. You don’t need them. I gathered everything worth mentioning in the reports.”

  A knock on the door, but the person didn’t wait to be invited in. Kevin moved fast, closing the door behind him and stopping in the middle of the room, between Max and Jocelyn. His clothes were a complete mess, jeans hanging low on his hips and T-shirt crumpled and covered in dry mud. He had forgotten to buckle his belt, and when Jocelyn fixed her gaze on his crotch and raised an eyebrow, he immediately took notice and fixed the problem.

  “What’s new?” asked Max in a dead serious tone.

  “Nothing. We followed the trail to the north, but we lost it 8 miles outside of Dunkelstadt. Best guess, she hitchhiked or something, because there’s a small country road going through there. Not many cars pass. Just tourists on their way to those vacation cabins up on the mountain.”

  “Have you checked there?” asked Jocelyn.

  “Absolutely. No sign of her, and not the slightest trail of her scent. If she really got on a car, it was going the other way, to Stuttgart, which, you know… kinda’ sucks.”

  “It’s easy to disappear in a big city,” whispered Max. He was rubbing his beard with slow, deliberate movements. It usually helped him think, but the trick didn’t work this time. His thoughts were a pathetic mess.

  “We had to come back,” continued Kevin. “Even Ryan was tired after so many hours of chasing after her. She’s quick, Max. And very calculated. It’s clear she had a lot of time to think about what she was going to do once she got out. She had it all planned out.”

  “How do you plan hitchhiking?” asked Jocelyn annoyed. She wasn’t annoyed at him, but at the whole situation in general.

  “Not that. It was just a guess. A shot in the dark. She might have lost her trail some other way. So, yeah… maybe she didn’t know exactly how she’d get to the next city, but she didn’t waste any time.”

  “Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. Max, what now?” She turned to her brother, waiting for him to say something, to come up with a valid idea, because she personally had nothing. They had been taken by surprise, and most of her annoyance, if not all of it, stemmed from there. Jocelyn couldn’t believe they had been such fools. Avelyn had played all of them, and reduced them to ridiculous puppets in her grand escape plan. She was almost glad it had turned against her and blew up in her face. Almost.

  “We keep looking. Kevin, take today off and tell everyone else to go rest. First thing in the morning,
you and Ryan take two Crescents and two Moon Children and go to Stuttgart. Jocelyn, agreed?”

  “Yeah, sure.” She was in charge of her pack and she was the one who gave the orders when the Moon Children were involved, but Max’s word did have priority.

  “Sniff around, check hotels, see if there are any unusual cases of animal attacks, and stay low. We don’t want this to become public just yet. Maybe we’re lucky to catch her before she does anything stupid and terrible enough to draw the attention of the Council and compromise us.”

  “Tomorrow morning might be too late,” said Kevin.

  “We’re all too tired to do anything now. Let’s hope she’s also tired. She can’t keep running for days on end. She has to stop somewhere to take a break, and Stuttgart is her best option for the time being.”

  “I understand.”

  “One more thing, Kev. Choose the best trackers, and tell the rest of the pack to stay put. We need to guard the Schloss.”

  “We also have to do something about the four underground exits,” said Jocelyn. “She knows the dungeons like the back of her hand.”

  “Do you really think she’d risk coming back?” asked Kevin, disbelief painted on his handsome features. “What for?”

  “We don’t know,” answered Max, “but we have to take all precautions.”

  Jocelyn sent him a compassionate look. She was leaning with her back pressed against the edge of his desk, arms folded under her breasts. She hated seeing him like this, but she knew they had to protect Avelyn. It was unlikely that Sabine would come back to kill her, because that wasn’t the point in the first place. On the other hand, if she somehow found out Max’s bride was already with child, she might have changed her mind. They had to be ready for anything. These mad brides couldn’t take them by surprise a second time. God, her brother did have the worst luck with women.

  “I agree,” she finally said. “We need to make sure Avelyn is safe. I’ll organize my Moon Children to guard the Schloss around the clock. But what do we do with the exits?”

  “We could destroy them,” suggested Kevin.

  Max and Jocelyn gave him hard, thoughtful looks, weighting his solution.

  “I don’t particularly like it,” said Max.

  “Our ancestors built those dungeons for a reason,” said Jocelyn. “In case of danger, they are a great way of escape.”

  “On the other hand,” argued Kevin, “this is not the Middle Ages anymore. Do we really need them? Yes, they were life savers during sieges, but I don’t see any army marching to our gates anytime soon.”

  Max smiled, enjoying his Beta’s elegant sarcasm. He was right, of course.

  “Well, brother, he has such a fine point that I could almost smack myself over the head for not thinking about it years ago. Since the peace treaty, they’re a weakness, not an advantage.”

  “Yes, but still…” There was something that was holding Max back. He scrutinized his feelings for a few seconds, trying to understand why exactly he didn’t like the idea of having those exits destroyed. Both Kevin and Josie were right, so why couldn’t he give the order? It had something to do with childhood, distant memories he could barely grasp in clear images and coherent scenes. There was something there, at the back of his mind. When the memory shined brighter, it tugged at his heart. The faintest smell of may lilies invaded his nostrils. The sunlight reflecting in a delicate chain of rainbow moonstones dangling from a thin wrist.

  “We can’t have werewolves guarding them.” Jocelyn’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “It would be a waste of energy and manpower.”

  “Yes, of course.” Max rose from the sofa and took a couple of steps towards his desk. He turned to face Kevin. “Send two or three Crescents to take a look at the exits and asses the possibilities. The best option will probably be to collapse the exit tunnels and bury everything under earth and rocks.”

  “Yes. Will that be all?” asked Kevin.

  “For now.”

  “Update Ryan and give the orders,” said Jocelyn, “then go get some rest. We’ll need our best wolves fresh in the morning. It’s going to be one hell of a cluster fuck until we catch Sabine.” The name rolled strangely off her lips and left a foul taste in her mouth. She clicked her tongue, hoping it would go away.

  Kevin nodded and left. He was fast and efficient, and Max and Jocelyn trusted him completely. Alone in the office, they looked at each other, unsure what to do next. There was nothing that could actively change the situation.

  “Wanna go over this whole crap again?” asked Jocelyn.

  “How would that help?” He threw a glance at his wrist watch.

  Jocelyn studied him carefully, trying to guess what he was thinking. She knew there were things he didn’t want to say. No matter, she would say them for him. “She’s got some explaining to do after she wakes up.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Max.” He was actively avoiding her eyes, and she hated it. “Max, look at me.” When he did, she tried to keep her voice calm and her gaze kind. “You need to talk to Avelyn. You need to make her tell you everything. How it started, how she found out about the dungeons, what Sabine told her. Everything. There might be clues in there, there might be something that could tell us how Sabine thinks and what she’s after. No more games, okay?”

  “She’s just found out she’s going to lose her baby, Josie…”

  “And whose fault is that? No excuses. We need to sort this out, and for that she needs to tell us everything she knows. It’s the only way we can help her. You understand that, right? A human bitten on your watch by a member of your pack. That is a huge breach of the peace treaty. Add the fact that she’s pregnant and in danger of losing the child, and you’ll get all the media on your head. The Council will tear you to pieces, and then move on to me and Karl. This may well bring the end of the clan.”

  “You’re going too far.”

  “No, I’m not, and you know it. Let’s not take this too lightly. Better think of the worst case scenario so that we can avoid it.”

  There was silence for a few minutes. Jocelyn knew her brother needed time to gather his thoughts. He wasn’t out of the initial shock yet. He took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders and smiled down at her. “You’re right. Let’s do this. I’ll talk to Avelyn the moment she wakes up. We’ll find Sabine and bring her back and, meanwhile, we’ll see what we can do to save my child. The doctor said there’s a 98% chance she’ll lose it, but that leaves us with a 2% chance for things to work out well. There’s still hope.”

  “Yes.” Jocelyn squeezed his shoulder in encouragement, the only gesture of affection she usually used with both her brothers and, sometimes, Ryan. “We’ll sort this out. Together.”

  ***

  Avelyn turned over and snapped her eyes open when she realized she had rolled on her left side. She expected to feel pain in her shoulder and neck, but it didn’t happen. She exhaled softly and moved a bit, testing the waters. Nothing. Her body had healed completely, and even the headache was gone. She sat up and was surprised to see Max lying next to her, his head propped up on his hand.

  “Hello, beautiful.”

  She gave him a big, bright smile, and snuggled against his chest. He kissed the top of her head.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Oh, much better. I really needed sleep.”

  He took her in his arms and cradled her gently, enjoying the smell of her skin and hair. So unique, so feminine. He felt a pang of longing at the mere thought of having almost lost her. “Totally understandable. After walking through the dungeons for four hours and getting bitten, it’s a miracle you didn’t fall asleep while the doctor was consulting you.”

  Avelyn felt the smirk in his tone. “You’re so mean. Don’t joke about that.”

  “Hey, it’s the only sane thing to do. Joke about it and move on.” He kept her at arm’s length and looked into her blue eyes. Dark circles were making them seem even bigger, while the pallor of her skin made the color stand out.
“I’m just glad you’re here.”

  Avelyn gave him a shy smile, trying to fight the regret which had formed a lump in her throat, making it impossible for her to speak. Would he ever forgive her for what she had done? Should she try to apologize again, or would it make him angry?

  Max saw the inner workings of her conflict flicker in her eyes, and squeezed her to his chest again. “I don’t know what I’d have done if I had lost you. I would have looked for you till the end of the world. But you’re here, and that’s the most important thing. The rest of it… we’ll solve step by step.”

  “There are things that can’t be fixed.”

  “Anything can be fixed, my love. No more lies. We work together, we do our best, and we’ll make it through, you’ll see.”

  “I… I can’t be fixed.” She disentangled herself from his arms and put some space between them. “Once I turn… asides from the fact that I will… I will…” She couldn’t say it. “… I won’t be able to have children anymore. Ever. You can’t fix that.”

  “We don’t know that yet.”

  “Yes, we do. You heard the doctor just as well as I did.”

  “He said there are 98% chances you’ll… that the transformation… This still leaves 2%…”

  “Let’s not lie to ourselves and put our hope in something that will most likely not happen.”

  Avelyn had never looked so serious and down-to-earth. It was so unlike her to surrender to whatever was to come, and stop fighting. There was fierceness in her eyes, but it had nothing to do with the will to change her destiny. She was through with that.

  “You should be angry,” she said all of a sudden. “You should be angry at me for running away the second time, at Sabine for… for…”

  “For hurting you.”

  “I sound so selfish, don’t I? You should be angry right now and tell me what a horrible person I am. I only think about myself. I don’t care about what others want, I don’t give a shit about my responsibilities, and I’m so, so ungrateful. You have all accepted me in your clan, gave me the most luxurious home a woman could ever desire, and look how I repay you.”