Sold to the Alpha

by Cara Wylde

  “Not what I was thinking…” thought Avelyn, but she didn’t say it out loud, even if she was tempted to. After all, why wouldn’t she say it? Why wouldn’t she tell her best friends in the world about the fox clan in Alaska and her clan’s suspicion of the five-tailed Inari? It wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? “Who am I kidding?” Yes, both Delyse and Claudia knew about Sabine and the cure, but that was something else. It was personal, and Avelyn could trust them with her personal problems because she knew they would never do anything to hurt her. However, when it came to the clan’s political affairs… She was a Blackmane now. She needed to have the clan’s interests at heart, and if Amelia’s Inari was the same Inari Karl had been investigating in Alaska, then Avelyn had to tread carefully. No, Delyse and Claudia would never hurt her or put her in danger, but none of them knew who they would end up marrying. For now, what Karl was doing could be easily called espionage, which was very much illegal and risky, especially for someone who served as an adviser in the Council.

  “It sounds fairly awful,” Avelyn finally said. “Did you get to see him? The guy, I mean… Is he hot? If he is, then he might be able to keep her warm even if he takes her to the North Pole.”

  “No,” said Delyse. “He sent his Beta, or Yako, as foxes would call him, to pick a bride for him. Apparently, Amelia’s Prince Charming is a very reclusive kind of guy. He’s the heir of one of the most powerful fox clans in the world, but he almost never makes public appearances.”

  “I wonder why…”

  “Amelia didn’t have time to tell us much,” intervened Claudia. “The Beta guy, Seth I think was his name, gave her two hours to pack her things. Everything happened really fast. Oh, and I remember how tired and distressed Amelia was after the interview. She actually said it sucked the life out of her. So many questions, personality tests, and requests…”

  “Maybe he wanted to make sure she was perfect for his Inari, who knows?” offered Avelyn. “Any idea what clan they belong to?”

  “Sylfur,” answered Delyse. “Amelia said they are quite influential. Their main Inari is the proud owner of five tails, but she said she has no idea how many tails her future husband has.”

  “So, she’s not going to marry the main Inari?”

  “No, she was bought for the heir, aren’t you listening? The main Inari is an old fart who’s probably going to die soon,” said Claudia. “For some reason, he kept his position until the last moment.”

  Avelyn had no doubt they were talking about the same clan the Blackmanes were suspicious of. That was why it wasn’t a good idea to talk about the clan’s political views and intentions. Amelia had just been married off to someone who could be an enemy. Of course, they weren’t sure yet, but there were clues that indicated to the fact that the fox-shifters might be planning something. Everyone knew they had never fully agreed to the peace treaty. Who knew who Delyse and Claudia were going to marry? With a bit of luck, Delyse would probably be sold to an Alpha wolf, but Claudia belonged to House Ursi. A bear-shifter was waiting for her in the near future.

  “Are you okay?” asked Delyse. She waived a hand in front of Avelyn’s eyes.

  “Oh, yes. Why?”

  “You’ve been spacing out.”

  “I think I’m just tired. And scared. I can’t stop thinking about Sabine.”

  “Everything will be fine, you’ll see,” said Claudia encouragingly. “They will catch her and her rogue pack, and then it will be safe for you to go back home. Although, we really don’t mind having you around.”

  Avelyn looked at Claudia, then at Delyse, and gave them a big, warm smile. The two girls were so different. Delyse was blonde and petite, with fragile bones and an almost translucent complexion. Claudia’s chocolate skin, short, frizzy hair, and ridiculously full lips contrasted with the other’s features, which made them an interesting sight to see when they were together. Come to think of it, Avelyn was very different too. Reddish blonde hair, round face, and generous curves. The three of them were the epitome of beauty in completely different ways, shapes, colors, and sizes. “But where did Amelia fit in?” Avelyn asked herself. She never thought she would miss her so much. Amelia, with her soft, brown hair, heart-shaped face, and big green eyes; probably the only Alma Venus student who had seen the boarding school as a chance to build a future for herself and find peace and happiness.

  “I hope with all my heart that Amelia’s young, reclusive Inari will make her happy,” Avelyn said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, me too,” said Delyse. “I hope he is kind and loving…”

  “… and so smoking hot that she won’t feel the bite of the Alaskan weather,” added Claudia.

  Yes, smoking hot didn’t hurt, but Avelyn would have added “diplomatic and peace-loving” if she could have.

  ***

  It didn’t happen that night. Avelyn fell asleep peacefully after listening to the comforting whisper of her friends’ rhythmic breathing, then woke up to a sunny morning and a full day of walking around the school, visiting the classrooms and the library, and lounging under her favorite lime tree in the garden. It happened the next night. Right after midnight, when the gatekeeper rushed in and made Mrs. Jones wake up Miss Delacroix, everyone except Caleb and Daniel were asleep. The two Deltas were already at the gate when Avelyn, Delyse, Claudia, and a couple of other students followed the headmistress down the stairs and onto the cobblestone alley that led to the main gate. Avelyn’s heart stopped and, for a couple of seconds, she forgot how to breathe. Behind the iron gates, dozens of green eyes sparkled from between the trees and bushes.

  “Werewolves…” said Caleb between clenched teeth.

  Avelyn stepped beside him and put a hand on his tense arm. “How can this be?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Daniel. “They won’t make it past the gates.”

  “Miss Avelyn, you should go back inside.”

  Caleb’s suggestion was sound, and Avelyn almost turned around to head back to the school and leave the two Deltas to deal with the wolves that seemed to have surrounded the building, when she heard bones snap. A chill ran up her spine and made the little hairs on her arms stand on end. The first instinct was to reach out for Max through their telepathic connection, but she immediately realized there was no way she could contact him this way. He was simply too far away. She had to call him and let him know there was something wrong, but she had left her phone in her room, and then there was a louder snap, and Avelyn turned back to see a pair of brown eyes rising above the ground to her level.

  “Sabine…”

  The she-wolf stepped lightly on the grass, and smiled at Avelyn from behind the bars. The moon bathed her lithe body in its warm, silver glow, giving her that magic only creatures of the dark possessed. She was completely naked, and Avelyn could see the girl had gained a bit of weight, and her body looked stronger than the last time she had seen her. Her long, curly black hair spilled over her pointed shoulder blades in a thick mass that looked impossible to tame.

  “Here we are again, friend,” Sabine said in an overly joyful voice. “Did you miss me?”

  Avelyn took a sharp intake of breath and willed her heartbeat to slow down. “I’m not your friend, Sabine. I could have been, I wanted to be, but you didn’t let me.”

  In a quick change of mood, the she-wolf bared her fangs at Avelyn and the two Delta werewolves who flanked her. “You couldn’t. Not after stealing everything from me: my husband, my place in the pack, everything that was rightfully mine. I was his bride, not you. I should have killed you for what you did to me, but instead I chose to be merciful and let you live. It was more than you deserved.”

  Anger rushed through Avelyn’s veins, making her forget about how scared she was and how dangerous the creature behind the gate could be. She took a step forward, and she would have lunged at the gate if Caleb hadn’t stopped her by placing a firm hand on her shoulder.

  “I didn’t steal anything from you! When I arrived at the Schloss I didn’t even know abou
t you, and I didn’t even want that life. All I wanted was to escape and run somewhere far away from shape-shifters, boarding schools, and arranged marriages. But you know all these things already, so I honestly don’t get you. You were merciful, you say, when in fact you bit me and left me for dead.”

  “I did bite you, but I never wanted you to die. I just wanted you to suffer the way I suffered. You already had my husband and there was nothing I could do to change that, but I could make sure you never gave him the only thing I couldn’t.” Sabine made a slight gesture with her arms, spreading them before her as if to show confusion. “Something obviously went wrong and, for the life of me, I have no idea what it is. You’re pregnant. There is life growing inside you, and I can feel it, I can smell it on you.” She put her arms around her and rubbed at her own shoulders as if she had started to feel cold. Werewolves were never cold, so Sabine’s behavior didn’t make any sense. On the other hand, most of the things she did didn’t make sense. She started pacing up and down in front of the gate, shaking her head from time to time.

  After figuring out what was happening, Miss Delacroix didn’t wait a second more and ran back to the school to call Max. She also urged everyone in the courtyard to get inside, but she didn’t stand a chance before Delyse’s and Claudia’s resolution to stay by Avelyn’s side and make sure she was safe. Now, the only people staring at Sabine and witnessing her mood changes were Avelyn, her friends, the two Deltas, the gatekeeper, and two guards who were on duty that night.

  “Alas, I have no other choice,” said Sabine. She had stopped pacing, and she was once again facing Avelyn, fists clenched at her sides. “These iron gates won’t keep me away, and neither your pathetic Deltas.”

  Avelyn wasn’t sure how to interpret her words, but she had a sinking feeling that Sabine’s intentions were deadly. She wasn’t a fool. She knew two werewolves and three humans would never stand a chance against a whole pack of newly turned werewolves. She stole a glance over the girl’s shoulder and narrowed her eyes, trying to see farther into the forest. She couldn’t count the pairs of eyes gleaming in the dark, so she wasn’t sure how many werewolves were waiting for their Alpha’s orders. A dozen? Two dozen? Three dozen? Avelyn’s eyes returned to Sabine’s face, but they immediately went back to scan the forest again when Avelyn thought she had caught something else in the corner of her eye. It had probably been another pair of eyes, but she couldn’t tell why they had made her heart pick up a maddening pace again.

  What could she do? The headmistress had probably called Max already, but there was no way they could get help before morning. And Sabine knew that. Avelyn could see it in her cold eyes and wicked smile. She had to stall, she had to try to talk Sabine out of it, she had to do everything in her power to stop this disaster from happening. This wasn’t only about her and her baby, it was about all the students of Alma Venus. She remembered about the villages and towns Sabine’s pack had ravaged, and she decided that was not going to happen to the boarding school.

  “Sabine, let’s talk about this. How did you even know I was pregnant?”

  The girl laughed hysterically. The shrieking sound made even her own werewolves jump in surprise and shuffle around impatiently. “Do you believe me a fool? Did you really think I would run away, hide somewhere, and never check to see if my plan worked?” Sabine tilted her chin and fixed her gaze in an indefinite spot above Caleb’s head. She stayed like that for a long minute, lost in deep thought. “In fact, I did want to do that at first. I had everything planned out: make some friends, move north, maybe cross the border, do some tourism, see if I liked it better in another country.”

  Avelyn raised her brow in confusion. “Why did you change your mind?”

  Sabine’s gaze moved to her face, her brown eyes looking innocent and surprised for a moment. “I don’t know. I wanted to leave everything behind, I really did. I even found a couple of friends, but apparently they didn’t like the idea of leaving their homes and traveling the world with me.”

  “The people you kidnapped…” Daniel had whispered the words, and he was sure Sabine had heard him. She chose to ignore him.

  “Then I had a better idea: if I bit them, they would turn on the next full moon and become my friends forever. A brilliant idea, don’t you think? I only had three friends at that point, and they weren’t enough to build a pack, but the moment it struck me that I would never be alone if I had my own pack, everything fell into place.”

  Avelyn’s brows furrowed in anger, and she was sure Caleb could feel the tension in her muscles. She couldn’t believe Sabine’s words and the normal, slightly bored tone in which she said them. “You’ve hurt so many people… How could you?”

  “Hurt them? I would never do something like that, they’re my friends. I made them faster, stronger, I gave meaning to their lives and increased their lifespan by centuries! Actually, if I come to think of it, I did the same for you. Of course, the side effect was supposed to be the inability to have children, but that never happened, so here we are.”

  “You haven’t answered my question,” pressed Avelyn. “How did you find out about my baby?”

  Sabine gave her another smile, and the sight of those thin lips stretching upwards and revealing the sharp tips of her fangs sent a cold feeling of helplessness straight to Avelyn’s heart. “Oh, that wasn’t hard. You see, I did try to move on and forget everything about you and Max, but I couldn’t. I simply couldn’t. There were days when I felt so enthusiastic about being with my new friends, going places, and running as far away from the world, that I felt exhausted only by thinking at how wonderful it would be. Then, I’d fall into a deep sleep, and there you were, in my dreams, filling my mind with your lies about how you hated Max and the Schloss, how you wanted to escape and never hear of him again.”

  “They weren’t lies…” Avelyn’s words were barely a whisper.

  “But they were. I knew you loved him. Even as you made plans to run away and talked behind his back, I could hear it in your voice: you loved him. And that wasn’t what bothered me, you know? Of course you loved him, who wouldn’t? Maybe I still loved him myself. What bothered me was the thought that you were human, and if you ever decided to go back to him, you could so easily give him the only thing I had struggled for years to give him and couldn’t: an heir. That was the thing I couldn’t live with.”

  “So you took it away from me.”

  “What else could I do?” Sabine stretched her arms in front of her, palms up, emphasizing how her decision hadn’t been exactly a choice. She had always been a victim of her own fiddly emotions and mood swings. “You were everything I had once been, and Max loved you for that. He would have chased you to the end of the world and brought you back to the Schloss. Whether you went by choice or by force, there was a fair chance you would have ended up his wife anyway, and sooner or later you would have given him a child. I couldn’t have that. No, never!” Her features twisted in rage, and her palms closed back into fists. “Spies.” She finally answered Avelyn’s question. “I sent two of my pack mates to spy on you. I couldn’t leave you alone, and at first I was slightly ashamed of my weakness, but then I understood it was the right thing to do. After the Thunder Moon, they had all become my friends and subordinates. They adore me, you see? They would do anything for me. They informed me about the mating ritual and about… this new scent they caught on your skin. About how you could move faster the next day, and about how they could catch glimpses of your thoughts when they were close enough. It was strange because you hadn’t turned, but what was even stranger was the sound of the tiniest heartbeat low in your belly.”

  Avelyn closed her eyes. For a moment, she felt like she was about to faint, and she was grateful to feel Caleb step closer to her and place his other hand on her shoulder. She knew he was getting ready to pull her back or push her aside if things got out of hand. For now, both Caleb and Daniel were hoping Avelyn could really talk Sabine out of whatever she had in mind. The chances were thin, but it didn�
��t hurt to try. Delyse and Claudia were still behind them and the two Alma Venus guards, paying attention to every move in the forest, following the green, glowing eyes appearing and disappearing behind Sabine, and trying to remember to breathe from time to time.

  When she opened her eyes, Avelyn caught the same glimpse of what had made her shudder in apprehension some minutes before. The dark forest was littered with round, green eyes, but if she looked closely, she could also see specks of purple dancing here and there, appearing and disappearing behind the old trees.

  “Caleb, did you see that?” She turned her head slightly, trying to whisper closer to his ear.

  The werewolf tensed and pressed his fingers into her shoulders. “Yes,” he hissed between clenched teeth. He had hoped it had only been his imagination. “I think I can smell it too.”

  Avelyn stretched her neck and sniffed the air as discreetly as possible. Yes, there was something there, something that smelled different than the werewolves’ specific scent, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it. It didn’t smell human, that much was certain.

  “What can it be?”

  “Purple eyes, sweet, heady scent…”

  “Werefoxes?” As she said it, Avelyn understood the implications, and the word died on her lips, the last syllables barely audible. Caleb didn’t answer, and she took his silence as a bad sign. A very bad sign. She had to do something to stop this madness.

  “Sabine, please… What do you want? Just name it, and let’s end this here. No one needs to get hurt.”

  “I agree. With the no-one-needs-to-get-hurt part.” The she-wolf grinned. “I want you dead. I didn’t want you dead then, but I do now. I will never find peace knowing that you’re alive and well, sitting comfortably in my husband’s arms, giving birth to another pup, and another pup, and another pup every damn year.”

  Avelyn felt the urge to tell her she had no intention of turning into a breeding machine, but that would’ve been silly and useless. It did fit the situation, though, given that what Sabine had just suggested was also beyond stupid. She was growing tired of this nonsense.