by J. L. Wilder
But he couldn’t stay.
What kind of father would he be, filled with rage as he was? How could he raise his children properly? They would be better off without him.
It was good, really, that Marco had pressed him the way he had. It was good that he had been tested. Because he had learned that he couldn’t control himself. And if he couldn’t control himself, he had to keep himself away from the others.
He had always been the wildest of the alphas. He was the one who had never really belonged in a pack. He had bonded with Sophie, but the rest of the pack had formed around him. He hadn’t joined it willingly.
Maybe that was the problem.
Maybe if it had been just the two of us, this would never have happened.
He made his way into the clearing where the family had camped during the mating ceremony. It was shocking how different the space felt now that it was empty.
But wait a moment—it wasn’t empty.
There was a woman across the clearing, standing with her back against the trunk of a tree.
Her hair hung free, blowing loose around her shoulders in the breeze, and she smiled and crossed the field toward him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” Ryker said hesitantly.
The woman reached out boldly and rested a hand on his arm.
“I’m Rachel,” she said.
Chapter Nine
SOPHIE
Her hands were tied behind her back, her ankles to the legs of the chair she had been shoved into. Brett stood a few feet away, his gun still pointed at her heart.
“If she shifts, you can shoot her,” Josh said. “Don’t kill her, though. I want her alive.”
That idea made Sophie feel sick. There was absolutely nothing good that Josh could possibly want her alive for.
Josh must have seen her horror on her face because he laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he told her. “I might have wanted you once, Sophie, but not anymore. I have no desire for a used omega. I know what you did up there in the Arctic. Brett told me everything he saw. And that bear who came by here told us all about your little pack.”
Bear.
Her blood ran cold. Why hadn’t they thought of this?
The bears they had kicked out of the north knew about their pack. They knew everything. They knew that Sophie had united three alphas around her, and they knew she had been pregnant. They knew the betas had joined the pack. They could have come south and told the southerners all the secrets of Sophie’s family.
And I’m the one who chose to let them live.
Her alphas would have killed the bears. Would have silenced them.
Sophie had told them to let them go.
If they had been killed, her family would be safe right now. She would be safe right now.
But if I hadn’t been stupid enough to approach a strange man in the woods, I would be at home.
This had all been the product of her bad decision making.
Josh was still talking. “You’re out of your mind if you think anyone would want a slut like you,” he said. “You’re crazy if you think the reason we picked you up was to bring you back into our pack. You’re trash, Sophie. We don’t want you. Nobody does.”
Brett laughed.
“Then why did you bring me here?” Sophie asked. “What do you want?”
“Information,” Josh said. “You’re going to tell us what’s going on up there. Your pack is building some kind of army, and I want to know all about it.”
She blinked. “Army? There’s no army.”
“Bullshit,” Brett said.
“Shut up, Brett,” Josh said. “I’m asking the questions here. You’re holding the gun.”
“You shut up, Josh,” Brett countered. “You’re not my alpha, you know. Just because we’re doing this on your pack’s property, that doesn’t mean you’re in charge. The reason you rallied three different packs together to deal with this problem was that you knew you couldn’t face it on your own. So stop acting like you don’t need to keep us happy.”
Josh turned away from Sophie and stalked over to Brett. He grabbed the gun and ripped it out of Brett’s grasp. Brett stood there slack jawed, looking like an idiot.
“If you can’t keep your mouth fucking shut in front of the prisoner,” Josh growled, “then go back up to the house. I don’t need you. Not here. Not now. Go on.”
“You’re not in charge,” Brett said, but his voice trembled slightly.
Josh held up the gun. “I am now.”
Brett gave Josh a venomous look, but he turned and stormed out of the barn.
“He doesn’t seem to like you very much,” Sophie said. Now that she felt confident that Josh wasn’t going to assault her sexually, she had recovered some of her confidence. “How are you working together with two other packs? That doesn’t seem like a very good idea.”
“You do it,” Josh said. “That bear bitch told me. She said you had united three different alphas.” He shook his head. “Personally, I didn’t believe it at first. How could anyone want you so badly that they’d be willing to share? I thought she must have gotten her story mixed up. That’s why I sent spies up north to see what was going on.” He smiled. “They watched your whole mating ceremony. They were reporting back to me the whole time.”
Sophie felt like throwing up. Those moments with her alphas—possibly the last time she would ever spend with them—were ruined in her mind now. They had been spied on by Josh and his gang.
“Once we realized that the bear had told the truth, we knew we had to separate you from the pack,” Josh said. “It’s obvious what holds those alphas together, even if I can’t understand it.” He leered. “Without an omega to unify them, your pack will fall apart.”
Is that true? Would her alphas fracture without her?
She thought about the early days of the pack. None of them had welcomed each other. They had tolerated one another for her sake, and they had learned to love each other after a time. But they would never have bonded in the first place if not for Sophie.
What would happen to them now that she was gone?
She was determined not to allow Josh to see that she was worried about it. “So that’s what you’re hoping for?” she asked. “You think that taking me away from the pack will make it fall apart, and that you won’t have to worry about them anymore?”
“I know that’s what’s going to happen,” Josh said. “No group of alphas can possibly hope to stay together. They’ll end up killing each other if they don’t go their separate ways.”
Sophie forced herself to laugh, doing her best to ignore the cold icepick of fear that stabbed into her heart at the thought. “They’d never do that,” she said. “Just because you don’t know anything about love or loyalty, that doesn’t mean they don’t. We’re a family, Josh. That’s something you’ve never had, and something you could never hope to have.”
His lip curled. “You don’t think so?”
“Everyone who belongs to your pack is here out of fear or obedience,” Sophie said. “Nobody stays because they love you. Nobody stays because they give a damn about you. And you know it. That’s what scares you about my family. It bothers you because you don’t understand it. You don’t see what could possibly hold a group of people together if no one is making them stay.”
“You’re so naive,” Josh spat.
“I’m naive?” Sophie said. “You’re the one who thinks that taking me away from my family will make them fall apart. The truth is that it’s going to bring them together. They’re not going to give up on me. They’ll do what it takes to bring me home. You’ve brought a lot of trouble upon yourself by doing what you did.”
Josh laughed. “They’re not coming after you,” he said. “Don’t kid yourself. They think you ran away.”
“They know I’d never do that.”
“Really?” Josh asked. “Are you sure? Not even if they thought you had failed to get pregnant? Not even if they thought you were too humiliated b
y your failure to face them?”
Sophie forgot how to breathe for a moment.
“That’s right,” Josh said. “I know about that. I know you’ve been living in fear of letting them down. I know you’ve been avoiding your family because you couldn’t face the fact that you might have to confess this to them.”
“You don’t know anything,” Sophie whispered.
“Don’t I?” He grinned. “Maybe not. But you’re worried now. I see it on your face. You don’t want to believe me, but you know there’s a chance that I’m right. You know that they might be sitting up there in that dank little cave of theirs, talking about how you could possibly abandon them. How you could abandon your children.”
“They know I wouldn’t run out on my babies.” But did they know? Did they really? It seemed obvious to Sophie—but they had all been parents for only a very short time. Maybe they couldn’t trust what she would do yet.
“I suppose you want to see your babies again,” Josh mused.
“What do you want?” She would give him anything. Just the thought of her infant children, up north without her, was enough to drive her nearly out of her mind.
“The thing is that there’s not that much you have that I want,” Josh said. “We already know where your pack is. We found you on our own, without any help at all. We could go up to your cave and attack right now.”
“No,” Sophie said. She was confident in this much. “You can’t.”
Josh sneered. “You don’t think so?”
“If you could do that, you would be doing it already.”
“How do you know we’re not?” he asked.
“Because you wouldn’t be here with me,” she said. “You’re too proud, and if there’s a war going on, guard duty is secondary to fighting. You’d never stay behind during a battle. You’d have someone else guarding me.”
To her surprise, Josh grinned. “You see,” he said, “I knew you were clever. The others thought you might not know what was going on with those alphas up north. They thought you might be just a breeder, not included in their plans. But I told them you were smarter than anyone realized.”
“You have no idea how smart I am,” Sophie said. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“If you’re smart enough to know how I would handle going to war,” Josh said, “then you’re smart enough to be able to tell me how your alphas would handle it.”
“They wouldn’t go to war,” she said. “They have no interest in fighting.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
“And so the bears just fled the north unprompted, did they?”
Sophie flushed angrily, unable to believe that Josh was getting under her skin so successfully. “That was different.”
“Why was that different?”
“The bears were in our territory. They were threatening us.”
“Of course,” Josh said. “But then, these alphas had no territory at all until they decided to begin forming their army, did they? It was only after the army came together that the bears were a threat.”
“Josh, you’re insane,” Sophie said. “You know bears are the natural enemy of wolves. That has nothing to do with whether or not we’re living together in a group.”
“Coming together made your alphas powerful enough to take on a group of bears,” Josh said. “They’d have to be idiots to throw away that power. And we’d have to be idiots not to believe that they’re a risk.”
“So you kidnapped me hoping that they would fall apart and not be a threat to you,” Sophie said.
“But you seem pretty sure that isn’t going to happen,” Josh said.
“They would never have bothered you,” Sophie told him. “They don’t care about you, Josh. They didn’t want anything to do with you or with the other southern packs. We just wanted to be left alone to live our lives.”
“I’m not stupid, Sophie,” Josh snarled. “I’m an alpha myself, you know. I know how alphas think. Once they have power, they’re going to try to claim more territory. Maybe the Arctic Circle is enough for your boys for now, but that won’t last. They’re going to want more. And when that time comes, they’re going to make their way south.”
Sophie didn’t answer. It was clear that he wasn’t going to believe a word she said. He had made up his mind about her alphas.
But they aren’t like that. They would never try to invade another pack’s lands. They could live peacefully with anyone who didn’t pose a threat to them.
If this is going to be a fight, it will be because Josh started it.
“I want to know everything,” Josh said. “If all I wanted was to have you out of the way, to divide them, I could have had you killed. God knows that would have been easier. But you have information, and I need it.”
“What information?”
“Don’t play dumb,” he said. “You know their plans. They must have talked in front of you about the possibility of coming south. I want to know what they said.”
She shook her head. “There were no plans,” she said. “There were never any conversations like that. We were happy where we were. We would never have come into your territory, Josh.”
“You’re lying,” he said.
“I’m not,” she said. “If there’s a war, it’ll be your fault.”
Josh shook his head. “I know you don’t actually think I’m stupid enough to believe that,” he said. “You need to decide how far you’re really willing to go to protect your pack.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t allow three alphas to band together up there,” Josh said. “It’s too big a threat. But I can leave you with one. There’s no reason for the southern packs to live in fear of a single alpha.” He grinned. “And I certainly don’t see any need to hurt your children, as long as you cooperate with me.”
“If you go anywhere near my children, my alphas will tear you apart,” she said, fighting down the wave of fear and nausea that rolled over her at the idea.
“Maybe,” Josh said. “But I bet they thought they’d tear me apart if I went anywhere near you, too. I bet they told you they would always keep you safe. Maybe they’re not as flawless as you thought they were.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything about them,” she said.
“If you give me a name, I’ll spare him,” Josh said. “Give me the name of your favorite alpha—and tell me about their fighting styles. That’s all I need from you today.”
She pressed her lips together and swallowed hard, trying not to cry.
“Do you need some time to think about it?” Josh asked.
She stared at a spot over his shoulder, off in the distance. He wouldn’t have the satisfaction of provoking a response from her.
“Fine,” Josh said. “You can have a few hours. I’ll come back after dinner and ask you again. But that’ll be your last chance, Sophie. You can choose to save one of your alphas by cooperating with me and answering my questions, or you can lose them all if you decide to be stubborn. The choice is entirely up to you.
He turned and strode out of the barn, slamming the door behind him.
Sophie slumped in her chair, exhausted and terrified. Her stomach was still turning over and over, the nausea refusing to fade even as her raw fear began to subside. And as her heart rate returned to normal, she recognized the feeling for what it was.
I am pregnant.
It was that knowledge that finally, after everything, brought the tears to her eyes. She hung her head and sobbed, knowing that the rest of her family was hundreds of miles away from her and that it would take an incredible amount of luck for all of them to make it through this alive.
Chapter Ten
MARCO
Marco hadn’t left the cave in days.
He knew he was creating a problem for his pack with his behavior. He knew that he needed to be strong, to get up and help.
Especially now that I’m the only alpha left.
Ryker had disappeared af
ter their fight that day in the woods. No one had seen him since, though Marco knew the betas had gone looking for him. As for Burton, he had vanished when Sophie had. No one had any idea where he had gone.
The pack had never been more fractured. If they were going to stay together at all, if they were even going to survive as a family, Marco was going to have to grab the reins and get them back on course.
But it felt impossible. Everything felt impossible lately.
It was all he could do to get up in the morning, to drag himself over to the fire and eat the breakfast that one of the betas always pressed on him. He did it mechanically, not actually enjoying his food. He needed to keep his strength up. He knew that. But all he really wanted was to go back to bed, to fall asleep and forget what had happened to his pack.
How could Sophie have left us?
“You need to get out of here today,” Robby said quietly, leaning over to speak to him so that no one else could hear.
“And do what?” Marco asked dully.
“Doesn’t matter,” Robby said. “But you need to get out of the cave. You’re scaring the girls.”
“Nothing scares Chrissy,” Marco argued.
“Don’t be stupid,” Robby said. “We’re all scared right now, Marco. We lost two of our alphas. We lost our omega. We’re just a pack of betas with a bunch of babies to look after—and you.”
“You know, I get why Ryker left us,” Marco said. “I don’t like it, but I understand it. He’s always had trouble controlling his wilder side. If he thought he posed a threat, he would take himself away from the family for the greater good. But why the hell would Burton leave? Why would he leave his children behind?”
“Why would Sophie leave the children?” Robby countered.
“I don’t know,” Marco said. He pressed his palms to his face. “Maybe we tried too soon to get her pregnant again. Maybe she wasn’t ready for it, emotionally. We pushed her too hard.”
“You can’t start blaming yourself,” Robby said.
“I’m not going to let myself off the hook,” Marco said.
“You have to,” Robby said. “I’m not trying to be nice to you here. You can’t blame yourself because we fucking need you to keep it together. All right? You are the only thing tying this pack together now. You’re the only thing keeping us from falling apart. You owe it to us, and you owe it to your children, to figure out how to be strong.”