Alpha

by Regan Ure

  Scarlett

  Keri tried to pump me for as many details as she could but I tried to keep things vague. I wasn’t used to keeping the whole ‘I’m a werewolf’ secret so I thought it was best to keep my lies simple so I’d remember them.

  “I bet you his kisses are hot,” she said as we’d walked to my first class of the morning.

  I remained quiet but the smile on my face confirmed what she suspected and she shook her head at me.

  Keeping my thoughts to myself was exhausting. I knew with time it would probably get easier but, because it was a new thing, half the time I forgot and I would get a knowing smile from a couple of the students who passed me in the hallway.

  It didn’t help that the thoughts that I kept forgetting to keep to myself were the ones of Cade. It was disconcerting that other people had access to those thoughts of him.

  I didn’t see much of him in the morning because he wasn’t in any of my classes.

  I was glad he didn’t feel the need to crowd me. I didn’t want to become one of those couples that were joined at the hip and couldn’t do anything without the other.

  For me, being with someone was about balance. It was nice to spend time with them and to do things with them, but I also wanted to be able to do things without him.

  When the lunchtime bell went off, I made my way to the cafeteria.

  When I walked into the cafeteria, he wasn’t sitting at the table with his pack. Blake was sitting at his usual table with his pack when he spotted me. He gave me a smile and I smiled back at him.

  Although I belonged to Cade’s pack, I didn’t feel comfortable sitting with them without him and besides, I spotted Keri sitting at our usual table and I refused to leave her sitting on her own so I walked over to her.

  I got a few looks from my pack as I sat down across from Keri, but I ignored them.

  “You’re not going to sit with lover-boy?” said Keri as she glanced to Cade’s usual table.

  “No. I’m going to sit with my friend,” I stated as I opened my soda and took a tentative sip.

  A few minutes later I looked up to see Cade strolling into the cafeteria. He stopped for a moment when our eyes met and he noticed I wasn’t sitting at his table.

  Honestly, I wasn’t sure if he was going to get angry or not, but I was determined to sit with Keri whether he liked it or not. It would just make things easier if he wasn’t upset.

  I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him as he walked toward me. I studied his expression, but it was blank.

  When he got closer, he gave Jake a nod as he passed his usual table and came to stop by mine. Nervousness stirred in the pit of my stomach as I looked up at him.

  He took me totally by surprise when he smiled as he sat down next to me. He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips and then he put his arm around me.

  It took me a few minutes to recover from the slight shock. I introduced Cade and Keri.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said to Keri and flashed her a smile. I appreciated the fact that he was making an effort to be friendly to my only friend in the school.

  “You, too,” Keri said.

  “Can I join, too?”

  I looked up to see Blake standing beside the empty seat next to Keri.

  “Sure,” I said, taken by surprise.

  He sat down next to her.

  It should have been awkward, but somehow it wasn’t. The conversation flowed easily and a comfortable atmosphere settled over us.

  I caught a few looks from Blake’s usual table. They looked as confused as I was, but I wasn’t going to question why Blake had suddenly felt the need to join our table.

  By the end of lunch, I walked out of the cafeteria with Cade holding my hand. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach as he stopped and turned to face me. He kissed me and I felt my knees weaken.

  “I’ll see you later,” he said softly as he turned to leave me standing in front of my next class.

  I was still trying to stand on my slightly weakened knees when I saw him turn and smile at me before he disappeared into the crowd of students.

  Thoughts of him kept occupying my mind as I tried to concentrate on the rest of my classes. By the end of school, I was looking forward to seeing him again. I walked to my locker and put some books away.

  Cade was leaning against his car, talking to Jake and Blake when I walked out of the school. When Cade noticed me, he stepped away from his friends and walked to meet me.

  “Hey,” he said, dropping a quick kiss on my lips. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it still sent a tingle right through me.

  “Hi,” I replied as I handed him my school bag to his outstretched hand. He walked me back to his car.

  Suddenly a smell hit me and I stopped. It was so strong and overwhelming—liked burned wood. It was another werewolf.

  Cade tensed beside me and then I felt him put his arms around me protectively. Blake and Jake looked alert as they all began to scan the forest beside the school.

  Something was wrong.

  “Get her back to my house,” Cade instructed Jake as he released me and threw his car keys at him.

  “Cade?” I questioned. I felt fear grip me as I held onto his arm.

  “You need to go with Jake, now,” he instructed firmly.

  “But—” I tried to argue back.

  “Don’t argue. Go with Jake, I need you to be safe,” he demanded as he opened the passenger door and put me inside his car.

  I didn’t want to leave him. Jake got into the driver’s seat and started up the car.

  “Keep her safe,” Cade instructed to Jake as he closed the passenger door.

  Jake pulled out of the parking lot and I turned to see members from both packs begin to pour out of the school as they followed Cade and Blake into the forest.

  By the time we made it to Cade’s house, I was a nervous wreck. Jake had driven as fast as he could and I’d been too worked up to say anything. As soon as we stopped in front of the house, Jake switched off the car and jogged around to open the door for me.

  He steered me firmly into the house.

  Safe inside Cade’s house, I began to pace back and forth in front of the window in the formal lounge.

  I’d asked Jake what was happening, but all he’d said was that rogues had crossed over into our territory. Cade and the other werewolves were tracking them.

  Jake was quiet and tense as he watched me from the doorway of the lounge.

  I was so worried about Cade and Blake. A few times I’d tried to close my eyes and hear thoughts from Cade or any of the other members of my pack so that I would know what was going on, but I heard nothing.

  “You won’t hear anything,” Jake informed me.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because when they are tracking, they keep their thoughts from us. It allows them to concentrate,” he explained.

  Even though Cade was experienced, I couldn’t help the worry that kept me pacing back and forth. I didn’t know what I would do if anything happened to him.

  Images of two massive wolves tearing into each other made me sit down on the sofa as my legs trembled with fear. I closed my eyes and dropped my head into my hands.

  “He’ll be okay, he knows what he’s doing,” Jake said, trying to soothe me, but I wouldn’t believe he was safe until I saw it with my own eyes.

  Fear grew inside of me. I couldn’t contemplate the thought that something could happen to him while I was sitting safe and sound in his house, oblivious.

  Half an hour later, I heard the sound of a car engine and rushed to the window to peer outside.

  Any hope that I had that it was Cade vanished when I saw Hank and a few other guys, along with Gary, get out of the car.

  I rushed to the front door with Jake following behind me.

  “Have you heard anything?” I asked anxiously as Hank entered first.

  “No,” he answered as he shook his head.

  “How are you doing?” Gary said as he entered the house behind Hank. I ga
ve him a look that revealed the panic that was rising up inside of me. He walked over to me and pulled me into a hug.

  Still being tightly hugged by Gary, I noticed Jake stiffen for a moment and then he dashed through the formal lounge. I pulled myself out of the hug as I saw Jake disappear out the patio doors toward the compound.

  My heart began to hammer inside my chest as fear began to overflow inside of me. I watched Hank hurry to try and catch up with Jake. Something was up.

  I followed them to the compound, where there was flurry of activity. The air was filled with a nervous energy.

  Just as the gates at the bottom of the property came into view, I saw a couple of injured guys lying on the ground. Curtis leaned over one of the injured people. It was only seconds, but time seemed to slow down as I looked down to the faces of the people who had been injured, my feet leading me to them.

  Blake. He grimaced in pain as Curtis put his hand on a wound bleeding on his stomach. Horror filled me when I saw a deep gash through a tear in his shirt. There was so much blood.

  Oh. Dear. God.

  My head began to spin as I came to a stop a couple of feet away from him. I couldn’t pass out; I needed to know where Cade was. I took a deep and struggled breath to stop the dizziness. My mind fought with my body to stay upright and in control.

  In the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop the thoughts that something bad had happened to Cade. He and Blake were inseparable and Blake looked seriously injured. Had Cade been injured as well?

  I don’t know how, but when I opened my eyes again, the sight of blood didn’t make me feel sick.

  Cade.

  I needed to know that he was okay, because if he wasn’t… it wasn’t something I could think about without feeling like someone ripped my heart from my chest.

  I wanted to help Blake. I knew I’d just get in the way, though, so I stood nearby, just a couple of feet away as I watched them load him onto a stretcher and carry him to the medical center.

  Where was Cade?

  Frantically, I scanned the area for Jake. He would know, but I couldn’t find him in the crowd of people that had built up around the gate. I spotted Hank standing guard at the gates with a few others watching into the forest. Were they waiting for Cade?

  Panic gripped me, but I pushed forward in Hank’s direction. Even though I was petrified of the answer, I needed to know where Cade was.

  As I reached Hank, he glanced at me.

  “He’s on his way back,” Hank informed me with a soft expression when he saw the state I was in. I clutched his arm. Relief flooded through me and I felt my knees weaken. The array of emotions that had gripped me from the time this had all started had exhausted me. It felt like I’d been stuck on a roller coaster for the last hour.

  “He’s okay,” Hank reassured me as he studied me for a moment. “They got ambushed.”

  I stood beside Hank, waiting for Cade and holding my breath. Even though I knew he was okay, I wasn’t going to relax until I could see him for myself.

  I heard the sounds coming from the forest before I spotted the massive black wolf that I knew was Cade being followed by a dozen other werewolves, none of them as big as Cade.

  The crowd parted as the wolves ran onto the property. As I turned to see Cade and the rest of the werewolves shift back into human form, I heard the large gates behind me close with the sound of metal against metal. I recognized one of the werewolves as Jake. He’d left the compound to join Cade.

  I rushed over to Cade, who had spotted me and was already walking toward me. He held his arms open as I rushed to hold him.

  “I’m okay, Scar,” he assured me as he hugged me, lifting me off my feet.

  “I was so scared something would happen to you,” I spoke against his shirt, loving the feel of him warm and alive under my hands.

  “I’m fine,” he reassured me as he settled me back down on my feet and pulled away. With his finger to my chin, he lifted my gaze to his. My eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I need you to keep it together for me.”

  I nodded my head and took a deep breath. He pressed a feathered kiss to my forehead.

  “Go back to the house and wait for me. I need to check on Blake and the other wounded werewolves,” he explained gently as he released me. Then I remembered the massive wound across Blake’s stomach and all the blood.

  “Will he be okay?” I asked. If Blake had been human, I was pretty sure he would have died already.

  “Yeah, he’ll be okay,” he assured me. “Remember we heal quickly.”

  “Okay,” I said as I pulled myself together. He gave me one last lingering look before he turned and hurried to the medical center.

  I wanted to go with Cade. I didn’t want to be in the way, though, so I turned and headed back to the house with Hank following behind me. It was then that I remembered that the rogues that had ambushed Cade and Blake were the same rogues that were after me and I felt a shiver of fear run up my spine.

  Seeing the remains of the attack had made the threat all that more real in my eyes and I had to admit I was scared.

  Inside the guest room I’d used before, I sat down on the bed. I felt exhausted. The panic and fear had faded, but I was still struggling to work through what had happened from the time I’d been bundled into the car with Jake.

  It had also been one of the first times I’d seen Cade in his alpha role, in charge and giving orders. He’d earned a newfound respect from me. I’d never actually thought before about the responsibility that he held on his broad shoulders. Being responsible for the safety of an entire pack wasn’t an easy job and he seemed to pull it off effortlessly. He’d been born to lead.

  I wasn’t sure I was capable of the same. Even though the attack had scared me, I was more determined to fight alongside Cade. I didn’t want to be left behind, wondering what was going to happen, I would never forgive myself if something had happened to him today while I’d been safely guarded in his house.

  An hour later, Cade walked into the room.

  My eyes lit up at the sight of him. I’d been sitting on the bed, quietly contemplating my thoughts.

  He hesitated for a moment a couple of feet away from the bed. I stood up and walked over to him. As I reached him, his hand reached for me and he pulled me close.

  “It’s been a long day,” he sighed as he held me in his strong arms.

  “What happened?” I asked, leaning my head against his chest as I held him tight.

  “We walked straight into a trap,” he began to explain as he rested his chin on my head. “Normally, rogues don’t work together, but for some reason these guys did. We didn’t see it coming.”

  “How many rogues were there?” I asked.

  “There were about twenty of them.”

  “I was so worried about you,” I let out. I usually wasn’t one to talk so openly, but I needed him to know that he meant a lot to me and that what happened today had scared me.

  “It’s one of the reasons we train so hard, to make sure we are prepared for anything. You can also feel my heightened emotions like fear through the link so if I’m ever in any real danger you will feel it,” he said. I lifted my eyes to his.

  I’d forgotten about that.

  “I don’t think I can let you go alone if it happens again,” I revealed. I wanted to be honest with him even though he probably didn’t want to hear it.

  “And I don’t think I can let that happen,” he sighed as his lips pressed to mine.

  We both wanted to protect each other, but we both had different ideas of how to accomplish that.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Scarlett

  A couple of hours later, I went with Cade to check on Blake.

  He looked much better, sitting on one of the beds in the medical room. He had sweats on but no shirt and a large bandage covering his stomach. The pale and pained face was gone and he looked a healthy color again. He smiled when he saw us approach.

  “How are you feeling?” Cade asked him as he
stopped beside the bed.

  “Much better,” he answered. “Another day and I’ll be as good as new.”

  It was hard to believe he had healed so dramatically in just a few hours.

  “Next time you want your ass kicked, I’ll do it,” I offered in a teasing tone as I rocked on the balls of my feet with my hands shoved into the front pockets of my jeans.

  He chuckled. Easygoing Blake was so different from Cade. It was sometimes hard to see him as an alpha of his own pack.

  “As if,” he scoffed as he gave me a playful look.

  The reality was he’d probably kick my butt. I needed to start training with Hank. The sooner I started, the sooner I’d be able to protect myself. I wasn’t going to be seen as a weak girl who couldn’t protect herself.

  I wanted to be Cade’s equal. I wondered what type of training they did and how hectic it was; it was probably a lot more intense than anything I’d covered with Gary.

  A sound behind me made me turn to see a young woman in a nurse’s outfit. The outfit looked a little tight, I observed, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was dressed like that to help with the scenery in the sterile environment.

  “Probably,” Cade confirmed with a grin when I pulled my gaze back to Blake.

  Ah, crap!

  I was still getting the hang of keeping my thoughts to myself. There were times when I wasn’t concentrating and some of my thoughts would be open for others to hear.

  I playfully glared at Cade like it was his fault for invading my thoughts.

  “Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t keep your thoughts to yourself,” he defended as he raised his hands to ward off my glare.

  “Still endless entertainment,” commented Blake as he watched the two of us at it. I turned my glare to him as I put my hand on my hip.

  He looked from me to Cade before he shook his head and grinned. Half an hour later, we left Blake so he could rest.

  Cade and I were both unusually quiet as we walked back to the main house hand-in-hand. I think we were both too busy, still processing the events from the day to try and make small-talk.

  By the time we made it back to the house, dinner was ready. When we entered the dining room, Gary, Jake, Hank and a few others were already seated at the table.