Alphas Of Alaska Box Set Bundle

by Emma Knox

  “Wait for me,” I instructed, then got up.

  The cabin was on shifter grounds, so I had a few expectations on what I could find, and I got up to look around. I found a few cabinets and rummaged around for some medical supplies. It didn’t take long before I found some, and I hurried over to Evan. Sitting back down next to him, I set the supplies on my other side, and ripped his sleeve clean off his arm.

  “This will hurt a little bit,” I warned.

  Evan nodded his head quickly, looking nervous, his jaw tensed like he was gritting his teeth hard.

  I reached for the supplies and looked through. There was a bottle of fluid and some gauze that I used to clean around the wound. Knowing he would be in pain, I was as gentle with him as I could be, dabbing around the wound to wipe away the blood so I could see the extent of the injury. I hesitated a bit, before letting some of the liquid wash over the wound as well, wiping away the excess fluid. Evan flinched, and I glanced at his face. He looked a little paler than before, but he didn’t make a sound, even as his body started to tremble a little.

  “Almost done,” I said quickly.

  The gash was long and deep. If he were a human, a doctor would have put in some stitches, but his healing would happen fast enough, so stitches would only be in the way. After thoroughly cleaning the wound, I wrapped it carefully. He’d flinch every now and then, and every time he did, I would make my motions even gentler.

  “There,” I said with satisfaction, patting his shoulder lightly. “Try not to move this arm, or put too much pressure on it for a while. Remember to sleep on your left side only when lying down, okay? Not even on your back.

  He nodded and cleared his throat, but when he spoke, his voice still came out thick. “Okay.”

  I picked up the dirty cotton swabs and gauze, wrapped them in some tissues I found in the supplies, and tossed it to a corner of the room. I turned back to Evan, and when I looked closely, I noticed his body was still trembling.

  “Are you cold?” I asked, ready to take off my coat for him.

  He shook his head. “I’m fine.”

  I already had my jacket off, though, and I draped it over his shoulders. After a slight hesitation, he brought the jacket closer around him with the uninjured arm, huddling into it.

  “Can you tell me who you came to the gala with?” I asked, partly to distract him, but mostly because I was curious about him.

  “I came with my parents, and some members of the pack. It was a pretty long trip actually. I had to beg my parents for weeks so they would allow me to come. I’ve wanted to since I was a teenager. But usually they take either one of my brothers or my cousin.”

  I would have been worried, because this kid wasn’t cautious at all. I asked a simple question and he gave a lot of information without any hesitation. It was only when he realized he was rambling that he stopped himself, ducking his head like he wanted to bury it in his chest. I was tempted to run my fingers through his soft-looking hair, and after deciding there wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with it, I did it anyway.

  “Who are your parents?” I asked, keeping the conversation going.

  He sneaked a peek at me out the corner of his eye. “One of my dad’s is a male Omega, and the other is the Alpha of my pack. He’s been coming to the gala for years, so you might have heard of him before. Whit Barrington.”

  “What?” I muttered, surprised.

  Of all Alphas, it had to be Whit Barrington?

  Of course I knew who Evan was talking about. Even if I hadn't personally met him, he was very widely known.

  While wolf-shifters were different from human and most packs lived separately from them, not mingling with them wasn’t exactly possible, so a lot of shifters knew to assimilate with them. After all, we were technically part human ourselves, and we were supposed to keep this in mind at all times. In a lot of ways, Whit adhered to this silent rule, but in a lot of ways he also did not. He could act human all he wanted, but there were plenty that argued there was nothing humane about him. For him, being human was truly an act, and for a long time I’d heard all about how ruthless he was to his own pack.

  “Is there something wrong?” Evan asked, shooting me a frown.

  “No,” I said quickly. “It’s just… I never heard that Whit Barrington had an Omega son.”

  I had met and spoken with Whit and his sons and other relatives before. They were all pretty impressive in their own ways, so news about his family flew around as well. But I’d never caught wind of him having a son who was an Omega. Only a nephew, a particular Omega that always received praise when he showed up at large social gathering for shifters, and exactly the kind of Omega I didn’t like. Pretty and soft-spoken, but also arrogant. I didn’t interact with them much.

  Evan showed a bitter look that made my heart twist in my chest, shrugging helplessly before wincing. I looked at his arm, hidden under my coat, but he shook his head.

  “I’m not surprised to hear that, actually. I got the idea that a lot of people were surprised he showed up with two Omegas and I wasn’t my more prominent cousin. Besides, I’m the youngest in the family so it only makes sense that I’ve never attended any sort of function outside of the pack before. It doesn’t really mean anything.”

  Even though he said so, he had this lost look on his face. But he clearly didn’t want to talk more about it, so I wasn’t going to pry.

  Chapter 4

  Evan

  Why would you bring up Whit at a time like this? I thought to myself harshly. Let alone that Max had technically asked and it would have been rude if I hadn't answered him. Mentioning my Alpha always had a way of killing the mood.

  After everything that had happened tonight, I didn’t want anything else to go bad tonight. I was already so terribly shaken, and the pain in my arm had been so great, I would have liked to pass out, but not while it was still dangerous. And here I had a big, famous Alpha looking after me, there to protect me and look after my injuries. I shouldn’t have said too much. Already, I thought the air between us was growing awkward.

  “What should we do next?” I asked so we neither of us would dwell on it.

  I didn’t want him thinking of why my own father and Alpha would hide me away from the world for so long. If he knew Whit, he would know his personality, so no one would assume he did it for his own son’s protection. While I couldn’t say I brought shame to him, nothing I’d ever done had ever made him proud or happy or satisfied like with my brothers.

  Max pursed his lips. “To be honest, I don’t know. I went back to the event hall, but…everything was such a mess there. I didn’t think I’d be of much use, so I came to look for you to see what you wanted to do.”

  What I wanted to do?

  “Would it be possible to locate my family?”

  Max didn’t answer for a long time, and I kept my gaze on his face the whole time. Being this close to him, I could tell he was really good-looking. We were having a discussion, though, so I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind, to be revisited later. It hadn't escaped me that Max hadn't answered my question yet, and the longer he waited, the more worried I became.

  “How bad is everything?” I asked. “There was a lot of fighting, were a lot of people hurt?”

  Could it be that my family and pack mates were…already gone?

  “I’m not sure,” he admitted after a while, sighing. “But things are definitely very bad, to the point that you should definitely worry. I didn’t see your father in the event hall, and I don’t know the face of anyone else in your party.”

  “What about you?” I asked, remembering just how desperate he’d been to return before. “You have your pack mates around too, as well? Did you find them?”

  Max heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m afraid not. I can only hope it’s good news. When I left, there was still some fighting going on outside, but I didn’t go that way and immediately came to look for you.”

  I could feel anxiety starting to grow in my chest, my heart beat
ing faster, my breathing picking up. Nothing could have happened to any of them, right? I would go back, and they would all be fine. There was no alternative I could possibly think of. Nothing could happen to my parents!

  “Hey, calm down,” Max said quickly, rubbing his hand up and down my back soothingly. “I went and couldn’t see my father or anyone I know, but your people might still be okay, so don’t worry too much, okay?”

  “Can we go back right now”? I asked, feeling doubtful even as I said the words.

  “We can't,” he said, flattening his lips. “As much as I would like to, there isn’t much point in being there. And besides, it’s already late and you’re injured. If we meet a band of Betas roaming around looking for a fight, it would be a problem.”

  “What if they come here, though?”

  “It might get annoying, but I think I can defend us from in here in that case.”

  I wanted to protest a little, to insist on going back. But why would I even go back there? There wasn’t anything I could do without getting in the way, and the shifters would probably start cleaning everything up pretty soon. It would be just as good if I went back in the morning. My parents couldn’t possibly leave without me, they would at least look for me first.

  Besides, like hell I wanted to see the dead bodies of all those wolves that didn’t make it out of the fight. By the weary look in Max’s eyes that he was trying to hide from me, it was probably a huge mess up there. I shuddered a little, trying not to remember all those screams, and seeing all those people get torn down like they were nothing.

  “Okay,” I murmured after a while, agreeing. “Why don’t we stay in the cabin for a day, then, just to be safe? I think everything outside would have been cleared by then?”

  Shifters didn’t waste time. A day should be more than enough for the area to be cleared. If more Betas came after us as a group, there was no way we could defend against them, but I was sure if there was still a threat lurking, it was going to be cleared up in a day. It would be bad if they came at us in the cabin, but the walls of the place were really sturdy, so I didn’t think they could easily break it, and there was only one barred window. The only way to really get in was through the doors, they were thinner and could easily be broken. Luckily, only the front door led to the outside, so as long as we put some distance between us and it, everything should be fine. The shifters that built this cabin must have had this thought in mind.

  “It’s not really safe staying out here, either,” Max muttered. “Worse, it’s far from the event hall, and no one knows we’re out here.”

  “Are you worried we might be abandoned?”

  He shook his head. “No. Worried about others worrying about us. There’s just no way to notify my people I’m okay right now. We never carry phones when we’re going to pack functions, so there’s that, too.”

  “It should be fine, right? If it’s only a day that we need to spend here.”

  He looked reluctant, but he slowly nodded as he agreed. He looked a little unhappy, too, and I gave him an inquisitive look. When he noticed, his gaze turned sheepish.

  “Sorry. I know it’s the right thing to do, but I really don’t like feeling like I’m hiding. The Alpha in me just doesn’t agree…”

  I felt guilty. “But you have to, because I’m here and you have to look after us both, right?”

  Even with just my presence I was pulling him down.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured, my voice low and contribute.

  Max gave me a gentle smile and a pat on the back. “Don’t worry about it. You need looking after, especially in your current condition. I shouldn’t have left you on your own in the first place. The danger had already moved on from the event hall, and there were plenty of other shifters and Omegas there. Being around other Omegas could have calmed you down.”

  I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t necessarily true. If I did meet other Omegas and they were all just as panicked as me, then I would only panic even more, even with an Alpha around. Being alone with an Alpha, and especially when it was Max, was the only reason I was being so damn calm as it was. As shameful as it felt, putting so much of a burden on someone that was technically a stranger to me, I knew I felt safer with Max’s presence than anyone else.

  “Don’t worry too much about it,” Max said, probably catching sight of my twisting expression. “What’s done is done, so we can only try and be comfortable here. Let me look around and see if there’s food for us to eat. You’ll need to replenish a lot of energy to start healing that wound. Actually, when you go home, try and eat a bit more for a while, at least until the wound is closed, okay?”

  I nodded my head obediently. This part, I knew for myself. Being a wolf-shifter had a lot to do with the energy you had in your body, which was dependent on how much food you ate. Obviously, you’d burn more energy while injured as your body tried to heal the wound. My parents had made it clear to me as part of shifter education a long time ago.

  “Let me see if I can get something. Will you be okay if I leave you here?”

  I looked around at the empty cabin and brought Max’s coat even closer. It really wasn’t that large a cabin, and as long as I could hear him move, even if I couldn’t hear him…

  “It’s fine,” I bit out. “Just don’t take too long?”

  “I promise.”

  Max got up, and immediately, my whole body tensed and I radiated stress. When he looked down at me, though, I forced a smile so he would go. There was no reason to be such a worry wart. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere so far, just to one of the next rooms. Still, as I watched him walk away, my body began to tremble, my instincts trying to fight against my rationality. I wanted to get up and follow him, but with everything and getting injured on top of it all, I was feeling really exhausted.

  There was some sound as Max rummaged around for something, and the sound calmed me down a little bit. I still strained my neck, trying to stretch it out so I could see him, even though my vantage point was really poor.

  Just calm down, I told myself, trying to take deep, calming breaths. Of all people, you’re here with Max! You’ll probably never get a chance like this again! Make a good impression!”

  Having an Alpha like Max looking after me was wonderful. It melted and froze my insides all at the same time. I’d never met him, but how could I not have heard rumors of him floating around? His dad was on the Alaskan shifter council, but he was just as impressive in a lot of shifter’s eyes.

  I had always dreamed of being with someone like Max, a big, strong Alpha, who could still be gentle when dealing with others. My own Alpha had never been like that with me since the day I was born, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bitter, even though he was also my father. Even my brothers treated me pretty much the same as he did. If I didn’t have my Omega father, living with all of them would have been hell for me.

  Max, though…it would be nice to dream in the short time we had together. I’d heard of him, and now I’d met him and learned what others said could not have been exaggerated. But as the ignored son of Whit Barrington, I didn’t have any expectations of having such a good match. Yet here I was, my body technically in his hands.

  I didn’t know what plans my Alpha had for me, but he would probably find an Alpha from a smaller pack close to us and hand me over. I knew better than to fight against the plans, and could only feel a little regretful.

  As Max reentered the room, I looked up at him with a relieved smile.

  “Did you find anything?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Nope, not even anything canned. This place probably hasn’t been used for a few months and whoever used it must not have wanted to waste the food. I found plenty of beer in a cold cabinet, though. It’s even a little cool.”

  He raised both his hands, and I only then realized he was carrying a couple of six packs in his hands. I fidgeted a little, wondering when the last time I drank alcohol was. I wasn’t allowed when I was at home, and it wasn’t a simple
thing to just go out to drink and get home later, either. Not with how acute a shifter’s sense of smell was, especially an Alpha. I wasn’t exactly a good drinker.

  “Do you drink?” Max asked, sitting back beside me and setting the cans on the floor in front of us.

  Besides the couch we were sitting on, there was no other furniture in the front room, what probably passed as a living room.

  “I’ve had some before,” I answered evasively.

  He opened up one of the six packs, took out two cans and handed one to me.

  “It’s should be fine right now, I think. We can pass some time like this, and maybe it’ll help you sleep better. How does your arm feel?”

  I didn’t dare to move it. “It still feels really terrible, actually.”

  Max nodded. “Then alcohol will numb it down for you. It’s not really a good idea, but as long as you eat a lot tomorrow, everything should be good.”

  I took the can he was holding out to me and lifted the tab. It should be fine, right? No matter how much I had, drinking to the point I humiliated myself in an inebriated state wasn’t really something possible. I brought it to my mouth, tilted my head back, and drank. My nose wrinkled slightly in disgust, and I forced myself to swallow the bitter tasting liquid.

  “You don’t drink much, do you,” Max said, casually taking a drink of his own beer, and practically drinking half of it down in one go.

  “You look like you drink a lot,” I muttered, a little petulant.

  Max chuckled, but didn’t say anything. We were left in harmonious silence for a while, and I could hear the sounds from outside more clearly. Aside from the rustling of the trees, and the sound of some small creatures crawling around in the underbrush, there wasn’t anyone else out there. The sound pretty much made it clear to me just how far away we were from other people. Just the two of us.