by G. Bailey
No Claim
The Alpha Brothers:Book Two
G. Bailey
Contents
Description
Join Bailey’s Pack
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Spin off series, Vampire Captive.
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Author Note
Stay in Touch
About the Author
Excerpt from Runes of Truth-
No Claim Copyright © 2019 by G. Bailey
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands, and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
For more information about the author and her work, visit-
www.gbaileyauthor.com
Cover design by FrostAlexis Arts.
Edited by Helayna Trask.
Created with Vellum
Description
Strength no longer hides in the weak, instead it is shown by the new alpha. Elodie Masters.
Will Elodie be able to make the Alpha brothers kneel and submit?
Or will they go to war?
Elodie Master struggles to learn about her new role, as well as the secrets of her past as she decides how to rule her new pack.
No one wants war, but Elodie cannot forgive the alpha’s who stole her heart. With war, brings loss and destruction that no one wants. The Alpha brothers aren’t the only wolves Elodie should be running from…
A secret is coming, one that only brings death.
18+ with dark themes.
Join Bailey’s Pack on Facebook to stay in touch with the author, find out what is coming out next and any news!
www.gbaileyauthor.com
Prologue
My heart pounds in my chest as I ride up to the large gates that are the only way into the pack that I know of. I pull my horse’s reins, slowing him down as we get a good distance away, and River stops at my side with his horse. Alpha, Letric and Alaric are on the other side of this door, and I have to see them again after they broke my heart. I don’t know how I’m going to feel when I see them, but I have put it off for far too long. River looks down at me, and I know if I changed my mind, rode back to the castle and hid there forever, he would be at my side. Though a deep part of me itches to see the Alpha Brothers again, to hear each of their voices, even if I know it is going to hurt. I nod once at River, my mouth too dry to force actual words to leave my lips.
“Open the gates!” River shouts, his voice echoing as the wind carries it. A few silent moments pass before the gates swing open, and I squeeze my legs around the horse, urging it on. We ride through the gates, and I stop the horse the moment I see Alpha standing completely alone in the middle of the path. His long black hair whips around in the wind, caressing his bare chest and the top of his low trousers. His dark eyes fix on me, just as I stare right back, and my wolf growls low.
“Lodie?” a small voice questions, and I suddenly notice Annie at Alpha’s side, holding his hand. He wasn’t lying, dammit.
“Hello, Annie,” I manage to say, glancing back at Alpha who moves to stand behind Annie, placing his hands on her shoulders, and she looks scared. With how Alpha is silently moving, the dark, evil look in his eyes, I would be too in her position. She is just a child, but to Alpha? She is a tool to get me to do what he wants, and he knows it.
“Come with me, Elodie. Now,” Alpha demands. I miss his voice the moment he stops speaking, and I know it will haunt my dreams for a long time more. They each have this effect on me, but Alpha is the worst. His damaged, broken soul calls to me because we both are the same in a messed up way. We both want to destroy each other and rebuild the broken pieces afterwards. This time, I can’t do that with him, and he knows it. My heart is already broken, and what pieces I can fix will go to loving my baby. That’s the hard part of this all, that even if the Alpha Brothers aren’t in my life, I will have a part of them with me. Always.
“No,” I reply. I need to see how he reacts, how he cares. I look around for Letric, Alaric and even Misty, but there is no one else here.
“Don’t you want Annie safe?” he asks.
“You won’t hurt her,” I reply. I know it deep in my soul that he won’t, and I also know this is not how I want us to have our first real talk. It has to be on my terms. I’m too angry, in too much pain to just walk to him and let him control the world again.
“Are you really brave enough to call my bluff?” he asks. “Sweet Elodie, you know I’ve killed worse than this child to get what I wanted.” I don’t reply or even react to his taunt, because that is all it is. A taunt, a threat, but it’s not real. I know the real darkness in Alpha, and the look in his eyes isn’t that right now. See, they all made a mistake keeping me so close, making me fall in love with every part of each of them, because I learnt too much. I know them, and that makes me more dangerous than Alpha could ever know. This isn’t a game he is going to win. The stakes have changed, and I am no longer a pawn. I’m a queen.
Chapter 1
Alaric
"Alaric, what are you doing out here alone?" Mary asks, and I hear her small footsteps in the sand as she comes over to me. "The pack is gathering, and your brothers need you." I glance at Mary, seeing her brown hair and kind eyes that remind me even more of the reason I am not at the pack gathering. There are only thirty people on the island anyway, they do not need me there. Letric and Alpha can deal with them alone.
"I don't want to play alpha. I want to go back and see if my mother is still alive," I say, looking out at the rolling waves of the sea and to the bridge in the corner of my eye. The sea is dark and moody today, fitting my emotions well as I watch it. Alpha never talks about our mother, only the crimes of our father and why we need to stay away from him. Alpha only has his stories and I have fleeting memories of a man that liked to hurt us. Letric doesn't remember either of them at all.
"She isn't and a deep part of you knows that," Mary says, her tone firm and true as she comes and sits next to me in the sand. "Alpha and Letric are the only family you wish to find."
"They only care about fixing old buildings and letting in outcasts," I mutter. "And helping look after you. I don't want that."
"To build a new pack, it takes time and hard work, Alaric," she replies, watching the waves. "You have no clue of the cruelty out there and what your brother is protecting you from."
"I miss my mother, even if I just barely remember her now," I say, knowing she is right and looking down at the sea as the harsh waves brush against the sand. "It is the eleventh day I was born today. Alpha and Letric have forgotten."
"Did you not te
ll them?" Mary asks. "You certainly did not tell me as I would have found a way to celebrate with you."
"No, he didn't tell us at all," Letric shouts, running down the beach and stopping right next to me, kicking sand all over me as he stops. I push the sand off me as Alpha walks down the beach, and Mary gets up. She pats him gently on the arm before walking off down the beach as Alpha comes to sit next to me.
"Why didn't you tell us it is your birthday? We could have celebrated," Letric says, flashing me a toothy grin.
"I don't want to celebrate the day I was born without my parents," I admit. Alpha growls, and I turn to face him, seeing his anger and annoyance as he stares down at me.
"I have a way you can see your mother, and even our father, if you wish," Alpha finally says. "I am not good at talking, describing the past to you."
"How then?" I ask, desperate to know about my mother.
"My memories. If we cut our hands, share our blood, and make a bond, I can show you them, but it comes with a cost. We will be able to hear each other's thoughts, talk in each other's minds, and you won't be able to just run away from us then," Alpha explains to me. "I will do this for you. My family."
"Can you show me, my mother?" Letric asks. "I don't want to see my father, but my mother... I don't even know what she looks like."
"I will show you everything I remember," Alpha promises as he slides a dagger out from his trousers’ clip. Alpha cuts his hand before offering me the dagger next. I swiftly cut a line down my palm, only mildly flinching at the pain. Letric does the same before holding his hand out. I place my hand on Letric's, instantly feeling the bond. Alpha adds his hand a moment later, and suddenly a flash of Alpha's memories flash into my mind. I see a woman with dark hair, beautiful eyes and a large stomach walking down a long corridor, singing a song. She pauses when she sees me—no, sees Alpha—in the vision and comes over to him.
"Are you okay, little one?" the woman asks, her voice is soft, sweet and so familiar. She is my mother, I know it straight away.
"You are not my mother!” Alpha shouts, and I can feel the hot tears falling from his eyes.
"No, I am not, but I want to be your friend. I'm carrying your baby brother, who will be your best friend if you let him. We are going to name him Alaric after my father."
"Alaric?" Alpha whispers as he slides his small hand into my mother’s open one. "I want a brother." The memory fades so quickly, only to be replaced by another. This time we are in a market, surrounded by people as we walk past stall after stall. Alpha gets to one with our father next to him, where a very attractive blonde woman is selling bread. She smiles at us, looking a little nervous as she rubs the back of her neck.
"You are to come back to the castle with me," our father demands. I look up at him as he grins once at her before turning and walking away. I stay a little longer, watching another man hold the woman and cry, begging her not to go. All the memories fade suddenly as I let go of the hands and wipe away the fallen tears. None of us can say anything out loud for a long time, nor do we really know the words to say in the first place.
"Thank you for this gift, Alpha," I manage to say, knowing that the memories of my mother and Letric’s mother can never be forgotten now. He gave us a little bit of our past to help us face our future.
I shake my head as I knock on the Ruxan Alpha's door, wondering why that memory decided to haunt me right at this moment when I need to be focused on Elodie's mother because Elodie is missing. She is gone, and if she is with my father, I should have killed her to save her the pain my father will cause. The idea of any harm coming to her makes me want to throw up. My sweet El doesn't deserve any kind of pain in her life. And I have to save her—if there is anything left of her when my father is done. I hope we can get there by tomorrow if we ride fast enough, and at least he will not have that much time alone with her. The door opens and Cipher answers, and right behind him is Elodie's mother, Melina. How I didn't recognise her before, figured it out before, is beyond me. She is the image of Elodie. They are both beautiful and share their graceful presence.
"What do you want?" he asks, crossing his arms like I am the last person he wishes to see. After what Alpha just did to his daughter, I soon will be.
"My brother wants to see you both at his tower. Now," I state.
"Understood," Cipher replies, looking back at the man in the room who I assume is his beta. "You know my orders if I am not to return."
"If those orders harm any of my pack, I am coming for you first," I warn the man. He doesn't reply to me, choosing to walk away, and I try not to find that irritating. I know I am on edge, taking things more personally than they are, but El is in trouble. I'm no longer in a rational mood. I can feel my brothers’ emotions, their panic and anger are only feeding my own.
"They will not," Cipher says, but I highly doubt him to be telling me the truth. I step aside, suggesting they walk out. Cipher walks past me, and Melina goes to as well, but I catch her arm.
"You look so much like her."
"Then keep her safe," she whispers and pulls her arm away before walking to catch up with her mate. If Melina cared at all for Elodie, why did she say Elodie was dead and hide her?
Chapter 2
Letric
"A few of the women of the pack are arguing about being the alpha female," Alaric states, coming to sit next to me on the table, and reaching over for a roll of bread. I dip my own bread in my soup that Mary made and nearly groan at the taste. This food is damn perfection.
"No mates. Women only cause arguments that we do not need," Alpha growls out his opinion that we already knew.
"So you want us to never take a mate? Just share a woman for one night and throw her away the next day like a used toy?" I bluntly say because they both know I've never agreed with it. We let them live in the pack, find mates and live their lives. If I'm honest with myself, I don't remember their names or much about them now. Each one of them was nothing more than a one night person to share. I've heard rumours of what it is like to meet the woman you would want to spend forever with, but I've yet to ever feel that emotion.
"It is for the best. We cannot be good mates to any woman. If we each took a mate, it means sharing our emotions for each of them in our minds. We share because it makes sense, it stops jealousy and confused emotions," Alaric tries to reason with me, and Alpha agrees in his mind without saying a word as he eats his food.
"I'm not against sharing with you; I'm against never taking one of them as a mate," I reply out loud.
"The women are beautiful, smart, talented but an alpha female? No, none of them could be that, and that is why they are forgettable," Alaric states. "They couldn't rule, not without a lot of bloodshed."
"Maybe we should make a formal agreement to never take a mate. It would save this conversation happening again," Alpha suggests.
"I agree to the same," Alaric says, and they both look towards me.
"I agree as well," I say, having a sneaking feeling that promise is going to come back and bite me one day when that perfect woman comes along and changes everything.
The memory clouds my mind as I stare at Misty's body on the floor, the way the blood pours from her neck, and how her head is bent at an odd angle. She reminds me of Elodie. Our Elodie who slammed into our lives, changed every rule, and made us happier than we have ever been. Now she is gone, and we are just sitting here, covered in blood, and waiting to start another war.
We will save her, Alpha speaks into my mind, clearly picking up on my internal war.
Before he destroys her? I reply.
Whatever he destroys, we will fix. Elodie is ours, and she always will be, Alpha states, and I can only fill my mind with images of Elodie. Her long brown, silky soft hair. Her soft pale skin, her seductive lips and big blue eyes. Every part of her runs through my mind, desperately clinging to memories because she is not here.
"NO!" Cipher screams, running into the tower with Melina right behind him. He picks up his daughter, screaming
still as he holds her. "You killed her! Why would you?"
"She helped someone take what is mine," Alpha states, holding Elodie's necklace in his hand, letting it sway in the wind before he puts it away.
"I do not know what you are talking about, but you will pay for this. Your pack will pay for this!" he hisses. I watch Melina as Cipher continues to threaten us, and I see nothing but relief on her face as she stares down at Misty's body. She is relieved her daughter is dead, but why? This woman confuses me to no end. Alaric rolls his eyes, having enough of this conversation as he walks forward and, in one swift motion, rips Cipher’s head off his shoulders, spraying blood all over the room. Well, all this blood is never coming out of the rug. Melina finally reacts, screaming and falling to her knees. I frown when her screams mix in with the sounds of screams outside. Alaric turns around, looking towards the town as the shouts and pleas get longer and louder. Alpha walks to Melina, lifting her head with his hand.
"What is going on out there?" he demands. "Tell me now, or you will regret it."
"He ordered our pack to kill everyone if the alpha died. Cipher had a blood bond with his beta...and they must know you killed him. They won't stop, not even if I asked," she says. Alpha growls, a very frustrated growl I know all too well.