The Virgin Goddess and the Alpha

by Rita Stradling

  “Jackson Hunter, that’s my name,” he said. His brows rose. “Could I get your name?” A smile broke across his lips as if he was unaware of the arrow I had inches from his chin. He obviously didn’t know the danger he was in because the hands he held up in surrender moved slowly back and went behind his head. The movement brought his chin even closer to my arrow, so close his light dusting of dark bristles brushed against its jagged, sharp arrow tip.

  I needed to move. As much as I hated to give up my position and leave myself open to attack, the feel of his skin slipping against my inner thighs every time he inhaled felt much too intimate. “I can shoot at any moment, stay very still.”

  “Not going anywhere,” he said. Indeed, he looked perfectly comfortable and relaxed, as if he was about to take a nap in my meadow . . . naked.

  Digging my toes into the soil at the man’s—Jackson Hunter’s—sides, I slowly peeled away from him and rose to my feet, careful to keep my aim.

  His brows rose. “You sure you don’t want to talk this out while you straddle me?”

  “I’m sure I don’t want to straddle a man while I kill him.”

  “Yeah, but are you sure you want to kill me? You were just saving my life a minute ago.” He grimaced. “Seems a little wishy-washy.”

  No meaning for wishy or washy came into my mind, which meant it was either a colloquialism or the man was making up nonsense words. At the same time, I was curious and didn’t want to admit I had no idea of his meaning, so I asked, “How so? How am I wishy-washy?”

  “First you shoot me, then you save me, and now you’re planning to shoot me again. It just seems a little—”

  “Wishy-washy,” I supplied, hoping I used the term in the correct context.

  “Yeah.”

  “When you were a wolf, I shot you because I had no other choice. I saved you as a wolf—I did not wish there to be one less wolf in the world. As for men—the world could probably do with a couple less.”

  He smirked before the smirk turned into a full-blown smile. It was devastating. I was starting to rethink the possibility that he might be a demigod. However, I still doubted it. If he were related to my kin, he would know who I was. And, if he knew who was aiming an arrow at his chest, he wouldn’t be grinning. Part of me wanted to reveal my maidens, but I held back. For some reason, I wanted to see if these men-wolves would attack when they thought me outnumbered.

  I looked quickly to the two other men. I knew they had not moved; my attendants would tell me if they did. Unlike the man lounging on the meadow floor, their handsome faces held no smile.

  “Hey, Aiden, Luca, change back into wolves,” Jackson called.

  “Wait!” I raised a hand. Don’t shoot . . . yet, I called out to my maidens in my mind.

  It was good I did it then, too, because the men didn’t wait. Upon hearing Jackson’s order, their bodies began expanding, bubbling out thick slabs of muscle as their backs buckled forward. Gray hair sprouted over their bodies, sheathing them within seconds. The two men, now fully wolves, hunched down behind Jackson.

  I glared into Jackson’s still jovial expression. “You can no longer fool me; I know they are men.”

  He sat up, leaning back on his arms. When his gray eyes landed on mine, they were neither seductive nor wary. He was a man perfectly relaxed, even with an arrow aimed at his chest. “I’m not trying to trick you. These two are my younger brothers, and I want to give them as much of a chance of surviving as possible. I’m pretty sure if they’re wolves, you might hesitate.”

  I was already hesitating. I blamed the fact that I hadn’t had to make a decision like this in nearly a millennium. There was no other reason for it. Three men snuck into my sacred grove to either kill my doe or rape me and possibly my maidens, too—either crime deserved death. Still, I didn’t want to kill them. Deciding to take a chance, I lowered my aim to the forest floor. “Why are you and your men here, Jackson Hunter?”

  He didn’t answer for a second. If he were so foolish as to take this opportunity to overpower me, I would not feel guilt over the swift death that my maidens would deliver to him and his man-wolves. At least, I hoped I would not feel guilty.

  “Do you know about werewolves?”

  “Some,” I lied.

  He fought his smile as if he knew I was lying. By all rights, he shouldn’t have been smiling at all, but he kept on doing it. “Okay . . . well, I’m the alpha of West Los Angeles.” He paused. “You know Los Angeles, right?”

  No, I didn’t, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. The name sounded like it was in a dialect from Iberia. He seemed to be wanting an answer, however, so I just nodded.

  “We’re a peaceful pack with a lot of allies.” He shrugged. “For the past year, the humans have been giving us some problems, but nothing we can’t handle. We haven’t had challenges from other shifter packs in forty years, and when we did, we handled them quickly—I’m telling you all this so you’ll have some perspective on what I say next. We’re being hunted. Any wolves who venture out with less than three strong enforcers are murdered—and we don’t know what’s killing them. What we find . . .” he didn’t finish his sentence, but his expression said enough. His people were being slaughtered. For a second, anger and misery overtook his look of nonchalance—it was only there for a second, and then gone.

  His pain, though briefly displayed, dug deeply into my heart. I could understand it perfectly. I had lost few of my eternal companions, but each had their name written on my heart, and many had been strung over the stars. “How many have you lost?” I asked.

  “Aside from a few submissive wolves we sent into hiding, there are eight of us left of a little more than thirty. Whatever it is, it’s untraceable, and no one is better at tracking than my pack.”

  I regarded him as my empathy waned. Did he dare? I stared deeply into his stormy eyes. “Is that a challenge, mortal?”

  “No, it’s a statement of fact.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He had actually challenged my ability to track prey.

  A light tinkling laugh rose all around the glen, the sound of hundreds of mirthful nymphs.

  His gaze darted around the meadow quickly before returning to me. “Do you hear that?”

  I didn’t answer him. “That does not explain why you came here . . . or how you did. You should not have been able to pass.”

  Reaching up, he rubbed the back of his neck. “What would have happened if I killed that deer?”

  “There are very few ways to kill an immortal creature. For Fawn, the only exception to her immortality would be if you had eaten her. But if you ate Fawn, her magic would disperse and return to the moon. Deer around the world would sicken and die, as would many of their predators. The forest would have shown you no mercy, be you beast or man.”

  “Uh, huh. That’s what I thought. I’m also thinking whoever sent us in here intended for that to happen—for my brothers and me to die after we destroyed the world’s ecosystems. So . . .” he shrugged, “I have no problem giving you their name,” he said, but then said nothing more.

  “Their name?”

  “I’ll give it to you if you promise to let us walk out of this forest alive.” The mirth had disappeared from his face, and I thought I was seeing the true Jackson Hunter for the first time in our interaction. He looked at me like a hero would behold a dragon, fearless and determined.

  I nodded. “If you follow the laws of the wood, you can leave with your lives.”

  He inhaled slowly through his nose. “Christina, the oracle of Los Angeles.”

  I flinched, I couldn’t help it. An oracle’s interference meant it was very likely my family was involved in this. It also meant that whether I liked it or not, my life was about to get more complicated. “What exactly did she tell you?”

  “She told me how to enter the wood, said we should hunt the doe that glowed like moonlight, and that we would be given the strength to hunt the undetectable.”

  Throwing back my head, I laughe
d again. I didn’t know who was pushing me into this quest—it could have been this oracle herself, but after a thousand years of seclusion, I was delivered a hero and a direct challenge to hunt an impossible target. When I met his gaze again, his brow furrowed. “You can stand, I won’t shoot you.” I waved him up.

  “Thank you.” He didn’t stand exactly; he unfurled, very like Mishal did every time he was born from his ashes. When Jackson was fully standing, I gained a full appreciation of how big he was. He towered over me, a wall of muscle. And even though he’d been naked the entire time we talked, it felt different with him standing before me. I tried very hard not to look down, but for some reason my eyes fought me, wanting to do exactly that. If he was standing against me, he could tuck my head under his chin. Not that he would ever stand against me. In fact, even though he hadn’t moved closer, it felt as if he had. Far too close. “We should probably get out of your way then,” he said it almost like a question, as he stared down at me.

  “You are free to go. However, I’ll need a little time to consider the challenge, Jackson Hunter.”

  “You can just call me Jackson—wait—” his brows shot up, “What challenge are you talking about?”

  “To track and kill this creature that plagues your people.”

  “No.” His hands came up, and for a moment, I thought he would seize me.

  My maidens thought it, too, for all across the meadow was the whisper of bowstrings pulling taut.

  He didn’t grab me, though. His hands just hovered, held out toward me. “I don’t think you get it. This creature is tearing full grown werewolves—dominants—to shreds. And there’s no scent trail; there’s nothing to track him by.”

  “Or her,” I said. “There are as many female monsters as male monsters.”

  “It might sound like I’m being sexist, but I’m not. One of my best enforcers was a woman, weighed in at about two hundred and fifty in muscle. She was one of the best fighters I’d ever seen, and there wasn’t any blood but hers at the scene.”

  “A true challenge—an unbeatable beast. You’re only convincing me further.” I couldn’t help the smile that overtook my face. It was very enticing, but I needed to think it through. I had not entered the world of mortals for a thousand years—this decision could not be made on a whim—though I was tempted to do just that.

  “I saw what you did with that bird—and your shot, you could have killed me—”

  “But I chose not to.” I tilted my head up as high as I could without looking ridiculous. He might be a head taller than me, but no man could intimidate me—I refused to ever let that happen. “You truly do not know whose forest you ventured into, do you?” I took a step back, slung my bow over my shoulder and ran for the trunk of the nearest tree. It was an apple tree with thick, gnarled branches that reached out in a tangled web of dark wood. I scampered up it at full speed until I was at the very top, and then I stood, balancing on the tangled wood.

  He held out his arms in a gesture that accentuated his muscled chest. I hesitated, and then, for the second time today, almost lost my footing. That was a sight any woman would bargain their soul for. Perhaps this was a trap—a trap of a very different sort.

  “Who are you?” he called up.

  “My name is Artemis, goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and the moon, daughter of Zeus and Leto. I will return soon with my answer.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. Instead, I ran across the canopy of branches, from one fruit tree to the next, trusting my momentum to keep me from breaking through.

  “Holy fuck,” I heard him say behind me as I ran out of the meadow. But the translation my mind made of the words was utter nonsense.

  Chapter Three

  Artemis

  Six hours later, I returned to Jackson Hunter with my answer.

  I’d spent those hours deep within the forest, speaking to my three most-trusted maidens. We gathered in the highest branches of the immense twisted oak that stood at the heart of the forest. Misandria leaned against the trunk of the tree, as Caris, Algea and I crouched on branches. Like me, they all wore knee-length chitons. Several other maidens stood at the base, though most of the force still watched the intruders, giving me frequent updates on their movements.

  “We should kill them,” Misandria said as she looked toward the clearing I had left hours before. We spoke out loud for her sake. Misandria had once been human; her face and body still bore a resemblance to her origins. She had strong features, a straight nose, full lips, and wide-set smoky eyes. Her black hair fell in loose waves around a rectangular face, down a strong, lean muscular body and cut off close to her ankles. “They’ll bring more men—wolf men. It is better to kill three now than war with invaders who come for us in the night.”

  “I trust them, especially the one who calls himself an alpha,” Caris said in her light, bubbly voice as soon as Misandria finished. In contrast to Misandria’s near humanity, Caris’ skin was the light, azure blue of still waters in a shallow pool. Her hair blossomed from her head, silver as light reflecting off water.

  “The moment you’re vulnerable, Artemis, they’ll rape you. Especially the big one—I don’t trust him at all.”

  At Misandria’s words, Caris’ lips puckered in clear scorn. “They’re not rapists. They have bright, beautiful souls. I think you should save them by killing this beast for them and then we should lure them back to stay and teach us the ways of modern Iberia and these man-wolves.”

  I nodded as she finished, and then looked up to Algea, my second-in-command, who had stayed quiet while the two other women argued their opposing points. “What do you think, Algea?”

  In the time she sat there, she’d camouflaged into her tree branch. Many dryads had plated bark skin, but hers had grown so thick over the many millennia that it cracked open and closed with every movement. Long strings of emerald-green moss fell over her shoulders and swayed in a breeze that I couldn’t feel. “This time I do not agree with either Misandria or Caris,” she said in her deep, clear voice. “We don’t know enough of these people. If you go with them, you will be in their power. They will have access to you while you sleep, they will have access to your food. They could trap you. However, from what I saw, their words and needs appeared genuine. It seems as if fate has taken a very strong hand in this, and it is a quest made just for you.”

  “Thank you.” I nodded once more to each. “I’ve made my decision.” After I spoke those words, as always, they fought with me no more on it.

  Though the sun had not quite vanished past the trees, the eager moon haloed the men’s silhouettes as I stepped from the forest and into the meadow. I was not surprised to find all three of them dressed. My maidens and animals told me mind-to-mind that two of the wolves had run into the forest and pulled piles of clothing from a hollow log.

  All three wore coarse blue trousers, thick leather boots, loose white shirts and waist-length leather coats that had no fur. Strange dress, but it looked good on him—I mean them, it looked good on them. Somehow, though, the clothes only made each appear bigger, and as I approached, the disparity in our heights lengthened. They watched me with casual expressions, making me think that either they had no idea that a nod from me would end all of their lives or that they weren’t afraid to die. Perhaps it was both, or perhaps it was bravado—though it didn’t look like bravado.

  “Hello, again.” A smile spread across Jackson Hunter’s full mouth. His gaze dug deep into mine—too deeply, making me feel almost naked before him, though I was the one who had seen him bare and not the other way around. I was wrong when I thought him casual; his posture was casual, but his expression spoke more of confidence, as if he knew his skin would deflect my arrows. A small part of me wanted to laugh at his confidence while the rest of me was mesmerized by the strength emanating from his gaze.

  Strangely, a slow stirring heat licked up from low in my belly. I wanted to disconnect from his gaze, but I didn’t dare look away first. I knew the rules of wolves, and I wouldn’t
have him see me as subservient.

  “Hello, again, Jackson, Aiden, and Luca Hunter.” I took the opportunity to break from Jackson’s gaze and look at his brothers.

  Neither of Jackson’s brothers was much better to look at—both Luca and Aiden were extraordinarily handsome. They each regarded me, Aiden with fascination, while Luca’s expression had traces of wariness. Good, finally. He should be wary, they all should. I was beginning to think these wolf-men had no sense of self-preservation.

  I braced myself and looked back into the leader’s gaze. “I’ve decided to hunt your beast—but you must pass a test that may end your life. If you choose not to take this test, my creatures will lead you out of this forest tonight, and as long as you do no harm, none will be done to you.”

  Jackson cocked his head, regarding me with his deep-set eyes. “What do we have to do?” he asked after a minute of silence.

  I ran my finger over the string of my bow sticking out at my side. “You need to spend the night here with me in the forest, and then the nature of the test will be revealed to you in the morning.”

  “You can’t test us right now?”

  “No, I can’t.” It was imperative they spent the night for my test to work. I needed to convince all of my maidens, including Misandria. That meant the maidens would need to see what sort of men these were when I was the most vulnerable. I thought it only fair to warn them. “This test is not a kind or merciful one. If you fail, you will be killed.”

  Jackson crossed his arms over his chest. “And what are you going to be testing, exactly?”

  “You will find out tomorrow,” I said.

  His posture changed, his bristled chin lifting and his chest rising. Immediately, I knew he wasn’t going to go for it—it was in his posture, the set of his jaw, the way his gaze traveled far away, somewhere in the sky.

  I wasn’t prepared for the disappointment pulsing through my chest. It was a strange, crushing emotion. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go until that moment. It had been so long since I’d left my seclusion, so long since I’d reentered the world. I thought I didn’t want to. I must have been wrong.