Ruling Alphas: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  Rocco poured the liquid into his mouth and swallowed it, surprised that the mixture tasted nice. He had been expecting it to be bitter, but instead, it was sweet and almost fruity and Rocco thought it would go well sitting out by a pool on a nice sunny day.

  “All done,” Simeon said. “How do you feel?”

  Rocco considered Simeon’s words. How did he feel? Disappointingly, he felt no different really. His wolf stirred a little but it soon settled down and Rocco frowned.

  “I don’t feel anything,” he said. “I just feel normal. I don’t think it’s worked for me.”

  “Oh no, it has worked. Feeling normal after taking the potion is good,” Simeon said. “You’re not supposed to feel anything, but occasionally, we get someone who the potion disagrees with and they can feel all sorts of strange things.”

  “There’s definitely nothing strange going on,” Rocco said. “So, what do I do now?”

  “Nothing,” Simeon said. “Just keep on living your life as usual, that’s all.”

  Rocco smiled and nodded his head. He pictured Marin and his heart skipped a beat. Of course he wanted to go to her, but he truthfully had no idea if that was the enchantment’s doing or not. He had wanted to go to her ever since he had left her place the other day.

  “Do you have a minute before you leave, Simeon?” Rocco’s father asked. “There’s something I really would like to discuss with you while you’re here.”

  Simeon nodded his head.

  “Yes, of course. What is it?” he asked.

  Rocco’s father beckoned to Simeon and began to leave the room.

  “I need to show you something first. It’s in my study. Rocco, I won’t be too long, okay?” he said. “But if you have things to be getting on with, don’t feel like you have to wait around for me.”

  Rocco nodded, deciding to wait for his father to return. He wanted to ask him how he had felt after he had taken the enchantment when it had been his turn, and if it had made him think of his mate. It would have been different for his father, though—he hadn’t known Rocco’s mom before taking the enchantment.

  The door opened and Rocco looked up, surprised his father and Simeon were finished their meeting so quickly. He smiled when he saw it wasn’t his father coming into the room, but his mom. She smiled back, but he could see she looked a bit stressed out.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I have a package I need to get to Mark. He needs to have it within the next twenty-four hours and none of the delivery services I’ve tried will overnight it. They’re all saying I’m too late,” she said. “It’s only morning. How bloody early do they expect me to be?”

  Mark was one of the pack betas, running the wolf pack in central Nevada, a good two or three hours from where they were now. Rocco opened his mouth to ask his mom if she couldn’t ask one of the royal guard to run the package up to Mark when she smiled and nodded her head.

  “Of course,” she said, as though answering a question no one had asked. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Rocco, will you take the package up to Mark for me?”

  Rocco nodded his head, unable to think of any way to refuse to carry out her request. And really, what would be the point in refusing? Even if Rocco didn’t go to Nevada, he had his answer about his one true mate. Marin wasn’t the one. The enchantment was taking him further away from her, not closer to her.

  Rocco felt his heart sinking and he nodded absently as his mom told him she was going to go and grab the parcel from the study. Rocco had been so sure that Marin was the one, and now that he had learned he had been wrong all along, he really didn’t know how to handle the news. Maybe getting away from this place was the best thing for him. Maybe after he dropped off the package with Mark, he would just keep driving and see where he ended up.

  7

  Marin shook her head. She still couldn’t believe she was here, locked up like some common criminal. She had thought that she had known what she was getting herself into when she had agreed to come here, but she hadn’t been expecting this. Her captors knew she was no criminal, that she was here by choice, and while she hadn’t expected to be welcomed with open arms and treated like the guest of honor, she had thought she would be treated with respect at least.

  The men who had brought Marin here and put her in the cell hadn’t hurt her, but they had been anything but respectful, barking orders at her and pushing her around if she didn’t obey them quickly enough. She had twice told them to stop and that she was quite capable of walking without them dragging her, but it was as though she hadn’t spoken at all. They just kept going, ignoring her pleas until she had given up even trying to talk to them.

  It was Kyle who had gotten her into this mess. Well, no, technically, that wasn’t true. Technically, she had gotten herself into this mess by stepping in to take Kyle’s place. He had been up to his usual tricks and this time, he had crossed the wrong person, running his mouth and then starting with the threats, only for it to turn out that the man he was insulting was a bear shifter. And not just any old bear shifter either. The one he had chosen to insult was one of the higher-ranking members of his pack.

  He had followed Kyle home and learned where to find him and then he had sent troops in to collect Kyle and take him to the main bear court where his fate would be decided. When the troops had arrived at the house, Marin had been watching the boys and she had begged and pleaded for the soldiers to spare Kyle, but they wouldn’t hear of it, insisting someone needed to be punished for this.

  In the end, she had suggested taking his place as their prisoner, as they had said someone needed to be punished for the crime, almost as though they didn’t care who it was, as long as someone was held accountable. They had agreed to that, saying that they were just as happy to punish Kyle this way, leaving him with the knowledge that his sister had taken the consequences for his actions.

  Marin had no idea how long she would have to wait in the jail cell before her punishment commenced. Unless, of course, this was her punishment, because she wasn’t exactly enjoying her time here. She knew by the changing light in the tiny slit of a window in the cell that she had been here for four nights, and in that time, she had been well fed and given plenty of clean water to drink, but no one would answer her questions of where she was or how long she would be here, and certainly not her questions about what would happen to her.

  Marin blinked in surprise when the door to her cell opened. Up until then, any time she had been brought food or anything, it had been passed through a small flap in the door. She stood up from the hard bench where she was seated, the thin mattress doing nothing to make the bench comfortable, and she frowned as a man entered the cell. He stood blocking the doorway. He didn’t look particularly unkind and Marin didn’t think he was there to harm her, but she also got the impression that if she tried to get past him and escape, he would hurt her without hesitation.

  “What’s going on?” Marin asked.

  She didn’t really expect an answer, but this time, the man surprised her. He gestured to the bench she had just vacated.

  “Sit down and I will explain,” he said.

  Marin sat down and looked up at the man expectantly.

  “Your trial has been scheduled for today,” he said. “For two p.m.”

  “But I don’t have a lawyer,” Marin objected.

  The man laughed softly.

  “This isn’t a John Grisham novel. This is real life. And in real life, this is how we bears do things,” he said.

  “Okay,” Marin said, trying to swallow down her panic. “So how does it work, then?”

  She was afraid of the answer, but she knew she had to learn what she could and at least try to prepare herself for the process.

  “You’ll be taken from your cell and you will stand before some of the pack elders, including the man whom your family member insulted. The pack beta will be present and he will hear the victim’s story and your own, and from there, a decision will be made as to your fate,” he exp
lained.

  Marin felt slightly better after his explanation. At least she would be given a chance to put forth her side of the story.

  “And what likely outcomes might there be?” she asked, expecting to be told she would be fined or be made to complete some sort of community service, working for the bear pack for a time.

  “You will either be declared innocent, which, let’s be honest, is unlikely in these circumstances as we all know you came here voluntarily, or you will be executed,” the man said.

  “Executed?” Marin repeated, shock making her brave enough to shout her exclamation. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Lower your voice,” the man snapped instantly, ignoring what she had said.

  Marin did as she was told and when she spoke again, her voice was a lot closer to its normal volume.

  “Are you honestly telling me that I might be executed? For something that isn’t even so much a crime as it is about hurting someone’s feelings?” she said, still shocked to the core to hear this.

  “If you were a bear, you would be put to work on something until you learned your lesson. But you’re not a bear and generally, our beta has no time to waste teaching other species our ways, because educating you will not benefit us in any way,” the man said as though this was something trivial they were discussing rather than Marin’s life.

  “What about a fine?” Marin said, trying once more to swallow down the panic that threatened to engulf her. “My family has money and you can’t say that having some extra money given to you wouldn’t benefit your pack.”

  The man shrugged.

  “I don’t make the rules or dole out the punishments, I’m just telling you what happens. It’s up to you to bring that up and fight for it at your trial if that’s what you want to do,” he told Marin.

  She nodded her head, already knowing she would have to plead guilty to the charges so she could try and convince the beta to fine her instead of executing her. Surely he would see that money would be of more use to him and his pack than killing her would be.

  The man held up a small carrier bag that Marin hadn’t noticed him holding into the air and then he set it down on the ground inside of her cell.

  “There are clothes in there for you to wear for the trial. You will be collected at one thirty p.m. It’s currently ten a.m. Don’t be late getting changed or you’ll be forced to go out dressed like that,” the man said.

  He backed out of the cell and closed and locked the door without giving Marin a chance to ask any more questions. What else was there to ask, though? She felt like she had heard enough. More than enough. She listened as the man’s footsteps moved down the corridor and away from her cell. When she couldn’t hear them anymore, she got up and retrieved the clothes he had left for her.

  He had said it was ten a.m. and she had to be ready for one thirty p.m. That gave her plenty of time and it wasn’t like she had anything else to be getting on with. Despite that, she wondered whether she would even bother getting changed at all. It wasn’t like it mattered what she was wearing.

  She lay on her back on the bench and stared up at the ceiling, the bag beside her, untouched but not yet forgotten. Marin thought for a while longer and eventually, she came to the decision that she was ready to fight for her life out there at her trial, but that she was going to do it with dignity. No tears, no begging.

  And she knew if she was to have any real dignity, she couldn’t go out there in the clothes she had worn since she came here, which even to her own nose didn’t exactly smell fresh. She had washed herself down a few times at the little sink in the corner of the room, but putting on the dirty clothes again had defeated the purpose really, and Marin’s intense panic and anxiety at her predicament had caused her to sweat more than she normally would, a musky, animal odor in the perspiration that permeated her clothes completely.

  With a sigh, Marin sat up and opened the bag and looked inside of it, suddenly nervous about what she would find in there. She needn’t have worried; the bag contained what the man said it would—clothes for her trial.

  She pulled out a pair of black tailored pants and a pale yellow blouse. Both of them looked like they would fit her. There was also a black suit jacket, black pumps, and a hair brush. It wasn’t the outfit Marin would have chosen for herself, but it was clean and presentable and smart. It was far better than anything that she had expected to find in the bag, and the hair brush had been an unexpected bonus too. It would be nice to be able to finally brush her hair properly. Running her fingers through it and trying to tease out the knots that way just wasn’t the same.

  Cinderella shall go to the ball, Marin thought bitterly to herself as she took one final look at her haul. She swallowed down the bitterness, knowing it wasn’t helpful to her, and she stood up and began to strip off her grimy clothes. She moved to the sink and washed herself down. Now that she had decided to comply and put the new clothes on, she didn’t want to wreck them straight away. She was tempted to wait a bit longer before she put them on so there was less risk of them getting soiled, but she had no idea how much time had passed since the clothes had been brought to her, and she didn’t want to risk being frog-marched out of her cell in her now tatty underwear and nothing else. And if the guards came to collect her and she was still wearing only the tatty underwear, there was no doubt in her mind that they would indeed drag her out immediately despite her state of undress.

  8

  Rocco stood up and extended his hand to Mark when he came into the room. Mark smiled widely at him and shook his hand warmly, his grip firm but not hard.

  “Good to see you, buddy,” he said. “How’s things?”

  “Not bad,” Rocco lied, not about to tell him about his failed dalliance with Marin. “How about you?”

  “Good,” Mark said with a wide smile. “Geri is pregnant again.”

  “No way. How many is that?” Rocco asked.

  “Seven,” Mark grinned.

  Rocco laughed and shook his head.

  “How do you have time to do anything except run around after them all?” he said.

  “With great difficulty,” Mark laughed.

  “I bet,” Rocco laughed with him.

  He shook his head and then he nodded to the bag at his feet.

  “That’s the package my mom asked me to deliver to you,” he said.

  “Great,” Mark said, smiling at him as he picked the bag up and looked inside. He nodded his head in satisfaction. “Excellent. Thank you.”

  Rocco smiled and nodded his acknowledgment of Mark’s thanks.

  “Do you want to stay for lunch?” Mark asked.

  Rocco debated it. He was in no hurry to get back home. It wasn’t like there was anything there for him really now that he had discovered that he had been wrong about his connection with Marin. At the same time, though, he wasn’t in the least bit hungry and he figured he might as well go back now. He shook his head.

  “Thanks anyway, but I’d better get back,” he said.

  “Duty calls, right?” Mark grinned.

  “Something like that,” Rocco agreed, forcing himself to smile back at Mark.

  They shook hands again and Mark walked Rocco to the front door. He clapped him on the shoulder after he had pulled the door open for him.

  “It really was good to see you, Rocco. Feel free to drop by any time so we can catch up properly,” Mark said.

  “And, of course, the same goes for you,” Rocco said. “If you’re ever down my way, pop in.”

  “I will do,” Mark said. “And thanks again for bringing the package.”

  “No worries,” Rocco said.

  He walked away from Mark, cutting down the garden path and heading back to his car. He got in and pulled away from the curb, beeping his horn at Mark and waving as he pulled away. Mark raised his palm in return and then he closed the door. Rocco headed toward home, wondering once more if he shouldn’t just leave his home, maybe even the whole state. It would be so easy to turn the car around and drive
in the opposite direction and just keep driving until something caught his attention and made him want to stop.

  He seriously thought about doing it for a moment or two. He even reached down to hit his indicator switch, but at the last minute, he changed his mind, knowing it was a silly daydream and nothing more. He had a duty to the pack. It would have been one thing to walk away from them for Marin, but to walk away from them simply because he was upset about losing Marin was too selfish. He kept driving in the direction of home, accepting his fate with forced grace.

  As Rocco drove down toward the freeway, he noticed that the usually quiet roads around that area were really busy today and as he looked closer around him, he saw that even the sidewalks were filled with pedestrians. He realized with a start that he recognized a lot of the people walking around; they were part of the local bear pack. Curiosity got the better of Rocco when he saw all of the bears heading out to the trading estate. If his memory was correct, the bear pack here used one of the warehouses as a courtroom.

  Rocco did a U-turn and joined the flow of traffic heading toward the trading estate. If he was right about the bears all being headed to a courtroom situation, it could well be something serious that could affect all of the shifters. A hunter or a traitor within the pack, something like that. Rocco knew if it was something like that, his parents would be notified in due course, but if he could get ahead of that and take the news back home with him now, that could only be a good thing.

  Rocco parked his car and got out of it to walk through the crowd of bears. All of them seemed to be heading toward a warehouse at the left-hand side of the trading estate. As Rocco watched the building the activity seemed to be centered around, some of the higher-ranking pack members went inside, while the majority of them gathered into a crowd outside of the front of it. There was an almost party atmosphere in the air and Rocco wondered if he had this all wrong. He looked around him and spotted a bear he half recognized.