by Viola Rivard
Claimed by the Alphas
Part Two
Copyright ©2014 by Viola Rivard
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
During the long days of the first week, before I learned to slumber in the light, I laid awake, listening to the sounds of the pack as they dozed. Loneliness was a vise around my soul and Isolation was my bedfellow. Invariably, I wept myself to sleep just past noontime.
In my dreams I was always lost, not merely in the cordilleras, but in the shallow existence of my human life. I would rally against the darkness, returning to the world as I did in birth—naked and wailing.
Je suis perdue! I am lost!
And invariably, he was there, waiting to find me.
Marie du Luponte, 1931
An excerpt from Wolves of the Cordilleras
CHAPTER ONE
Caim wanted her again.
He had wanted her again as soon as he had come, but he had held back, telling himself that the strange impulse would pass.
It had not.
He found himself in a baffling position. He was stiff and he wanted to rut, but the human was asleep.
As soft as she was when she was awake, she became completely malleable in her sleep. Flesh like heated satin melded to his own, rough exterior as she curled into him.
It had been at least an hour since she had turned to burrow into his chest. His human form was very hard, and he did not understand the appeal. He held her close all the same, turning his nose into her hair to breathe in her scent.
The sugary and floral fragrances of her world were already fading. She absorbed everything around her, the autumn air, the supple doe pelt she slept beneath, and him. Beneath the smell of his seed and the musk of their sweats mingling together, Caim could already smell himself imprinted within her flesh.
It drove his wolf insane.
The baffling position he found himself in was not the fact that he could not rut. Any other time, there would have been an easy solution to that. Lotus and Sable, his favorites, were away from the den, but he could have settled for any female when he was in need of a quick release.
It was his right as their alpha. That was not to say that he simply took his pleasures where he pleased. They were always more than willing to accommodate him, even the ones who—for whatever reason—favored Asch.
Many wolves did not live in packs. They scraped out meager existences on the boundaries of pack territories, either alone or in pairs. Those with more self-control, such as Asch’s father, would sometimes try to live among humans. That always ended badly.
The wolves that chose to live in packs were the most sensible to him. Like most packs, Caim’s was nearly entirely female. The females chose to join his pack because he was powerful and capable. He could defend their hunting grounds and their den. In return for this security, they submitted to him in all things. That was the natural order of it.
And so, while it was his right to take any one of the females in his pack, while he could take them as hard and as savagely as suited him, he just did not want to.
He wanted the human again.
He wanted to be inside of her again more than he had wanted to be inside of her the first time. He would have woken her up, but he knew that she would be sore and would likely not enjoy it. He wanted her to enjoy it when he took her. He liked the sounds she made for him and the way she bucked her hips against him.
The thought of another male giving her pleasure, even Asch, made him see red. Caim was perfectly capable of providing for a human all on his own. He would protect her and any pups that she bore him, and in time she would come to see that he was all that she needed.
~~~
Mila woke up feeling like she’d been hit by a truck. Her head was pounding, her back ached, and her entire pelvic region felt like it would be out of commission for at least a month.
She sat up on the pallet of pelts, fully prepared to give Caim a piece of her mind, but he was gone and the space beside her was cold. She wasn’t going to let that disappoint her. Either that or she’d do a very good job of pretending that it didn’t.
Pushing the fur blanket aside, she moved to stand up—and immediately fell back down.
“Shit,” she cursed. Her legs felt like jello. She looked down to examine them, squinting to see in the moonlit chamber. Dark bruises had taken shape all over her hips. Fingerprints.
“Your body is small and frail. It is not built for the type of aggressive rutting I enjoy.”
She sighed. It wasn’t as if Caim hadn’t warned her. What the hell had she been thinking? Well, that was easy, she hadn’t been thinking. Caim had gone from pokerfaced, to vulnerable, to swelteringly sexy in a matter of minutes. He was kryptonite to her biggest flaw: the complete inability to resist temptation.
Still, of all the bad decisions she had made, Caim was definitely in the category of Would-Do-Again. The guy was so sexy that she couldn’t look at him without her hormones going haywire. And the way he had gone from claiming not to be attracted to her to being hard and aching for her had been the single biggest turn on of her existence.
On the third attempt, she was able to stand. She snatched her dress from the floor. It was the same black cocktail dress she’d left Tye County in. After two days of travelling by foot through mountain wilderness and one night with a careless wolf, it was pretty much a lost cause. Still, she wasn’t about to go letting it all hang loose around her new pack, so she’d have to make do for now. With any luck, the rest of her things would arrive soon.
In return for her joining the pack, several wolves had gone to Tye County in order to establish a perimeter. They would mark the edges of the county, leaving it as a warning that Tye was under the protection of the Lazarus pack. Before they left, Asch had ordered them to bring back her luggage. She could only hope that they listened to their alpha.
She made her way out of Caim’s chamber and into the stygian passageway, not really sure which way she should go. The network of caves that made up the den was still a mystery to her and it was the first time she’d navigated them alone. Putting her hands on the limestone wall, she followed a light breeze that guided her down a wide tunnel.
After a few minutes of fumbling around, she could see a faint, flickering light in the distance. It was likely the central cavern, where all of the wolves seemed to congregate with one another. At the thought of entering the cavern, Mila paused and let out a heavy sigh. It occurred to her that she was about to do the walk of shame in front of the pack.
It couldn’t have been more than a few hours ago that Caim had dragged her back to his chamber. It had been her intention to simply have a discussion with him. There were a lot of important things they had to talk about, namely the fact that the next time she ovulated, whenever that was, Caim and his friend Asch were going to rip each other’s throats off for the right to impregnate her.
Mila gagged a little at the thought, wondering again what the hell she had been thinking.
She had been with the Lazarus pack for less than a day and she’d already slept naked with one alpha, had sex with the other, and hatched a plot to drag them both into some crazy three-way. Oh, if mom could see her now.
Shoulders slumped, she continued down the tunnel until she heard the wolves. They sounded different than earlier. Last night their noises had been a discordant jumble of yelps, growls, and cries. Tonight they were high pitched barks.
When she grew closer to the outlet of the tunnel, Mila heard a harsh snarl that made the fine hairs on the ba
ck of her neck rise. Briefly, she contemplated turning around and just spending the night in Caim’s room. Curiosity got the better of her though, and she peeked her head around the corner of the cavern wall.
The wolves had gathered in the center of the domed room. There were at least two dozen, and from the looks of it, they all hailed from different packs. They were golden brown, charcoal and ash, mottled black and yellow, and fawn. The average-sized omegas were threaded between hulking betas, looking stunted by comparison. Brae’s tall, snowy form stood out among the crowd, though she was in the far corner of the room. None of the wolves noticed Mila’s intrusion. They were all focused on the fight.
In the center of the ring, Caim squared off against a coppery wolf that could have only been Asch. In his wolf form, Caim was a sight to behold. He stood taller than a man with powerfully muscled limbs that were encased in a lustrous, midnight coat. His face was contorted in a snarl, mouth pulled back to reveal two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
If it were possible, Asch looked ever angrier than Caim. Drew to his full height, he was nearly the same size as the other alpha, though his muscles were more sinuous than bulky. He matched Caim’s snarl, a sustained growl emanating from his chest.
The wolf pack barked excitedly around them, as the two alphas circled one another with teeth bared. Each seemed prepared to strike at any second, and Mila knew it was all her fault. If she had just kept her legs closed and her bra on, maybe this wouldn’t be happening right now. She had known that sleeping with Caim had been a bad idea, but bad ideas, they were kind of her M.O.
Rather than accepting a full scholarship to Fordham when she graduated high school, Mila had decided to pursue her dream of being an event coordinator. That had lasted all of two months, and then she had been inspired to become a photographer, at least for a week or two. The list went on and on. Cosmetologist, massage therapist, teacher’s aide, and even a court stenographer.
After a year of failures, she had finally caved under the weight of her parents’ disapproval and went to college. There, she had changed her major almost as often as her diet. Then, just when she was finally about to get her bachelor’s in business administration, she had decided to spend the night before final exams drinking and partying.
To be fair, most of the time she did something stupid, Mila genuinely believed that maybe, just this one time, things wouldn’t turn out so bad.
Maybe her new business venture would be a success and her parents would be proud of her. Maybe she would like a career as an engineer. Maybe she could just have one margarita before she went home to study. Maybe she could just feel Caim’s bare hands, stroking and kneading her breasts. Maybe she could just run through a pack of frenzied wolves, superimpose herself between two alpha wolves, and give a heartfelt speech that would remind them that they were friends and then they would stop fighting.
Mila didn’t quite make it that far.
As she was trying to push her way past the wolves, Asch lunged at Caim, claws spread wide. The two clashed on their hind quarters, but with his momentum, Asch had the advantage. He knocked the larger wolf over, pinning him to the ground. He moved to bite Caim’s neck, but the black wolf kicked up with his back legs, sending Asch flying into the crowd.
Mila’s eyes bulged as Asch went hurtling past, narrowly missing her. She had known that werewolves were strong, but Asch had to weigh several hundred pounds and Caim had just tossed him with ease. Preternaturally fast, both alphas were back on their feet in seconds, neither succumbing to defeat.
This time it was Caim who attacked first. The wolves had the good sense to clear a path, but Mila was barely ascertaining what was happening by the time she saw the enormous wolf lunging at her. There was no time to react. He was in mid-air in one instant, and the next he was bearing down on her.
She felt herself hit the stone floor. Pain lanced her skull and black spots multiplied before her eyes. She tried to blink them away, but they were stubborn. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had just made the worst decision of her life.
CHAPTER TWO
A gloriously naked man stood over her, looking like an avenging angel. He seemed terribly concerned about her, which made perfect sense. After all, this was her fantasy.
Oh, wait, there was Brae.
“Mila! Mila! Mila!” She repeated, waving a frantic hand in front of her face.
At once, Mila became aware of a splitting pain on her forehead. No, this was definitely not a fantasy.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch,” Brae assured her.
Brae wrapped an arm around Mila’s back, trying to pull her up. The pain intensified, pulsating over her skull. Mila let out a sharp cry, pushing against the female. Startled, Brae reflexively dropped her back on the ground. The pain was so bad that Mila thought she might pass out again.
“Get the fuck out of the way.” A harsh, unfamiliar male’s voice.
“I’m sorry!”
Mila looked up to see Brae shrinking back from Asch. At least, it looked like Asch. She recognized his coppery hair and golden bronze skin, but his head was all wrong. Thick veins in his neck protruded from muscles that strained against his skin. His eyes were livid and his nostrils flared with his rapid breathing.
None of the rage left his face when he leaned down to scoop her up off of the floor. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was mad at her. It was certainly plausible, considering she’d just slept with his best friend and rival.
He brought her up to a sitting position, cradling her against his broad chest. She could see that the wolves had scattered. Brae was squatting a good distance away, her body stiff. Caim stood several feet from her, legs spread apart and hands folded across his chest. She tried to make eye contact with him, but he avoided her gaze.
“Brae, make yourself useful and get something to clean her up. The rest of you,” Asch deepened his voice and pointed towards the cavern exit, “Out.”
The word reverberated throughout the cavern. The pack readily obeyed, slinking off into the night. Brae scrambled up and disappeared down one of the den passageways, leaving only Caim defiantly unmoving. She decided it was because Caim refused to be dismissed by Asch, and definitely not because he was concerned about her.
Glaring at him, Asch said, “You’ve done enough here. Leave.”
Caim let out a huff, still facing away from them.
“The human should have known better than to get in the way. Perhaps she will learn her lesson.”
He turned to storm off towards the exit, not looking back.
Mila knew that she shouldn’t take exception to his crass attitude. All they had done was had sex. It wasn’t like he actually cared about her. She should just ignore him, stand up, and brush herself off.
Instead, she started to cry.
She didn’t cry often. It wasn’t because she was tough or composed. It was because she couldn’t cry like women in movies, with one gentle tear rolling daintily down their faces. She couldn’t even pull off glistening rivulets of tears. Nope, when she cried it was like someone had opened the floodgates on her entire, splotchy face.
Asch drew her closer, holding her tightly as she sobbed into his chest. It was very gratuitous of her, but she couldn’t stop herself. The past week had been the most overwhelming time in her life. There was the anxiety that led up to leaving Tye, the exhausting journey to Lazarus territory, and the kaleidoscope of emotions that she’d experienced since joining the pack. Fear, apprehension, doubt, dread, anger, lust, and now, disillusionment.
Joining a werewolf pack had always been her greatest fantasy. She had gotten Wolves of the Cordilleras when she was twelve, just coming into her own as an adolescent. The memoirs of Marie and Rein, the lost Frenchwoman and the alpha who took her into his pack, were the only things that had made her believe that true love existed. As she had gotten older and tried in vain to find that kind of love, she had come to the conclusion that a human man just wasn’t capable of the sort of devotion an alpha had towards his mate
.
How stupid that had been. Caim had nearly killed her, and he didn’t even have the grace to look apologetic. And now, here she was, crying in the arms of a man she probably just cheated on, but really, who knew at this point?
Her life was a disaster.
“Calm down, Mila,” Asch said firmly. His hand rubbed circles into her back. She sagged against him as the tension seeped out of her body. She let him hold her while her sobbing ebbed, not speaking until she was confident her voice wouldn’t crack.
“Were you fighting because of me?” Mila asked, her voice small. Asch shifted her so that he could gaze down into her face.
“Did he hurt you?”
Thankfully, he looked a lot less angry. She sniffed and swiped at her nose.
“Well, yeah,” she said, pointing to the area on her forehead that was still throbbing with pain.
Asch’s lips pinched together, and she realized he wasn’t referring to her fall. She cringed, remembering that he could probably smell Caim on her. In her. She shuddered at the thought.
“No,” she told him. She felt humiliated and wanted to look away, but she didn’t. “It wasn’t like that.”
Asch let out a breath and briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them, his expression had softened considerably. Mila stared up at him warily.
“Are you okay?” She asked, sitting up in his arms. Asch rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“When Caim said that he took you, I thought the worst.”
Mila grimaced. “He told you that?”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re alright.”
Mila forced herself not to let his words make her giddy. It wasn’t overly hard, considering she was still in a great deal of pain.
Brae padded back into the room then, approaching cautiously. She was carrying a wicker basket in one hand and in the other a wooden bowl that sloshed with water as she walked. She set them both down beside Asch, concern marring her lovely features. She tucked a lock of her white-blonde hair behind her ear as she sank down to the floor next to Mila.
