Willing Sacrifice

by Cree Walker

  Sarah walked out into the hall straightening her hair and torn shirt. "You owe me a new shirt and a new pair of shorts."

  "You owe me my dignity." I growled out.

  "This is imported hand-dyed, hand-woven silk from India… we'll call it even." She snapped back.

  "My pride is worth more than that shirt."

  "I paid three hundred bucks for this top."

  I shut my mouth and eyed the ruined shirt. "You paid three hundred bucks for a shirt?"

  Kyle looked at the shirt. "You paid three hundred bucks for a shirt?" He repeated angrily and I grinned at Sarah openly as if to say, “huh!”

  "It’s designer." She screamed, and everyone took a cautious step back from the crazy lady. I had an idea. "Sarah, I'll buy you a new one if I can change out of these shorts."

  She considered the idea and though she knew she shouldn't fall for it, she looked down at her beautiful shirt and gave me a sharp nod in agreement. "But you’re still wearing that top."

  I sighed in relief and snatched my jeans from Kyle. He didn't look happy but I don't think anyone was willing to mess with Sarah right now, least of all the man that shared her bed.

  Gage followed me up the stairs with his duffle bag in tow. He was taking Jack's old room next to mine, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I wasn't really speaking to him at the moment so I didn't say anything. We were going to see how he liked the silent treatment.

  I slammed my door a little harder than I had intended but the gunshot sound of the solid wood cracking down the middle was a reassuring sign that Sugar was still somewhere inside me and I let a slow cruel smile spread over my face. This poor Alpha didn't know what he had coming. I only went downstairs again when the smell of roasting meat woke me from yet another nap. I was going to have a hard time trying to adjust back to nighttime sleeping.

  I wasn't sure if the Alpha had returned yet or not but I wasn't going to appear too eager either. He had gorgeous women throwing themselves at him whenever his hands were empty; I didn't want to make it too easy for him for a couple of reasons. One, I didn't want him to figure out what I was up to and two, people only want what they can't have ... especially a man who has everything. I needed an edge and looking at the competition told me I wasn't getting by on looks alone.

  I was going down the stairs quickly but it seems I was caught directly in back of Scarlet O'Hara and she was making her dinner time entrance for the said Alpha in question so we took one slow step at a time while she looked for him on the first floor with eager eyes.

  He sat at the table and gave her an interested nod of approval, so I broke up their little moment and whistled sharply. "You think we could get a move on sister. I'd like to eat before I starve to death."

  She turned abruptly and looked me over. "There aren't enough stairs in America for you to stave to death." She snapped back.

  My wolf bristled from her nap and I smiled at the challenge. "We could make this an express flight if you'd like." I asked sweetly.

  She spun back around and stomped down the last few stairs like T-Rex and I took my good old time to finish my own descent.

  "Well this must be the famous Sugar Coon?" The Alpha looked at me but his expression didn't tell me squat.

  "Alpha." I answered back.

  His grin widened and he stood up to offer me his hand, "You may call me Robert."

  I was glad I knew the rundown because I might have hopped into his lap right then and there. He had it all; sparkling blue eyes, a full head of lush brown hair, good height, a great build and a smile like a shark. Top it all off with strength and power that rolled off of him in waves, in a mixture of testosterone and sexual confidence and he was a sexual fantasy come to life.

  I smiled back, "And you may call me Alpha."

  He smiled brighter and took my hand gently. "Ah, a queen in her own right." He bent and kissed the back of my hand before releasing it and I resisted the impulse to wipe it off on my jeans.

  He offered me a chair at the table and sat down beside me. "In truth I thought you would look... different." He added while taking a slab of roast off the center plate.

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I was getting really sick of being called ugly today but I felt silence was my greatest option at the moment and went with it while the group of people who did know me waited with baited breath for me to fly off the handle. I was the new and improved Sugar 3.0 and she had the ability to retain vital information and save it for a later date.

  "How so, Alpha?" The Scarlet O'Hara girl asked sweetly before cutting her eyes at me.

  I felt like I was on an episode of, The Bachelor and I grinned sweetly back at her.

  "Well, I thought Sugar was going to be a leggy blonde actually." He chuckled at this and it was met by the laughs of the other girls, three of whom were leggy blondes.

  "But I can't say I'm disappointed at all." He added shutting them all up. "I've never seen eyes quite as beautiful as yours.” He turned his gaze on me with his brilliant smile in place.

  "Who said I was here for you?" I asked.

  "What other use would you be to me?" He responded, his voice warming slightly.

  "I'm a hell of a fighter." I answered back, barely veiling the threat.

  He turned fully in his seat and brushed his fingers through my hair, and it felt too intimate but my body reacted in response just the same with a flurry of warm fuzzies everywhere.

  "I've held this post for a year now. The only way you can Challenge me for rights to the pack, is to wait ’til next June." His voice oozed out. "Why do you think I only invited you here after that point had passed? That would be such a waste... don't you think?"

  Wow this guy was an evil genius... and that would have been a great piece of vital information no one bothered to tell me about.

  I smiled back at him and nodded slowly in agreement while my stomach turned at the thought. I hadn't planned on fighting him, but I was banking on the fact that he didn't know that, and I was going to use that extra time to think of a better plan than hopping directly into his bed and turning the phrase, “’til death do us part” into a lifelong goal. Sure I could probably outlive him, but by that point I was pretty certain it wouldn't matter any more and I think Elder Coon wanted something to happen before the next turn of the century.

  He turned to Gage and smiled brightly. "I hope you didn't come here in search of a Mate friend, because what you see here belongs to me until I've chosen what I want. Do we understand each other?"

  It sounded disgusting when he said it like that, but I knew it was protection for the girls as well. I had lived in a bitten pack and there were no rules to govern the males against taking a mate whether she wanted it or not.

  Gage gave a short nod and waited patiently for the Alpha to turn his attention elsewhere before he looked directly at me and then down at his plate, this was very complicated indeed.

  It would seem that though the Alpha didn't directly ask his male pack to leave, they were doing it anyway. There wasn't much point in being in a younger pack like this one if you couldn't find a mate. When couples marry most times they move out of the Alpha's house, to make room for more young males who have come to join the pack’s ranks and find mates of their own, but the Alpha's home is the hub of a larger circle of smaller family packs. The girls enter the pack in a different manner all together, through the Challenges, this keeps the bloodlines clean... for the most part and keeps the strong packs strong and virtually eliminates the weaker packs all together. This was a dying race and there wasn't room for weakness, or for Alphas using their titles to run a personal dating service, and from the looks of it he wasn't ready to find a mate. It could take years for him to choose just one female to marry and it wouldn't take that long for this pack to crumble and fall, because there is always someone stronger and he could lose every single female in the pack in one year's Challenges. A pack without single males or females is not a healthy pack. The smaller family packs would find another stronger pack
for their children's future, and if they didn't have children, well it’s still a slow death from a quick strike, and the pack would bleed out and die.

  The only way we were going to cut short the Alpha's little charade was to wait and beat him in the Challenges, catch him breaking the rules, or force him to take a Mate... and there is only one way to do that if he doesn't fall in love, and that's by giving him an heir.

  I felt my face growing red with anger and I pushed my chair back from the table and slapped down my fork. The quiet conversation that had been going on while I was deep in thought stopped suddenly.

  Robert raised a hand and put it on my arm. "Have you been excused from the table, Sugar?"

  I was so angry I was nearly crying and if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want the others to see me like that, I would have sat there all night in stubborn vigilance, just to defy him.

  "Alpha, may I please be excused from the table. The flight must have disrupted my stomach." I put a hand on my stomach, which really was pretty messed up at the moment.

  "That's too bad; we've got cake for desert. It was a welcome home gift from me to you." He squeezed my arm gently and I sat down on shaky legs and forced a smile.

  Sarah was watching me closely and I shook my head at her, indicating that we would speak in private later. She averted her gaze and picked at her meal quietly.

  "Where's Brian?" I asked suddenly.

  Sarah locked eyes with me again.

  "The child?" The Alpha asked. "He eats when everyone else is finished. Until he is old enough to join the ranks, that's how it will be."

  Again this wasn't breaking the rules, but it was an unnecessary show of force. Not only did he eradicate the other males but he was trying to get rid of Kyle and Sarah as well. Brian who had been the apple of Jack's eye as well as his chosen successor when the time came was currently sitting up in his room waiting patiently to be fed and Sarah wasn't picking at her food, she was saving it.

  I almost lost it right there, and the old Sugar would have but it would have been to no avail because I couldn't beat him.

  I counted to ten, then twenty, but by the time I reached three hundred I was almost sure my pulse had as well. I was pretty certain I had a mini stroke from the hazardous intensity of my blood pressure. I squeaked quietly before I flopped out of my chair and landed on the hardwood floor, unconscious.

  Chapter Nine

  When I woke up again it was getting light outside. I looked at the clock to confirm this and sat up with a blazing headache.

  Gage's deep voice whispered from his room next to mine and I recognized Brian whispering back. Moments later Gage came in carrying Brian who was still wearing bright yellow Sponge Bob pajamas; Gage was only wearing a pair of Levi’s... I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to crawl into my bed at that moment.

  "Morning Sugar," Gage whispered apologetically putting Brian down on my bed. "He said he missed you, and I couldn't just make him go back to bed..."

  Brian walked on his knees until he had his sleepy little body level with mine and he flopped down with a quiet giggle.

  Gage swiped a hand through his longish hair. "How are you feeling this morning?"

  "I think Sugar 3.0 was overloaded with incoming files and had to shut down to reboot." I answered.

  He looked at me with a little concern in his eyes. "Are you sure you’re okay?"

  I propped myself up on my elbows, "Let's see if I got this right? He's in control unless we catch him breaking the rules, wait ’til June Challenges, or someone gets knocked up? Since I seem to be the one with a golden reproductive system I am assuming that's why Elder Coon planted the seed to get me here?"

  He didn't respond.

  "Answer me." I demanded.

  "What do you want to hear?"

  "That's a stupid question; I want to hear the truth for once."

  "I never lied to you."

  "Yes you did. You lied by omission, and that is lying." I whispered out harshly.

  "We didn't think you would come if you knew the truth."

  "You might have been right. It’s one thing to hold me over the shark’s opened jaws as bait, but it’s quite another to put me in the water to go swimming. Don't you think it would have been better to tell me what I was getting into?"

  "The main plan is still to catch him breaking the laws."

  "Yeah, then it will be which laws he’s broken or how many."

  Gage looked to Brian, reminding me the little boy was in the room and I clamped my mouth shut.

  "We'll talk later." He said while leaving the room and closing the door.

  "Miss Sugar, are you here to stay with us?" Brian's eyes shone with the hope I didn't have.

  "It’s a secret, baby boy. You've got to zip your lips and throw away the key on that one. Don't trust any of the girls, they’re on his team."

  "Why are they on his side?"

  "Because, those girls would do anything to be his wife,” I answered. “That means they get to boss people around and spend lots of money."

  "Is he trying to make us go away?"

  "Don't worry Brian; Miss Sugar didn't listen to Uncle Jack. Do you really think I'm going to listen to this guy?"

  He paused looking up at his hands for a moment before speaking again. "I like him, he reminds me of Uncle Jack."

  "Uncle Jack didn't play games." I argued.

  "He did to get you here the first time."

  I wasn't surprised Brian knew this. People had a tendency to forget he was in the room and they spoke freely around him, thinking he understood far less or forgot far more than he really did. He was like a four-foot spy in Sponge Bob pajamas.

  "Let’s go get some breakfast." I pulled Brian off the bed to follow me down the stairs quietly.

  The new Alpha was still in bed, he had taken the downstairs bedroom, which was the largest. It was intended to be the Alpha's but Jack had given it to Sarah and Kyle and he had used the room next to mine.

  We poured about half a box of cereal into a mixing bowl and added a quarter of the gallon of milk, then parked ourselves in front of the television for some cartoons.

  I didn't bother turning down the volume and soon the incessant giggling of a sea sponge and his pink starfish cohort echoed through the downstairs.

  A man's hand grabbed Brian's little wrist as he held a spoonful of sugary marshmallowy goodness. "Did I say you could eat yet?" Robert asked calmly only inches away from Brian's surprised face. I promptly dumped the remains of the bowl of cold cereal on the Alpha’s hot head. Suddenly the room was full of people and I thanked God. Robert stood up very slowly from his kneeling position, the bowl falling to the floor with a metallic clanging. I could still see the tinge of bright red on Robert’s face even through the pattern of milk dripping down onto his shoulders and the floor.

  "You are not the only Alpha in this house. I said he could eat, so back off." I growled back.

  Something had occurred to me during or directly after my reboot from the night before. He couldn't Challenge me either... not until the Challenges. We were of equal position and I wasn't fighting him for that, so he had no reason to pull that card, not without breaking the rules anyway.

  Brian was clinging to my side with a look of shock in his eyes.

  Robert wiped a hand down his face and smiled. "Your reputation is well deserved."

  I was pretty sure he was calling me a bitch, but I had won one battle this morning, there was no need to push my luck. I couldn't help smiling just the same. It looked like if I was going to force this guy into breaking a few rules I was going to have to bend a few rules of my own.

  He stepped forward and brushed his fingers across my cheek then he growled and it wasn’t an, “I’m mad” kind of growl; it sounded more like a purr. Then he said the absolute scariest thing he possibly could have. "Your weakness for the boy is very becoming. You will make an excellent mother." He turned and walked back into his room, chuckling over his shoulder.

  I looked at Sarah, Kyle and
Gage standing on the threshold to the living room and forced a smile. "I'm back."

  A redhead walked up to me and snorted. "What are you going to do genius? You're never going to get on his good side like that."

  "I wasn't aware he had a good side." I snapped back.

  She looked me over and shook her head. "Oh he has a good side, a very good side." She smiled and turned on her toes and left the room.

  Gage grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the stairs and up to our conjoined bedrooms. "Sugar, are you trying to get yourself killed?"

  "He can't touch me, we're on equal ground." I rubbed my sore arm and glared some more.

  "Sugar, Elder Coon doesn't have the authority to grant you your title without the vote of the others. She's playing a game here, don't blow it."

  "Would you guys please tell me the important stuff?" I snapped back. "This is ridiculous, if I cower he'll know something's up and if I don't he'll lose his mind and kill me?" I crossed my arms. "This is bullshit!"

  "Did you really think it was going to be easy?"

  "No, because everything's a freakin’ game to you people. Just shoot the bastard between the eyes and move on."

  "Wasn't it you who told me people of power bend the rules? If they were to bend the rules because this Alpha doesn't meet expectations, when would it stop? Yes, they know he's a bad guy, and yes, what he's doing isn't exactly moral, but he hasn't done anything detrimental to the pack yet." He held up his hands and shrugged.

  "What he is doing to the pack is going to kill it just the same." I said sadly, putting space between us.

  "Sugar, I’m sorry; you’re right.” He softened and closed the gap between us taking my hands in his gently. “You want to go for a run? It usually helps me blow off steam." He smiled sweetly and wiggled his eyebrows.

  "I can’t… right now. I need to check on Brian.”

  “That’s fine if you don’t want to go for a run.” He leaned forward and nuzzled my neck, “There are other ways to blow off steam.”

  I smiled and removed my hands from his. He shrugged backing away, still with that too playful smile on his lips and turned to leave my room. I didn’t follow until I could breathe again and I heard the television turn on.