“The vampires have been pushing deeper into our territories,” he said, helping her to the ground so she could sit and rest. “It’s not safe for a lone female to be out here at night.”
“I know,” she replied. “I just needed to get away from my pack for a while.”
The sound of multiple bodies crashing through the woods drew her attention to where the stranger’s pack mates had rejoined him. “We didn’t get the filthy vamp, but I think we scared him enough that he won’t be back for a while,” said one of them.
“Will you be okay to get back to your pack?” asked the stranger.
Before Sienna could answer, one of the Silverlake wolves stepped forward and snarled “you’re going to let her go?”
“She was nearly killed by that vampire,” he replied, positioning himself between Sienna and the other wolf. “She’s of no value to us as a prisoner, and I think she’s been through enough for one night. I see no reason not to let her return to her pack.”
“But sh—”
“But nothing,” said the stranger in such a commanding tone that Sienna thought he might be the alpha of the Silverlake pack. “She is not to be touched by any of you. Is that understood?” The other wolves whimpered in submission. “Return home. I’ll follow shortly behind you.”
“Thank you again,” said Sienna, allowing him to help her to her feet. “That’s twice you’ve saved me in one night.”
“This feud we have between our packs is childish nonsense,” he grunted. “I refuse to be a part of it.”
“That’s something we can both agree on.” She stepped gingerly on her injured foot, wincing with the pain. “It hurts, but I think I can make it back on my own.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said. “I’ll help you back to your village. Well, at least as far as I can go without being attacked by your pack.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You don’t know me,” he said with a grin, “so I’ll forgive you for questioning me, but I’m a very stubborn wolf, and I’m not going to let an injured female wander through the woods alone at night. Now take my arm and let’s get going.”
True to his word, he helped Sienna navigate the uneven path back to her cabin, or at least as close to it as she dared bring him. She knew how to get in and out of her pack’s village without being spotted, and she stopped when they were in sight of her cabin.
“I guess this is where we part ways,” she said. “Will I see you again?”
“It’s probably for the best if I don’t ever see you near the territory boundary again,” he said. “But I will admit that it was a pleasure to have been able to meet you tonight. I far prefer the company of a beautiful young wolf than that of my testosterone fueled pack mates.”
Sienna smiled in an effort to hide her disappointment. “Well if I do happen to be out for a run at night, and I see you there on the other side of the boundary, then I’ll know it’s fate that we’ve met again.”
The stranger chuckled softly and shook his head without saying another word. He turned away from her and shifted into a powerful and stunning white wolf before loping off into the trees and disappearing into the night.
CHAPTER TWO
Moonlight filtered through the bare branches where Sienna ran along the boundary stream’s edge. She knew it was dangerous to be in this particular part of the forest so close to Silverlake territory, but in the last month of following this same trail, she’d yet to come close to being caught by anyone. Careful to avoid anything even remotely resembling a trap, she bounded up onto a slight rocky outcrop, pausing and panting from her exertion.
Every night she ran now. Every night she found a way to free herself from duty and exhaustion in the hope that she might run into the white wolf who’d saved her and helped her home. His penetrating blue eyes where there every time she closed her eyes, and she’d awoken in a start more than once with a wetness between her legs and an ebbing sensation of sensual pleasure. On these nights, she dipped her fingers down into the furry patch of her pubic hair, teasing the swollen bump of her clit and imagining what might have happened at the strange wolf come into her cabin after all. She pictured him there on top of her, his hands on her body, and his hot breath on her neck. She rubbed her fingers in firm and steady circles, biting her lips and moaning softly as she climaxed to the memory of the way he’d held her after rescuing her from the vampire.
The daylight always dawned with her alone in her bed, worn out from her long run and late night self-fulfillment. Now, standing and looking over the vast section of forest that was forbidden to her and any of her Blackstone pack mates, she wondered if she’d ever see her white wolf again. She knew deep inside that they could never be together, but that didn’t keep her from coming out night after night in the hopes that she might catch a glimpse of his perfect white fur gleaming in the moonlight.
Sienna turned and ran back the way she’d come, disappointed again, but not completely without hope that she might see the stranger again soon. She could feel it in her gut in a way that she couldn’t have explained to anyone if she’d had someone she trusted enough to tell. There was a sensation of knowing inside her. She was certain that she and the white wolf would meet again, even she didn’t know how or when.
Life in the pack might have seemed easy going to an outsider, but there was a thread of subtle nuance that rippled around the pack members like an electric current that never shut off. There was a chain of command leading from the alpha down to the youngest pup, and although no visible signs of this hierarchy were evident, every wolf knew their place in the pack, or they were harshly reminded of it the second they dared step out of line. Of course, outside of the alpha’s position, everyone else fought for status like warriors or politicians might. The males tended to prefer brute force to display their dominance over other wolves, while the females employed gossip and rumor to do their dirty work.
Sienna had never had any tolerance for the games her pack mates played. She didn’t care about power or standing in the pack, and she would be damned if she’d ever stoop as low as some of the females did when it came to putting down a supposed friend just to gain a better shot at landing one of the top males. When facing an outside threat like the Silverlake tribe or the vampires, the pack would act as one unit and defend each other until death overtook them, but within the pack it was a different story altogether.
Although Sienna stayed at the edges of the pack politics and social circles, she did have a few friends among her fellow wolves. The truth of it was that she was their only herbalist and healer, and that sooner or later most of the wolves in her pack would need to visit her for one reason or another. She made a point of being kind and patient with these people despite the lack of respect some of them showed her, and it had gained her some respect with a few of the other females in the pack.
Sienna sat with two of these women, chatting idly about the coming winter and supplies they hoped would come in from the next run to the city. Her two friends had both mated and given birth to young pups, and although visiting with them gave her slight pangs of jealousy, she still enjoyed the chance to chat and relax while holding one of the babies. The little ones were always so innocent and unaware of the nonsense that they’d have to deal with as they grew older, and it made Sienna feel that staying with her pack was worthwhile. It was one of the few things that kept her there, and she enjoyed these happy reminders of why she put in the hours helping those who would just as soon put her down or make fun of her.
She’d just handed one of the babies back to his mother when she heard the noise of a hunting party coming back to the village. Sienna sighed and apologized to her friends, thinking that she might be needed to heal one of the hunters, but by the time she’d stepped down off the front porch of her friend’s cabin, she realized that the yelling she could hear coming from the center of the village was not the usual celebratory cheering that might happen after a successful hunt, but more of an angry shouting that meant something els
e entirely.
When she arrived at the edge of the gathering crowd, she saw the reason for all the noise. A man was on his knees next to two of the pack’s toughest hunters. His hands were bound tightly behind his back with thick rope, and just as Sienna squeezed into a position to possibly catch a glimpse of who he might be, Kane strode out of the crowd and kicked the man in the back, sending him face first into the ground where he lay motionless.
“What’s going on?” Sienna asked a young boy next to her.
“They caught one of them sneaking around the edge of our territory!” he said, his eyes wide with excitement. “I heard he almost killed Roald before they finally took him down!”
Sienna didn’t have to ask what ‘one of them’ meant. The Blackstones and Silverlakes were the only two wolf packs in the area, and the feud between the two clans had a long and bloody history. If they’d really caught him sneaking around inside Blackstone territory, then things weren’t likely to go well for him.
“Sienna,” said Kane, his eyes locking onto her in the crowd. “Come.”
The two hunters picked up the Silverlake spy and dragged him off towards the edge of the village. Kane glared at the people who’d come to watch, and ordered them back to whatever they were doing.
“I need you to heal our prisoner,” he said to Sienna when he was certain that his pack was following his orders. “We need to get some answers out of him, and I don’t want him dying before I can rip his throat out with my own hands.”
No matter what she might have thought of the situation, Sienna knew better than to disobey her alpha in public. She hated having to play any role in the torture and interrogation of the captive, but Kane would likely beat her to within an inch of her life if she didn’t follow his orders to the letter.
The pack didn’t have much use for a prison of any sorts, but there was a small cave with a heavy iron grate that served as a holding place for anyone who got a little too drunk at a feast, or in a rare case like this, for actually holding a prisoner from another pack. Sienna couldn’t remember the last time she’d been back here, and as she walked down the path and past the two hunters standing guard, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew who she’d find locked away. It had been nearly two months since the night he’d rescued her from the vampire, but she’d thought of little else in the meantime.
The stranger lay unconscious on the hard dirt floor. His face was a bloody mess, and although his shirt was still in one piece, she expected to find bruises all over his body. The wolves who’d brought him in wouldn’t have held back in their beating of him, and Sienna was a little surprised that he was even alive.
She crouched next to him and opened the bag she’d retrieved from her cabin. She poured water over a scrap of cloth and cleaned off as much of the blood as possible. Mixing a paste of herbs and soft clay, she smeared this over the worst of the cuts, glad that he wasn’t awake to suffer the excruciating pain that would come from having his injuries treated.
When she’d done what she could with the damage to his face, she used an herbal mixture designed to wake even the drunkest of men from their stupor and waved the small uncapped flask under his nose. He twitched once and his eyes shot open, alarm and confusion written across his face.
“Be calm,” she said, raising her palms towards him to show that she meant him no harm. “You’re badly injured, and I’m trying to help you.”
“Where am I?” he growled. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re in the Blackstone camp,” she replied. Sienna removed an insulated flask from her bag and set about pouring out a cup of hot tea. “Here, drink this. You need to hydrate.”
He squinted his eyes and sniffed at the steaming liquid. She thought he might ask what was in it, but his eyes softened and he drank it down in one long gulp. Sienna refilled the cup and handed it back to him.
“You were captured in the woods inside our territory,” she explained. “There are two guards outside, and I’m to heal you so they can begin questioning you.”
“It hurts to breathe,” he said, his hand pressing against one side of his chest.
“Lift up your shirt,” she ordered. He did as he was told, and she probed gently around the massive purplish green bruise forming over his ribcage. “Broken ribs.”
“My head…” he said. “I feel dizzy. Confused.”
“It looks like they did a number on you. You were bleeding quiet heavily when they brought you in. I gave you some herbs to help reduce the swelling and ease the pain. If you think you can stomach it, you should probably eat something to get your strength back.”
Sienna retrieved a bundle of dried and smoked elk from her bag and gave it to him. He tore a chunk of it off with his teeth and chewed slowly, pain evident on his face from even this simple task.
“I feel like shit.”
“They almost killed you,” she said. “That gash on your head is quite deep, and you’ve already lost a lot of blood.”
“Then we’re even for that night in the woods,” he said with the slightest hint of a smile.
Sienna busied herself with something in her bag and spoke softly. “So you do remember me.”
“Of course. I recognized you the instant I awoke.” He bit off another chunk of meat and stared at her while chewing.
“We’re not quite even,” she said. She’d done what she could to heal him for now, and she really should already have left him and reported to Kane, but she found herself stalling.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“You saved me twice that night. Once from the vampire, and once from your own pack.”
“That’s part of the reason I came here in the first place,” he said in a low voice. “I was on my way to warn you when that hunting party surprised me. My pack is planning an all out attack on your village in an effort to end this war between us once and for all. They plan to spare no one, but I felt compelled to warn you. I’ve thought of you often since our meeting in the forest, and I couldn’t bear the thought of having you massacred in your sleep.”
Sienna’s mouth opened and closed, but she didn’t know what to say. While the animosity between the two packs had been in place as long as she’d been alive, neither pack had ever dared openly attack the other. They each had minimal defenses around their borders, but neither pack was really prepared for an assault on the village. If the Silverlakes attacked her village in the night, they’d have an easy time of slaughtering everyone.
“This war has to end,” he continued. “My alpha is determined to see this through, and although he wishes to simply eradicate the Blackstone line, I risked my life to come here in the hopes that I could convince you to help me. Not all your brothers and sisters must die. Help us, and we’ll ensure that only those who fight against us are killed. The rest of your village will be welcomed into the Silverlake pack.”
“And if I don’t help you?”
“Then there’s nothing I can do for anyone, not even you.” He reached out to squeeze her hand. “Please, if you won’t help us then run. Become a lone wolf and run for your freedom.”
“When is it happening?” Sienna felt panicked and conflicted. The idea of a battle was unthinkable, but what was her real choice here? Save some of her pack, or lose everyone, even those she cared about.
“It could be any time now. Most likely not for a few weeks, but my alpha is being secretive about his true intentions to avoid word of this leaking out. It could happen sooner.”
“I don’t know if I can help you or not, but you warning me makes three times you’ve spared me from harm.” Sienna bit her lip and shook her head. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do. “I owe you my life, and the least I can do is let you go free.”
“I won’t forget this…” he paused. “I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Sienna,” she said, wanting to run with him but realizing how dangerous that would be for both of them.
“My name is Arric.” He stood and looked down at Sie
nna. “Find me tonight at midnight where the boundary stream splits around the old oak tree.”
Sienna nodded. “I know the place. Go quickly. The gate is unlocked, and the guards are several paces down the path. You’ll have to run the long way around the village, but you can make it if you hurry.”
Arric ran from the prison cell without another word, and Sienna hurried to throw her things around to make it look like she’d been attacked. She gritted her teeth and went to the rock wall of the cave where she breathed in deeply and smacked her face into the rough surface hard enough to draw blood on her cheek. It hurt like hell, but she didn’t have time to think about that.
Sprawled on the ground with her eyes closed, she feigned unconsciousness for what felt like hours before someone found her and shook her awake. She pretended to regain awareness of her situation slowly, and acted as groggy as she could manage.
“What…?” she mumbled.
“The prisoner escaped,” said one of the guards.
He helped her to a sitting position and crouched next to her, obvious concern on his face. The wound on her cheek stung like mad, and she felt a headache that made her wonder if she’d done too convincing of a job making it look like she’d had her head slammed against the wall by Arric before he’d supposedly overpowered her.
“Pathetic,” said the voice of Kane as he stepped into the cell and surveyed the scene. “But I suppose that’s what happens when a woman is left in charge of an important prisoner. Gather your things and return to your cabin. We have no more need of you here.”
The hunter who’d helped her to her feet was kind enough to her once Kane stalked off in an angry huff, and he helped her gather her things before escorting her back to her cabin.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he said with obvious sympathy for how Kane had treated her.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
She waved him off and went inside to put a kettle of water on to boil. She’d need to clean herself up and get some rest if she was to go out to meet Arric that night, but first she needed a cup of soothing tea to calm her nerves. It wasn’t so much the events of the last few hours that had her on edge, but rather what was to come that night. The idea of meeting with Arric alone in the forest set her stomach fluttering in a way that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
Rise of the Female Alpha Page 2
