Enslaved by the Alpha: Part Seven

by Rivard, Viola

  He walked for a few moments, headed nowhere in particular. In his mind, he kept seeing the red line and what it would become—spider webs of darkened blood passageways, as poisoning set in.

  “You’ll be sorry when I get sick and die.”

  Erik’s gut twisted. This was his fault. Why hadn’t he taken the bite more seriously? Once again, he had forgotten how fragile humans were, and this time, it could cost his mate her life.

  He stopped and leaned back on the wall, wiping away the sheen of sweat that had gathered on his forehead. He tried to think of a solution—any solution, but kept hitting dead ends. He had never seen anyone recover from a blood poisoning, not on their own. She needed medicine, but the nearest human settlement was days away. Even running as fast as he could and without taking breaks, he wasn’t sure he could get her there in time. And that was assuming, given her weakened state, that the cold didn’t kill her first.

  The tunnel echoed with the sound of someone large approaching at high speed. Erik didn’t move, but like a wounded animal, he was prepared to lash out if anyone came too close.

  Sylvestre stopped a few meters short of Erik. He was panting for breath and there was an air of urgency about him that managed to momentarily pull Erik from his dark musings.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Sylvestre said. “Sten’s back, and he brought Siluit with him.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  When Sylvestre had said that Sten had brought the Siluit pack, Erik had failed to grasp the sheer scope of what he’d meant. Over the past year, Siluit’s numbers had been whittled down by skirmishes with the bears, and Erik had envisioned their current numbers as being somewhere between one and two dozen. What he found waiting for him ten kilometers outside of his den was a mass of wolves that rivaled the size of Erik’s own pack. He would have thought they’d come to wage war with him, had they not been almost exclusively juveniles and pups.

  Zane stood up at the front, his arm wrapped tightly around his mate. Astrid’s sister looked almost as pallid as Astrid had, though this was likely due to the long journey and the fact that she was still very pregnant.

  Sten stood beside them, and was the first to advance when Erik and Sylvestre arrived. His posture was tense and defensive, as though he were expecting Erik to punch him. Of course, Erik had every reason to do so, yet he had no inclination.

  Sten said, “Erik, hear me out.”

  Before Sten could take more than a couple steps, Zane stepped forward , stopping him with a shake of his head. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I’ll take it from here.”

  Zane approached until he was almost toe to toe with Erik. The cold wind whipped his dark brown hair to one side, and snowflakes clung to several days worth of beard growth. Erik looked him in the eyes, or at least, tried to. The other alpha kept his gaze downturned.

  Silence hung between them, and while there were likely hundreds of gears turning in Zane’s head, Erik’s mind was still. He felt nothing, even as Zane fell down to his knees before him.

  “One week,” Zane said. “We brought our own food. Let us stay here for one week, and when we leave, Ginnifer stays here until I can come back for her.”

  Erik stared down at him, feeling only vexation at how detached he was from this entire situation. He wasn’t angry with his brother and he didn’t feel smug about Zane. He wasn’t even pissed that they were wasting his time, valuable time he could have been using to figure out how to save his mate. If he felt anything, then it was that he felt glad for the distraction this offered, because if he’d been left alone in his own head for much longer, he might have lost his mind.

  He must have stared down at Zane for a while, because the other alpha eventually looked up, his eyes blazing with contempt.

  “What the fuck, Erik? Are you going to give me an answer, or not?”

  Erik took a step back, his body feeling heavier than usual. He flicked his hand in a vague direction and muttered, “Do what you want.” Then he walked away.

  He could hear the crowd of wolves begin to talk at once as he left, heading in the direction opposite the den. There was no point in him going back yet, not when his mate still lay dying and he had no solution.

  Erik didn’t get far before Sten caught up to him. His brother’s eyes were alight with concern.

  “Erik, I’m sorry. I tried to do what you said, but I just couldn’t. All those kids… I had to warn Zane. You can be pissed at me if you want, but maybe when you become a father, you’ll understand.”

  He looked at Sten, his throat constricting.

  “Erik, what is it? Are you… Is there something wrong with Astrid?”

  What he lacked in leadership capabilities, Sten had always made up for with his intuition. But Erik knew that when it came to dealing with blood poisoning, Sten would be as useless as he was.

  “I remember when I was smaller than you,” Erik said. “I followed you everywhere, trying to do everything just the way you did it.”

  “I remember as well. When did that change? When you realized you were big enough to kick my ass, or after the thousandth time you saw father do it?”

  “I never looked down on you for that. I admired how you always got back up and never let him break you.”

  “Thanks…” Sten gave him a pointed look. “Is this a very roundabout way of you telling me that I’m dead to you and that you want me out of the pack?”

  Erik would have grinned, but the muscles in his face wouldn’t cooperate. “No… I remember when it changed. After I won my first fight against you, you told me that our father killed my mother because she tried to strangle me.”

  Sten stopped walking. His mouth hung open and he looked stricken. “I didn’t think you even remembered that. I only said that because I was ashamed and humiliated. I wanted to hurt you, and it was the only way I knew how.

  “I made it up. Your mom would have never done that to you. She was obsessed with you. I remember, she wouldn’t even let me in the same room as you because she was afraid you’d catch my germs. She loved you, Erik.”

  It wasn’t a revelation. Erik had always had a sense that Sten had lied, but once the idea had taken root in the back of his mind, it had proliferated like a strain of weeds, almost impossible to completely eradicate.

  He turned, looking back towards the den. The Siluit wolves had already been reduced to a speck on the horizon.

  “Astrid is sick,” Erik finally said.

  “What, like a cold?”

  “She was bitten by an animal. It looks like an infection that’s spreading to her blood.”

  Sten slapped his brother on the back. “Then what the hell are you doing out here?”

  “What can I possibly do for her?” Erik asked, his lips setting into a grim slash.

  “If she was dying, you could stay by her side. She’s probably scared,” Sten said. “But I don’t think that’ll be necessary, at least not now. It’s a good thing I brought Siluit, because unlike us, they actually have a healer.”

  ***

  “And if I say no?” Zane asked with quiet fury. “Let me guess, you’ll try to take it anyway?”

  The seventy-four members of Siluit—Erik had counted them all—included six capable adults, two elders, forty-eight juveniles of various sizes, and eighteen pups—none of which belonged to Zane. Who the fuck took in a whole bunch of pups that weren’t theirs? Alphas that wanted to lose their territory, that’s who. Of course, Erik had brought them all back to his own den, but once the week was up, he was not above dumping them outside individually and by the scruffs of their necks.

  Erik was in unusually good spirits, despite his mate’s rapidly degenerating condition. That was because according to Indigo, the one juvenile that didn’t seem worthless, Astrid would almost certainly make a full recovery. That was, as soon as she administered the last of Siluit’s course of antibiotics.

  They were in Astrid’s room. Ginnifer was crouched down beside her sister, dabbing Astrid’s head with a cool cloth
. Astrid had woken when her sister had arrived, but her words had been incoherent and it hadn’t been clear if she’d even been aware that she wasn’t dreaming. She had fallen back into unconsciousness shortly before Indigo’s exam, and had remained there.

  Zane stood off to the side of his mate, his arms folded across his chest. On his hard face, Erik saw none of the male that had fallen to his knees only hours before. The moment he’d gotten his brood into the den, he had turned into the same arrogant and entitled asshole Erik had always known him to be.

  “I wouldn’t have to try,” Erik said. “You get in my way and our deal is off. You, your pack, and your mate are out the—”

  “You didn’t even know we had antibiotics when you let us in,” Zane hotly protested. “Is that how this week is going to go? You’re going to keep lumping demands on me and threatening my pack and my family if I don’t comply?”

  “There, it’s done.”

  They both looked down at Ginnifer, who was pulling a syringe from Astrid’s arm. Beside her, Indigo cast an anxious look up at Zane.

  “Gin… That was supposed to be for you,” Zane said gravely.

  Ginnifer was stroking her sister’s hair. “We don’t even know if I’ll need it. Besides, did you really think I was going to sit by and watch my sister die?”

  Erik crouched down beside his mate. He lifted her arm to examine it, but the red line was still there.

  “It doesn’t work right away,” Indigo told him. “It looks like we got to it before the infection reached her blood. We still need to get fluids into her. I can run an IV if she doesn’t wake up, but I’d rather not waste the supplies if we don’t have to.”

  “Thank you,” Erik said, both to the healer, and his mate’s sister.

  He had yet to ask what had led Sten to bring their entire pack to his doorstep, and he no longer cared. Though he would never let Zane know, he would have surrendered his den and handed over his pack in exchange for the medicine to make Astrid well.

  Over the next few hours, the inflammation went down and they managed to get her to drink an adequate amount. Indigo predicted she’d make a full recovery within a few days, and as the night wore on, the room’s occupants finally cleared out, leaving Erik alone with his mate.

  While his mate wouldn’t die, Erik knew that a part of himself had. He wasn’t sure which part, he only knew that the experience had changed him, and that he would never be quite the same again. And that was not such a bad thing, he thought.

  EPILOGUE

  Astrid would never call her mate cute, but if she had to pick a time when he was at his least-threatening, it was definitely while he was asleep. After she woke up, she spent a long time staring at him and taking in his gorgeous features. She had traced the contours of his face, hoping it might gently wake him. It hadn’t, and when Ginnifer had stopped by to check on her, Astrid had gone with her sister to get food and relieve her bladder.

  She’d expected to find the main room segregated, with the Amarok wolves on one side and the Siluit on the other. For the most part, the adults and older teens from Siluit did keep to themselves, but the younger wolves were too curious to stay put and were quick to cozy up to the members of Astrid’s pack. Overnight, Halley had become a queen bee, and there was always a gaggle of youngsters trailing behind her.

  While she’d only spent an hour in the main room, Astrid got the sense that a merger between the two packs might work, at least on a temporary basis. Ginnifer had told her about Erik’s deal with Zane, but Astrid knew that there was no way they were going to kick the Siluit wolves out at the end of the week. She had a feeling that at least for a little while, she’d be able to get Erik to agree to just about anything, including letting the Siluit wolves stay through the end of winter.

  When she arrived back at her room, Erik was still sprawled out on the bed. Smiling to herself, she walked over to climb in next to him. She was still tired and in need of convalescence, but she was happy when his blue eyes sprang open.

  She stroked the side of his face. “Hey, you.”

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, sitting up and rubbing his face.

  “Pretty crappy,” she admitted. “But I’m fever-free, and look—”

  She held out her arm to show him the rash, which had noticeably faded. He took her hand to inspect it, and after thorough scrutiny, he brought it to his chest, flattening her palm over his heart.

  “I’m glad.”

  Despite having slept like a rock, he still looked terribly tired. She wouldn’t insult him by asking if he’d been worried about her. For once, the answer was written all over his face. She felt guilty as she saw the deep lines of strain, not because she felt bad for worrying him, but because secretly it made her happy to know he’d been so concerned about her.

  Astrid climbed into his lap. Erik pulled a pelt up around her shoulders and then held her in a loose embrace.

  She asked, “Does this mean I don’t have to go hunting anymore?”

  “I’m never letting you above ground again,” he said, his expression unnervingly serious.

  “That sounds a bit extreme.”

  She rested her head against his chest. For a moment, she listened to the sound of his heart beating and enjoyed the comfortable quiet.

  “I do love you,” she said softly. “I wasn’t saying that because I was delirious.” She waited for him to say something. And waited. “I’m sure it’s a lot for you to take in. I mean, it’s kind of a big deal. I’ve only ever said that to one other person. Well, besides my parents. And Ginnifer. And maybe a few teachers, but this is different. I’m in love with you. Don’t ask me why. Seriously, don’t. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now and the only thing I can come up with is that I’m a complete masochist.”

  Astrid looked up at him, anticipating that he’d look either annoyed or he’d be sporting his trademark blank expression. Instead, his features were relaxed and he looked very much at peace.

  Suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious, she said, “Anyway, I just wanted to get that out. You don’t have to say it back.”

  “All right.”

  “All right?” she asked, biting down on her bottom lip.

  “All right,” he repeated.

  “Well, I mean, I’m not saying you can’t say it back if you want to, you know? Do you…want to?”

  Erik shrugged one shoulder. “Not particularly.” Before her heart could implode, his lips slanted into a grin. “I’d much rather watch you squirm.”

  Her anxiety bubbled up into laughter. She tried to give him a playful swat on the arm, but he caught her hand, holding it up by the wrist.

  His expression turning serious again, he said, “I wasn’t careful with you. That won’t happen again.”

  Astrid thought of pointing out that being dangerous was probably part of his appeal, but decided against it. Hopefully his caution would remain solely reserved for matters outside of the bedroom. If she knew her mate at all, then that wouldn’t be an issue. If she knew her mate at all…

  At this point, what do you have to lose?

  “Tell me you love me,” she said.

  Erik rested his forehead against hers, and his lips curved into a sexy smile. “Listen closely, human. I will not say these words again.”

  CAPTURING THE ALPHA

  While contemplating a marriage proposal from her long-time boyfriend, freelance filmmaker Ginnifer Castillo embarks on the journey of a lifetime—traveling to Nunavut in order to film arctic werewolves.

  Zane is the alpha of Siluit, one of the largest and most successful wolf packs in the northern hemisphere. In an effort to cast off the legacy of his weak father, he lets logic guide all of his decision making, even when he chose his mate.

  When they meet, the chemistry between them is explosive, but so is the effect that their forbidden romance will have on their lives.

  Full-Length Novel

  Coming January 26th, 2016

  ***

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