by Anna Craig
Surely that had to mean something? She might not know much about shifter politics, but common sense, as well as some deep, prompting instinct, told her being claimed by the pack was a good thing for her safety.
Thayne sketched a mocking half bow toward her.
“Indeed, lovely Cassandra.” His voice scratched over her in a slick yet nasty mimicry of Trevor's favorite term for her. “You have been claimed by the pack. With my own blood. The blood of Reginalds now flows through your human veins.” He sounded utterly revolted by that fact.
Cassie swallowed. “Then I'm your blood kin now, and you can't hurt me. Right?”
That would have sounded fine, except her stupid voice still wobbled a bit. She made herself stand up, despite shaky legs and a head rush that told her she wasn't quite all there yet. Pulling the rough cloak tightly around her, she hoped like crazy he couldn't hear how hard her heart thumped.
To her surprise, Thayne laughed. “Feisty,” he murmured, almost to himself. “I do see. Indeed. Yes, Cassandra,” he went on more briskly, “you are my blood kin. You are correct in that I may not hurt you.” He sounded seriously bummed by his own statement. “I am held by the bonds of the pack. We may not harm one another with intent to kill.”
Cassie let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
“However.” Thayne's voice turned gossamer light, and suddenly his presence scared the shit out of Cassie more than ever. “However, a wolf who is not in the Wicked Mountain Pack has no such compunctions.”
Behind him, a low laugh echoed off the walls. A female laugh. It wasn't a nice one, either.
Cassie's head pounded again, but this time from a surge of terror. Run! something primal and ancient inside her shrieked, but her feet were leaden, stuck to the ground as icy terror gripped her limbs.
Thayne smiled and gestured to the person behind to step forward. As she did, Cassie gasped.
Aliana. The female shifter who'd said Cassie had to die for daring to be the mate of the alpha. Tall, coldly beautiful, her eyes raking Cassie up one side and down the other—and apparently finding her still lacking, to judge from her disdainful expression—Aliana stalked toward Cassie.
Oh, shit. Cassie backed up, but after only a few feet she hit the jagged wall of the lava cave. No way out. Especially not with two very scary wolf shifters looking at her like she was definitely part of some human extermination plan.
“Now, love,” Thayne murmured, his hand casually slipping along Aliana's side as the woman passed him. “Let us be done with this foolishness of my brother's now.”
Cassie swallowed hard, urging her rattled brain to think even as she realized she couldn't decipher whatever was going on between the two. “But you're part of the pack, too,” she said, looking at Aliana as the woman prowled ever closer. “You can't hurt me. Um, right?” Her voice almost slipped out of her control as bright, wolf-enhanced eyes fixed her in the unblinking gaze of a predator. Jeez, that was unnerving as hell.
A lethal smile stretched across the female shifter's face. “I can't hurt you if I am a member of the Wicked Mountain Pack, no.”
Thank god.
Aliana stopped about five feet away from Cassie, once again treating her to a contemptuous look. Cassie's hands scrabbled at the wall behind her, stupidly trying to find something she could use to defend herself. Because a chunk of rock would be so helpful against wolf shifters. Where the hell was her own big, bad, alpha wolf shifter mate now?
“However.” Aliana's voice hissed, the timbre of it dropping close to the rumbling growl of a wolf.
Oh, shit. Cassie's entire body trembled with an almost overwhelming urge to just bolt.
“As of today, I am no longer a part of the pack, because of you.” She spat the word with such venom Cassie flinched, half expecting actual poison to shoot out of the woman's mouth. “But at least that means you are now fair game for me. You vile, fat little human bitch.”
Cassie had no time to respond to either the shocking news or that low blow. With a savage howl, Aliana shifted into a sleek gray wolf and launched herself at Cassie, her terrifying jaws opened wide to kill.
Taken by the Pack
Wicked Wolf Shifters 3
Chapter 1
Trevor Reginald, alpha of the Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack, master of his newly claimed mate, and just recently well-sated by said mate, stalked through his pack's estate. Beset by a strange combination of relaxation and ire, enjoyment and annoyance, he took the moment to focus on the pleasure rather than the irritations.
It was a victory short-lived. Rounding a corner in one of the seemingly endless hallways, he nearly crashed into a small knot of people huddled together, talking in hushed, rapid-fire tones. As one, they froze when he appeared, voices cutting off as suddenly as if strangled. But before they did, his sharp hearing caught a single name, uttered in a scornful whisper. Cassandra.
Trevor's brows lowered in thunderous disapproval. Damned humans. The lot of them, all one-time pack surrenders or current employees. Gossiping, annoying creatures. The only reason he withstood their presence here was ancient precedence and, much more practically, current market reasons. Aside from the young cubs who were required to help around the estate until they reached their first maturity, shifters naturally refused to work for the decent but certainly not substantial wages he paid the cleaning staff and groundskeepers and cooks. As for the surrenders, he had no choice. Surrenders had to come to the pack annually or sometimes even seasonally. The balance of the universe itself would veer sharply off-kilter if he ended that practice.
Or so said the superstitious. The latest surrender was now his mate, and nothing terrible yet seemed to grip the pack, no matter what his endlessly vexing brother might try to insinuate.
Trevor narrowed his eyes at the group. One swallowed audibly, but otherwise they hardly breathed.
“Am I interrupting something?” He kept his voice smooth yet edged with deadly power. “Such as, your duties?”
Five sets of eyes remained fixed on the ground as the heads they belonged to vigorously shook no. Trevor made sure to note exactly who each one was, particularly the one who had mentioned his mate's name in such disrespectful tones. Then he dismissed them with a growled order. They scattered like tossed seeds, almost colliding with one another to escape his presence as they fled down the hallway in the other direction. Frown still stapled to his face, he watched them run off. He would allow Tamsin to deal with their discipline later. She generally handled the estate's staff, and certainly did a far better job of it than he.
Trevor muttered a sharp little oath, mostly at himself. As alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the country, naturally he should command respect as well as fear in the humans who served at his pleasure. Humans were useful in many ways, and the outside world was an intriguing place in no small part because of their whims, curiosities, endless inventions, and devotion to entertainment. Yet on occasion, the level of fear they displayed around him bordered on the ridiculous. Surely he wasn't that terrifying of a monster.
Well. Perhaps he should reconsider the tradition of bringing humans to the full moons hunts, for one thing. They certainly didn't seem to appreciate the inherent gore of those events, to judge by the number of times they fainted, vomited, or otherwise became completely useless while they were supposed to be assisting the pack members.
Hmph.
Resuming his stride toward the council chambers, Trevor firmly set his thoughts back on Cassandra. Just imagining her soft skin, luscious lips, generous curves, and that irrepressibly sassy mouth did interesting things to his mind, his cock, and the vicinity of his chest. He'd left her drowsing in the early afternoon warmth of the claiming meadow, smelling like sunshine and flowers and her unique, intoxicating aroma of sweet sex. And him. His scent had washed over her, branding her as his. Not that anyone would disturb her where she lay. Officially claimed, she was now part of the pack, and as such would be accepted into it without question, left untroubled by the fool
ish vagaries of any silly gossipers.
In the meantime, he had to attend to official pack details yet again. As he headed toward the council chamber, he briefly wished his beta, Jackson, second-in-command of the pack, would hurry up his damned vacation and get back already. Surely by now the man must have fucked half the women in the tropical paradise he'd jetted off to last week and tired of the novelty of shifter groupies who populated the wider world. His time would be far better spent here, attending to bothersome minutiae such as these, so that Trevor could enjoy the company of his delicious new mate without any more damned interruptions.
Trying to decide whether it would be worth the endless bellyaching that would occur if he summoned Jackson back early, Trevor was almost at the council chambers when enraged growls and hissing just ahead caught his attention.
Wolves, fighting.
Leaping forward in a burst of speed, he charged through one of the large open doorways onto the stone terrace that dotted parts of the building's western side. There, he saw the enraged pair in question.
Tamsin. And Aliana.
Both in wolf form, they circled one another. Each face snarled in a rictus of fury just before they sprang at one another in what clearly was not the first time, to judge by the tufts of silvery-gray fur scattered across the gracefully decorated yet now disarrayed area. Aliana screamed in rage as Tamsin managed to get a swipe across her ribs before nimbly leaping away.
Despite himself, Trevor smiled in grim satisfaction. His sister was nothing if not a ferocious and skilled fighter. She ought to be. He'd trained her himself.
Regardless of his pleasure in her fierceness, protocol demanded he halt the fight.
“Enough,” his voice snapped out, backed by his alpha power so each wolf would hear it and submit.
Aliana yelped once, both in startlement as well as frustration. Tamsin merely sat back on her haunches and licked something off her paw, deliberately broadcasting the message that she didn't fear Aliana enough to remain in a crouched position.
Smart, smart wolf, his sister.
“Shift,” Trevor ordered.
They both shifted back to human form. Aliana winced as she put a hand to the long, deep scratch across her ribs. Glaring at Tamsin, she then turned to Trevor. Her demeanor instantly changed from aggressive to placating—and sultry.
“She attacked me, alpha,” Aliana said, her voice sounding plaintive even as she lowered her head to look up at him through her eyelashes, taking a step toward him. She radiated desire and a soft, almost kittenish need for comfort all at once.
Tamsin laughed, a scornful sound. Trevor kept his face impassive, simply waiting for the rest of it. Aliana had not stopped angling for the role of alpha female in the pack ever since—
He felt his face settle into an iron mask.
“Because you would not listen to truth, Aliana,” Tamsin said, fixing the other woman with a hard gaze. “The alpha has found his mate, and he has claimed her. That mate is not you, and never will be. Your place in this pack shall be determined otherwise.”
“The alpha has found a human surrender who thinks to enjoy pack privileges that are not open to humans!” Aliana's facade of need tore away as her true self emerged again. Alpha, manipulative, and increasingly desperate. She'd been fun to dally with at the time, Trevor had to admit, but his every memory of her now tarnished to ugly brass in comparison to the soft, gorgeous, authentic truth of Cassandra.
His mate.
Delight mingled with a nervous ripple of fear shivered their way down his skin. He channeled the skiff of fear into a razor-like focus instead.
“You question your alpha's choice, Aliana?” Trevor's voice fell into the tense tableau, disarmingly soft.
Tamsin, who knew him well, took a generous step back. Aliana, however, misread the signs and took another step closer. “I question the wisdom of allowing a human woman so close to heart of the pack.” Her voice eased through the quiet air, silken soft in its attempt to beguile. “A human who neither knows nor understands our ways.” She took one more step forward, now just mere feet from him. Slowly, she raised her hand, reaching out to stroke his chest in a deliberately intimate move. “A human who cannot wisely counsel you in the leadership of our pack. A human who can never be a shifter, alpha. A human,” she breathed, leaning toward him and oozing her calculated needs onto him in a deliberate web, “who will die long before you.”
Tamsin sucked in a sharp breath at those treacherous words. Trevor stood utterly motionless despite the terrible memories that threatened to drown him.
“Your words edge the line of pack mutiny, Aliana,” he warned. Threatening an alpha's mate, even indirectly, was historically grounds for death. His voice remained so dangerously flat his sister took another step backward.
Aliana, however, merely smiled at him with a false comfort, seeming secure in her own worth and stance. “Not at all. It's a simple reminder. Wasn't the first time you lost a mate enough for you?”
At those words, a vague roaring noise muted Trevor's hearing, although he did make out Tamsin snapping, “You have a fucking death wish, Aliana, you stupid little fool.”
A red haze clouded his vision. The unbidden memories roared up once more, sending bolts of what he angrily recognized as pain whipping through his chest. This time, he finally could not so easily bat the feelings away.
Reason abruptly parted his company. Trevor shifted into his wolf so fast even his sister gasped in shock. Aliana's eyes widened as he leaped, knocking her to the ground so hard her head cracked on the stones. She cried out, but before she could even complete the exclamation of pain, Trevor straddled her with his paws on either side of her body, closing his massive jaws around her throat.
“Trevor, what—” Tamsin said in horror, but his warning growl silenced her. Aliana gurgled in terror as his huge, scalpel-sharp teeth grazed her delicate human throat. Giving her the lightest shake, he paused to see if she would obey.
Her entire body went limp, her frightened human eyes staring into his wolf ones for a split second before dropping in utter submission. He could rip out her throat or snap her neck in half a heartbeat right now. She wouldn't be able to shift fast enough to save herself. Red fury still muddying his sight, Trevor forced himself to keep still despite his deepest instincts urging him to destroy any wolf that showed such utter disrespect for his mate. The claimed mate of the alpha. Aliana might be a jealous female struggling to assert her place in his pack, but this time he could not allow her insubordination to go without harsh response.
Insubordination, and downright cruelty. She had overstepped, and he had been pushed too far.
After long, ominous seconds, he felt reason drop back into his brain by at least a small degree. Carefully, he released his light grip and pulled his head back. Keeping one lip lifted in a snarl, he awaited Aliana's response.
She sighed in defeat as she turned her neck just a bit to present it to him in willing deferral. But then she looked back up at him, eyes glittering with defiance. “I more than welcome your mastery as my alpha, Trevor.” Her voice oozed something simultaneously both challenging and disdainful. “As the highest ranking alpha female in the pack”—Tamsin growled low under her breath at that—“clearly my place is at your side.”
Aliana, it seemed, also had been pushed to far. Trevor shuddered with mingled rage and pain, another snarl escaping. In a sharp voice, Tamsin said, “Think, brother.”
“Oh, I am,” he growled, his words perfectly clear to both women. “And your choices have made up my mind, Aliana.” He glared at the female wolf who dared to be treacherous in her words, who dared to think she knew better than he what was
best for their pack, who dared to taunt him with the one thing of which no one was allowed to speak. The one thing he knew kept him trussed in rigid knots—until Cassandra. At the thought of his sweet, luscious, vulnerably human mate, Trevor felt his decision settle into utter rightness.
“Aliana Dane, you have irrevocably betrayed your
pack and your alpha.” Trevor registered loud gasps from both women at the traditional words, but he forged on. “For that, you are cast out of Wicked Mountain Pack, to be packless until you might find those who would take you in. You are done here,” he ended, his voice so deep in a growl it echoed through his very bones.
Aliana opened her mouth to say something, shock and growing fury writ large on her face, but Trevor moved faster. He slammed his paw onto her chest, not hard enough to kill, but hard enough to thwap the breath out of it momentarily. She tried to inhale, couldn't, and entered into a panicked, silent gasping for air and thrashing about as he stepped back. Leaving her to miserably choke on her own empty lungs until they refilled, he turned to his sister, shifting back to human as he did so.
“Escort her away from here.” Trevor kept his voice flat, struggling to contain a shaking rage. “Then meet me in council chambers. We will have a much longer session in there now, thanks to her theatrics having burgeoned into treason.”
Shaking her head, Tamsin said in low tones, “Thayne won't like this.” She cast a dubious look at Aliana, who still struggled to heave the air back into her lungs. “Even if she does deserve her fate.”
Trevor stared at his sister, uncomprehending. “And what does it matter whether Thayne likes it or not? He is not alpha.”
“No,” Tamsin said quietly. She eyed Trevor for a moment before carefully saying, “But he is her lover.”
Before Trevor could address that astonishing bit of information, footsteps raced down the hallways and skidded to a stop at the doorway to the terrace.
“What the hell is going on here?” Thayne, horror and rage scattering across his face as he took in the scene.
Damn it all. Tamsin was right. Aliana must have called to Thayne in her fear when Trevor leapt on her, as wolves who had a bond could do.
With sudden, chilling clarity, things abruptly fell into place. Thayne had been using Aliana as a pawn in his game to gain alpha status. He'd probably told her to get close to Trevor in an attempt to worm her way into being alpha female.
