by Sky Winters
“Coming,” I mumbled, dragging myself out of bed.
“About time, Mr. Decker,” Miss Abby said, raising an eyebrow at me.
I was hungover and tired, and slumped down at the table without acknowledging her. I was beginning to hate that my seat was permanently beside Alex, and did my best to avoid his eye.
“I have something I want to give you before you leave today,” Miss Abby said, unfazed by my mood.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
Everybody was quiet during breakfast, and I retreated from the dining room as soon as I could. I could hardly stomach the smell of food, let alone keep it down. Everything felt heavy in my stomach, and I was hoping to avoid Alex.
“Decker,” Miss Abby said, “Come here and put this on for me, please.”
Miss Abby was holding out an amulet, just like the one that Alex wore.
“If you put this on, it will reduce your danger while you’re staying in the Bayou,” she said. “It conceals your scent and helps you to avoid ambushes.”
I took the amulet and frowned at it. I was proud of my scent. I was an alpha. It was kind of criminal to go into hiding like that. It really solidified the fact that now, I was an outcast. Did she think I couldn’t take care of myself?
“I can guess what you must be thinking right now,” Miss Abby said. “But it’s your choice whether to wear it or not. It keeps other shifters from picking fights and making trouble that doesn’t have to be made. You do what’s right for you, Decker. I know your father would have refused to wear it. It’s completely up to you.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, stuffing the amulet in my pocket.
“Hey Decker,” Alex said, striding out of the dining room. Somehow, despite our late night, he was looking as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever. “You ready to go?”
“Nah, man,” I said, turning my back on him and heading up the stairs. “I’m going back to bed.”
I could sense that he wanted to push the subject, but the last thing I needed was to spend a horribly awkward day with Alex. Our fling hadn’t meant anything to me, and I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. I had given in to temptation, but that didn’t mean that we had any possibility of getting any closer.
I waited in my room until I was sure Alex had left, and then went back to bed until lunch time. Alex wasn’t there for lunch, and everybody chatted pleasantly. They had learned I wasn’t the talkative type and left me out of most meal conversations. Especially after Miss Abby had warned them about asking me invasive questions.
“Have you given the amulet any thought, Decker?”
I turned around, surprised to see Mrs. Lewis.
“No, ma’am,” I said. Mrs. Lewis was normally as silent as I was during meals, so I hadn’t recognized her voice at all. She was soft-spoken, and although she didn’t look like she had a mean bone in her body, from her gaze I could tell that she was the type to hold her own.
“Well, I’d like you to consider it,” she said, gesturing for me to follow her out onto the porch. She sat carefully on the stoop. I stood across from her and she took a deep breath. “My boy was killed a while back. He didn’t want anything to do with the amulets. We’d been forced out of our pack. They didn’t like having a woman as an alpha.”
So that explained her serious attitude. I had never considered that a female could be an alpha, but I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“What happened to your son?” I asked, trying to hide my surprise.
“He thought he could handle himself out here. Called this place the boonies. We were from a city far out yonder, and he liked to think that he was a big shot because he was the son of an alpha. I am partly to blame for that; he was raised with a soft hand.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being confident.”
“Oh honey,” Mrs. Lewis said, a wry grin creasing her face. “There’s a fine line between being confident and stupid, and my boy Rodney walked it.”
“I’m sorry about your loss,” I said, unsure of what else to say about it.
“So am I,” Mrs. Lewis said, her eye clouding over. “I’m sure you’re wondering how it happened.”
I nodded, relieved that I wouldn’t have to wonder or pry to find out.
“He refused Miss Abby’s amulet, then went out into the forest alone. I hear it’s something like what happened to your pap. He came across some rough characters looking for someone to rough up. There’s nothing more rowdy than a shifter with nothing left to lose.”
“I understand,” I said. And in a way, I could relate to that, too. I had been a complete pig with Alex, taking what I wanted without any consideration for him at all. He had seemed okay with it, but he shouldn’t be all right being dominated by someone who was feeling as rough and uncaring as I was. He deserved better than that, and if I couldn’t even keep a jerk like Jake happy, there was no way I would be able to give a guy like Alex the treatment he deserved.
“There’s a lot of folks around here who think a lot of you. Do what you can to take care how you handle things. No matter what happened between you and your pack back home, you know who you are. You know where you belong. And you know what? You follow your own destiny. I have something in mind, myself. You think I’m just going to sit back and accept being ousted from my own pack? They’ve got another thing coming, they do…”
Mrs. Lewis looked into the distance and grew quiet. I could tell she was done talking, so I retreated politely from the porch and left her to her own thoughts.
Chapter 13
I clutched the amulet as I wandered down the dirt roads of the Bayou. I had a strong urge to hop on my bike and get the hell out of there. I wanted to face Jake and Walker once and for all. The longer I was away, the more angry I became. Every little thing Jake had ever done wrong was beginning to return to me, until my head was muddied with righteous fury.
It was strange to be walking around without Alex or Paul with me, but in a way I liked it more. It had been a while since I had been on my own. Not long after my mother had died and I had moved out on my own, Jake had latched on to me and spent more and more time at my house. He was probably still living there now.
The thought filled me with rage. He had never paid bills or done anything around the house. Jake had relied on me since we were teenagers, and used me until he found a way to keep the advantages I provided him without having to be with me anymore. Who knew how long he had been hoping to get rid of me?
The settlement was modest, but surprisingly expansive. It was strange to think that everybody here had a story of some kind, uprooted from the home they loved and forced to relocate like I had been. It was nice that they all had somewhere to go, but I didn’t quite believe I would ever have anywhere that I felt like I belonged.
I shoved the amulet in my pocket and sighed. What had I been thinking, coming here like this? I needed to go find my motorcycle and get the hell out of here. I would face Jake and Walker head-on and reclaim my place as the alpha in the pack.
I reached the outskirts of town, trying to remember the direction of the area where I had left my motorcycle. I decided to follow my nose.
To my fury, it was gone from where I left it, and a trail of malice was left in its wake. I could tell someone else had gotten their hands on my bike, and it wasn’t just anyone. It was a pair of shifters with a sour scent. That was all I needed.
I bounded off into the forest without a second thought, anger prickling in my breast. Whoever thought they could get away with touching my motorcycle and live was going to have another thing coming.
“Hey, new guy,” a voice suddenly growled. It was coming from my right, and just when I whipped around to face it, I was hit from both sides.
I fell to the ground, furious. How many times was I going to feel helpless? Maybe I really wasn’t meant to be an alpha.
“Bet this little beauty belongs to you,” a tall, burly man sneered. His eyes were unkind; they reminded me of Jake. The other man on the other side of me laughed as the one wh
o spoke stroked my bike with a mocking smile.
“Get your dirty hands off that,” I growled, lunging at him from the ground. I managed to strike a punch, and could feel my hackles raising. If I shifted, there would be no survivors.
“Down, boy,” a third man said, emerging from out of nowhere. Why hadn’t I been able to sense them coming?
A surge of pain brought me back to the ground. I scowled, sizing them up from the ground. They weren’t alphas, but they were strong and vicious. Mrs. Lewis had been right about the power in having nothing to lose. But not right enough that I had that power on my side.
“Nice bike,” the third man said with a sickening grin. “What year is it?”
“None of your fucking business what year it is.”
All of us were surprised to hear Alex’s voice. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Alex bare his teeth. Thick, light brown fur began to sprout all over his body and he pounced on the man closest to him. Everybody was surprised enough that I was able to scramble to my feet and punch the man who had punched me first, right in the face.
He fell backwards and blood covered his face. As he fell, I realized that he, and all of the other men for that matter, were wearing one of Miss Abby’s amulets.
“Do you know these guys?” I shouted to Alex.
But Alex wasn’t able to answer me anymore. He was completely finished with his shifting and was laying into his victim. I took the opportunity to fight off the second man, dodging his blow and grabbing his arm and cracking it over my shoulder. It was a nice self-defense move my mother had taught me when I was just a child. When applied with my power, a sickening crack echoed in the air and the man dropped to the ground screaming.
“Let me help you with that,” I growled, kicking him in the face. He flew back to the ground and the shrieking stopped. He was unconscious.
Alex stopped what he was doing and looked at me inquisitively, taking a break from mauling the man trapped between his paws.
“You don’t feel pain if you’re unconscious,” I said with a shrug.
Alex blinked and then looked back at the man he had pinned on the ground. The guy was sobbing, trying hard to shift, but he was already too weak to manage it.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said.
Alex seemed reluctant to let go of his prey, but I looked him hard in the eye. “I said let’s go!”
Chapter 14
Alex let the man fall to the ground, and I grabbed the handlebars of my motorcycle. I rolled it away from the group of men writhing and passed out on the ground, humiliated and angry that I had allowed myself to be ambushed.
I could hear the heavy footfalls of Alex in his powerful bear form. They gradually became lighter, and I realized he was shifting back into his human form.
“Are you all right, Decker?” Alex asked. “I guess nobody told you how dangerous it can be out here.”
I prickled. Maybe I had been hoping to run into a fight.
“Just leave me alone, Alex,” I said. I was in no mood to talk to anybody. In fact, of all the people I could be talking to, Alex was the last man I wanted to see.
“I get that it’s hard, you know. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but –“
I whipped around, my fury reaching a new height.
“That’s right, Alex. You don’t know what I’ve been through. So just drop it!”
Alex didn’t seem the least bit hurt by the outburst, and I could feel the heat creeping to my cheeks. Alex was completely naked after shifting back to his human form. It had been so long since I had seen another man shift that I had forgotten how surprising it could be to suddenly be encountered with someone after a shift. I had only been a teenager
The energy surrounding Alex was wild and pure as it concentrated itself back into his body. I was torn between being irritated and impressed with how Alex refused to hide his essence from me. It was daring, in a way, and I wasn’t sure how it made me feel. I was agitated overall, but the bold look in Alex’s eyes made me take a pause.
He didn’t speak again, nor did he try to hide his nudity from me. He clearly wasn’t hurt by my outburst. The look in his eyes seemed to tell me the opposite, as if he was satisfied knowing that I was being true to myself and my feelings.
“I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me,” I said. “I just got out of something serious. I mean…I thought it was serious.”
“Do you feel like talking about it?” Alex asked, striding along beside me. I did everything I could not to let my eyes wander across his perfect body.
“I don’t know,” I said with an exasperated sigh. If I didn’t talk about it, I would be thinking about it. Which was worse? They seemed equally bad.
“All right,” Alex said, stretching his arms up in the air and casting his beautiful, clear eyes to the sky. He sighed leisurely and continued walking quietly beside me.
“I was ambushed,” I finally said, looking down at my motorcycle. It was the only memento I had of my life in New Orleans with Jake. That and the change of clothes I had found folded neatly outside my bedroom the night before. “By the man I love…loved…more than anyone in the world.”
Alex let out a low whistle.
“People do fucked up things for power,” he said, looking down at the ground.
“I don’t see the appeal,” I grumbled.
“That’s probably because you have it,” Alex said. I glanced up at him and he winked at me.
I looked away quickly. “Well, you have no power. Not alpha power anyway. What’s to envy about it?”
Alex laughed softly, more to himself than to me. “I never said I envied power. The only thing I respect is honesty. You can’t pretend to be someone you’re not, or to covet the power that somebody else has.”
“Tell that to my ex,” I scoffed.
“He’ll get what he deserves in the end,” Alex said.
I looked up at him, shocked by the anger flashing in his storming eyes.
“I really don’t think it will happen,” I sighed. “I got ambushed twice in three days. And I couldn’t get myself out of either one of them. What kind of alpha am I?”
Alex grinned.
“You’re an alpha who thinks with your heart and misses subtle cues. That’s what the omega is for.”
“I’m not supposed to think with my heart. I have to lead with my instincts. And lately, they have been utter shit. Have you ever considered that I lost my place as alpha because I’m not meant to be the alpha?”
“Not for a second,” Alex said. “I think you’re alpha through and through.”
I resented his blind faith, but still, it was a brief comfort all the same.
“Whatever,” I sighed. “I’m done talking about it.”
“Do you want to know why I’m here?” Alex asked, a sly smile creeping across his face. Again, I was shocked by just how handsome this man was.
“I guess,” I said, though I was burning with curiosity.
“I’m here because I’m good at revenge.”
“What?” I asked. Alex was many things, but the thought that he was vengeful and conniving had never crossed my mind.
“My father was the rightful alpha, but his twin brother was power hungry. My father let him act as alpha just to keep the peace.”
“What did you do?” I asked, but I was already forming a picture in my mind. Alex, young, strong, and scorned, with his passion for honesty, feeling the injustice as if it were stabbing him in his own heart.
“Well, I was born sick, so I was raised as the omega. Nobody realized that there was a point when I started getting my strength back. And with strength came confidence. I fought my uncle. He almost died. Everybody, thinking he was the rightful alpha, thought I was a menace and banished me.”
“Why didn’t your parents stand up for you?” I asked, puzzled. It seemed like such a silly misunderstanding.
“They would have if they could have, but nobody wanted to believe that what they had believed so long
was wrong and had caused my father to suffer. And my father’s closest relationship was to his twin, not to his sickly, violent son. They had other kids to raise. I’ve been on my own for a while now.”
I was baffled. Why did such horrible things happen? What was the true appeal of this alpha power?
“You don’t get it either, do you?” Alex asked, scoffing. “That’s because you’d never abuse that power to hurt others or to put yourself at an advantage. That’s what a real alpha is like. They care deeply about the greater good. They don’t seek power, it’s given to them because they have earned it. Because they would never take advantage of it. I know you have it in you, Decker. I haven’t known you that long, but there’s no doubt in my mind. Even if you have a few bumps in the road, you’re the true alpha.”
For the first time in what felt like centuries, I looked at the handsome, naked man standing beside me and smiled. Whether I believed Alex or not, it was nice not to feel worthless.
“Thanks,” I said.
Alex smiled, his eyes suddenly flashing with a dark energy that made the air between us crackle.
“Thank me later,” he said, letting his hand fall over the pronounced muscles of his abdomen. “There’s something else I’d like to do now.”
Chapter 15
I was irritated by my arousal; it wasn’t as if I was good company. I had no intention of falling in love with Alex. He was nice and everything, but I only got involved with people if I was serious about them. At least, that had always been my rule.
But look where that got me. I was entangled with a manipulative jerk who had only cared about my status and what I could do for him. I had lost everything to him. The worst part is that I had done it willingly. There was no way I was going to make the same mistake again. I wouldn’t let my guard down to anybody. Not even Alex.
But Alex didn’t seem to care whether I had my guard down or not. His eyes were boring into mine, as serious as I had ever seen anybody before. It was strange to see it; during work he had been mild, laid back, and goofy. He had an attractive personality, but I just couldn’t bring myself to feel what I thought I should feel about someone before I had sex with them.
