Riktor
Page 1
Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
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Title Page
Copyright Warning
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
About the Author
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Selena Illyria
Etopia Press
Copyright Warning
EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Etopia Press
1643 Warwick Ave., #124
Warwick, RI 02889
http://www.etopiapress.com
Riktor: Alpha vs Alpha
Copyright © 2017 by Selena Illyria
ISBN: 978-1-947135-47-5
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Etopia Press electronic publication: December 2017
DEDICATION
To Shelley and Annie, you guys started this! To Michelle, Aurora, Jodi, Amie, Clancy, Tilly, TJ, Dahlia, Sharon, Jess, Kate, Lexxie, and Lissa.
PROLOGUE
“Just like my father to pull this shit close to midnight.” Riktor Brody clenched his jaw. He checked his watch for the fourth time: eleven forty-five p.m. He fought off a yawn and glanced over at his brothers, Ace and Banan—Ban—both in pajama bottoms and T-shirts. No warning, only a minute’s notice to get dressed and haul ass across the resort’s private residence area to his father’s bedroom.
Ban gave Riktor a nod and pushed up his glasses with an index finger. Even with the glasses on, Riktor could see the dark smudges under his brother’s eyes.
“You OK, Ban?” Riktor asked.
Banan ducked his head, a ruby flush spread across his face, and he nodded. “Late night, playing the new Cyborg Revolution game. Beat it in eight hours.” He gave Riktor a shy grin.
Riktor shook his head. “Dork, you need to sleep!”
Ace chuckled. “Our wonder pup doesn’t need sleep! He lives off coffee and air, don’t cha, buddy?”
Yawning, Ace shuffled over to Riktor’s side and gave him a light punch on the arm. “Hey Rik, do you know what Dad wants? I’ve got a six a.m. workout scheduled with the hot, new trainer in the gym, and then I’ve got to check in with my boys in security before moving off to a new assignment.”
Riktor rolled his eyes. He decided not to remind Ace of Father’s rules for fraternizing with staff. “You do know you have a permanent job here, right? Why do you need a private security firm? And don’t give me that shit about needing to be free. You are free.”
Ace smirked. “Sorry to disappoint you, but, no I’m not. Not when working here means strings tied to the old man. I’m a beta wolf, remember? It means I don’t have the luxury of freedom or money like you do. Everything comes from Father or you. I don’t want a job through nepotism.” He made a face. “But with my private security firm I go where I want, when I want, take on the clients I want, and make a schedule that won’t drive me batshit. And besides, most of the women that come here are only interested in my hot bod and my connection to you.” Amusement glinted in his slate-blue eyes. “Hey, Everly has arrived. So when will we get to see our great alpha patriarch?”
Everly, his father’s lawyer, smoothed down his tie and checked his wristwatch. “Midnight. He should be awake now.” He moved toward the double doors, turned the knobs, and opened the doors into Maxwell Brody’s bedroom.
Banan frowned. “Doesn’t he need his rest? He’s been sick for the last week and a half.” Worry fluttered around the edges of his tone.
“I’ll rest soon enough,” their father growled, his rich, coarse voice ragged around the edges. “Now, get in here.”
They strode into the space. A sense of trepidation assailed Riktor. Something felt wrong. His wolf paced within him. Nervous energy surrounded his wolf in waves and filled Riktor with dread. His stomach clenched and his heart raced. He gazed around the bedroom, everywhere but at his father’s bed.
From the corner of his eye, Riktor could see the massive canopy. The dark purple curtains were drawn back to reveal the violet and gray bedding that enshrouded the shrunken shell of the man their father had become.
A cool breeze drifted into the room from the opened balcony doors. Riktor’s brothers, Ace and Banan, moved toward the doorway, the only other exit if things came to that.
&
nbsp; Everly joined the doctor next to the bed. Maxwell sat up against a mountain of pillows covered in sheets and comforters. Only his head could be seen. His blueberry-blue eyes held disdain in them.
Riktor shivered. Slivers of ice glided up and down his spine and froze his blood. His stomach turned, and for a moment he was transported to his five-year-old self whenever he was in trouble. With a jerk of his head, Riktor returned to the present. He wasn’t that boy again. He was the alpha. He had to act like it.
He grounded himself in the sensation of the solid wood floor beneath his feet and the strength he received from having his brothers not far from his side. Once he felt sure of himself, he refocused on his father.
“I have gathered you all here because if my death doesn’t get you to move your asses, nothing else will.” Maxwell Brody paused to cough. A pink flush took over his face.
Everly picked up a glass of water from the nightstand and held it out to Maxwell. Maxwell waved it off and continued to hack until he started to gasp for breath.
The brothers and Everly froze. The fit passed, and everyone relaxed.
Maxwell picked up a goblet from his nightstand and took a sip before continuing. “Ah. Much better. Nothing cures me like a good spiced mead.” He exhaled and cleared his throat. “Now.” He shifted around in his bed. “I have built my empire from the ground up. From dirt and sand, storms and wild winds. And you, my three sons, have benefited from my hard work. But now I see that all my blood, sweat, and tears have been for nothing. You, Riktor, my eldest son,” Maxwell said, pointing a gnarled finger.
Riktor jerked back as if poked. The center of his chest burned and throbbed. His wolf let out a growl inside Riktor’s head. Much to his relief, the animal didn’t push for a transformation.
Maxwell continued, “You have wasted your life running Golden Wolf Paranormal Resorts. Wasting all of your talents and gifts on work. No women or men to warm your bed. I know for a fact you haven’t fucked anyone since you returned home from university. You’ve turned down several possible, suitable mates. Everly has made a list of them.”
Everly stepped forward.
Riktor’s face heated. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Ace moving toward the bed, anger etched on his face and a fight brewing in his eyes. Riktor lifted a hand to Ace, warning him off. Ace subsided.
Maxwell turned his head to glare at Everly. “I didn’t ask you to do anything; go back to your place. Anyway”—Maxwell returned his attention to Riktor—“I’m sick of you not living your life.” Maxwell jerked his head toward Ace and narrowed his eyes. “And you, Ace.”
Ace crossed his arms over his chest. The anger faded from his face, leaving in its place an unemotional and disinterested stare.
“My middle child, Ace, the beta to Riktor’s soon-to-be pack once I’m gone. The one to watch our backs.” Maxwell snorted. “You’ve fucked your life away. Thank Artemis you haven’t caught anything. And not even a bastard I could call grandchild. Goddess knows where you stay when you’re not acting as security for the resorts. Don’t tell me. I don’t understand why you take all these risks when your loyalty should be with our family, our pack and the future. Bah!”
Ace shrugged it off and didn’t retort.
Maxwell’s gaze shifted to Banan, who stumbled back into the wall. “And you, my youngest, Banan.” Another coughing fit took him.
Everly moved closer to the bed. “Easy, Maxwell, don’t get too emotional, you know what—”
“Shut up,” Maxwell wheezed. “I am not getting emotional. Being pissed off with my progeny would be wasted on them. Now, you, Banan, are too busy behind your computers or reading your graphic novels to meet a woman, a real, flesh and blood woman. Bah!”
Maxwell glared at his sons, each one in turn, fire in his dark blue eyes. “You are failures. None of you married, no children. No one to pass this empire to. None! And none of you are strong enough to subjugate a mate and bind her to you, as the old ways demand. So.” Maxwell flicked a few fingers.
Everly held up his briefcase.
“I’m issuing you an ultimatum, starting at my death. Once I die, you will have one year to find mates and get married. One. Year. If you don’t, Everly will sell Golden Wolf Paranormal Resorts to our rivals, the Shaw pack, lock, stock, and barrel. You won’t receive a penny of the sale or anything else. All you will have, all you will ever own, is what you earn. Now, let me die in peace.” He waved them all away.
Riktor remained in his place. His wolf urged him to stay put, and he listened to his other half. Anger wrapped around his body, engulfing it in red-hot fire. “You can’t just order us to mate. We’re not prize studs, whose only purpose is to sire offspring for you.” He spoke the words carefully, but they came out filled with a myriad of emotions that he couldn’t put names to.
Ace’s graveled voice came out more wolf than human. “This is unfair, Father, and you know it. I don’t work just here. I freelance, or did you forget the other hundred times I told you? I don’t have time to think about settling down. I have responsibilities to both the pack and here at the resort.” His slate blue eyes flashed amber for a second.
“Father, please.” Banan lifted his hands, pleading, sadness filling his navy blue eyes. “I don’t want to disappoint you, but I just don’t…”
Maxwell roared, loud enough to shake the walls. Riktor leaned back at the force of his father’s scream. Maxwell’s features shifted like liquid and became more wolflike—his eyes deepening to pale brown. His ears elongated into points. Deep bronze fur rippled over his face. His lips thinned, and his jaw and nose became a snout. He threw off his covers and scrambled across the bed only to halt due to a coughing fit that racked his body. Maxwell fell to his side and curled up into a ball.
“Everyone out. Now!” Everly ushered everyone toward the door. “You’ve pushed him too far. Doctor Andrews, please do your job.”
With reluctance, the brothers filed out.
Riktor wanted to turn back, confront his father and alpha. He also wanted his father to pull through, live a little bit longer. Part of him wanted to mend fences and do his father proud. A childish desire, but something that always hung in the back of his mind.
“Wait, boys.” Everly chased after them, shutting the doors behind him.
Ace whirled around. “We’re not boys, Everly.” Again the wolf spoke with Ace’s voice. “And nothing you say can get us out of this mess. Find mates in a year? Fuck that.” Ace turned away and ran a hand through his hair. He began to pace. Anger and energy sparking off of him.
Riktor held onto Ace’s arm to keep him in check. “What is it, Everly?”
Everly held up his hands. “I apologize. But your father is serious about this. He’s written it into his will, signed it, and had it witnessed. It’s all legal. When he dies, you will have one year to find your mates and marry or you will get nothing.”
Riktor’s anger surged upward once more, and he had to force his wolf to stay down. “Then there’s nothing more to be done.” Riktor released Ace’s arm. “I’m going to bed. I can’t take the aggravation.”
Ace gave him a wan smile. “This is total bullshit. Father can’t control us from the grave.” He walked off with Banan trailing after him, sorrow on his youngest sibling’s face.
Riktor turned back to his father’s attorney. “Thanks, Everly. I know this isn’t your fault. I’ll talk to you later.”
Riktor had no clue what would happen once the old man died, but he knew one thing: nothing would keep him from letting all they’d worked for fall into the hands of the Shaw pack. He’d fight their new alpha, Mickey Shaw, to the death if he had to.
CHAPTER ONE
One Month Later…
Michaela Shaw peeked out of the corner of her eye through the airplane window; blue skies and fluffy white clouds passed by the glass. The sight didn’t comfort her in the least.
The small plane bumped up in the air.
Her stomach dropped.
Mickey shut her eyes and g
roaned. “Why am I doing this?” she asked herself for the hundredth time since leaving Logan Airport.
“Aren’t we almost there?” she grumbled.
When they’d loaded her into the small biplane, she’d been assured the flight would be smooth sailing. Being on the water would’ve been much safer and easier than this. Hell, she would’ve enjoyed it a lot more, plus she could swim. Not that her wolf would love that idea.
“We should be there, soon, Ms. Shaw,” Kent, the pilot, said through the radio headset. “Hang on, we’re about to hit some more turbulence. Seems the weather is shifting.”
The weather is shifting? What?
Michaela Shaw gripped the armrests until her fingers ached. She clenched her jaw until her head hurt. Her wolf half whimpered and curled up into a little ball.
The plane hit another bump, and her stomach climbed into her throat. She swallowed as best she could. “Hurry up or you’ll be meeting my breakfast,” she growled through clenched teeth.
Kent only laughed. “Sorry about that. It’s rougher today than usual, must be that storm they were talking about, but that wasn’t supposed to hit until Friday. We’ll be there in less than a minute, I promise, Ms. Shaw.”
The plane banked right, and Michaela let out an unladylike screech. Her heart hammered against her rib cage. Sweat bathed her brow and upper lip. “I’m not going to die up here,” she muttered over and over.
Solid land could not come soon enough for her.
“Last one, I promise.” Kent’s voice in her ear did nothing to soothe her.
“I’m going to kill you if we don’t land in less than a minute.” Her wolf didn’t even take the hint. It cowered in a tight ball.
“Shark week,” it thought to Michaela.
“Shut it,” Michaela snarled at the beast. “We could be trying to dig out of a foot of snow.”