Destined For The Alpha: Six Heart-Racing Shifter Romances (Werewolf's Harem Book 7)

by Wood, Vivian

  Everything else could simply wait until tomorrow.

  Saved By The Alpha

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lucas paused in the woods, panting. He’d shifted into his wolf at least two days ago… or maybe three? Since then, he’d run a hundred miles north of his Asheville Compound, probably even further. Aside from short breaks to hunt and eat, he’d pushed his wolf on and on. One pulsing need drove him, and the feeling seemed bottomless.

  Fear. Fear of what he might do to himself if he spent more than half a minute thinking about her.

  Lucas spurred himself on, trying to regain the smooth lope he’d held for untold hours. He slowed, weakened by exhaustion and lack of food. His legs shook, buckled underneath him, his own body failing him.

  He slid, coming to rest in a soft pile of late summer leaves. He was unable to move, to cry out. He’d run so far and pushed so hard that he was now prisoner in his on mind. As he waited for the looming unconsciousness to take him, the blackness itself a kind of desired reprieve, he turned his thoughts to the wellspring of his pain.

  Aurelia.

  His mind went over the moment for the thousandth time. He’d entered the house on silent feet, eager to surprise Aurelia with a bouquet of lilies. Following her scent, Lucas had found her in one of the private studies that lay off the house’s main floor. Ben’s study, to be exact.

  Lucas’s mind went blank when he found Aurelia and Ben together. They hadn’t been fucking or anything. Nothing so obvious. Still, Lucas had taken one look at them, at the way their hands clasped together, at the closeness of their bodies, and he’d known. He didn’t need to take a deep breath and find Ben’s scent thick on her skin. He didn’t need to examine the guilty looks on their faces, or the fact that they didn’t jump apart when he entered.

  He’d known, then and there, that Aurelia had indeed chosen a mate… it just wasn’t Lucas.

  Lucas, I’m so sorry… she had whispered, tears glittering in her eyes.

  Lucas hated himself for the weakness of his heart, the poor decisions he’d made that allowed Aurelia to slip away.

  He’d left her at the Compound for a week, and there lay his fatal mistake. The fiery, insatiable redhead, the female he’d obsessed over, wooed, rescued, and finally won… he’d left her in the care of another male for seven days, even telling Aurelia that she could share the man’s bed if it pleased her. As long as she came back to him, he couldn’t care what she did in his absence.

  Looking back on it now, rage racked him as he considered how foolish he’d been. It was like leaving a bowl of sparkling jewels out of the safe during a house party, just to show off. You couldn’t leave the room and come back expecting every sapphire to be in the bowl.

  To his credit, he’d left her with one of the two males he trusted most in the world. Ben Fincher, the compassionate and soft-spoken software analyst and co-owner of Lucas’s company, was the last person on earth to make Lucas feel threatened. Lucas and Ben had been friends for decades, and Ben’s big heart was the largest factor in their successful friendship.

  That was what hurt the most, Lucas decided. Not the loss of Aurelia, exactly. She was a female of the highest order, and unspeakably beautiful, and great company. Her defection was a terrible blow.

  But more than her rejection hurt, it was killing Lucas that his honest, caring friend was involved in it. If Ben was brought so low, the fact was, Aurelia and Ben must really be in love. No half-assed thing, no ‘maybe we’ll be mates, one day’ shit. He’d known Ben too long to think anything less, and Aurelia was no mercurial temptress.

  There it was, Lucas sighed to himself. The thing he didn’t want to admit, the thing he’d been running from for the past few days.

  Beneath his anger, his sense of betrayal, beneath his heartsickness…

  A glimmer of truth.

  Ben and Aurelia made a kind of sense that Lucas couldn’t deny. Seeing them together in that instant, the way Ben had wedged himself in front of Aurelia, ready to protect her…

  To protect his mate. She’d balled a fist in his shirt, seeking comfort. His scent had rolled off her skin in waves. There was simply no doubt there, only certainty.

  The look on both their faces said that they expected Lucas to do his worst, and they were accepting of whatever happened. If Lucas were so inclined, Ben could lose his fortune, his company, and every person in his life, including Aurelia. If Ben left her unattended for even a moment, Aurelia could easily be captured, could be dropped in one of the many countries where her past criminal activity would quickly catch up to her. She could lose her lover, her family, her freedom… even her life.

  Yet there in Ben’s study, their hands had remained clasped. Their fear was overruled by their love. Lucas felt a sense of awe, even as anger flared bright within him.

  He could not stop them, couldn’t change the decision they’d made. Still, he had his pride. This land, the whole Compound, was Lucas’s domain. Ben might own part of the house, but he didn’t care for the place as Lucas did. Lucas had scouted the land, built the Compound, filled the house with possessions. He’d brought Aurelia here, in an attempt to give it the spark of life.

  And he’d be damned if those two were going to fuck on all his carefully selected furniture, were going to cook for each other in his custom-built kitchen, were going to create a child while making love in the waterfall where Lucas has once taken Aurelia.

  No. Lucas staggered to his feet. He was going to go back to the Compound. He was going to eat a giant meal, replenish his strength. He’d shower, shave, and dress.

  And then he was kicking their asses to the curb. Maybe if they were lucky, he’d listen to their pleas for forgiveness… in ten years.

  …maybe not.

  Tongue lolling in a foolish smirk, Lucas headed south and toward the certain confrontation that awaited him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Lucas stumbled back into the house, he found it empty. Shifting into his human form, he grabbed one of the thick black bathrobes hanging near the back door. Aurelia’s doing, Lucas surmised.

  Famished, he dragged himself over to the fridge and stood in front of it, eating thick slices of turkey and cheese and bread as he enjoyed the fridge’s coolness on his overheated skin. Four sandwiches and a liter of whole milk later, he was sated. He padded upstairs for an incredible shower, the water so hot that he moaned with pleasure. His self-inflicted aches diminished, and he was loathe to leave the shower. Loathe to face the rest of this day, really.

  When he left his bathroom, his bed called him like a siren’s song. He needed rest, badly.

  As he was pondering a few hours’ rest, he heard a distant sound. Indistinct, muffled. Lucas’s gaze went straight to the door the led to Aurelia’s bedroom, and he soon found himself pressing an ear to the cool oak door. Listening for her, for Ben.

  But no, that wasn’t the source. No one else was on this floor right now. Perhaps he was simply so tired that he was hearing things?

  He looked at the bed once more, and sighed. As much as the sweet oblivion of dreams called to him, he knew he couldn’t rest until he’d confronted the betraying lovebirds. Lucas stretched his tired muscles out and then headed downstairs to find Ben and Aurelia.

  When he stepped onto the main floor, the hair on the back of his neck raised. He smelled a male, and it wasn’t Ben or Walker. The scent teased his nose, but it was too faint for him to identify.

  Lucas growled, lips drawing away from his teeth. There were females here at the Compound, females who lived under constant threat from outsiders. Aurelia was wanted by many international intelligence agencies for her high-tech crimes, and sweet blonde Ella had been captured and almost sold into sex slavery, probably by someone she knew well.

  No way was someone coming into his house and threatening the women under his protection. Not. Happening.

  Lucas went into full fight mode. He prowled the main floor on silent feet, ready to kill the intruder. The male’s scent led him away from the
kitchen and off into the back hallway, where Lucas, Ben, and Walker each kept a private study. Four doors lined the shadowed hallway.

  Lucas paused at the first, listened for a moment, and moved on. The second revealed nothing, though the scent grew stronger as he went. A memory tickled the back of his throat, but he was too preoccupied to stop and sort it out.

  He stopped at the third door, a thick oak affair that led into his office. Bingo. As he reached for the doorknob, he recognized the scent. He swung the door open with a snarl.

  “Garrett, what the fuck are you doing in my house?” Lucas asked, chest heaving as he struggled to kill the fight instincts that rose within him.

  Garrett sat behind Lucas’s desk, for all appearances as relaxed as a man could be. His big feet were propped on Lucas’s desktop, clad in stylish brown leather boots. He leaned back in the desk chair, a sly grin on his face.

  “Brother,” Garret said, giving Lucas a nod. “As always I cherish your welcome and hospitality.”

  Lucas walked over and knocked his younger brother’s feet of the desk. Garrett was so like Lucas in looks; hair blond hair was a little darker, a little longer. His storm-grey eyes were more mischievous, his posture less rigid. But their big frames were close to identical: almost six and a half feet of pure, lean muscle. Flat, sculpted facial features and tanned olive skin.

  There was something about Garrett, a lightness of spirit, that Lucas lacked. Sometimes Lucas admired his brother for it. At other times it made him think Garrett just needed a swift punch to the jaw.

  “How did you get in?” Lucas asked, glaring at his brother. Lucas dropped into the leather wingback chair by the window, crossing his arms to show his displeasure.

  “I walked in, believe it or not. My magic carpet is broken,” Garrett said, dimples flashing with humor.

  “Fuck off. You know what I meant. How did you get past the guards at the gate?” Lucas said with a frown.

  “Those human guards you have posted are nothing more than a bit of flash, Luc. They were reading magazines and whining about how their wives don’t fuck them. Not much of a challenge,” Garrett replied.

  “What about Walker and Ben? They’re both newly mated. I can’t imagine them letting you into the house.”

  Garrett snorted and kicked his feet up on the desk again, ignoring Lucas’s glare.

  “Yeah, your ex-CIA spook and your gentle giant of a tech guy are both too busy fucking their females.”

  Lucas’s jaw clenched. He knew where his brother was going with this.

  “One in particular interested me,” Garrett said. “The redhead. She looks an awful lot like the female that you planned to rescue.”

  Lucas steepled his fingers, regarding his brother with an icy frown.

  “I think you know they’re the same,” Lucas said.

  “Yeah, I do. It’s funny, because you were all about that one. I think you had your heart set on a mate, brother.”

  Lucas pushed out of the chair, coming to his feet to tower over his brother.

  “Great work breaking into my home. Now I think it’s time for you to leave,” Lucas snapped.

  “Can’t, I’m afraid. First off, you’re a fucking wreck right now. Second, I have a situation developing at work. I think I’m going to need help with this one.”

  “I don’t do private security, Garrett. Whatever kidnapper or high-end cat burglar you’re trying to bust is in luck, because I leave all that to you and Walker. As you said before, Walker is… busy,” Lucas said, rolling his eyes.

  “Not too busy to call me and give me the heads up that you were going to crash and burn,” Garrett shrugged.

  Lucas stared at his brother for several seconds, doing the math.

  “It takes you at least four days to pull out of an operation. Were you already on leave and heading this way, or did Walker call you more than twenty-four hours ago?”

  “I had two days left on my last op when he called me. So… three days ago. Why?”

  “I’ve only been home for a day. Walker called you before I came back. He didn’t give me a single word of warning, but he called you?” Lucas asked, shaking his head. “He’s always an asshole, but this is something else altogether. It’s probably good that he’s tied up with his new mate, because his head isn’t on straight.”

  “You’re welcome, by the way. For the fact that I dropped everything and came to check on you, I mean,” Garret said.

  “Fuck off. I’m forever pulling you out of bad situations. You’re not hesitant to throw around my money if it suits you,” Lucas glowered.

  “You have far more money than you know what to do with. You’ve been saving it all up for a mate and a family. It’s sweet, really,” Garrett said, flapping his hands.

  “You’re about to cross a line, brother,” Lucas snarled.

  “She’s gone, Lucas. Your girl took a mate. Not just any mate, but one of your best friends. There’s no reason for you to hang around here and guard the nest. Ergo, there’s no reason that you can’t come help out your only brother.”

  Garrett lined up his statements as if his conclusion was perfectly logical. Lucas groaned, shaking his head.

  “I should work,” Lucas said, his resistance wearing away.

  “You have a hundred employees. Let them work,” Garrett pointed out.

  Lucas sighed.

  “You’re not going to give up on this, are you?” he asked. When Garrett gave a solemn shake of his head, Lucas groaned. “What are you wrapped up in, Garrett?”

  Garrett’s lips quirked up before he spoke.

  “Remember Alaina?” Garrett asked.

  “Alaina? What the hell are you talking about, do I remember Alaina?” Lucas snapped. Garrett always knew just how to hit Lucas where it hurt most.

  Alaina was the girl that Lucas and Garrett had longed for, championed, even come to blows over… though that had been almost twenty years ago, now. After Alaina’s tragic end, the brothers had lost the tight bond that held them close throughout childhood and adolescence.

  Alaina’s name still made Lucas’s heart squeeze with pain, and it wasn’t just because she’d died. A part of him, the part loved Garrett over any other, had been scarred that day. It wasn’t dead, but since then the easy laughter and intimate trust had fled.

  Garrett laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back in the chair. Lucas felt his assessing gaze, and wondered if Garrett found him lacking.

  “I figured that since you never had the chance to kill that son of a bitch that forced the mating bite on Alaina, you might like a shot at another alpha who’s doing the same thing to another female,” Garrett summarized.

  Lucas was quiet for several long seconds. Alaina’s face flashed in his mind: long, pale blonde hair, big brown eyes, a shy smile. She was the sweetest thing he’d ever known; nineteen-year-old Lucas had taken a knee and asked her to be his mate. He’d never received an answer, though, because an alpha from another pack spotted Alaina and claimed her on the spot.

  “How could this situation be the same? Forced mating bites carry a death penalty now, in most places,” Lucas said. Despite the sensitive subject and his reluctance to get into mischief with Garrett, he was curious now.

  “They’d have to catch the bastard first. He’s the top dog in a motorcycle club pack. The whole group roams the U.S., so they’re not under any one authority. Plus, someone would have to track them down.”

  “What about the female’s pack? They’re not protecting her?”

  “Her brother is the head of the pack, and he’s weak. A heroin addict, if my sources are correct. He’s trying to fight the biker, but the leader of the pack has fifty vicious wolves at his back, ready to make war. The female is caught between them, and it doesn’t look good for her no matter who wins.”

  Lucas sorted the situation out in his head. He imagined it as a chess game, trying to see the whole board, the positions of all the pieces. Garrett was quiet, but watchful, knowing him well enough to let him work through the is
sue internally first.

  “Why aren’t you doing this one, Garrett?” Lucas asked after a full minute of silence. “Just go in and take out the biker. You’re a former Army Ranger, so I doubt that you’d so much as blink at killing him.”

  Garrett nodded.

  “The biker isn’t the issue. Or, he is an issue; his whole pack needs to be disassembled. It’s on my to-do list, believe me.”

  “And…” Lucas prompted. “You’re here in my house, asking me for a favor. I know it’s not something you’d do under normal circumstances.”

  “The female’s brother is as bad as the biker. He beats the shit out of the girl, I’m pretty sure. He’s got a jealous streak a mile wide, and he never forgets a slight.”

  Lucas groaned, closing his eyes. He didn’t even have to ask, he already knew what Garrett was saying.

  “—And I stole a female from him once. She was lonely, I was horny, she’d never seen Fiji… I swept her off on an island adventure. I didn’t know she’d be stupid enough to go back to the guy later,” Garrett said, his last words growing defensive.

  “You are a very special kind of idiot, Garrett. Your dick gets you into so much trouble, it’s astounding.”

  Garrett reddened, changing the topic.

  “Here are the facts. The female needs someone with influence and resources, someone who can pull her out of the fight without fear of retribution. She’s gonna have to leave Florida, and she’ll need a safe place and some money and some people she can trust. Who else can offer that?” Garrett asked.

  Lucas shrugged, noncommittal.

  “I’m not the only rich wolf in the world. You have plenty of money stacked in the bank, you just don’t want to spend it on a female.”

  “Fine. How about this: there are a lot of big, bad alphas involved, and I need you to do your dominance trick. I need a rich, powerful werewolf who can walk into a room and bring every other wolf to heel, without so much as waving a gun. Is that specific enough for you, brother?”