The Alpha's Heart (Wilde Creek Two)

by R. E. Butler

  Even if she didn’t get furry, she was still the ‘queen bitch’ as Mia had started referring to her, and that meant she really did need to assert herself with the females.

  But maybe not today. Don’t want to ruin the party.

  She didn’t just shove those thoughts away, she buried them deeply. She had Acksel’s permission to stand up for herself. Dade and Malachi had assured her that she needed to get her point across to the females that she was Acksel’s mate. If any of them stepped over the line today, she was going to have to put her foot down, there were no two ways about it.

  Nerves skated through her but she pushed those away, too. She wasn’t about to give up Acksel now that she had him, and if that meant she had to show her proverbial claws to some bitches then that’s just what she’d do.

  * * * * *

  “Oh, you made the cheese dip I love so much!” Brynn eyed the blue plastic bowl that Mia set on one of the long folding tables in the yard.

  “I called my mom for the recipe. She and my dad send their best, by the way.”

  “Aw, that’s cool.” Brynn snagged a carrot stick and swiped it through the yummy dip, which was made with cheddar cheese spread and a block of cream cheese. Brynn liked Mia and Malachi’s parents. Their house had been a haven to her as a kid when things got too heated at home, and she considered them second parents.

  She glanced around the yard which was now filled with the entire pack. They were supposed to eat in about an hour, and her mouth watered and her stomach grumbled at the thought of all the good food that waited for them.

  Brynn had been actively helping to set up the food on the folding tables. The omegas were afraid at first, as if her helping meant they weren’t doing something right, but she assured them that she just liked helping, so they had relaxed. Adam and Jeremiah were manning the grills and smokers, which were loaded with enough meat to last a human a year. There were a handful of elderly omegas, males and females who bustled around the yard, and there was one female omega that reminded Brynn of a scared bunny. She was petite, with ivory skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. Her name was Kamryn and everyone called her Kammie. She never seemed to talk and always kept her eyes averted.

  “What’s up with Kammie?” Brynn asked Mia in a low voice.

  “Her mom died when she was twelve and her dad foisted her off on her beatings-loving uncle while he went off whoring in another pack. Her uncle nearly killed her twice when she was in high school until the old alpha stepped in and took her out of his care. She went to live with Maggie, one of the elderly omegas, but she never really recovered from the abuse. She shifts on the full moon but she won’t run with the pack, and she’s really quiet.”

  Brynn made a face. “The old alpha should have killed him.”

  “Spoken like a true queen bitch,” Mia chuckled.

  “Man, I’m getting blood-thirsty.” Brynn remarked. She couldn’t even count the times that she’d thought of violent things regarding what was going on with her wolves since Acksel had come back into her life. “I think Acksel is rubbing off on me.”

  “I’ll bet he’s rubbing something.”

  Brynn smacked Mia’s arm. “Funny.”

  “Seriously, though, I was talking to my parents about what you said you were feeling with the baby and all; they have a mixed couple in their pack and she felt the same way when she had her first pup. He wasn’t a very highly ranked male, but she had been pretty meek when they first got together and the pregnancy apparently triggered something in her. I think it’s probably a mixture of being mated to Acksel and the baby.”

  She crunched on the carrot stick for a moment and said, “I don’t mind. It’s making me feel a little closer to you guys.”

  Mia grinned at her.

  Brynn was well aware when the three females that had been vying hardest for Acksel’s affection came through the house and onto the back porch. She watched them as they looked around the yard and then settled their eyes on her. Part of her wanted to avert her eyes and run away. But a bigger, snarling part of her wouldn’t let her look away. She narrowed her eyes at them but never dropped her gaze. Almost simultaneously, they snorted in derision and turned away from her. She was sure now that they were the ones who had been causing her grief all week.

  It grated on her how they’d walked through the house as if they owned the place. The other wolves had come around the outside of the house but no, those bitches had walked right in. For a blazing hot moment, jealousy roared inside her. How well did they know the house? She knew that he’d had sex with them. He’d been honest with her about his sexual history. She’d always assumed that he’d had sex with them outside. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might have brought them into his bed. Might have touched them and made them scream in pleasure in the very place where she’d been touched so well.

  The glass bowl she held in her hand dropped to the table with a thud, hitting the edge of another bowl and shattering. A small piece of glass cut her palm and she winced.

  “Shit!” Mia said, snatching a stack of napkins off the edge of the table and sopping up the spilled salsa. “Are you okay, B?”

  Two omegas rushed to the table. “Alpha Brynn, are you well? You’re bleeding,” one of them said.

  She looked at her hand and saw a tiny bit of blood. Acksel was at her side in a heartbeat, snarling.

  She took a napkin from Mia and pressed it to the wound. She didn’t particularly want to see Acksel right then. Her thoughts were too raw. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re bleeding,” he said.

  “Just a little accident. Really,” she said, elbowing him away from her and walking towards the house. He didn’t follow her, but she could feel his eyes on her back.

  The three females — Carissa, Hailey, and Ava — sat on a wrought iron patio set on the porch. Brynn didn’t like that they were sitting there, so close to the house, when the rest of the pack had kept a respectful distance from Acksel’s home.

  Well, he’d asked her to move in, hadn’t he? He’d asked her to share his home; that everything that was his was hers since their mating. She hadn’t moved in yet, but it was still her damn house.

  She stopped at the top step and glared at the females. They glanced at her with disdain and not a shred of respect and then ignored her entirely. Head held high, she strode into the house through the open sliding door and walked to the sink where she rinsed her hand under cold water. The wound had stopped bleeding almost immediately and was just a shallow scratch, not even worth a bandage. But the hurt that had rolled through her at the thought of the females sharing his bed still lingered.

  She knew she had his heart now, but he had history with the females and she could admit she was jealous. She didn’t like the feeling; it was like a knot twisting inside her stomach.

  Her head snapped to the side as the females on the porch began to talk. “He looks mighty fine in the color blue, don’t you think?” Carissa purred.

  Acksel was wearing a blue shirt. They were talking about her mate. She slammed off the water and gripped the counter, seething.

  “Oh sure. But he looks better in nothing,” Ava said. “That big dick just begging to be sucked, those sexy eyes filled with fuck-me-now.”

  Brynn’s knuckles turned white. They knew she was there in the kitchen. They knew she could hear them and they were making no point to whisper.

  She was as pissed as she had ever been. Rage boiled inside her, making her feel like she could sprout fur and claws. But she couldn’t, and the females thought less of her for it. Hell, they’d probably treat any other female the same way if Acksel had chosen a wolf for a mate, but a she-wolf would be able to stand up for herself. Fight back. Snarl and snap and growl and the females would back down. Brynn was just a human.

  Hailey’s voice burned through the jumbled thoughts in Brynn’s mind. “That bed, though. The way the frame creaks when he’s slamming the headboard against the wall in the throes of passion? That’s my very. Favorite. Thing.”

&nb
sp; Red hazed Brynn’s vision. She had just wondered if Acksel had taken them to his bed — their bed — and now she had confirmation. The creak and the way the headboard smacked against the wall — that wasn’t just a lucky guess. They had to know that from personal experience.

  “What the hell would human trash be able to do with an alpha male, anyway? Dilute the gene pool?” Carissa snorted.

  Human trash. That’s what someone had whispered in the restaurant that first day back at work.

  “Trash is too good a word for her. Human…shit?” Ava laughed, braying loudly.

  Fury roared through Brynn and her eyes scanned the kitchen before landing on a heavy crystal pitcher that Adam had brought from her house. Brynn had picked it up at a second hand store for a New Year’s party. It was extremely heavy and awkward to use for serving drinks but it was pretty and she’d been unwilling to get rid of it. Grabbing it by the handle, she stormed out of the kitchen to the back porch and without a second thought, slammed the pitcher onto the top of Carissa’s head. The pitcher shattered with a loud crack and Carissa went down in a heap of glass and blood, sliding off the chair and crumpling to the porch.

  Brynn grabbed the top of the small round table next to the chair and threw it at the two remaining females. Ava was closest and couldn’t get out of the way as the table nailed her in the chest and tumbled her over backwards. Hailey leapt off the porch and faced Brynn, her hands up in defense, her head tilted to the side showing the vulnerability of her neck.

  Brynn stalked forward, her steps heavy down the stairs. Hailey went to her knees, “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, honey, it’s far too late for sorry.” Brynn launched herself at the female, taking her down to the ground in a rush and shoving her to her stomach as she straddled her back. She jerked her head up by fisting her hair and snarled, “You be sure and tell Carissa that I’d better never hear the words human and trash in the same sentence again.”

  “Yes!” she cried out as Brynn wrenched her hair between her fingers.

  “Yes what?”

  “Alpha! Yes, Alpha!”

  “Don’t forget it,” Brynn snarled, smashing the woman’s face forward into the grass.

  Once the roar of blood in her ears had settled, she became aware of a stunned silence around her. Brynn stood slowly, brushing her hands free of the hair that she’d ripped out of Hailey’s head, and looked at the pack that had watched her go nuts on three females.

  She found Acksel in the crowd and the proud smile on his face eased the fear that threatened her suddenly. She’d worried for a moment that they might stand with the females that she’d hurt. Overcome with jealousy and rage, she hadn’t thought any farther than making them shut up.

  She looked down at Hailey, who was trembling and whimpering but keeping her face down to the ground, and smiled. She wasn’t done. Not yet.

  Squatting, she said, “Are you and your friends the ones that have been playing little pranks on me all week? Don’t lie. I don’t like that.”

  There was just a fraction of a second’s hesitation before she whimpered, “Yes, Alpha.”

  “You were trying to run me away from my mate, even though you know that he claimed me? That I wear his mark? That I’m carrying his pup?”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Another whimper followed by a pained sob.

  Brynn had heard about the banishment ceremonies, where the one being shipped away was clawed across the arm so that everyone they met forever would know they were banished.

  She scratched her nails slowly across Hailey’s upper arm, leaving four marks. Hailey shivered and her body tensed but she didn’t make any other moves. “If you don’t like that I’m Acksel’s mate and your alpha female, then you can leave on the next full moon. But you or any other she-wolves ever talk about my mate or his bed or anything in the past between you and him, and you won’t have to worry about packing up. I’ll claw your arm to shreds with my fingernails and run your ass straight out of town myself. Are we clear?”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Hailey’s voice was filled with not only fear but also respect. Brynn could feel it. She’d done the right thing by going all wild woman on the females.

  Standing once more, she looked at Acksel and her heart swelled with love and pride. She’d done what she needed to do to prove herself worthy of him. She’d stood up for herself and her place at his side.

  Stepping over the prone female, Brynn grinned at Acksel and he loped towards her, catching her in his arms and swinging her around. The entire pack cheered, howling and clapping as Acksel bent her backwards and kissed her soundly.

  “Love you, my mate,” he said, nipping her bottom lip.

  She laid her palm against his cheek. “I love you, too, my big strong alpha.”

  Straightening, he flexed his hands on her back. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. You proved what I knew all along; that you have the spirit of an alpha.”

  She was feeling a little smug. “True. Also,” she tugged on his neck until he bent down so she could whisper in his ear, “if you ever want to have sex with me again, you’ll burn the entire bed and any other furniture in your house that had skanky she-wolf ass on it.”

  He tensed slightly and then barked out a laugh. “Whatever you want, my mate.”

  “Damn skippy.”

  “Alpha Brynn,” Gedding asked, “can I attend to the injured females or do you wish them to suffer for their behavior?”

  “I think they’re with the program, don’t you?” she asked Acksel.

  “Without a doubt.”

  “You can take care of them, Gedding. Thank you.”

  The doctor nodded his head and called for several of the omegas to help him get the injured females to his home. Brynn wasn’t sorry in the least that she’d hurt them. They shouldn’t have bullied her.

  Acksel kissed her temple and turned around to the pack. “My mate and I welcome you to our home. Eat. Drink. Get to know your new alpha.”

  The pack cheered and as the omegas began to load the cooked meat onto trays to serve, her mouth watered and she grinned as a path was cleared for her and Acksel and they walked to the head of one of the tables to eat first.

  It was good to be the alpha.

  Chapter 21

  The morning of the November full moon, Acksel woke Brynn up by sliding under the covers and bringing her to climax with his fingers and tongue, gently and slowly. He loved the sexy way she moaned when she was still half asleep, and he couldn’t get enough of her.

  After they’d made love, he rolled onto his back and pulled her with him. She settled against his side perfectly, her cheek resting over his heart. As his heartbeat slowed, he kissed the top of her head.

  “Morning, love.”

  She hummed in her throat and it turned into a yawn that sort of sounded like morning at the end.

  He was aware that a very masculine smile was now plastered across his face. Not only had he just made love to his mate, but tonight the pack would welcome her officially as their alpha. Time felt like it had flown by since the party at their home where she had finally stood up for herself. He’d never been more proud — or turned on — by a show of strength than he had been when she put the three she-wolves down. Now there was no doubt for anyone in the pack that his human female was fierce and strong. She might not be as physically strong as a wolf, but she was smart and cunning, and that went a long way in proving her worth to them. She’d used a crystal pitcher as a weapon, for wolf’s sake.

  And going with her wishes, instead of buying new furniture to replace those pieces that had ever been sat on by any she-wolves, he’d simply chucked all of his furniture and put her furniture in his house. At first, he’d been ashamed of the hurt he’d seen in her eyes. It had never occurred to him that his future mate would care that he’d sexed up half the females in the pack since he’d taken over as alpha. A she-wolf would understand the desires of a wolf on the full moon, even if she might not like it. But Brynn hadn’t ever had sex with anyone she didn’t have strong f
eelings for. So he was a little jealous all on his own for that, knowing that she’d cared for males before him. She reminded him, though, that the only thing that really mattered was their future. She would never touch another male and he would never touch another female. Mating for wolves meant marriage, and marriage for wolves was forever as far as he was concerned.

  She had officially moved into the house three days after the party. Malachi had moved immediately into the home that she had vacated, which was owned by his parents. The male had been hard at work in the home, but Acksel didn’t know what he was so jazzed about. He’d never seen the male so wired.

  Brynn was what his mother would have called a girly-girl. Everything she owned had flowers or butterflies on it, from the dishes to the bathroom towels. Aside from feeling like a flower garden had thrown up in the house, he was happy as long as she was happy. And judging from the way she almost purred in his arms, he knew that she was happy.

  And his.

  “Ready for the full moon tonight?” He’d explained the short ceremony to her earlier and she was nervous but excited.

  “You bet.”

  Deciding to tease her a little, he said, “You know, in the old days, the alpha would fuck his woman in front of the pack to get them all in the mood.”

  Her head shot up. Her green eyes were wide with astonishment. “Tell me that’s one of the laws you rewrote.”

  He made a non-committal sound and then winced when she nipped his chest next to his tattoo. “Acksel.”

  “I never knew you were so kinky, Brynn. You bite me more than I bite you.”

  She clicked her teeth together and curled her lip up adorably. “Acksel.”

  “Oh, fine, I was just teasing.” He pulled her a little closer. “Besides, no one gets to see you naked but me.”

  “Good.” She pursed her lips together in thought and then said, “Is that really true? They had sex before every full moon?”