by Cara Wylde
“Seth has a stepfather?”
“Had.”
Amelia tried to wrap her mind around what she was hearing. It was all too complicated. And for what?
“But why? Why would Roman lie about you? It’s not like women being Alphas and ruling over clans is unheard of.”
“It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare, and for good reason: shifter females can’t have children, so they can’t produce heirs. The rare cases in which Alpha women have a clan under their command are when there are no male heirs to begin with. No brothers, no uncles, no cousins. It did happen after the war, and the only solution to ensuring the Alpha lineage was to adopt, usually the child of their Beta. It’s not the case with Clan Sylfur. We have more than enough Alpha males who could take my dad’s place. The only way to make sure they didn’t get that chance was for him to produce a male heir. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Dad knew my mother would not be able to have other children after giving birth to me. After a difficult pregnancy and a long labor during which she almost died twice, he knew he couldn’t expect her to ever offer him a son. So, he worked with what he had: he lied.”
Amelia looked at her dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe the Alpha who had bought her from Alma Venus was actually a woman. She was married to a woman. As much as she wanted, she couldn’t get past that. She had many questions, but her brain wouldn’t let her formulate them. It was like a broken record that played the same thing over and over again: “What the hell? How can this be?”
“Look, I know it’s a lot to take in,” Blake continued. “I wish I could have told you earlier, but you have to understand… We had to be sure. All of us. I need you, Amelia! I need you to help me pull this off. Do you know why I can’t get out of this bloody room unless it’s way past midnight and everyone is sleeping? Because they would smell me. As a child, and later a teenager, my scent wasn’t much different from any fox-shifter’s. But as I grew up and became… well, a woman, it changed. The only thing that can cover it is the scent of a human female. That’s why I needed a bride before my dad made me the main Inari of Clan Sylfur: to cover my scent.”
“Wow. Just wow.”
“And there’s so much more… so much more I need to tell you… It’s not only the clan, not only my uncles and cousins. It’s the Council.”
“The Council.” Could this get even more complicated? Apparently, it could. “The Council of the Six Factions.” Blake nodded and Amelia saw she was getting ready to launch herself in new, probably even more twisted explanations. “Wait, just wait a second. And please put a shirt on.” She started pacing the room and Blake took the shirt off the floor and put it on. Without the cloth strips flattening her breasts, the vixen had a pretty nice cleavage. Amelia entered Blake’s personal space and looked her dead in the eyes. “There is something you need to tell me first: did you know about me and Seth?”
Blake cocked an eyebrow and smiled. “Yeah, he told me the same day it happened. Believe it or not, I’m happy for the two of you…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Amelia raised her voice, then realized it was a bad idea as she didn’t know who might have been downstairs. Sometimes, Roman’s brothers stopped by to inquire about his health. “Are you guys out of your minds? How could you do this to me? Do you have any idea how guilty I felt? I thought I was betraying you, I thought I was cheating on my husband. I was disgusted with myself. I was ready to leave Alaska and suffer the consequences. Blake… is that even your real name? Do you realize just how fucking selfish you are?”
“I’m sorry… I’m really, really sorry, Amelia. I want us to be friends. Seth couldn’t have found a better mate, and I’m not just saying this.”
“You knew!” Amelia laughed hysterically and headed towards the door, intent on leaving the room. “Seth told you, but he kept lying to me. I can’t believe this!”
“I asked him to. The second you would have come to tell me about you two, I would have been forced to reveal myself, and I wasn’t ready. He only did what I ordered him to do.”
“Of course, of course…” Amelia opened the door.
“Please don’t leave. We have so much to talk about.”
“Oh, I’m done here.” She was boiling with anger. She felt betrayed, treated like an object. She was nothing more than a pawn strategically placed on a huge chess board. Ignoring Blake’s pleas, she left the room and slammed the door behind her. She needed to be alone, somewhere far, far away from these fucked up people. She needed to think.
END OF BOOK ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Best Friends
“My life is a joke,” Amelia whispered to herself. She slammed the door behind her and plopped onto her bed. “I’m a joke…”
She stared at the ceiling for long minutes, thoughts and images invading her brain, playing between her aching temples, mocking her. There was Seth, frowning and treating her as if she was nothing to him, the next minute his lips curling up into a smile, and his husky voice whispering in her ear how much he wanted her. His hard body pressed up against hers, his large hands caressing her flesh, claiming her… Then, the guilt. Blake’s kind eyes as he… she told her how unfair the system had been to the shifter brides… He, she, he… What was Amelia supposed to call Blake?
“A sick joke!”
This time she yelled. Tears made their way to the corners of her eyes, then spilled down the sides of her face and disappeared in her brown, disheveled hair. Her heart ached like never before. This was a different kind of pain. It wasn’t the pain she had felt when her parents were murdered in their sleep; that empty void which threatened to suck her in and feast on her small body until there was nothing left. No, it wasn’t that overwhelming rage against the killers, her own parents (“Why did you have to die? Why did you leave me?”), against the whole world. This time, it was the pain of having failed, of having believed she had things under control only to be mocked by reality. Amelia, the chess champion of Alma Venus Boarding School, had just been checkmated. In the most embarrassing, humiliating way.
She jumped off the bed and started pacing the room frantically. Blood was boiling in her veins, the tears had started to fall on the collar of her blouse, and her hands were shaking with the desire, the need to smash something to pieces. She clenched her fists and bit down on her bottom lip until she felt the taste of copper on her tongue. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket and she took it out with trembling fingers. It was Blake. The second she saw the name, she threw the phone on her bed and headed for the door. She couldn’t be in this house anymore. She needed to put as much distance as possible between her and the sick members of Clan Sylfur.
“Who do they think they are? Playing with someone like this… as if nothing else other than their stupid political machinations matter.” She ran down the stairs and out into the courtyard. “I hate them. All of them!” She threw the gate open and started towards the river. The cold night air was already making her feel better, clearing her mind and cooling down her heated body. Good. This was good. She would find an isolated spot on the shore, spend the entire night there, and come up with a solid plan. “Avelyn was right,” she thought. “This isn’t worth it. Shape-shifters are just playing with us. To them, we’re no more than the scum of society, orphans and abandoned children who are supposed to kiss their rich asses and thank them for giving us the oh-so-unique opportunity to bear their children.” She scoffed. “And to think I actually believed this bullshit… dedicated my whole life to becoming a good bride…”
She walked so fast that she reached the shore in half the time it usually took her. The chilliness had yet to affect her. Amelia was so angry and hurt that she had lost the ability to feel physical discomfort even though, in her rush to leave the mansion, she had forgotten to grab a jacket or cardigan. She stopped in front of the docks, then went west along the river. It was the first time she was exploring that part of Ekviknuna, but she didn’t have it within her to feel nervous about it. All she knew was that there was no way she’d g
o east, towards Seth’s cabin. She didn’t want to see him. Her body was dying for his embrace, but her heart pumped pain and anger in her veins every time she thought of his name or his face. If she hadn’t left her phone in her room, she would have known that Seth had been trying to reach her for the past half hour.
After putting a decent distance between her and the docks, Amelia sat down on a rock and wrapped her arms around her. After a couple of minutes of staring at the calm, dark river, she finally started to feel the cold creeping into her bones, making her muscles tense in an attempt to keep the body heat in.
“Shit!” Her voice rang awkwardly over the soft whisper of the waves. She had no intention of going back to the mansion, though. Not yet. Not before coming up with a plan to get out of there and make sure Clan Sylfur would never find her.
But Amelia wasn’t stupid. She was angry, yes, and she felt humiliated and betrayed, but she wasn’t so naïve as to really think she had a chance to back out of this mess now. She started crying softly, her shoulders shaking in time with her sobs. Whether she liked it or not, she was in over her head and there was no way out. None. Neither Blake, nor Roman would ever allow her to leave Alaska now that she knew their secret. She was too much of a liability to them. The game wasn’t over. The joke would go on for as long as she lived. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t get things right.
She sat on her small, pathetic rock for a long time, sobbing and shivering like the abandoned orphan, useless pawn that she was. In the morning, she’d stand up, climb back on the chess board and let the players move her around in the positions in which they needed her to be. She had no idea how much time had passed. Even though she was freezing and she could barely feel her toes, she couldn’t find the strength to move. When two big, warm arms wrapped around her small frame and pulled her against a wide chest, she didn’t even have the power to flinch, let alone pull away.
“Baby, come here. Shh… come here…”
Amelia closed her eyes and cursed herself for craving Seth’s sweet voice and strong body. Her heart started beating faster, and it wasn’t because of her anger towards him. Come to think of it, her anger and resolve had frozen along with her toes, fingers, and the tips of her ears. He pressed his lips to her temple, and Amelia melted in his embrace. She wouldn’t sigh or moan, though, and she wouldn’t talk. At least that much dignity she still had left.
Seth knew she wouldn’t say anything, and he didn’t expect her to. He had been calling her for the past hour, even as he had gone to look for her at the mansion, then at Elena and Aaron’s, on the streets of Ekviknuna and on the shore. Blake had told him everything, and for the first time in years Seth had actually yelled at his Alpha and told her how much of a dick she was, granted she didn’t have a dick.
He hugged Amelia closer to his chest, trying to warm her up.
“I’m sorry, Amelia, I’m so sorry. I’m not delusional… I know you might never forgive me for what I… we… did to you. There was nothing I wanted more than to tell you the truth the moment you got here, but I couldn’t.” He kissed the top of her head, lingering just enough to inhale the flowery scent of her shampoo. “I don’t deserve you. You’re a beautiful, bright woman who deserves a real Alpha, not a Beta fox-shifter who’s not even in charge of his own life.” He took a deep breath and swallowed down the bitter taste in his mouth. It was painful to admit these things. In fact, it was painful to voice them, not to admit them. He had admitted them a long time ago. “Fox-shifters are a messed up species. No wonder not only humans are reluctant to us, but also the other shifter factions. We’re selfish, greedy, sly… While dragon-shifters are noble, werewolves are proud and loyal, werebears are kind, and eagle-shifters are fair and easy-going, we only think of ourselves. But that’s… that’s not the point…” He paused and looked at the starry sky. “I’m not trying to find excuses by saying it’s in our genes. That would be stupid. I’m just saying… you deserve better. You deserve better than me, than Blake, than Clan Sylfur and the whole fox-shifter faction alltogether.”
Amelia was silent. She couldn’t deny that Seth’s words were putting her mind at ease, reassuring her that he cared. After everything that had happened, she should have hated his guts. How could a woman love a man despite him having lied to her? It didn’t matter that he was forced by his duty towards his Inari and his clan. When a man loved a woman, not even his duty should have been more important than his loyalty to her. She smiled at her naïve logic. This only happened in fairy tales and romance novels. Real life was much more subtle and complex.
“Now that we’re here, I might as well tell you everything,” he continued. “When I interviewed all the Vulpes brides at Alma Venus, I skipped you for a reason.”
Amelia tensed. She still hadn’t gotten over that particular defeat, and even after Seth had confessed his feelings, she had thought back to that day from time to time, wondering why he had called her in last.
“I saw your picture in the House Vulpes catalog and I knew you were the one. I don’t know why, or how. I can’t put it into words. When a shape-shifter finds his mate, something happens… something strange and unexpected. There’s no logic to it. We just know. And right then I knew you were my mate. That’s why I didn’t want to interview you for Blake. My plan was to find a suitable bride for him, then come back to Alma Venus and buy you for myself.”
Yes, Seth always referred to Blake as “he”, just as everyone else, even when they were alone and Blake could afford to let the mask fall. It was safer that way.
“I wanted to ask the headmistress to take your profile out of the catalog, but things didn’t go as planned. None of the other girls proved to be what I was looking for, and it was already too late to start going from one boarding school to the next until I finally found the right bride to help us take over Clan Sylfur when the time came. Roman was getting worse by the day and there was no time to waste. Deep down, I hoped you wouldn’t be good for Blake either. But you were. In fact, you were better. You are better than any of us deserves.”
Amelia shifted so as to look up at him. She immediately got lost in his deep, purple eyes. God, he was so handsome! That light blond hair casually sticking into his eyes, that square jaw covered in stubble… He usually shaved every day, but now he looked as if he had been too preoccupied to care. Too preoccupied with her…
“You really wanted to buy me for yourself?”
“Yes. There was nothing I wanted more than to make you my bride. Still isn’t.”
They looked into each other’s eyes for a long minute, then Amelia gave in and pressed her lips to his. Seth sighed into the kiss and squeezed her hard when her cold fingers found their way into his hair. Their tongues teased each other slowly, taking their time to explore the other’s mouth. Amelia’s pussy clenched with desire, and she knew Seth was already hard and ready to fill her. No matter how upset she was, there was no way she could resist him, resist his perfectly sculpted body and the mere thought of his long, thick cock inside her. They were both panting when they pulled apart.
“You’re cold.”
“Yeah…” Amelia smiled and snuggled against his chest.
“Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
“I don’t want to go back home…” Her words came out muffled. Talking into his shirt was a bad idea, as her mouth was now full of fuzz she had to spit out. He wasn’t wearing a jacket either, but he was a fox-shifter. He didn’t need extra clothes to keep him warm.
“Who says I’m taking you to the mansion?” He stood up, pulling her with him. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, then motioned for Amelia to lift her arms. “There you go… This should keep you nice and warm until we get to the cabin.”
Amelia’s eyes widened at the sight of his smooth, delicious chest. She didn’t think things could get better until he reached for the buttons of his jeans and started undoing them.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s too col
d for a long walk, so you’re going to ride on my back.”
She almost jumped in excitement. Since she had seen Seth turn a few days ago, she had been dying to see him in his fox form again so she could actually touch his white fur. And now she was going to ride him? How cool was that? Oh, she couldn’t wait to ride him in a whole different way once they got to his cabin.
Seth threw his jeans, underwear and socks at her, but left his boots on the ground. Amelia fumbled with the clothes a bit, then decided she could fit the boots in a small bundle if she tried. She almost dropped the whole thing when she saw Seth standing before her in all his naked glory, his hard cock pointing right at her. He smirked and started turning. Amelia watched in awe how white fur sprung out of his skin and his features molded into a long snout. Bones popped and snapped, muscles rearranged themselves, and soon Seth was a white fox towering over her, just a tad taller than in his human form.
“Oh my…” whispered Amelia. She looked into his eyes, then gathered her courage and touched his cold, wet nose. Being face to face with such a beautiful, majestic animal was intimidating, but she knew the white fox was Seth, the same Seth who had told her she was his mate. He would never hurt her, and she knew all shape-shifters were in complete control of their instincts. “This is incredible.” The fox licked her palm and she giggled.
She rounded him, her fingers combing his soft, white fur as she moved her hand up and down his side. She stopped when she reached his hip, aware that he would surely hate it if she tried to touch his tail. That was when it struck her that Seth had a single tail. The first time he turned in front of her, she had been too aroused by his strong body and the nice view of his ass to notice this. What did it mean? Probably that Seth had never cared about growing more tails. As the Yako of Roman Sylfur, he was already one of the most influential members of the clan, so he focused on keeping Blake safe so she could study and prepare for the moment when she’d become the main Inari.
