Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>
“Finish the mating I turned to go back to my seat. “Stay down there with her. And I swear. Now.”
go d, if he calls her to mate with someone, I’ll have his head,” I spoke to Zane.
The fact that she was twenty and hadn’t yet been mated wasn’t lost on anyone. Alice had been treated horribly by many others in the pack for it, but I’d worked hard to sway the elders to put it off.
Elder Aldon continued.
“Next up, Alice Fabine. Mated to Gregory Bjorn and Lucas Spindler.”
Zane
I was going to kill him.
I was going to jump onto that stage and tear him limb from limb and then make Xander declare that this whole mating process was done. That our pack was going to go its own way.
F uck everyone else.
Alice trembled in my arms, sobbing as her name was called.
My heart splintered, and I held her tighter, kissing the top of her head.
It was all I could do not to partially shift and sink my fangs into her neck and claim her right there in front of everyone, elders be da mned.
“Alice, you must go to your assigned mates.” Elder Aldon’s voice was slimy, and my fangs dropped.
“What in the f uck are we supposed to do?” I projected to Xander.
*Just… F uck.”
Xander’s power radiated through the crowd as his anger notched up, and we all felt it in our bones. Just one of the reasons Alphas had to stay in constant control. Anything they felt was sent out to the rest of the pack if they didn’t have a tight rein on their emotions.
“Xander…. your rage is being fed to everyone here,” I warned.
Our eyes met, and we both nodded.
We knew what we had to do.
Zane “Alice, love.” I lifted her chin and stared into her tearful eyes. “Go with them for now. We’ll address this after the ceremony. We’ll find a way…”
Her chin quivered and she closed her eyes briefly, sending fresh streams of tears down her porcelain cheeks. My gut twisted.
I brushed the backs of my knuckles across one cheek, then the other, wiping her tears away.
“It’ll be okay. I promise,” I assured her.
I stalked back onto the stage to take my place next to Xander. There was no way I could stand down there in the crowd and watch as she walked over to Gregory and Lucas.
Especially since it was Gregory and Lucas.
They would tear her apart.
Alice would be their third mate.
In just over a year’s time.
Their first mate had been assigned to them last Fall and had mysteriously disappeared barely two months into their mating.
While we all had our suspicions, the Elders had decided that the young Mary had simply run away as there had been no evidence of foul play. They never bothered to take into consideration the fact that Mary had been seen by multiple people with bruises on her arms.
Last Spring, they had been assigned a she-wolf whose mates had just passed away in a car accident. Most thought it was too soon for her to mate someone else, but the Elders had thought it best for her to be mated right away, saying that “having a purpose in life would help her.”
She lasted three months before she was found dead in the woods behind Gregory and Luc a s’s cabin.
The Elders ruled it a suicide, blaming it on her depression and grief and instability.
When Xander and I had gone to view the scene in the forest, we knew that was a lie.
I’ll never forget the pain that remained in her lifeless eyes, and I’ll never forget the smug way Greg and Luke had just shrugged when we asked them what happened.
Xander’s low growl brought me out of my thoughts, and I refocused on the here and now. Lanie was standing closer to us now, staring blankly at nothing.
tanie was I glanced at Xander. He was intently focused on Alice, who was now standing between they took turns manhandling her like she was a piece of meat.
I saw red.
And there was nothing I could do right now.
If we weren’t careful and we p issed off the elders, everyone in our pack would die.
e Lanie What the heck was I supposed to do? Xander and Zane had stood up as soon as Elder Aldon left the stage, and they were now standing at the bottom of the steps, talking in low voices.
toes.
While I remained up on the stage, petrified.
People were staring. I could feel their eyes on me, and all I wanted to do was run and hide.
If I could get my da mn legs to move.
Come on, Lanie. Get your s hit together.
“We could trade her for Alice.” Zane’s words floated up to me, and my stomach dropped to the tips of my “F uck no. No one deserves to be with Greg and Lucas.” Xander’s tone sounded disgusted.
Zane sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “You’re right; I don’t want to place Lanie in harm’s way. But we cannot let Alice go home with those monsters.”
Xander shifted his weight, looking out into the pack members still standing around.
I prayed that whatever he decided to do wouldn’t upset the elders and make things difficult for me, my sister, or my parents.
The elders had been given ultimate power, saying that the egos, heated tempers, and rash decisions of the Alphas were what had led to the Great War. The idea was that the elders were older, wiser, and more even-keeled since they didn’t have Alpha blood flowing through their veins and making them “unstable.”
So while Xander might be upset about today and what the elders had decided, he didn’t have control over it and couldn’t go against them. The only thing Xander had control over was the day-to-day leading of the pack. “Lanie,” Xander barked.
I jumped, looking at him with wide eyes.
“Come with us.”
So…they weren’t just going to leave me here?
I walked down the steps to stand in the grass beside them.
Xander and Zane’s eyes roved over me, and I would swear they were talking to each other in their heads, because they looked at each other at the same moment, then back to me, then out into the distance.
What the hell?
I set my jaw and stared back at them.
Zane nodded once, then Xander started walking toward the people still in the town square. Zane followed, indicating with a jerk of his head at me that I was to come, too.
“My pack.” Xander stopped at the edge of people, his voice booming.
Every head turned in his direction, and every person stopped what they were doing as soon as their Alpha’s voice rang out.
“Until a thorough investigation can be done and we can determine that a new mate will be safe in their care, Gregory Bjorn and Lucas Spindler are hereby forbidden from claiming a new mate.”
Xander
I must protect Alice at all costs, and this was my only recourse.
“This is absurd!” Greg burst forth through the crowd, rage shining in his eyes as he met my gaze. Luke wasn’t far behind, his hand wrapped around Alice’s wrist, dragging her behind him.
I let loose a low growl.
Luke let go immediately.
“You have no right,” Luke said.
“lam well within my right to protect a member of this pack from possible harm, and I am well within my right to open an investigation into members of the pack.” I crossed my arms over my chest and widened my legs.
“What are you going to do with our mate? The elders gave her to us. She’s ours.” Spittle flung from Greg’s mouth as he spat the words out.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?