Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
The wind brushed over us lightly, kissing my exposed arms, and I savored the feeling on my hot skin that just wouldn’t stop clamming up.
The flutters inside me got stronger, and my shadows stirred. I held my stomach, not sure why it felt like they were trying to give me some kind of message, an instinct or something that I couldn’t interpret.
I rubbed lightly as we walked, the slight pressure of my hand on the roundness making a little bit of the ache go away.
“Is it painful?” Anetta asked, looking down at where I held my stomach with a frown.
I shook my head. “Not with the potion I have to take and the alphas’ toxin. A few aches and pains creep through, but it’s more how it feels inside, like…heavy.”
I laughed, and she smiled.
“My mate wants one, but I keep putting it off. I like being a full member of the pack.
“Once us females start having our litters, things change. We get less called on for tasks, and we lose time for training, for fucking. I enjoy both of those things.”
I laughed at that. “I hope I don’t lose time for that. I quite enjoy it too.”
I smiled, and she returned it, then turned to look ahead through the rows of house.
Wolves passed, sometimes in beast form, sometimes human, mostly naked or shirtless, but all of them nodding in respect.
“I think the pain would be quite worth it. I’m good with pain, but there’s a war coming. No offense, but I don’t want to bring a baby into that until we know it’ll be safe,” Anetta said, and I nodded.
I understood that more than she knew. I wanted to revel in the idea that I was pregnant with my alphas’ baby, to enjoy it, but at the moment, every feeling of joy we stole was borrowed from the darkness of what was brewing in the background.
It wasn’t fair. If we had known it was an issue we might have been able to prevent it or change when it happened, but we didn’t.
Whether the timing was shit or not, we had been given this for a reason–maybe because it needed to be during these times, or maybe because we fucked up and should have looked into the conditions of the link better.
Either way we had to deal with it now, and despite it being in the middle of some pretty shit times, I was glad for it.
If only Kai’s mark was gone too, then I could be a little more excited.
“I understand,” I breathed, then followed Anetta around a corner, more houses of wood and stone lining the street. “Can I ask you a question?”
“You just did.” She grinned, and I smiled.
“Has a mate ever been rejected? To the point the mating mark was removed?” I asked, and Anetta frowned, thinking hard.
That, or she knew why I was asking and was deciding whether to disappoint me.
“Not that I know of, sorry,” she whispered, and I swallowed hard at the truth.
“What happens if Kai rejects whoever he mates with?”
She sighed and paused, turning to me. “As far as I know, Lorelai, he won’t be able to. Once that connection hits, he won’t be able to survive without his mate. Their souls will connect, and it’ll be done.
“Turning it down will be ripping out his own heart. I can only speak from what I do know, and I know that if my mate tried to leave me, I would not survive. His heart, his soul, everything that exists within him is a part of me,” Anetta said.
I nodded, refusing to cry. I had known it was the case; I shouldn’t have asked. My stomach ached, my skin flashing with heat, and I blew out a breath, turning away from her.
“Where are we going?” I asked, ignoring her truth because it hurt too much to continue the conversation.
“I thought you’d want to see the community gardens that have been set up to replace the produce we will no longer be receiving from the humans.”
She smiled, and I nodded.
I followed Anetta past the pub, rowdy with wolves even in the middle of the day, then found the gardens a couple of blocks away.
They were alive with produce, fresh, beautiful produce that was greener than the humans had ever given them.
The herbs were filling the air with so many scents it was almost overwhelming.
Even the flowers were in full bloom.
I frowned and moved through the planter boxes outlined in stone.
“This is amazing. How’d you get it to grow so healthily?” I asked, brushing my hand along the leaves of a lettuce.
“The alphas. Their magic has been insanely strong since linking with you. And now the border magic has been filtering through you, to them. It keeps our lands healthy.
“Your humans would have known that if they’d stuck to the plan. This year’s gifts would have been plentiful on both sides of the stone wall.” Anetta sighed wistfully.
I frowned at that and looked through the buildings to the wall of the city.
“Gifts. Why do you call them that? The humans said they were payment.”
She grimaced. “Kind of. We didn’t technically need their offerings, but the magic that comes from offering us those things helped us maintain the border outside of the virgin ceremony.
“It’s all about give and take. In the balance of things, we’re providing the magic it takes to keep their lands alive, as well as their protection.
“They are providing something in return for that, so I guess it is payment.” Anetta shrugged, and I froze, my eyes turning from all the gardens to her.
“Wait, the lands. They only prosper because of magic?” I asked.
She nodded sadly, and my breath hitched.
“So the word they said, breaking them off from wolf magic?”
“Will put an end to that prosperity.”
I gripped the edge of the stone, my heart racing. My mom relied on those crops and farms. If the magic really was gone out of the land where they lived then so were their food sources.
“I need to warn them,” I breathed, tears springing to my eyes.
“Trust me, they’ve been warned, Lorelai. The alphas and council have been corresponding with your father on these matters, asking him to see reason, but magic requires balance and he is refusing to offer anything in return, adamant he can look after his people on his own,” Anetta explained.
I rubbed my face, my skin hot and slick despite the light wind. Irritation grew in my blood. Why was Anetta allowed to know these things and I was not? Why was I always kept in the dark?
It was bullshit, and I was getting tired of it. If the alphas were talking with my father, even about werewolf things, then they should tell me, not wait for me to have a minor heart attack worrying.
“I am so sick of being the last to know all the time.” I gritted my teeth, and Anetta shrugged.
“You’re not. My mate is on the council. I peek in sometimes.” She grinned, and I raised a brow at her.
Now that was my kind of wolf.
“Really?”
“Of course. How else would I find out all the gossip of the pack?”
I laughed. “I had this image in my mind of the council and it was mostly all old people saying things like ‘Back in my day.'”
She shook her head with a knowing smirk. “Oh, no way. The council is filled with hot-as-hell werewolves.
“They were the strongest of our kind once and their bodies show it. My mate is one of the oldest. He was never an alpha, but he came damn close.”
She grinned, and I raised a brow at her in surprise.
“Wait, so he’s, like, old old? Like ‘daddy’ kind of vibes?” I teased suggestively as she started leading us down another path.
She laughed at that and nodded. “Yeah, total hot daddy vibes. And he might be old to a human in years, but damn, he doesn’t look it.
“In saying that, none of them show their age. Even Derik’s parents still look like it wouldn’t take more than a single muscle to snap you in half.”
She shuddered, and that had me pausing my steps.
“Woah, Derik’s parents are still on the council?” I demanded. Another piece of information that had been conveniently left out.
Anetta nodded. “Mm-hmm. They’re some of the ones that don’t shift anymore. They ran outta magic years and years back, just after Derik and the other alphas took over, but they’re the only ones that are still alive.
“Usually once wolves stop shifting, they kind of waste away, the magic burning out, and eventually their bodies give up, but Derik’s parents are…stubborn. They’re a little intimidating actually.”
She half laughed, and I pursed my lips. Pretty sure I should have met them by now if they were still alive. I had assumed they had passed on like Kai’s and Brax’s, and yet they hadn’t.
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?