Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“We will not forsake this pack. We have taken a lover, yes. She is human. She is winter born. But she will stay in the manor. Her presence will not affect the wolves of this pack, female or not.
“We understand the needs of our females, however, and will discuss the heat at the council meeting tomorrow. Until then, do not doubt that we will put the pack first.
We honor our own, we protect our own, and we lead our own.
“Our oath is still strong within our magic, and we are bound by it. Do not question it, and if you think you need to, then stand up now, challenge us. We’d be more than happy to put you in your place,” Derik said in the most passive-aggressive political statement I had ever heard.
Not a single wolf rose to the challenge, keeping their heads bowed.
Derik nodded. “Good. Now we feast,” he said, and then food was being brought through double doors at the end of the hall by younger wolves.
I had read about those earlier. The initiate wolves, the ones that wanted to be part of the main pack and had to go through rigorous hazing-type things for years before they got the chance to be one of the wolves at the table.
I watched as they served the alphas first. Steaming hot plates of roasts and veggies were brought out, ale and wine were served, and then the wolves descended into chaos. But a good chaos.
They were loud and laughing as they chatted among themselves, roaring and fighting every now and then, but Brax reassured me that it was normal. Three fights a night at least was considered the expectation.
The wolves were so much like humans, it threw me for a loop. They could blend in, be human, and the feast was like some kind of family dinner that was almost comfortable. Well, now it was.
“You okay now?” Brax asked, before picking a bean from his plate and eating it.
I nodded. The shadows were gone, and he released mine. I let out a breath, then stared at the plates hungrily. Derik turned to me, feeding me a fork of meat. I ate it as he licked his lips.
“Well, that went as well as expected,” Derik breathed, sipping some wine from a goblet that had the Forest Territory carvings in it.
“What’s the heat, and why is it bad for the females?” I asked quietly.
Brax tensed under me, and I frowned at the reaction. Derik took another drink as Kai leaned over to talk.
“The heat is when the females need to ‘mate,’ but really it means they get super horny. It’s painful for them if they don’t give in to it, and it’s when their wolf is looking for a mate.”
“And that’s bad? Or affects you?” I asked, trying to understand the wolves and their rules that seemed to be affected by me being there.
Kai leaned back and waited for Derik to answer, who let out an exasperated sigh.
“It’s why we knew they would have an issue. There’s an unwritten rule that gives the females of the pack a chance to mate with an alpha. We are meant to sleep with the powerful ones. There’s a whole event that happens, the females fight and the top three get the alphas. Usually.”
“Oh. But this time, I’m here.”
I realized why they were mad. Why Taylor had been so threatened. She was probably first in line or knew she was the strongest. She looked strong.
I shuddered remembering her hands on my throat, then nodded, picking up a cup of water and sipping it.
“But we’ll figure it out,” Braxton said from beneath me, but I wasn’t so sure. The heat sounded like a serious thing for the wolves.
“When is the heat?” I asked.
Derik shrugged. “We just had the blood moon, so it could start anytime. Once it hits one female, it hits them all.”
I raised a brow and looked at my alphas. That was something they really should have mentioned.
“And you didn’t think you should have told me that before bringing me here as your lover?” I snapped.
Derik narrowed his eyes at my tone, but I didn’t care. He never mentioned sharing them with a whole bunch of potential mates.
“We are bound by a lot of rules. Navigating them is…tricky,” Derik muttered, and I wondered if that was his way of saying he actually wasn’t allowed to tell a human of the laws.
But he had sidestepped that by letting me be at dinner and listen to the questions and answers earlier. And the library.
“Which is why you let me go to the library. So I could read what I needed to,” I realized, and he smirked, putting his finger to his lips.
I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. He cupped the back of my neck the way he always did and brought the fire to my core like he always did with a simple flick of his tongue against my lips.
He kissed me fiercely, and I forgot where we were, leaving Brax’s lap to climb on Derik’s. He held the sides of my face, kissing me, teasing me, his dick hard and waiting as I grinded down on him.
Everything else fell away. Every doubt and worry about the wolves’ traditions and what that would mean for me didn’t exist.
I danced my tongue with his, my breasts heavy, my pussy throbbing as my nipples tightened against my dress. It was bunched up between us, draping over his legs, and I wouldn’t have cared if he had fucked me right there in front of every wolf.
Instead, there was an interrupting cough from behind us.
I broke away, breathing heavily as Derik composed his face with that stoic alpha mask and looked over my shoulder.
I turned to look and found one of the wolves in front of the alphas’ table. He had a mohawk of all things, a black one that went with the eyebrow, lip, and nose piercings on his strong-featured face.
A forest tattoo peeked up from his collar, and the roots of a tree spread out over his hand. Then there were the eyes of dark, deep brown that were almost moving. I looked back at Derik so I didn’t stare.
“Say what’s on your mind, Cain,” Derik sighed, and Cain looked between me and the alpha.
“Just want to make sure you know what you’re doing,” he said, and Derik nodded once.
“Thanks. We do.”
“A winter born though? I couldn’t care less about the heat or the females, they’ll find someone to fuck, but the shadows? At a time like this? Risky move, friend,”
Cain said, and the way he talked to Derik made me think they had more respect for each other than the others.
Something in the way the interaction felt was warm, like there was genuine concern for each other.
“A time like this is when we need risky moves, but thanks for your concern.”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was going to find out as soon as Cain left.
He looked at me and bowed respectfully.
“Welcome to our city, Lorelai,” he said. “I’m Cain Emerson. The alphas’ adviser, which is a completely useless position with three stubborn werewolves, so I am more commonly known as the best friend.”
He smiled, and I gave him one in return. He offered his hand, and I went to take it, but Derik snatched mine back.
“Back off, Cain,” he warned, and I frowned.
“Is not shaking hands with humans another archaic rule?” I asked, and he shook his head as Cain laughed.
“It was a test, and Derik knew that. I wanted to read your aura.”
He shrugged, and I raised a brow.
“Are you magic too?”
I wondered if he had the shadows like Brax and me, but if he did, I couldn’t feel them.
“We’re shape-shifters; all of us have magic in us. Some of us just have more than others. I happen to be a hybrid though, leaving me with a few extra goodies from my mother’s witch ancestry.”
He smiled and rolled a purple ball of magic between his fingers before squashing it in his fist.
“Speaking of my mother, she wants you to bring your lover to meet her. She loves the idea of seeing a true winter born. You know how she gets,” Cain said, and Derik rolled his eyes.
“Your mother should be at the pack meeting,” he said, but there was a hint of a smile in his voice.
“My mother would slap you if she were here, so let’s let her do it in private, yeah?
See you tomorrow night at her hut for dinner. Don’t be late, or she’ll put eyeballs in your stew again. That goes for all four of you,” Cain warned, then walked away, whistling a fun tune before whispering in one of the females’ ears and walking out of the hall with her under his arm.
I turned to Derik, so many questions in my head. I had no idea which one to ask first. “What did he mean–“
Derik covered my mouth with his again, silencing my questions. “Not here,” he said, then stood up and took my hand.
“Can you two handle things for the rest of dinner, or do I need to end it before they all start fucking on the tables and have them wanting to challenge us more than they already do tonight?” Derik asked, and Brax chuckled.
Kai’s eyes raked over me before he nodded once and turned back to the dinner, emptying ale from his cup before tapping it for a refill.
Brax rolled his eyes and nodded to the waiter so Kai couldn’t see. I frowned, then hid my chuckle as the waiter gave him a top up of water.
Derik pulled me into a room through a door behind the hall we had been feasting in. It was a small room, intimate, with another fireplace that warmed the air.
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?