Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
She was back feeding Alaric and putting the twins to bed. Now that the traitor had officially been caught, she was safe and the wolves were out of lockdown.
Something they were excited about. I could hear them partying all the way from Junipers.
“Danika. I know you know how bad this can get for you.” I kept twirling the branding iron in the fire. “Would you like to speak up before it gets to that point or are you happy for me to start scarring your skin until nobody recognizes you, not even your precious rogues?”
A sob escaped her lips but she clenched her eyes shut.
Brax stayed against the far wall. His fury fed us all, his shadows in the air around us. I couldn’t see them but I knew they were there, used to the scent of Brax intensifying when they were.
The fresh rain smell he always carried always became more potent when his shadows were there and I was surprised Danika was still breathing.
“Last chance,” I gave her one more.
She said nothing so I moved the bright orange wolf brand to the flesh of her thigh.
She screamed.
I relished the sound.
Maybe it was sick, wrong, fucked up. Hell, maybe I was.
But I didn’t care.
I had promised to take care of my mate, to protect her and our family, our pack.
And Danika had tried to make sure I couldn’t do that.
She had turned on her own.
The rogues would know nothing about us if she hadn’t told them.
“Why?!” I demanded, the word breaking through my control.
She screamed in return and I pulled the brand back.
The wolf brand welted instantly. It looked angry. Good, so was I.
Her leg shook where I had branded her but even seeing a wolf on her made me want to destroy it.
She was no wolf.
She was barely human.
“Danika–” Derik started but her name grated on my ears. That name had been given to her by parents who were loyal to the pack.
Council members.
She didn’t deserve it.
I growled at Derik, “She is Traitor now, Derik.”
Derik eyed me but he could fuck off too if he was going to call me out. He had been losing his shit for the last three days. It was my turn.
I stuck the brand back in the fire. I was going to alter the brand later so it did not look like the wolf, but I’d wait until it was on her skin.
Then I could take my time.
“Please, no, no, no,” she whimpered, trying to move her legs away from me. But I had planned ahead, bringing my favorite shackles.
Magic ones that meant she wasn’t going anywhere and the witches nor rogues were going to be able to do anything about it.
“Why did you betray us?” I snarled, bringing over the hot iron, hovering it over her skin.
“Because of him!” She screamed before I let the brand meet her flesh.
I raised a brow and put the iron back on the fire.
I followed her eyeline to Brax.
The sharp jolt of pain and guilt was hard to breathe through. His eyes darkened, narrowed, and he slowly walked over, holding his arms across himself.
I didn’t let him speak. I knew what he would say. Blame himself. Apologize. But he didn’t need to. Blaming her betrayal on anyone else was a coward’s answer.
“Wrong,” I seethed and aimed the brand back at her, “There is only one person at fault.”
I pressed the brand into her.
She cried out, tears falling as she writhed, trying to get free from the chair.
I pinned her there with the brand.
“He was promised to me!” She screamed.
I scoffed and put the brand in the fire again.
I moved in close to her, yanking her tear-stained face to see mine. Maybe she would see how crazy I was feeling. How erratic my emotions were. If she did, she should take it as a warning.
“He is a werewolf. He has always been promised to the realm. And the realm has decided his fate. His mate. You think you are above such magic?” I demanded.
She shook her head and I released her, stepping back, “No. But she should never have been brought back after the ritual. Everything could have carried on as usual. I could have had the life I was promised.”
“Are you so short sighted?!” I roared, “If my Little Luna hadn’t come back, who would have helped stop her father?
Adrenna? We would have been wiped out by the vampires!”
“We could have beat them!”
My control snapped and I grabbed the whip, slashing it through the air. The tail flicked her face to the side.
She cried, turning back, her hair stuck to the blood that started leaking from the cut I had left.
I walked up and leaned down so she knew how serious I was, “No. We couldn’t have. Because the rogues were working against us at the same time. They poisoned our water. How would we have protected ourselves then, hmm?
You wish death on all our young? All our people who never did anything to you?!”
The idea made me even more furious.
Her deception had cost so many wolves their lives.
“But the rogue, Heather, she told me things. She said Brax was never meant to be Alpha. That he stole his role–“
I slapped her.
I leaned so close, holding her jaw with a tight grasp. Then I looked in her teary eyes.
“It was given. By the witches she works with. They are manipulating her and she is doing the same thing to you.”
“Kai–” Brax warned but I snarled at him.
“She is wrong! And she has done enough to earn the death I am dying to give her,” I snapped.
“We’re not killing her. We’re giving her back to the rogues. She wants them to be her family she can learn the hard way why they are called rogues,” Derik ordered.
I had never wanted to disobey him as much as I did then but he was right. The rogues may be working together now but that was because Heather had the power.
They were loyal to no one when it came down to it. They were animals with no foundation of loyalty.
They would turn on the Traitor, or let her rot. She was going to learn what that betrayal felt like.
“What are the rogues planning?” Brax finally stepped in.
He did well not to fuck her up. I would’ve. I was.
And it still did nothing for the ache in the pit of my stomach from what she had done.
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?