Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
I smiled at how intuitive he was, then hugged Mom.
“You’ll be back for dinner?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be an hour tops,” I said. “I just have to stay with Brax.”
She smiled, looking over my face like she saw something else there. “They keep you safe? You are happy?”
I smiled and nodded. “I’ve never been more so.”
“Well then, I’ll make enough for us all. I would like to be more in the know when it comes to the relationship with them.”
She blushed, and I chuckled. “I love you, but you probably don’t want the details.”
“Well, a few wouldn’t hurt.”
She grinned, and I laughed, hugging her again. “Sure, we’ll gossip when I get back.”
“Perfect. I would like to understand this whole thing a little more though, not just gossip. We will be talking marriage and babies, so forewarn them they’re getting the mother talk over dinner. Then I’ll know if they are good enough for my daughter.”
She winked, and I raised a brow. “How will you know?”
“Because they’ll still show up.” She smiled wide, then went to the kitchen, humming as she went about making the only stew that I’d ever enjoyed. Probably because she loved making it so much.
I grinned and left Mother’s hut, resenting my dad even more.
Brax smiled at me and grabbed my hand. “We’ll still show up.”
He winked, and I laughed, leading him down the path toward the widows’ village.
34. The Vision
The widows’ village. More like a brothel. The widows, men and women, were split between two huge buildings with a connecting fenced grass section.
One building was for the widows without children. The other for the widows with children.
Once people were married, their duties to the village had technically been fulfilled, so they cast them aside and put them in purgatory. Forgot about them.
They all kept to themselves, scorned for not keeping a marriage alive or their other halves. Any divorces meant getting banished here. The unchosen were sent here. It was my future without the wolves.
It was another stupid tradition that humans liked to use as a power play.
They had all the shit jobs, but they couldn’t complain because then the main villages wouldn’t share food or security. So, the widows did the washing and dishes for the others.
Why they couldn’t do it themselves was beyond me. I can wash my own panties, thanks.
Brax walked up the path and through the gate, where children played with balls, hoops, and skipping ropes. They stopped when we entered, the kids pausing to stare at Brax.
He was huge compared to them, and without his smile, he looked intimidating as hell.
He held my hand tightly as he led me to the building that didn’t house the children.
He didn’t bother knocking, and I should have cautioned him against that.
The widows were sad, needy, and filled the gaps inside with emotionless sex. All the time.
He walked in, stopping short as we interrupted a woman getting fucked against the wall in the hall. Brax smirked, then walked past them and led me down to the living areas.
Upstairs were the rooms, but as far as I knew, nobody designated anything around here. Except the newer widows, they always needed time to work through the stages of grief.
We went to the living area and he sniffed the air, grimacing as the smells of sex and depression hit him. I laughed.
The room was empty, cold, dark. The furniture was worn and not even worth sitting on.
A woman sat on the rusting chair on the rotting deck, sipping from a broken jar.
She was watching the kids play, silent and kind of creepily.
Brax moved through the open double doors onto the deck, the slats creaking underneath his muscled weight. I wasn’t even sure how long it would hold him.
“Ma’am,” he interrupted her.
She turned to him, and he kept his expression neutral when she did, which was better than I managed. I gasped at the sight of her cut face, her white eyes.
“I suppose you want to know what I saw last night. Well, you’re out of luck, wolf, this girl is blind as a bat.”
She cackled, her wild hair bobbing with her sagging shoulders as she did. She sobered quickly though and pulled her dressing gown tighter.
She got out a cigarette and held it out to Brax. I frowned as he sighed, whispering something to his hand before lighting it for her. I raised my brows at his magic–I didn’t know he had.
“You were hurt by whatever was here?” he asked.
“No, I was juggling with knives.” She chortled, then sighed. “Yeah, I felt something weird. Cold. Think the fucker thought I wouldn’t see anything because I got no eyes.
“But I got that son of a bitch pinned and cut ‘im up pretty good. He got me back, but I don’t need this mug for much more anymore, so I figure I won that round.”
She sneered, taking a long drag on her smoke. She blew it out, then emptied the jar of moonshine in her hand.
I raised a brow at her until she turned to me, and my expression dropped. Not that she could see, but it felt like she could.
“He wanted you, my dear. Offered a pretty penny too. Then he took them. The ladies from the room next to mine. Didn’t kill them, but oh, he wanted to. I felt it in my bones and in his rage.”
She shivered, and I did too, looking at Brax, who frowned.
“It was a he?”
“I didn’t feel no tits when I was body slammin’ him.” She laughed, then had another puff.
I knew who it was, and so did Brax. My brother was not going to survive once they caught him, and it had me swallowing hard.
He was doing this. I still wasn’t ready for that. I blew out a breath, my stomach turning. The only relief that I had was that Mother was safe, and since it was Lucas, she should stay safe.
“Anything else?” Brax asked, and she laughed.
“Yeah, when you find him, tell him I want my dagger back. That thing was a gift, and it is mine,” she snapped, unconcerned by the cut that was sealed with dried blood still smeared on her face and dressing gown.
“What kind of dagger? Was it a gift from your husband?” Brax asked, and she scoffed.
“I ain’t got no husband. Never have, never will. I got the blind, son. That means I’m as cursed as the winter born. No, my name never made the choosing bowl.
“That dagger was a gift from ancestors much wiser than I, and I would like it back,”
she said, then put out her cigarette, facing the kids playing again.
“It’s blessed.” She grinned at that. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
I had no idea what that meant, but Brax did, his brow furrowing. “Sacrificial?”
Her grin grew wider, that creepiness factor coming back. “Generations’ worth.”
“You believe that is why he came here in the first place? For the dagger?” Brax guessed, and she nodded.
“Get it back, please,” she asked, and he nodded, then turned to me.
“We’ve got to get back,” he urged, but as he went to step, one of the little girls who had been playing came over.
She tugged on Brax’s pants, and he looked down at her, smiling. He knelt down to her, and she blushed.
“Can you come play?” she asked, and his smile tightened.
He looked like he was considering it, which meant whatever the dagger meant was important information he needed to share.
But then she smiled wide. “Please? We never get to see the wolves, and I told my brother that you were faster than him, but he doesn’t believe me.”
She played with her hands, and Brax looked up to the other kids waiting. His tight smile broke, and he grinned.
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?