Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“We’ll be back, human, and you’ll regret the day you took away our shackles.
“Our laws, ones that are included in the balance you want, mean anything that happens on a full moon is just part of our nature and can’t be helped.
“So, you better lock up your piggies because the wolves are coming to town every month, and we might just knock everything down,” I warned through my smirk.
Valarian’s smug face dropped a little, and I glowered with my red eyes at him before turning away and heading down the path with Derik.
He was panicking. I felt his heart racing, his head going around in circles.
“We’re fucked,” he ground out through the rain.
I shrugged. “Yeah.”
He scoffed at my answer. “Thanks. That’s encouraging.”
“It’s done, and even if we are, they’re more than fucked. As long as I take him with me before my wolf eats every part of my humanity, then I’m good,” I said, and Derik frowned, his eyes raking over me with a calculating gaze.
“I wonder if it will happen to you. Your shadows might not let it get to you like us,”
Derik said, true jealousy tingling through our bond.
I smirked. The first thing Derik had ever been jealous of.
“We won’t know until it happens,” I said, not wanting to get worked up before I saw Lorelai.
I needed her more than ever. So did Derik. Even just to touch, to hold, to feel the warmth of her before it all changed.
Derik hesitated, and I knew what we were both thinking.
Kai.
He was already volatile. He was already obsessive. This was going to make him worse, even more dangerous, and he would never willingly stop seeing Lorelai, not even on a full moon.
But he was going to have to. She wasn’t going to be able to with us over that time.
And with winter coming and possibly keeping us locked in the city for months… It was going to be a true shitshow.
“What are we going to do about him?” I asked.
Derik frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I have no idea.”
He sighed. “Do you think he’ll mate? I don’t know if it would be a good thing because it would chill him the fuck out or a bad thing because he’d destroy Lorelai and possibly see his mate get fucked up by this Fractum bullshit.”
Derik shook his head at the two horrible predictions.
I was selfish though and hoped he didn’t mate.
Yeah, it’d hurt him, probably make him weaker, but we were heading for that fate anyway, and if it was me, I’d rather die than hurt Lorelai the way mating would hurt her.
The doc had said that would cause too much emotion and hurt the baby. But then, this might too.
I growled as I thought about it. I didn’t want the wolf to be in control, but it was what was going to happen to most of us. I hated the idea of having to push her away before that happened.
She carried our child too, so who the fuck knew what that was going to mean or what was going to happen inside her body when this balance shifted to include humans and shifted to strip us of the magic we drew on from their souls.
The magic we claimed during the virgin ceremony would be stripped away, and we would get weaker. And then all hell would break loose.
I wasn’t going to let that happen around her.
I had to teach her to use her shadows properly, without risking the baby, and figure out how we were going to keep biting her without giving in to our nature–that was slowly going to start taking us over.
I fucking hated humans. Except her. But she wasn’t just human, she was winter born. She was ours. And that made everything so much more complicated.
6. The Mother
LORELAI
Kai carried me down the path to my mother’s hut.
There were no words to explain how good it felt being in his arms again. He was warm and strong and everything I had missed.
Well, not everything, one-third of everything, but it was enough for now while we sorted through the shitshow that my father had created.
Vaughn stepped closer on the path, and Kai gave him a warning growl. I shook my head at Kai, whose big body was protecting me from most of the light rain.
“He helped me, Kai. He’s the only one who did. He gave me food and water. He’s good, leave him alone,” I urged, and Kai’s eyes shifted to Vaughn, giving him the once-over.
“Then he will be rewarded for his loyalty. The wolves owe you, human, one favor of your choice,” Kai muttered reluctantly.
Vaughn shrugged. “Thank you. My life is all the reward I need,” he said.
“For now.”
The silence fell then, and I rested my head on Kai’s shoulder, my eyes fluttering closed. I had barely slept, and the exhaustion was closing in fast now that I was safe, but I had to see my mother first.
I kissed Kai’s neck, and he let out a low growl.
“It’s been long enough for me to struggle with my control around you, Little Human. If you want to see your mother, I would advise against testing it,” he said quietly, nuzzling against me.
I smirked. Testing his control was one of my favorite things to do, but I did want to see Mom, so I refrained. Just.
He smirked at me and gave my head a peck with his lips before we got to her hut.
Kai put me down, staying close as I knocked on the door. My mother opened it, her jaw dropping as she took in my state, and then her glare met Kai.
“This wasn’t him, Mom,” I rushed out, and she frowned. “This was Father,” I said, and her frown deepened.
“What about him? He said you had to leave early the other night for werewolf things. Did something happen?”
“Can we come in?” I asked, and she nodded, opening the door wider.
I stepped inside with Kai and Vaughn. Mom closed the door behind us, then stood with her arms folded across her nightgown, not even going to the teapot like normal.
My eyes flicked to the company she held. My brother’s wife, Ryleigh, sat at the table, pale, one hand on her swollen stomach, one on her own teacup.
“Ryleigh is with child. She’s having trouble with sickness and sleeping,” Mom explained, and I nodded.
“Congratulations,” I smiled, but something tugged at me. I looked at her stomach and felt it. It was a strange feeling inside me, like my own was reading hers, sensing it.
But it wasn’t my brother’s scent. It carried to the space next to me, where Vaughn stood. I frowned and looked at him, then back at Ryleigh, who was blushing, her eyes darting to Vaughn’s.
So he was the guy from the widows’ village she had been seeing.
“Thank you, Lorelai,” she murmured, her eyes still on Vaughn.
I smiled and turned to Vaughn. “Thanks for helping me and escorting me, Vaughn.
Like Kai said, we owe you. But if I could trouble you for one more favor?”
He nodded once. “Of course.”
“Could you escort Ryleigh home? She looks like she could use some rest and quiet,” I said, and my eyes met Ryleigh’s wide ones.
I offered her a small smile, and she blushed harder.
“She was going to stay the night–“
“It’s okay, Mom, we have to talk,” I interrupted, and she hesitated before nodding.
“Vaughn will stay at Ryleigh’s tonight and help her, and bring her back if she needs you. Would that be okay?” I asked, and Vaughn nodded, a knowing light in his eyes as I met them with my own.
My mother sighed and nodded.
“Th-thank you,” Ryleigh stammered, then grabbed her cloak, put it over her nightgown, and went with Vaughn.
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?