Alpha Wolf

Chapter Four

Scarlett could hardly breathe. Michael had just walked into the living room of the man who could be called the most powerful shifter in the world—unless you were on Zack’s side of the war—as if he owned the place. He wasn’t cowering. He didn’t even look down. He just announced himself like he had every right to be there.

Her mate was magnificent.

“Yes, Mister Kane.” Cole actually stood up.

She knew she wasn’t alone in her shock at this behavior. Next to her, Todd, who for some strange reason now wanted to protect her, bristled, moving back and forth on his feet.

Cole spoke with his lazy southern drawl that masked an anger she was glad not to have seen very often. “I’m Cole Devereaux.”

Cole extended his hand and Michael eyed it but did not shake. The would-be Alpha of their wolf pack stared down at his own hand before putting it by his side.

“Here’s the deal.” Michael’s voice was so low, so strong sounding. It did funny things to her insides. In fact, every time he was near her, she seemed to get warm—

sometimes wet—in all sorts of places she hadn’t known could react like that. “You offered my mate protection so I’m not going to kill you right now.”

Cole’s eyes got huge. “Excuse me? You come into my home and threaten me?”

“I didn’t threaten you. In fact, I think I just told you that you’d be safe from me. But I’m taking Scarlett and we’re leaving here forever after you tell me where my sister has run off to.”

Cole turned his gaze to hers and there was pure hatred in it. She’d seen that look before, only it had been coming from Zack and his men. Gods, Michael really couldn’t throw her over now. There would be no one left to help her. She’d be a dead woman within a matter of moments.

Cole addressed her directly. “I told you I wanted to tell him.”

Michael growled and all eyes in the room turned to him. “She didn’t tell me.

Someone else did. In fact, she went out of her way not to tell me, you presumptuous moron.”

The two wolves who were permanent sentries for Cole stood and the door opened up.

Thirty of Cole’s rank and file wolves marched in. Scarlett didn’t mind this group as much as she hated Zack’s version of it. These guys expected her to cook and clean for them, to wait on them hand and foot, but they never asked her for sexual favors.

She’d never known if that was because she was latent and that was so disgusting to them they didn’t want to touch her or because they were actually relatively decent people who didn’t demand sexual favors as a reward for letting her live. She suspected it was the second option since most women in the pack preferred to be here than at Zack’s.

Cole cocked his head to the side. “Despite your words, I think you are challenging me, Mr. Kane.”

“You know what?” Michael turned around to look at Scarlett before he glanced back to Cole. “You might be right about that. You might not have threatened to kill her but you just spoke to her disrespectfully. I don’t like that she had to act like a servant to stay alive. So, yes, I’m challenging you, Mr. Devereaux.”

Scarlett had no time to even gasp before Michael and Cole both shifted into their wolves.

“No, Michael, no,” she screamed at the top of her lungs as Todd pushed her back against the wall. She struggled to see around him until finally he moved so she could at least poke her head out.

This was wrong. Michael couldn’t die here. Why couldn’t they just run away?

Tables and chairs went flying. Cole’s wolves ran through the room clearing the path for their would-be supreme Alpha. Todd continued to stay mostly in front of her, but Barge and Seamus rushed behind Michael, seemingly prepared to do battle for him.

She stared at Michael’s wolf. He was big, black, except for the few white patches on his face. Even having grown up around wolves, Scarlett had never seen one quite so big or fearsome looking. Cole was always impressive; a red wolf with brown spots, he dominated everyone except Zack. But, this time, Scarlett suspected Cole wouldn’t be dominating Michael.

Just that fast, the two wolves were on each other. Todd whirled around to her, a grin plastered on his face. “Wait until you see Michael.”

She couldn’t help but see him. His teeth bared, he growled at Cole as he tore at the smaller wolf. Every time Cole got up, Michael knocked him down. If Cole moved left, Michael moved left. If Cole moved right, so did her mate. There was nowhere for Cole to go. Michael wasn’t just beating Cole, he was humiliating him by showing the wolves in the room how completely unmatched they were. If it was apparent to Scarlett how ill-prepared Cole had been for Michael and she didn’t fight, then those who could had to be able to see it too.

Her heart beat fast and she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. Gods, she was filled with so much nervous energy she was almost giddy from it. Looking left and right, she tried to assess the crowd’s reaction to the fight. Usually, she was good at it, staying to the sides, watching from afar but not today. She felt like howling in her very human voice how great Michael was doing.

What little she could fathom through her adrenaline rush, it seemed that all the wolves were equally as stunned as she was. Everyone’s eyes had become wolf. Their gaze locked on the battle, their jaws open. All of the men were enthralled.

Finally, Cole lunged forward leaping at Michael’s side. At the last second, Michael moved left, snarling as Cole crashed into the wall before hitting the ground face first. The would-be Alpha stood up and limped toward Michael. The red wolf stretched out flat on the ground, his ears back and whimpered his defeat.

All noise in the room ceased. Scarlett couldn’t hear anything but her own breath and the sound of her heart beating. Cole changed back into his human form, shifting out of his wolf body. Michael did the same, giving her a view of his backside. She wanted to rush forward and grab him, wrap her arms around him and stop the shaking of her limbs that seemed to be moving of their own accord, but Todd still hadn’t moved.

Cole looked up at Michael from the ground. “By the heavens above, I relent to you.”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t want you to relent. I want you to tell me where my sister is, apologize to my mate for your role in the brutality she’s endured and then leave town. You can come back when I’m gone. I don’t want to see you ever again. The only reason I’m not killing you is because you did offer Scarlett protection from Zack.”

On the floor, Cole nodded. “I’ll get my things.”

“No.” Michael stepped forward. “You’ll tell me where Angel is, apologize to Scarlett and then run for your life before I change my mind.”

Scarlett doubted very much that Michael ever changed his mind. He was like a river, his flow seemed to be always going forward in one direction, unrelenting and sure of itself. But Cole didn’t need to know that.

Cole stood up, his limbs almost giving out. No one moved to help him and Michael grabbed his arm to steady him and keep the other man from falling over. “Angel ran off when the fighting started. She said she wanted no part of it. She’s always been hard, your sister, difficult. She never knew how to tow the line.”

Michael grinned, his eyes still in their wolf form. “I like her already.”

Cole’s voice shook. “I sent two of my enforcers after her to bring her home. Both of them claim to be her mate.”

“The mating rituals of this pack are so screwed up, I don’t even know where to start with that statement.”

Michael paused. He still hadn’t looked at her and she was dying for some eye contact. She wanted to see into the depths of his soul again, to the soft place she sometimes thought she saw there. Of course, being her, she’d probably stare for two seconds and then have to glance at her feet. At least she’d have those two wonderful seconds.

He hauled Cole over to the chair that now resided in the corner giving Scarlett a view of her mate’s back muscles in action. If she needed any reminder of just how powerful Michael could be in his human form, she got it. So far he’d only been gentle with her.

What would he do if she ever stepped out of line? Send her away or something worse?

That thought in mind, she looked back down to the floor.

Michael continued speaking. “In other words, you don’t know what happened to my sister.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Do you suppose Zack knows?”

Cole laughed, a wheezing sound. “Angel hated Zack even more than she hates me.”

“Okay,” her mate sighed. “Next up, you have an apology to make.”

Scarlett heard some strange scraping sounds as Michael dragged the chair with Cole in it over to her.

“Scarlett,” Cole spoke her name. “You may make eye contact with me.”

With a thud, Michael knocked Cole’s chair over onto the floor. He oomphed as his body collided with the ground.

Her mate snarled. “Your damn right she can look at you. If she feels like staring at you on the ground, that’s where she’ll do it.” Michael put his foot on the side of Cole’s body. “Go on.”

“Scarlett, I’m sorry if any of my actions ever led to you suffering more abuse or if I ever did anything to not treat you correctly.”

She nodded as she stared at Cole. He was just one of the many men who had run her life since she was a small child. He lay flat on the floor, in a position of subjugation, just as she suffered all her life from him, Zack and Nero She could remember him laughing as he’d dropped a piece of food or a cigarette butt on her head.

The revenge that she expected to feel never came. A gasp sounded from across the room as Scarlett knelt down to be closer to the floor where Cole was strewn.

Tears filling her eyes, she swore she wouldn’t let them fall. “Thank you for your attempts to protect me from Zack, even if it was never enough. I’m not dead today because you took me in a few weeks ago and you didn’t rape me or let anyone else here take me against my will.”

She realized what she said were things she’d not said to Michael yet. He was bound to have questions … lots of them … and maybe she should have just stayed quiet. Still, her mouth kept moving, almost of its own volition.

“You’re mean and you’re a bully, but I owe you a debt of gratitude and if there’s anything you ever need that I can provide, I will be glad to.”

Above her Michael growled. “You can ask me and I’ll decide if she helps you.”

The edges of her mouth quivered. She was torn between wanting to sob and wanting to smile. She stood up instead and found Michael’s gaze waiting for hers. Exhaling, she gazed in his brown depths, now human and not wolf. There in the center of his eyes, as he reached out to take her hand into his, was the softness she’d needed to see.

Even now after he conducted this fight with Cole, he didn’t look at her with hostility.

Maybe, just maybe, Michael was a man who could control his aggression. If such a thing was possible.

He regarded Cole. “I think I told you to run.”

Cole grunted as he got off the floor and ran out the front door, slamming it behind him. The room was still so quiet she could have heard a pin drop.

Michael let go of her hand as he looked around. His voice was low when he spoke to her. She knew everyone in the room could hear him anyway thanks to their wolf senses, but she appreciated the effort nonetheless. “Any of these shifters here ever rape you, Scarlett?”

She shook her head. “Not here, no.”

“Okay.” He glanced back at the group. “Who’s next? Who wants to go at me?”

No one moved. Then, within seconds of one another, the thirty-two wolves in the room hit the ground, shifting as they went. One by one they assumed their submissive poses, head down, eyes pleading at Michael.

He turned around to regard Scarlett. “Tell me they didn’t all just do that.”

She bit down on her lip, which hurt, trying not to laugh. Michael’s expression was priceless. His eyes were huge, his mouth gaping open as if he’d just tasted something bad. His body was totally naked and the sight of it made her stomach tighten.

He was an Adonis brought to life. If he hadn’t been holding her hand, she might have taken a few steps backward into the wall just to support herself.

“They’re all offering you their submission.”

Michael looked up at the sky for a second before exhaling a long breath. He spoke to the group of wolves.

“Shift back.”

One by one they obeyed.

Turning back to Scarlett, he spoke. “Is there a place here I can shower?”

“Upstairs. You can use Cole’s room. It’s the nicest.”

Nodding, he smiled at her, but it was tight and she could see the tension in him radiating from his clenched jaw and his tense stance. “Okay.”

She watched as he scanned the room. Finding who he sought, he stared at Todd.

“Good job taking care of her.”

Todd beamed like he’d just been told he’d won some kind of lottery. “Thank you, Michael, it was my pleasure.”

“Uh-huh.” Michael took two steps toward him. “I want you to do me one more favor.

I want you to tell all these people here what I told you about how a pack should work, about mates, about the Alphas taking care of everyone else. Can you do that?”

Todd’s neck strained as he swallowed. “I can.”

“Good, Barge and Seamus can help you.” He walked toward the stairs and held out his hand to her and she followed, taking it.

Michael was full of surprises. Why had he wanted them to explain how a pack should work?

* * * *

While Michael showered, Scarlett rummaged through Cole’s drawers until she found some shorts and t-shirts that she thought might fit her magnificent mate. It had to be shorts. There was no way Cole’s pants wouldn’t be high-waters on Michael. Finally, the shower stopped and Michael came out of the bathroom, holding the towel around his waist like he had the night before.

His seemed looser, as if the warm water had helped to calm him down. She held out the clothes. “This was the best I could do. If you want, I could go down and see if any of the others have clothes that might fit you.”

“Not without me you’re not.”

She knew some women might bristle at being told what to do by their mate but not Scarlett. It was a … relief. The truth was, she would go down if he needed her to, but she definitely preferred not to have to.

“Okay.”

He took the clothes from her hands. “Thanks for finding them.”

She nodded, pleased that she’d done it on her own and that he was happy with her.

“You’re welcome.”

Michael stepped forward invading her personal space. Heat radiated from his body and warmed her up from the chill of the air-conditioning.

“Scarlett, I could feel your eyes on me through the whole fight. I could smell you. It was hard to concentrate.”

His voice was low, husky, and before she could stop herself with worry, she reached out and stroked his bare chest with her fingers. His hair was soft, his muscles well defined and he shuddered under her hand.

She looked up to meet his eyes. Had she just done that to him?

“You liked it when I was fighting Cole.”

He said it as a statement, not a question. She wasn’t sure how he knew, but it was probably one of those wolf qualities she would never have. He’d heard her heartbeat pick up or smelled her excitement or both. There was no point in denying it.

Her lips trembled when she spoke. “I think I might be a little screwed up.”

He shook his head, his eyes hard. “No, this whole place is awful, like something out of a horror movie. Even my father wouldn’t have tolerated it before he went nuts.

Probably not even after.”

She lifted the other hand and ran her fingers down his strong arm. Again, she felt his body shake from her touch.

“Why does my caressing you create that response?”

“I like how it feels.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her hair, not moving his mouth from its spot after he finished. His voice sounded slightly muffled. “It gives me pleasure to feel your fingers on me.”

“Oh.” She swallowed. So far he’d made no move to carry her to the bed and push himself inside of her. “Can I keep doing it?’

“Yes. Please.”

Her hand shook with nerves as she explored Michael’s exposed skin. She had to get on her tiptoes to touch the top of his chest since he was so much taller than she was and she could hardly get her hands around his waist to feel his back. His skin was so smooth; surprising for such a tough man.

He stayed absolutely still except for the occasional shudders she felt when her hands touched him some place new.

Finally after a few minutes, he spoke. His mouth moved off the top of her head slightly and he rested his chin there instead. “I’ve been alone a very long time. Having you do this, it’s such a gift.”

She was confused. The first part she understood but the second confused her.

“Having me touch you is a gift? But you haven’t even taken your pleasure from me yet.”

“If you think I’m not taking pleasure from you then you don’t know the meaning of the word.”

He moved slightly forward and she could feel his hard cock pushing through the towel he still held onto.

“Um…”

She needed to be brave. It was important, desperately important that she not lose Michael, that he not change his mind about her. She knew he had told the others that mates were for life, that you didn’t get to pick, you just accepted with gratitude who you were given. Still, it was hard to reconcile that with what she had always known.

Pushing her fear down into her stomach where she knew she’d have to deal with it later—usually by getting sick—she finally spoke. “Do you want to, you know, go to the bed?”

“Only if you happen to be tired.”

Maybe she hadn’t made herself clear. “Don’t you want to…”

“Yes.” He backed up from her a few steps and crossed the room to put on his clothes.

“More than you can imagine, but I want to do it when we’re both ready. Not because you think you have to.”

“I want to be your mate.”

He pulled on the shorts over his naked rear end and when he turned around he raised one eyebrow. “That’s good considering that we are, in fact, mates.”

“Michael.” She looked at her feet. “Are you deliberately misunderstanding me?”

He shook his head. “No, here’s the thing.” He sat down on the bed and ran his hands through his hair. His shoulders were curved over like he was tired. “We will have sex when you want to and not a minute before. Even if it takes years.”

She walked over and sat down next to him on the bed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever really want to. It’s really not about the woman.”

“How long ago were you raped?”

“I wasn’t raped.”

Pulling her into his side, he kissed her forehead. “Sure you were.”

“Zack has this rule. He wants all the undesirables dead. He thinks we’re going to pollute the bloodline, but if we volunteer to be the sex partners to one of his wolves then we’re spared. I volunteered in order to stay alive until I could get to Cole.”

“That’s still rape, sweetheart.”

Was it? She hadn’t said no…

“Scarlett, I have a question. Where are all the women? There’s none here but you.

Are they all with Zack?”

“Today is vitamin day.” Now that he mentioned it, she was feeling kind of itchy. It was definitely time to get her injection. “They’re with the pack wielder.”

Michael stood up, hands in pockets. “What is vitamin day and what is a pack wielder?”

She swallowed. “He’s the one who can make it so you’re not mated to me anymore.”

And now that he knew just how screwed up she was, that she might never be better, she wouldn’t blame him if he took that route.