Alpha Erebon ☾ Book 2

Chapter 26

Sabrina's POV

I walked with Hans toward the connecting shed out back, he wanted to show me where we were meeting Orpheus. The shed door was left wide open, letting in a warm breeze. Everything inside was hoarded old furniture and a haphazardly put together industrial sized kitchen. I had always heard that bears had large appetites... I would have never guessed I'd see such a large space installed for food preparation, dripping, oozing and unclean. Nothing was wiped beyond a bench top or two. The smell is retch worthy, but the bears seem to have gotten used to Marg's kitchen of death.

The first thing I noticed before I even walked in was the stench of death and rotting carcasses, unrefrigerated.

I imagine meat gone bad, not thrown out.

Then I notice that at the back, the shed is full of cages storing dead animals, including wolves amongst them. Literally nothing is alive. It's all dead, from starvation or previous wounds incompatible with life.

I try not to look too closely at the hoarding of animal carcasses. Hans' family of bears sits around on ripped second-hand couches, with plates full of fresh streaming pies that Hans' mother is handing out from a kitchen island on wheels.

Marg's hair is still loose, strands of her hair mixing with the pie pastry. She's still wearing that bloody white apron. I used to think it was pink with blood splatters, but it was definitely pink from never being replaced.

Bear shifters were fucking disgusting. They were rumoured to be the one shifter who never integrated well into society. They were never man's best friend. They couldn't be like men or women. They were still animals in most ways, even if they could appear human, the beast inside reigned supreme.

Hans sits next to Dregar, his cousin, who's opening a cage for me to sit in.

It's some kind of inside joke, Hans laughs and grabs my hair, forcing me to step into it before yanking me up and pulling me onto the couch instead, laughing manically, "I'm kidding, I gotcha though, didn't I, scared yah," Hans grabs my waist and holds it tight while Dregar kicks back into the couch and his feet press into my thigh and knee as he looks at me way too long, unblinking, "Hey, she is my wife," Hans whispers over my head to his cousin, "Stop wanting."

"Yeah, but, she's cute, I want to look, been awhile since I had a wolf who spread her legs for me," Dregar scratches at his fresh wounds, which are healing already, his nose covered in powdered Awstone.

"She's a depressing fuck, you wouldn't like her," Hans growls the lie, if there was one thing he liked about me, it was my effort in bed. Now the thought just makes me want to puke. The efforts I had gone to, to impress my husband, thinking he was a wolf... yuck. And now to see his family sitting back eating Marg's hairy pies.

"Eat," Marg comes over to Hans, giving him a plate, "You tell them, who knows about this meeting, about them, coming here... you tell them so they don't attack us. You tell them the eyes on us, on them... the trap is set, you tell them, Hans," she looks to me, managing a smile, even as her eyes quickly move to Dregar as she hands him a plate too.

"What trap?" I ask Hans as his lips drip with chunky gravy.

"Obviously, if they actually show," Hans speaks with his mouth full, wiping his lips clean with his wrist, "If they're actually stupid enough to show, none are leaving. Wolf Trap knows. Our royalty, the Bear Majesties, the Alphas of the Bear world," Hans squeezes my waist, whispering at me with excitement, "They grace us with their protection."

"You're not a part of Wolf Trap?" I ask him.

Hans laughs, shaking his head, "No, we're just a family of bears, Sabrina. Royalty runs that syndicate. Not us. But we do serve them."