The Alpha Rite

Chapter Six

I shut my eyes, eager to forget my eventful night and wake up in the morning to a world that made sense. It was a fruitless dream, but I had run out of soothing thoughts to calm my nerves.

"Liar," I snapped, backing away from Ivar, who towered over me. His hair merged with the night sky, dark and glimmering with a disturbing allure.

"Why would I lie to you?" he asked, unfazed by my hostility. I had been raised to hate him. I had grown up on stories of his most recent terrors. His pillaging of other packs started in the East. We knew it was only a matter of time before he came for us, but no one could predict Raynar's illness.

"Because," I said, unsure of how to call him a traitorous villain without ending up with his claws at my neck. The distance between us was shrinking, and so were my chances of escaping the encounter alive.

I considered yelling, but for who? My mate?

Which one?

He laughed at me. "You're upset."

Upset was an understatement. "You're overstepping your boundaries." I gestured to the town line, the one enforced by our alpha's dwindling power.

Ivar scoffed then stepped forward, dashing my hopes of safety. How had he gotten so cocky? "I'm not concerned with boundaries, and neither are you." He stretched out his hand, covered in mud and grime. "Come with me and I'll refresh your memory since you've so conveniently forgotten."

I shook my head, already moving backward, and then ran to my house with a scream resting in my throat. I had to alert my family, the town, and anyone that would listen. But when I turned at the door, the red eyes had disappeared into the dark, leaving me with nothing but doubt.

Sleeping wouldn't be an option. I had spent hours fending off my mother's tireless fussing until finally; she left me. When the last candle was extinguished, I lay in the dark, wondering how I had been so foolish. I brought shame to my family.

I strayed from the match. A good match, or so it had been described by those closest to me. And Eleazar's face, always so serene, had twisted into something dark—possessive when Zenor made his claim.

My neck ached, already healing, but not entirely without pain. I placed my hand over the fresh bandage, willing the wound to disappear and solve all my problems. The heat from my palm radiated into my skin, soothing the punctured flesh. The mark hadn't been so bad, and I thought, in different circumstances, Zenor and I could have been a strong pair.

I sighed and let my mind wander until it hit a dead end, after our imaginary ceremony, at dawn. Zenor and I would retire to our home, filled with wildflowers and cards. I'd grab hold of him, dragging him onto the bed with me, covering my body with his own.

We'd make quick work ridding ourselves of our clothes, kissing each other over our exposed skin, him grabbing my hips and filling me with a love I hadn't encountered before. And after years of waiting, I'd ask him to mark me. The craving would surpass my need to remain independent of my pack and its rules. He'd lean down, piercing my neck, and seal our entangled fates.

My imagination wandered too far, as did my hand, moving beneath the covers. Zenor's selfishness had cost me many things, of which I wouldn't forgive him, but it had also inspired a restlessness inside me, a heat flickering up my thighs.

He had kept my natural needs met well enough, but I couldn't trust him to satisfy me any longer. Not without welcoming a new breed of challenges. So I stared into the darkness, relegating myself to the limited pleasure that my fingers could bring, and letting them sink inside my wet core.

***

I washed my hands downstairs, in the kitchen, too restless to turn over and sleep. My eyes burned from exhaustion, and my bones ached. The fire had subsided, warming me from the inside out.

I knew there would be no peace until Zenor finished the claim, but that could never happen. He had made sure of it. Eleazar was to be my mate, for better or worse, and I was damned to crave another man forever.

And I deserved it. Why else had I gone after a stranger, a servant? Was I so impatient that I couldn't wait for Eleazar's safe return? I stared at my scattered reflection in the rippling water.

Then I heard him, moving toward me with light steps, meant to alert me of his presence but not startle me into fleeing up the stairs. He shouldn't have been in the house.

He wasn't welcome.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, warning me as he loomed closer.