Alpha's Strength (Fallen Alpha) (5 page)

What?
She didn’t get a chance to answer, because Cyrus released her and walked toward the new arrivals. As Cyrus moved away, Nathan noticed her.

“You.” He hissed. “You’re responsible for this, aren’t you? You’re the reason these creatures grabbed me off the street and invaded my home. After everything I did for you. See if I save your parents now, you slut.”

Cyrus growled and with a swiping gesture too fast to be perceived, he clawed Nathan’s face. An agonized howl left Nathan’s mouth, and five red claw marks appeared on his face.

Lake laughed, a high-pitched snicker. “Don’t insult the Alpha’s mate, you stupid human.”

The Healer’s words made Betsy gasp. Was that what Cyrus meant by embracing the destruction? Lake seemed joyful. But Betsy couldn’t join her in her revelry. Maybe, if so much weren’t at stake, she’d love the way the red marks on Nathan’s face reflected Cyrus’ rage. But Nathan had a point. He’d never call now. Her parents were doomed. A pulse of temper thundered in her forehead before she gritted her teeth. She hadn’t really let herself get mad at them. There hadn’t been time, but now, since it was all going to be over, she wanted to throw something at them. They must have known what they were doing was wrong on all possible levels. They hadn’t been the ones to give up their lives to save her. They hadn’t even tried to protect her and had been publicly ashamed when her sexual issues had come out.

And they had to know something about this wolf business. They couldn’t have raised her and not known? Could they? Not to mention her sister. If her twin lived, as Cyrus said she did, then they’d outright lied to her. She growled and covered her mouth.

Cyrus turned around and looked at her. She couldn’t read his expression, but it didn’t matter what he thought. She had suddenly become the most disloyal daughter on the planet.
After everything they’d done, everything they’d put up with…

…and all the lies they told me…
The disloyal side of her soul didn’t budge on that issue.

But shouldn’t they have known that her needs were normal? If one of them was a werewolf, shouldn’t they have helped her to understand?

Heavens, she was conflicted. Her stomach hurt. She really wanted to go lie down, but that wasn’t an option. Whatever she felt, she wouldn’t hang her mom and dad out to dry. Maybe Nathan could be reasoned with.

“Put him in the cage,” Cyrus ordered, and his men—Jensen and Mitchell crossed the room with Nathan.

So much for reasoning.

“Cyrus.” She crossed to him. “I know you said you’d handle this, but I need him to make that call. Please. This isn’t going to get him to do anything.”

“Ssshh.” He held out his hand. “Come.”

Betsy took his outstretched fingers, embracing them with her own. She shouldn’t be so willing to, but she needed his touch and not even in a sexual way. Cyrus could make this all okay. She shook her head. Was this some kind of Alpha thing, her constant need for him to make things right?

“Nathan.” Cyrus walked with her over to the cage. “You owe Betsy an apology.”

“I would never apologize to her. She should be kissing the ground I walk on. Instead, she’s taken up with all of you. My father warned me that this could happen. This is the devil’s work. You’re all unnatural aberrations that need to be hunted down and killed.”

“Oh. We’ve got a true believer here.” Cyrus laughed. Mitchell and Jensen joined him. Betsy didn’t really see what was so amusing, but the male werewolves seemed to really enjoy his statement. “I haven’t had one of you in a cage for years. Tell me, how long ago did you guys join up?”

“What are you talking about?” If she was going to stand outside the cage and listen to this stuff, she needed to at least understand.

“There have always been humans who try to hunt us. Most dismiss our existence completely, but the ones who believe typically want us dead. It’s long been my pleasure to show them the error of their ways.”

“You’re saying your father knew about werewolves?” No one from her hometown went around talking about myths. They were too busy drinking and managing the livestock industry. Maybe doing both at the same time. Her parents didn’t even let her watch horror movies with werewolves or vampires—she’d snuck those.

“Everyone knew, you bitch.”

Cyrus growled again, but Nathan didn’t seem to notice. He kept talking. “My daddy killed more werewolves before I was born than he can count. He only stopped because my mom didn’t want him getting killed after I was born. But he could have been the greatest ever. In Montana, where we’re all from, he’s like a god.”

What the hell is he talking about?
Because what Nathan described—that didn’t fit her image of his parents either. So, had everyone known the secret—except her?

“That so?” When Cyrus spoke, Betsy shuddered. She’d never heard him use that particular tone before. Calling it menacing didn’t do it justice. She turned to look at him, rubbing the goose bumps on her arms with her free hand. Hearing him that angry made her want to hyperventilate.

She struggled for composure. Why did it matter that Nathan’s family knew about werewolves? She was a werewolf. Had they known that? And why didn’t she know about her parents? Were they all latents? There were so many questions and no answers coming.

Cyrus dropped her hand and surged forward. In a blur of motion, he gripped Nathan by the neck and pulled him up against the bars. The other man gagged.

“Here’s how this works. I’m going to hand you a phone, and you’re going to use it to make your daily phone call. You aren’t going to use any code words to tip anyone off that all is not well. If you do that, I’ll know. I’ll smell it. My
kind
can do that. Make your call or die when my pack hunts you down during the next full moon. You’ll be the rabbit. We’ll be the wolves. There’s always a choice. This one is yours.”

Cyrus dropped him, and Nathan rolled around the floor of the cage and gasped for air.

“What’s it going to be? Call or die?”

“I’ll call.” He had to strain to talk.

“Good.” Cyrus turned to Jensen. “Get him some water. I wouldn’t want his daddy to suspect anything is wrong. Not even a sore throat.”

“Well, this is unexpected.”

Betsy jumped at the new voice and whirled around. A man she hadn’t met yet stood in the doorway. He was tall, maybe even an inch beyond Cyrus, which was impressive. He had long brown hair that hit shoulders. He was dressed impeccably in a black-on-black suit that reminded her of gangster movies she’d watched alone at night.

But it was his eyes that struck her. They were pure white. She’d never seen anything like them before. Her mouth hung open, and although she knew she must look like a landed fish, she couldn’t seem to shut her lips. In the same way she’d known Cyrus smelled like power, she knew the scent of power.

“You’re early.” Cyrus didn’t take his eyes off the cage to address the newcomer.

“I come when I please.”

“Not to my city you don’t, Alexei. You come when you’re invited and not a second before. Get out.”

No one in the room moved or made a sound except Nathan, who wept on the ground of the cage. Yet, Betsy knew Cyrus’ words amounted to a very big problem. She smiled, finally closing her mouth. Prickles of awareness broke out on her neck. Heavens, Cyrus had issued a challenge. There could be bloodshed with whoever this Alexei turned out to be. And the idea titillated her.

Heaven help her—what had happened to her?

Cyrus hadn’t become Alpha of New York by being a pushover. He wasn’t scared or impressed with Alexei’s shtick, and he had no intention of letting the Alpha of Boston waltz into his city—let alone his headquarters—willy-nilly without some kind of response. As he was certain Alexei would expect nothing less, he had to wonder what the fuck the other man really hoped to accomplish with this.

Behind Alexei, two wolves entered and, growled loudly. One of them showed his teeth. Cyrus took a deep breath to confirm what he’d already scented. Alexei had brought only those two wolves with him. The other Alpha might not mean war, but his wolves didn’t want him threatened. That was fine. Cyrus had his own protectors.

Jensen lunged forward as Cyrus anticipated he would. “You would come here and threaten our Alpha?”

Alexei laughed, tilting his face towards the ceiling when he did. “ Call off your attack dogs, and I’ll turn off mine. We can discuss my early arrival civilly over a drink. You can tell me why you have a human in a cage and I can explain the situation of baby kidnappings in Boston that has brought me to your door.”

His words cooled whatever smart remark Cyrus would have made about attack dogs. “Human babies or werewolf?”

Both were completely unacceptable, but Cyrus had faced a situation the year earlier in which his pregnant females were getting attacked. He’d thought Travis Michaels to blame until that misunderstanding had been cleared up. Now he had to keep the impregnated pack members hidden. Cyrus had assumed the perpetrator of the crimes had wanted the deaths of the women, but maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe the target had been their children...

He glanced down at his mate. Her parents had been selling children.

Could this be that large? Could it cross the continent? An ache for Lucian’s leadership swept through him like a hard wind, threatening to knock him over. Not that anyone need know—certainly not the pale-eyed warrior across the room.

“I don’t think any other topic would have allowed you entrance. Shall we talk upstairs?”

Alexei nodded and turned around. But Cyrus wasn’t quite done yet. “Your two pack mates can stay down here. They can help Jensen use some of his aggression to get Nathan to do what I say. Jensen, I need him to call home. You’ll tell me if anything is wrong scent-wise. Get him his water.”

Jensen’s pupils were huge. His trusted friend and pack member would have preferred a fight to his task, but since that wasn’t happening, at least not yet, Jensen nodded. Cyrus patted him on the back when he passed.

Mitchell spoke. “Alpha, I don’t feel comfortable with you going with him alone. Take one of us with you or call others.”

Alexei turned around. “Going soft, Cyrus? There was a time when no one would have doubted your ability to take me in a fight. Do your pack members doubt your skills?”

“Perhaps they don’t want me dead. Is your pack accustomed to letting you enter possible deadly encounters without any assistance from them? Are they hoping someone will take off your head or set you on fire?”

Alexei’s pack members growled. Cyrus winked at them, which made them growl louder. “Down, boys. Your leader is in no danger from me unless he opens his mouth to say something threatening. I don’t think he travelled here to do that, not if he needs my assistance with baby snatchings. Betsy, Lake, you’re with me.”

This stopped Alexei. The other Alpha raised a brown eyebrow. “You wish to bring the females?”

“Yes.” He didn’t need to explain more. The man could have the women in the room, or he could save his issues for another day. Cyrus had no intention of leaving his mate or his sister alone in the room with Nathan. The male was stuffed in a cage, but he might say something upsetting. Cyrus would not allow that to happen. They’d all had enough for one day.

Lake groaned loudly. “Hello.” She nodded to Alexei and led him away toward the elevators. Alexei followed in her wake. His sister would see to settling the other Alpha in Cyrus’ office.

Betsy cleared her throat, and he turned to look at him. “I need to go?”

“Yes.” Why did he keep having to explain himself? Had this suddenly become some kind of democracy and he’d not been informed? If he said come, his pack came. Of course he’d never had a mate before. His parents had not been true mates. Yet they had loved each other as couples who’d spent their lives together did. Their shared history had deepened their communication.

Maybe he needed to work on that…

“Why do I have to go? Don’t you think I would be better off down here with Nathan? Just to make sure he doesn’t try to pull anything.”

Cyrus shook his head. She still thought like a human. Eventually, she would come to see how pack worked. “Jensen and Mitchell can handle him. I’d rather you not be here for him to taunt.”

Betsy dropped her eyes, and he inwardly sighed. Some day she wouldn’t feel so unsure around him. He had to believe that. Everything had just happened, and adjustments took time. The only problem was that he’d never been very good at being patient.

“If you are not with me I am going to worry about you. This is an important conversation. I need to be able to concentrate.” It pained him to admit such a weakness, but there it was.

She raised her eyes slightly, still not quite meeting his gaze. “What’s going to happen to me down here in the basement? Nathan is in a cage. Your pack mates are here. If I get my feelings hurt, it won’t be the first time in my life. I’ll live through it.”

She was used to being brave, and she didn’t trust him completely yet. That much he could understand. If she’d been raised as she should have been, with pack, she would know to trust the instincts inside of her that had to be telling her she was pack and belonged to him. A sudden thought almost brought him to his knees. What if she didn’t feel that way about him? What if she felt that way toward someone else? Felt more connected to another Alpha and a different pack.

What if Alexei connected her more to the pack in Boston than Cyrus had managed so far? Oh hell. Could that have happened?

“Are you okay?” She reached out and gripped his arm. “Your smell changed.”

He cleared his throat; he could imagine it had. None of his pack members would mention it. But she was his mate, and she didn’t know better.

“How so?” He needed to get upstairs with Alexei, but this was more important. Instead of a lifetime to hone her senses, he needed her to do it in a few minutes. If that meant she needed blunt, unrelenting honesty no matter how uncomfortable? Then he’d do it. Unreasonable, yes—but life wasn’t fair.

“There was a surge from you, a change in the way you smelled, for a split second.” She wrinkled her nose. “You usually carry the scent of cinnamon, you were suddenly filled with vanilla too. And mint.”

“You think I smell like cinnamon?”
Huh.
He’d never heard that before. To him, aromas were connected to seasons and places.
The woods. Fall. The city.
Betsy had a very specific sense of smell.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No.” He shook his head. “My scent changed because I got nervous. I’ve trained my wolf pack to do their best to disguise that, but I didn’t follow my own instructions.”

“You got scared that I might stay down here and get hurt?”

“I got nervous that you aren’t connecting to me.” He shook his head. This conversation had to cease before he ended up curled under a table in a fetal position. “Stay down here if that is what you prefer. I would like you upstairs with me where I know you’re safe, where I don’t have to worry that the basement might spontaneous combust and you’d be somehow killed in the process. But, if you don’t want to be there with me, then don’t come. I can’t force you to want to be with me. Not even as an Alpha wolf.”

He turned on his heel and headed toward the elevator. Maybe he should order her to go with him. That’s what he’d do with any other pack member. Only he didn’t want that from her. He wanted her to choose him, to want to be with him, and to stand at his side.

Shit.
Wasn’t true mating supposed to be easier than this? What if he’d gotten this whole thing wrong and she would never—could never be mated to him? What would happen to him then? Would he be stuck in this perpetual, unrequited need for her for the rest of his existence?

She ran to him and grabbed his hand. He looked down at their joined fingers for a second before he pressed the elevator button to go up to the offices. She’d chased him, and he hadn’t seen that coming. What did it mean? And was her taking his hand an indication of feelings on her part? Why was this woman so confusing to him? He’d dealt with females his whole life and Betsy made him feel like a dolt.

“I had no idea you were so insecure.” She raised her eyebrows.

“What?” He wasn’t insecure. He’d taken over a wolf pack when he’d barely been twenty years old. He couldn’t have done that if he was
insecure
. Humans had neuroses, not Alpha werewolves.

“That was a pretty good display of passive-aggressive back there. If it was that important for me to go with you, why didn’t you say so?”

“I did.” The elevator dinged when it opened, and they stepped inside. Hadn’t he made that clear? He wanted her to come. He’d told her to, and then he’d relented out of respect to her wishes. How and why had this gotten so complicated?

“Not really. No, you said you didn’t want to worry about me. And you didn’t want Nathan to hurt my feelings. That’s not the same as you
need
me with you.”

He wanted to growl. This infuriating woman was going to make everything complicated. He could already tell, and he really wanted to kiss her for it. “You say that to me while you can’t even look me in the eyes.”

“I know. It’s very bizarre. I’m trying to work on it, believe me. Sometimes I can’t stand the idea of it, like I’m going to be overwhelmed by you if I dare to take a really good glance at your blue eyes.” She shrugged. “It’s got to be a wolf thing, right? I mean animals do this. They have pack relations or whatever. We had three dogs for a while when I was growing up, and they had an order. One of them was in charge. Although come to think of it, they always acted like I was really the one in charge. In this case, it’s you. I’m working on my order. Or maybe I’m really the passive-aggressive one.”

“Betsy.” He sighed loudly. How could he want to snarl at her and bite down to mark her at the same time? By the end of the day, he might very well lose his mind. “You’re my mate. I can guarantee you’re not passive. You’ve said some things to me humans wouldn’t dare utter without even understanding why. You sometimes manage to regard me perfectly well. I’d say that your looking down is something else entirely.”

Her heart rate increased dramatically, enough for him to hear it. His words struck a nerve. “What do you think it is?”

“You want me,” he answered bluntly. It only seemed fair she be as off-center as he. “And if you look at me, you’re afraid both of us are going to know how much you do.”

The elevator stopped at the top floor, and he exited, pulling his mate with him. She’d sucked in her breath with his proclamation, and it had confirmed that his suspicions were right on. Betsy was hardly prepared for that level of intimacy…yet. But, eventually, she’d have to admit to her desires, and then things would change. Then they’d finally make the connection he knew they could have.

Screw insecurity. Things finally made some sense. He smiled at the thought.

Mating matter settled, he only had to deal with Alpha politics and stolen babies. And figure out what to do about Betsy’s family.

Just that
…

He walked into his office, and from the scent of discomfort—a pungent smell, like decaying garbage outside a restaurant—he wasn’t a moment too soon. Lake had never liked Alexei. Nothing had changed. Alexei, seemingly oblivious to her feelings—although Cyrus seriously doubted that since Alexei never missed a trick—sprawled on the leather couch across from Cyrus’ desk.

Lake tapped the back of her head against the wall where she leaned. “What took you so long?”

“Betsy and I needed to have a conversation.”

Alexei interrupted. “This must be a new thing between the two of you. Did it only just happen?”

“That’s not your concern. This is Betsy. She’s with me. That’s all you need to know.” The how, the who, and the fact that she’d been a latent who’d only just turned—yeah, none of Alexei’s fucking business.

The Alpha from Boston nodded. “You were such a fun guy when we were younger. Where did the stick that is perpetually up your ass come from?”

“Years of handling problems like you. Be careful. When you get home, your own people might be there waiting to take off your head. I’d hate for you to go through that. Again.”

Alexei growled. “You know that was a rumor.”

“Or you wanted us to think it was.”

“Are you two finished? Do you think you could get to the matter at hand?” Lake cut off their argument, as he’d known she eventually would. It was always a question as to whether or not he was going to claw off the other werewolf’s face. That was why he wanted Lake with him. She tended to force him to keep a cooler head.

Sisters could occasionally be useful.

“We were attacked last week,” Alexei must have agreed because he sobered. “Seemingly out of the blue. It was brutal. We lost a lot of females. I’ve been trying to keep this under wraps. The scene produced no results in terms of scent. Not were ones anyway. Lots of humans but none known to us. This is happening more and more.”