Falling for the Alphas: Part One (5 page)

"Of course." Laura glared at Jeb.
"Here we are talking as if you're regular kin. But you're Lost Kin.
You don't know how pack and kinfolk work."

Naomi fought to keep her
calm. "No. I don't." She stood up. She had to get out. Away from
their curious, sympathetic, alien eyes. "Excuse me." She turned and
stalked out of the kitchen, through the living room and out the
front door. She needed to be alone. To have sunshine on her face.
To process.

Naomi followed a path
through the tall grass. It was all too much. She wanted Dylan to be
back, wanted to ask him questions, learn more about him, search for
a solution together. She followed the path in a daze into the
trees, where the sun was hidden away beyond the canopy and
everything became cool and shady.

The path wound through the
woods and rose up till it reached a small clearing that ended at a
sheer bluff. Beyond was a view of a small valley, and somewhere
close she could hear a stream trickling by. A white stone bench was
set to one side, and Naomi walked over to it. An inscription read:
To Anna, the sun to my moon, my light in the dark.

"That was written by
Dylan's great grandfather." Naomi spun to see Shania standing at
the edge of the clearing. "They built the House. Established the
Silver Song pack. Would sit on that spot each evening to watch the
sun set and give thanks for having had one more day."

Naomi bit down the sharp
words that had risen in her throat. "Oh." She looked down at the
bench, then out across the valley. "It's a nice view."

"Yeah." Shania walked over to stand
beside her, and both women looked out over the treetops. "I come
here a lot to think."

They stood in silence. Shania finally
looked over at her. "You don't have to do any of this, you know.
You could leave. Move to some distant city."

"Yeah, that's what Dylan
said." Naomi felt irritable, restless. She sat down on the bench.
Did she want to do that? Escape? She thought of Dylan's golden
eyes. The strength in his arm, his grin as he'd raced away. No, she
realized. She didn't.

Shania sat down next to
her. "Being kin isn't easy." Her tone was different. Gone was the
cruel edge. "I ran away twice when I was younger. The first time
for a week. The second for almost a year. It didn't feel fair,
having my life determined by my blood. Being part of this war.
Being told to do my duty, to support the pack, to be a good little
kinfolk."

Sophia looked over at her
sidelong. Shania was staring down at her hands, brow furrowed. "Why
did you come back?"

Shania looked up,
shrugged, and let out a deep sigh. "Because I missed my family. And
nothing seemed to have any meaning away from here. The pack, it
makes a difference. In the lives of everybody in the city. I mean,
look how fast Fort Brixton's slid down the tubes since last year
when the totem and alpha were killed."

Naomi nodded. That had
been the focus of her investigations for some time now. The vicious
downward spiral events had taken since last July. The spike in
crime. The defunding of the police department. Urban flight, the
understaffed fire department that often couldn't even get to
burning buildings within the first few hours. Almost a quarter of
the city was abandoned now. You could buy houses for $1,000, or
less. It wasn't quite as bad as Detroit, but it was
close.

"I was close to Kayden."
Shania's looked studiously at her hands. "We were friends, growing
up. He wasn't even the beta of the old pack - just a promising
young warrior, you know? Dylan was beta to Gerard. Then everything
went to hell. Kayden left. Dylan's been doing his best, but without
a totem..." Shania trailed off.

Naomi tried to imagine it.
The upheaval. The despair. She waited. Shania shook her head
slowly.

"Kayden's got a good heart. He's
just... he's in a bad place. I don't want him to die. I don't want
either of them to die." She lowered her head into her
hands.

Naomi reached out and
touched her shoulder, then slowly rubbed her back. "There's got to
be a way to prevent that. A way to bring them back without their
fighting."

Shania took a sharp breath and
straightened. "Not that I see."

"Maybe if he sees Illixy -
the totem seed, I mean. Maybe that would make him more reasonable."
Naomi searched Shania's face. "What do you think?"

Shania thought it over. "Maybe? I
don't know."

"It's worth a shot, right? Any chance
to prevent him from fighting Dylan is worth checking
out?"

Shania nodded. "Yeah. But
Kayden... he's very intense. He might not even talk to
you."

Naomi squared her
shoulders. "Oh, he'll talk to me. I may not know much about being
Kin and all that, but I can't pretend this isn't happening. I want
to learn more. I want to help, and if Illixy can make a difference,
then I'll do what I can." She stood up and smiled at Shania. "I've
never been passive about anything. And I'm not about to start now.
I'll find Kayden, and I'll do whatever it takes to change his
mind."

Chapter 4

Dylan paused and raised
his muzzle. Sniffed once, twice, and then blew a sharp snort of air
into the afternoon sunshine. He stood in a glade close to the road
that led to Anna's House. In wolf form, the world was another place
- magical, subtle, alight with potential and information. It made
walking as a human an experiment in blindness. Standing still, he
could smell where a young deer had passed by just half an hour ago.
Instinct bade him turn and follow, silent and predatory, but he was
more than just instinct. He curbed it. Above him, hidden from
sight, he could smell an owl. An old bird, as dangerous in its own
way as he was. Pollen rode the air currents, goldenrod mostly,
undercut by the heavy, wet smell of loam from a few hundred yards
away where the land dipped into a small bog.

Life. It throbbed around
him, vital and precious. Nothing like the city. The arteries of
asphalt, the stench of gasoline and smoke, the acrid burn of car
exhaust and sewage. Where every surface was hard. Where there were
no curves, only angles. A nightmare for any wild creature. A place
where spirits were crushed and destroyed. Where the full vibrant
spectrum of life was broken down into one uniform, dull pattern. He
didn't know how Kayden could stand it. How he could stay there, day
after day. Night after night. How he didn't miss this most basic of
connections, this primal link with the Earth Mother.

Dylan padded forward,
moving through the beams of sunlight and back into shadow. His pack
was scattered around him, and even at this distance he could feel
their tug, knew where they were. Nothing as close to what that
awareness had been under the totem-spirit, when each and every
packmate was clear in his mind at all times. But still. They were
pack. Nothing could take away from that.

He paused to sniff at the
trunk of a tree. His thoughts turned to Naomi, the bringer of the
totem-seed. A restless hunger entered him. He thought again of
following the deer. Hunting it down, giving chase, leaping,
bringing it down. Letting loose this heat in the pleasure of the
kill.

But no.

He was more than that. Or so he told
himself.

Naomi. Soft curves. Full
breasts. Her eyes flashing with fire and intelligence. With
arousal. Only kin, but there was strength there. A hunger as well.
A need. He had sensed it last night, and it had called to his own
desire, aroused him further, pushed him almost over the
edge.

It was too easy to bring
her scent back to mind. He wanted to explore her body. To mark it
with his own scent, to own it. To make her his mate. To make her
cry out. To sink his fingers in her hair and curl them into a fist.
To turn her head to one side as he rode her so that he could see
her face as she bit her lip. She was strong, full bodied. Mating
with her would be unlike tangling with a packmate. That was too
akin a wrestling match, a playful fight for dominance, a striving,
all muscle and thrust. With Naomi, it would be different. Would she
be able to take all of him? Would he be able to let slip his
control, and mate with her as deeply as he desired?

Blinking, he realized
he'd
shifted
back
into his human form. His cock strained against his jeans. Cursing
himself for a fool, he went to
shift
back down, and then paused.
The sound of a car. Somebody was leaving Anna's House in Jeb's old
jeep. Moving quickly, he ran through the forest, and stepped out
onto the road just as the jeep turned the bend and came toward
him.

Naomi was driving. He saw her eyes go
wide, and then she slammed on the brakes. The jeep came shuddering
to a stop just a few yards from him.

Where was she going? He
tilted his head to one side, the wolf still riding close to the
surface. She stared right back at him, hands on the wheel, and then
pushed open the door and got out. By the Earth Mother, she looked
good. Even in his human form he could smell her still damp hair,
long and lying in heavy coils over her shoulder. The plaid shirt
strained over her breasts, as if they fought for freedom. Jeans
tight over her hips and thighs. A woman's body. A ripe
peach.

"Dylan." She sounded uncertain.
Hesitant. Afraid? No.

"Naomi." He walked over.
Stopped a few feet shy. Her skin was beautiful in the sunlight. If
she caught enough, he could tell freckles would appear on her
shoulders. Over the bridge of her nose. "You headed
out?"

More hesitation. "Yes. But I'm coming
back."

The wolf within him yearned for the
hunt. He couldn't stand still. Restless, he slowly walked around
her. Some instinct kept her still. "It's not safe for you in the
city."

"No, I know that." Tension
rode her body. If he were in his wolf form he'd be able to read her
better. But even with only his eyes he could see her nerves. "I was
planning a quick visit."

"Hmm." Sweat ran down his
neck. He'd not slept in some time, but he felt terribly alive. He
wanted to touch her. But instead he circled back. "Visit
where?"

She shifted her weight.
Reached up to curl her hair over her ear. She was having trouble
looking at him. Maybe because he wasn't wearing a shirt? Her eyes
were darting everywhere but at him. Instinct whispered in his ear,
and he stepped in closer. She took a deep breath. Could she smell
him? His desire?

"I'm... I'm going to talk to
Kayden."

That drew him up short. He
felt a growl burn at the base of his throat, but he suppressed it.
Naomi took a step back. The first flickers of fear. He controlled
himself. "Why?"

"Why?" Anger followed fast
after the fear, like it always does. "Because I don't want you to
fight. I don't want you to die." She glared at him. "It's beyond
stupid. Fine, I know you're a wolf, or part wolf, but that doesn't
mean you can't find a way to work together. Stark's the enemy. Not
Kayden. So if you guys can't figure it out, I'm going to give it my
best shot."

Her flash-fire anger gave
him pause. He didn't want to think about the logic behind her
words. It was so much simpler to allow the wolf-mind to dictate
action. Kayden was a rival alpha. That meant he had to be
dominated. Put down, his wolves absorbed into the Silver Song.
Simple. And yet he’d grown up with Kayden. Packmates. They'd fought
beside each other. Saved each other's lives more times than Dylan
could remember.

"I've tried." His voice
was low, dangerous. "Over and over. Kayden laughs. He tells me to
bare my throat." Restless once more, Dylan circled around Naomi.
She turned to keep him before her. "You think I don't know who the
enemy is?" A low laugh. "But Kayden. He doesn't want answers.
Solutions. He wants death. Stark's, his own, it doesn't matter.
Something broke in him when the totem was destroyed. When Gerard
was killed. He's broken." Dylan curled his hands into fists. He
wanted his claws. His own pain began to awaken. "He's become a
creature of the city. You don't know what that does to a
werewolf."

Naomi had her back pressed
to the car. She wasn't on edge. Yet he could smell her arousal. Her
eyes were wide. Her hands pressed against the side of the car. She
was breathing shallowly. Scared and aroused. Wanting him despite
her instinct to flee. Dylan held her gaze and waited.

"Even so." Her voice shook. "I have
the totem-seed. That might make a difference."

"What if he decides to
keep you?" Dylan stepped forward. His bare chest almost touching
her shirt. "What if he decides to make you his mate?"

She blinked. She knew so little. She
was walking blind through pack politics. "I won't let that
happen."

"No?" Dylan leaned
forward, inhaled deeply by her ear. Her smell was intoxicating. It
made thinking hard. Holding himself back nearly impossible. "How
would you stop him?"

Naomi closed her eyes. He
could see the vein in her neck flutter. He wanted to bite her
there. Establish his dominance. But he held back.

"I... I don't know." Her
honesty surprised him. "But Stark. You said he came to the forest
for the first time last night." He nodded. "So he's growing
stronger. He knows what Illixy means. He has to attack now, before
he loses his advantage. You and Kayden, you need to stand together
when he attacks." She opened her eyes and met his gaze with
strength. "If you're too busy killing each other, you'll be easy
prey."