My Alphas: The Complete Series (31 page)

Cass blinked and saw the rifle within reach but it may as well have been a million miles away. Her arms were locked to her sides, her body frozen.

The giant black werewolf stood inside the window, looking across at her.

She saw him move, stepping closer and ducking his head and then his mouth was full of bleeding flesh. He dropped it and Cass saw Kale was beneath him, her eyes wide and glassy, staring at eternity.

“Stop,” Cass whispered, the rifle touching her hand but she was unable to move to retrieve it. She was in that trailer, a bad man coming toward her and she couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

She saw the black wolf sniff at her and then he shifted, becoming a hulking giant of a man.

“You. The one from the stream.
You
have become their pack-whore?”

He sniffed again and grinned. Even his human teeth were sharp and streaked with blood.

“And you are carrying their cub. How wonderful.”

He came closer to her, stepping over the rubble and fallen rifles and bent down to pull her up into sitting position. As he did, Cass felt the rifle trigger guard touch her hand.

“I claim you,” he said and Cass smelt the horrible stench of him, like rotten meat and blood. “When that cub is born, I shall eat it in front of you.”

Cass felt tears escaping her eyes and saw Carcer look at them.

“I will feast upon your terror like a meal every day until I decide to get rid of you,” he declared and then let go of her. Cass fell back against the wall, the back of her head colliding with it painfully.

She saw Carcer shift, becoming the black werewolf again and then he turned away from her and began to move to the door.

The rifle was against her hand and all she had to do was grab it, to pull the trigger, to attack but she could not.

Then she heard two howls.

Her Alphas.

They were coming.

The sound of their voices hit her like a wave and got Cass moving. That one long ago and terrible lesson from the deep past came back to her and she lifted the rifle up to her shoulder, braced herself, took a breath and squeezed the trigger, aiming right for Carcer’s head.

The bullet exploded out of the chamber.

*

Rey was in the lead, bolting through the main den and out the door as fast as he could run, Edon a step behind him. His pulse was pounding in his head and pain shot through him with every movement. A werewolf had torn his healed shoulder anew and other injuries had joined it. Rey could feel blood running down his body in a warm stream but there was no time to stop, no way he could. They had seen Carcer climbing in the giant hole where a window had been and if Kale had followed his instructions, Cass would be up there.

He crashed into the far entrance, bouncing off the wall he was running so fast and heard Edon do the same.

Corridor.

Stone.

Heart thudding.

Blood.

Werewolf blood.

Human blood.

They smelt it at the same time and then he and Edon roared in unison, moments before bursting through the barred wooden door.

Rey saw Carcer, a giant of a wolf, turn toward him and then came the crack of a rifle. Blood shot up in a spray as the bullet pierced the back of Carcer’s neck but Rey knew it was no killing blow.

But it was enough.

Carcer stumbled and in that moment, Rey and Edon were upon him.

Rey bit into his side but then felt a hot burst of pain in his back as Carcer attacked. He found himself flying through the air and he crashed into the wall, narrowly avoiding landing on Cass. He crashed into the pile of confiscated rifles and was up on his feet in an instant. He saw Edon tear a chunk of flesh from Carcer’s leg and then Rey attacked the other.

Carcer was big and strong and unnaturally fast but he was no match for them working together. Flesh flew off him in chunks, muscles ripping and tendons snapping and soon the giant werewolf fell.

A moment after he did, Rey tore off his head and flung it out the gaping hole in the wall.

Acting as one, he and Edon shifted and carried Carcer’s body over to the hole where it followed his head to the ground below.

As soon as it landed, they heard Javcer howl a deep piercing command and the battle came to a complete stop as the Turo pack obeyed their new Alpha.

Rey and Edon turned away from the window and rushed to their fallen mate.

“Are you hurt?” Rey demanded, touching her.

“I’m okay,” Cass said, tears in her eyes.

There was another howl outside.

“The battle is over. Javcer is new Alpha. They’re going now,” Edon said, helping Cass up.

Rey saw Cass blink and take a deep breath, getting her balance. She looked up at them.

“You must tell him to stay. Utson will be coming soon. I have an idea.”

*

Edon stood gritting his teeth as Nia sewed a wound on his back. They had lost ten werewolves in the fight and the ones responsible were now standing by his side, former enemies now allies.

He wanted to kill each and every one of them.

But Cass was right. Utson pack, those cowardly lowlifes, were coming. The battle had not been over for half an hour before the first scout returned with news the entire Utson pack was coming their way.

Edon looked over at Rey. He was soaked with blood, some of it his. Vara was standing behind him sewing up his shoulder.

The Turo pack had been reduced by half in the battle but they still numbered at least forty werewolves. Edon guessed after Javcer and the rest of the outcasts had left Carcer had worked swiftly to bolster their numbers. Probably killing other pack Alphas and absorbing their members into the Turo pack.

Edon turned back to the approaching army. They were walking out in the open in werewolf form like they were out for an afternoon stroll rather than sneaking in to fight the exhausted survivors of a battle, seeking an easy victory.

He hoped to hell Cass’ plan worked.

*

Cass watched as the Utson pack Alpha, Huri, walked up to the dirt line in the ground and then looked down at it.

It was the same pattern as before. Their pack drew a line in the dirt and the other pack’s Alpha had to stand on it to show he didn’t follow their rules but coincidentally this time would.

He was a giant gray wolf and many of his pack were the same color. There was at least seventy of them. Edon, Rey, Javcer, a small handful of Arctos werewolves and Turo werewolves faced off against them. Cass counted twenty. The rest of the Arctos and Turo pack werewolves were in hiding, awaiting the signal.

Cass was standing back behind the line of the few Arctos werewolves, waiting for the right moment.

She saw Huri shift, along with a few others and then come walking up to Edon and Rey.

They shifted too and stood to face him.

“I have come to see how my good friends the Arctos pack are going,” Huri said, looking them over. Cass could see him assessing each werewolf he looked over. Could they kill them and take the territory? Given how outnumbered they appeared, it would be an easy victory.

“As you can see,” Edon said, “the Arctos and Turo packs are going well. You can return to your territory.”

Cass heard him put the emphasis on
your territory
.

Huri looked up at Javcer as though he’d only just noticed him.

“Ah, Javcer! You’re the new Alpha. How very good for the Turo pack.”

“Get off our fucking territory,” Rey said, his voice a low growl.

The smile on Huri’s face dropped away.

“It is only
your
territory if you can hold it. Can you hold it?”

Cass saw the lines of Utson pack werewolves moving out, taking up position and knew they were waiting for Huri to signal an attack or to retreat. She didn’t wait any longer.

“Now!” she yelled.

Arctos and Turo werewolves leapt out of hiding, swarming around behind the Utson pack.

Huri turned his head, a near-fatal mistake and Rey shifted, leaping forward, slicing at him with his claws. He caught him down the neck and shoulder, carving deep wounds into his flesh.

Huri stumbled back, toppling over and then Cass yelled again.

“Stop!”

The assembled werewolves froze, the Utson pack surrounded, nervously stepping from foot to foot. Their Alpha was down and it seemed to have shocked them into immobility. Rey moved back and Huri pulled himself to his feet, pressing his hand against his neck. Dark blood was streaking down his neck.

Huri looked at them and met Cass’ cold gaze.

“You obey the human now? I guess you learned something from Carcer after all.”

“Turn around or we will kill every one of you,” Edon said in a loud voice.

“And we will help,” Javcer added.

Huri looked from face to face and down the line at the tired and bloodied werewolves, assessing their strength.

After a breathless eternity, he walked back to his line of werewolves and shifted, his fur matted with blood. Edon gave a signal and a gap opened behind the Utson pack. Huri gave a quick howl and the entire pack turned and ran back the way they came.

The moment they were gone, the Arctos pack turned to face Javcer and the remains of the Turo pack.

Cass saw Rey take up position, ready to leap on Javcer if he needed.

Javcer looked across them, seeming to do the same assessment Huri did and coming to the same conclusion: victory wasn’t certain.

“I thank you for not killing my son,” he said to Rey. “Our alliance is finished. We will return to our territory. Do not follow us and do not enter.”

The Turo pack made it two steps before Cass called out.

“Wait! I have an idea!”

*

Nine months later…

Cass awoke with the baby kicking her right in the bladder. Hell, the kid was treating it like a trampoline in there. Plus the Braxton-Hicks contractions were hitting again. They’d been coming and going for the last two months and Cass was well over them. Enough practise! Just get that baby out!

She sat up rather awkwardly and in multiple stages. First the swollen and very chunky feet over the bed then up on one elbow and then up on the other and push on an angle to get her giant belly into the right position.

Cass made it up to the side of the bed and breathed out, looking down at her stomach.

“Okay baby, we’re up,” she said.

Three months ago the werewolves had moved the bed from the cabin into the den for Cass (it was much better). They’d had to pull the whole thing apart (Vara producing a wrench set from some hidden room of tools) but finally they’d managed to set it up in her room. They’d also set up a crude toilet in another room so Cass didn’t have to go outside behind a tree any more. It was buckets and a plank with a hole in it but Cass loved it for saving her the walk outside.

She waddled through the door and into the next room. It was still dark but she knew it was almost sunrise. After many months of living amongst the werewolves she knew the time of day by the quality of the light. Soon the birds would start chirping and not long after that, the sun would rise.

Edon was out leading the hunt and Rey was sleeping in a pile at the end of the bed. Cass smiled to herself as she sat down on the makeshift toilet. Although Rey often came to bed with Cass, he somehow almost always ended up on the floor in wolf form, as though he were guarding her bed, which she supposed he might be.

Cass moved uncomfortably but the baby was pressing down on the wrong spot, stopping her peeing.

“C’mon baby. Lift up your bum or head please,” she said to it.

It.

Cass had tried out
him
for a while and then
her
and then
it
but none felt right. She’d landed on “the baby” and although she knew there was an actual literal baby inside her body, it seemed too strange to believe.

Cass settled down and took some deep breaths. Well, as deep as she could breathe. The baby was pushing up as well as down.

As it did in these quiet morning hours, Cass’ mind began to wander. One of its favorite patterns at the moment was the life rerun. Seeing herself soaked in mud standing between Rey and Edon before Rey walked off. The first time she rode Nia, coming down the hill toward the den. The first time she went to bed with Rey and Edon. Getting to know them over the last nine months. The standoffish werewolves who warmed and then grew to love her and she them.

At that thought, Cass remembered Kale. Vara had told her she’d been killed in the explosion, using her body to shield Cass. The explosion had turned out to be stolen military ordinance taken by Carcer from his bald-headed human ally. The day after the battle they’d found what was later identified as a grenade launcher up on a hill.

Cass had wept bitter tears for Kale, taking at least the small comfort she’d died instantly. When Carcer had bitten into her, she was already gone and couldn’t suffer any longer.