Girl from Jussara (6 page)

“No need. I will take her home,” Alex announced.

Kai’s mouth opened and closed several times before words emerged. “My Alpha, she lives at Alcaeus’ home. It’s a long walk and quite late—”

“I am aware of the time, Kai,” Alex cut him short, a wicked smile slowly curving his lips as he finished cleaning the blade. “As well as where the lady resides. I will see her home.”

Kai’s Adam’s apple bobbed restlessly in his throat, working overtime. His grip on Lupe’s arm grew painfully tight. “There is no need, my Alpha. She is my responsibility in Alcaeus’ absence, and I am only too happy to—”

“I. Will. Take. Her.”

Silence.

“Please, Alex? The girl is … terribly important … to Al. He wouldn’t—”

“He wouldn’t what?” Alex prompted with a raised brow. “Wouldn’t want his own brother and Alpha to escort her home safely?”

Kai scrubbed a frustrated hand over his face, fighting to rein in his anger and protective instincts for the girl, knowing his display of concern might only entice Alex to toy with her further. She had killed one of his soldiers. And regardless of her importance to Alcaeus, Kai knew Alex’s nature well enough to know he’d want to exact some form of punishment for her crime.

“Please, Alex? Just … don’t? Don’t … do … anything that …” Kai stammered stupidly, preferring to be drawn and quartered any day than grovel to Alex.

And Alex damn well knew it. He grinned, his perfect white teeth gleaming in the moonlight as he openly relished Kai’s awkward distress over the girl’s well-being. Kai had served as Alcaeus’ head Beta when Alcaeus had been Alpha. He and Alcaeus had been friends for most of their lives, and Alex knew Kai’s true loyalty would always lie with Alcaeus, even though he now served Alex.

“Are you certain she’s only important to Al?” he taunted.

“Alex, please? Please don’t—”

“You’re dismissed, Kai,” Alex enjoined with a smirk. “Go back to your lab. Do not follow us. Do not report to Alcaeus. And do not seek to enter her mind or in any other manner check on the lovely Guadalupe sooner than daybreak.”

Lupe’s stomach dropped out of her. It was a sure bet Alex planned to kill her.

Kai emitted a grunt of disapproval that morphed into a full-blown growl of fury as his eyes shifted to the pale blue color of his wolf.

The Alpha merely raised an arrogant forefinger and commanded, “Hold your skin. Release the girl. Walk away. Now.”

One by one, Kai’s fingers relinquished Lupe’s elbow. Her panicked green eyes sought his distraught, feral blue ones as he backed away, muttering, “I’m sorry. It’s okay … you’ll be fine. Be calm and do as the Alpha says, all right? Please? For me? For Alcaeus?”

Alex rolled obsidian eyes. “Goodnight, Kai.”

Once they were alone, the Alpha stepped closer and extended his hand to Lupe again, palm up. In his other hand, her machete dangled casually at his side. “Shall we?”

She hesitated, glancing from his proffered hand to the weapon in his other.

“Come now, you were brave enough to dismember Nahuel Salvatella and behead one of my soldiers for grabbing your derrière. Surely you’ve the courage to take a stroll with me about the gardens and through the woods?”

He knew.

He knew about Nahuel. How? Alcaeus had said he wouldn’t tell his younger brother, the Alpha. He had agreed they should keep a tight lid on her secret.

“Do not disappoint your Alpha.” His eyes indicated his open palm.

But he wasn’t her Alpha. She hadn’t agreed to stay. She was still there as Alcaeus’ guest. Her situation was temporary. She wasn’t a member of their pack. She stared mutinously at the large hand before her. For a mad moment, the genetic similarities to Alcaeus’ own hands, which she’d come to associate with providing care and comfort, were enough to make her hapless mind birth a desperate, fleeting hope that Alex’s hand might prove to be an offering of safety as well. Then he spoke.

“Little girl, you will take my hand in the next three seconds, or you’ll take this machete through your heart.”

She snatched his hand in hers.

He smiled. “My brother perpetually underestimates me. Try not to do the same.”

She nodded dolefully.

They strolled. She barely noticed where. Her leaden feet only registered it as her funeral march as her imagination quickly ran rampant, conjuring all manner of gruesome scenarios for how he intended to end her.

Mostly, her worries were dominated by fears for her daughter, though. What was going to happen to Jussara now? Would Alcaeus still care for her baby when she was gone? Jussara was barely a year old. Would she remember her mother? What if she lived her whole life never knowing how much her mother had loved her? Worse yet, the Alpha knew Jussara to be the progeny of his enemy. Would he even let her little girl live? Would he simply cast her precious bundle out once he’d disposed of her? Dump baby Jussara on his murderous enemy’s doorstep?

Belatedly, she noticed they’d been garnering a crazy amount of attention as they made their way through the gardens. Animals in wolf and in human form alike stopped whatever they were doing to salute or bow their heads in deference, offering overly effusive words of praise and greetings to their pompous, spoiled Alpha.

Blech!
What a bunch of annoying toadies! Lupe was glad now that she’d never wasted time getting to know very many of these superbeasts during her year-and-a-half stay at the compound. They were all a lot of pathetic, spineless sycophants as far as she was concerned. And their Alpha was nothing but an arrogant bully too caught up in his own inflated sense of self-worth to recognize the obvious shortcoming that would no doubt seal his demise one day.

Damn
. Every she-wolf they passed was glaring at her like they wanted to gut her and eat her entrails. What was up with that?

Then she remembered that Alex was not the hold-your-hand-and-stroll-through-the-gardens type. He was the fuck-you-from-behind-while-making-eyes-at-his-next-conquest-in-the-gardens type.

The Alpha fucked she-wolves like he was punishing them.
And they loved it.
The dumb bitches lined up and bent over for it, assess tilted high, wet cunts gleaming in the moonlight.

Lupe had chalked it up to an Alpha groupie kind of thing—like star-fuckers. Because the way those bitches carried on, pawing at his feet and begging to suck his cock, anyone might have thought it was coated in pure golden fairy dust.
Or at least Belgian chocolate
. The way they groveled and glorified him over what usually amounted to no more than a cold, hard fucking for all other leering wolf eyes in the gardens to see, would have been laughable in Lupe’s estimation … were it not so pathetic.

Even
he
knew it. Lupe could’ve sworn she’d caught the Alpha rolling his eyes at their displays toward him as they walked.

And it wasn’t only the women who were reacting to his handholding display. The fact that Alex was holding her hand for all to see was an anomaly his male pack members seemed to be having a rather difficult time processing as well. Even the pack’s unemotive head of security detail, Kaleb, whom Lupe had long ago determined had no personality whatsoever, barely managed to conceal his shock as they approached him.

“Kaleb, allow me to introduce you to Alcaeus’ housemate, Guadalupe. She is the newest human member of our pack and a person of critical importance here.”

Kaleb bowed in unnecessarily formal greeting. “Pleasure to meet you, Guadalupe.”

“We’ve met,” she reminded him. “Multiple times.”

“Kaleb, see that no one touches, verbally accosts, or so much as startles her. She is to be given a wide berth. Male wolves would be wise to avoid her altogether. In fact … spread the word that she’s off-limits and publicly execute the first idiot who tests that boundary. Questions?”

“None, sir.”

“Very good.”

Lupe struggled to keep her mouth closed as Alex dragged her along, introducing her to two other high-ranking soldiers and issuing the same instructions he’d given Kaleb. She was positively dumbfounded by this turn of events.

“Try to look less totally constipated if you can manage it,” Alex muttered derisively while simultaneously gifting her with an adoring smile as they continued their stroll.

Lupe forced her lips into a strained grin.

“No. No, that’s much worse. Stop that.”

Once they were out of the gardens and into the woods, they encountered fewer and fewer pack members, and Lupe wasn’t sure whether she should be relieved or more terrified. As they neared Alcaeus’ house, the Alpha became chattier.

“Did you think I didn’t know about you? Half of my guards are still of the opinion that little hellion of yours is mine and that Alcaeus is merely doing the honorable thing by you as atonement for my transgression.”

She’d had no idea ... had never even considered that the lie she’d initially told in order to gain entry into the Reinoso compound might’ve still been circulating out there. “I … I’m … sorry I—”

“Frankly,” he cut her off with a wave of indifference, “I’m inclined to sanction any rumor that might cure other females around here of imagining I possess even a shred of paternal instinct.” His nose wrinkled in distaste. “I do, however, resent the outlandish notion I’d be fool enough to waste my seed in some peasant farm girl. A human, no less,” he added with disdain. “But I let them continue to believe what they will—that I was careless enough to put a baby inside of you some drunken night when I was slumming it in whatever backwater you hail from, and then forgetful enough to not remember that I did it.”

Lupe could only marvel at how the older brother managed to ooze charm from every pore twenty-four-seven, while this one couldn’t take a breath without being offensive.

“I admit, I’ve struggled to understand my brother’s obsession with you.” His eyes raked her. “You’re passably attractive enough for a human, I suppose, but that doesn’t negate the fact that you’re utterly incompatible and genetically inferior on every level.”

“Gee, thanks.”
Shit.
She hadn’t meant to voice that snarky reply. She dared a sidelong look at the Alpha as he brought them to a stop in front of the house.

“But what truly baffles me,” he said, turning to face her head on, his dark eyes piercing, “is that you reportedly continue to reject my brother’s romantic intentions. And that you refuse to accept his very generous offer to provide you and your daughter with a lifetime of protection. Simply because …”—he canted his head in question as he stepped into her personal space—“you do not wish to make a commitment to join my pack?”

“I … well …” She lost her voice as he raised his hand to her face.
Oh … God.

“Surely”—his knuckles grazed her cheekbone—“the certain death that awaits you outside of my protection is a far greater inconvenience than stomaching a lifetime of my brother’s fawning, wink-y-eyed ways and seventeenth-century sense of humor, hmm?”

He smiled—a wolfish, toothy grin of victory, as his knuckles continued their gentle caress down the column of her throat to her exposed collarbone. The Alpha was known for being cruel and sadistic. Had he gone to the trouble of taking her on that little parade through the gardens just for the sick pleasure of tricking her into feeling safe before he tore her throat out?

Lupe coughed, hoping to dislodge her heart from said throat.

“There … there,” he soothed in response to her mini choking fit that ensued, looking far more amused than concerned. “I’m sure you understand, Lupe, that being the Alpha and sadist I am, that I will of course require something from you as reparation for the soldier you killed tonight.” It wasn’t a question.

She nodded, blinking back the traitorous burn assaulting her eyes. She was prepared to swallow her pride and beg for her daughter’s life, but his next words stopped her.

“I’ve decided as punishment you will stay on here as Alcaeus’ housekeeper,” he decreed. “You and your daughter are now permanent members of my pack. You will remain loyal to my brother for the rest of your natural or unnatural life, as the case may be. You will swear these things to me now. And you will tell me your given name.”

It was a far better outcome that she had expected. And she had no choice, so she agreed.

She swore to it. And she noted how it delighted him, the sicko. She realized he had no intention of ever sharing her given name with his brother, either. That was the point. Knowing something about her that Alcaeus didn’t and exerting his own control over her destiny in a way that went beyond his brother’s was just the kind of power trip the bastard got off on.

He hadn’t asked for her fealty. Probably didn’t care one way or another about it. He’d only required her loyalty to his brother. He was an Alpha who valued obedience from his pack. Devotion didn’t matter.

Her heart rate was just returning to normal when he raised her machete. The blade gleamed and winked at her in the moonlight as her jaw fell open, fearing the worst sort of twisted betrayal from her new Alpha. But instead, he merely handed it back to her, offering her the handle end as he held the blade.

“Here. You won’t need this anymore.”

She accepted her beloved papai’s proffered machete, too stunned to say anything before the Alpha started walking away.

“For the record”—he turned and his dark orbs gave her one final, thorough sweep from head to toe—“I believe I might actually remember it if I were ever dumb enough to put a baby inside of you.”

Her features reflected shock. Was that meant to be his version of a compliment?

“Provided nothing of particular interest or remote importance had transpired that day, of course,” he appended drolly, before she had time to consider the possibility he might be capable of being anything less than a complete and total ass. “Your thoughts are quite loud and aggressive, little girl. Not so easy to forget.”

CHAPTER SIX

Lupe awoke to the sound of feral growling, and to the jostling sensation of a four-legged beast leaping onto her bed. Her eyes opened to a pair of ice-blue wolf eyes glowing above her and to a giant, clawed paw sweeping down through the air toward her face. The frantic cry that climbed up her throat was silenced before it ever broke as a human palm clamped down hard over her mouth instead.