The Mark of an Alpha (9 page)

"I would never—"

"The pack needs strong alphas,” Bennett cut in again. “It needs
two
strong alphas—not one who can lead and one who crawls on the floor when another man clicks his fingers!"

"The pack doesn't need an alpha who's living a lie!"

Bennett took a deep breath. “You have every right to call me a liar after the way I behaved here today, but—"

"Don't twist what I said!"

"Claiming an alpha's right to lead means accepting his responsibilities. It means accepting that I can't show this sort of weakness any more. I should never have indulged my curiosity the way I did. But I can't change that now. All I can do is ask you to draw a line under my mistakes and let me prove to you that I can be the kind of mate who'll be a credit to you."

"You make it sound as if what we were doing was wrong,” Marsdon protested.

"Would you accept another wolf's hands wrapping around your wrists and pinning you to the wall?” Bennett asked.

About to answer on automatic, Marsdon stopped short.

"The truth,” Bennett demanded. “Would you?"

Marsdon took a deep breath. He met his mate's eyes. Bennett nodded, not needing to hear him say it out loud. They both knew he couldn't have done that, and if he had found himself in that position against his will, he wouldn't have been able to take the slightest pleasure in being there.

"Do you accept my apology for what happened here tonight or not?” Bennett asked.

Marsdon shook his head. “You have nothing to apologise for."

For all the effort his pup was obviously putting into keeping every trace of emotion inside, he flinched as if he had been slapped.

"Bennett?"

"You really think I want to be told you don't expect any better from me than this?” Bennett demanded. His hand swept through the air—pointing out the spot on the barn wall where they had come so close to perfection, as if some horrible crime had been committed there.

"You did nothing wrong,” Marsdon told him. “Not here, not in the club."

Bennett shook his head and said nothing.

"Pup?"

"One day you'll expect better from me."

Hours later, long after the sun had set and the other wolves had been sent off to their beds, Marsdon still found himself trying to think of something to say to his mate.

"I can't accept an apology for something I don't believe is wrong,” he finally said. If there were better words, they were a mystery to him.

Bennett sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the blank wall opposite him as if it contained all the secrets of the world.

"Bennett?” Marsdon prompted.

"Before that first night in the club, would you have accepted a mate who couldn't come to you as your equal?"

"I hadn't met you then. I didn't know that I could feel that way about..."

"About an omega?” Bennett asked.

"About an alpha. About you. About
anyone
."

"You don't have to settle for what you've become accustomed to,” Bennett said.

"I just want you,” Marsdon confessed. “I want things to be the way they have always been between us."

Bennett sighed as he lay down on the bed with his back to Marsdon. He looked exhausted, and scared and more fragile than any wolf Marsdon had ever set eyes on.

Marsdon tried not to jostle the mattress as he lay down next to him. He stared at the back of his head for a long time, wishing he knew how Bennett would react if he spooned behind him and held him close, offering him physical comfort to make up for those right words he'd proved himself so incapable of finding.

Reaching down to the bottom of the bed, he pulled the blanket up over them instead. Bennett made no move to tuck the blanket around his body, as if he couldn't even bring himself to admit that he needed any sort of protection from the chill that had crept into the air when the sun went down.

Marsdon cautiously reached over and pulled it up around his shoulders, wanting to soothe without giving Bennett any reason to think that he believed his mate was weak.

Bennett made no objection. Marsdon wished he could take that to mean Bennett didn't mind him fussing over him a little, but with each day that passed it was becoming increasingly clear that he couldn't assume his mate would like the same things his pup had.

Marsdon closed his eyes and bit at his lip. His pup, in any real sense of the word, was dead.

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"Have you decided if our pack will keep its ties with your parents’ pack, or will we be seeking alliances with those neighbouring us instead?"

Marsdon glanced across at Alfred and forced himself to be patient. It wasn't easy when he'd spent most of the previous few nights wide awake and staring at the ceiling as he turned everything that had ever happened between himself and Bennett over and over inside his head, trying to find a way to fix the whole world.

"We'll keep strong ties with our old pack. And with Bennett's former pack, of course."

"Tradition says we only need to keep close ties with the pack the alpha came from."

Marsdon tilted his head to the side as he sensed that this line of questions was different to all the others Alfred had bombarded him with throughout the day. Alfred had a well deserved reputation as a trouble maker, but for the life of him, Marsdon couldn't see where he was headed with this.

It was practically impossible for him to stir up trouble between them and another pack unless he was included in the talks they conducted with other packs, and that wasn't going to happen.

The alpha stayed very still, resisting the temptation to reach up and push a hand through his hair in frustration. All the damn traditions were what had got him and Bennett into this mess in the first place.

"I'm hardly going to cut all the ties to my parent's pack just because it was also your former pack,” he said as calmly as he could, still trying to guess what else his young cousin could be up to.

"Yes. But there's no reason to keep ties with
his
pack too,” Alfred said.

Marsdon felt the change in the atmosphere as all the other wolves pricked up their ears. From half way across the room, he sensed Bennett tense. His mate's attention shifted away from his conversation with Francis and Steffan and across to Marsdon and Alfred.

"Bennett is just as much the alpha of our pack as I am,” Marsdon said, very clearly—making sure every wolf who heard the insult would hear his response to it.

"A pack can only have one alpha,” Alfred said.

Marsdon raised an eyebrow at him. “One alpha pair,” he corrected.

"One alpha male,” Alfred shot back. “And we all know who that is."

"We're hardly the first pack where the alpha pair won't be the breeding pair,” Marsdon said, forcing the words to hide his temper. “Two alpha males. Two alpha females. If they are mated, they are an alpha pair. You're old enough not to need to have that explained to you."

It was practically the only thing about him and Bennett that tradition didn't object to. He wasn't about to lose that as well—or more to the point, risk Bennett taking it into his head that the fact that they were both male was another problem that needed to be fixed.

Bennett came across and stood at Marsdon's side, facing Alfred across the table where they'd spread out the maps that showed the boundary of the lands they'd been gifted to raise their pack on.

"I can accept that your loyalties lie with the alpha you know, the one who came from your parents’ pack,” Bennett said.

Marsdon ached to point out that he had no intention of accepting any such thing, but he bit his tongue, willing to agree with anything Bennett said to the others in their pack right then. He was more than willing to agree the sky was green if that was what it took to display a united front with his mate before the pack.

"But you are a member of
our
pack now,” Bennett continued. “Marsdon's and my pack."

Marsdon nodded his firm and honest agreement of that point if nothing else.

"I don't expect you to fake respect for a wolf you don't know well enough to form any sort of opinion on. But I am your alpha now—a temper tantrum is not going to change that."

Alfred squared his shoulders. “I only see one alpha. If you want me to believe otherwise, you'll have to prove it."

"A formal challenge?” Marsdon asked, not quite able to believe it. He rounded the table and stepped straight into Alfred's space, looming over the smaller man. “What history book are you living in? There hasn't been a challenge like that issued since before any wolf in this pack was born. Are you trying to set the ways of a pack back a hundred years?"

Alfred took a step back, lowering his gaze and bowing his head, offering his overt submission to his alpha. But there wasn't a trace of respect in his tone when he spoke. “You are an alpha. He's not. If calling him one is a mark of progress then perhaps we need to be set back a hundred years."

Marsdon felt the growl start low in the back of his throat. He couldn't stop it from escaping. He turned his attention to all the other wolves lurking just within earshot. “And you all agree with this?” he demanded.

Alfred had laid his foundations well. Whatever had caused him to start stirring up trouble, he hadn't launched an unprepared attack. He'd made sure his doubts were well seeded in the other wolves’ minds too. Not one of them spoke up in Bennett's defence.

"I accept."

Marsdon's attention snapped across to Bennett. His mate met his gaze, his expression entirely blank. When Bennett turned away from him, he looked to the other wolves in the room individually. One blink and his attention seemed to shift towards the room itself.

"I'll prove myself outside,” he said. “No point making a mess in here.” He turned and walked out as if, in spite of the challenge, he had no doubt that every wolf in that room would follow wherever he led.

Marsdon strode out after him, the other wolves hot on his heels.

When he reached his mate's side, Bennett was surveying their new land in the late evening light. “Over there,” he ordered. “The longer grass on the other side of the fence."

The other wolves went where he pointed. Marsdon could see the uncertainty in them, the instinct to follow where an alpha led fighting against the doubts Alfred had put in their heads.

A challenge, a bloody challenge...Marsdon still couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. His mate stepped forward, apparently well ahead of him and perfectly ready to deal with the situation.

Marsdon caught hold of Bennett's arm. “You know that there is more to being an alpha than winning a fight,” he rushed out.

Bennett glared over his shoulder at him as he shook off Marsdon's touch. “Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Marsdon quickly regained his grip on him. “Of course I don't want you to fight. Of course I would take your place if I could—you are my mate,” he whispered, desperately trying to keep his words hushed enough that they couldn't be overheard. “But I also have no doubt you will win. If I didn't know you're an alpha then I wouldn't be standing back and letting you do this."

Bennett stared at him for several seconds as if judging his sincerity. His eyes sparkled with more life, more vitality than Marsdon had ever seen. “I need to do this,” he said, confidence in his decision ringing in every word. “I need to know they have no doubts—they need to know it too."

Marsdon held back a sigh. “There is more to being an alpha than winning a fight,” he said again. “Do not do them any harm that can't be healed."

Bennett nodded.

Marsdon still kept hold of his arm. “Alfred is a vicious little sod. He fights dirty. Don't turn your back on him. Steffan is big and strong, but he's slow. He'll test you and he'll leave you feeling as if you've been run over by a silver plated train, but he won't intend to do you any harm that can't be quickly healed. Francis is watchful—he'll see how you fight the others and work out his plan—do something different and you'll scare the hell out of him."

Bennett listened as Marsdon told him whatever he thought would help. He didn't want to hear it. Marsdon knew that. He knew that Bennett was only letting his mate help him because he could see that Marsdon needed to do that.

Working through each of the wolves, he came to the last. His youngest cousin stood on the other side of the clearing with the other wolves, but his attention was fixed firmly on his alphas. “Talbot is a true omega.” Bennett knew that already. It was all he needed to know.

The darker wolf nodded.

Marsdon hesitated before he leaned in and kissed him gently on the cheek. “Mine,” he told him.

Bennett frowned, quick to see the word as an attempt to establish his dominance.

"
My
mate,” Marsdon whispered in his ear. “
My
alpha. Show them that you are their alpha too."

Finally letting go of Bennett's arm, he fell in step beside him as they approached the grass that had been trampled down to make an old fashioned fighting circle. Bennett stopped in the middle of the circle, but Marsdon kept walking until he reached the far side, where the other wolves were waiting.

"You're all ready?” Marsdon asked, looking them over. They were practically humming with tension. One by one they nodded. Not one of them would look him in the eye.

"As of this moment, you are all in limbo—you have no pack, no alpha, no family. Bennett will remain in the centre of the circle. When you accept him as your alpha, and he accepts you as part of our pack, you will pass through to the other side of the circle. Then, and only then, you may come out of limbo. Understand?"

"And if he fails the challenge?” Alfred asked.

"Tradition states that he will find his true place in the pack when he finds which wolves offer him their submission,” Marsdon said coldly, willing to be damned before he said there was any possibility that Bennett's rightful place in the pack was anything other than leading it at his side. He turned back to Bennett and offered his mate a somewhat forced smile. “Ready?"

Bennett nodded, staring straight back at him, meeting his eyes without hesitation.