Her Savior Alpha
Chapter 32

I probably shouldn’t have drunk as much as I did, my Lycan wouldn’t like that, but I wanted to enjoy the moment with Reily and revel in the fact I was no longer single. A funny feeling was hard to shake however and I had to take a few more sips of my champagne to shake it off. Reily’s gang were stealing glances at me and I could feel the blades of their eyeballs on me as I walked with Reily hand in hand.

The love he displayed in his eyes was all I ever wanted my beloved to look at me like. It was a dream come true to finally be accepted by the pack, but an ill feeling of contempt still dogged me from Reily’s crew and the invasion of their negative energy proved hard to shake.

“Reily are you sure everything is okay between me and your crew before we turn? I want to be harmonious with them.”

Reily was all teasing and charm as he stroked the side of my face as we all stood at the edge of the clearing that faced into the deep cavern of forest so regularly used for warm ups and trail runs. “Sweet Vera, this is all I hoped it would be.” Somehow I felt mesmerized by his eyes and it was as if there were rings of a vortex existing around his pupils. I was drawn to him in ways unspoken. Placing my hand on his chest I stood in our bubble together as he cupped my ass. Reily had dimples. How come I’d never noticed them before? Sucked into the moment I fell forward as our lips touched and the feeling of wildfire ran through me.

I let him graze over my top lip as he parted my mouth and locked in a deep, passionate kiss causing the others around me to growl. The tumble dry of feelings whirled in my belly as I stepped back unlocking from the intimate moment. A drip of water hit my forehead as I held my hand up.

“It’s raining, maybe we should postpone it. We can do it tomorrow, don’t you think?” I appealed to Reily as he held my waist.

“No! We must go now, once it’s announced it’s customary for the ceremonial chase to happen straight after.” Reily’s eyes glittered with determination as his hand gripped around my wrist digging in to tightly.

“Reily, it’s okay, I’ll go with you, can you let go of my wrist?” The wind flowed out of my breath as I flinched wondering if the old Reily was coming out to play. The earthy goodness of the forest sifted through my nose as a low hanging mist covered the training ground. Great now it would be hard to see in the forest. I didn’t want to slip, but I knew my Lycan could survive in any conditions.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, I can see the fear in your eyes, but I can tell you I would never hurt you Vera.” Reily’s dirty blonde hair was matting down to his face and with the shadow of his angular jaw, he drove my heart to skip a beat a time or two. If our union was to be consumated this was a dream beginning, standing in the rain with my mate ready for the next stage of my life.

A small window of thought floated through to me thinking what my parents would think about me and Reily a wolf who beat me black and blue now wanted to build a life with me. If you told me this would have happened in my darkest hours I would have spat at you.

Reily was different. I could see it in his eyes. Gina got out of the way, Dane didn’t oppose the union, but Clive and Archer were protective as I knew they would be. Why wouldn’t be? They’d put me back together again so many times it ran like clockwork.

“Okay. We can run now.” I smiled at him for the last time in human form. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, ask away, but we should start because there’s not much light in the sky and I want to get you home with me. I want to wake up with you next to me in the morning and see that sweet face. I don’t know how I could have beat you. I’m sorry for everything.” Reily smelled like a hypnotizing brand of cologne. I wanted to stay and breathe him in a little longer, I felt a mix of exhilaration as the bond amplified between us and the urge to merge with him became unbearable. Reily sucked in another kiss from me as I felt his hard on on my thigh and a sharp pull in my core. Yes, I had to run because I wanted to make love to him at the end.

Pitter patter. Pitter patter. Rain droplets were heavier now and the sky was changing from a cerulean blue to a deep blue and I predicted we had a couple hours of daylight left before we made it to whatever destination we were supposed to get to. I faced my head up to the looming clouds and held my head back. I didn’t know what to do now my path was clear. What would my life become now? I had never even been to Reily’s house. What if I sucked being a girlfriend to him? So many thoughts were forcibly weaving their destruction in my head that I just wanted to run.

“I wanted to know why are your crew here? Do they need to be on the chase as well? Why?”

I was unsure of them and didn’t understand why it couldn’t just be me and Reily.

Reily smiled at me as he ran the underside of his hand down my arm. “No, they’re going to fall off later. It’s just part of the ritual. Okay, that’s enough talking, I’m going to change now and you can too. I will wait for you to change and then we can make our way through the forest.”

“Okay.” A clapping thunder pervaded the chamber of my heart picking up speed as I felt a little shy to show Reily my wolf let alone his crew who were hanging close by in the background. The rain shower I thought would ruin our adventure stopped and the dark clouds drifted over the skyline.

I let my lungs contract in and out with a relieved sigh. “See, must be you Vera, the heavens are aligning for us.” Reily winked as I witnessed him shifting and hearing his shoulder blades pop as he lowered into the four legged wolf that I would stand beside. I watched as more crackling and popping occurred behind me. Each of the wolves dropped to the ground in their new form as I took in their wolves. Reily had the same champagne colored fur that Clive did only it was a shade darker and it was through the slivers of light through the pine trees that the golden sheen bounced off his back. His wolf form was stunning and caused me to inhale a sharp intake of breath. The difference between him and Clive was that Reily had snow white feet. I wanted to touch his paws, he looked so sweet, but their was a fierceness in his eyes that gripped me. The bad boy who’d been broken by the death of his parents, and had taken it out on me.

Reily nuzzled into my leg as he stuck his snout under my hand. I placed a hand deep into his fur as I stroked him. Reily closed his eyes as the wind changed whipping my hair around my face. Was it safe to show him my wolf? Could Reily really be trusted?

A pack of wolves surrounded me as I looked at the generic coloring of the other three of Reily’s crew. Each one of them had their own distinctive markings, but none golden like Reily, mostly a taupe shade of brown with smaller snouts. A tremble dotted down my spine as I studied their beady eyes. They didn’t feel so good and I looked back at Reily’s wolf for reassurance. A warm set of wolf eyes stared at me as Reily released a wild, primal howl arching his neck to the sky. He’d let his wolf out alright and his call and the look he gave the rest of his crew set my mind at ease.

They retreated giving me space to breathe as I looked off into the distance towards the barracks. Once I ran into the woods there was no coming back. I was embarking on a journey that would forever change my destiny.

Reily

Dumb bitch. Totally dumb. Every minute that passed pretending to be in love with her made my stomach and my toes curl. If I ever got sick of being the resident bad boy of the Mount Hunter pack I could have been a good actor. I had the whole of the Mount Hunter community fooled. Pity Clive, Archer and Thelma weren’t along for the ride, but there was nothing they could do. All components of my plan were playing out beautifully.

The game seemed a little too easy almost. I’d gotten the privilege of taking out my frustrations and emotions on Vera and breaking her down at every opportunity and now I got to taste the sweet honey of her lips. She tasted better than I thought and all the raging hormones from the mating bond running through my system were working to my advantage.

Would I sleep with her and get my fill before I slashed her to shreds along with my team? I had to think on the chase what I would do. I wanted more of her and that disturbed me, but I understood it was the mating link which I would destroy. How could she be so blind to think I would change my mind so quickly? In her eyes I saw the total submission, the trust and I wanted to shake my head.

She was just an orphan wanting someone to love her. Well she won’t replace love in my heart, all she’ll replace is enough sharp teeth to break through her flesh and rip her from limb to limb.

Gina required some talking to before the chase. “Baby, I have to do this. It’s part of the plan and we discussed it already. I don’t want to be with her. I am rejecting the bond and will have eliminated her by midnight. You have to trust me more. Have I not done everything I said I would do up until this point?”

“Yeah, you have, but do you need to take it so far with all the kissing. I saw you two and it looked a little too real for me,” she’d pouted as she flicked her hair away as she shot shards of ice to me with her ruthless eyes.

“No, this is a real kiss.” I’d taken her in my arms and left her breathless with a kiss that marked my desire for her. I’d lied to both of them, the same fire I had with Vera, whom I detested wasn’t there with Gina. We were going through the motions and being with her was more acceptable than mating with the same girl who’d been responsible for my parent’s death. I carried an old sepia photograph of them in my wallet, and several jagged creases ran through it due to me taking it in and out. I missed them everyday, and bitterness took over me when I saw Vera.

An element of me changed as the mate bond formed and I started to see things from Vera’s perspective and even contemplated how she might feel about her own parents no longer being alive. I started to feel sorry for her and my heart started to cord to hers in a way that brought a simmering rage to the surface in me.

Each day the bond grew a little deeper and I lost my grip on the feral part of me. I started to like her. Like, like her, like her and it scared me. If I spent any more time with her then the mate bond might have become legitimate and to me it was a sham. I would prove it was a sham.

What to tell the others? Hmm... Vera got lost in the forest and I lost track of her. I could throw her from the rock cliff that wrapped around the upper most corner of the mountains and claim she lost her footing. Yes. This could work. Or I could turn on one of my crew members. I wasn’t attached to them anyway. I was a bastard like that, they were for the betterment of my inflated ego and that’s how I wanted to keep it. They served a purpose, but I’d never truly loved anyone. I vowed not to love after the loss of my parents, to love represented pain, suffering and heartbreak to me and Vera claimed the number one spot as being the culprit.

She would suffer and the result would be lights out. I’d watched her getting stronger, prettier, more outgoing and far too many other things to count and now this would end and as I turned to wolf at the boundary of the forest my wolf heart enlarged with every beat as I waited for her to change.

I’d prepped the others, Vera hadn’t the skills of strategy and deception as I had. She was too pure of heart and that played straight into my hands. I’d met with my loyal crew in the early morning hours at the barracks. “Give her the space to run. I want a good chase, after all it’s going to be her last time alive. I want two of you to flank her from the outside and close in beside her. I want you Trevor and Martin to run in front of her and block her path forward and behind. What I want is for her to be boxed in so she can’t escape at all.”

“Yes, yes! The box in trick. I want first dibs. I want to scratch her eyes out she wounded me in training and she has to pay for that. My wound still hasn’t healed properly,” Martin cursed.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves. All of you will get the opportunity to rip a limb or two off. I plan to, but not before me. We have to be sad when we arrive back. You cannot under any circumstances gloat about it. We have to be devastated for a while longer in order to make it believable. My brother Clive will be suspicious at first, but if we can pretend to show remorse for long enough it will pass.”

“You think we can pull this off?” Trevor replied hungrily. He wasn’t the brightest of my crew, but he was loyal and indulged my stupidity at times. Perfect for what I wanted from him.

“Yes. No question in my mind.”

Dumb bitch, Vera Hunter was about to become the hunted and I was going to soak in every bit of the moment. Death do us part to my true mate...