Rejecting the Alpha
Chapter 12

Kylie

What seemed to be more than a couple hundred werewolves were gathered in a clearing both in their human and wolf forms. The clearing was large and lit with moonlight, small flowers dotting the ground. It would have been a beautiful scene if not for the purpose of the gathering.

"As you're all aware, we're here to induct Kylie Leland officially into Stonemason as our newest pack member and your new luna," Alpha Gavriel said, his dark blue eyes meeting mine for a second. A shiver ran down my back.

The moment of truth, this was going to be my predetermined future unless I managed to do something to change it. I felt tears push at my eyes again and I cursed them. That was an issue for the future. Right now, my goal was to join this pack convincingly. I needed them all to lower their guards, and that would only happen through my systematic compliance.

So I listened as my mate spoke the ancient words that many packs still used to this day. It was not exactly the same as what my pack had said, but there were enough similarities that I could follow easily enough.

Then came the moment for the mixing of the blood and I held my hand out, with only the slightest quiver demonstrating my misgivings. He cut my palm and his own and we grasped hands.

"And with that, Luna Kylie is part of Stonemason and your new luna. Now, we run."

Cheers and howls were thrown up to the orb in the sky above us, and my head hurt with the sound of voices in my head at the opened link with this new pack. I steadied myself, before I slipped out of my dress and transformed swiftly. Alpha Gavriel did the same.

His wolf moved towards me, huge, and dark grey, and every bit as menacing as I had expected. I lowered my head and tail as a sign of my submission to him, but it was not hard because I simply had to follow my wolf's instincts.

He sniffed my neck and then licked my face, and with that my wolf relaxed and ran her muzzle along his, returning his affection. I relaxed, because he really did seem to accept us in this form, although the show of physical affection seemed somehow strange to reconcile with the human side of the man.

Certainly, he touched me as he pleased, but nothing beyond sexual contact.

And then we ran, legs pumping, paws gripping the ground with blunt claws. Wolves all around me howled and barked for joy and I let my wolf instincts take over. She felt like a part of the pack now and I let myself be soothed by the illusion of not being alone.

At a certain point, the pack broke off from the alpha and I, and we wandered through the trees, him with familiarity, me with curiosity. I did not know this land yet, but I wanted to. I hoped he attributed my interest as my plans for a future life rather than a future escape.

The alpha hunted, and I ate some of his kill, and then we ran some more, silence stretching between us, until I was exhausted. His wolf became very affectionate and my wolf revelled in the attention from her mate. It was a lot easier in this form, because the emptiness inside him seemed lessened while we were transformed. We lay there together in the darkness.

Sometime around dawn, he woke.

"Shift back, Mate," he said to me. I was almost surprised, because he never used the link between us before.

I didn't argue, flowing from wolf to human in a few moments. He did the same, kneeling naked before me, looking like a hero from a daydream.

Unfortunately, he was the villain. I mourned for the part of him that was lost and the life we might have had if he were still whole.

He moved over me, kissing my lips before working his way down my neck and heat began to build as he moved lower on my body, his hands moving over every inch of me before replaceing my centre. His mouth followed and I felt the sparks I was beginning to expect run through me as his tongue worked over my most sensitive flesh, bringing me rapidly to that explosive sensation that he was teaching me to crave.

I welcomed his body when he finally entered me, and the scent of the forest, the damp earth beneath me, everything faded away. I could focus on nothing but the fullness between my legs and how right something so wrong could feel.

When he was done with me, we transformed and I followed him back to his home.

After I officially joined the pack, I was given a measure of freedom, allowed to roam his lands so long as I was followed by my assigned guards. As a regular member of my former pack, I had never been assigned guards before. Maybe I would not have minded, except that I suspected they were as much to keep an eye on me as they were to keep me safe.

Otherwise, my days became routine. The prisoners stayed locked in the cells, but I convinced Alpha Gavriel to allow me to go down and speak to them since I might be able to convince them to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Escorted by my guards, the cells seemed eerily empty now that the majority of the survivors had been released.

It was little comfort, because the condition of the ones who were left horrified me. It was clear that Alpha Gavriel had no qualms about using torture in questioning and I felt like I would vomit at the condition of the people I saw, all males except for one female, and to my horror, a boy.

He was my former alpha's nephew, and he was only eleven. The fact he had been kept when they released the non-combatants made my stomach lurch with nausea.

At least he was not as beat-up as the adults, but he did have a clear black eye and a limp. I hurried to the bars of his cell. "Kain," I called his name, struggling to think of what to say. He was obviously suffering and there was nothing I could do in the moment to relieve it.

"Kylie? What are you doing down here?"

"I just came to talk to you."

"Is it true? Are you his mate?"

Cognizant of the nearby guards, I nodded. "I am. I officially joined this pack."

His expression was guarded. "Why are you down here again?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing."

His wariness had increased. "You're a part of their pack now."

"I am." I wished I could explain. "But I still care about you, too. Maybe if you speak to them..."

He shot me a look of contempt and I cringed with the guilt. I felt like a traitor, but there had not been anything else I could have done, had there? I was trying my best in spite of the terrible hand fate had dealt me.

I moved on to the next cages and I had little better luck. My former delta would not even talk to me, even though he had been kind in passing since he had been friends with my oldest brother. He had been severely beaten, but I was fairly sure his silence was not because he had been too injured to speak, but rather because he resented me for joining Stonemason. I recognized all the other remaining prisoners, but I didn't know them very well. I almost wished that more of the people I had known well had been amongst their number because then they would have at least been alive. If they were alive, there would still be some hope.

Even though these last members of my pack clearly despised me now as a traitor, I still wanted to see them free and I would do whatever I could to achieve that.