Saved By The Alpha
Chapter 1

“Do I look like a fool? Some weakling? You disrespected my mate last night, Eli. It’s like all this international travel has turned you into a spoiled little brat.”

My skin pickled, and my wolf bristled. I could feel his hackles rise as he pressed against the surface again. It was all I could do not to let him jump forward — and Brock was making it harder and harder to remember why I wasn’t just letting him take control so that he could end this intolerable situation once and for all.

I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t. If Uncle Gage had invited Brock to become a council member because he was going to support him, then the last thing I needed to do was lose control right in front of him, my stepfather. Then again, that was entirely too strong a word for what the man was. There was nothing paternal about him. He was just my mother’s shitty mate.

But it didn’t matter how I saw him. All Brock cared about was what he saw and, to a lesser extent, what my mother saw in him. If he really was working with my uncle, then they’d point to my shifting now as a sign of weakness. “Nic can’t teach his son right,” they’d say, or “See, this one is so unstable, that’s why he’s got Remus,” or “It’s a sign of weak lineage,” even though Gage and Nic themselves were full brothers.

Anything they could use to undermine my father, they’d use it — even if that meant using me. Whatever excuse they could replace, they’d replace it. That was just the kind of snake Brock was, and if Gage was associating with Brock, well, then I wouldn’t be able to trust my uncle as far as I could throw him. I always knew he’d been hard on Myles and Gordon, but —

“Do you hear me, Eli?”

Ancestors, is he still talking? My eyes flashed, and I peeled back my upper l!p in a snarl.

“Yes, I hear you,” I growled. I knew that was dangerous, but…I simply didn’t care. Brock was an a*ssh0le, but compared to the Raven Brothers or that Dr. Brenner, who Iris and Agent Foxrun had told us about, he was just a run-of-the-mill d!ck. He might have been the monster that haunted my nightmares as a little boy, but I wasn’t a child anymore — I’d met real monsters now.

You aren’t shit, Brock.

I took a deep breath and dug up every ounce of outrage and aggravation currently festering in my wolf’s body. “I just do not give a f**k about what you think I did or didn’t say to my mother last night. I have bigger problems right now.”

Brock’s expression pinched. The flash of bewilderment across his face was one of the most satisfying things I’d seen in ages. “Excuse me?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe I would ever replace my spine and finally tell him off.

That thought just stoked the flames of rage higher and higher. I tensed and felt the trickle of red at the edges of my vision. “You heard me,” I snarled. “I don’t answer to you or Viola. I don’t care what you want and what you think I did or didn’t do. You’ve made up some delusion anyway.”

A low growl rumbled from the older man’s chest. He stood up a little straighter. I could sense his wolf pressing closer to the surface too. It was the same sort of tension you might notice between two dogs snapping at the edges of the leashes. Barely restrained. One false move, and…

“You will not disrespect me or my mate like that.”

I rolled my eyes. “You keep saying that,” I retorted, “and yet here I am.” It was like I’d totally lost control of my mouth. I was an entirely different person — and I didn’t care. On some level, it felt good. I knew this was dangerous — I knew Brock would be righteously pissed, and I had plenty of experience of what happened when Brock hit that level of anger — but I couldn’t stop myself.

It was as if I had been waiting to do this since the very moment I’d met Brock Beckett. All the pressure was finally beginning to release, but now that I’d popped the valve and started the process, I felt like I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop.

“You aren’t a pack alpha, boy,” Brock sneered, taking a menacing step toward me. He probably meant it to be, at least. All I could see was a man scrambling for control of a situation that he never held in the first place. “You aren’t shit. You’re just a sad boy with a sad father, and the only reason I put up with you is because Viola asked me so nicely all those years ago.”

I snorted, baring my teeth. “You aren’t shit, either,” I snapped back. “Just a sad man who makes himself feel big by pushing around those smaller than him. You better enjoy your time on the council while you can, you shifty little weasel. I won’t stand for bullies or liars on my council when my father transfers leadership of the Longbow Pack to me.”

I should have stopped there. I knew I should have — I could feel it in the air. It was as if I was standing next to myself, watching the entire situation unfold in slow motion as I braced my shoulders and told this a*ssh0le off. “You aren’t just going to be kicked off the council,” I rambled on. Even my better senses were starting to raise the alarm.

Eli, stop it! My best senses screamed at the rest of me.

But I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. I’d ripped this floodgate wide open, and there was no putting the river back now that the dam had been broken. “I’m going to banish you from the f*****g pack, you monster.” Red began to spill into my vision again.

Brock roared and lunged forward with two massive steps, closing the distance between us in the time it took me to blink. Before I could inhale or fully summon up my alpha powers, he had his fingers around my neck. He threw me back against the wall, my skull hitting the thick oak with a heavy thud. I briefly felt dizzy from the impact, and some part of me insisted I should be terrified — but I wasn’t. Even if I wanted to be, I couldn’t conjure up that sensation. I felt a void, even as the man squeezed his fingers and pressed his face merely inches from mine, baring his teeth. He was only moments away from shifting to his wolf form. I could sense it.

My own beast snarled back.

“You don’t get to threaten me, boy,” he hissed.

Little drops of spittle coated my face.

“You don’t own me, Brock.” I clenched my fingers into fists and grinned at him, wearing my wolf’s smile. “F**k off and eat glass.”

Everything sped up after that.

I was no longer watching the scene but had returned to my own body in an instant, suddenly acutely aware of the fingers tightening around my neck. In the past, when I was small, and my powers hadn’t come in fully, I had feared that one day Brock might kill me in his senseless rage — or, if not, leave me so badly injured that there’d be no chance of recovery.

Now, the first time he actually attempted it — I wasn’t scared at all. My heart was racing as adrenaline surged through my veins, but…it wasn’t cold, paralyzing fear. I didn’t know what it was, but I wasn’t going to stand listlessly against the door in my own home while this man tried to choke me out.

Everything moved all at once. I surged forward, my hands grabbing at his forearms to push the pressure off my trachea. The red flooded back, and I stopped resisting it, offering up a savage snarl as I blinked, allowing my alpha power to come forward. Brock all but roared in response, shifting his position as he tried to shift his weight forward and back onto my throat. If he kept choking me, I wouldn’t be able to speak — and if I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t command him.

I’d almost call it clever if I thought he’d been capable of planning that far ahead.

I shifted my stance again, digging my nails into his arms as I used the door behind me to gain more leverage, kicking back against it and shoving myself forward. I wasn’t a particularly massive werewolf, but neither was Brock, and I startled him just enough to force him a step or two backward. The grip on my neck faltered, and I didn’t waste a second.

“Release me,” I growled, my voice sounding hoarse even to my own ears.

Brock faltered again, his fingers twitching over my skin. The pressure released even more, but he didn’t relinquish me entirely. The red in my vision became more intense, and I could only imagine how haunting my eyes must have looked. “Brock Beckett,” I said again, channeling the memory of my father. He was the most powerful alpha I knew, managing to take up space and command attention without ever raising his voice. “You will let me go. Now.”

This time, the man didn’t falter at all. He let go of me at once as if the mere feeling of my skin against his fingertips burned him. Brock moved as if he was possessed, stilted and awkward, taking several steps away once he’d left me standing on my feet. I raised a hand and rubbed at my throat, grimacing slightly — I felt as if I’d swallowed glass myself or gargled with gravel.

I took a few steps toward the man, but before I could say anything else, the door practically flew open behind me. Myles burst in, looking a little breathless and frazzled, as he looked from me to Brock and back again. I blinked, some of the red starting to fade from my eyes. I had no desire to cast my alpha power over my cousin.

“What the hell is going on here?” he asked. A look of utter shock washed over him momentarily, then a dark scowl settled over his face seconds after. Myles had always known how much I disliked my mother’s mate — but he’d never known why. I’d certainly never told him what happened at their house, and if he had a guess, he never asked me about it. To his credit, he never questioned when I stopped going over there when I was sixteen, either. He’d just accepted that I didn’t want to and didn’t try to convince me otherwise.

“Nothing,” Brock spit, seeming to come back to himself. For once, I didn’t feel the need to argue with him. “I just wanted to have a private word with Eli, that’s all.”

I snorted, but I didn’t try to stop him as he began to move toward the door, giving me a wide berth. Wider than he ever had before, probably. I tried to keep the smug smile off my face — but I didn’t try that hard.

Myles shot me a questioning look, and I gave a small shake of my head. I knew my future beta would stop the man if I wanted him to, but I didn’t want to continue this conversation any longer. I’d made my point. Brock could go and poison someone else’s air. If I were really lucky, he might leave the estate altogether.

Myles shut the door as soon as Brock disappeared into the hall. He folded his arms and turned back to me, brows bouncing upwards. “Okay,” he said, walking toward me. “What the hell? I swore I heard a commotion from all the way downstairs.”

I raised one eyebrow, halfway mirroring his expression. “Nothing happened, Myles.” I didn’t really like lying to my cousin, but…I didn’t want to talk about it at all. Even if I had largely prevailed with Brock, it would surely raise questions about what had happened with us before, and that wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have right now.

Unfortunately, it seemed Myles was not picking up on that at all. He snorted, clearly not believing a word. “Uh-huh.” He shook his head. “There was still a bit of red in your irises when I walked in, mate. So unless you want me to believe you’ve suddenly become the sort of a*ssh0le who just casts his alpha on his packmates for no reason…”

I growled and rolled my eyes. “Maybe you were just seeing things,” I muttered under my breath.

Myles growled back. “Are you seriously going to treat me like an idiot right now, Eli?”

Damn it.

I sighed and shook my head. “Fine,” I huffed, folding my arms over my chest as I looked away. “Brock followed me up here to yell at me for ‘disrespecting his mate’ last night.” I couldn’t even say it without rolling my eyes. “It’s always ‘his mate’ and never ‘my mother’, you know. He’s f*****g gross.”

My cousin snorted. “Well, everyone knows that,” he replied. “But that’s just Brock’s standard crap behavior. That seemed like a little more than a standard reaction.” His eyes narrowed a little. “Also, you sound like shit, man, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t catch a cold in the past few minutes.”

He knows me too well. Normally I’d appreciate that, but…

“He put his hands on me,” I said simply, not wanting to go into any more detail than that.

Apparently, Myles could put the rest together. He narrowed his eyes and growled. I could see his jaw tense, even from here. “That absolute bastard,” he hissed. “Who the f**k does that? And to someone who’s supposed to be a member of his family, no less?”

The idea of Brock as my family was physically revolting. I must have made some sort of face because my cousin’s expression changed. The disgust turned into concern, and that became something much, much deeper. “Eli,” he said, his tone taking on a much more serious note, “that wasn’t the first time, was it?”

When I didn’t answer quickly enough, his expression morphed again. “Shit. Holy shit. It wasn’t, was it?”

This time, I shook my head.

Myles looked physically pained. “What the f**k. What the f**k,” he said, clearly struggling to take in this revelation. “That’s so messed up. I didn’t even know. I just thought he was a jerk. What the f**k. I’m so sorry, Eli, I didn’t—”

I shook my head, trying not to wince. Myles’ pity, or sympathy, or whatever this was— it was too much. I didn’t want it, and I didn’t think I could handle it right now, even though I appreciated where my cousin was coming from.

“It’s not your fault,” I said blandly. And it wasn’t.

“Well, no,” he replied, still looking rather horrified, “but if I had figured it out…”

I shook my head again, holding up a hand to stop him. “I was a kid. You were a kid too, Myles. There was no reason for you to think that, and no way for you to have changed it either, so just…don’t. Please.”

He paused, looking like he wanted to argue — but after a moment, he simply nodded. “Okay,” he said, a bit quieter. “Did anyone know?”

“Maverick did,” I sighed, not quite able to look Myles in the eye. I didn’t want to explain why I had told my friend and not my future beta. “He figured it out. The shit with his family, you know…”

“Right,” Myles said, staring down at his feet. “Of course.” He looked up a moment later. “Not even your dad?”

I snorted, some of the irritation returning to me. “No. He never asked.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” I snapped, finally looking at my cousin. “Why the hell would I lie about something like that?”

Myles held his hands up in surrender. “I just — I can’t believe he wouldn’t do something about it if you’d told him. That’s all.”

“Well, I didn’t,” I grumbled. I didn’t want to snap at the other wolf, but he was making it difficult with all the questions. “And he didn’t ask, either.”

“If you didn’t tell him, Eli, it would have been hard for—”

“Do not,” I snapped, whirling on my cousin. I held a finger up to silence him. “It’s done, Myles. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” I paused. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone — especially my father.”

My cousin looked pained for a moment, and I found myself wondering if I should ask for a b***d pact instead. I could not cope with these questions coming from my dad, especially in the midst of all of this. Maybe one day…but definitely not right now. When he hesitated, I frowned. “You need to promise me, Myles. We all have bigger issues right now. I can deal with Brock later.”

He’ll always be there,I added grimly to myself.

After a moment, Myles’ shoulders dropped, and he nodded. “All right,” he agreed, even though I could tell he didn’t want to. “I promise.”