Page 3 of Brutal Alpha Beast (Roseville Alphas #2)

“Isn’t their support by proxy for Sawyer enough?”

One of my guys asks me a very ignorant question in our morning council meeting, and admittedly, I understand why he asks it.

My good friend Sawyer, Alpha of one of the other packs in this valley, made an alliance with a hidden coven when a witch’s curse threatened to destroy the place.

I’m no more a fan of witches than the rest of my men are, but unlike them, I’m in charge of keeping our pack safe. I saw the witches’ strength the last time the valley was threatened, and they’re powerful as hell, almost too powerful. Who wouldn’t want a coven of powerful witches on their side?

Besides, another thing I learned from the whole everything we’ve ever known, almost getting destroyed experience, was that we can work together with the witches. It’s possible, and it’s likely the best option when it comes to the curse.

“No,” I say sternly, “We need to form our own alliance with them too. Without an alliance, they’re sworn to help Sawyer’s pack, not ours. Imagine if it were the other way round, would you want to help some random coven you didn’t know?”

That shuts him up.

Everyone looks around uncomfortably, murmuring, shuffling, and avoiding my gaze.

I get it; the idea of allying with witches makes everyone feel insecure and on edge. I think the same, but with the possibility that we face more problems because of this old witch’s curse looming over our heads, I’m not taking any chances.

“Anyway,” I continue, “I’m informing you all as an update, not a request for permission. I’ve already set the meeting with their coven leader, Penelope, today.”

My council looks sheepish, and I notice a few of them swallowing as though they have bitter tastes in their mouths.

I crack a smile. “So, boys, who wants to come with me?”

***

Penelope is there waiting for me at the border of the witches’ village. She’s exactly how I remembered, although she looks a little healthier since the last time I saw her—there haven’t been any curse-possessed witches trying to destroy us all as of late, at least not any I’ve heard of.

She’s draped in a pink silk covering that shimmers beneath the sunlight, and her gray locks flow loosely past her shoulders. While she looks healthier and relaxed, she doesn’t exactly look overjoyed to see me.

There’s some trust there, but not enough yet.

“Ellis,” she says. “You came.”

I got Sawyer to organize this meeting for us.

He’s a lot tighter with the coven leader than I am, given that they fought off curse-born shadow demons together.

I can’t say I fully understand the monsters we’re up against, but I know better than to be unprepared or to believe that they’ve simply just ‘gone away.’

“Of course,” I smile. “Thank you for hosting me, Penelope. It’s a pleasure to be in your coven.”

She smiles back briefly, before evening her expression. “I’m sure it is,” she says. “Shall we go somewhere a little more private?”

Looking around, I see an array of witches, some young, some old, all watching me with the same expression as they busy themselves with other tasks.

Although some are cleaning up, walking with their children, or holding their phones, they all stare at me, openly, with a mixture of distrust and disdain.

They do nothing to hide it, like my men did nothing to hide their reluctance toward this alliance in our council meeting. I understand it completely. Who would want some random, foreign Alpha male waltzing into their village and disrupting their pleasant Sunday morning?

I nod. “Please, lead the way.”

I follow Penelope promptly as she guides me away from their headquarters and toward a small, shrouded area on the outskirts of their town. The area is home to a couple of conjoined cottages and a tall rock altar with scattered red roses at its base.

The altar is also surrounded by a ring of large, jagged rocks. I eye them carefully, trying to figure out what it means.

The place is so witchy , and although Penelope weaves around the curious structure, I can’t help but feel like I’m a sacrificial lamb being led to its slaughter.

It’s quiet here, far away from all the village’s noise. If Penelope wanted to sacrifice me, it would be the perfect spot.

I shake off the thoughts.

“What are the rocks for?” I ask her.

She sighs, then shoots me a suspicious smile. “Not afraid, are you, Alpha?”

I chuckle and cross my arms. “Should I be?”

I like Penelope; if she weren’t a witch, I’d like her more. A good leader recognizes when they’re in the presence of another good leader, regardless of who and what they are.

She shakes her head and leads me inside one of the cottages. The scent of incense is what hits me first, and the place is cozy, filled with cushions, tapestries painted with imagery that I’m sure means something to the witches, but nothing to me.

I appreciate the way it looks, even if the representation of magic puts me a little on edge.

The cottage is also covered with trinkets, crystals, little altars—I wonder whether she’s testing me.

Whether she wants to see how I’ll react to all the witchy stuff, as though that’ll tell her whether I actually come in peace.

But isn’t there some spell for that? Maybe not.

I recognize what she’s doing because I’ve done it before. If there’s someone I distrust, I invite them closer into my sphere and observe how they react. Micro expressions say it all.

But Penelope isn’t looking at me too intently.

She sits down on one of the cushions and invites me to sit opposite. “Please,” she says. “Get comfortable.”

Slowly, I sit. I remind myself why I’m here, and like a good negotiator, I wait for Penelope to speak first.

“So,” she says. “I understand from Sawyer that you would like to ally with our coven.”

“That’s right,” I say. “Your coven is powerful, and so is my pack. It would benefit us both.”

She nods. “Lacey, Sawyer’s wife, is very dear to us—and Sawyer proved himself when he saved my life, when he helped save us all. He proved himself through the way he treats Lacey. We trust Sawyer and Lacey very much.”

I feel a spike of guilt about the way I used to treat Lacey. As a wolf who couldn’t shift, and a previous outcast in Sawyer’s pack, we were harsh to her, cold. I’ve behaved in ways I wasn’t proud of, but I’ve grown since then.

Lacey ran away from the pack to the witch’s coven, but has since come back, and is now happily married to Sawyer, looking after their child.

I know that I need to prove myself like Sawyer has, and I’m smart enough to read between the lines to understand what she’s trying to say. Just because I’m linked to Sawyer doesn’t mean she trusts me yet.

“Tell me, your... Highest...”

She chuckles. “We’re not exactly like you wolves with your emphasis on hierarchical structures. You may call me Penelope.”

“Penelope,” I say. “I know that it will take time for our mutual trust to grow, but I promise you, we have the best intentions. We want to make sure that nothing like what happened recently with ol’ Willow ever happens again.”

I look at her earnestly, fixing my gaze on her face, staying as still as stone, although I’m not exactly comfortable on the small silk pillow.

I’m too big, I feel like a giant in this small cottage, and if I had it my way, we’d be standing—but this is about meeting the witches on their level. It’s not about me.

I think back to the craziness that came before.

A witch named Willow, scorned by her shifter lover, placed a curse on the land.

She’d been defeated once before, confined to the structure of the tree, but that wasn’t enough.

When the tree started to burn, she possessed a witch in their pack.

She would have escaped the tree if Sawyer and Lacey hadn’t managed to somehow channel enough magic to create a flood of water that turned everything to ash.

The channeling was a testament to their love, apparently. So the phrase went “When the willow is afire, wash it down with your desire.”

Everyone thought she was gone once before. Who’s to say she’s actually gone now? I only hope that Penelope views the situation with the same caution that I do.

“Has there been something to lead you to believe that it will happen again?”

“No physical evidence yet,” I say. “But I believe in being prepared, and I’ve seen how formidable your people can be. How formidable you are. Do you feel the same about us?”

She smiles a little. “Are you fishing for a compliment, Alpha?”

I grin. “Are you in the mood for giving one?”

She raises an eyebrow. “You Alphas and your arrogance. Look, I’m not going to waste your time.

I see you come in peace and that your intentions are pure, but honestly, Ellis, our coven allying with Sawyer’s pack has been as challenging as it is.

Our people don’t trust one another, and I don’t think we’re ready yet to introduce a whole new pack of wolves to the mix. I’m sorry, but perhaps in the future.”

She goes to get up, but I’m not done. “Wait,” I tell her. “You don’t trust us, I get it, I do, but we’ve come together before. I stood by your and your witches’ side in the face of the curse. Do you think it's totally out of the question that we come together again?”

She purses her lips. “Not out of the question per se, but an alliance is a big deal—it’s not just a formality, Ellis, it is an official linking of two tribes.

It comes with responsibilities, expectations.

It’ll take time to get to the place you want it to be at, and right now, I fear it’ll be at the risk of breaking before it has even been given a chance to begin. ”

I’d hoped that Penelope was going to be a little more amenable than she was, but all the points she’s making are valid.

Luckily, these are all points I’ve considered before—because honestly, I don’t trust my men not to fuck this up too. I’m well aware that any slight disagreement, a snide comment, or a misunderstanding at an allied event could ruin months of progress in a second.

That’s why I’m prepared with a solution that’ll demand mutual trust.

It’s unconventional. It’s not something I want to do—I trust Penelope’s tribe just as little as they trust us, but I’m willing to put that aside for the greater good.

I have a vision of what we can be.

“I understand, Penelope,” I say. “I understand completely, and that’s why I’d like to propose a marriage.

Between one of ours and one of yours. I recognize that it’s brash, but this sort of unionship is comparable to what Lacey and Sawyer have, and that seems to work fairly well as far as alliances are concerned. ”

For the first time, I detect a hint of surprise across her face. Her eyebrows twitch a little, her eyes widen. I’m sure Penelope’s seen a lot of things in her lifetime, and a shifter Alpha suggesting a witch-wolf arranged marriage may very well be a first.

“Ellis, the situation with Lacey and Sawyer is very different.”

“I know that,” I say, tensing my jaw as I concentrate on finding the right words. “But think about it, how else can we ensure a functioning alliance when there’s an inevitable misunderstanding, or slip-up. This is the only way.”

Penelope squints her eyes and nods as though she’s trying to envision how a witch and wolf marriage might look.

How would the ceremony work? We’d figure it out.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about, Ellis,” she says. “I’m not saying no. Let’s meet again.”

As I bid Penelope farewell and finally get my ass up from that uncomfortable cushion, I turn before leaving the cottage. “I’ll tell you the truth, that rock altar thing outside scares me, as does all the witchy stuff you’ve got going on in here. But I still came, didn’t I?”

The corners of her mouth upturn into a subtle smile. “Yes, Ellis,” she says. “So you did.”

***

I met up with Penelope several times after that initial meeting, and as expected, she made me work for it.

She wasn’t going to give in easily, and all I could do was respect her for that.

But finally, after our last meeting, she agreed. “Come back again tomorrow,” she said, “I’ll have my coven around this time, too, and we’ll go over the details of how this is going to work.”

As I enter the coven’s meeting spot, I notice that the flowers on the creepy-ass altar are pink instead of red. There are witches hanging around, talking, eating, and drinking. They look at me with the same distrustful glances, although they seem somewhat more open.

Penelope greets me, “I want them to get used to you here,” she explains.

“Perfect,” I tell her, unsure what to do with my hands or where to look.

“Give me just a moment,” she says. “Then we’ll go over everything we need to.”

I nod.

As I look around at all the witches, I consider going to talk to some of them, when suddenly I feel a force that draws my gaze to the far left.

That woman. That witch . The one I’d met before when helping them save the valley, the one who lived with Lacey at the coven- Danielle .

She’s chatting idly with some of her fellow coven mates, her curly hair bouncing gently past her shoulders, and her curves protruding subtly beneath her tight green dress.

She’s beautiful, and although it’s hard for me to admit, I’ve seen her using her magic firsthand. She’s powerful. Strong.

The combination of beauty and strength would be intriguing to anyone, but there’s something more—an actual pull. I feel my heart beating, as though the rest of the world is fading out.

Why do I want to talk to her?

Just as I’m about to go over, she slinks off through the trees, bidding her friends goodbye.

I let out a breath, realizing my whole body has turned ridiculously tense. Is that sweat I feel dripping down my forehead?

With her gone, I shake it off. It must have just been the energy of all these witches floating around, I tell myself.

But that, along with this new alliance, is something I’m going to have to get used to.

I’m going to have to be around these creatures a lot.