Page 20 of Cruel Alpha Beast (Roseville Alphas #1)

My father-in-law, Lucas, doesn’t live too far down the road from us, but the walk to his house feels like it’s going to take a million years.

Shea grips onto my hand tightly, half-running to keep up with me as she drags her suitcase along. “But Mommy, I thought we were having a girls' day.”

She’s said this to me a hundred times since I got off the phone with her father several minutes ago. She said it while I got her dressed. She said it while I crammed her feet into her sneakers. And she said it as we passed every other house on this street.

“I know, baby,” I reply for the hundredth time. “But Daddy needs Mommy right now.”

“But why aren’t we having a girls' day?” she asks.

“I just told you, my love,” I say through gritted teeth. “And now you get to spend some quality time with your grandpa. Isn’t that exciting?”

“I have a grandpa?” she asks, breaking my heart.

“You sure do,” I say, unsure how else to respond.

It feels weird coming to Lucas’s house, and that’s not even considering the fact that I have to introduce him to a granddaughter he didn’t even know he had.

Lucas was a good pack leader, according to everyone else who lived in his care.

I remember Penelope speaking very highly about him when I told her about my experience in this town.

He even saved my life once, when I fell off the dock while having a vision of what turned out to be Greg and me mourning our parents’ impending death.

But he also turned a blind eye to me and the bullying I received on a daily—no, hourly —basis. He knew his son and his son’s friends were horrible to me when Greg wasn’t looking. He knew I was shunned for my “eccentricities,” and he further excluded me.

And when I left the pack, he didn’t even care to send anyone else to look for me. Good riddance, I’m sure he felt.

I wonder if he’ll do the same to Shea when he learns the truth, that the mother of his grandchild is the “freakshow” shiftless wolf his son tormented.

Finally, I approach the perfectly polished front steps that lead to Lucas’s door.

Taking a deep breath, I pull Shea along with me and lift a fist to knock on the hardwood.

It takes a moment, but then Lucas finally opens the door.

He stares down his nose at the two of us, unsure of what to make of this situation.

“Is Sawyer alright?” he asks immediately.

“Yes,” I tell him in a clipped voice. “Um, sir, I need to tell you something.”

He doesn’t invite us in; he just stands there in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “Go on, Lacey.”

I think that’s the first time he’s said my name in years.

“Well, Sawyer actually needs me for…” I trail off, hoping he’ll figure out it’s for something important.

“And you need me to babysit your daughter?” Lucas scoffs at me. “Listen, I know you finally got my son to marry you after all—”

“She’s not just my daughter,” I cut him off.

I want to tell him that I didn’t get Sawyer to do anything—quite the opposite, actually—but there are more important things to say right now.

“Sir, my daughter, Shea,” I start, looking down at the sweet little girl I would lay my life down for, “is your granddaughter.”

Right before my eyes, Lucas’s look of annoyance softens into one of complete shock. “Sorry, what did you say?”

I lean over and pick Shea up, resting her on my hip. “Lucas, meet your grandchild.”

Shea holds tight to me, feeling shy in the face of this new stranger. I give her an encouraging smile, and she finally looks at Lucas.

The older man’s eyebrows drift further up his forehead, his mouth slowly hanging open. Tears brim in his eyes as he recognizes just how familiar Shea is to him. He leans forward, giving her a friendly smile as soon as his initial surprise starts to wear off.

“Hi, Shea,” Lucas says in a kind voice.

“Hi,” she echoes back to him.

“I’m your grandfather,” he says, as if he’s trying to get used to a new word.

I set Shea back on the ground and crouched down before her. “Okay, sweetheart, I need you to show me how brave you are.”

Shea immediately puts her fists on her hips, like a superhero, and puffs out her chest.

“Perfect,” I tell her. “I want you to be brave and play with Grandpa today while Mommy and Daddy are out…doing errands.”

Shea looks at Lucas, a little less afraid of him now.

“I promise he’s very nice,” I say, although that wasn’t my experience, necessarily. “And he’s going to take very good care of you, okay?”

“Okay,” she warbles back.

“I’ll come to pick you up as soon as I can, okay?”

Shea nods.

“I bet you’re going to have so much fun. You’re not even going to want me to bring you home,” I challenge her.

“I don’t have any T-O-Y-S,” Lucas says under his breath.

“That’s alright,” I assure him. “She loves to be read to, and she loves coloring. Trust me, once she warms up to you a little more, she’ll be entertaining you .”

Lucas nods his head.

“Okay, sweetie, Mommy loves you,” I tell Shea, giving her the biggest hug of my life.

“Shea loves you, Mommy,” she replies.

“You be good for Grandpa,” I tell her.

“I will!” she chirps.

I stand up and gently coax her through the doorway, then I go to turn around, but before I can do that, Lucas puts his hand on my shoulder. I look him in the face, not expecting him to look quite as emotional as he does.

It’s like his eyes are saying he’s sorry.

I nod back to him, his half-hearted apology half-heartedly accepted, and then I hurry toward the outskirts of town.

***

When I reach the lakeside, Danielle and Monroe are whispering to each other while Sawyer, Jasper, and Ellis do the same. Greg, in the meantime, is sitting on the ground, staring out at the water.

“There she is,” Sawyer says as I approach the cluster of cat-o’-nine-tails poking up from the water.

The smile on his face feels inappropriate for the situation, but so does the fluttering in my stomach when I see him in all of his handsome glory. I have such a crush on my husband; it’s unreal.

I squeeze his hand as I walk past him, giving him a smile, then I throw my arms around both Monroe and Danielle, feeling them shake against me. When they finally let go, I sat down next to Greg on the grass.

“Okay, so what happened?” I ask.

Monroe heaves a sigh. “What didn’t happen?”

“After Violet left us in the forest yesterday,” Danielle starts, “she went out somewhere in the wilderness and… Well, she hurt herself, like I told you she would.”

“She came back into the village and, of course, what you’d hope would happen if you’re covered in bruises like that, happened,” Monroe cuts in. “ Everyone was concerned, and you could see on her face that she was really loving it.”

“This bitch —” Danielle throws the last word out toward the trees in case she’s out there, listening.

“—starts doing what she threatened she would. She tells everyone that one of the alphas from the valley saw her innocently picking flowers in the forest and accused her of making some sort of anti-wolf potion to get rid of you guys.”

Monroe rolls her eyes. “She said that your husband attacked her unprovoked. But then she said that Dani and I walked in on it—you, too, of course. She even said that you told your husband to attack her because you’re a traitor .”

“I’m getting sick of her using that word to describe me,” I sigh.

“Tell me about it,” Danielle grumbles. “While everyone’s fawning all over her, making sure she’s okay, she starts really smearing all of our names, trying to turn everyone against us. And it was working. I mean, I don’t think they all fell for it, but enough were convinced.”

“We kept hearing footsteps outside of our house all night,” Monroe says, shivering. “Whispers outside of our windows, too. We spent all night in fear that someone would hurt us for covering for one wolf.”

I see Sawyer looking down at the ground from the corner of my eye. I can tell he feels terrible for making me bring him, but how could we have expected our visit to have such a catastrophic outcome?

Monroe notices his response, as well. She steps forward and looks at Sawyer. “We don’t blame you for this.”

“No, this is one hundred percent on that absolute lunatic,” Danielle adds. “I mean, I stand by what I said to you, Lacey—bringing him into the coven was a risky move—but at its worst, it shouldn’t have ended like this.”

“Anyway, after the human footsteps left,” Monroe continues, “we heard something… inhuman , pacing around outside. It sounded like an animal, but not like anything we’ve heard out here before.”

Sawyer’s eyebrows perk up at this. “Did you see it?”

“It was staring at me through the window.” Monroe shakes her head, her eyes closed shut at the memory. “It was like it was made out of smoke, but it was so fearsome . It had sharper fangs than you guys in your wolf forms. And it walked on all fours.”

“Not quite a wolf, not quite a bear, either?” Sawyer asks.

Monroe’s eyes widen, and she nods fervently. “That’s exactly what it was like!”

“Before it could do anything, Penelope came out of nowhere and shot her radiant light at the thing, and it practically imploded,” Danielle says. “Apparently, there were a bunch more around, and she was able to take care of them all.”

“She was so tired, so weak,” Monroe mutters. “She had to lie down before she could answer us.”

“Your Penelope is one formidable witch,” Sawyer says, looking genuinely impressed with the older lady. “I’m glad she’s getting rest. She fucking needed it, last I saw her.”

“I hope she feels better soon. We need her more than ever, now.” Tears leak from Monroe’s eyes. “Still, she was able to give us some literature before she fell asleep. She said there might be some vital information inside of these that will help.”

Just then, she crouches down by the backpack and unzips it, pulling out three large tomes, one at a time, handing one to me, another to Danielle, keeping the third to herself.

I look up at Sawyer and offer him a hopeful smile. “We’ll keep doing some research, while you guys figure out a game plan?”

Sawyer turns to look at Jasper, Ellis, and then back around to find Greg at my side. “Yeah, you can count on us. We’ll figure something out.”

***

The walk home is heavier, both emotionally and physically, now that I’m carrying this large book. As much as Jasper and Ellis wanted to shift and run back to our house, they decided to use their human legs with the rest of us, but didn’t complain as much as I thought they would.

Probably because they have the future on their minds as much as the rest of us do.

As soon as we open the door to the kitchen, Sawyer grabs my arm and murmurs in my ear. “Can I speak to you in private?”

I follow him upstairs while the others make themselves at home in our kitchen. Sawyer leads me to our bedroom and shuts the door behind him. He looks upset, so I reach for his hand.

“I’m not the kind of guy who second-guesses himself a lot,” he says. “But there’s a part of me that’s scared I’ll fail you and Shea.”

I lean down and kiss one of his fingertips. “Well, I have nothing but faith in you.”

Before he can tear himself down, I step on my toes and pull him into a kiss—one that leaves me breathless and lightheaded. One that builds in intensity, and next thing I know, my veins are on fire, and Sawyer’s hand is up the skirt of my sundress.

He pulls away from my lips, seeking refuge in the curve of my neck while I grab for the zipper on his jeans and, soon after, spring his cock free from the confines of his boxers.

I sit down on my knees and take him in my mouth so softly, so smoothly, that I hear him hiss my name through his teeth more than once.

I’m so wet at this point that I can hardly focus on anything other than him entering me. I release him from my mouth before he erupts and find the bed right behind me. I lie on my back, my legs spread as wide as they can, and thankfully, Sawyer is in no mood to tease me this time.

He lines his hips up with mine, slowly sinking deeper and deeper inside of me. His eyes staring into mine, he rolls his hips ever so rhythmically. I stick a knuckle between my teeth, doing my best to keep my moans quiet while we have the alphas and Greg downstairs.

But as Sawyer reaches a thumb down to circle my most tender spot, I find it harder and harder to keep myself quiet. It feels wrong to hold back, especially when this is the first time Sawyer and I have ever made proper love.

Eventually, like a great wave, my pleasure crests throughout my body, crashing down on every nerve ending. I don’t even know how loud my cries are, nor do I really care.

All I care about is showing Sawyer just how I feel with my body.