Page 11 of Cruel Alpha (Nightfire Islands Alphas #1)

The arrival of the A-Team was like a breath of fresh air. Sure, the name was kind of corny, but we’d been teenagers when we made it up, and none of us had the heart to stop using it. The five of them were like brothers to me, and finding their friendship in the year I’d left Lapine for my Heir’s Tour had felt like lifting a weight off my shoulders.

It had been lonely, growing up with no one but subordinates, no one who appreciated the weight of what being Alpha meant. It had been freeing to talk about those responsibilities with other Alpha Heirs, with guys who understood. We’d all been there for Xander when his father died just a couple of months after we met, and he became Alpha of Ensign. I’d told them all, shame-faced and regretful, about what had happened with Alyssa, and they’d helped me adjust to life as Alpha after my father passed, so when Leo had radioed the other four to let them know what had gone down on Arbor, they’d all been ready and willing to lend a hand however they could.

Noah hit me first—his wolf might have been the smallest, but he was the fastest motherfucker in the Nightfire archipelago—then Leo, then Jace, then Xander. Ethan declined to join the pile of fur that had me pinned to the floor of the hall, choosing instead to shift and glare down at the rest of us. He’d taken the responsibility of Alpha as seriously as a heart attack since day one, and I knew he looked down on Leo and Xander a little bit for mucking about with the two Heirs.

“Let him breathe, you mongrels,” said Ethan, giving Xander’s huge jet-black monstrosity a shove. Xander growled at him, but only for a moment before he rolled off the top of the pile and shifted back to his human form. The rest of the guys followed suit, and Jace held out a hand to pull me up off the floor. We jostled each other as we made our way up the stairs and into the gym above the main hall. Below, school was in session, and the various sounds of enthusiastic children drifted up through the boards.

“What the fuck, Man,” Xander said as the door swung shut behind us. “Leo says you’ve got kids now?”

“They’re not mine,” I clarified, and four faces winced. Leo only frowned—clearly, he’d had the wrong idea.

“Ouch,” said Jace.

“Yeah,” I agreed, not wanting to linger on the subject. “But they’re kids, and they’re Alyssa’s, and they’re in danger.”

“They’re magic, right? Like their mom?” Ethan asked, and I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Noah tense. Cunic Pack was old-fashioned, and I knew his father would rip him to shreds if he knew Noah was here. Arbor and Cunic were close allies, and he was risking the stability of that alliance in order to help me; I wouldn’t have blamed him for staying home, but here he was, and I was more grateful than I could say.

“Yeah, and Alyssa’s on her way down here right now, so everyone put your dicks away. There’s sweatpants and shirts on the table over there,” I said, gesturing to the pile of black and grey material heaped on one of the benches.

“What?” said Xander, as he pulled on the borrowed sweatpants, “afraid of being shown up? I like a girl with a bit of meat on her bones. If you’re not gonna make the most of it—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence because I was on him, a growl ripping itself from my throat as my fangs descended. Ethan’s arms were around my waist, pulling me back before I could sink my teeth into him, and I had to wrangle my wolf into submission.

“Don’t,” I snarled. Xander might have been one of my best friends, but for a moment, I wanted to rip out his throat. The thought of him—of any other man—touching Alyssa, even thinking about her that way, made my blood boil and my muscles tense.

In contrast, Xander was utterly calm. Noah had a hand on his shoulder, ready to pull him back if necessary, but Xander shrugged him off, smirking.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said. “Will we be allowed to look at her when she gets here, or what?”

I was saved from having to answer that question by a soft knock on the big doors. I shrugged Ethan off, composing myself.

“You all decent?” Alyssa’s voice echoed through the hall, and I called the affirmative before she pushed open the door, sheepish. “Julia said to check before I came in.”

Jace nodded sagely.

“She has seen and commented on all our dicks,” he said. “Keeps us humble.”

“I bet,” Alyssa agreed. Her small smile lit up her face, her cheeks glowing from the cold outside, the tip of her nose pink and adorable. She was swaddled in a pale blue sweater that was far too big for her, and I wanted to sweep her up in my arms and let my body lend her its warmth. Then I remembered the flat, distant look in her eyes when she’d said, it’s a little late for that, don’t you think? And suddenly, every inch of me was cold.

I cleared my throat.

“Thanks for coming,” I said, and she nodded, not looking me in the eye. I could feel my friends’ pity in the air, and I hated it. “Alyssa, this is Ethan, Jace, Noah, and Xander. You already know Leo, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Alyssa replied, giving Leo a little wave, which he returned. It dawned on me then what a terrible idea this had been. I should never have agreed to put Alyssa in a room with five other men who shared my rank. Even if my human mind knew that they were my friends, that none of them would ever—no matter what off-color jokes Xander made—treat my mate with anything but respect, the wolf within me bayed for their blood. They shouldn’t be within five feet of her. Leo definitely shouldn’t be unfolding a chair for her. I balled my fists so I wouldn’t snatch it from his hands to do it myself. I began to pace, trying to shake off the possessiveness that was clouding my mind. We were here to talk tactics, and that was all.

Once everyone else was seated, I came to a reluctant stop.

“Thank you all for being here. I wouldn’t call you all away from your own Packs if I didn’t think we weren’t under serious threat.” All the joking and the ease were gone from the room now, and everyone assembled listened with rapt attention. “Arbor has been made aware that any member of their Pack crossing the bridge will be treated as an act of aggression, but I think it’s only a matter of time before they make an attempt either on Lapine as a whole or a more targeted attack on Alyssa and her children.”

“Assholes,” grumbled Xander, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

“Assholes they may be,” I continued, “but they’re still our neighbors. I don’t want to fight them unless we have to. It’s gonna be hard enough to convince the rest of the Pack to accept Alyssa and the kids, and harder if we drag them into a conflict because of it.”

“I assume you’ve already talked to Slade?” Leo said. “Tried to smooth things over?”

“He came by the same day we got back,” I said. “I talked to him, but uh—I don’t know how smoothly it went.”

Leo nodded.

“So you made it worse, gotcha.” Normally, that would be a joke coming from Leo. He’d rib me for being all brawn and no brains, and I’d punch him in the arm, and that would be that. This time, though, there was something approaching venom in his tone. I didn’t have time to unpack that, though, and nor could I argue with his assessment of the situation. I’d been too angry to even pretend I respected Slade, and he’d taken that poorly.

“Sounds like you showed him who’s boss,” countered Xander. “The best defense is a good offense. Make sure they know that if they try to come for you, they’ll lose.”

“Not with a man like Slade,” argued Leo. “He’s weak, sure, but he’s arrogant, too. To him, a show of force is an invitation. It’s a dare, and he won’t back down from it.”

“What did he actually ask for when he showed up here?” Jace interjected.

“He wanted Alyssa and the kids handed over,” I told him. Jace frowned, thoughtful; it was a familiar look on him.

“And he’s got, uh—he’s got no right to ask for any of that?” Jace asked, his gaze flicking nervously between me and Alyssa. I knew what he was asking, and while Slade hadn’t brought up the issue when he came to Lapine, it was still possible that he did have rights to the twins; he just wasn’t smart enough to play that card.

“Say what you mean, Jace,” I said, crossing my arms and taking a deep breath, ready to face what was coming like an adult. Jace turned to Alyssa.

“Their father, he’s not Arbor?” he asked, and Alyssa tensed in her chair.

“No,” she said through gritted teeth. Now wasn’t the time to wonder who he could possibly be, if not an Arbor wolf, yet my mind was already spinning out in a hundred different directions, each one worse than the last. I needed to concentrate.

“Then he’s not going to get support from any other Pack,” Jace was saying. “No one was seriously injured, and there are very few islands that could stomach killing children, witches or not.”

“He’s been to Cunic already,” Noah offered, and my heart dropped into my stomach. “My father wouldn’t help, though. He said it was too little to start a war over. I imagine any other Packs will agree.”

That was a relief, if a small one. If Arbor couldn’t get help from Cunic, then they wouldn’t get it from anyone. Lapine tended to keep to ourselves, and as far as I was aware, there were no Packs out there with lingering resentments that Slade could exploit.

“So, what kind of threat could they pose independently?” Ethan asked. “They don’t have money, they don’t have human resources, they don’t have allies; they could try mounting an attack, but you’d have them beat in a second.”

“I don’t know if that’s true.” Her voice was small, quieter than the confident Alpha boom, but all heads turned to Alyssa, whose eyes widened beneath the sudden attention.

“Go on,” I said, as softly as I could. That was why she was here, after all. We all had an outsider’s view of Arbor, knew only as much as we needed to know about other islands in order to maintain inter-Pack relations. Alyssa, though—she’d lived on Arbor for almost three years. She may not have ever been one of them, but she was the closest we were ever going to get to a man on the inside.

Alyssa gathered herself, taking a deep breath before looking Ethan in the eye as she continued,

“You’re right; they don’t value human things as much as other Packs do, and they live simple lives, but that also means they’re closer to their wolves,” she explained. “Their hunters and trackers are—they’re crazy fast, and they’re not afraid of anything. I know you’ve got lookouts posted on the bridges, but if they wanted to get in, I wouldn’t guarantee they’ll come that way. If the element of surprise and the skill of their wolves is all they’ve got, then they’ll make the swim.”

For a moment, my chest buzzed with pride—my mate was smart, she’d be a good leader of our people when the time came—but then the implication of her words hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Why didn’t you tell me this?” I insisted. If there was a chance that Arbor wolves were going to infiltrate the island at a point other than the bridge, I should have known. I should have had precautions in place to make sure she was safe. She’d been walking around the edge of town on her own only a few days ago, and thinking about how easy she’d have been to pick off—I shuddered.

“I didn’t—the Pack already doesn’t want me here,” Alyssa said. “What’ll they say if you take men away from their homes to patrol every edge of the island for my sake?”

Her voice, usually so strong and so defiant, was edged with defeat, like she’d just accepted that she’d never be treated like a member of the Pack in the place she should call home. Rage coursed through me—at me, at my father, at everyone who’d ever belittled her for being who she was—but I forced it down, swallowing it as I knelt in front of her.

“They can say whatever they want,” I told her. “I’m the Alpha here, and they’ll do as I tell them. Nothing is more important than your safety.”

I didn’t even think about it when I took her cold little hands in my own, but she gasped as if she’d been electrocuted. The bond wanted me closer, but I shook off the urge. For a moment, our eyes met, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, she believed me.

“It’s a good tactic as well,” Ethan cut in, dispelling the strange tension in the room. “By cutting off their preferred point of entry, you’ll force them to come in over the bridge. If they come in over the bridge, you’ll have time to prepare to meet them.”

He was right. It was a solid strategy, even if the Pack wasn’t going to like it.

“I’ll let Liam know to round up as many decent runners and hunters as he can,” I confirmed. “They can patrol the perimeter in pairs until Arbor makes a decisive move.” I turned to Alyssa. “And you won’t be taking any more unaccompanied walks.”

Alyssa huffed and crossed her arms, but she made no argument, and something that had been restless inside me finally stilled. My friends were around me, and we had a plan. Arbor didn’t stand a chance.