Page 6 of Fated to the Alpha Warrior (The Wolf’s Forbidden Mate #1)

Although I can’t see what the strange shifter sees, I can easily imagine it in my mind’s eyes.

My wolf is huge, even for a future alpha, with thick shaggy fur and ice blue eyes.

My coat is a burnished bronze color, each hair a dark reddish-brown from the base up until the tip, which are all black.

My paws are huge, tipped in thick black claws, and the black of my muzzle emphasizes the white of my fangs, which I show quite liberally as I stalk toward him.

Almost as soon as he next inhales, he smells my scent.

The wolf inside him whimpers and cowers, then flips over to show his belly.

I’ll give this shifter this much, though: I can sense and smell his strength.

He’s not some juvenile wolf, or a low-status pack member.

This wolf is someone important—someone strong and fierce.

And he smells like fear and terror and madness.

It hurts to see a powerful shifter brought so low. I approach him, the Pack Jade warrior wolf stepping aside and lowering his head submissively to me. My wolf and I sense the turmoil of the wolf inside him, and together we calm him down, letting him know that we have it from here.

I watch as his dilated pupils constrict and his clenched muscles relax. Slowly, the two warriors holding him tight are able to loosen their grips without him escaping. He takes in deep breaths through his nose, exhaling through clenched lips.

As he relaxes, I take him in. He has a muscular build, pale skin that has been tanned liberally by the sun, complete with tan lines, and dark amber eyes that contrast with sun-bleached light brown hair. Under the fear, blood, and everything else, he smells like citrus and smoke.

Over the other scents, my nose picks up the distinct whiff of fae magic.

Unease pricks through me. Nodding sharply to the warriors holding him, I make room for the third warrior, the wolf, then shift back to my human form. Standing naked before the visitor, I stare down at his kneeled form and quietly tell him, “Pack first. Then your story.”

“Amethyst.” He swallows. “If there is still a Pack Amethyst, that is. When I left…” Shuddering, he tenses all over, his jaw clenching as his pupils dilate. “All of it, all of them… shadows everywhere, darkness on my skin, there was blood in the sky and— let me go!”

The two warriors, Mason and Henry, have to dig their feet in and hold him tight as he suddenly thrashes in their grip. Behind me, the warrior in wolf form snarls, taking a step forward—but I hold a hand out to calm him. “I’ve got this, Jasper.”

I take a step toward the Pack Amethyst shifter, letting my wolf simmer beneath my skin, where his wolf can smell him. This visitor is strong and dominant, I’ll give him that. I have to hold his gaze for several long seconds, during which I can feel his wolf fight us, before he simmers down again.

“I’m sorry,” he says, jerking all over once more, then relaxing again, as if an invading spirit has left his body. “It’s the madness. I don’t know why, but it comes and goes. I’ve tried fighting it off, but… I can’t.”

My hackles rise at his words. If a wolf this strong and dominant can’t fight off the madness, then no wolf can. “Tell us what happened.”

Raising his face to me, the shifter says, “I will, but I must tell your elders and your alpha all at once. I’m not sure I can give the story a second time.”

After considering him for a long moment, I give a sharp nod of assent.

Mason and Henry take him into the meeting hall, while Jasper follows in his wolf form.

I grab the Pack Amethyst shifter a plain black T-shirt and a loose pair of boxers from the utility closet near the back doors, and pull on a spare set of my own clothing. While he dresses, I observe him.

He looks to be around my age, maybe a little younger, early twenties or so.

With striking amber eyes and a strong wolf, he should be high in rank, but I don’t smell the confidence of a warrior on him, and I know he’s not being groomed to be alpha.

I’ve met Pack Amethyst’s future alpha, Riordan, and he’s nothing like this man.

Since he seems to have calmed down and is no longer having a fit, I motion for Mason and Henry to let him go, although they stay close at hand in case he loses his control again.

Walking beside him casually, I observe, “We’ve never met before, although Pack Amethyst and Pack Jade are close allies, being that we’re neighbors. I’m Kieran.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he takes the cue to introduce himself. “I’m Pax. Messenger to Pack Amethyst… if there still is a Pack Amethyst, that is.”

His words hold a tone of foreboding. When we reach the main room of the meeting hall, where the elders and my father are waiting for us, it becomes clear why.

As soon as he’s introduced and given permission to address them, he starts by saying simply, “Alpha Tylin is dead, and his son, Waylon is missing, as are his daughters Farroh and Yvette. All of our warriors have gone mad. Along with most of the pack, as of when I left, which was nearly a day ago. By now… by now they could all be gone.”

The story he tells isn’t that different from the story I got just this morning out of Pack Garnet, and neither is the timeline.

Knowing all this was happening concurrently, not all the way across the continent but here in our own backyard, makes the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

My wolf is similarly disturbed, his hackles standing up as he paces restlessly for an enemy too slippery to be easily hunted and killed.

Especially when Pax reluctantly admits, “I’ve felt it too.” He shudders, his pupils dilating, and Jasper stalks close to guard him, his lips peeled back to show his teeth. “It’s like something is watching me, waiting, like… like nowhere is safe, and no one can be trusted.”

Swallowing, Pax quietly says, “I’m afraid I would turn on my own mate, if I had one, and the madness overtook me.”

As soon as he says those words, I know he’s doomed himself. I don’t have to look at my father to know what will be coming next.

“The fae have returned to our world,” Elder Bear says, shuddering in a rare moment of vulnerability. “We must do something at once.”

“And we will,” my father says, looking Pax up and down. “First, though, this man must be exiled.”

I keep my mouth shut, knowing he won’t be swayed. To my shock, a few of the elders start to object, but my father holds up a hand and snarls at them.

“Silence! A stray in the outskirts is one thing, especially if they know this place. But I won’t have my inner sanctum invaded by a wolf from another pack, especially a mad one.

Slipping past guards, showing up unannounced, daring to demand an audience with our elders and alpha?

This stinks of trickery, and I won’t be falling for it.

We’ll protect ourselves from catching this madness ourselves.

Henry, Mason, Jasper, you’ll take him out. ”

His eyes swing to Pax, and without mercy he says, “Go back to Pack Amethyst lands and face your fate—or become a lone wolf like the rest of them. You’re not welcome here.”

There’s a dominance in his tone that only an alpha can lean on.

Simply hearing the words is enough to make my wolf whimper and cower in submission.

Based on the suddenly pale color of Pax’s tanned face, he feels similarly.

So I stay silent as he’s marched out of the meeting hall, knowing he’ll be unable to stay nearby without his wolf objecting.

I’m well aware of what it feels like to try to go against the wolf’s instincts. For five years, I’ve had to deal with mine pacing and thrashing, whining and howling, angry and resentful at turns. If only it could be some other way…

But it can’t. So there’s no use dwelling on it. The mate I have is the one I’m stuck with, and there’s no way around that, no matter how much I wish there were some other way.

So I sit through the rest of the meeting. I listen to suggestions and plan my investigation. And I bide my time, reaching up occasionally to scratch at the scar on my cheek, which runs from the base of my eye socket to my jaw, and itches at times like this.

After sunset, I make my move. Deep in the quiet sanctuary of my house, which is just next door to my father’s but is at least my own—something I insisted was necessary to give me “authority over the pack”—I grab a black backpack and stuff it with whatever I can find.

Some spare clothes, a first aid kit, bottles of clean water, granola bars, homemade deer jerky, travel toiletries, and just because, a small bottle of tequila.

Slinging the back over my clothes, which I’ve picked for maximum nighttime camouflage, I wait by the front door of my house until an entire changing of the guard patrol happens.

There are more pack guards near the center of the territory, where my father and I live, along with many of the elders and more experienced warriors.

Once I’m sure no one will see, I head off.

My wolf gives me the ability to see in the dark far better than a human, but even without that sense, I know these lands so well that I could make my way through them with my eyes closed. The scent I’m tracking is easy enough to follow, and the faint whiff of fae helps me untangle it from the rest.

There’s a chill in the summer air by the time I find Pax, sitting quietly by the side of the road, just outside the border of our land, near the outskirts.

He seems to be considering his options; he’s still barefoot and wearing the spare shirt and boxers I gave him, making me glad I grabbed an extra set of sneakers and several pairs of socks, just in case his shoe size is smaller than mine.

“Are you here to threaten me on your father’s behalf?

” His voice is calm and assured, letting me know he’s not in the middle of another one of his fits.

“Or have your people changed their mind, and decided to put me out of my misery? Because I don’t know what caused it, and I don’t know how to make it go away.

The madness, I mean. So even if I return, and my pack is still there… ”

“They may not accept you back. I know.” Kneeling beside him, I study the direction he’s looking in, wondering what he’s been thinking. But it’s just empty road and dark woods. “You could’ve gotten miles away by now. Why haven’t you?”

Pax looks over at me with the moon reflected in his pupils. “I was just trying to figure out which way to go if I want to survive.”

Swallowing, I motion toward the southwest. “Almost no one goes that way because of the ranchers and the coyotes. Neither are big fans of us, especially in our wolf forms.” Slinging the backpack off my shoulders, I pass it over to him and mention casually, “It’ll be easier to go in human form.

Especially with a good pair of shoes. I can’t guarantee they’ll fit, but… ”

“Better than nothing. And I’ll be able to blend in with the humans. Although it’s a slow way to travel.”

Shrugging, I point out, “They’ll execute you on sight.”

“How many? And how far do I have to go to get past them?”

Considering my father’s habits, I reach for the pack bond, and swivel my head around to scent the wind.

“There are at least seven, maybe eight. It’s hard to tell sometimes since Jasper and his brother, Jarrod, have such similar scents.

And it’s less about how far you need to go and how long you need to hold out before they’ll give up looking for you.

I’d say as long as you make it to midday tomorrow, you’ll probably be fine, but if I were you I’d hunker down for at least a day or two.

Some of my father’s favorites are… determined, when they’re given leave to kill. ”

“And here I was hoping they were just planning on throwing me a surprise goodbye party.” He sighs, digging the shoes out and pulling them on with a small grimace. “They’re a little tight, but they’ll do.”

I frown at him, feeling a prick of surprise, and just a tiny bit of… jealousy? Surely not. “They’re a size fourteen.”

He shrugs, standing up fluidly, and I realize as I stand up beside him that he’s nearly an inch taller than me.

“My shoe size is fourteen and a half.” Grinning affably, he pats me good-naturedly on the shoulder. I try not to growl in response. “Thank you for the help. I’ll be sure to tell any other shifters I meet that the future alpha of Pack Jade is merciful and kind.”

“And if I find a way to cure the madness, I’ll try to look you up,” I tell him, my wolf relaxing a little in response to his easy acceptance that one day, we’ll be the alpha.

“I hope that there’s a home for you, in Pack Amethyst or elsewhere.

And you should know that my father is sending one of his best warriors to Pack Amethyst lands to aid any survivors and investigate what happened. ” I don’t mention that warrior is me.

“The warrior he didn’t send to execute me, you mean.” Pax snorts in dark amusement at his own observation, then pull the straps of the backpack tight and inclines his head to me. “Until I see you again.”

I nod back, then watch him cross the road and melt into the woods until he’s too far away, and swathed too deeply in darkness, for even my eyes to pick him out.

Then I make my way back toward home, stopping each time I sense one of my father’s guards crossing through the woods, searching for an enemy in the darkness.

I hope I don’t regret what I’ve just done. The elders seemed confident that the madness isn’t contagious, and if it’s really caused by the fae, killing Pax would be unnecessary.

It was the right thing to do.

But even if it wasn’t, I can’t say that I’ll care too much if it makes my father mad.