Page 10 of Ruthless Alpha (Nightfire Islands Alphas #3)

“So they want something that adjusts with the shift?” Jace asked, his voice distorted and crackling through the radio. I needed to get a new one—the single island radio on Ensign was older than I was.

Despite the distraction of Rosie’s presence, I still had a job to do for Sam, and our on-island engineers were not sounding hopeful about the possibility of delivering.

Opifex, however, were the experts on innovation, and Jace was one of my closest friends.

He might not be Alpha yet, but he was the smartest person I knew, and if anyone was going to help me keep my promise, it was him.

“Yeah, human to wolf,” I confirmed. “It would be great if it could go back as well, but I think the initial shift is the most important.”

“Got it,” said Jace. “Sounds fun. Dad needs me around for the rest of the week, but I can run over on Monday.”

“Sweet. Thanks, man.”

“Any time.”

I could have let him go, could have waited until he arrived to break the news, but that was the coward’s way out.

“Wait. I should probably uh—I should probably tell you something.”

“Ominous,” Jace replied.

“Nah, it’s just—” I took a fortifying breath. “So, you remember when Arbor was auctioning off females?”

A burst of static came down the line—Jace must have scoffed.

“Kinda difficult to forget that.”

“Yeah. Well, they’re still at it, only it’s their own females now, and they’re selling to other shifters.

They showed up at the market while I was on Telaxis, and I sort of—I sort of bought a girl.

” I cringed as I waited for his response; Jace’s silent disbelief lasted only for a beat before he said,

“Dude. What the fuck.”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” I rushed to explain.

“I was on Telaxis and this guy came up to us and—she looked so frightened and she was filthy and I couldn’t—I couldn’t stand the thought of some awful guy buying her and…

” I trailed off, not wanting to have to repeat that I’d literally given a man a hundred pounds of steel in exchange for a person.

“So you bought her instead,” Jace finished for me.

“Yeah. We’re technically uh—married. You know, like Ethan and Julia were.” We were nothing like Ethan and Julia. Ethan and Julia were mates. Ethan and Julia were in love. “She’s staying with me until I figure out… something.”

I had no idea what that something was. I couldn’t just abandon her to the unmated female dorms—not when she was so afraid and such an easy target—but I couldn’t keep her here with me forever.

“And?”Jace prompted.

“And what?”

“I can tell there’s an ‘and,’ Xander.” For a moment, I almost felt chastened, like a schoolboy being told off by his teacher. Jace was eight years my junior. When had he learned that particular trick?

“And she hates everything about this island,” I admitted. “And she’s scared all the time. And she hates witches. And she hates me.” That last one bothered me more than anything else, even though I knew it shouldn’t.

“To be expected, really,” replied Jace, sounding disturbingly unbothered. “She’s Arbor. Why is it a problem?”

“I just—I don’t want her to hate me,” I said. That was true enough. “I want her to be happy.”

“She could be happy somewhere else,” Jace pointed out. “Ferris, maybe. Or Argent. You’d still have achieved your goal of making sure she didn’t end up as some creep’s knotslave.”

He was right, because of course he was. If Rosie really hated it here, then I should send her to another island I trusted.

Lapine was out for obvious reasons, but Leo would make sure she came to no harm on Argent, and Julia would surely change her mind about witches pretty quickly if I left Rosie on Ferris.

She’d be happier, and I’d be less stressed, yet the idea bothered me.

I didn’t like the thought of sending her away.

“I guess,” I replied, without enthusiasm, and the radio let out another buzz of static.

“Bro, what is your problem? You want to fuck her or something?”

I hesitated too long before speaking, trying to think of a way around the truth, but Jace was too quick for me.

“Oh,” he said. “Oh, you do.”

“It’s not—I want to make sure she stays safe,” I protested lamely. He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t entirely right either.

“And…” Jace prompted.

“And she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I admitted, because there was no way I was getting away with denying it.

“There we go.”

“And she’s eighteen,” I added, because I might as well lay it all out on the table at this point. Jace would notice how young she was when he arrived.

“Ah,” he said. “And you feel like a creepy old man about it.”

“I’m thirty-three, Jace.”

“Seriously?” he said. Even through the crackle of the radio, I could hear the smile in his voice. “God, you’re basically the crypt keeper.”

“Fuck off,” I replied, without rancor. Jace was only twenty-five—he was never going to understand why I felt so uncomfortable.

If Rosie had been my mate, it would be different—there’s no arguing with fate, after all—but she was just another female, one who should have passed beneath my notice.

To feel the way I felt about her when she was so vulnerable and so lost and so, so young made me feel dirty.

I couldn’t vocalize any of this, but luckily, I didn’t have to, because Jace’s quick mind had already moved on.

“Look, if you want her to feel comfortable on Ensign, you have to make her an Ensign woman,” he was saying. “Your females can all fight, right?”

That was one of the first changes I’d made to Ensign life, and I was still surprised I got away with it.

Their training wasn’t as extensive as the males got, but it was enough to help them stand their ground against a male who had decided he wanted more than she was willing to give.

I’d been expecting a challenge over it—society on Ensign hadn’t changed a whole lot over the past century—but I’d managed to convince the ornery males that any opposition was indicative of their own inability to beat a female in a fight.

The females I’d spoken to seemed to appreciate it, but I knew life for them was still dangerous.

They still moved in groups or relied on fathers and mates to escort them around the island.

One day, I might be brave enough to push for real reform—to take on half the males on the island when they inevitably challenged me over it—but for now, a little combat training would have to do.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Then teach her,” Jace declared, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. “If she knows how to defend herself, she might feel more comfortable around all you bloodthirsty assholes.”

My instinct told me to brush him off: there was no way Rosie would allow me to train her, and even if I tried, it would take weeks to get her to stop fleeing or freezing at the first sign of danger. If I could manage it, though, we might really get somewhere.

“That’s—not a bad idea, actually,” I said. I’d have to start with a few less traditional methods, but it was worth a shot, at least. “Thanks, Jace.”

“Good luck. See you soon. Over and out.”

The radio clicked off, and I was left to deal with my problems alone again. Jace’s idea was really good, and I was already mentally running through different training methods that might work. The problem was convincing Rosie to give it a try.

Judging by her behavior so far, if I asked her to accompany me down to the basement alone, she would assume I was about to murder her in cold blood.

The assumption hurt, but I understood it.

If the male who was supposed to care for her on her own island was violent (and I was almost certain that he was), then she would expect far worse from the Alpha of Ensign.

It had been two days since Rosie and I had last spoken.

Of course, I had tried to engage her in conversation over meals, but I’d received little in response, and I knew now not to push it—if only because I valued my crockery.

In the time between, she’d scuttled around the house doing various chores that left my house so spotless that I felt bad simply for inhabiting it.

At that moment, I could hear her in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. Dishes rattled in the sink and pots clanged as she put them back in their places.

I watched her work for a little while, the errant curls of her blonde hair refusing to stay out of her face, no matter how tightly she tried to pull her hair back into a bun or a braid.

The effort of her work had flushed her sweet face a delicate pink, and I couldn’t help admiring the strength that lay beneath her softness.

She might be scared of me, but she was stubborn enough to stand her ground when we argued.

I respected that, even if I hated everything she had to say.

“Rosie?” I ventured. She didn’t jump, so she must have known I was there.

“Do you need something?” she asked, prim and polite, her eyes not quite meeting mine.

“No. I just wondered if—if learning to fight might make you feel a little more comfortable here,” I explained.

“Our females can all stand up for themselves if they need to, and if you’re going to stay here, then you should really get some training.

We could do it here, just the two of us.

” I didn’t miss the way she frowned at the thought of staying on Ensign, and maybe Jace was right—maybe she would be happier on Argent or Ferris—but I would never forgive myself if I didn’t at least try to make her happy here.

“I don’t—” she started, but I cut her off.

“It’ll probably be more cathartic than throwing a plate on the ground,” I joked, hoping that she couldn’t read the desperation in my voice. “Come on, you’ve got free rein to hit me as much as you want.”