Chapter 5 - Jasper

I had meant it when I said I wanted April to survive here. Without her, I wouldn't be able to exact my revenge on Sparkle Hollow, of course, but I had more complicated feelings about it than just that simple fact. She belonged to me, and I'd be damned before I let anyone else touch her.

When I saw my underling straddling April on the ground, I was furious. He should have known better than to put his hands on what I had rightfully claimed as mine. There was no question about what needed to be done. I had to end his life.

"Let's go," I said to my mate. I kept one hand on her upper arm, guiding her back to the cabin she had escaped from.

Surprisingly, she came willingly. Her attack seemed to have scared some sense into her. For that, I was grateful.

It hadn't crossed my mind earlier to lock the cabin. She had been bound tightly, so I had assumed she was trapped. I would have been impressed with her if I hadn't been so angry. No one in the pack had dared to defy me, and her betrayal had cut me even deeper since I had been forced to dispose of a loyal wolf.

April was far from the first female to let me down. Even my own prostitute of a mother had treated me worse than the dirt under her feet.

From the moment I had been born—a shifter, like my father—I had been abused by her. I had hoped that when she became the proprietor of the whorehouse, things would get easier for me, but I had been wrong. Instead of being taken advantage of by one woman, I had fallen to the mercy of my mother's entire workforce.

If I had been born a girl, my mother could have made money off of my services, but I was only a burden to her. She had forced me to earn my keep by doing all of the manual labor—including getting rid of any clientele that had needed to be removed from the property.

I was a small child when I saw my first dead body. A man had refused to pay one of my mother's workers and had instead paid with his life. After my mother killed him, she made me dispose of his corpse and clean up the mess left behind.

This is what I expected of all females. Their only abilities were to hurt, manipulate, and use sex to get what they wanted before leaving their victims in ruin. I hated each and every one of them.

And now there was one in my own home.

When we reached the door, I guided April inside. The moment the door was shut, I lost all control of my anger.

"How dare you leave this room," I growled. "You selfish, manipulative whore. You were probably out looking for someone to save you, weren't you? You thought you could trick one of my wolves into turning their back on me."

"How dare I? How dare you !" she countered.

"Do not speak to your alpha that way," I said. "You're lucky I didn't leave you to be demolished by that wolf."

"You forget, you already told me that you wouldn't do that," April replied. She smirked slightly and cocked one eyebrow as she spoke.

Her statement caught me off-guard nearly as much as her fire did. There was no doubt that my chosen luna was stronger than I had given her credit for. And she had a temper. I felt another emotion stirring as I analyzed her reaction. This she-wolf was something I hadn't been expecting.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of doing," I pointed out. "I'm the villain in your story, remember?"

"Ha!" April exclaimed. "You think you're only the villain in my story? You've terrorized most of the wolves in the region."

I strode toward her, unsure of why I was being drawn nearer to her. I didn't stop when I reached her. Instead, I placed a hand around her neck and backed her up to the wall. Once she was pinned, I released my grip on her throat and angled her head up by her chin so she was looking into my eyes.

"Don't. Test. Me."

"Or. What."

What was she playing at? I couldn't decipher the look in her auburn eyes. She was either mocking me or testing me. I didn't like either option.

I leaned in closer, unable to explain the gravitational pull she seemed to be having on me. Her lips parted as she drew one hand up to my hairline and began to trace the scar on my face. Her fingers had just reached my cheek when a sharp knock on the door interrupted us.

"What?" I roared in the direction of the door. I took a step away from April as it opened, and Killian came into the room.

"Alpha, I'm sorry to interrupt," he began. "But a body has just been found. One of our wolves seems to have been attacked. There's no other scents in the area."

"Unfortunately for him, he decided to take advantage of my new luna," I explained to my second. "As you can imagine, I don't take kindly to others playing with my toys."

"Yes, Alpha, of course." He bowed his head in subservient understanding.

"Gather the pack," I commanded. "I'll explain everything to them."

Killian left immediately, but the door remained open.

"April," I said, turning my attention to her. "Do I need to explain why you should remain in this room?"

"No," she replied.

"If you leave again, I can't promise that you will survive."

She nodded, and I believed that she would stay in the cabin this time. There wasn't much else I could do to convince her, so I decided to let her decide her own fate. I would do what I could to prevent any future harm from coming to her at the hands of others.

By the time I reached the common area, the entire pack had been summoned. Dozens of wolves looked at me with a mix of confusion and fear on their faces. This was no time for me to reassure them—this was a time to show power.

"Wolves, you have all heard that one of you has been killed tonight. When I found him, he was in the process of forcing himself on my new mate—your luna," I explained.

Voices rumbled as they discussed my revelation. Most people seemed to understand my choice, but I saw a few faces that seemed displeased that I had ended the life of their pack mate without discussing it with them first.

"Silence!" I called out, and they stopped immediately. I needed to make sure they understood the gravity of my choice while leaving no room for them to question me. "What happened to him will be the same fate that awaits any one of you who touches Luna April," I warned. "You will each submit to me now, to show that you understand this decree."

I nodded to Killian, who immediately bent his knee and bowed his head. A ripple flowed through the assembly as they dropped one by one to show their willingness to comply with the order of their alpha.

"Please continue with your duties for the evening. I need a few volunteers to deal with the burial of the disobedient wolf," I added.

A handful of men raised their hands, and I nodded toward them in acknowledgment of their enlistment in the task. With that out of the way, I walked around to the front of my cabin. Killian followed, as I knew he would.

"Jasper," my second said in a low voice when we were out of earshot of the rest of the pack. "What is your plan here? What are you going to do with the girl?"

"It's time to get a message to our enemies in Sparkle Hollow," I replied. "Let them know that my treatment of April Rose depends entirely on whether they will cooperate with my demands. They had better watch out. We're coming for them."