Chapter 13

Alex Stone

"This isn't good, Alex." Patrick paces in my room, his expression dark. "How did Julia find us? Didn't Queen Karina say this was a top-secret mission?"

I look at my senior lieutenant, feeling mentally drained. "She says the Queen sent her here. I don't buy it, but since there's no way to contact her, we can't do anything about the situation."

Jared looks at me from where he is sitting on my bed. "Do you think the Queen is trying to spy on us, using her? After all, Julia is one of her closest people."

It would make sense, but I'm not convinced. Julia is known for her temper. The Queen would not want her to compromise this mission. Karina is fond of Julia, but she's also very much aware of her favorite pet's temperament. That is why she's been trying to force the engagement between Julia and me. She thinks it would make it easier to control me.

It's bad enough that Sophia saw us today. That broken look in her eyes is going to haunt me in my sleep.

The more I don't want to hurt her, the more I end up doing so. I keep pushing her into the arms of the Alpha's son. Noah is already far too interested in Sophia for my liking.

I'm worried about Julia's reaction, as well. She started asking questions about Sophia the minute Sophia showed up. If Julia decides that Sophia is an actual threat to her, there is no telling what she'll do.

I've spent the last couple of years trying to get this leech of a woman off my back, but the more I push her away, the more she is shoved right into my face. Queen Karina is determined to have me mate with Julia. I know for a fact that if I ever agree to this, my pack is doomed. Julia is obsessive, paranoid, and a little unhinged. She will destroy my pack from the inside out. And that is exactly what Queen Karina wants.

When the Queen of the North Alliance put me in the Alpha position, I was a young child, easily controlled. But as I grew up, she began to realize that I'm just like my father. She never took him on in a fair physical fight, but I know that if I decide to fight her for the leadership position of the North Alliance, she will not win. And she knows that, too. That's why she has her fangs in the most vulnerable part of my pack.

The children.

To maintain control over each of the packs in the Alliance, Queen Karina has dispatched her own people to look after all newborn wolf pups. If it were one or two people, we could take them out. But each wolf pack has been sent seven nannies along with a team of dangerous soldiers to watch over them. If anyone makes a wrong move, our children will pay the price for it.

The witch who works for the Queen has taken this whole thing a step further in the last couple of years and linked the lives of our newborn pups to the lives of the nannies and the soldiers. One pack resisted this, and the price was so heavy that when, in the aftermath, Queen Karina sent her soldiers to annihilate the pack, the grieving survivors never even resisted, letting themselves be slaughtered.

To prevent such an outcome, my pack desperately recruited witches to help break that link, but none of them have been successful. Our only option now is the Silver Wolf. If I can find her and mate her, she can help me remove the link that is threatening our pups. This will allow me to challenge the Queen and get control of the Alliance.

Sophia is the only thorn in my side. To put it more accurately, she's a thorn in my heart.

I could understand if it were just my wolf who desired her, but it's more than that. My human side is fascinated by this woman. I'm consumed with thoughts of her. The rage I felt when I saw her standing next to Noah Black nearly burned me alive.

I've already rejected her, but I can't stay away from her. My position is such that if I choose not to break my own heart, the youngest members of my pack will suffer. The souls of the maternal females of my pack are trembling right now with the lives of their pups hanging in the balance. They will not be able to bear such a loss. If our pups die, my pack will not survive the loss, either. I can prevent all this from happening if I bury my own heart somewhere nobody can find it. It is a painful decision, even more so when I see the constant hurt Sophia is suffering. But I can't tell her my reasoning. I can't tell her that I'm from the North Alliance or what I'm looking for here. Or even what is at stake. She belongs to the South Alliance, and if she knows the truth and our presence here is somehow revealed, she will also be punished.

I lost control the other night.

I shouldn't have kissed her. But the anger and jealousy inside me were so intense that I could not stop myself. Another man was courting my fated mate right in front of my eyes. And she wasn't telling him to stop. I had given her enough reasons not to tell him to stop, but that fact didn't make it any easier.

But I shouldn't have kissed her. I can still feel the taste of her on my tongue, those soft, inexperienced lips clumsily moving against mine. It was at that moment that I realized Sophia was untouched in every sense of the word. Her body reacted to mine, but she didn't really know what she was doing. It drove me wild. If she hadn't pulled away when she did, I think I would've taken her right there and then.

The way her fingers dug into my skin, the way she eagerly accepted my touch—it's hard to think about anything else. Every ounce of my self-control is needed for me not to go to her and finish what we started. But if I take her to my bed, I know I will not be able to stop myself from giving her the mating mark.

"You're engaged. Congratulations."

The shock, the agony, the self-loathing.

I could hear it in her voice, see it in her beautiful eyes.

I wanted to tell her it wasn't true. I wanted to tell her that I had nothing to do with Julia being there. That I had no choice.

But I forced myself to keep my mouth shut. For my pack's survival and her own.

"Alex?"

I blink when I realize that my pack mates are talking to me.

I glance at them, trying to focus on the situation at hand and cursing myself silently. I cannot allow myself to get distracted like this. I can't keep trying to figure out why Sophia came to find me at the bar. What did she want from me? Why did she have that determined look in her eyes?

I have to stay as far away from her as possible. Otherwise, Julia will become enraged. She will not let Sophia live if she realizes Sophia is my fated mate. Not only will Julia see her as a threat, but she will also report her existence to the Queen. Sophia will be seen as a weakness of mine, and Karina will spare no effort to exploit that.

Am I being unfair to Sophia? I know I am. She deserves somebody who is wholly committed to her, though, and I'm the only leader my pack has. I have to look after my people. And I have to break my own heart to do so.

"I don't think Karina sent Julia here," I say tightly. "But then again, you can't predict the Queen's actions. It could be that she has figured out where the Silver Wolf is located, and Julia has been tasked with bringing her back. It's not as if the Queen actually trusted us to begin with."

"But she doesn't know that we know the reason why she's looking for the Silver Wolf!" Jared exclaims.

Patrick gives him a grim look, his hands in his pockets. "If the Queen were a stupid woman, she wouldn't be sitting in the leader position. She knows we're wondering why this wolf is so special, and Julia was probably sent here as a way to make sure we don't investigate too much. It could also be that as soon as Julia locates the wolf, she's going to send a message to the Queen, and we will be removed from this mission."

"There is a likelihood of that happening." I look around the room at the men who have sworn their loyalty to me. "However, I find it a little hard to believe that Karina would send somebody like Julia for this. The truth is, we don't really know why Julia is here. If the Queen sent her, she's never going to tell us. I think it's best that we keep her distracted."

"What about the cage fighting arena?" Saul asks. "How are you going to keep her away from that? We go out there a couple of times a week. She's bound to notice."

I agree that this is a problem we have to deal with. If Julia sees the Wily Vixen, she's going to know almost immediately that she is a wolf shifter. And if she shares our suspicions that the female fighter is the Silver Wolf, there's a very good chance she might actually attack the woman to subdue her. As graceful as Julia appears, there is nothing civilized about her. There is a vicious snake hiding behind all that beauty.

I have witnessed firsthand how cruel Julia can be.

"We'll have to keep her otherwise occupied during the matches," Derek pitches in, fiddling with the ashtray on the coffee table.

Nathan, who has been silent throughout this exchange, looks up. He's the youngest of the group, and his baby sister is one of the pups whose life is in danger. "How sure are we about this Wily Vixen being the Silver Wolf? What is our criteria for deciding that? We have to see her shift, don't we? What's your plan to force her to shift in front of us, boss?"

"She hasn't reached out to me about the sponsorship offer yet." I was sure she would, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. "Tonight, let's try a different approach. If we chase her, she might shift so she can move faster and get us off her tail. Don't hurt her, but let her think she's in danger. We have to put her in a position where she feels threatened enough to shift to protect herself."

"And what if she's not the Silver Wolf?" Nathan asks quietly. "What if we've been watching the wrong person this whole time?"

Silence fills the room, and all eyes turn toward me.

I can tell that they've all been asking themselves the same question. Why am I so fixated on the Wily Vixen being the Silver Wolf?

I pick up a piece of paper and read aloud from what we have of the prophecy.

"Where the land meets the sea, a town hidden and concealed from the world, under the wing of the South, the Goddess's blessing lives in the shadow of both wolf and human alike, covered in the sweat of humans inside the cage of human making, thrust in the most unlikely of places. Once discovered, she will unite the three Alliances, her power given to those to whom she swears fealty."

I raise my eyes and look at each of my five companions. "We followed the clues that made sense. The only town in the South Alliance that has a witch's barrier over it is this one. We've had an eye on every female in Oakrest, and aside from one or two of them, we've seen them all shift. The Silver Wolf might be a shifter who isn't registered. Maybe that's why we have not been able to find her. If she lives among the human population of this town, it could be that nobody knows who she is. I've already confirmed that the Wily Vixen takes scent blockers. The reference in the prophecy to sweat and the cage of human making can only mean the cage fighting ring. Ever since we stumbled upon it and I saw that shifter fight, my gut has been screaming that it's her."

"And what if it's not?" Nathan pushes.

I stare at him. "If you have a better idea, I'm all ears."

The frustration in his eyes is easy to read, and while I can sympathize with him, I can't fast track this process.

"We only have a fraction of the prophecy," Saul points out. "There is more to it."

He's right. My informant inside the Litha Moon Pack was only able to retrieve the first half of the prophecy. The other half, along with the translation, is missing. But what we do have has given us a lot more clues than we would have had otherwise.

And I say exactly that to my men.

"We have to work with what we have, and this is it." I hold up the paper. "Let's stick to our plan for tonight and see what happens."

Before anybody else can speak, the door knob begins to rattle. We exchange looks just as somebody starts pounding on the door.

"Alex! Alex, let me in!"

Julia sounds furious as she shouts. Nathan makes a gagging sound as I indicate with my head for Patrick to go open the door. As soon as he does so, Julia barges in, looking pissed off she scans the room. "What are all of you doing here? Where is she?"

I stare at her. "Who?"

"That bitch you're hiding in here!" she hisses furiously before looking under the bed and then checking the closet and the bathroom.

Nobody stops her, and as she circles the room, Jared calls out, "Maybe she's under that teacup over there."

Julia shoots him a dirty look, but she finally accepts that there's nobody else here. When she turns to face me, her expression is sheepish. "My bad. I thought you had that waitress in here."

How did she find out that Sophia works at the bar? I pretend to look confused. "What waitress?"

She gives me an annoyed look. "The one who came over to you the other night."

"Why would she be here?"

"I don't know!" Julia stares at me, and I can see the anger in her eyes. "Why did she come talk to you? How does she know you?"

I give her an irritated look. "I already told you I don't know what she wanted to say to me. I barely know the woman. She works at the bar. And she seemed a little drunk to me. Maybe she was looking for somebody else and mistook me for that person. I've never exchanged more than a handful of words with her."

Patrick looks away at my blatant lie. The others nod in agreement.

"Even so," Julia's upper lip curls, "I want her fired. I don't want her serving you."

I give her an astounded look. "Are you crazy? This is a small town, Julia, but it's part of the South Alliance. You can't just go up to somebody and tell them they don't have a job anymore."

"I can have a few words with the owner of the bar," she says smugly, shrugging her petite shoulders.

"Do you really think she's going to fire her employee because you tell her to?" This woman is seriously deluded, and I sometimes wonder why Queen Karina keeps her around.

Julia looks at me in a way that has a shiver crawling down my spine. "I know how to get what I want."

"What is your problem?" Patrick glares at her. "That woman did nothing to you. Why are you going after her like this?"

Julia walks over to me. Her fingers caress my cheek as she smiles sweetly. "She looked at Alex. She's lucky I'm not ripping her eyes out."

My whole body feels cold as I grab her fingers and forcibly remove her hand from my face. "You have no claim over me, Julia."

This obsession she has with me makes me uneasy, and now that she's targeting Sophia as a result, it's making me even more so. I have to limit her interactions with Sophia as much as I can. The only way to do that is to make sure Julia sticks to my side. If I defend Sophia too much, Julia is going to get even more suspicious, and her volatility toward the other woman is going to get much worse.

"Queen Karina promised you to me. One day, I'll have you eating out of my hand like an obedient dog. I don't want to have to break you, Alex, but I will if it means teaching you your place."

My pack mates are on their feet, snarling at the insult to their Alpha. I raise my hand, stopping them in their tracks. This isn't the first time Julia has revealed the depraved depths of her obsession with me. The age gap between us is twelve years. When I was nine, a few days after my parents' murder, she tried climbing into my bed. It was only the fact that Karina's own pack's elders found the incident deplorable that the newly appointed Queen, who had initially found the situation amusing, finally told Julia off.

But I know her plan had been to give me to Julia as a sex slave. If her plan had worked, there's no telling how many young wolf pups would have suffered a similar fate. I personally believe that Queen Karina had been testing to see how her pack elders would receive such treatment of wolf pups from other packs. It would have been both convenient and profitable for her to sell off the pups from enemy packs or those she had subdued as sex slaves or to gift those pups as slaves as a way to maintain her hold over the adults of that pack.

However, the Queen can only stay in power as long as the pack elders stand by her side, so she had to keep them happy. But that didn't mean Julia wasn't allowed access to me during all these years. She's one of the reasons I've stayed away from females in general. While I did lose my virginity in my teens, it was to one of my pack mates from school. Our brief relationship was discovered by Julia, who proceeded to shred the teenage girl's face to bits.

I never touched another woman after that, fearing the consequences she would face.

I stare at the individual before me, this loathsome creature who knows as well as I do that the engagement being pushed on us is simply so that Julia can possess me. The mating will be a transfer of authority from me to her, and the pack will suffer as a result. I will become the one thing Julia has wanted from the beginning: her sex slave. I will have no autonomy.

But I have no intention of letting that happen. I'm no longer a frightened and traumatized child. The weight of responsibility on my shoulders made me grow up a lot faster than I should have. I know it irks Julia that I'm not scared of her like I once used to be. It's made her more aggressive in her pursuit of me.

"Don't start chaos in this town, Julia," I warn her darkly. "We are here on a mission. And if you expose us with your antics, we will get discovered and be executed. You leave that waitress alone. If you don't like her, stay away from her. But if you compromise our mission, I'll inform Queen Karina myself."

The threat seems to work to some extent because she pouts. "Fine. I won't do anything to the girl. But I don't want you going to that bar anymore."

The idea that she thinks she can order me around pisses me off. I get to my feet, towering over her. "If you think you can tell me what to do, Julia, you have another think coming. And just remember, we are writing up daily reports and sending them to the Queen." That part is a lie, but she doesn't need to know that. "If you do anything to meddle in this investigation, Karina will not forgive you. And if you cross a line and get discovered, we will not save you. This pack will execute you. And I will happily watch."

Her face turns pale at my explicit threats. "If anything happens to me, Queen Karina will never let it go!"

I smile at her coldly. "And how will she know what happened to you? As far as we know, you were never here."

Julia hates admitting defeat, and she glares at me. "I won't forget this, Alex."

"Please don't."

She turns on her heel and storms out of the room. I watch her leave, feeling nothing but relief.

I lock the door behind her and rub the bridge of my nose. "We need to do something about that woman."

"I say we kill her and be done with it," Jared suggests, his eyes glittering in anger.

"I'm inclined to agree," Patrick says. "You had a point there, boss. The Queen won't know what happened to her down here. We can just blame the South Alliance and finally be rid of that bitch."

The others nod in agreement.

Although this seems like a very convenient solution, I wouldn't put it past the Queen to be tracking Julia.

And if anything happens to her, I don't think we'll come out of it unscathed. While I did just threaten Julia, I really can't touch her. I'm afraid of the consequences my pack would suffer as a result. Now that she's here, I have to make sure she gets back safely.

But she doesn't have to know that. As long as I can keep her away from Sophia, everything will be fine.

*** **

Feeling restless the next morning, I decide to go for a walk. Knowing that Julia is staying at the same motel makes me anxious. I don't fear the woman anymore, but her existence repulses me.

I'm heading to the bakery to grab a cup of coffee when I see a familiar face. Sophia is walking across the street, holding the hand of a little child. The boy's a shifter; I can smell him from across the road. I observe them for a few moments, and I catch him looking up at Sophia. His eyes are filled with adoration. And when Sophia smiles at him, I see the love in her eyes.

She doesn't notice me, but I am unable to stop watching them.

Seeing my fated mate with a child makes my heart throb with a sense of loss. If there were nothing standing in our way and I mated her, would she look at our children in the same way? Would she smile at me when I walk over to them, kiss me when I wrap my arms around her?

I've always accepted my fate, the responsibilities and burdens that come along with being Alpha. I've always believed that I am responsible for my pack. My father was a proud, just man who put his pack first, and I have been following in his footsteps. But now, for the first time, I resent it all. While I feel an attraction to the female cage fighter, I want my fated mate. I want Sophia by my side, not the Silver Wolf.

If I were a lesser man, I would throw away all my responsibilities and leave my pack, just to be with my woman. This desire to do so is overwhelming, but I can't. So many lives depend on me.

However, deep inside, I know that once everything is done and the dust settles, that even if I get my pack's revenge, I will still not be happy. I've suffered too much loss, too much tragedy. When I look at Sophia, there is hope for a future, for happiness. I know this woman would love me unconditionally. I know I could build a home with her. I know her presence would soften the constant pain and anger thrumming within me.

But I can't have Sophia. I can't be with my fated mate.

My heart tightens in my chest. She probably hates me. It would make sense. But all I can think about is her. My thoughts revolve around the way she smiles, the way her nose crinkles, the endearing suspiciousness in her eyes whenever she looks at me.

I can tell that Sophia has not had an easy life, either. The way she behaves, the recklessness she displays—it all reminds me of myself. I don't know what she's been through, but I wish I could ask. I wish I could make it better.

Even if the Goddess chose us for each other, though, it appears that our paths were not meant to be one.

My heart is heavy as I watch her help the little boy sit on the park bench. She unwraps something that looks like a sandwich and hands it to him.

That must be her neighbor's kid , I muse. The one she wanted to give all that food to so he could share it with his friends on his school's beach trip. She's babysitting him, but she doesn't seem to treat it like a job. He takes a bite of the sandwich and then holds it out to her. Her smile lights up her face as she leans down and carefully takes a bite out of his sandwich. The boy laughs at something she says, and his little legs kick back and forth in the air.

I've never seen this side of her. She's so gentle with him, so loving. One would think that she's related to the boy.

I sigh, my heart yearning.

Suddenly, I see Sophia's shoulders turn stiff, and she quickly looks in my direction.

Damn it. I got caught.

To my surprise, there's no anger in her gaze, just a dull pain that makes my wolf edgy. She turns her head away from me.

The pain in my chest intensifies. But her attitude makes sense. Of course she doesn't want to see me. Why would she? I rejected her. She thinks I have a fiancée I never told her about. Even if Sophia despises me, the pain of rejection is still going to exist. Part of me wants to go over to her and explain everything, to apologize for why I can't be with her, to tell her the truth. But I can't do that due to the risk of endangering my own people. It's not easy, but I have to refrain.

I turn around and head back toward the motel. However, at the last minute, I cross the street and head into the Dancing Bear. The owner, Elsa, is still setting up, and she glances at me. "Breakfast starts at ten."

"You think I could have a beer?"

She gives me a long look before shrugging. "Why not?"

Grabbing a mug, she warns me. "It's not cold."

"That's fine."

She pours a beer from the tap and slides it over to me.

I sit in the corner of the room and sip the beer glumly.

A few minutes later, I hear the scraping of the chair opposite me, and when I look up, the bar owner is joining me, a lukewarm mug of beer in her hand, as well.

Her tone is dark. "Misery loves company."

That's all she says. I raise my glass to her in a toast, too mentally drained to speak.

We drink in silence, each stewing in our own worries.

Eventually, she glares at me and says, "Even if you are engaged, that's no reason to hurt Sophia. You've pushed her into the arms of an incredibly dangerous man. I just hope you don't live to regret it."

Taken aback, I set my mug down. "What do you mean?" I don't even ask how she knows about Sophia and me. Her words have struck fear within me. "You're talking about Noah Black, aren't you?"

She gives me another dirty look. "No engagement should prevent you from being with your fated mate. Every shifter knows that much."

My hand curls into a fist on the table. "My situation is complicated. Sophia would be in danger if she were by my side. But I want to know what you meant about Noah being dangerous. Are you saying he's going to hurt Sophia?"

Elsa is quiet, all the anger suddenly having deflated from her. She stares into her mug of beer. "He won't hurt her. At least, I hope he doesn't. But you should have held onto her. For both your sakes." She gets to her feet, her expression morose. "I always credited the wolves of the North Alliance with being intelligent and quick-witted. I remember your father was that way. I hoped you had inherited some of his traits, Alpha Stone."

I give the woman before me a startled look. "You know who I am?" My wolf is ready to attack her to keep our secret, my muscles tensing in preparation.

Her smile is sharp and deadly. "I have known who you are since the moment you set foot in this town."

Shock fills me at her words, but before I can say anything, she turns around and walks into the kitchen, leaving me alone.

She's known my identity for weeks.

Why hasn't she told anybody yet?