The First Alpha, page 9
It just didn't seem fair. Was she just a bad luck charm? She couldn't explain why, but it seemed she was cursed to remain forever a virgin.
*
Cassie awoke with a start as the morning sun filtered through knots in the boards of the barn. Her panicked eyes scanned around for a moment until she remembered last night; remembered where she was.
Adam was gone. The compressed hay beside her was cool to the touch, but for the moment she couldn't worry about where he was. Her dream replayed in her head, over and over, and with each passing moment her heart sank further as she finally began to understand the truth.
Megan wasn't my friend. She was my jailer.
She cursed herself for not making the connection sooner. It all seemed so obvious now. Megan had been with her since Cassie was a kid of fifteen. They'd spent almost every moment together. They'd even gone off to college together, at the insistence of her mother. I want someone to keep an eye on you, Cassie, Evelyn had said. I need to know you're safe when you're out of our territory.
Cassie had always been curious as to what Megan got out of their friendship. After all, Cassie had been a troublesome teen when they'd first met, and Megan had already been over four centuries old despite her youthful appearance. Why would she have chosen to spend so much time with a mouthy, depressive teen she had absolutely nothing in common with?
Now she thought about it everything started to fall into place. Every relationship she'd ever had had been fouled up by some bizarre roadblock. She'd passed it off as just bad luck at the time. Declan had screwed up his visa paperwork. Peter was homesick. Steven was clumsy and extremely unlucky. The only one that really stood out was Joshua but, as Megan had told her after he died, sometimes you just don't know what's going on behind the scenes in a guy's life. Maybe he was involved in drugs. Maybe he pissed off the wrong guy. Maybe it really had been a suicide, and the cops had just made a mistake.
That was another thing. Megan had seemed excited to be heading home to the south. She'd always been close friends with Evelyn - that was the reason Cassie had met her in the first place - but something about her eagerness to return to Cassie's mother seemed out of place.
But why? What motive could drive Megan to guide the course of Cassie's life? What reason could she have for arranging the destruction of all of Cassie's relationships? Could she really have been responsible for Joshua's death? If so, why? What was she trying to achieve?
A voice at the edge of her hearing pulled her back to the present.
"Oh, Cassiiiiiieeeee," a male voice, calling in a soft, playful tone. "Why don't you come out and play?"
Instantly her body tensed as adrenaline coursed through her veins. She recognized that voice. She'd heard it many times before, and it never failed to chill her. It was Grayson, Lucius' second in command.
"Come and join your boyfriend, Cassie. We're going to have such great fun with him. Come and see how he cries with a knife in his side." The voice echoed against the walls of the barn, frighteningly close. She couldn't pinpoint his location with her human ears, but he sounded as if he was just outside the door. "I wonder what sound he'd make if we sliced off that nice, meaty cock of his."
Suddenly a sharp, tortured cry of agony rang out, bouncing off the walls. They're hurting him! In her mind's eye she pictured Grayson standing over Adam, cutting into him with a cruel smile. She felt hatred bubble up inside her. Grayson was a monster, cut from the same cloth as Lucius but with a streak of cowardice as wide as a highway running through him. She knew he'd never dare take on Adam without at least three other men holding him down.
Another cry bounced off the walls, dying into pained sobs. Cassie felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes. She knew she couldn't take on a group of Lucius' men, but she knew with even more certainty that she couldn't remain in hiding while Adam was tortured. She couldn't face it.
"Stop!" she cried, loud enough to carry over Adam's tortured screams. "Please, stop hurting him! I'm coming out."
She ran quickly to the door, stepping from the darkness into the dazzling morning sunshine, blinded for a moment. She shielded her eyes and looked desperately around for Adam, but there was no one to be seen. No Adam. No Grayson. Just the distant farmhouse and the rolling pastures.
In the blink of an eye a rope was slipped over her neck from behind, pulled tight until bright spots appeared before her eyes. She reached up to free herself, but unseen hands gripped her wrists and pulled them to her sides. She fell to her knees, choking for air, and watched in astonishment as Grayson rounded the side of the barn and grinned broadly, all alone.
"Adam," she managed to whisper with the last of her breath. "What did you do to Adam?"
Grayson laughed as he bent over her naked form, his vicious, beady little eyes running hungrily over her, and then he let out a blood curdling scream of mock pain, all the while his mouth turned up in that mad, hateful grin.
"Who said anything about Adam, girl? Nobody here but us chickens."
Cassie struggled against the rope, twisting and turning even as it drew tighter with her movement, and tried to shift with a view to slicing Grayson's belly and reaching into him to tug out his black, still beating heart, but she couldn't summon the energy to change. As the lights went out in her mind all she could see was Grayson's grinning face, and all she could hear was his cruel laughter ringing in her ears.
Her world faded into black.
*
Voices whispered in the gray nothingness: angry, hissing, pleading. They faded in and out, drifting from near to far.
"...so, so sorry, Ma'am... didn't know... couldn't stop her..."
"... might not want her now... there'll be war..."
"... forgive me, Ma'am..."
Cassie came to, wincing with pain from the mother of all headaches. She felt as if she'd been drugged. Her head pounded, and through blurry eyes all she could see was moonlight streaming through a window. The silver orb hung motionless in the sky, half covered in clouds.
The moon was full. The Long Night had arrived.
Her vision cleared a little more, and she realized with surprise and horror that she was back in the guest room of Lucius' house. She turned her head and saw the blanket Adam had wrapped around himself lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. One corner was white with dried shaving cream, and even in the dim moonlight she could see the golden brown bristles of Adam's beard still clinging to the silk.
"Ma'am, I think she's awake." That was Megan's voice out in the hallway beyond the door. Even at the sound of it Cassie felt the rage build inside her. She tried to move, only to find that she was handcuffed to the bed frame with heavy duty chains.
The door opened, and framed in the bright light from the hallway stood the slim, silver haired figure of her mother, smiling broadly. "Well, look who decided to finally wake up. How are you feeling, my darling?"
Cassie couldn't begin to know how to respond. Despite her murderous rage she couldn't help but stare silently at Evelyn, words refusing to come. For a long moment she lay there, staring at her mother until her false smile began to waver.
"Mother," she finally managed to whisper, her voice escaping as a hiss, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Cassie had rarely so much as raised her voice to the formidable woman, and it was clear she was taken aback by the anger in her daughter's tone.
Evelyn reapplied her smile like makeup as she flipped the light switch and entered the room, closing the door behind her. "Now now," she said brightly, perching on the edge of the dressing table, "there's no call for language like that on your big day." she reached down to pat the back of Cassie's hand, seemingly oblivious to the heavy steel cuff holding it in place. "Lucius is waiting for you, my dear. He'll be so happy you're awake."
Cassie struggled for a moment against the chains, her rage overwhelming her mind. "Lucius? I'll never marry that monster! I'd sooner kill myself, and I'd happily take you with me. Why did you lie about my father? You told me he died before I was born!"
Evelyn's smile faded, and her expression turned hard. "Settle down, dear, there's no need to get yourself all worked up. Keeping your father from you was for your own good. You didn't need to know about an insane old man. It's better that you didn't learn about him."
Cassie fumed, turning her lips up in a grimace. "And what about Megan, mother?" she spat. "What about the boy she killed? Was that for my own good?"
Evelyn looked down at her hands, unwilling to meet Cassie's loathing glare. "Yes of course it was, dear. We had to keep you pure somehow, didn't we? For Lucius. An alpha wouldn't want to share you with another man, would he? Be reasonable, Cassie. Think about what's good for your tribe."
"My tribe? Is that all you care about, you evil old witch? Is it important enough to whore out your own daughter?"
The slap came out of nowhere. Even for a wolf it would have been quick, but for a mortal woman like Evelyn it was lightning fast. Cassie's jaw stung where her mother's wedding ring had caught the bone.
"How dare you speak to me like that, young lady, after all I sacrificed for you... for my tribe! Now, this is what's going to happen. You're going to go downstairs and you're going to fall to your knees before Lucius. You'll offer him your hand in marriage, and you'll smile like a good girl as he makes you his wife. Do you understand me?"
Cassie glowered at the stranger before her, in disbelief that this was the same woman she'd once loved. "I will not marry Lucius. Adam is my fated mate. He'll be the only man I call my alpha."
Evelyn smiled calmly. "No, dear, he won't. Lucius' men caught him soon after they found you. He's in chains as we speak. If you don't offer Lucius your hand, Adam will be offered as a sacrifice. You'll marry Lucius without a fuss or you'll marry him while standing in a pool of your little boyfriend's blood. It's your choice. Now, that's the last I want to hear about this silly fated mate business."
Cassie was stunned into silence. She simply couldn't believe what she'd heard. Forcing her to marry Lucius was horrifying enough, but by killing her fated mate her mother would be condemning her daughter to an eternity of torment. To lose her mate before bearing a child, before passing into the mortal realm, Cassie would be doomed to choose between a soulless death or endless, hopeless life. No wolf would wish such torment on even his mortal enemy, and yet her mother promised her such a future with a bright smile on her face. The woman truly was insane.
"You... you can't do this to me, mother. Please, you can't do this. I'm your daughter!"
Evelyn plastered on a tight, strained smile. "History will judge my actions as correct, dear. When the Darkfangs and Ironclaws are one you'll see that everything I've done was for the best. You'll understand one day." She slid a key from the dressing table and release Cassie's cuffs, satisfied that her daughter was now restrained by something even stronger than steel.
Cassie's hands dropped limply to her side as her mother gently lifted her from the bed. She stood, staring through the window at the full moon as Evelyn slipped a white dress over her head and tugged it down until it fit her curves. She'd heard the iron in her mother's voice. She knew she was deadly serious about killing Adam, and she knew she'd have no choice but to submit to Lucius, even though kneeling before him would chill her to her very soul.
There was nothing more she could do.
*
Cassie walked through the house as if in a trance, led by her mother's hand. Her tears began to flow as they passed through the kitchen, walking across a rug that had been laid down to cover the dried pool of her father's blood. Evelyn faltered for a moment as she reached the rug, but quickly recovered her composure and stepped directly on the spot her husband had died not two days earlier.
They stepped out the back door, down the steps and onto the cool, wet, moonlit grass. Cassie felt the cold between her toes and remembered feeling that same sensation as she fled with Adam. A day ago? Two? It felt like a lifetime had passed.
The lawn was transformed. An ivy-clad trellis archway had been set up in the center, flanked on both sides by wolves from all of the Five Tribes. The Ironclaws and Darkfangs stood at the front beside the stone altar, while representatives of the Whitetails, Bloodcoats and Truesights gathered warily in the rear, each tribe carefully segregated according to whatever political tensions reigned between them this month. At the very back, away from the main crowd, stood a smattering of representatives from other species, each of whom looked intensely uncomfortable. One bear stood with his back against the wall of the house, keeping everyone in sight in case of trouble. The bears were still at war with the mountain lions, and if it wasn't for the presence of wolf Council members there would be bloodshed.
Off to the side of the lawn a holding pen had been erected, and the already slaughtered stag lay in a pool of blood, its stomach torn open as before. Lucius had clearly decided to eschew the knife once again. Beside the stag - Cassie's breath caught as she saw him - Adam lay chained to a heavy concrete block, a highway partition clearly dragged with great effort to hold him still. Through the crowds he saw her, and in his eyes she saw love, and anger, and hopelessness. Her eyes welled up as he strained against the chains, as if the force of his love would be enough to break through the bonds and free him.
She wondered what would happen to Adam as the crowd parted to allow her mother to drag her through. Even if he survived the night Lucius couldn't possibly set him free. Would he kill him, or simply hold him prisoner as he had for so many years her father?
Cassie was led through the archway in a daze, feeling as if this were all a terrible nightmare from which she'd awake at any moment. As she emerged she found Lucius waiting beside his fellow members of the Council, the remaining four alphas of the Five Tribes. They'd all come to witness this horrific union, but at least Willem Darkfang had the courtesy to look ashamed. His face burned red to match his hair, and he refused to meet her imploring gaze. Stop this! Please!
Lucius spread his lips into a smile, but his eyes remained cold as Cassie fell to her knees before him. She dropped her gaze to the grass submissively, raising her right hand palm down, offering it to Lucius. She squeezed her eyes closed and wished that some miracle would prevent him from taking it. Wished that he may reject her, that the war might break out tonight and that every wolf present would die in the ensuing violence, that their wickedness might be eradicated from the earth. She hated them all for their complicity in this torture.
Lucius took Cassie's hand, and a sob escaped her lips.
Elona Whitetail, wife of the tribe's alpha Lars and High Priestess of the North American Council, stepped forward and took Cassie's free hand, lifting her to her feet. Cassie met her eyes for a moment as she stood, sensing that she was a friend. There was no way Elona could be unaware of Lucius' evil, and it was clear she knew that the wedding was a sham.
"Friends," she began, speaking woodenly, reciting the traditional speech by rote, "we gather here today to celebrate the joyous union of Lucius of the Ironclaws and Cassandra of the Darkfangs." Cassie heard her spit the word 'joyous'. "Under the moon of this Long Night we will bind these two souls as one, so that they may walk the path together in love."
Elona paused for a moment, realizing her mistake. The wedding oath had been written for fated mates. There would be no joining of souls tonight. She rallied, skipping forward to a more generic passage. "Lucius and Cassandra have offered each other their hearts, and once joined only the Lord may break their bond. I call on all present to offer their blessing, so that these two souls may walk the path in peace."
Lucius grinned smugly, his sharp fangs glinting in the moonlight. Cassie could not bear to look into those cold, cruel eyes, and instead stared at his feet while silently praying that Adam's life would be spared.
"No," a voice called out above the hush. "I do not offer my blessing."
The crowd turned as one, stunned at this unheard of interruption. It was the height of bad form to withhold a blessing, and doubly so at the wedding of an alpha.
Elona's eyes opened wide and she stood silently, unsure how to continue. Nothing like this had ever happened. "Er... is there one present who wishes to speak?"
The crowd parted, splitting down the middle to form a passage between Elona and the holding pen. Adam pulled tight on his chains, his muscles straining against the bonds and his fangs exposed. "I do not give my blessing," he growled. His eyes burned with hatred as he stared squarely at Lucius.
Elona opened and closed her mouth for a moment as she formulated her words. "Oh! Um, well..." She turned to Lucius, who returned her gaze with a look of smug amusement. "I think we'll just continue without the gentleman's blessing, if that's alright with Lucius?"
