The Alpha’s Secret Twins: Rejected Mate Wolf Shifter Romance, page 1
The Alpha’s Secret Twins
Rejected Mate Wolf Shifter Romance
Alpha Wolf Island Book 1
Kayla Wolf
Copyright © 2023 by The Wolf Sisters Books.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Renfrey
Chapter 2 - Syrra
Chapter 3 - Renfrey
Chapter 4 - Syrra
Chapter 5 - Renfrey
Chapter 6 - Syrra
Chapter 7 - Renfrey
Chapter 8 - Syrra
Chapter 9 - Renfrey
Chapter 10 - Syrra
Chapter 11 - Renfrey
Chapter 12 - Syrra
Chapter 13 - Renfrey
Chapter 14 - Syrra
Chapter 15 - Renfrey
Chapter 16 - Syrra
Chapter 17 - Renfrey
Chapter 18 - Syrra
About the Author
Books by The Wolf Sisters
Chapter 1 - Renfrey
It felt strange to be back at the Halforst Council headquarters after such a long time away. Stranger still to know this was likely to be his last visit to the grand old building that had been the center of his world for his entire adult life. Renfrey had been finding himself lingering in the hallways more than was his habit, studying details that had always been part of the scenery. He hadn’t realized, for example, just how many paintings were hanging on the walls. It seemed like just about every major battle in Halforst’s history was commemorated somewhere along these narrow hallways, neat plaques below every painting bearing details of the conflict. Brave wolves, weapons bared—jaws full of sharp teeth, or glinting blades held aloft in defiance of their demonic foes. And the demons themselves. Artists never got the demons right, and for good reason. Staring for even a few seconds too long at a demon could damage the mind of even a seasoned demon hunter. If safety came at the cost of artistic accuracy, well, that was a reasonable price to pay.
Was it vanity to wonder if a few of his own battles had made it to canvas? Maybe. But it wouldn’t have been a surprise if they had. After all, Renfrey had been one of the Council’s top demon hunters for over a decade now. And that was why he was here today, he reminded himself, pulling himself away from contemplation of a scene daubed heavily in red and black. Not for art appreciation, but for a mission bigger than anything he’d tackled before.
Despite his lingering, he was still the first to arrive for the final briefing. He’d always made a habit of getting to places early. He took a seat to the right of the head of the table, knowing the Councillor would likely be conducting the meeting from there, and settled in to wait for the rest of the group to arrive. He hadn’t been told who else would be going on this mission, but he suspected there would be some familiar faces. He’d met most of the Council’s demon hunters during his years here, even worked with a fair few of them. But this mission, he knew, would be different from anything that had come before it. Whoever these wolves were, he knew they’d be trusting him with their lives—and vice versa. The thought sent an uneasy shiver down his spine. Putting his own life at risk to fight demons had never bothered him. Having other people relying on him, though, that was a different matter. But this wasn’t a mission that one wolf could take care of alone. Like it or not, he was part of a group effort now… and from what he’d gathered from his initial briefing, he was likely to be in charge.
It wasn’t long before the room began to fill up with wolves, each taking a seat at the table in silence that Renfrey chose not to break. As he’d expected, there were some familiar faces, as well as some strangers. Eventually, there were six of them at the table. All men, he noticed with some surprise. The gender ratio among demon hunters was fairly even, at least in his experience—it was strange to see no women at the table. Coincidence, or a decision made with intent? It was unlikely many answers would be forthcoming. The Council kept their decision-making processes secret, for good reason. Any information shared with a demon hunter risked falling into the hands of the beasts they hunted, which would put the whole of their world at risk. And the wolves of Halforst hadn’t survived as long as they had by taking unnecessary risks against their ancient enemy.
It was Torren who first broke the silence in the end, clearing his throat and spreading his hands on the sleek wooden table they were seated around. He was one of the wolves Renfrey had worked with before—he remembered him being hot-headed, a little too impatient for his own good, but his instincts were razor-sharp and he was one of the strongest fighters he’d ever met. Most wolves favored fighting in one form or another, but Torren was equally skilled in both his wolf form and his human one. If he had a weakness beyond his impulsivity, it was his vanity, Renfrey thought with amusement, watching him push his sweeping silver-blond hair out of his eyes. A hazard for a warrior, but Renfrey wasn’t about to make himself an early enemy by suggesting a cut.
“I’m guessing we all got the same briefing on this?” Torren said, his silver eyes shifting from face to face.
Darion nodded, his expression stony. Renfrey had been a little surprised to see him here—he was certainly a powerful warrior, but he’d imagined that Darion’s duties as Alpha of one of the largest packs in Halforst would have kept him from volunteering for a mission like this one. “Kurivon has fallen to demons. We’re to reclaim it.”
The looks on the faces of the men around the room told Renfrey that they’d all had a similar briefing—but hearing it aloud was still sobering. Kurivon was a name not many wolves outside of this building would have heard before. Even Renfrey wasn’t especially familiar with the place. He knew it was an island. He also knew that it wasn’t, strictly speaking, a part of Halforst—it lay beyond a portal to another world, a world the wolves of Halforst had only a little to do with. He also knew that it had an ancient association with demons. That was why the Council had made a point of establishing a community of lorekeepers there, using the knowledge and wisdom at their disposal to keep the island free of demonic taint.
At least, that was how it had been until very recently. At some point, the Council had lost contact with the lorekeepers on the island. And if they’d assembled a team like the one Renfrey was looking at, he had a feeling that they suspected the worst.
Any further conjecture was halted by the arrival of a woman in the muted gray robes favored by higher-ranking Council members. Renfrey recognized her face, though he couldn’t recall her name—Councillors tended to eschew individuality where they could, preferring to present a united front, as though each gray-robed member of the organization were interchangeable with any other.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said, her tone pleasant though somber. “Most of you are acquainted, but this marks your first meeting as a pack.”
Renfrey glanced around the table, feeling the magnitude of those words settle into the air around them. To a wolf shifter, a pack was more than just the wolves you happened to be living with, more than family, more than friendship. A pack meant a shared purpose, a shared responsibility, a shared destiny… and from the serious looks on the faces of the wolves around him, Renfrey could tell that they, too, had been giving that word a great deal of thought since the Council had invited them to take part in this mission.
“Each of you has been chosen for a reason,” the Councillor continued, once the silence had grown heavy. “Aside from being powerful warriors with a wealth of experience fighting demons, you are each accomplished leaders in your own right. It is this ability to lead that brings you to this room today.”
Darion cleared his throat. “That puzzles me. We’ve each been asked to give up that leadership to be here. I left my pack behind to fight demons on Kurivon.”
The Councillor nodded. “We are deeply grateful for the sacrifice you have all made by being here. Kurivon needs you—but it needs not only your abilities as warriors, but your leadership into the future.”
“Hang on.” That was Reeve, a wolf Renfrey had only met in passing. He was leaning forward, a faint frown on his handsome face. “Kurivon’s infested with demons. Isn’t our main focus stamping them out? I mean, I’m just as proud as my brother of my leadership acumen, but I don’t see why it’s more important than how many demons I’ve killed.”
Renfrey glanced across the table to the stony-faced Darion, finally making the connection. The family resemblance was striking now he looked for it, for all that the brothers held themselves very differently. The same dark brown hair, albeit cut very differently—Darion’s pragmatically short, Reeve’s long and carefully sculpted. He could sense a slight animosity between the brothers, too, a curiosity he set aside for later.
“Clearing the island of demons is only the first stage of the plan,” the Councillor explained, for all the world as though she hadn’t been interrupted. “The island has been cleared of demons before—it has become evident that doing so is insufficient to keep
their influence at bay. A permanent settlement must be established on Kurivon. You represent the future leadership of that settlement.”
The six of them exchanged glances. “All six of us?” The red-headed wolf who’d spoken was unfamiliar to Renfrey.
“Eventually, yes,” the Councillor said. “As the mission’s vanguard, the six of you will make the initial trip to Kurivon to assess the situation and establish a forward base. Once that’s done, it will be up to the group to establish a permanent settlement on Kurivon by bringing over your packs—or at least, those members of your packs who are willing to make a permanent move to a new world.”
“Will there be enough room for six packs?” That was the red-headed wolf again, frowning a little as he scanned the table. “Enough resources? How will we handle disputes over territory? How—”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Renfrey broke in, not liking the way the conversation was headed. They were getting distracted by future concerns, a conversation that was far too full of possible conflict. “We’ll handle those questions when we get to them. For now, the only pack we need to worry about is this one.”
“Well said, Renfrey,” the Councillor said with a faint smile. “There will be adequate time to prepare for phase two of the mission. Our focus for now is on phase one. Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal of information with which we can prepare you. As you know, we lost contact with the lorekeepers of Kurivon three months ago. We’d had problems with communication through the portal before, of course, but then… Reeve, this part of the story is yours to tell.”
The young wolf nodded as the focus shifted to him. “As most of you know, I spend most of my time on the other side of the portal—on Earth.” Reeve glanced at his brother, whose expression was stormy. Was it a point of contention between the brothers, Renfrey wondered, that Reeve had built his life on the other side of the portal? Did that explain the air of resentment between them? “It’s sheer luck that I’m here right now, actually—I came through with a shipment of new tech and stayed for a while to oversee its implementation here at Council headquarters. But when I tried to go back…” Reeve was clearly trying to keep his tone light, but Renfrey could see the shadow on his face. “I knew right away something was wrong. The whole town was deserted. When I got to the beach, my ship was gone and so were its crew. And I’ve never felt such a strong demonic presence as I did on my way back across the island. I barely made it to the portal alive.”
“That was a month ago,” the Councillor said grimly. “We’ve kept the portal closed and under strict guard since then. I don’t need to tell anyone in this room how catastrophic it would be were demons to break through into Council headquarters.” Renfrey nodded in agreement, a gesture mirrored by the wolves around him. The Council building stood proudly in the heart of Halforst, in the center of its largest city. Nobody was sure whether the portal in the building’s basement had been there before it had been built, or had been discovered afterwards—but whatever its origin, protecting the portal had become an important part of the Council’s responsibilities. They’d imagined that the small community of lorekeepers who lived on the other side of the portal had had the demon threat under control, but it seemed they’d been wrong. That was especially troubling. Even demon hunters like Renfrey weren’t as knowledgeable about demonic taint as Council-trained lorekeepers. Something unimaginably terrible must have happened for the lorekeepers in Kurivon to have failed in their duty to keep the portal protected.
There wasn’t much to say after that. The Councillor wrapped the briefing up with another of her quick little smiles, leaving each of them with a dossier summarizing the information they’d discussed. The six of them lingered uneasily in the room a little longer, feeling the weight of the mission ahead of them settling onto their shoulders. Renfrey watched as the other wolves made what introductions still needed to be made. It felt strange to exchange something so trivial as a name with one another, given what lay ahead of them. Still, he made quiet note of the names he didn’t know. Belmont, the red-headed wolf who’d raised concerns about the future of the settlement. Blaine, who’d been reticent to speak. Torren he knew already, and Darion—though not his brother Reeve.
Once his new pack was gone, Renfrey leafed through the dossier of information, checking whether the Councillor had left anything out that would be worth knowing before they left for Kurivon in the morning. There were a few maps of the island that would come in handy, a brief history of major demonic skirmishes, and a list of names of the lorekeepers who’d been stationed on the island before contact had been lost. The Councillor hadn’t said it outright, but Renfrey knew that the assumption being made here was that the lorekeepers were dead. When it came to demons, though, there were worse things than death…
And Renfrey felt his heart freeze in his chest as his eyes fell onto a name he’d been doing everything in his power not to think about.
He was only grateful he’d waited to look at the notes until the other men had left. He knew the look on his face would have raised questions, revealed a weakness in him that he was not eager to share. Could it be a mistake? He stared down at the page, willing the letters to disappear, hoping against hope he’d dreamed them. With a wrench, Renfrey thought of that morning, of how grateful he’d felt that he hadn’t run into her here. The hallways of the Council were drenched with her memory, of course—he could barely take a step without gritting his teeth against the thought of her, the way those unusual blue eyes lit up when she smiled, the casual way she’d brushed against him in the hallway and he’d known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she could feel the electricity between them, too…
Renfrey didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the past—too much pain lay in that direction. Better to look forward, ahead to the next mission, the next battle, the next opportunity to do what he’d been brought into the world to do. But now that he’d seen Syrra’s name on the list of the missing, he could feel the biggest mistake he’d ever made lurching out of the darkness to swallow up the future, too. One night, that was all it had been. One night that still burned so brightly in his memory it may as well have been yesterday… how many years was it going to take for that memory to fade?
For one crazy moment, he considered going to find the Councillor and pulling out of the mission. He’d explain that he couldn’t do it—find some excuse, make up an injury or an illness that would make him an unreliable member of the team. Or perhaps he could even tell them the truth. He could tell them that one of the missing lorekeepers was the only person he’d ever let himself feel strongly about… they’d understand, wouldn’t they? They’d understand that that kind of feeling would make him a liability, not an asset. After all, it was Council lorekeepers who’d first made the connection between strong emotion and demonic taint.
Renfrey found his way back to his quarters on autopilot. There were his supplies, neatly packed and waiting on the end of his bed. He found himself packing the dossier of information into the backpack, and realized as he did that despite the name he’d seen on the list of the missing, he still fully intended to go on this mission. What choice did he have? It was imperative that the portal be protected from the encroaching threat of demons. If they took the portal, they’d have a direct route to the Council building at the heart of Halforst, putting not only the Council but the entire country at risk. For centuries, the demon hunters of Halforst had been working to eradicate the demonic threat from Halforst entirely. He’d never forgive himself if the demons established a new stronghold as a result of his inaction.
He’d just have to deal with his feelings about Syrra separately. Even the thought of her name made him wince. He gritted his teeth against it, fighting for calm. Just because her name was on the list of the missing, didn’t mean he’d necessarily encounter her. The grim truth was that she was probably already dead… not that that thought was any comfort at all. After what he’d done, the only thing worse than the thought of seeing her again was the thought of never seeing her again.
Renfrey knew that a good night’s sleep was imperative the night before a mission as important as this one. But he still found himself tossing and turning all night, his racing thoughts keeping him from the sleep he needed. It was just one night they’d spent together… but that had been all it had taken for him to know that she was his soulmate. And that was why he’d had to leave. The very next morning, in fact… he’d risen before dawn had come, slipping out of her bedroom like some kind of thief. He’d stopped just long enough to sign on for a mission at the far reaches of Halforst, and he’d spent the next few years doing everything in his power to avoid returning to the Council building, where he knew her blue eyes would be waiting for him, filled with reproach…
