Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
My mom startled me as she leaned closer to me. “This is your chance. Go, Lina. Now!” She shoved me toward the door with a force that sent me stumbling. “Go!”
“No!” I cried, clawing at the ground, but she’d already shoved the doors shut behind me. Dread pounded through me as I heard the key in the lock.
I pounded on the door, but her distant scream came through the wood.
“Go!” she shouted.
I stumbled forward, anguish piercing my chest, but I was jolted out of my spiraling despair by a sharp tug at my arm. I blinked at one of my packmates, Mira, her eyes wide with urgency.
“Lina, we have to get out of here. Now!” She glanced back, fear etching her brow.
I could hear the guttural snarl of wolves from behind the door, and my heart battered against my ribcage, the instinct to run battling with the agony of leaving my mother behind. My wolf cried out in frustration at the prospect of abandoning her, but as Mira yanked me onward, panic surged. There was no time to think, only to run.
The urgency in Mira’s voice propelled me to move, and the resolution in her expression drove me on.
I ran faster and faster as if to try to make up for the way the shock had paralyzed me back there. My mother’s voice mingled with each of my hurried footsteps as if I could still hear her, propelling me into a desperate sprint, “This is your chance. Leave, Lina. Now!”
It hit me that the desperation in her voice hadn’t just been about the attack. She meant this was my chance to get away from Magnus. Thankfulness beat through my chest as I thought of her words. My heart squeezed painfully as I realized that even as she’d been bleeding out, she’d been thinking of me.
I crashed down the cavernous hallway, my heart pounding in my ribcage. I glanced over my shoulder, every moment expecting to be pursued by those totem-marked wolves who had brought my father down.
My hands shook, my legs threatening to buckle as the gruesome image of my mother’s dress, stained with blood, flashed in my mind. My parents…My parents were likely now both…But I forced the unfinished thought away, remembering the steel of my mother’s blue eyes. She wanted me to get away. With instincts I didn’t know I possessed, I ran with utter abandon as if those rogue wolves were clawing at my heels.
As I hurtled outside, Mira broke off to the right, running toward other packmates, but I spotted the catering van parked with its engine idling. I rushed inside and put my foot on the gas. The engine roared to life, the sound sparking hope. With trembling hands gripping the wheel, I pressed down on the accelerator, shooting forward and leaving behind everything I’d ever known.
Stephen
Five Years Later
Tension as heavy as the metallic tang of blood hung in the air. I leaned against the long, polished table, noting each one of my colleagues around the boardroom, visibly strained as they waited to hear the reason for Magnus’s impromptu summons.
“Gentlemen,” my father began from his place at the head of the table, cutting through the heavy air like the first rumble of a storm, “The Ashford Pack has just informed me of their intention to walk away from our partnership.”
The Ashford Pack wasn’t just a fellow shifter group. It was a vital supply chain partner for Blackthorn Corp. They operated a logistics and distribution network that provided essential resources to our product lines-primarily in pharmaceuticals. Losing them would impact not just profit margins but our entire market strategy.
Garret, the head of our logistics division, ran a hand through his hair, his agitation palpable. “Ashford asked at our last meeting about renegotiating the terms of our deal. They claim our payment for their services isn’t equitable.”
Magnus growled, his voice creeping to its lower warning pitch. “And I recall advising you that Blackthorn Corp doesn’t give its resources away for free.”
The Ashford pack hadn’t asked for anything extreme in wanting to renegotiate their prices. They were only restructuring their prices to match the changing market. But, as usual, Magnus always wanted to get more than his fair share.
But the board knew better than to disagree with my father, and a murmur of agreement rippled through the room. I felt a blaze ignite at the back of my mind, telling me this was my opportunity.
With a surge of confidence, I straightened and said, “What if we offer a three-month agreement at a better rate as a trial period?”
I felt the weight of my colleagues’ scrutiny. They were looking to Magnus’s righthand man, his dutiful son, to have the solution they hadn’t thought of. At twenty-nine years old, I may be the youngest at the table, but I was the one that everyone counted on to handle every difficult deal. It was a reputation I’d carefully fostered over almost a decade of working at Blackthorn Corporation.
Garret frowned, not letting me get to the other part of my plan. “But Stephen, if we give them that rate, what will change in three months’ time?”
“In three months’ time, the deal I’ve been negotiating with a human company that possesses equivalent capabilities to handle the same distribution for us-exactly like Ashford-will be under Blackthorn’s umbrella.”
A mix of surprised expressions ran through the room. Magnus stared at me, a quiet, impressed satisfaction settling over him.
“What if this motivates their pack to act aggressively against us?” Garrett asked.
Confidence radiated from me as I assured, “If they know we have an option waiting in the wings-one that will effectively destroy their business-their leverage will disappear. They won’t kick off against someone so vital to their survival.”
Magnus’s eyes narrowed, weighing my words. After a moment, he leaned back in his leather chair, a look of respect dawning on his face. “Good work. Prepare a presentation for the Ashford pack outlining your proposal for tomorrow. You’ll head this deal, Stephen.”
A wave of exhilaration surged through me as relief swept over the room. I had navigated a precarious situation, solidifying our partnership while not losing our strength.
“Thank you, Alpha,” I said, masking the quiet simmer of anger always there with feigned gratitude. In the boardroom or in front of the pack, it was always ‘Alpha,’ never ‘Father.’ He insisted on it. He saw it as a sign of respect, an acknowledgment of his position. To him, it signified that I understood the weight of leadership and that I could separate personal feelings from business. Little did he know that my addressing him as Magnus was my preference, a wall I built between myself and the man who deserved the title of “Father” so little.
Magnus nodded curtly before dismissing the board. His giving me this deal running such a vital part of the company showed that his trust in me was complete-as complete as it could ever be for someone with a heart as cold and callous as Magnus’s.
With the meeting adjourned, my colleagues began filing out, and I hurried to my own car. We were entertaining at our family’s villa in Southampton tonight; Magnus expected me, as his beta, to be there, too. The two-hour drive out of the city was one of the few moments I got to myself.
As I drove back from the city toward the Hamptons, where Blackthorn Villa rested amidst luxurious grounds, thoughts about the past inevitably intruded. It had been five years since the attack I’d orchestrated at the mate ceremony. The scars I had were wicked. The way Victor and Ben had mauled and sliced me that day had ensured that the attack couldn’t be traced back to me while deepening Magnus’s trust in me. The way I’d protected him that day had meant his trust in me had gone from strength to strength, which had been the reason for instigating such an attack in the first place.
Not the only reason.
My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel as my thoughts fell to her.
Lina.
I thought of the moment she’d told me who she was and of her proposition that I intercede with her father over the arranged match. I hadn’t been able to intercede because doing so would have muddied my position and influence with my father. It was a risk I hadn’t been able to take, not even for her.
Some days, when I remembered her jasmine perfume and dreamed of the soft swell and slopes of her beautiful body, paired with her commanding voice, it was the biggest regret of my life.
After all, she was very much part of the reason I’d organized the attack on the ceremony. I hadn’t been able to stand by and watch her become bonded to my father. But then she’d disappeared during the chaos of the attack. An outcome that part of me was thankful for. Yet, despite five years having passed, there wasn’t a single day that went past, perhaps not a single hour, where she didn’t stray into my thoughts.
Too soon, the opulent d?cor of Blackthorn Villa appeared before me. A couple of our packmates were acting as valets, and Carson climbed into my car as I exited, the party guests for tonight already starting to arrive.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?