Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
“No,” I said at once. “Her baby will be half wolf. She wouldn’t do that. She’ll be its mother! And mothers…
don’t…”
I had to get up and run to the sink to splash my face with cold water at the thought of any mother using her child, its blood, for any reasons, much less as part of a war.
she?”
“She wouldn’t use her baby to make a spell,” I muttered into my wet hands, my voice mu ffled. “How coul”
“Because she’s a witch, and you can’t f ucking trust any of them,” Xander gritted out.
“Awitch who already said she didn’t want to take sides,” Zane pointed out.
“Sure. She won’t take sides.” Gabriela’s laughter sounded like coins rattling in a jar, breaking the glass. “How easy was it for Lanie to convince her otherwise? And she agreed to help Zane in exchange for getting something she wanted. She’ll do whatever it takes to get whatever she wants, and it looks like Zane’s going to hand it right to her.”
“I didn’t know she could do anything like that,” Zane said, his tone rocky and rough.
Mason spoke up. “It sounds like nobody really knows s hit about anything.
man.
Zane turned on his heel and left the kitchen. When I tried to go after him, Xander’s firm grip on my wrist held me back.
“Let him go for now,” he said. “I know him better than any of you, and he needs to get his head on straight about all of this.”
His mother shook her head. “Unfortunately, if in fact he did make a vow to her, it’s not as easy as breaking a promise. Before Rhiannon would’ve agreed to give him anything, she’d have done some kind of binding to him. Whether he knew it or not at the time, whatever Zane promised her is now bound by deep magic. To break that vow…”
When she didn’t finish, I splashed my face again and then took a long, deep drink.
Xander handed me a dishtowel to dry my face, and then pulled me close. He kissed my damp forehead, and I let myself lean against him, taking strength. Alpha and Luna, two sides to a coin, the completion of a puzzle with two pieces. We were not the only two in the room, but in that moment, we might as well have been.
“I need you,” he growled through the mind link. “You and me, my Luna. We need to run and hunt. I just need some time with you, and only you.”
“Soon. I promise. I want that, too.”
Not for the first time, I had to ask myself exactly how all of this was supposed to work. A Luna to an Alpha, mated to him and his Beta, and also another Alpha. Would we ever have the chance to just settle in?
“How can we stop another war?” I couldn’t stop mysel Xander’s brood, strong chest for a second until he captured my wrists and held me close. I stopped struggling Gabriela didn’t move from her spot at the table. “None of us can stop a war. The best we can do is get ready for it. Find out what we can.”
“We can’t let her have a hybrid baby.” Xander’s tone was no-nonsense and commanding, and it sent a thrill of pride all through me.
His mother sighed. “I already told you, Zane is likely bound to that promise. He won’t be able to break it without dire consequences, probably physical. Certainly irreversible.”
“He can’t guarantee he’ll impregnate her!” Mason took a step away from the counter to face Gabriela. “Asking him to vow that, no matter the spell that binds him, can’t be legit. I don’t care what magic she use Bodies don’t work that way. He can’t promise to actually make a baby”
“He can’t refuse to try,” Gabriela shot back at him. “And so long as he’s trying to, I’ll guess there’s a ver good chance he will succeed.”
All of this was worse even than I’d imagined. I sent my mind to touch Zane’s. His pain and shame and anger were overwhelming, even through the link. He needed us.
“Come back to us, love,” I urged.
Xander approached his mother. “So, what are we supposed to do? If he tells her he’s going back on his word, what will happen?
She’ll cut off his d ick, or what?”
“Binding spells are personalized. I can’t say what it is she’d do, only that I know Rhiannon, and she’d have made it foolproof.”
“Could another witch help?” I asked.
She shook her head. “That is a box of trouble I have no intentions of opening, Lanie. Involving another of her kind would backfire”
“So what do we do?” Mason asked.
Gabriela stood up from the table. “I need to think about this and do some research. I’ll have to let you know what I find out. In the meantime, let’s just hope she’s not ovulating for at least a week or two.”
“He feels like sh it about it.”
“Yeah, I know. I can sense him.” An awkward silence stretched between us. “Look, we’ve never talked about us both being Alphas with only one Beta.”
too.
“It’s bad enough I have to share my Luna with you,” Xander growled. “Don’t think you can have my Beta, “I’m not trying to take him from you, or even ask you to share. But I need one, man. An Alpha without a Beta is…” I trailed off, trying to find the words to describe exactly what I meant. “Hollow.”
He’d been bristling, but after a moment or so, Xander’s tension eased. “Yeah. I get it. I can’t just give him, to you. You have to build that relationship, and he’s got to want it, too.”
“And I don’t see how I could realistically bring in my own,” I added, my mind fighting to figure out all the contortions that dynamic would take.
“F uck, no. No other men,” Xander said through bared teeth.
I grabbed two beers from the fridge and handed him one as he looked again out the window. I could feel Zane outside. He hadn’t changed into his wolf, but I knew he wanted to. Needed to. Not just because it made sense, or because it’s what I could imagine I’d want or need right now, but because I literally felt his rising urge like it was my own.
F ucking freaky.
“He needs to run,” I said, but mildly, aware of how touchy this subject already was….and how much more ticklish it could end up getting.
“I know what my Beta needs,” Xander shot back.
I cracked the top off the beer and sipped it, letting the cold crispness run across my tongue. I concentrated on the full sensations of carbonated, hops, yeast, sugars. I took them all in, and I sent them all.
Xander shuddered. “Cut that out”
“I’m just showing you, man. I know what he needs, too. We don’t have to like any of this, but it’s our life now.” I sipped again and watched Xander’s throat work as he swallowed.
With a mutter, he popped off the cap from his own beer and drank greedily. Lanie came back into the kitchen and held out her hand so he could pass her the bottle for a sip. She drank more daintily.
“I could taste it,” she said after a moment. “Just a hint of it. Mason, you were sending it to Xander. It was like I was listening from behind a closed door, only it was a flavor, not words. A feeling, really”
Warmth covered me like a heavy blanket as she crossed to me and gave me a long, solid hug. She gestured to Xander, who joined after a reluctant pause. She gripped us both tightly for a few seconds before stepping back “I know you wanted some time alone with me, love, but I think Zane really needs you right now.” She glanced at me. “Mason and I will be here to take care of the babies while your mother’s off doing whatever she’s doing. You and Zane should shift. Take him for a long, hard…run.”
The hesitation she had before that final word wanted to twist my lips into a smile, but I didn’t dare show We were all still navigating this…whatever it was. Xander sensed my humor, though. He frowned, but his eyes went again to the window.
“Go,” I urged. “We’ll be okay here. Your Beta needs you. You need to take care of him. Make sure he understands that we’re all on his side with this. All of us need our strength for whatever comes next, and he’s going to draw a lot of his from you.”
“From us,” Xander said aloud.
We shared a look and then clasped our forearms, fingers curling around the others’ wrists. We shared a nod while Lanie looked on with a broad smile.
“Go,” she told him. “We’ll all be waiting here for you when you two get home.”
Zane–
I knew Xander wasn’t coming after me to battle anything out, but I tensed anyway when he approached. There was no point in apology. I wasn’t sorry for what I’d done.
“Take off your clothes,” he said.
“That was not where I thought this was going to go.”I admitted, already pulling my T-shirt off over my head and tossing it to the grass.
Xander toed off his boots as he unbuckled his jeans and ran the zipper down. He shoved the deni his hips and stepped out, bare-as sed. “Save that for later Right now, Beta, you’re going to show me wi wolf can do.”
Internally, my wolf whined with glee at the offer. My teeth were already sharpening as I stripped out c rest of my clothes. Seeing through my wolf’s eyes, everything took on a different sheen of color. Smells heightened as I gave over more of my senses to the beast inside me. Part of me.
Then, the beast was me.
“Too long.” Blade growled as my four paws hit the soft ground.
Beside us, Hunter had taken over from Xander. The big wolf nipped at Blade’s sides, making us dance. away, but playfully. Together, we rolled on the ground before Hunter leaped up and ran for the woods, Blade hot on his heels.
“Always want to run.” Blade’s breath labored as we moved into the trees, dodging roots and nosing the scents of squirrels and rabbits that made him salivate.
Of course, my wolf always wanted to be up front, and it had been too long since we’d been able to do this. Not for the first time, I wondered what it would be like to live like this permanently. What it must’ve been like for our ancestors in the earliest days of the Moon Goddess’’s blessing.
Then, I stopped thinking and let my wolf take over. Hunter jumped a fallen tree. Blade followed. Together, the wolves hunted some prey, flushing up a flock of birds as they crashed through the undergrowth in gleeful pursuit of the small deer.
Just before we would’ve taken it down, Hunter veered off and headed for the sound of rushing water, Blade protested, but only for a second as the other wolf sent out a command for us to follow. By the time we got there, Xander had shifted back and stood, proudly naked, by the water’s edge.
I followed suit. My muscles were limp and loose from the exercise, and I regretted not being in my wolf form only for a few seconds before Xander slung an arm over my shoulders and pulled me against his hip.
There were things wolves couldn’t do, and a hug would always be one of them.
I buried my face against the side of Xander’s sweaty neck and breathed him in. I might not be able to differentiate as many scents as Blade could, but I’d always know the smell of this man.
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?