Page 6 of The Alpha's Mates
When we’d first come upon the female alpha, I’d sensed right away that she belonged to us. The Moon Goddess’s magic was fading more and more every year, but apparently we still had the ability to sense our mates. If this kept on much longer that too would soon be lost. Grams had always said I’d know my mate because I’d feel it. She was right. The pull was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. When I first picked up her scent, I knew instantly she was ours. I’d put out a call, telepathically, to my pack that she belonged to us, and to find her.
It hadn’t escaped my notice that she had some cuts and that Drew had managed to catch up with her first. It was also impossible not to notice the limp that Drew had. He was the fastest wolf in our pack, even quicker than Calder, which was nearly unheard of. That she’d managed to best him told me she was smart and strong. She’d used the element of surprise to attack him. Drew wasn’t small, or stupid. He was one of my best warriors. He just hadn’t been expecting a female wolf to go on the attack. It also told me that our mate knew how to grant mercy. Drew had walked away from the skirmish with only a few deep cuts.
“She’s not going to speak to us yet,” I explained. “We’re the wolves who separated her from her pack and aren’t releasing her. I’m hoping Grams will be able to get her to talk.”
Calder’s scowl deepened. “You’re going to owe me a new bed when she breaks it, Soren.”
“We’ll be using the mating bed soon enough,” I assured him. “Atlas, did you set the guards?”
“I did. They’re standing by. Just in case.”
The cadres we’d sent out to track down this female’s pack hadn’t returned yet. They were giving them the runaround, according to Belan when he’d reported in through our mind link. It made me chuckle to think of a bunch of women outsmarting some of my best alphas. Something told me life was about to get a lot more interesting.
As amusing as it was to have a group of females presenting this much of a challenge, it was dangerous. Sooner or later another pack would catch their scent and track them down. We could be looking at a fight with one, or several packs. We needed to find them.
We’d been hearing rumors for well over a year now about a pack of females who chose to live away from packs and on their own. I could understand their reasoning, since I’d had Calder look into the situation and it sounded like the majority of them had come from pretty terrible conditions. The seaside wolves were well known to be nothing but a bunch of cowards and bullies. They liked to control their women through fear and pain. Disgust was heavy on my tongue just thinking about it.
I was well aware of the reputation my own pack had, but it was nothing but fabrications to keep intruders out. Though we ruled with an iron fist, we treated our women with respect and love. We were one of the few packs remaining that hadn’t fallen to degeneracy. We still followed the old ways. I wouldn’t tolerate my males mistreating their mates.
As much as I wanted to track down each of the shifters who’d caused these women to fear the males of their own species, there wasn’t going to be an opportunity. We’d been looking for them for quite some time. The fact that we’d found them holed up in my own territory? It just made it that much easier to lay claim to them. They’d give my males hope and even more importantly, mates, and pups.
Our birth rates had been steadily declining over the decades and because of it too many males were being left without mates. That’s why we’d begun forming cadres thousands of years ago. The situation today was dire. Every female needed to be found and mated, not only to keep our lines going, but to keep them safe.
Too many alphas were getting desperate at the thought of never finding a mate, let alone the elusive fated mate the history books mentioned, and it made them fucking dangerous. It was as though the Moon Goddess had forsaken us. I hadn’t heard of a fated mate pairing in thousands of years. No one alive today had ever seen one.
Happiness could be found amongst a cadre who were mates, my grandparents were proof of that. My grandfathers doted on my grandmother, even now, in their retirement, they chased each other around like pups. It was the same for my parents, when they were alive. But there was a time when fated mates reigned supreme. The bond between a male and female was so strong that if one died, the other would soon follow, through no choice of their own.
It’d been speculated upon that once we began forming cadres, we angered the Moon Goddess and she refused to bestow the bond on us any longer. This caused some males to try to force females into their cadres, as if you could force a fated mate or even just a regular mate bond. As I said, degeneracy. My grandmother didn’t believe that the Moon Goddess had turned her back on us. She’d found some long forgotten prophecy that spoke of fated mates being reintroduced into this world.
I was a realist. Fated mates were a myth. If they weren’t, they were so far out of our reach it was pointless to worry about it anymore. What wasn’t a figment of my imagination however, was the instant attraction I felt for the woman who’d bared her teeth at us. I didn’t know about fated mates, but I did know thatshe was mine. Ours. She belonged to the three of us. The way I figured it, if The Moon Goddess was so displeased about cadres mating their women, then she wouldn’t allow the mate bond to form between a group. No. There was some other reason all this was happening.
Glancing down, I touched where the puncture wounds on my forearm had been before I shifted and grinned. The little alpha didn’t know who she was fucking with. “You wouldn’t want a tame little mate,” I told Calder, as I waited for the plan I’d set into motion to unfold. The little alpha next door wasn’t going to break out. If she tried, I’d bring her straight back. She’d soon learn to obey me. She’d soon realize that she and her females would be safe here with us.
Something needed to be done about our dire situation or the humans would get their wish. We’d become extinct. Grams was the only one with any clues as to what was going on. Some long ago text that only she and a handful of other village elders could read. I’d sent her and my most trusted warriors—of course my grandfathers had insisted on going along to protect their mate as well—to the plains wolves to confer with some of those elders again, months ago. The seaside wolves hadn’t been of any help. Very few of them were making it to old age. I wasn’t losing sleep over that. If it wouldn’t anger the Moon Goddess, or go against the peace treaty, I’d have wiped them off the face of Elaria long ago. They had no place in my world.
Calder snorted in response and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the wall. “It would have been nice to have one a little less-” The sound of splintering wood cut him off and he arched a brow at me. “She’s going to break down the door next.”
I was fucking impressed. Baron was the finest woodcrafter in our village. The posts he’d made for our bedroom sets had been made from the thickest cedar. Most homes were not builtas sturdy as our beds. Our mate was strong. A grin slid over my face. I couldn’t wait to test my strength against hers once again.
“You’d get bored,” Atlas said in agreement, after a pause to listen to what our mate was getting into. “You need a female with fire.”
“Maybe with a little spark,” Calder agreed. “This woman is-” He shook his head. “Forget it.”
The thought of having our mate’s curves beneath my hands made my cock harden beneath my leather pants. Her body was enough to make a full grown shifter fall to his knees and thank the Goddess. Calder might have doubts—and really he was just being stubborn—but every fiber of my being recognized her as soon as I laid eyes on her. Shewasours. He’d pull his head out of his ass and come to recognize it soon enough. Everything about her was built for us. A woman who was tall enough we wouldn’t strain our backs leaning in to kiss her. Curvy enough to fill our large hands.
Her red hair had shone in the dappled sunlight, blonde streaking through it all the way until the ends were more blonde than red, softening the color. Her pale gray eyes had been wary, but mesmerized me. But it wasn’t until she was back in her human body that I’d nearly lost my mind. There wasn’t a place on her that was small and I fucking loved it. Her thighs were thick, hips and belly rounded, and her tits were full and heavy. She was made solidly enough to handle three rough shifters.
Moving in my chair, I reached down and adjusted my cock. It was going to be impossible to deal with this raging hard-on while we tried to gain her trust. She had yet to obey a single command. I was used to the mountain packs’ obedience. Even some of the other remote packs knew better than to disobey me. They had their own head alphas, but our pack was the biggest and strongest. They knew better than to fuck with us. Our female hadn’t learned that yet.
She refused to shift until we used our alpha sway to force her, and at that time she’d been on the ground. After I knocked her out, we’d gotten a good look at the female I planned to claim. She was at least six-two in height—a good compliment to us as we ranged from six-six to six-eight. No one wanted to have to bend way down just to kiss a mate. Omegas usually topped out around five-five, at the most, and we’d have ended up with continuous backaches into our elder years if we’d gotten one of them.
“She’s destroying your shit,” Atlas told Calder, a smirk lifting one side of his mouth. He was by far the easiest going of the three of us. Something about his size forced him to control his anger. If he went on a rampage he’d end up destroying everything before we could stop him. So he kept a stranglehold on his control.
“What the fuck-” Calder started toward the door.
“Wait,” I ordered him.
His pale gaze locked on me as he shot me a glare. “If she touches-”