“Lucian was our Alpha Prime. He was in charge of all the Alphas. We all held fidelity to him. He was a great man. When I was a teenager, he used to run wolf training, which is I guess the equivalent of camp, at his home in Virginia. He had acres of land. We used to go there to become better wolves. The summers started off with about fifty wolves, but by the time he stopped doing that, there were fifteen of us total. They were special times.”
“And your parents sent you?” Her voice had perked up a little bit. Where was she going with this?
“It was an honor to be asked, to be noticed by him. Even Shepherd liked the idea. He wanted strong fighters since we were always at war.”
“And Lucian told you to go challenge the Alpha of Manhattan when you were twenty years old?”
“He did.” Cyrus scooted her over a little bit to look at her. “Where are all these questions coming from?”
She stroked the side of his face. “I’m trying to understand you. I feel so connected to you, but we don’t know each other that well. Becoming Alpha was more than taking over a job, right? It became your identity in the same way that, I guess, my identity will have to shift as your mate. Mitchell keeps calling me ma’am, and he’s older than me.”
He laughed, loving the way she touched him. “I can make that stop.”
“I think it would make him really uncomfortable if he couldn’t do it.”
She was probably right, but he wouldn’t have worried about that. Mitchell would adjust to whatever Cyrus’ mate needed. He had no doubt the whole pack would.
“It did change things. I think sometimes I was born to do it.” There, he’d said it aloud, and he never had before because it sounded presumptuous and stuck up, as though he had some kind of special destiny when, in truth, he knew that things happened randomly and he’d been lucky.
Lucky he’d not been killed when he took down Shepherd—and luckier every day since that the world hadn’t fallen apart. Lucky that whoever had managed to take down Lucian hadn’t come after him. Lucky that he’d walked into the Starbucks and found Betsy.
“Well, Lucian must have thought you were born to do it.” She snuggled closer. “All right, enough. I’m closing my eyes. I can’t think straight. I don’t even know what I’m saying.”
“Goodnight, princess.” He stroked her hair and listened while her breathing got more even, and she fell into a deep sleep.
Well, Lucian must have thought you were born to do it. Her words resonated in his head while he stared at the ceiling. Had Lucian thought he was born to be Alpha Prime? How had he determined which ones of his students got invited back year after year to his home? They all had Alpha tendencies. Which ones did he keep and why did he let some of them go? What had been the determining factor? And why had he done it all?
He watched the ceiling fan spin. Betsy hadn’t cured his inability to sleep, but that was okay. He’d probably doze off at some point for an hour or two, and he was more comfortable than he’d ever been before.
She mumbled something, and he grinned. It was nice that she could be so at ease with him.
The windows in his apartment had been designed to keep the noise of the street out, but with one of them cracked, he could make out some of the traffic noise from below. Easing himself out from under Betsy, he crept on silent feet to the cracked opening and closed it. New York was always awake, like him, it seemed. He could order Thai food if he wanted it and have it at his doorway in half an hour. Or have his dry cleaning delivered at three a.m.
He shook his head. What was the matter with him? Why couldn’t he get his brain to shut off?
Cyrus closed his eyes and leaned against the cool pane of the window. What had Lucian said to him that day he’d told him it was time to be Alpha? He hadn’t thought about it in so long.
“Shepherd is destroying New York. Your parents are dead. Do you want your sister to be?” The Alpha Prime had always seemed ancient to him. He’d probably been about a century old when he delivered that question. They lived to be one hundred and fifty or so if they managed not to get killed. Cyrus had been so young himself, thinking his mentor so old when he wasn’t. Such a childish way to be…
Cyrus had pulled a drink from his beer bottle and set the alcohol down on the table. All of his enjoyment of the afternoon fled into the wind. “It’s not customary to simply go and challenge an Alpha. Especially not one as powerful as Shepherd.”
“Who made him powerful, boy? The pack that follows him. If you kill him, they’ll follow you.”
He couldn’t imagine that. How would they follow him, the kid who destroyed their leader? Even his wolf instincts couldn’t clear up that distinction for him. Would Shepherd’s mate follow him? His children? Would they flee and plot against him? Who was to say he could even manage to do it? Sure, Cyrus was strong but so was Shepherd.