Mated to the Pack(5)

In spite of the nasty words, Cassie sensed the ebbing strength behind  them. The cool knowledge of that, along with her new reality, steadied  her own response and kept her tone cool. "That human is still in here.  Frightened? Yes, I was. Fat?" Cassie huffed in disgust. "You need to  stop using that as an insult. Really. It's getting old, it's obnoxious,  and it Just. Doesn't. Fucking. Matter." She punctuated each word with a  growl and a step closer, until she was nose to nose with Aliana.

The other wolf huffed out her own breath, keeping her dark amber eyes  fixed on Cassie's. To her faint surprise, Cassie could smell blood on  Aliana's breath. Blood from inside her. Cassie must have slammed into  her hard enough to cause some internal bleeding.

To her even fainter surprise, she felt no horror at that realization. No shock. No judgment at herself.

This was simply what wolves did when fighting to the death.

The human within her kept her thoughts clicking with accuracy and sense. The wolf within her kept her instincts sharp and true.

Together, both sides made her say, "As the alpha's mate, Aliana, I grant you the choice of mercy, should you desire it."

Aliana sneered with a disdainful lip curl at that. "Little human," she  said dismissively. Yet the strain of her injuries was evident in the  slow pant behind her voice. "A true wolf never shows mercy. Never."

Cassie smiled back in what she sensed was a hair-raising grimace of teeth. "You misunderstand me."

Aliana stared at her in some confusion, still snarling.

"My offer of mercy," Cassie said, "is that you may choose between falling to your death, or having me rip out your throat."

Not even the words startled her. They were nothing like Cassie, the  human girl from Wicked Mountain Town, would ever in her life have said.

But they were exactly what Cassandra Wakefield, alpha female mate to the  alpha leader of the Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack, would say.

Shock and something very close to respect whipped over Aliana's face for  a second. Then her eyes narrowed. "All true wolves choose to fight.  Always," she snapped despite her ragged breathing.

Then she flung herself one final time at Cassie.

It was horrifically yet beautifully easy for Cassie to meet that leap.

To almost cradle Aliana in her paws.

To push her down on the ledge.

To close her jaws around Aliana's neck and rip and tear.

To feel the hot burst of blood shoot out, showering her and the ledge and the darkness with the last ebbing pulses of life.

Taking another's life to save her own, as any wolf finding herself in an unexpected, shocking fight to the death would do.         

     



 

When it was over, Cassie backed up a step. Then another, although she  was careful to stay on the ledge. Throwing back her powerful golden  head, reveling in the caress of the night breeze against her fur, her  strong body, she sang her howl to the world, announcing herself and her  place in it.

A lone howl from far above answered. Trevor's voice rang out, his bass  tone bouncing off the cliff walls, carrying the message far and wide.  Then another joined him. And another. And another. Howling wolves,  chorusing their witness to the bizarre yet real existence of their  alpha's mate. Their badass alpha's wolf mate.

Cassandra Wakefield was most definitely, most certainly, a badass wicked  wolf herself now. And it was kind of totally fucking awesome.





Chapter 4



Trevor walked in silence and a forced containment of the riot  of-something-swelling within him. His head nearly exploded with  everything that had happened in what was less than a half hour's time.  Years of training, however, kept his carriage stiff, his eyes ruthless,  and his true feelings hidden. His mate at his side, still in her wolf  form, was as quiet as he as they led the pack back to the estate.

Despite her silence, Cassandra's power was unmistakable to every wolf  near. The savage look on her face when they'd finally gotten her up over  the cliff, using a system of ropes dropped down a chimney crack she'd  pointed them toward, had quelled any comments from the watching pack  members. Sleek, strong, so fierce-and with blood on her face and mouth.  The blood of her enemy. The enemy she had never wanted, undoubtedly had  no genuine interest in battling to the death, but who had forced her  hand. In true wolf fashion, Cassandra had risen to the challenge, and  won.

There would have been no better way to prove her worthiness of being the alpha's mate.

Not to mention the indisputable fact she was now a wolf. She had been  turned by the alpha of the pack. They had no choice but to accept her.

"Why did it happen now?" had been Cassandra's only question, after she  had reached the top, already somewhat eerily calm in what he thought  might be shock finally settling in.

"I suspect because the wolf in you recognized your mortal danger," he  had replied. "Humans react differently to the bite." From what little he  knew about the process, that is. He carefully did not say that part in  front of the rest of the pack. "You shifted when you did because that  was the only way in which you would live. Wolf shifters have a very  strong instinct to survive. And your wolf clearly is extremely strong."

"Ah. That makes sense," had been her only response.

She said nothing more as they walked back. He forced himself to ignore  the strange sensation in the pit of his stomach at her silence.

He also ignored the sensation of being watched now and then from far  behind him. Thayne's life had been spared only because Tamsin had  arrived back just moments before Cassandra dispatched Aliana. Trevor had  been about to get the upper hand with Thayne, but his brother had  sensed Aliana's death. Trevor had noted the sag in Thayne's entire body  the very moment Aliana must have been killed. He'd dropped to the ground  beneath Trevor, abandoning all pretense at any more fight. He'd even  shown his throat to the pack alpha in the ultimate gesture of  subservience, despite the fact he was officially banished already and  held no further allegiance to his former pack.

Trevor could have dispatched him right then, but for Tamsin's protest,  voiced in a low, soft voice. "He has paid enough, alpha. First banished,  now with his own mate killed. He will suffer the rest of his days  anyway. You prove nothing by killing him now."

"Mate?" Trevor had snorted. "They were not mates."

Glancing down once at Thayne, Tamsin's features had rippled with a flash  of sadness and deep resignation. "They were," she said quietly. "His  heart hurts, no matter that he made all the worst choices possible. You  know how it feels to suffer, alpha," she had finished in a very soft  voice, looking at him with a gentle yet firm gaze.

From no one else would he have countenanced such words. But from the one  who had seen his suffering, had kept him from falling over his own  damned cliff-from her, he was forced to hear the truth and know she was  right to say it.

Shaking her head, Tamsin had added, "Let this be Cassandra's time now.  What just happened is enough to cement her position in the pack  forevermore. Let them talk about nothing else except her today."

Standing over his brother, teeth still ripped back in a snarl, listening  to Cassandra's tremendous howls singing from below the cliff in a  fur-raising cadence of triumph, Trevor had almost wavered. In the end,  though, he knew his sister was right as usual. He'd released Thayne into  the care of several other wolves present, commanding them to escort him  back to the estate to be held until he could be banished somewhere far  away enough that he could never return. Which might be fucking siberia,  for all Trevor cared. He was done with the entire stinking mess, and  wished to never have to think about his brother again.         

     



 

All he wanted now was to be with his mate. His most astonishing,  stunning, fierce wolf mate. Looking down the cliff at her, many  sensations boiled up in him. Emotions, he realized. Damned emotions,  again. Not now, he'd thought, and pushed them back.

Walking beside his mate, even Trevor could feel the power emanating off of her.

"Come," he said suddenly, forcefully throwing off the obnoxious,  unwanted feelings warring within him. After all, this should be a moment  to be savored. "You should run in your new shape. It will be very good  for you."

He could see the lustrous gold of her coat faintly in the dark, lit by  the edges of a moon sliver. She was a beautiful golden wolf, just as  he'd thought she would be. Unique.

"Really." Her voice sounded grave, as if she still thought heavily about  everything that had just occurred. "Or do you mean it will be good for  you to see me run?"

Trevor snorted in the huffing way wolves did. "It will be good for the  pack to see you run. But yes. I would enjoy watching you revel in your  new body. It would indeed please me."

They walked in silence for many more strides through the dark forest.  Trevor held in increasing nervousness as he waited for her response. He  needed her to throw off the burden as well, for the moment at least. He  needed this time to be a pleasant one for them both.