CLAIMED BY THE RUTHLESS ALPHA

Seraphine POV 3

As suddenly as he gripped me, his hands fell away, and he took a step back, giving me much-needed space.

I’m fumbling for the door to slip out when again his voice stops me. “I hadn’t thought a submissive wolf would survive long in a pack like this.”

Terror, sheer blinding terror, floods my body. If I thought I was cold before, it’s nothing to the ice that chills me now. My heart pounds so hard I can taste it in my throat. He will hear. Stop. Control yourself. Breathe. Just breathe.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. So if you’ll excuse me ”

A second later Darius has me pinned against the hallway wall. My submissive wolf whines in terror.

But he won’t see her, no matter how hard he searches my gray eyes for her. I’ve buried her by mutual consent. If I let her out, I give him power over me. A submissive wolf follows orders. Always.

After my first shift at sixteen revealed what kind of wolf I was, we came to an agreement. She will always be submissive, but as a human, I didn’t have to be. I couldn’t afford to be weak when I needed to be strong enough to kill the pack that had destroyed my world.

She lends me enough of her strength that I can do things weaker shifters shouldn’t be able to. In return, I find any and every excuse to avoid pack runs that would expose me. I dodge any alpha who views me with suspicion. The rest, I charm until they turn their attention elsewhere. I protect my submissive wolf.

For eight long years, I’ve protected her.

“Two days.”

A little of my panic subsides. This is manageable. I’ve dealt with all the men responsible for my parents’ death. All but two.

The first, Leo, is dangerous but easy enough to distract. It’s Jax who will be the one to kill me if I’m not careful. Not only is he a beta, the second-highest ranked wolf in pack hierarchy, but he never lets his guard down for a second.

Two days is plenty of time to dispose of two animals who don’t deserve to live. And the rest of the pack? I’ll burn the place down before I disappear forever.

As if he can read my thoughts, his lips curve into a smile. “That’s how long I’ll give you before you beg me to save you from the others. I can protect you, Seraphine. I’m the only one who can. But that protection comes at a cost. You know my price.”

The one thing I will never give him.

It took one week before this pack’s cruelty drove Eden back home. It took two weeks for them to torment Melody to death. Neither were submissive wolves. Not like I am.

You could leave. You’ve gotten revenge on most of them.

Most, but not all. Not Jax and Leo. And they need to die.

Tilting my head back, I meet Darius’s stare with one of my own. I inherited my steel-gray eyes from my father. Now, I will them to be as hard and unflinching as his alpha stare was. “I won’t be begging for anything.”

“All I want from you is Eden’s location. That’s all. I won’t even ask why a submissive would stay in a pack like this instead of leaving. Fear of being alone in the big bad world, I’m guessing?” He pauses, and when I don’t say a word, one corner of his lips turns up in a sexy half-smile. “Whatever the reason, little wolf, I’ll keep whatever secret you want. I’ll even be nice to you.”

The hardness nudging my lower belly tells me exactly how nice he intends to be.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I barely knew her.”

He leans closer. “You barely knew her?”

I nod. “Our old alpha didn’t exactly have a reputation for keeping his hands to himself,” I force myself to say, as if Eden’s pain means nothing to me. “Jared killed her one night. Ask anyone. It’s an open secret around here.”

The sexy half-smile disappears without a trace. “Everyone else might think that, but not you, Seraphine. You know exactly what happened to her.”

He sounds so sure it’s like he knows something. As if he saw me, even though I know he couldn’t have. When I helped Eden escape the pack, I knew it would cost Eden her life if anyone saw us, so I was careful. Damn careful.

“She’s dead,” I tell him. “So, whoever she was to you, you should just move on. It’s over.”

My attempt to slip away meets with instant failure when he pins me to the wall with his hips. His lips brush against the shell of my ear and he breathes the words. “My sister. Eden is my sister.”

The fight to contain the depth of my fury consumes me.

He sent her back.

Darius Blackthorn would’ve seen her bruises. She would have begged not to come back. Begged. My body trembles with the need to gut this man.

Instead, I bury my nails into my palms. Feel them cut deep into my skin. I’m bleeding, but the pain doesn’t touch me. There’s far too much rage in me for that. Going toe-to-toe with an alpha will only end one way at least, one in his prime like Darius Blackthorn is.

Later. After I deal with Leo, and if Jax doesn’t kill me, he’s next.

“So, Seraphine, I won’t be moving on, and I won’t be walking away. You will tell me what I want to know, or I will stand by and watch as this pack breaks you.” He pauses, and his lips curve in a mockery of a smile. “And they will. If you make it two days, I’ll be surprised. You’re one little wolf, after all.”

I can survive a year, if that’s what it takes.

My mother was strong enough to hand over her child because it was the only way to save me. I will survive a pack that will do its best to eat me alive.

All I have to do is stay silent around this alpha and kill two men.

Darius backs up, and without a word, I turn and stalk toward the front door at the end of the hallway. My fingers are closing around the handle when he speaks.

“And at the end of those two days, if by some miracle this pack hasn’t torn you apart, we’ll go on a run. I’d like to see if your wolf has that same fighting spirit.”

Dark amusement fills his voice.

Briefly, I close my eyes. My wolf is in terror. As a human, I can protect her, but as a wolf, she can’t protect me, or even herself, since submissive wolves are the lowest ranked in the pack. Not only that, we’re the weakest wolves.

How did he know what I was?

It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

I pull open the front door of the farmhouse and step outside into early evening darkness. With the bodies I passed on the way to Darius’s gathering now missing, it looks like Jax got some of the others to dump them in the forest. But while the bodies are missing, that doesn’t mean I’m alone.

The pack stands grouped around identical dark-stained wood cabins, their eyes on me.

I should’ve expected this, but I didn’t. Shifter ears are second only to our natural wolf cousins, which means they would’ve heard every last word Darius just said about me being a submissive wolf. If I didn’t know it, the predatory smiles twisting their lips would’ve clued me in.

They know what I am, and now they have new prey to play with.

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