CLAIMED BY THE RUTHLESS ALPHA

Darius POV 1

Seraphine doesn’t make it two feet from the farmhouse before an older man with watchful, sly eyes peels off from where the other members of the Stone pack gather around in small huddles.

Although she moves to go around him, he plants himself right in front of her, cutting her off from the small, run-down wood cabins she was heading toward.

Jax. The first guy to come sniffing around to see how I could help him. It shouldn’t surprise me that he’s the first one to make his move.

Since no alpha stepped forward to challenge me for the position in the dining room, I can only assume there isn’t one. Was he expecting to take the top spot even though his wolf isn’t the strongest or the most dominant? And would the pack have accepted a leader who isn’t an alpha?

I shake my head. It doesn’t matter. For now, the pack fears me. They don’t know me, and they don’t know what I’m capable of, so they won’t do anything to force out a strange new alpha who has no connection to them.

But that fear won’t last forever.

I’m on my own here in a pack of fifty or more and no alpha can stand against that many if they decide to attack at once.

My wolf snarls as the auburn-haired, brown-eyed man towers over her.

Mine.

“Back the f**k down. She doesn’t deserve protection,” I breathe. “And she is not ours.”

That doesn’t stop my wolf from raking my insides when Jax shoves Seraphine to the ground. She hits hard. Her back smacks loud enough for me to hear the impact crystal clear from the dining room window. It had to have hurt, or at least surprised her. Yet not so much as a sigh passes her lips.

As she pushes herself to her feet, I turn from the window. Right now, the clawed attack from my wolf is in my head, but he’s pissy enough that he’ll force a shift soon. Fast approaching thirty, I’m old enough to read the signs.

It won’t work, but that’s never stopped him from trying before. Even when you’re human, you’re still a wolf, Eden would laugh.

Back when she still saw you as a brother, that is.

My jaw tightens, and I head for the duffel that I shoved under the scarred wood dining table. I’d intended on wearing more than just blood when I called the Stone pack together, but from what I know of this pack, first impressions count.

A burst of laughter draws my gaze back to the window. I turn just in time to catch Seraphine going down again, her arms wrapped around her stomach from a kick or a punch. This time the blonde girl who looked ready to crawl in my lap is the guilty party as she smirks down at Seraphine.

Fucking hyenas. This place…

My phone vibrates, but the sound doesn’t come close to drowning out the incessant growling of my wolf in my head.

In a healthy pack, you’d never treat a submissive like that. The strongest always protects the weakest. It’s how the pack survives.

Not here. Here, even the submissive has become infected. Seraphine Stone is no different from the rest. Just because I haven’t been around long enough to see what nastiness she’s capable of doesn’t mean it’s not there.

One glance at the cell phone I dig from the bottom of my duffel reveals who’s calling. The only person who ever would be.

“I told you that I’d call you. This isn’t what we agreed,” I snarl.

“Just checking to see if you’re still alive. Or if I’ve been promoted,” Dom says, his voice as dry and as unfazed by any growl, snarl, or threat I throw at him. But that’s betas for you.

“You’re out of luck. What do you want?”

Despite my intention to ignore the all too tantalizing vision of Seraphine Stone’s curves, my eyes return to her. My wolf didn’t mind having her pinned against a door or a wall. Not that the human side of me minded it either.

She’s all woman, petite but with curves in all the right places. Heart-shaped face with pouty kissable lips. Full breasts that would fill my hands to overflowing. And her hair… I take in the dark waves that flow to the rounded curve of her ass. My fingers itch with the need to bury my hands in the soft fall again.

For a moment, I let myself envision doing just that. Or of pinning her beneath me, my c**k tucked tight against her ass as I inhaled the scent of peachy skin that made me rock hard in record time.

But then memory intervenes, and with it, guilt.

All she is, is a hot body to admire.

She’s back on her feet now, and without lowering her head, back straight, no outward sign she’s the submissive in the pack, she strides toward the cabins, ignoring the stares that follow her.

“Called on the off chance you’d realized that this will get you nothing but trouble,” Dom sighs. “But it sounds like it was just wishful thinking on my part.”

“For a man who was a Marine, you spend more time than anyone I’ve known preaching peace and f*****g forgiveness.”

“Says a person who’s never seen what happens in war.”

I swing from the sight of Seraphine disappearing into a small cabin and go in search of a bedroom at the back of the farmhouse where the rest of the Stone pack are less likely to hear me.

Keeping my voice low, I speak slowly so that Dom can’t possibly misunderstand me. “They need to pay. All of them.” And no matter how beautiful Seraphine Stone is, she has to pay the most. “They know where Eden is.”

After a pause, Dom continues in the same unhurried, calm tone. “So this has nothing to do with Melody, then?”

My duffel hits the floor of a bedroom with a stale, unlived-in scent, and I scrub my hand over my face. Hard.

Melody.

Beautiful, sweet, blonde Melody, with a gentle smile and a soft touch.

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you anything. I’m not talking about this now.”

Not where any of this rancid pack can discover that the last thing I’m here to do is play leader. That the only thing that brought me here was cold, hard revenge.

And Eden. I have to find my sister. If she’s even still alive.

Please don’t let me be too late with her as well.

“She’s dead, Darius. It’s been years, maybe you should ”

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll be looking for a new beta.” My voice trembles with barely controlled fury. “His first job will be to bury the body of the last.”

Dom’s long sigh chases away a little of the fury. I can see him now. A shaved-headed man with dark, sober eyes sitting back in his chair, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

“It wasn’t your fault, Darius.”

“I wasn’t there. She comes here, and two weeks later she’s dead. My mate. My fated mate. Someone has to pay for that. Someone will.”

She was the other half of my soul. The woman the universe created for me. Irreplaceable. Someone has to die for it. But they have to suffer first.

“And you’re sure it’s this Seraphine that’s responsible?”

Even though I can’t see the cabins from this back room, I still see her. Seraphine. With a silver-eyed stare that belongs to an alpha, not a submissive.

That she could even meet my eyes is unusual enough to make me think twice about destroying her.

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