ALPHA LEON; THE KANE BROTHERS TRILOGY

Episode3

LEON

After three years of no communication, I dialed Lucas’s number.

Surprisingly, he answered on the first ring. “Leon. Little brother, why are you calling?”

I tried not to smile at his mock endearing term. So much had happened since we were the closest of the Stone brothers.

“Believe it or not, I need advice from you.”

His laughter echoed from the other end, and I almost hung up. “Leon, you devious little son of a b***h, you don’t need advice from me. You’ve already made up your mind about what you plan to do.”

“Is that so?” I snapped. “Well, I just don’t want to make the same mistakes you made.”

His tone got serious. “Spit it out.” From behind, I could hear Zoey’s soft voice asking him if he would like to come along for shopping.

I dragged in a breath. “Guess who’s back to torment me? Alpha Fenris.”

I could picture his little shake of the head when Lucas replied. “Impossible. I finished him off.”

“Yeah, but did you know he had a bastard little brother?”

“Damn! What does he want?”

“That’s what I’d like to find out, but what I do know is what I want, and that is not for my duty as Alpha to come between taking care of my mate—I don’t want my love story to be as twisted as yours was.”

“Wait! You’ve found your mate?”

He seemed genuinely excited for me, but I brushed it off. “Tristan, Fenris’s bastard little brother, who apparently used to worship his big brother from the shadows, thought the best way to avenge the bad blood Fenris had with you was to come after your own brother—he chose me.”

I could hear his long, in-drawn breath. “My troops are yours, Lee. Just tell me what he’s done, and we’ll step in and take care of it—” He paused. “Yeah. That didn’t come out well. Knowing you, you’ll want to handle this yourself.”

“As you chose to handle yours—”

“So what advice do you need then? I’ve got to take Zoey shopping.”

I drew in another breath. “Tristan invaded my pack—not with troops, he did it covertly, hiring people to work for him. They’ve already been spreading rumors about me, giving him confidential information and the like, but recently, I learned he’s planning a full-on invasion—”

“Leon, this is serious! An attack on Creekwood is an attack on all Stone packs—”

“Yeah, and your issue with Fenris wasn’t serious?” I rejoined. “Thing is, I’m clamping down hard on his organization, kind of went undercover. Of course, people know I’m Leon, they just don’t know my values or where I stand on certain things—”

“Yeah. Seems like you have it all figured out—”

“Except I just found my mate, and she’s dating someone I think is working directly with Tristan. I’ve kept him so close already, I don’t want to spook him now.”

“So you want her to stay with him a bit until you get all the information you need on him?” Lucas asked knowingly.

“Yep. Thanks for helping me process. I know what I’ll do now.”

I hung up and intentionally wiped the memory of those dewy brown eyes from my mind. If I was truly going to love Maila the way my mate deserved to be loved, then I needed to make Creekwood a safe place for her, and doing that required some amount of ruthlessness.

Kaden was standing by the window, his back to the door when I stepped back into the room. He was on the phone.

“If she stays—if she stays with him, it could blow my cover, but I wanted her to sleep with him so he wouldn’t suspect anything,” he was saying.

I backtracked a bit, then intentionally hit my leg on the door as I came in. Watching him end his call in a panic was almost satisfying to watch.

“Your girl is something, isn’t she?” I began casually, keeping the disgust I felt knowing she had been with him from my face.

He smiled nervously. “She’s yours if you want to keep her. She’s nothing special, I won’t begrudge you if you want her…”

He paused a bit, and we both stared at each other in silence. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to process how much I knew.

“Nah!” I waved the offer off. “She’s a sweet little thing, but I’ll pass. I love my pleasure more spontaneous.”

The door opened then, and I smelled her even before she stepped in.

“Yo, go back to the f*****g room, love. Stop interrupting when I’m speaking with the Alpha,” Kaden sneered.

But Maila wasn’t looking at him; her eyes were pinned on me. Pain was masked by uncertainty as her eyes gave a silent plea.

“Did you not hear me, Maila?” Kaden snapped.

“Oh, I heard you alright,” she fired back without even bothering to look at him. “It’s Alpha Leon I have not heard yet.”

Her eyes were glistening softly with tears now, but she raised her shoulders, and her chin went a notch higher.

My wolf growled within me, demanding I comfort our mate, that I find a way to put an end to her pain.

Instead, I forced a smirk. “Don’t start now, Maila. Remember, I told you to be a good girl and go back to your boyfriend.”

“Why?” she demanded fiercely, anger replacing the pain that had been in her eyes.

Good. Good, baby girl. Choose anger.

“I want to know why the most powerful men are usually the greatest cowards. You are an Alpha, for Moon’s sake. Don’t tell me you’re too scared of your beta—”

“Of course, I’m not!” I snapped, forcing an angry inflection into my voice. “I just don’t want to wake up each day staring at your pitiable face. I mean, it’s lovely, with your eyes scrunched shut when you’re moaning out my name, but that aside, you’re a little—boring. The typical small-time wolf looking to get big by snagging an Alpha.”

“Looking to get big?” she almost screamed. “You’re the one who said I shouldn’t reject you!”

“Wait! What? She’s your mate, Alpha?” Kaden asked.

Dammit! I didn’t want him to know that bit.

I straightened but found I couldn’t meet the pain in her eyes. “I don’t bloody care if you reject me or not. I just didn’t want to spoil the memory of our beautiful lovemaking with you screaming in an ugly manner when you finally lose your wolf from the rejection.”

Kaden laughed then, and I wanted to strangle him. “She does look very ugly when she cries. I’ve told her that if she wants to keep me happy, she better stop it.”

The tears dried completely from her eyes then, and there was cold anger in them when her gaze met mine again.

“It’s just as I thought. You’re exactly as cowardly and despicable as he is. That’s why you’re his role model.”

Kaden looked livid from the insult, but it was I her daggers were intended for. I clamped down on the internal howling of my wolf, turned my heart off, and forced myself to smile when I replied.

“If you shut up more often, you might be a more pleasurable thing than you are right now.”

She laughed. It was bitter and cut to my heart. Who was I kidding? Of course, I couldn’t afford to switch off my heart in the face of such courage.

But her next words took my breath away.

“I, Maila of no name, reject you, Alp

ha Leon Stone of Creekwood Pack, as my mate.”

Then, before anyone could say a thing, she turned and fled.