Marked by the dark Alpha

Chapter 2

Disha Flynn

“K-Kyle? Is everything okay-” I started, clamping my lips around my tongue when he stalked toward me.

“Goddammit Disha, are you blind? Open your bloody eyes! Look around us! This is what you've made us become!”’ He thundered, flailing his arms wildly around the sparse crowd of wolves surrounding us.

I rose to my feet slowly, and my brother’s angry words cut through me like a knife when I saw the mud houses and sinking roofs of the fortress apartments surrounding the empty husk of the royal suites.

Some of the stained glass windows were shuttered over with rotten wood logs so that it looked more like a haunted castle than the immaculate fortress it used to be when our parents were alive. The fire had burnt everything and what was left, the Titans stole.

The pack looked like a ghost town.

“K-Kyle-” I started, moving to console my brother who raised his hand to stop me instead, glowering at me in a way that made my heart sink.

“I don't know who you are anymore, sister, but this has to stop today. f**k your little revenge fantasies, we can’t put a dent in the Saint’s castle walls with the four measly soldiers we’ve got left.” Kyle gritted through clenched teeth, and I felt rage shoot up my spine until my body was as straight as a rod.

“Are you saying you want us to just drop this Kyle? Let the Titans get away with what they've done to us? To Ma and Da?” I shrieked, hating the way my voice shook with barely-restrained sobs.

A muscle ticked in Kyle’s jaw and I was suddenly aware of just how big he had grown, easily towering over my body as we stood toe-to-toe.

My brother didn't say a word, but the calculated look in his eyes and the harsh rise and fall of his large chest told me it was exactly what he meant.

“You might have been a coward all your life, little brother, but MY order is what counts here, I don't care if your hands are falling off, beat your body against their walls until there's a hole large enough for us to crawl through and take them down!” I screamed at his face, watching the muscles strain and jump on his jaw before I felt large hands circle around my arm.

“Let go of me! Ugh!” I snapped, turning to see that it was Uncle Ian and writhing against the bald wolf’s firm hold before allowing my body to go limp.

“You're just going to let Da and Ma die like they were garbage?” I wheezed, not caring who was staring at us now.

“Your obsessions with the Saints have gone too far, and that's why I'm taking control today, Disha. I should never have let our father indulge you, Lord knows no woman can ever manage a pack enough to rule it. No more attacks.” He snickered, pushing away from me when I swung my claws at his face, missing only by a hair’s breadth.

Who the hell did he think he was giving orders?

I was stronger and better at the sword than he could ever be!

“Don't take Father’s name in your mouth when you were nothing but a disappointment to him his entire life! I STEPPED UP TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BULLSHIT KYLE!” I screamed, moving to claw at his face again before Ian’s mammoth hands strained around my midriff.

Did he think he could just throw me out of my throne and I would go?

I wasn't one of the air-head bimbos that always trailed around him with their mouths hanging open and stars in their eyes.

I knew Kyle Flynn for the cowardly little s**t he really was, and he'd be damned if he forced me to remind him of it.

“Enough! Two of you-” Uncle Ian growled, but I could hardly hear him above the roar of blood in my ears and the rage prickling my skin.

“Go back to your chambers, Disha. Your emotions will ruin us all,” my brother's face became a dark, expressionless mask, and a bolt of fear cut through my body before I writhed myself loose.

“Disha!” Uncle Ian’s sharp bark made my body slam to a stop before I turned to face him with widened eyes.

He had never raised his voice on me before, and yet, the stern, hard lines of his broad face didn't soften when he stared at me.

Was everyone just turning their backs on me now?

“Uncle-”

“Enough, Dish. Go to bed. We’ll handle it from here,” he hissed, and I strangled the sob that rose in my throat, sucking in a wavering breath before stepping around them, back to the shadowy husks of the royal suites.

I could hear the murmurs and whispers floating through the remaining wolves but I kept my head down, ignoring the burn of their stares on my back.

“Don't cry, not now Disha, big girls never cry,” Da’s honeyed voice whispered in my head, and for a moment, I screwed my eyes shut to see his handsome face gazing down at me from my memories.

I must have been five when I’d started to train.

The fields in Swan Pack were green then, before the raid changed it to an ugly black.

I clicked the door shut behind me and let the sob building in the back of my throat slide through before I sank to my knees.

My fingers dug out the gold locket around my neck before I snapped it open hastily to see Ma and Da’s gorgeous faces.

It was one of the only things I managed to hide from the invaders that night. The only thing I had left of my parents.

“I swear to you Da. Madoc Saint and all his Titans are going to pay for what they did to you,” I whispered through clenched teeth, and felt the tears in the back of my throat harden to a bitter, lumpy bile.

I was going to take those bastards down or burn the world trying.