THE ALPHA'S FATED BRIDE

Chapter 2

Cara

The Alpha?” I whispered. Was I back at my pack? Why would I even be in the Alpha's house? Was this a dream?

She nodded and turned to leave.

“I don't understand,” I said to her. “Why am I at the Alpha's place? Where is—” Before I could continue, the door opened, and the man from the ditch walked in. He looked at me deeply before turning to the woman. “It's okay, Sarah,” he said to her. “I can take it from here.”

“Yes, Alpha!” she said and walked out.

Wait! He was the Alpha? But…but…this man looked nothing like what Alphas were supposed to look like: angry with scars on their faces. This man had the bluest eyes I had ever seen and black hair that fit him properly. He looked like a movie star, and I had to stop myself from staring so hard. “I'm about to leave for a meeting,” he said quickly. “Now, tell me what you were doing by the ditch.”

I tried to remember but failed. “I don't know,” I said. “I don't remember anything.”

“What do you mean you don't remember anything?” he asked, sounding angry. I didn't want to cross someone like him so I had to be completely honest. I scratched my head. “I barely remember a thing.”

“What do you remember?” he asked sharply, sounding like a growl.

“My name,” I stuttered. “I'm Cara Hayden from the Wildland pack. That's all I remember.”

I thought he was going to pounce on me, but he did not. Instead, he said, “I know who you are.”

“You know me?”

He nodded. “Stay in here. I'm going to a meeting. Do not leave here until I get back!”

Then he walked away before I even got a chance to ask him anything else.

"They are what?" I snarled.

My right-hand man stepped forward. "Epsilon werewolves, Alpha. And they've gone rogue!"

I stepped away from the table and walked around the open field. Epsilon wolves were often made for war, which meant that they were naturally violent. I couldn't let those kinds of wolves run free around my valley. To get more resources and to form an ally, I was actually thinking of marrying the woman I'd saved from the ditch. So far, I still didn't know how she had ended up in that condition with cuts and bruises along her arms, but I knew who she was now, and I would be damned if I didn't make use of that little information.

But back to the matter at hand. I turned back to Cedric and shook my head. He looked behind my shoulders at a group of werewolves setting up camp tents. "There are rumors," Cedric said to me. I walked up to him and glared. "What rumors?"

"That…you made the orders to turn those werewolves into Epsilons. People are talking. They say you turned them into your hunting machines!"

"Show me all those talking, Cedric. I won't hesitate to snap their tongues out, trust me!"

"I know you can," he said with a low chuckle that bubbled from deep inside him. It sounded like a growl. I stomped my foot on the grass and raked a hand through my hair. This was getting difficult to control. Rumors like these were always hard to find the source, and what would I do to them anyway? My job as the Alpha of this pack was to control the wolves underneath me, but it was getting incredibly difficult, especially with rogue Epsilons on the run. "Get me, Omar!" I said and moved away from him.

I walked back into the tent and brought out the map of the Valley. Ten minutes later, Omar walked in along with Cedric. I trusted these two, but I'd learned that trusting people too much always led to a disaster. As a Zeta Wolf, Omar was seriously good at strategizing, which was why he was usually who I called for serious business like this. "Have you heard about the rogue Epsilons?" I asked him from the large table in the center of the tent where I was bent over looking at the map.

"Yes, Alpha," he called.

Omar hardly called me by my name, as with most of the werewolves under my command in my pack. I hated people who slacked behind, but both Omar and Cedric were good at their jobs. "I want to find the root of the rumors," I said and glanced at the two men with me in the room.

Omar nodded. Cedric shuffled his feet. "What do you suggest?" I asked.

Omar stepped over to the table and looked at the map. Then he tapped on a spot where I'd marked X. "That's the campground of the Omegas," he said, distraught.

"I'm not about to pretend to accommodate them," I snarled. "If finding out where and how the Epsilons were created means sifting through their den, then so be it!"

"Very well!" Omar said and bowed slightly before exiting the tent. I groaned and sat down on the edge of the table. Cedric moved to where I sat and stared at me. It didn't matter that I was the Alpha. We were close friends. "It's going to lead to a full-out war if we aren't careful," he said to me.

I nodded but said nothing.

"I'm sure Omar and the others will be able to find out where they are hiding," he said again.

"I'm not going to be lying about it, am I?" I growled at him.

He raised both hands and backed down. "You should head out to the estate. You must be exhausted. I will run the plan with Omar and the others.”

I groaned just thinking about that. As the Alpha of the Pack, it was my job to oversee everything. There was no way I could rest and walk away from all this, but then I thought back to Lady Cara who was currently at my place with a failing memory and a hidden power. I needed to harness that power, and the only way to do that was to use her. It just had to be done. Getting married now was not something that I wanted to do, but I would do this for my pack and for the overall strength of the Valley.