The Alpha's Play Toy

Chapter Two

The wind changed, bringing her scent to him through the open window and he was forced to bite back a groan as it wound around him. Held him prisoner. He’d know her anywhere because of it, he would be able to track her across continents by smell alone. She’d never be able to outrun him, he’d always find her scent. It was sweet and clean, like wildflowers in the heat of a lazy Indian summer.

She moved, getting more comfortable on the hammock and he sighed. Once more he was left watching her from afar. Story of his damn life. She’d always been out of reach. Years ago, it had been because of her humanity, but even now, even after he’d bitten her to save her life, she’d never been more out of reach. She wasn’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.

Conversion madness could still steal her from him, and even if it didn’t, there was no way the pack would stand for him mating a beta female. Rex was a realist. He couldn’t dare to hope she would survive the conversion madness and somehow also wind up an alpha female. The fates were not that kind. No, the best he could hope for was to keep her for a little while, until the pack forced him to take an alpha female mate.

Pain lanced his chest, spearing his heart. Then he’d have to let Bella go, because there was no way he would put her through the pain of watching him mate another. Her, not the other, as yet unknown female.

It would be kinder to send her away now… To let her establish herself as a lycan.

Hidden within, his wolf gave a sharp bark of anger and his fingers tightened around the handle of the empty coffee mug in his hand. A sharp crack warned him he’d be wearing the dregs if he wasn’t careful. One shittier thing to add to a shitty day. His gaze sought her delicate form again, like the south of a magnet drawn to its north.

He wasn’t strong enough to let her go. He couldn’t have her, but still he couldn’t release her to start a new life without him. Dammit. He closed his eyes, the weakness shaming him. He should send her away, but he couldn’t. Not yet.

A presence behind him made him open his eyes and look up. He didn’t need to turn. The wolf, always alert, had already picked up the scent of another lycan. Male, with the unmistakable frisson only generated by another alpha, and a familiar scent.

Jacob. His second cousin, or something like that, on his father's side. An alpha himself, he’d joined the army right out of college and returned last year, bringing valuable medical training they sorely needed. Sure, Rex could hire a private doctor, but there was nothing like a battlefield surgeon who understood how the lycan body worked.

“Any signs?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Nothing yet. I have Drusilla watching her for any changes.”

Jacob joined him at the window. Taller and broader in the shoulder, he was quiet and thoughtful as a man, but not one Rex would care to take on in a fight. Not all the Greenwood pack were stone wolves, but Jacob was, and his other forms were impressive. There was also the fact the most dangerous fighter was one who understood how the body—human or lycan—worked.

Rex nodded, hand still wrapped around his coffee mug. Drusilla was a quiet little beta, a pretty, petite little thing as both a woman and a wolf and Jacob’s interest in her was no secret. Why he hadn’t made a move on her yet, Rex didn’t know. There was a darkness in Jacob, carefully hidden, that Rex didn’t remember being there before he’d left to join up, and so perhaps that was it. He didn’t plan on saying anything; the man’s s*x life and personal demons were his own to sort out.

“I guess in this case, no news is good news,” he commented, although more to himself than Jacob.

The longer the conversion took, the less likely Bella was to succumb to the shifting madness. It was usually when the change hit hard and fast that there was a problem. As though the host body fought the infection, which caused the emerging wolf to become more aggressive. From there it was a destructive cycle downward, the virus trying to overwhelm a body that wouldn’t accept it until the mind broke or the heart gave out. Neither was pretty. But nearly a week with no sign?

Some wolves could be shy, particularly betas, as though they had to be coaxed from within their human halves, but he’d never heard of one taking so long to appear.

“Is there any chance she might not be infected?”

She’d been on the verge of death when he’d bitten her, so he knew his bite had taken. If it hadn’t, then she wouldn’t still be breathing. Could her body somehow have used the infection to heal, but then eliminated it from her system before she’d fallen prey to it?

Jacob’s brow furrowed.

“It’s possible. Under certain circumstances—”

“What sort of circumstances?”

Rex didn’t want a debate or medical history lesson. He wanted answers. Yesterday.

“Well, if she had something non-human in her family tree somewhere, then that could block the infection.” He rubbed at his jaw, expression thoughtful. “It would have to be something like a witch or a Succubus, maybe even Valkyrie, but definitely something with a feminine bias.”

“Feminine? Why’s that?” Rex raised an eyebrow in curiosity. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jacob, the man had practically put one of the pack wolves back together after he’d run into a warlock’s silver-laced trap a couple months ago, so he obviously knew what he was doing, but he was curious as to the man’s reasoning.

“Well, we know she and her brother are full siblings, so they share similar genetics.” Jacob’s voice was calm and measured as he explained. “But Jamie fell prey to the vampire’s infection, whereas Bella hasn’t succumbed to the Lycanthrope virus which means whatever nonhuman DNA they have, has to be favoring the female side… hence one of those three. They’re the only races which are predominantly female and in which the bloodline can lie dormant for generations. Don’t worry though, she won’t turn out to be any of them. It just affords the bloodline some protection from infection.”

“Okay…” It all began to make sense now and Rex looked out the window at his little human. Wolf or not, only time would tell…

Bella couldn’t be a werewolf. No way, no how.

Sure, she’d woken up after her near death experience with abilities she hadn’t had before. Things like seeing smells, vision like a hawk, and hearing so accurate she could pinpoint a mouse farting three rooms away. So far though, there had been no hint of fur (apart from her legs, which were in desperate need of a shave after a week of inattention).

New abilities though, didn’t mean she was a werewolf. She’d read somewhere that people who suffered head trauma sometimes gained completely new skills—like being able to speak a new language, play an instrument, or suddenly became an uber-smart math whiz. Acquired Savant Syndrome or something.

Yeah, that had to be it. The accident that had nearly killed her had obviously left her with some side effects. A frown creased her brow. No one would tell her much about the accident either. All they would say was that she was lucky to be alive, and if she wanted more details then she needed to speak to Rex.

A feat easier said than done since the Lord of the Manor seemed to be mostly absent from his own home. Until now. She’d heard his voice while she’d been dozing in the garden and now that she was back in the house, his scent was everywhere. It was stronger than it had been for days; the immediacy of it telling her he’d recently passed this way.

Tracking him through the house was easy and within a minute she found herself outside the door of his office, hand raised to knock. Her knuckles didn’t make contact with the wood, her hand stilled mid-air. Anger hit hard and fast. What did she plan to do? Knock and wait for permission to enter like a good little girl?