The Ruthless Alpha’s Bunny Mate

Chapter 3

Gideon’s POV

The scent of the silver fir, crushed pine needles, and blood clung to the wind when I was three miles away from the main fortress.

It was an acrid almost sweet scent that was foreign to the rocky inhospitable terrain of the Obsidian Ridge. It smelled of glades and mosses, and the deep clean earth. It smelled of prey, fresh caught and ripe with life. It smelled of something sweet and acrid, the metallic tang of an opened wound mixing with the sour stench of fear.

I dropped down from the ridge on all fours, the black fur of my midnight wolf mantle blending with the shadows of the forest. The red moon loomed large over the landscape casting long shadows on the shaley ground.

Behind me, two of my perimeter guards fell into step but I did not need them. I had scented the stampede an hour ago when a pack of rabbit shifters had come tumbling over the high pass to the north. Someone had sent them flying like arrows from the valley below. They had trespassed on the sacred grounds of the Bloodfang Pack, a sacred violation of the unspoken laws of the Obsidian Ridge. I had watched the panicked animals scatter across my lands, heading down the lower passes to the east and west before my wolves could cut them off at the neck of the narrow valley.

Save for one.

The sweet scent had grown stronger as it led me to the damp stairwell that snaked down into the underground ring of the fortress.

I landed heavily on the stone flags of the outer yard shifting to my human form. Rolling my shoulders I tugged on the charcoal grey tunic before snapping my gaze to the torch lit entrance where Vance waited.

"Alpha," Vance inclined his head as I neared him, showing respect. "You returned early from the southern boundary."

"The south is clear," I rumbled the deep words vibrating off the stone walls. "What is that scent, Vance?"

Vance sighed running a hand over his rumpled gray hair. "We caught a stray. One of the rabbits that crossed the pass an hour ago. She did not make it."

"Did she come as a spy," I questioned darkly. "Did her people think to use the mountain as passage without tribute to the pack?"

"Neither," Vance replied his iron gray eyes unusually solemn. "Her herd cast her out, Gideon. She took a fall as a pup and broke her right leg badly. Since then her hind leg has been useless. She could not run with the others and when they stampeded in panic as word of the alpha's hunt spread she was trampled and cast aside to face your patrols alone."

Something tightened painfully in my chest.

Cast out.

The words slithered through my mind with a memory of the south packs, the ones who had tried to kill me for refusing to bend the knee to them. Who had tried to take the alpha's son when I was born, claiming the mountain pack needed their strength to survive. I had built this fortress with my own two hands to show them all that the strong did not need to break the weak to survive.

But to cast aside one of their own with no thought to the pain or suffering they would cause her, to leave a broken female to the wolves.

It made my wolf howl in disdain.

"Where is she?" I growled, the words coming out as a deep rumbling command. "Where is the trespasser?"

"In the lower ring," Vance said quietly, leading me across the yard. "In cell six. I sent Eirik to clean her wound. She is frightened, Gideon. She thinks you will take her life."

"Let her think that," I said, lowering my voice as we dropped down the stairs into the ring of the dungeon. "I will see this trespasser with my own eyes. Show me."

I fell down the winding steps in silence, the heavy boots of a dozen wolves not making a sound as they followed at my heals. My wolf was restless within me, its claws tearing uselessly at my ribs, responding to the scent of the rabbit in the cell ahead. The sweet scent of prey grew stronger with each step I took until we reached the thick oaken doors that led into the corridor system of the dungeon.

The guard outside cell six came to attention and bowed his head as I passed. With a grunt I sent him back up the stairs.

"Leave us."

The guard vanished into the depths of the fortress. The only sound that met my ears was the flickering of the torch flames in their sconces along the stone walls and the heavy breathing of the small figure waiting behind the iron bars of cell six.

I stared into the dark cell as I neared it. She was curled in the far corner, her small body hunched over her knees as she trembled. Her ash brown hair spilled over her shoulders in a wild tangle of curls dusted with pine needles and trail mix. But it was her eyes that drew my attention. Big and round and full of fear, they locked onto mine the moment I stepped into view.

The moment she met my gaze her whole body convulsed. She pulled her right leg which was wrapped in clean bandages to her chest, making a small whining sound before pressing her forehead against the back of the cold stone wall.

"P-lease," the whisper was soft, delicate really, vibrating through the silence of the dungeon. "Don't... don't eat me..."

My wolf reared up inside me, nearly growling out loud at the petrified words. She thought I was some kind of monster! That I was going to skin her and hang her guts from the rafters like some kind of twisted trophy.

I gripped the bars of her cell and leaned in so that my shadow fell across the small space casting the room in gloomy shapes. The smell of sweet blood clung to the air around her as I stared down at the shaking rabbit my men had tossed in here like some unwanted piece of trash.

She looked up at me, her big eyes wide with something like fear as she struggled to stop her shaking legs from giving out beneath her.

"Please," she moaned, her voice a small whimper of distress that rolled right over my chest and into my bones. "Don't hurt me... I'm sorry..." Her breath hitched in her throat as she tried to keep looking at me, her fingers curled uselessly around the cold stone wall. "I didn't mean to... to follow them. I swear I didn't!"

It was all a lie, of course. She had not hurt anyone. She had followed her herd out of instinct, not malice. But she would pay for it none the less.

I ran a hand over my jaw, thinking hard.

"Get up," I growled finally, "I want to see you properly."

Her whole body jerked at my words, her eyes snapping to mine. "What?" she squeaked. "I-I can't. Please, Gideon, I can't move."

"You can and you will," I rumbled, moving to the front of the cell. "Stand and face me."

She gasped, her eyes widening as she struggled to rise. "P-lease don't hurt me."

I waited until her trembling hands found purchase on the bars before I moved to the side.

"Stand."

With a huge effort she pushed herself up, her body swaying uselessly as she struggled to find her balance.

"Good girl," I murmured, watching her closely. "Now, stand still."

She whimpered, her right leg giving out beneath her but managing to hold herself up with sheer grit. "I'm sorry..." Her voice was so small, so soft it barely made a sound. "I'm sorry for trespassing on your land..."

"I am not your enemy," I said. "Stand."

She blinked up at me, her small nose nearly touching the steel bars between us. "Y-you are not?"

"No," I replied after a moment. "I am alpha of this mountain, this pack. I am a Bloodfang."

She bit her dry lips rubbing her hands against her skin “so,” “I’m I free to leave”