The Alpha’s Tempting Mate

Carlos

I walk along the outside perimeter of our citadel. The buzzing in my ears makes my head pound, but I keep pushing on. I’m going to walk the entirety of our pack territory every day until I know who lives in which hut, the names of their family members, what they do for us. Even as I vow it, though, the landscape goes by without my seeing a thing.

All I see is Sedona, chained naked to that bed. My terrible, wonderful prize.

Watching her leave was like allowing someone to steal away with a vital organ from my body. I stood there, numb, not understanding how I still lived, still breathed without her here. It took all my willpower not to shift and chase after her pack’s vans like a common dog. Not to howl.

But somehow I managed to stay on the terrace and watch, keeping my pack out of danger.

The council couldn’t believe I let her go. When they saw her standing out there, her white filmy wrap threading around her legs in the breeze, their pompous airs dropped.

“Why is your female out of her room?” Santiago demanded.

“I set her free,” I said calmly.

“Are you mad?” Mateo asked. “She’s your mate.”

Yes, mine, my wolf howled.

But it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t going to show my teeth to her pack, to her family. It was wrong to keep her this way. Wrong to have bought her in the first place. Everything we’d done to her had been wrong.

“Go and fight for your female. Or are you too much of a coward?” Don Santiago challenged.

I punched him in the face. I would never do something like that to an elderly human, but an old shifter can take it. The pack surged around me-I didn’t know whether they meant to stop me if I continued, but no one touched me.

“Crazy, like his mother,” Don Jose proclaimed.

“I’m not keeping a female against her will,” I snarled. “Not even one I’ve marked. And if any of you here believe such a thing is acceptable, you are the reason this pack is falling to ruin.” I turned in a circle, meeting every male’s eyes, forcing their gaze to drop in the face of my dominance. A small victory, but it satisfied my wolf.

Don Santiago rubbed his jaw and climbed to his feet. “So, what? You’re not going to fight to win her love? Her affection? I daresay you already had it.”

My heart squeezed painfully, then, and it’s still squeezing. I want to believe that much is true. But it could’ve been simple biology. The council knew exactly what they were doing putting a fertile she-wolf naked in a cell with a virile male over the full moon. And the adversity brought us together. Holding her to anything based on what we shared in there wouldn’t be fair. She had no choice but to accept me. It doesn’t mean she wants me as her mate. If she did, she wouldn’t have been so quick to jump in that van and disappear.

But even if she never wants to see me again, I will still avenge her. I gave the council one week to produce the traffickers who kidnapped her. When they hedged, I made it clear. “I will have blood for what was done to my female. Either it’s yours, or theirs.”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

They’d better deliver.

I walk on the edge of a small coffee grove. The front of Monte Lobo is covered in trees, but small farm plots make up the entire back side of the mountain, forming a patchwork quilt of color and texture. This extinct volcano we call Monte Lobo doesn’t provide the best climate for coffee-not like the coastal states like Chiapas-but our pack has always been able to grow enough for our own use. It’s actually impressive the variety and quantity of crops our pack produces simply for our own subsistence.

Centuries ago, when our Spanish ancestors settled peacefully with the indigenous people who lived here, they set up a wonderful system for sustainable living in isolation. They frightened the indigenous people off, not through violence, but by inciting their superstitions. Men who change into wolf form at the full moon won the awe and respect of the tribe, which moved to the base of the mountain and guarded it from outside visitors. It allowed our pack to shut themselves away.

“Buenas tardes, Don Carlos.” An elderly wolf in dirty, worn clothing and a wide-brimmed hat stops what he’s doing to greet me. Despite the greeting, he looks wary, or suspicious of me.

I stop and lift my hand in greeting. Judging by the way he scrutinizes me, he already knows what happened today. Or was he there? It’s sad that I’m not even sure. I don’t even know this wolf’s name. I’ve been a piss-poor leader of this pack. I don’t deserve the position of alpha.

I force myself to stay, even though I’d rather walk on, immersed in my thoughts about Sedona. “How’s it going?” Yeah, it’s lame, but I don’t really know how else to shoot the shit with the guy.

He nods his head. “It’s going. Almost finished with harvesting this year’s crop. Then moving onto the cacao.”

“Good.” That’s all I can think of to say, but I’m thankful when his name comes to me-Paco.

A woman comes out of the hut and shades her eyes as she looks in our direction. She walks up the hill and stands beside the old man. Must be his mate.

“Alpha,” the old woman inclines her head. “Is it true?” She’s wearing a dress that looks straight out of the 1950s. It probably is, actually. Some secondhand find shipped over as a donation from the United States. I look over at their hut, where a curl of smoke comes from the chimney. The hacienda has every luxury imaginable and these people don’t even have electricity. I knew things were bad, but this makes me sick. What sort of alpha leaves his pack in poverty?

“Hush, Marisol,” Paco admonishes.

“Is what true?” I brace myself for whatever is being said about me. That I’m mad or that I let my mate go.

“You hit Don Santiago?”

Oh that. Yeah. I shove my hands in my pockets. “It’s true. The council and I are in disagreement about some actions they took.” Right. I doubt I’m projecting the confidence I mean to, but it’s the best I can muster when my mate is on a van driving miles away from me.

“Be careful, Don Carlos.” Marisol’s voice wavers, but I can’t figure out why. Is it out of fear? Or ire? Is my pack ready to mutiny against me?

I growl. Not to scare her, but my pack needs to know I won’t be cowed.

She takes a step back and her husband grasps her elbow to steady her.

“The council has overstepped.” Ice infuses my tone. “They will not insult me or my mate without retribution.”

Marisol and her mate both wear unreadable expressions. They probably think I’m the enemy, allowing them to live in poverty while I travel and attend the best universities. I don’t blame them. That’s exactly what I did. I don’t deserve to be their leader.

No one speaks for a beat, so I nod curtly and walk on.

“May the fates accompany you.” Paco’s benediction makes me stop and look back. He and his wife lift their palms in a wave.

I return it.

I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but things have to change around here. Clearing this cesspool feels urgent. I’m sure that reason has something to do with Sedona, but I don’t even dare admit what my heart is pattering on about.

Fix it for her.

That’s mad. Sedona’s not going to come back here. Not in a million years. To entertain the fantasy is pure lunacy.